(tense music) - [Mike] COVID-19 hospitalizations are down in Ohio, and the overnight curfew is now an hour shorter.

K-12 teachers move to the front of the line, as vaccine supplies still lags need.

And the race to replace Senator Rob Portman, who announced he won't stand for reelection heats up, even though it's two years away.

"Ideas" is next.

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(soft music) (upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "Ideas," I'm Mike MacIntyre.

The good news hospitalizations for COVID-19 are down, prompting Governor Mike DeWine to shorten the overnight curfew.

It's now legal to be out until 11 something struggling bar and restaurant owners will appreciate.

The bad news, a new even more contagious variant of the coronavirus, first detected in Great Britain has been identified in Cleveland.

Will double masking offer protection?

Meanwhile Ohio is vaccination program continues to expand, even as there's not nearly enough vaccine for those already eligible.

K-12 teachers move to the front of the line.

How will that work?

Big political news this week as US Senator Rob Portman announces he won't stand for reelection in 2022.

It's set off a scramble on both sides of the political aisle of Senate hopefuls.

Joining me to discuss these stories and more "Ideas Stream" health reporter, Lisa Ryan, and education reporter Jenny Hamel, both in their homes.

And at the Statehouse News Bureau in Columbus, chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

Lisa DeWine laid out the metrics we need to meet to further shorten the curfew or do away with it entirely.

So where do we stand?

What are these numbers?

What do we have to do in order for for those curfews to be relaxed and eventually lifted.

- Well during his press conference yesterday, he showed some of the numbers and we are on a downward trend in terms of the COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

And when I look at that number it is interesting that when we say downward trend it doesn't always mean that every single day and every single week is going to be completely down.

But it is when you look at the last few months, it is sloping downwards.

So he says essentially as long as we continue on that path, he would consider a midnight curfew or maybe even eliminating an entirely.

- And there's a certain number Karen of hospitalizations, we need to dip below for those things to trigger, right?

- Yeah I believe it's 2,500.

And what is really significant here I think is that we are seeing the first big drops after that spike that we saw, around Thanksgiving into the first week of December or the first couple of weeks of December when those numbers got really scary.

I mean we were hitting record hospitalizations almost every day and it was not just record hospitalizations but also record ICU, record people on ventilators.

These were terrible numbers for a while and they were starting to really put a lot of pressure on the system.

So this really gives an opportunity for the system to recover a little bit.

And it's good news but there's also the caveat of let's make sure that this isn't just the calm before another storm.

Because these other variants like you were mentioning are out there, while people are getting the vaccine.

Most people have not, The vaccine numbers are still only like 6% of Ohioans, 7% of Ohioans have gotten the vaccine so far, and even just one dose.

So that doesn't mean this is over.

And so I think that there's a real concern that as you relax the curfew which is what bars and restaurants have been asking for.

There's also a worry that people are gonna get have this idea between a relaxed curfew and the vaccine.

"Hey, this is over."

It's not over.

- The good news is as the cases are going down these bars are getting a little bit more relief bars and restaurants and basically any place that wants to be open late.

So there are numbers that have to be had I think it was 3,500 less than that was the number for now if it goes down another 500, but these are sustained too over a seven day period, so that we could get those new triggers put in place.

But there's a converse effect here too.

If it goes back up, we could see this curfew be expanded again.

- I think that option is always out there.

I mean, he's not ruled that out.

And that's the whole idea of making sure that we are in a trend and this is not just a momentary lapse here.

I mean, as you're saying seven days and a DeWine wants to revisit these things over two week periods to make sure that it's not just a temporary issue.

And once again, that whole idea of these other variants that are out there and what might be happening with those that means that the curfew it's not over just because last night it went to 11.

And I think that there's a real concern to that, once people hear these bars and restaurants can stay open later masks could become off, social distancing could stop those things are still in place too.

And the Ohio investigative unit is still going out and looking into bars that are possibly violating those rules.

And so it's been relaxed.

It's good news.

The numbers are down, but again, like I said, it's not over - You mentioned the liquor control folks go out in there and inspecting bars.

Well, one place where the curfew will not help is at Cleveland's Barley House.

The Ohio Liquor Control Commission revoked the bars alcohol permit effective March 24th for numerous violations.

If you saw anything on social media or on the television news where, there were videos of folks walking through, people are shoulder to shoulder.

I know the lawyer for Barley House says, "Hey people are shoulder to shoulder at protests too."

And so making an argument that it ought to remain open but, the State's being serious they're pulling a liquor license here.

Jenny that move comes after a number of violations for that bar.

- And we're talking about super variants and extreme harm to society because of the Corona virus.

If you were a business you've gotta be abiding by the laws.

And so a protest is one thing but I think what the State is saying is that if you just shock all all guidances and all restrictions and proceed as business as usual, you're causing potentially great harm to people.

And so yeah this is both optically and just to the Barley House they're saying game over.

You prove that you can't be warned, and so we're gonna take action.

- But just as we're getting some good news and when people are kind of relaxing a little saying "Okay, good that's great hospitalizations are going down that's terrific."

We then get this alarming report, courtesy of the reporting of "Ideas Streams" Anna Huntsman, a new more easily transmitted variant of the coronavirus found in the UK, has been identified in Cleveland other variants have been detected in Ohio too, Lisa yikes.

- As you mentioned we did know that The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center had detected one of these variants as well.

So it shouldn't be too surprising I guess that now, UH has confirming that they've seen this variant in Cleveland as well.

And it's slightly concerning we don't know yet the efficacy rate of the vaccine against it.

The thought is that it should be fairly effective still against these variants.

But it is concerning because, the spike protein has mutated and it makes it easier to spread essentially.

So it can get into your cells faster and easier.

So that part of it is concerning because among the people who haven't had the vaccine it could potentially spread faster.

- We got an email here from Dave who says, "Bar's open schools closed?

We want our kids in school."

And makes that point which leads to another question the when we're talking about, the idea of the vaccine the next groups to prioritize the receive the COVID 19 vaccine, Ohio will include those 65 and older, and school teachers and staff but not pre-K teachers.

The governor says most of the Districts in fact almost every one of them just one said no, have signed on to saying "we'll try to open in-person in some way by March first."

And therefore they're able to be in line for the vaccination.

So a question on that then is, how will the logistics work for all of these teachers?

We're still not to the point where we vaccinated everybody who's I think 80 and over, and the numbers are going down to we'll get to the point of 65 but then teachers as well?

Not enough vaccine right?

Lisa?

- Yeah.

So well governor Mike DeWine made it clear that this is almost not a separate vaccination process, but it is separated in some ways in the sense that, people who are eligible separate from being school staff will get their vaccinations elsewhere.

And so they won't be going to the same place in terms of getting the vaccine.

But yeah supply and demand is an issue and he brought that up.

And when he was asked whether or not everybody who wants the vaccine who works at these schools will be able to get it, he said that, "Yes they should be able to get it as long as when it is brought to their schools that week they jump on that and get the vaccine."

But he's not sure exactly nobody's sure yet what the acceptance rate is going to be.

So if they bring it to a school what's the percentage going to be of people who are saying, "Yes I want the vaccine because it is not required that's not part of it."

So who's going to be saying yes, if everybody says "Yes" will they have enough vaccine?

And that is still an issue.

And it's one that they're working with, I think the thought is that they should have enough for everybody who wants it, but we'll see because we saw the same thing among healthcare workers and people in nursing homes, especially if they said no when they were first offered that vaccine it was hard for them to then get back in line.

- Jenny what are you hearing from the teachers that you've talked to in Northeast Ohio?

Is there generally an excitement for the idea of being vaccinated or a lot of people thinking of opting out?

- I just talked to the Akron school spokesman last night after they revealed that the State told them they'd be getting 750 approximately doses next week, which is just a quarter of what they need.

They want the two doses for 3000 staff members.

So that was a blow.

And according to Mark Williamson frustrating for the superintendent when the State and the governor keeps reaffirming this March 1st deadline.

He said though and it was surprising to me 'cause I was hearing from teachers and staff who were very suspective of the vaccine either because it's only been developed in under a year.

Or again we've talked about this a lot on our station, and in speaking with people in nursing homes and and yada yada there is a historically and racially based skepticism and mistrust of the medical system, and it's well-founded, and that's gonna take a lot of convincing to convince some of our African-American population, that the vaccine and is trustworthy and scientifically sound.

But he said that at Akron public schools they have a 90% percent commitment rate there.

90% of their staff are excited to get the vaccine and have signed up to do so.

But now here comes the problem, they only have a quarter of the vaccine that they were told would be coming for next week.

So if you think that's just happening at Akron public schools this shortage can be distributed in Districts all across the State, that's gonna be a problem when it comes to the governors, March first deadline Akron public schools saying we are not gonna be sending our teachers back into the classroom with kids, unless at least they've had their first dose.

So yeah .

- And that becomes an issue because March first was this cutoff deadline when people were going to be coming back live.

And now we're looking at a lack of vaccine.

We've got Sarah on Twitter who says she's a teacher returning to the classroom mid February "Have no idea how to get the vaccine.

And yes teachers do want the vaccine, we wanna go back but we wanna be safe."

But that's a big issue we're talking about March first that doesn't seem realistic.

Does it?

- Yeah and it's something that the big aid school districts the unions from major districts like Dayton and Akron and CMSD wrote a letter to the governor saying, "why are you using this March 1st deadline as a bargaining chip?"

Because it seems both aspirational, unrealistic and it puts pressure on districts who really, for safety reasons, can't abide by that deadline to kind of commit to it even though there's this like underground understanding that maybe the bigger districts can meet that March first deadline.

So why don't we call a duck a duck and say, that's what we hope for but in the matter of safety which the governor really seems to adhere to this isn't realistic for some of those bigger districts maybe for a smaller private school, or a smaller district that just has those parameters they're able to meet the PPE needs and the social distancing needs.

But for the districts where the kids have been out of school the longest, to say March first is hard and fast deadline it's frustrating to some of these school districts and especially these unions.

And again, it's just not realistic.

- I do wanna ask though Lisa about masks, "Ideas Streams" Anna Huntsman as I talked about earlier was investigating this other strain that is in Northeast Ohio this variant, and she talked to Mark Cameron, and he's an infectious disease researcher at Case Western Reserve University.

He advised people to double down on efforts to avoid the virus, including social distancing and double masking.

A minute ago it seems and some still are, we're debating whether a mask would work at all.

Now we're advised to wear two?

- Yes.

Well, yeah you're absolutely right.

And even compared to the beginning of the pandemic when people were saying "leave the PPE and the masks for the frontline workers," the advice is always changing, but now we know that if you do wear a double mask or one that's like a KN95, you might be more protected because, generally the advice was if everyone is wearing a mask, then you're not spreading any potential virus that you have to others.

So you're protecting those around you.

But now the advice is if you wear two masks potentially you might be able to protect yourself, against the virus and not spread it that way as well.

So the general thought is, if you could get your hands on a kN95, or if you could wear like a cloth and a surgical mask, that's an option as well.

But yeah, now we're seeing potentially two masks as well as the advice - But Karen, the chief medical officer of Ohio Dr. Bruce, Vanderhoff he's not yet advising that change in policy.

- And I think part of it is because, we do have a mask mandate and it appears that the State is about 80% compliant in terms of mask wearing.

But it's taken a while to get to that point.

And so I think that there's a real caution on sending a message to people who were resistant at first to wear one mask to try to get them to wear two That that might be problematic.

(upbeat music) - Virus research will be the centerpiece of a new innovation district announced this week for Cleveland.

The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth, along with Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State, will join forces for a healthcare focused job creation partnership.

Lisa this partnership there'll be a new research center at the Cleveland Clinic Campus that will actually study viruses.

That's a big part of this.

- Absolutely and when I talk with people too it's called an innovation district, but it's not so much about the physical presence, they tell me.

It's more about collecting data and information being shared.

So it's more of like a technological district if you will.

So, but basically they think that sharing this data sharing information and working together it's the three main hospitals, Cleveland clinic MetroHealth and University Hospitals along with Case Western and Cleveland State Universities.

We're seeing them now work together and they are looking at this, COVID-19 of course huge health implications for the region and the entire world but they are trying to take like a long view of this and look at it more as health innovations outside of COVID-19 as well, because the hope is that we will get through this.

So they're looking at things like, infant mortality as well kind of the systemic issues involved with that and what could cause that, and essentially all the health outcomes that determine the health of our region.

So it'll be interesting to see what comes out of that.

I know that their goal is that people worldwide will start to look to Cleveland as this innovative place, but we'll see if that actually happens.

- [Mike] Jenny Hamel.

- And I think what's interesting is Cleveland's always been defined as kind of being this great medical community, but in this situation you're seeing the pandemic spawning opportunity.

I think that the Corona virus has like shifted the scientific and medical communities focus so much so that there is opportunity being created.

They're talking about what like a $3 billion output over 10 years and thousands of jobs potentially being created in the region.

And I think because the pandemic and the coronavirus has had such an impact on the world they're really seeing a need maybe not completely, but you know the study of pathogens and viruses really has to be on the fore so that something like this can be prevented in the future.

But it is kind of interesting to see this cohesiveness happened with again as Lisa said the three major hospitals and two academic institutions all contributing to this.

It seems like an exciting prospect.

(upbeat music) - Ohio, Republican lawmakers still want to reign in the governor's ability to issue health orders, with a new Senate Bill that would create a committee with the power to strike down orders issued by the governor, or the Ohio Department of Health.

Karen the sponsors of the bill claim.

This is one that is needed to provide a check on the governor's authority.

- And one of the sponsors of the Bill Senator Rob McCauley.

He had a Bill last year that was vetoed by governor DeWine.

And this was a bill that would have really dealt with business closures and whether who has the authority to issue those.

And so this is kind of a continuation of that Bill that got vetoed.

This would create a committee that would be able to cancel a governor's health order or an order from the Ohio Department of Health.

After 10 days they could do this it would also limit state of emergency orders to 30 days.

We're still under a state of emergency order declared back during the pandemic back in March or April.

If the committee did strike down any of those orders, they could not be reissued for 90 days.

And this goes back to the struggle that lawmakers say that there've been having with the governor over who has the power to do these things.

- This week the Clermont County Republican Party Central Committee passed a resolution asking the State Republican Party not to endorse a candidate in the 2022 primary.

Now obviously you'd usually endorse your sitting incumbent governor who's a Republican, it's rumored DeWine could face a primary challenge from fellow Republicans.

This would suggest some would favor a challenger to the governor.

- Well, and this is interesting because it comes from Clermont County where John Becker, he was a State Representative he was term limited.

He is no longer in the legislature and was a vehement critic of DeWine's COVID-19 policies even drafted articles of impeachment against the governor.

Of course they went nowhere, but this is his County and so I think that this is definitely related to his supposed or rumored interest in challenging DeWine for governor in 2022.

I think that this is also though potentially interesting with what we're about to talk about, I think here with the US Senate race.

And the the State Party is headed by Jane Timken, the chairman and she may be one of those who could potentially run for the nomination.

And so that does bring in the question of where will the party stand potentially on her as a nominee for US Senate say versus other candidates - A number of people are being floated now in some of them doing it themselves, as possible candidates for the US Senate.

The reason that position is open a rarity to have an open seat is that Senator Rob Portman said he's not going to run for reelection in 2022.

Talked about concerns about gridlock and the polarization in Washington.

So now we've got as you mentioned, Jane Timken a whole lot of other names early on, I mean early on meaning in the minutes after John Houston the Lieutenant governor said, "Hey I'm gonna talk to my family I'm going to think about it" subsequently he said, "Nope, I'm not interested in it I wanna be governor."

That gives us back to our earlier discussion.

And then Jim Jordan a lot of people were saying, okay Jim Jordan is sort of the Trump standard bearer here.

And Trump did so well in Ohio winning by eight points both times.

He could be a viable candidate.

Now he says he's not running.

So what does the field look like already?

And I can't believe we're talking about a field, two years in advance but that's what we do.

- Well, we have to now when you start talking about how much money it takes to run a us Senate campaign it's gonna take millions tens of millions of dollars.

It's gonna be very expensive.

And so any candidate who's serious about this has to think about not only raising money for the primary but then raising money for the general.

So it's not that far away when you start talking about how much money needs to be raised.

But so far we've heard from Lieutenant governor John Houston like you just mentioned former governor John Casick said he's not gonna run though there was a joke on social media about whether if he did run which party he would run with because (laughing) he did speak at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

There are a couple of other ones Pat T Berry, former Congressman from central Ohio says he's not gonna run.

But the ones that say that they are interested, like I mentioned, Jane Timken also potentially- well, let's talk about Jim Jordan.

I think that was the big one, because when Jim Jordan stepped out, I think that really opens up the field.

From the conversations I've had with people, it was his race to decide whether he wanted to run it or not.

Because he's a strong supporter of president Trump.

Trump has won Ohio both of the last two election cycles by eight points.

And so it really looked like he was going to be the one that could be the one that would take this.

But now you also have Jim Renacci, the former Congressmen who ran, he started to run for Senate in 2018 against Sherrod Brown.

And then wait a minute no he started to run for governor in 2018 and they switched to the Senate race and Sherrod Brown beat him in 2018.

And then Josh Mandel former State Treasurer who ran against Sherrod Brown in 2012 and lost to him also was thinking about challenging Sherrod Brown in 2018 but then stepped out of that race because his wife was seriously ill. And so this really opens up a lot of opportunity for people who are thinking about it, but it's the kind of race that you wonder, this is a big deal and you wanna bring somebody who hasn't been around for a while or somebody who was lost before into that contest.

And I think that those are kind of the questions to ask.

- Other side of the aisle, Tim Ryan the Congressman sent out a fundraising email immediately after that announcement saying, "Hey I'm gonna need money for my ground game."

So he's clearly interested.

And there's another name I floated it earlier.

And that elicited this email from Audrey, who said I really liked Dr. Acton she quit her job as director of health in part due to the antisemitic comments threats and criticism against her.

She says, "would those comments be different if she were running for Senator?

If she were a Senator?"

Interesting question.

but Amy Acton a name being, being floated.

- And for our TV show the State of Ohio this week, I talked to Liz Walters who's the new chair of the Ohio Democratic Party.

And she said that, yeah that's apparently out there, she didn't confirm that the Democratic Party itself is indeed involved in that.

But apparently there's some polling going on to try to gauge her name ID and how popular she might be.

But that is a real concern.

She would certainly be a target of the same kind of criticism that drove her away from the Ohio Department of Health.

That's going to wrap up our show, tune in Monday to "The Sound of Ideas" on 90.3 WCPN as we bring you the first community conversation organized by the United way and the NAACP on the status of the consent decree Cleveland signed, with the department of justice promising police reforms.

And I'll see you again next week here for another round table conversation about the week's news.

I'm Mike MacIntyre.

Thanks for watching and stay safe.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Brought to you by Westfield offering insurance to protect what's yours grow your business and achieve your dreams.