captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, april 18: some states eye a soft reopening after coronavirus shutdowns. in our signatureegment: testing for covid-19 immunity. and, the impact of the pandemic on a cultural cornerstone in portland. xt, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernd and irene schwartz. chue and edgar wachenheim iii. thyl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the ment, to not miss what's right in front of us. cat mutual of ameriwe believe taking care of tomorrow

can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financialgr p, retirement services and investments. adtional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private e corporation funded by american people. and pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. this is our cond month bringing youhe news from remote locations. new york remains under strict social distancing ree lations, and ty is still the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the united states a the search faccine, for medications to treat covid-19 patients, and methods to trace contacts and test millions more pedeople, are ay. but, the world is facing an enormous crisis. let's get started with today's top news. announcing plans to loosenan restrictions on the use of public spaces and to reopen

businesses this weekend, as the number of confirmed cases of covid-19 in the u.s. grew to mo than 705,000, with more than 37,000 deaths. teeansion ind over the availability of testing. a harvard study yesterday said the country needs to do three times more coronavirus testing befopere rng. today, new york governor andrew cuomo said social distancings bringing down the infection rate, but was adamant that testing is the key to controlling the coronavirus. esting is how you monito the rate of infection, and you control tr it. andt is the whole tension in reopening. everybody wants to reopen. >> sreenivasan: in new york, an order requiring everyone to woer masks r face coverings in public if they are uble to maintain six feet of seration went into effect last night. in florida, the city of jacksonville, reopened its beaches and parks yestery afternoon, but for "exercise only," and under social in utah, governor ga herbert

announced restaurants and gyms-- some of which have started to reneopen-- may be givn official okay as soon as the beginning ay. the governor of texas said retail business will be able te conduct remopping beginning april 24. workers will wear masks and be remonifor fevers, and shoppers will use curbside pickup and delivery. he governor's announcement came before protests today in multiple locations, includinga nnapolis, maryland and at the texas state capitol. globally, the number of coronavirus cases continues to ronise-- now past 2.2 mil accorng to researchers at johns hopkins university. spairemained on lockdown today as officials reported that it now has the most confirmed coronavirus infections in europe. but the spread there is slowing. healthcare workers cheered as the last patient was discharged from one section of a makeshift hospital in madrid. ovweer the past severas, nearly 4,000 coronavirus patients have been treated at this convention center, which is

now ing partially closed. the french military also started dismantlineld hospital today that it built in eastern france, the epicenter of that country's outbreak. france was 13 countries, including the u.k., italy, germany, canada, and brazil, calling for global cooperation in a joint statement released today. the statement for working together on public health, trade, and financial measures to "emerge from the crisis as a stronger, more interconnected worl in iran today, some businesses in the capital of tehran were allowed to reopen after weeks of lockdown. officials there have reported more than 80,000 confirmed cases and more than 5,000 deaths, in what s been the worst coronavirus outeak in the middle east. mass gatherings, including a mosques and shrines, remain banned, but many government offices have reopened. and in nigeria, many people continueto work despita lockdown ordered by the at the largest perishable food market, there was little social

distancing as nigerians worked to distribute fruits and vegetables. the market's chairperson said that hgeunis much more dangerous than the coronavirus. nigeria has reported nearly 500 cases and 17 deaths, including the p cresidentef of staff. while the is limited testing, there are fears isat resource rities could lead to large outbreaks. as cre continent, there are fewer than 2,000 ventilators to see ndreds of millions of people, according to the w.h.o. police in hong kong arrested at least 14 pro-democracy activists today on charges of joining last year's protests. the detained are alleterans of mae pro-democracy movement and included lawkers, activists, and a media tyon.te authorities ci"illegal assemblies" in hong kong and n dating back to august and october. today's crackdown agait pro-democracy demonstrators was the biggest thsince start of the mass protests in hong kong last year. former treasury secretary and c.e.o. of alcoa, paul o'neill,

died today at his home in pittsburgh. his family said o'neill had undergone treatmenfor lung cancer and that his death was not related to the coronavirus. o'neill retired from alcoa in 1999 and president george w. bush chose him as treasury secretary in 2001. president bush fired him in december 2002, reportedly because o'neill disawith the administration's tax cut policies. paul o'neill was 84 years old. for all of our coronavirus coverage and the latest news in the u.s. and around the world, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in the last four weeks, at least 22 million people have lost their jobs. those losses have not been even. asmestaurants, hotels, and e retailers have closed their ceors, other businesses like pharmacies and g stores have been ramping up hiring to meet the surge in demand. i spoke earliewith lauren weber from the "wall street journal" about how companies are actually partning to help meet

the shifting workforce demands caused by the coronavirus pandemic. so, lauren, tell me a little bit about this partnership between the gap and cvs? >> sure. well, cvs is dng ttually with a few dozen large companies. when companies like the p started realizing that they ere going to have to furlough or lay oloyees, they started looking at options for finding ways to place those employees with oth companies that were actually hiring now. you know, it's interesting with n is crisis, some companies are seeing a surge idemand, others are seeing a complete drop-off in demand. so, cvs is now working with dozens of retailers, hospitality companies, airlines, to try to figure out how to match people >> sreenivasan: so this isat are really just about kind of taking advantage of the work that these other companies have already done? >> in a way, it is. these are people who are already vetted and screened by one major employer. what's really interesting to me is that two months ago, these ies were competing for some of these same workers. the labor market was at historic

itlowsunemployment. now, suddenly, they're trying to collaborate in these really surprising and new ways to try to make sure as many people as possible can get a paycheck, stay off of unemployment. you know, there's a benefit to both sides of the equation idhere-- all of the equation: the employeethe company that they're going to, and the company that ty're leaving >> sreenivasan: when you were talng to these differs,t employo they see the magnitude of what's happening to this economy right now? >> they do. and they're scared. i mean, they're scaredor their own companies' survival, and for the people that they were employing. for example, with cvs, they ha 50,000 jobs that they wanted to fill. these are mostly temporary positions. they might be stocking warehouses, they't working in ail stores. they're also looking for a backup workforce because they expect some ofheir own employees will get sick or will need to take time off to arantine or care for family members. like i said, they have 50,000 jobs, and within a couple of weeks of opening these dedicated

hiring pages that they created, and i'm sure that hasn't slowed down. >> sreenivasan: obviously, they're creating systethat employees can slide into employment er, but do they think that this is something that can rebound quickly, or that it will take a long time, regardless of whether we are in these social distancing practices or not? hink the expectations are changing so quickly. it's evolving so fast. early on in idis crisis, the was, we might quickly recover if we could get stores baened again and the peoplck to work. that it's not goine quickarer like that, and nobody quite knows what it looks liketh one issue foe employers like gap or hilton, delta, the toher firms that are tryin hlp place their employees that the furloughed or laid off-- they want to keep some connection to those employees. their hope is that eventually they're going to start rehiring, they're going to start opening

back up and they're going to need to fill roles, just a quickly as this time they needed to drop people from their olls. so, you know, one element of why they're doing this, i think, is to maintain goodwill with their employees and maintain the relationship so that when they need them back, those people will willingly, perhaps happily come back to their previous employer. >> sreenivasan: lauren, one of the things that companies try to do is find something else for an employee to do. when the scale is this enormous, how successful are they doing that? >> it's a huge challenge for human resources departments to try to re-deoy people internally. but a lot of companies are seeing some part of their busleiness drop off wnother part of their business escalates. for example, financial services. not many people are applying for auto loans right now, but tons of people are applying for small business loans. so, companies are moving people around internally. that's where you have the possibility e tension coming up, because some people may rnot want to deployed. in some cases, people are being

re-deployed to jobs that they feeare more dangerous or put them at higher risk. somebody who does commercial internet installations, and he basically climbs towers and rarely interacts with people. he's being asked now to do resideial installations, and he's concerned about going into people's homes. on the other hand, he's glad t have aob. sot's putting people in some difficult positions whenhey're being asked now to dsome of these frontline bs that may prior role wouldn't have.their >> sreenivasan: all right. lauren weber, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: the discussion aboutth when to reopeeconomy often comes down to testing who has antibodies against covid-19. but some researchers at the forefront of developing an accurate test say it's too early to pin all our hopes on science finding the right test soon. newshour weekend special correspondent simon ostrovsky

has our report. >> go ahead, straight, straight. >> reporter: this is the type of testing site that's widely available across the country now. the testing kits that they have re can only tell you if you've currently got covid-19. but researchers want to anvelop body tests that will be able to say if you've ever had the disease, and hopefully that you've reached a certain level of immunity and it's safe to go back to work. a team of scientists from the ragon institute of massachusetts general hospital, harvard and toi.t. are working overtim create just such an easy-to-use test, known as an assay, for covid-19 antibodies that could t mass-produced. >> at really is the ultimate dream of where we're going to go with this assay. >> reporter: although many coronarus antibody tests exist already, the current generation can only tell you if you've been sick before, not if you've achieved immunity. >> these are the labs where we

do all the work. as you can see here, these are all multiple b.l.-2 containment facilities. >> reporter: galit alter, who is leadg the ragon institute's project, ss she's a month to half a year away from havi a test that could tell us if it's safe for people who've already been infected with the coronavirus too back out in public. that's a timeline that's shorter than what it'll take to develop a vaccine, but a longer wait than president donald trump's administration would like, to re-start the economy. t- people would like to have these po-care tests available to them at the pharmacy where basically they can te if they have antibody or not. and the concern is, you know, that having dies is not necessarily going to be a certificate of protection. >> before we jump on that boat and say that "if you are positive for antibodies, you can go back k," we have to better understand what exactly the antibody test means. >> reporter: michael mina is a esharvard prr who is also working on the project. he said it's just as important

to finout whether people who have antibodies can still be spreading the virus. >> we really nt to create a test that's looking for very specific antibodie thahave a chance of reflecting whether or not somebody is truly protected. >> reporter: iorder to figure that out, researchers are going to need to track recovering orvid patients for weeks, even months, sampling their antibody levels periodically along the way to correlate the readings to their ongoing state of health and t health of those around them. the institute is in the early stages of this work, tracking groups of patients from hospitals in massachusetts. researchers, though, are uneasy about the message the public is getting from the federal government. > they have immunity if they've had the virus. a lot of them don't even know if they've had it. >> reporter: alter is concerned people could come to believe that simply having a test that lead them to believe they're now immune. that's something that's still unknown, and she doesn't want

members of the public to get a false sense of security that might lead to dangerous behavior, spreading the virus even further. >> a that's why returning antibody data back to people has to be reatturned with ype of counseling associated with that report. so that people understand, yeah, you have an i.g.g. titer, but that doesn't give you carte blanche that you can go back to rkbecause you could still be >> reporter: the state of massachusetts is tating a consere stance on the promise of antibody testing, and said it's reviewing i in a statement to newshour weekend, the state's department of publyic health said antib testing " still an area of active scientific investigation, and still don't have a very good understanding of the antibody response and its temporal relationship to infection or to immunity. we certainly don't yet know the duration of immunity to covid-19." the good news is, victims of past coronavirus outbreaks have

robert davey is a boston university researcher who d working to fdrug therapy for covid-19. >> there's a lot of evidence that people who have been infected by other viruses similar to this have a sustained immune responses, have good antibody levels for a long time after infection and those protect them against being reinfected by the same virus. but we have to learn, 're still in the learning phase, to know if that's true for this particular virus, but it is likely. i>> reporter:n the meantime, ththe ragon is partnering m.i.t. and harvard's broad institute to ramp its antibody testing capacity u 10,000 samples a day in the hopes of conducting a study of new england and beyond that will tell us what percentage of the population has experienced the coronavirus. but, alter says, much more needs to be done for them to be successful. >> it's this issue that

ere's no cooination from the government to bring the right thought leaders together, commercial partners who can make these types of tools at a level that can really respon the needs of the population. >> sreenivasan: there aren't so many independent bkshops anymore-- they've been closing ever since amazon.com opened. t few remaini ones have been a refuge for readers, and writers. but now, with the covid-19 crisis, many have had to close their doors, at least temporarily. newshour weekend's tom casciato has the story of his hometown independent-- a store with an outsizutation, that is struggling to hang on. >> reporter: portland has always been a city of reade. gring up there, i attributed that to the weather. it rained, and we read. for decades, the center of pinortland's relife has been powell's bookstore. it takes up a whole city block,

oand housr a million volumes, new and used. it's even a tourist destination. >> you coknow, when peopl to visit portland, visiting powell's is at the top of the list. you know, when you-- when you go to a city, you know, you go to paris, you want to see the eleiower. you go to portland, you want to go to powell's bookstore. >> reporter: samiya bashir, a poet, and a professor at portland's reed college, says powell's is special for readers, and for writers. >> they read the ok they know who the authors are. they curate their sections carefully, lovingly, smartly. >repoer: andrew proctor, director of the portland nonprofit, literary arts, collaborates with powell's to bring authors to portland. >> you know, powels books is onof the most important, you know, institutions in american literary life. >> reporter: f the top of your head, can you tick off some of the notable writers who have read at powell's? >> i mean, everyone! i don't even-- like, it would know, you know, if you thinkou about salman rushdie, if you think about toni morrison, you

know, ursula k. leguin, the list just goes on and on and on. everybody, i think who we'veer eally valued as a writer has come through those doors. >> repoer: each year, powell's 500-or-so readings draw an estimated 36,000 people, big numbers in the bookstore world. the bestck-selling author moody say's there's nothing in the couny like reading there. >> the first time i ad there, i knew a tiny bit about it by reputation. and then i had that amazing experience of coming up burnside and seeing the marquee. >> there's something about powell's and that big marquee right in the middle of downtown that gives a b of a kind of a dio city music hall vibe to the authors that come through. >> rorter: and how often does a poet get to see her name on a marquee? >> (laughs) that's ast great qn. >> reporter: but authors seem to thrive mt at powell's not as star attractions, but as browsers. >> my wife's family is from portland, so we go every year, and i pl my trip to powell's

from the instant that i land. i can't wait tgo in there. >> reporter: is the size daunting at all? when i was a kid in portland, the building that now houses powell's was a car dealership. >> for me, there's not really a "too big." i can't imagine the "too big." because if you think about, you know, an obscure russian writer in translation, and you never know if this writer is going to ben any store, period, anywhere, there's only one store where you're-sowhere you're tely sure to have every book by this particular russian writer-- and a lot of them will only cost $1.99. stacks is significant in, it's through the way it binds people together. when you're in that store, you are with a group of people o love and care about this thing that you love and care about. >> reporter: ose stacks are reader-less for now. the store's been closed since march 15. closed like many other independents: the tattered cover

in denver, books & books in miami, city lights in san francisco, tyo strand in ne, and many more. each hasaid people off. in light of the economic damage, in light of the country's health crisis, the subite literary h recently asked a good question: "in a pandemic, how do you mak the case for an art emergency?" >> you know, it's interesting when you ask people about literature, eecially, a lot of people will say, "why? you know, i don't really read that much." then youl say things like, "well, did you read a poem at your wedding?" well, yeah. oh, did you-- were there fems at teral you were last at? yeah, there was. and you go through this list, and it's like, oh, well, literature'sctually everywhere in your life. and actually it's at the most, the very most important junctures of your life. >> reporter: after powell's ut down, a surge in online orders caused it to re-open its web business, at least for now. i asked owner emily powell about that. do you think there was a surge in your online business because people wanted to step up for powell's, and order something

from poll's to keep y going? >> i'd certainly like to think so. i also think, you know, books are a special oduct at this time. they provideome comfort, th provide some knowledge, they provide some escape. we've shipped a lot of workbookh for kidare stuck home without their usual school environment. we're shipping a lot of classic literature. you know, people need some way happening outside housesm what's right now. >> reporter: those of us who grew up in portland, with powell's, can't imagine a world i'm wondering if you could imagine a world without powell's. even. no. i mean, i'm tearing up just thinking about it. not even close. >> i mean, i greet that possibility with sort of abject shock. and in view of the fact that it does reallyelebrate writing and care about writing, feel like, it serves as sort of a kind of-- as a metaphorical flagship for the idea of

bookselling in america. >> if powell's closes, that meansth so many thinghave closed as well. powell's is not going to just close asts the tree falling on own. it's one of those things that is suprted and supports a larger community. so if i saw powell's go down, that means i saw so many suppliers go down, and that means i saw so many restaurants go down. that means i saw so much of the central part of the city that has collapsed. and so, i honestly don't even want to think about powell's closing, because it's actually uch larger than itself. >> misreenivasan: it's be hardeto tell if what you see, and even share online, is real or not. so we're trying something new, a digital series on youtube called "take on fake," where we help you figure out fact from ction. he's an excerpt, with laura garca from "first draft."

she uses puicly-available tools to dive into a viral video allegedly of an italian coronavirus patient escaping, to show it was certainly not that. >> the important thing about this v best resolution i could find. and it means that if i blow it up, i can actually read some of the street signs and look for can we at least find out where ha's from, and then verify the original sourceway? so i started to look, for example, this banner here at the back, i don't know if you can see, but it says "25 c.," kind i lived in the states a little." while. thought maybe that's a clue. >> sreenivasan: yeah >> you can see them run past a car park in a corner, then past a realbuly colorfuding, which i thought, well, that might be easy to find. you can see the te e of cars on ad. they're bigger. >> sreenivasan: a lot of american cars, they're driving on the right side of the road. >> exactly. so you can start to, like, eliminate by the process.

definiteorly not the u.k somewhere where they drive on the other side. definitely not italy, because italian cars are really small. these streets are so wide for italy. that is not it. >> sreenivasan: that's l for this edition of pbs nehour weend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hariareenivasan. nks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioningponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar waenheim iii. pthe cheryl and philstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblu we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

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