captioning sponsorwnet >> mitchell: on this edition for saturday, may 2: states across the country move to reopen for business. tenants' rights groups call for a nationwide rent strike. and, a dreampecialist on covid-19 dreams. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial ic group, retirement se and investments. additional support has been prd ided by: the corporation for public broadcasting, a private ycorporation fuede american people. and by contributions to your station from viewers lik you. thank yo >> mitchell: good evening, and thank you for joing us. the decision to reopen or remain under strict lockdowns ifacing the nation's governors this weekend. dozens of states are now trying a variety of cnges as the spread of the coronavirus is slowing, at least for now. here in new york, thepicenter of the u.s. covid-19 pandemic, strict stay-at-home orders remain in place, and we are bringing you our reporting from remote locations, often from our mes. let's get started with today's

top news. on the first weekend in may, more states continued to loosen restrictions and reopen businesses closed in the new jersey opened its state and county parks and golf courses today, the state's first easing of the restrictions that still include a stay-at-home order and mandatory wearing of facemasks in ma places. >> with the reopeningndf our parksolf courses is a crucial test, and this is a test that we must pass. >>yomitchell: ne city began to "open streets" to pedestrians and cyclists today to me room forse more outdoor exer >> we want to expand the parks, if you will, by opening up these streets. >> mitchell: mayor bill de blastaioed with seven miles, mostly in parks, and says he plans to add about 40 more miles this mth. in cerlifornia, whthere have been protests agait the governor's recent order to "hard close" some beaches temporarily, thern were new demands to reo more of the state. >> open california! open california! >>itchell: yesterday, governor gavin newsom said he may

annoce an easing of the stay at-home order as early as monday. >> the only thing that's going hold us back is a spread of this virus. times'" reporter phil willon is covering the governor and california's reopening. >> histi approval is through the roof still. people really like the job he's done handling the coronavirus. so, he has a lot of goodwill still, but i think, like everywhere in the country people have been inside for over a month. they're getting antsy. the weather's getting warm. and a lot of us, a lot of people are hurt financially and need to get back to work. so, there are these dueling pressures, and yes, it's a pretty complicated juggling act. >> mitchell: covid-19 infectis in the u.s. make up about one- third osef in the world. so far, more than 65,000 deaths in the u.s. have been attributed to the disease, and hospitals continue to treat nedacases every y. after leaving the white house for a weekend at camp david

yesterday, president trump nominated a replacement for health and humance ser acting inspector general christi grimm. grimm relrteased a ren april 3 that showed hospitals were expeseriencing "re shortages of testing supplies and extended waits for test results" and "widespreadso shortages of pl protective equipment." the spread of theoronavirus continues to slow down in parts of europehe, as countries t are also beginning to ease restrictions. today, adults in spain exercised outside for the first time in seven weks. four hours in the morning and three hours in the evening are set aside fo adults. children have time in the afternoon, and the remaining hours are reserved for the elderly and vulnerable. the new rules are part of the gradual easing of one of the strictest lockdowns in europe, but many restrictions remain. the prime minister is asking parliamento tend the country's state of emergency. and, starting monday, face masks wi be mandatory on public transit; up to now, they were only recommended.

in austria, most businesses are now open, including hair salons and larger rail shops. however, restaurants and bars remain closed. austria was one of the countries to impose a lockwn in mid- march. and, while partspe of eure loosening restrictions, russia announced today that coronavirus cases hit a new daily hig parts of the country, including moscow, have been under lockdown, and officials warned that if cases continue to rise, more restrictions might be imposed. north korean state media said showed leader kim jong-un touring a fertilizer factory yesterday. the video shows kim inspecting the faory with high-ranking officials and his sister. it is the north korean leader's first public appearance in nearly three weeks. speculation about kim's health began after he missed a ceremony marking the birthday of his grandfather, kim il-sung, on april 15.

following his absence, a sout korean news outlet reported that ng from hearveri surgery, but there has been no comment on that from u.s. officials. a 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern puerto rico this moing, just five months after a bigger quake in the same area. today's quake hit near the coastal city of ponce a little after 7:00 a.m.or there were rts of structural damage to buildings, but as of this afternoon, casualties were reported. the u.s. glogical survey said this was an aftershock of the larger 6.4-mnitude earthquake that hit southern puerto rico on january 6. that quake konleperson and destroyed hundreds of homes in the area. ♪ ♪ for more news ofhe day and a special feature on the levon helm studios in woodstock, new york, featuring singer/ songwriter john sebastian, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> mitchell: antiby sting for covid-19 is becoming more

readily available, but there are still multiple unknownt what the test results actually mean when it comes to public heal. i recently spoke with propublica health reporter caroline chen help explain some of the ion. caroline, thanks so much for joining us. there's been such an intense focus on antibody tests both here in the u.s. and ovet eas, but thout controversy. and some of the methodologies that are used in the studies have been questioned as well for bias in sort of other elements that can, you know, sort of sway results. so, how reliable are these tests and how dangerous is a false positive? >> yeah. so, there really questions you ask right there. so, let me break this down a little bit here. so, antibody studies that are now being conducted nationwide at state levels tyd even at co levels are really, really important because they can actually answer many question but the most common type of study that's being done right now is to ask this very basic question, which is: what

percentof this population has been infected? and what they are d'rng is that th supposed to look at a random sample of a giv population-- let's say, in this specific county this specific state. and by taking a random selection of the p their blood to see if they had antibodies, you can get a scent-- anse of what portion of that population has been infected. and that's really important because, to date, as we know in the u.s., thertahas been a sh of the diagnostic tests. annod so, only really, you people who have had really severe symptoms, who have met-- who have gone to the hospital, have managed to get tested. so, we know that the case counts are probably an undercount, but we don't know how much of an undercount. so, that's where these studies can help to fill in our understanding. so, you mentioned that there's been some controversy about these, and they're kind of maybe two big pieces of this. so, the first thing you said is accuracy of the tests, right? so, if the tests aren't super accurate, then of course, that can skew the numbers. everybody understands that part.

the other, trickier part is what you mentioned, which is bias. and what scientists mean when they say "bias" is that they mean that they're worried that the sample that was tested wasn't totally random. anthere are many different ways you can recruit participants. but basically, the concern is if you're saying you volunteer, whetr i'm recruited you by facebook ad or whether i'm just posting something on the ternet andaying "email me if hau want to participate," that the fear is, tpeople who think that they have been affected, who say, "oh, i had a flu back in ofebruai had a cough back in february," they're more motivated to participate. whereas if i say, "oh, i've ten totally he this whole time, i don't think i had the coronavirus," i'm going to not tnt to participate, and t that could skew the numbers. so, the ideal way to do this type of studis to, you know have a database of addresses and then to randomly pick addresses and then invite people to participate. >> mitcs hell: and the resu who has the antibody and who doesn't, there is a vast range of differees. i've seen numbers as low as 2%

all the way up to 30%. so, how do those numbers compare to so-called herd immunity and the tric that they're lookin for that? >> i think as these numbers have is down at 2% or whether it ist massachusetts-- i think a lot of the headlineseople are seeing go along the lines of, you know, our community than werens in previously thought. and i think that that is one that is true. so, then, some people start tosa so are we actually close to herd immunity? and, herd imnity is the idea at when the vast majority of the population is infected, that the virus will not have enough potential carriers t infect, and so it will stop circulating. now, i thhek it's really ful to just keep the numbers in your mind. so, i've asked a lot of sciene tists how many peoed to be infected for there to be rd immunity? and i've gotten a range of

answers, but the lowest number i've he most people say 70% to 80%. i've heard as high as 90%. the reasowhy that's not a fixed number is because it depends on a number of different factors, like how contagious exactly the coronavirus is. and also, this still-op question of, if you have been infected, are you then immune forever, like the chicken pox, or does your immunity actuallyar to wane over time? all the studies that have come out in the u.s. regionally, we're nhere near herd immunity. so, unfortunately, i think the only other way to get to herd immunity is via a vaccine, and that's also some ways away. >> mitchell: so much of this is uncharte territory. when do you think it will be possible, taking all these snapshots, to put them together and get some sort of sense of where we actlly stand as a country? how many people have the antibodies, and when we can start sort of thinking about as a whole country going back to work and feeling much safer?

>> i think tat actually we're going to be able to get a good sense regionallyband sort of at a-- potentially at a county level, you know, even within weeks, because there are some counties like miami-dade county that re already doing this on a weekly basis; and in e, where they ar already updating their numbers because they are doing this on a weekly basis. so, i think, you know, you may not have a perfect picture already, but you are already starting to have a picture that is becoming more and more in focus week by week as you this. and i think that's very hopeful because we can get more and more formation as we go, even if and learning the proportion of people who are infected in the population is so important for us to better undersnd the coronavirus and also to get a disease spreading. this but thes are all important pieces of information, th for scientists to understand the virus and for politicians to get a sense of what's happening in

their city as they make decisions on things like sn?uld we reo how fast should we reopen? are the social distancing and also, they'll start to do these studies in select populations, like what portion of health are workers or frontline workers like grocery store workers are infected? like, all these pieces of information start to help build a tter picture regionally, statewide, countywide, and then maybe put them together to get a picture of the nation. >> mitchell: caroline chen, propublica, touhanko much. >> thank you for having me. >> mitchell: e first of may marked the second month since coronavirus shwnutwhen rent for millions of americans was due. with more thaonn 30 mileople filing for unemployment benefits in the past six weeks, tenant groups across the country yesterday call red fort strike until the economy recovers. newshour wkend's sam weber has

more. >> reporter: a building in queens, new york, tenants came to their windows rnoon and afte collectively made noise. ( banging sounds ) this displ wasn't the daily appreciation for essential workers. it was a strike declaration. several dozen nants announced they would not be paying rent this month. >> we are working class people. we go month to month with our bills. >> reporter: cristina jeffers is one of those tenants. she's a housekper who has not been able to work since mid-march. >> many of us, our salary is a big chunk for rent. we really in trouble. that's why we decide to go and do this strike. ( cheering ) >> reporter: across new york city, organizes estimate that more than 50 buildings have organized to formally withhold rent, and more than 13,000 individual tenan are striking on their own. rent strikes have also been organized nationally from los angeles to seattle to chicago. organizers believe it's the

largest coordinated rent strike in acentury. >> we are encouraging people who already can't pay to come into a movement to not pay together, to turn the fact that you can't pay into political action. >> reporter: cea weaver is the justice for all, a coali of n70 housing groups acrossew york state. she says rent needs to be suspded r the duratioof the coronavirus crisis. >> we nt federal or state action-- both, if needed. and the goal really he is, we're trying to create a crisis for the real estate industry th will force the governme toct. >> reporter: while rent is still due, all evictio have been put on hold in new york and at least 19 other states. and the federal cares actassed in late march halted evictions nationally for tenafents in ral housing programs or where the underlying mortgage is agcy.d by a federal housing weaver says pausing evictions p>> it's the defion ofable.it kicking the bucket down the road.

and if we don't get some real rent relief, if we don't get rents canceled, we are going to see a never-beforexperienced wave of evictions when housing courts reopen on june 20. >> reporter: but there has been some momentum for suspending rent. in mid-april, minnesota congresswomailhan omar introduced a bill that would cancel rent and mortgage payments while there's a federal disaster declaration. new york congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez is one of the bill's co-sponsors, and she spoke about the need to support rent strikes at a virtualhi town hall earlier week. >> people aren't striking because they don't feel like paying rent. people are striking because they can't pay rent. they can't. >> reporter: but to many of those who collect rent payments, the strikes represent a real economic threat. >> to md e, it's reckless, is potentially damaging to the-- to the economy. >> report: doug bibby is the president of the national multifamily housadg council, an cacy group representing apartment owners.

he says when renters don't pay, there's a c the housing industry. >> many apartment owners are small businesses. and those small businesses have a mortgage on the property, and-- and they have a payroll. there are employees. and they have property taxes and insurance. when landlords don't get they, mothey have to make a decision on what to cut. >> reporter: in april, more th 91% of the rent was collected by the end of the moh, according to national data compiled by bibby's group, a slight decrease from the month before. but bby worries that things will get much worse fo landlords as the economic downturn continues. >> i understand people are feeling pain, and they're feeling frustrated, and they don't have the resources. but the best way to do thisis thinnot to call a renters' strike. congressmen and senators'he offices with appeals for help, becae what we need right now is the government to step in. this is-- this cannot be solved by the private sector. >> reporter: in queens, tenant

cristina jeffers knows that her building's owner alone can't solve theconomic crisis, but she says it could be doing more. >> they have the money to survive without our three or four months re. they do. >> reporter: jeffers' landlord did not respond to a request to comment from pbs newshour weekend. as policymakersry to address the concerns of both renters and landlords, n.y.u. professor kathy o'regan says tsis has also magnified long standing rents have been rising, and renters on income and savings than homeowners. >> one of the things that i worry about is the way that this crisis has rolled out and reveal and heightened racial and ethnic disparities, right. so, you have a health crisis that very disproportionately affected people of color.s rente now the ones most at risk, disproportionately useholds of color. if we do not stop the rental crisis,e' going to be taking what were preexisting

disparities and we're going to be widening them. this is a moment to close the gap. it is certainly a moment not to let the gap get wider. >> mitchell: it's not hard to imagine worries about covid-19 keepingeople up at night, but, around the world, people have been reporting that the pandemic is afeafecting their , as well. newshour weekend's mori rothman has our report. >> repreorter: deiarrett has been having strange dreams lately. >> i wulas in a very beaut antiqulibrary, like the library of a home, and i knew that outside there was just some horrible thing happening. and it kind of transformed from being a war to being a riot to being something like the black plague. >> reporter: barrett created this eeridepiction of her eam. but she's more than an artist; barrett is an expert on dreaming.

she's studied the science of dreams adfor four d and written a book on the subject. now, she's collecting accounts learn about how people's dreams are being influenced by the pandemic. what kind of dreams are you seeing people report?n >>he survey i'm doing, there-- there's some big clusters otypes of dreams. people are dreaming that they're getting short of breath, they're spiking a fever, or, more fantastically, one woman looks down at her stomach and sees blue stripes on it and in the dreamemembers that that's the first sign of coronavirus and knows she has it. there's a big cluster of metaphoric ones about the virus but representing it as something else. the bigst sub-part of that are bugs, every kind of bug-- cockroaches rushing towsod the per swarms of flying insects, masses of squirming worms i think we see so many bugsa because it'mmon phrase. "i have a bug" means "i have a

virus." but also because the virus is so invisible, lots of small things thamut tively can kill you, like bugs, makes a good met aphor. reporter: barrett says in the thousands of dream reports she's ceived, the pattern is shifting from initial fears of the virus to aspects of being in lockdo. and she's not the on one collecting dreams. on a web site called "i dream of covid" gathering dreams from around the world, somwrote of bizarre things including never- ending video conferences, items in a grocery store coughing and sneezing,nd relationship troubles brought ony uncut hair barrett says most dream activity tends to occur towards the end oflumber, during a period that is often interrupted by the alarm to wake up. but because many people are home all day, some are sleeping longer, so it makes sense that more people are remembering dreams when they awaken. you've looked at dreams of people who have gone through past major events-- 9/11, for example-- where there was more staf.rk imagery, kind

how does this compare? >> the way the 9/11 sample and this one are very similar is that in both the ordinary person who's watching this on television and is certainly stressed and worried about it, but not really experiencing what psyclosts usually mean by a trauma, they're mostly having >> reporter: but what about the extraordinary person, the one dealing with the crisis o?the frontlin >> in both of the samples, 9/11 and the pandemic, the first responders are the onewho have just horrible post-traumatic nightmares, much more literally about tsthe ev >> reporter: and at what point do these dreams kind of help us processd what's going on, what point are they not as helpful? >> i tthink a lot questions that we ask about dreams, we should kind of think of the equivalent in waking thought like if you try to think about our-- most of your waking

thoughts, helping you process wh's going on. well, some of them are definitely good ideas and breakthroughs abouthat to do and getting you somewhere. but an awful lot of waking thought is just repetitive circles-- "i've thought this over and over yesterday, and i'm doinit again today." and i think our dreams are like that also. >> reporter: and if the dreams get to be overwhelming, barrett says there are steps you can take to t try toast make them a little less upsetting. >> if people just want to stop having bad anxiety dreams, the best method this tk of what you would like to dream about. mayba favorite loved one, maybe a vorite vacation spot. lots of people love flying dreams. and so, too, as you're falling asleep, anto formage of that in your mind, and it makes it less likely you'll have the anxiety dres and more likely you'll have the content you're targeting. >> mitchell: we asked you tot tell us aboume of your covid dreams. here are some of your responses.

hijanina schiavone from mn wrote: "everyone i miss so much was there-- my wonderful m friends, my teammates frk, my family, and, remarkably, all those i've loved in noe past who aronger with me on this earth. i know i didn't want the drea to end, and, when it did, i was smiling. then, i cried. then, i smiled again." ryan brennan from st. louis, missouri, recalled his dream: "i'm a high school teacher. at work, we had a fire drill, and yeopraed at me because i took too long to take attendance of my class after evacuating the building." and this from kate buike in seattle: "i was in church, sitting up front, appropriately physically distanced from others. however, when i turned around, i saw a large group of people packed in closely together at the back. i thought to myself, 'i shouldn't be here' and left right away. i wh came fully awake, i was so relieved that it wasn't real!"

>> mitchell: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the last news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm karina mitchell. thanks for watching. stay hodealthy and have a night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by dia access group at wgbh accessgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. arbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial investments.ement services and >> when itomes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice. our no-contract plans give you as mth or as little talk, tex and data as yowant. and our u.s.-based customer service team is on-hand to help. to learn more, go to w.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs statim viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. dedededed by--

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