tonight on kqed newsroom, a major effort to track and trace coronavirus cases as testing sites expand. plus, federal relief close again to small business owners and nonprofits struggling through the crisis, but will those who most need the help get it? and we connt with a stanford scientist testing novel ideas for masks and other protective equipment in the fight against the coronavirus. llo, and welcome to kqed newsroom. it is week 7 of sheltering in place in northern california. we are continuing our coronavirus coverage. this week the u.s. surpassed 1

million cases of coronavirus and 63,000 people have died from . covid- also, six bay area counties announced they have shelter in place orders extending through the end of this month. meanwhile, testing is growing and public health officials are focused on context tracing as a second vital phase to contain the virus. joing us is dr. rutherford, sfa epidemiologist, advisor to san francisco's department of public health, who is leading the program that started this week in san ancisco. think you for joining us again. >> thank you for havingme. >> we will get to contact t tracing but fii want to talk about breaking news today. the fda has authorized the emergency use of to reduce the mortality d duration of covid- 19. it has been proven to do this and some studies although one study was negative.how quickly can be utilized? >> i think it is a great step forward. the fact that there was a s

negatidy from china does not really bother me very much. at study dinot really have a lot of power for people and it to really get the effects or understand exactly what the effects efe. thcts of this drug are relatively modest i would say. this does not reduce mortaly from 11% wn to zero or anything but it is a start. think about how the aids drugs started, first had azt and then we added other drugs and added other drugs and all of a sudden it became a curable or at least treatable disease. so i am quite encourag by this and i think we are going to use it as fast as we can get our hands on it. ucsf have been using it a lot in clinical trials and it is a faswly straightforward chover to start giving it to patients for whom it is indicated. >> there was encouraging news ouof oxford this week saying that they are about to start

testing a vaccine for the coronavirus. is this a cause for optimism? >> of course. the more vaccines we have the better. but, understand ve to get through human trials and show that it works in humans, and we have to be able to know or be able to know that it is safein ushumans. great. ink animal studies are it is a striving forward. but, it is still a way off. >> let's talkout our perspective in the bay area where it seems we have been flattening the curve. job, why is it that a stay-at- home orders have been extended for another month when other parts es the united stare starting to open up again? >> we know sothing they don't, which is that this is a deadly virus, and we have managed to avoid massive mortality in the area and we are going to take a measured approach to coming away from shelter in place, and i think that the governor and the

maboards and the rs have done the right thing extending it, and by slowly backing down from it. as you know, the new order that will go into effect on monday allows for construction to start back up again. i think we will see incremental changes over time. and other things will get going again. and that is the right way to do it. rather than flipping a switch whatever they want. can >> we ntmoved into t tracing. tell me about the work being done right now in pasfnership beeen and the city of san francisco. >> the department of public health is a terrific contact tracing program that we have en able to pplement and add people to. we have been able to create aining materials, a supervisory structure, so that we can bring in lots and lots of trpeople to do contact tracing which is what you need to have do it properly.

the city has disease investigators who are highly skilled and trained, but it is a finite number of people. we have be able augment it with people from ucsf and then from other city departments like the assessor's office and the librarians. and then with a bunch of other volunteers, our own medical anud nursing ts as well as retired nurses and physicians from around the city. so, that is a big core. are running out 150 people to do this, which is what you need to do to make this, to really ve it the degree and level of attentn it needs have to be successful. >> there has been limited contact tracing already. what is different about this program?is it the first of its california? >> this has been going on for a couple of weeks and it is the most comprehensive one going on in california. think other counties

initially did contact tracing ashe first cases me in, but ours is the one that is pushg the envelope here as we get deeper into the epidemic and as we start to come down oncuthe e. you have to realize thatlife post shelter in place, contact tracing in isolation in quarantine case findings will be the major tools that public health is going to use to control transmission and controlling transmission, to keep totality low. >> when you say pushing the envelope, what does that mean? are there more people doing the testing? people from various backgrounds are being trained to do this work. >> it great and we have had an out organ of support from across the city. we have ucsf employees and city employees from the non- healthcare, and on social

service agencies like the libraries in the city attorney's office and the assessor's office it we have volunteers retired physicians and nurses from the medical and nursing students, all who are trying to piin and make this go. it is a lot of people. we have trained a couple hured people and we have 150 working on this. we are ki shifts to work on contact tracing. so this is a huge effort. and in a comparable county they might have two or three peop doing this. these are the numbers you need to successfully control this after we come away fromshelter in place. >> i want to ask you about testing. when you are on last you are talking about hoarthe bay is ramping up testing and you hope that we would be further along than we are. can you tell us where we are and how s ny more tewe need to get to a place where you would feel comfortable? >> in san francisco, we argoin shape and we have

temporary shortages of swabs, transport media, and reagents and things, but we really have capacity here due to sithe gene of the bio hub and our graduate students from inical laboratory. ffing a they have repurposed a research laboratory into a clinical laboratory. we have extended that capacity to the othenthealth depart in california if they need to use it. so, that is good. there are still, i think, a little bit of hesitancy on the part of providers to use istesting. ther a kind of siege mentality still and that is what we are trng to bust through now. you can tell people yeah, you can come get tested come on down. we can accommodate you if you want to screen people at a nursing home for instance, whatever you would like you know, if you want to screen people in a homeless shelter, we have the capaty.

>> sidr. rutherford, months from now, how well our lives have changed in the bay area from the wronavirus? wistill be were in facemasks? >> i think so, unless a vaccine comes along very quickly. ly that is november. i think if you ask whe will we be 12 months from now, i think we would be in the middle of a massive vaccination campaign. right now, if i were to polish my crystalokball and forward, i think what we may be worried about in the fall is a kids come back to school. s we do not totally understand the dynamics of that and i know a number of groups, not incls ing hourand stanfo are going to be looking at that as well. trying to really get a feel for whether schools are a good amplification factoruer ining. >> thank you so much for being with us again. >> thanks again, it was a pleasure.

this week, the small business administration started accepting applications once again for the paycheck detection program. intended asa lifeline for non- businesses and nonprofits struggling to survive. congress approved $310 billion for the program after demand outstripped available money in the first round of funding. joining us now is the owner of a tour company that received company funds through the program. and a communy lender that s helped more than 900 applicants get ppp loans. thank you for joining us >> thank you. rental, beneficial state bank is a communitiented bank. tell us about the type of client you serve and about the type of ppp client you see now, the average loan k. >> sure. so come beneficial state bank, we are a financial institution that focuses on the underserved. so, we have done this a long time. the ppp program is very dierent though. weve seen over 2000

inquiries over the last few weeks fothis program. as you mentioned, we have approved over 900 daloans about one fourth of those are two women owned businesses or persons of color. about a third of them are two nonprofits, and about 87% of them are mission aligned. typically these are small businesses andmicro- sinesses. , over two thirds of them are two businethes with less 20 employees. >> you have noted e that government guidance on this program has been piecemeal and ambiguous. tell us more about that experience. >> it has been well-intentioned to be able to implement these policies and programs quickly because of the urgent and dire need in our communities, but with any massive scale program there are challenges. so, i am going into the opening day. we did not have all the

formation to be abto actually set up a loan program that youwould expect. very fundamental questions were unanswered, such as what should the loan doments look like? how does this forgiveness process work? so, there are a number of factors that they had to update us every day and sometimes multiple times per day just to be a give us the direction of how the program was intended to work and then while that is happening, we had to build systems to be able to handle this tiwave of loan applications that were coming at us. >> you have been working around the clock i undersnd for the last several weeks. you have run your business for nine years. you started it. tell us about your tour company and how it imhas been cted by the coronavirus? >> we were e of thfirst companies to see the effects of coronavirus being at the inrsection of both corporate events, travel, and food. so, my company is a food tour

company and we were doing corporate teambuilding and people entertaining clients. when tech companies started having work from home or were no longer flying employees in the for in person started to see the affects and our revenue opped to zero. >> you apied for a ppp loan and got the amount you asked for. what does that money mean for ityour business? >>is a lifeline. it is absolutely you know, it can mean bethe differenceeen life or death for a business especially small businesses like ours. so, it 2.5 months that to be creative and be able to think abounew business models as we continue. we have already pivoted to lture oh culinary experiences offering virtual mythology and taking our bartenders and chefs online to offer experiences,

but in the wenext phase are going to need to be creative in terms of reinventing our company ind continuously fiways to stay relent. >> you did have to let go some of the employees earlier. with the money are you bringing people back? >> yes is absolutely intended to be able to rehire those employees and now that we have received the funds we are actively trying to bring mopeople back onto help the business and it has be incredible actually, our virtual business is going well. we need those employees to come back in order to serve the clientele that we now have. >> randall, do you expect the money that has been allocated for small businesses to go to the intended recipients? pe that it does. ound, do there are challenges with the size of the ogram and the

amount of reach it has. in our view there is not enough money to go around. so we are pushing. today we expect to hit apabout 1000icants where we were able to approve the loans. but, we had over 2000 inquiries. so, we are not done. we think that is representative of wha we see wiother banks. so, but what we are seeing is it is going to the smaller businesses. e loans we had nded so far reflects paychecks for about 16,000 employees. we are a small bank, that is a big number. so, where we are right w is you know, it is basically, it looks like you are, there are not enough life observers, right? so, there has been an initial panic and rush for peop to get their applications approved in the first round and we see that continuing.is

>> tha one of the interesting things about the program is that it has been a race to get your application in before the money runs out. what has that been like for you? >> it like sprinting a marathon. it was absolutely a lot of work, especially as a small business, with incredibly mited resources it up at applications into three different banks, and was able to receive it through one of them. >> randall, i know you have done as much business in the lastfew weeks the previous four years. program, the ppp progdo the you think this is the best way to get money into the hands of those who need it most or would you say there should have been a differenway of doing this? >> i think it is a very effective way,itbut again, is not enough. i don'think that the size of the loan is enough. it is enough for businesses to have an artion to re but

not necessarily have enough to get them to be able to get back on their feet an stay ther >> what should the amount be? >> i think 6-12 times their payroll for example. t maybe all of that is forgivable. they have a chance to pay it back over 10 years or something. but, really this is a very smalrgwindow of eness. so, what we see is thyou go back to the life preserver analogy, folks are panicked and rushing to get it. we give itto them and they realize wait, i have eight weeks of payroll that this will cover. i may not be able to hire my employees back. no they may be willing or able to come back. i might not have my clients come back. is if is all i get how am i going to restart my business? there holding on for dear t fe riw and terrified to jump into the water because they they might not make it to the other side. absolutely need more tools. >> i'm going to give the last

wo to you re, what advice would you have for policymakers who are looking to help ústruggling to survive? ses >> meãmore resources. we are entering a new phase and i think thatunemployment is one way to go, but i would have loved to see this come beforei even had to lay off employees. i think there could have been fr more resources t, but now that we are in the position we are, let's try to help small businesses who are the cultural blood of cities. small businesses, not big businesses are the ones who will bring the arts and ckcultu into society. so, let's make sure they have ce the resoto still be creative. >>nd l leach with beneficial state bank, thank

you for joining me. >> thank you for having us. >> we should note that kqed is among the lol businesses and media organizations that have received a paycheck detection alone. in a few months the fight agnst the pandemics revealed an alarming truth, there are not enough gowns, and goggles for health workers trying to save lives while avoiding infection. so, a stanford bio engineer is engineering novel, quickly scalable solutions to this ob global m. in his lab, off the shelf snorkel masks are transformed with an air filter to keep out virus particles. l unlike traditiorespirators the prototypes can be reused for up to 28 ardays and e easily disinfected. they also found inspiration in a cotton candy machine. hacking and retooling it to spin the facemask material quickly y.and chea joining me now is an associate professor of bioengineeringat stanford university and a 2016

genius grant percipient. thank you for joining us. ank you for joining us let's talk about the facemask. it is an adaptation of a snorkel mask. tell us how you got started on i was returning from a trip to france around march 10. some of the work that i do is in marine biology and i was starting to see what i saw in europe and thinking that we would be hit with the same situation ght here. and around that same time, in quarantine, actually sitting in this room itself, i started realizing -- >> you are quarantined. >> that is correct. i had just returned from france and then also i was not feeling that great for some time and ellipse >> excuse me, but did you end up being -- did you end up having the coronavirus? or, what was there another

health issue? >> i had all the classic symptoms. i did get ststed and negative. i spent the day at the hospital but it passed eventually. bu on the other hand, i think what i thought arou that time, and being at the hospital and watching how many number of times they through the ppe away while they were taking care of time, every single they entered, every request i had they had to come in with fresh ppe. i started thinking about reusable ppe and in the contex of what is called elastic respirators and we had to come up with a solution that depends on something already in the supply chain, because the shortage is a supply-cha problem. that is when we started building on the idea of using fullface snorkel masks that could be adapted the challenge. combining it with viral filters that are already accessible to

hospitals and are in their medical supplies to enable fullface ppe solution which would be an alternative, if no other ppe is available. >> could you show us what this looks like? >> so, i think many you who have been out snorkeling have actually used thestypes of fullface masks. the history goes back to some of the ppe solution and respirators themselves and one of the interesting bits here is this is the original one of my owmasks. there is a little coupler here, a space to be able to attach different components to it. this was the starting point. we partnered with boston scientific and several other manufacturing partners to buil injection molded couplers, and partnered with filter manufacturers that make these filters for anesthia remachines

aniratory circuits which is already a preapproved prodt. a combination these three components, a filter, a coupler, and a snorkel turns it into a protective layer for thca heal workers. >> you have been able to get these out into the field. where have you sent them and what is the feedback? >> we shipped out the first sets of componentsfor feedback all across the country. at this point we have roughly shipped around 1600 of these otunits across with r 1000 leaving in a day or two. we are focused que a lot on new york and miami, but one of the ways that we are starting to these out to people is to think about an equitable way of distributing these so we haveinical form that anybody can fill out on new mask.org and we compare it to

e number of cases t differunties that we are starting to see. if you go on this website you can see a global map of course, we have international partners as well, but for the current distribution it is primarily focused on the u.s. and, yo know, the joy in this work has been interacting with clinicians that have been so passionate both engaged with us technically, so this is not just our work. we have been able to essentially a group of individuals that come together and many of these clinicians had been thinking about these ideas and we have started to bring scientific rigor to these ideas. i feel like it has been a big pufamily trying to the solutions out in front of people. >> let's move now to another device that you have inen woon. you started with a cotton candy machine, and you are using it to spin n95 gre masks. tell me how this works. >> everybody knows at this

point nowith the 5 masks, that look like wethese, that have a shortage of them because of the multiple on the polymer that is used inside of it. a process that is used at large-scale things like 3m and many other nufacturers and renderers that would make thesma polypropylenrials, and that has been a bottleneck. and we started thinking about it from a perspective of not just right here, but ouplaces the world where this ndic has not yet reached but will eventually reach where there are no resources or n95 material. ting access i was talking to a doctor friend of mine in bangladesh, where she related to that many hospitals have never even heard of n95, because it is not accessible. and we started asking ourselves, rather than centralizing facilities at

manufacture these, could we think about a small-scale r stributed manufacturing these high grade materials which could then combine with testing and quality control locally. imagine thousands of factories springing up that are producing 1000 high grade masks. that would be equal to 10 million per day. and the context of cotton candy as a kid i have enjoyed caeatin cottony. what cotton candy is, it melts the sugar and's been suspends it scientifically to generate fibers. e we hdemonstrated technically in the paper we just posted about not only can we generate a material that pah the ty in equal answer to te what the n95 al is, but the breathability would be the same, so it is still a work in progress buit has promises

which has meexcited. >> it seems fascinating and we will keep up with you. thank you so much for being wi us. >> thank you, thank you for having me. >> to find t more about the projecgo to nemask.org. you can always find more coverage at kqed.org /tran01 newsroom. you can reach methrough my social media handle. thang you for joinus to stay safe.

robert: president trump and governors confron economic turmoil. and the former vrment p. faces tough questions. >> i think we did a spectacular job. >> the white house on the defensivno amid ecoc, health and political challenges. and with fresh attacks onme long targets. >> china is a very sis f kated country and they could have contained. and the world has suffered greatly. >> everyone's entitled to their opinion. but i am not going to make decisions about our public health based on political gains. robert: and the 2020 campaign takes a turn as former vice president joe bidenie d a former aide's allegation of sexual assault. >> i assure