captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> nawaz: good evening, i'm amna judy woodruff is a on the newshour tonight, re- openings reconsidered-- as the covid-19 infection rate shows no signs of slowing, ahorities re-impose restrictns, and the white house ramps up criticism of experts leading the response. then, a model response-- despite being e of the most densely populated areas in the country, san francisco's chinatown has countered covid-19 with an aggressive plan. and, covid and race-- the coronavirus outbreak and the economic free-fall highlight the structural inequality faced by black americans. >> where other people are able to still survive, work from home, we don't have a whole lot of businesses and industries a thow for that. so the financial impact has been great.th >> nawaz: al and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding forhe pbs newshour has been provided by: >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundatoon. committemproving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peeful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs ion from viewers like yo thank you. >> nawaz: the coronavirus crisis rages on, and so does the war of words over a topandemic scientist. v the verblies kept coming today, as the united states neared 3.5 million infections, and 137,000 deaths. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> alcindor: today from the i nation's tectious disease expert, a fresh assessment of the covid-19 pandemic:>> e need to say we're not

going in the right direction now. call a timeout, pause and say what dwe need to do? >> alcindor: but amid the fauci also faces ac riftanthony with the white house. >> istt's izarre. >> alcindor: today, he spoke out abgt the white house attack him over his handling of the pandemic. >> i cannot figure out in my wildest drea why they would nt to do that. i think they realize now that that was not prudent thing to do, because it's only reflecting negatively on them. i can't explain peter navarro. he's in a world by himself. >> alcindor: those comments come after navarro, president trump's top trade advisor, lashed out an fauci in "usa today" op- ed. he wrote that fauci "has been wrong about everything i have interacted with him on." he also said he takes dr. fauci's advice "with skepticism and caion." navarro's criticism echoes what the president himself has said about dr. fauci. here he is last week in an interview with fox news' sean

hannity. >> a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes. >> alcindor: but today, white house aides tried to distance the president from navarro's comments. in a tweet, white house the op-ed "didn't go throughid normal white house clearan processes and is the opinion of peter alone." the president also responded: >> that's peter navarro, but i have a very good relationship with dr. fci. so there's never been a time when two candidates o different. >> alcindor: all this, as president trump is behind in many polls and faces fierce to covid-19. his own response and, yesterday, what was billed as an official white house news conference quickly morphed into campaign-style event. utthe president spent 63 m mostly criticizing his november opponent joe biden. he mentioned biden by name some 30 times.th he hit aformer vice president on a range of issues, from china... >> joe biden and president obama freely allowed china to pillage our factories, plunder our communities.

>> alcindor: to jobs...ca >> ameost nearly 10,000 factories while joe biden was vice president. think of that: 10,000 factories. >> alcindor: to the paris climate agreement. >>s vice president, biden was a leading advocate of the paris climate accord, which unbelievably expensive to our country. >> alcindor: biden's campaign said it was all a distraction from what it called president trump's "botched response" to the coronavirus pandemic. back in the rose garden, the president also falsely claimed are going up only because ofons increased testing. >> think of this: if we didn'tea do testing, inof testing over 40 million people, if weti did half the t we'd have half the cases. >> alcindor: it's true that theh u. conducted the most coronavirus tests. it's also recorded more covid other country.lities than any the rate of positive tests is also rising sharply in a number

of states. health experts continue to warn about deteriorating health conditions in the u.s. as cases states like, california,. florida, and texas are reporting almost daily records of new cases. democratic congressman joaquin castro of texas says that the lack of federal response is compounding the crisis. >> i think what's been missing is strong leadership from the top, giving the people of texas good advice. >> alcindor: meanwhile today, another trump adminion decision was scrutinized. the white house ordered hospitals to bypass the centers for disease control and prevention, which the president has repeatedly criticized. it now wantsospitals to send covid-19 patient records to a database with the department of health anduman services. the white house says it will but researchers say it could hinder their ability to access critical information. >> nawaz: and yamiche joins me now.

you.awazyamiche, good to see the white house seems to be distancing the president from the op-ed written by peter navarro which is very critical of dr. anthony fauci. so what do we know abo how the op-ed came to be and about the white house retionship with dr. fauci. >> reporter: what we've seen is an escalating war between the white house and dr. fauci.d dr. fauci ser five presidents before president trump ando e's someone s very respected. he also said before the op-ed was written by peter navarro, that the american public ould trust scientists like himself. peter navarro wrote d.the op some reporting by "the los angeles times" that the president approved the op-ed, but the white house staff said that's not true, that the president thinks peter navarro should t have written the op-ed, but that's still in line with the idea that white house officis have continued to criticize dr. fauci including the idprt himself. we know the white house is trying its best to spin this and

sathe white house has not been trying to take on dr. fauci. todayid vice prt pence tweeted a photo of him tking with dr. fauci. still dr. fauci hasn't spoken directly with the president, it seems, in some months. >>nawaz: the rose garden event is dwht attention, described highly i unuatal. re your biggest takeaways from that event? >> well, investigation been at that evt was something to behold, it was remarkable to see the president transform the rose garden which has been aye user d ficial announcements and policy announcements for decades to aampaign style venue. the president lashed out at joe biden for 63 minutes, only tok questions for about six minutes. the thesis is there are big differences between him and joe den. i will say it was remarkable to see the president kind of air these grievo in thatway.

the president has not been on the campaign trail very much an as a result, we've see the president use other venues increasingly to talk about the campaign and make sure people think he is the one that's best suitedo lead the country goin forward. the other thing that we saw, of course, as a result of this, is people really questioning the ethical decisions in this white house. so we saw the president also umalong with ivanka his daughter and a white house advisor talk about goya and post ctures of goy products saying people should be using those products. so there are a lot of questions about theci ethical ons being made. i have been told by sources that ivanka trump is possibly going fto be the focus a complaint going forward because they thint she vi the hatch act. >> nawaz: another comment from the president in an interview yesterday that's getting a lot of attention. he was asked by black people being killed by police and he said more white people are killed by police, eich, wh true, belies that black people are more proportionately killed

by the police. what has been the reaction toen those co. >> the president is someone who's been digging in on culture wars, 's not wanted totalk about the words systemic racism or say frearnses are disproportionately impacted by police killings.er african-ans make up 13% of the population and two and a half times to be killed byhe police. we saw at lot of people criticizing the president for the comments, includingth attorney for the family of george floyd as they were announcing a lawsuit against minneapolis and the police, they said the president needed to thk about the context in which george floyd was killed. the other thing to note is the c president witinue to do this, since the reaction from the trump campai is this is the president being the president and is a president for all americans and shouldn't focused only on police killings of african-americans which activists and the family of george floydsaid is just wrong. >> nawaz: a lot to cover with president. house and this ite house correspondent

yamiche alcindor. thanks, yamiche. >> nawaz: in the day's other news, new numbers reveal the continuing spread of the covid- 19 pandemic. hard-hit floda reported 10,000 new cases, for a total of 300,000. and, in oklahoma a record number of new infections inuded republican governor kevin stitt, the first governor to test positive in the untry. meanwhile, officials in alabam ndered face masks to be w in public places. republican governor kay ivey spoke in montgomery: >> c.d.c. and others continue to tell us that of all the things we do, wearing a mask is the most helpful especially to slow down community spread. it's just the smart thing to do as a person, as a citin, as one who loves your family and your neighbor. >> nawaz: around the world,ra

sestates in india imposed new lockdowns, and hong kong also added new restrictions. but, in paris, visitors are once again welcome at the top floor disneyland paris. and at both had been closed for four months. the laest u.s. retailer, walmart, announced today it will start requiring that customers wear face coverings inside its stores. the policy affects more than 5,000 locations, including its sam's club stores. roughly 65% of its stores are in areas that already mandate face coverings. a number of political figures, financial leaders and others had their twitter accounts hacked today. they include former president joe biden, plus bill gates, elon musk, miael bloomberg and wekany. the hackers used the accounts to solicit bitcoin donations.en prestrump has rolled out a final rule, easing a 50-year-old mandate for environmental reviews of major projects. in atlanta today, mr. trump said

speeding up approval for chemical plants, pipelines and highways would chart a path to economic revival. >> you're going to get your other you're goingt thoser the answers quickly. he answers is a beautiful yes, you're gonna start construction immediately, you're not going to wait around for 10,12, 20 years. our bridges, tunnels, freeways and airports will not longer the site of shame but they will be the source of pride. >> nawaz: the president says it can take decades to get projects approved, but he wants to cut the review time to two years. environmental groups say the existing law safeguards poor mmunities, and communities or color that are often hit hardest by major projects. me marquee u.s. senate matchups are set after tuesday's primaries. alabama, republicans nominated former auburn football coach tommy tuberville over former u.s. attorney general jeff sessions. tuberville will take on smocratic senator doug jones. in maine, democra gideon won her primary to face

republican senator susan collins. and, texas democrats picked former air force pilot m.j. hegar to take on republican senator john cornyn. kansas republican congressman steve watkins is now facing three criminal charges on voter fraud. they include illegal voting and lying to investigators. watkins hs.ad listed a u. postal box as his residence, before a 2019 local eltion. he faces a republican primary next month, in his bid for a second term. u.s. supreme court justice ruth bar ginsburg is back home after being hospitalized for a possible infection. she spt the night at johns hopkins in baltimore, where doctors cleaned a bile duct stent. "doing well." says she is now ginsburg is 87. she's had cancer twice, in addition to other health issuesr in recent the family of george floyd filed a federal civil rights lawsuit today against minneapolis and the four police officers floyd died in custst may,

when ahite police officer kneeled on his nec eight minutes. the family's attorney, ben crump said the responsibility goes well beyond just one officer. >> it was not just a knee of office derek chauvin on george floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, but was the knee of the entire minneapolis police department on the neck george floyd that killed him. >> nawaz: the suit seeks unspecified damages. fired and are faciminalbeen charges. police in atlanta haverrested a teenager in the death of 8-year-old secorie rturner duringial justice protest on the fourth of july. 19-year-old julian con charged with murder. police say he fired into an s.u.v., killing the girl. conley's lawyer says he wa armed, but did not shoot.

the shooting took place near a wendy's staurant, where white police officer last month. the trump administration will impose travel bans on employeecs of the t giant huawei and other chinese companies. secretary of state mike pompeo said today those companies slpport human rights abuses against china's minorities. he also threatened measures against the chinese social media app tik tok, ovencdata theft ns. a top european union court ruled today that apple does not have to pay $15 billion in back taxeo reland. the e.u. had alleged that the tech giant received illegal ta breaks in ireland, where its european headquarters are based. the court said there wasn't enough evidence to support that finding. u.s. industrial output surged in june, for the second straight month. the new numbers, from the federal reserve, also show production is still well below pre-pandemic levels. bu on wall street, stocks rallied today, on hopes foa covid vaccine. the dow jones industrial average

gained 227 points to close at 26,870. the nasdaq rose nearly 62 points, and, the s&p 500 added 29. still to come on the nshour: californians weigh in on the infections in their state.us how san francisco's chinatown has weathered the pandemic ubspite its dense population. the democratic rc of congo finally defeats ebola only to face covid-19. and much more. >> nawaz: california me been among the earliest states to respond to the covid pandemic. but it is now strugg mightily. ste officials announced mo

than 140 deaths yesterday. more than 6,700 people areec hospitalizedse of covid. the number of infections set a new single-day record yesterday. the governor has rponded with a new series of shutdowns and restrictions to try to battle the outbreaks. two of the largest school districts will begin the year with remote learning.go we'rg to focus on the golden state tonight, beginning with the voices of some residents there who are dealingd with the risksmpact of all of this. >> my name is rhonda evans. i have a 10 year old daughter, anina. we live in oakland, california. and she goes to redwood school. >> i'm kwini reed and this is my sband, michael reed, and we in downtown los angeles.and rose president of the san diego unified school board in san diego, calirnia. ha just recently announced we are going to begin the schoom yearetely online on august 31. >> my name's john secretan and c

own afe and market. we've got three locations, one in laguna beach, one in corona n del mar port beach and the arts district in downtown los angeles. >> my name is maryanne wendt, i'm from irvine, california. i ha two daughters, one is 1 she just graduhoed from high and the other one is 12. and she'll be entering the seventh grade. >> my name is brenna gustafson. i live in oakland, california, and i am a public school teacher. >> tre's a lot of uncertaint right now. and, you know, we've been trying to follow is really closely over the past few weeks because school is approaching. it's only a month away. and we're just gettig a ton of conflicting information and there's a lot of uncertainty. in june, we had made a decision that we really wanted o to go fofive days in school, full time in school. opening bars, haircut places, all kinds of things where we're opening up. and we were very, very optimistic at that point. since then, the virus has gone

way up. >> when they reopened, we en read the 16 page manual that the los angeles county hea department put out. and you're just like, this is stupid. >> it's impoible. >> it's not impossible. it's just it didn't make even if ini put all those protocolo place, i wouldn't feel safe. so why would i force my employee they're eating and touching and drinking and talking and then think that you're t going to unnecessarily potentially get someone sick. >> we're sort of anticipating that and looking like 'll probably going to have to pull the tables back in and lock them up and go back to justdow handing bags of food out. it's very, vy emotional on the staff who's trying to earn enough money, tryingep their schedule going if theye. have kids at h >> it's frightening, actually, because it's we can't plan you can't plan anything. >> i think a hybrid model, whico d include going to school

two days a weewith social distancing guidelines in place, facing the kids apart and having masks required, i would feel somewhat at ease. i think masks protect our children and protect others. and i'm worried for our teachers, too. we need to keep them safe. >> we just found out last week that the oakland unified school district is going to start the year with distance learning, but that we're going to reassess every four weeks. so after the first four weeks, there is the possibility ofgi maybe ch that. that's pretty much all we'v been told. >> a decision that we've made just in the last couple of weeks, actually, is that we won't send her to school regardless of what happens. so the expectation is that there'll be some remote lening option and we would take advantage of that. in particular is that my husband has bo lung and heart disease.

so we're a family th's a very vulnerable family. >> opening schools is one of the most importa things for our society. but this is also one of the most complex. and we make noones about the fact that distance learning is inferior to in classing. and we do not do this lightly. we know there are a lot of have to work with that.oing to >> you know, we feel like canada, the k. and a lot of other countries actually decrease the infection rate and be able to do things properly. so it's just frustrating to see america do everything opposite. >> nawaz: as you heard, there's still a lot of uncertainty about the paemic in california. and local leaders are still figuring out the best path forward. in oakland, everything from restaurants to the new school ye. are now being reevaluat oakland mayor libby schaaf joins me now. mayor schaaf, welcome to the "newshour". thank you for making the time. california was several weeks

ago, was the first in the nation a success story, it's now one of the country's epicenters. so when you lo your community in oakland, what happened? what went wrong? >> well, i will start with what went well, and that's we were the first shutverything down, and we have been one of the most conservative counties in the whole country about reopening, but what we have struggled with and i think the entire nation is struggling with how hard it is to get everyone to hmply with thelth orders orders, to avoid family gatherings, to not go to church, to keep that fe covering on and to avoid going out and, when you do, toeep that social distance. we're seeing a lot of trouble yiwith people com with those orders, and people that are having to work outside the home really afraid to get tested, to stay home if they ar sick, a lot of fear and uncertainty

right now. >> naz: let me ask you about some of these people because there's been a huge push even ifamong leaders in cnia to try to get people to act responsibly and mask up. governor newsom put out a video gorham governors a well saying this is what you need to do to stay safe. the surge isn't driven by peoply acting responsa lot by essential workers, a lot from the latinx communy who can't afford to isolate when they get sick. do you think you've enough to suppt those members of your community? >> we have to do mthe and e disparities that we're seeing by geography and by race are horrific, and it shows that wn'e have the right support systems in place. the fact that workers don't knoh they can get financial support, food, rdistancing their families, free testing, that is on u we have to improve these systems because we knew , goinginto

this, that those particularti popus were already so vulnerable. that's why i join with other mayors recently to advance guaranteed income. that is one of the policy changes that really coul have helped people know that they would have income coming in, even if theyweren't at work. we've also got to continue those benefits, those aring aent difference, and then, of course, we've got to bring testing to those communities and in ways that they trust, not always requiring an enonline appoin allowing walkups. those are some of the things that we're doing in oakland. they are making a difference, but we've got to more. >> we should mention, in some of the voices we heard from earlier, there's a lot of concern around schools reopening and oakld unified school district announced schools will start august 10 with all remote learning and then take at least a month or so to get schools

safely up to speed so students canreturn in person. given where things are now, if the situation hast changed and infections don't slow, do youst seents physically going back to school this fall in oakland? >> i d't. i think the leaders in the wise todistrict were heed concerns of teachers and parents that it is not yet safe. but what we have been doing is to make sure th our students keep learning. at the end of last school year, we had 25,000 households -- nearly half of scthol population -- that were not adequately equipped to engage in distce learning. and i want to thank the very generous community here in oakland when we launched our oakland undivided campaign. ay just six we raised $13 million, including a $10 million personal contribution from jack dorsey, to ensure that every family would have the internet connection, and the

engage in distance learning.y so we are working around the clock to ke sur that what is a health-driven decision does not put our kids behind their education. >> mayor, we've heard from other leaders including the mayor of los angeles that he thinks it could mean a complete shutdown in his city if the infections do you see th happening in oakland? >> i do. i think this is difficult. people count on government for predictable and stability. but there is nothi predictable about this environments while we still don't have a cure or w treatmenhave to continue to understand that we have to put people before profits, we have to put health first, and take direction from our scientists and our health professionals, not our politicians. this is a very difficult time for everyone. i know people are very tired and

frustrated but the virus is not. so we have to continue to b open to these directives that feel without warning that are hard to comply with but absolutely must be done to save live and prevent suffering. >> nawaz:akland mayor libby schaaf joining us tonight. mayor, thank you simmuch for youre. we hope you and everyone in your community stay safe. >> thank you. >> nawaz: we are stang in california where we have heard new outbreaks are leading to a steadyncrease of infections and deaths. e community that is so f succeeding in keeping the virus at bay. this story comes to us from

reporters at the university of california, berkeley's graduate school of journalism, meiying wu and alyson stamos, who narrates the sty. >> reporter: the chinese new year celebration this past february in san francisco was a time of excitement, but also a time of fear.na the corovirus was spreading rapidly across china. and the first case had just been detected in the united states, causing alarm. >> we can have an outbreak in chinatown because we have a lot of people going back to chinafo chinese new year. >> reporter: jian zhang is the c.e.o. of chinese hospital, an acute care facility in the heart of san francisco's chinatown.or the neigod w poised for disaster. 15,000 people living in apprately 22 blocks, making it one of the densest neighborhoods west of manhattan. to me matters worse, most of its residents are elderly, living in cramped single room

occupancy hotels, called s.r.o.s. >> ouroom is very small in the sro, it's about 70 square feet. >> reporter: yongfa zhu is 81 years old and has lid in this sro for more than a year. >> ( translated ): we have little space in here d;sides the bee don't have our own kitchen, we don't have our own restroom. >> reporter: the virus can spread easily here. shared spaces like these have led to some of the deadliest outbreaks the country. at chinese hospital, they planned for the worst. >> i was expecting that we would be inundated with cases. i was expecting basicay it to be overrun. uli was expecting that we be intubating left and right, that we would have very, very sick patients filling our e.r. luckily, that hasn't.een the case >> reporter: five months since the first u.s. case, not a single chinatown resident has been hosthtalized here. e have been fewer than 20

cases of covid-19 in the neighborhood, accounting for one of the lowest rates in the entire city.t zhang sayss all about preparation. >> because of the outbreak ppened in china first. so they learned a lot of lessons. we don't have to go through that in order to learn what to do.or >> rr: in january, zhang's staff was already masking respiratory patients outside the hospital to avoid transmission. her network in china has shipped palates of p.p.e. to chinese hospital in san francisco.s now, thereoverflow. and they helped mobilize others. as early as february 1, zhang teamed up with community leaders and city officials to give some of the earliest education on hygiene and sanitation.e local chindia shared the preventative messages widely. >> ( translated ): oizommunity re the potential risk for outbreak early on because a lot of us experienced the sars outbreak. a lot of people died. >> reporter: chi wing pau, f

manager east cafe, one the largest restaurants in chinatown, shared information with his coworke and customer >> ( translated ): i hung up flyers in the restrooms, the kitchen, and outside the restaurant. i also told our staff everything i learned on how to prevent infection. >> reporr: the restaurant is closed for business right now. they are instead using the kitchen to further k bp the virus . >> ( translated ): we're making a few hundred meals a day for elderly residents in the s.r.o. this helps minimize using the shared kitchen and the chance of being infected. >> reporter: it has, in so ways, been the simple things that have kept the infection rate low. hot meals, more handizer and increased cleaning. >> ( translat): they clean the kitchen, bathrooms and the floor twice a day in our building. we stay in our rooms as much bs possibau we're scared.

meaning outbreaks can happen in a town. we don't have a ciewmplet cowe cannotet our guard down. so we need to stay vigilant. >> i'm still afraid. there have been cases in otherhe s.r.o.s in city, so we have to be more careful. if anyone tests positive, we can quarantine that person. it's beneficial to the person because they can get treated, and it can protect others, too. >> all 32 residents in ju's building participated tested negative for the coronavirus, and testing continuge. ing ahead of any infection will be session fortunately thel eveneopening of the neighborhood. for the "pbs news getting ahead of any infection will be essential for the eventual reopening of the neighborhood. for the pbs newshour, i'm alyson stamos in san francisco. >> nawaz: we've reported many times on the grueling eba outbreak in the democratic republic of congo, but the ebrnd of junght good news: the world health organization announced that the outbreak is

special correspondent monica villamizar reports from thf e provincerth kivu when the outbreak was raging and health workers were caught in the middle of a deadly war. tonight, in partnership with the global health reporting center, she has a report on the newll healenge there: covid- 19.n >> reportete spring, these health workers were still going door to door, siting contacts of the last known ebola patients. >> how is your head? >> reporter: asking questions. checking for fever. >> your temperature is good. we'll be back tomorrow to check it out. >> reporter: this was the final chapter of the ebola epidemic that rocked north kivu, killing more than 2200 people in the last two years. the ebola treatment centers, once overflowingnow sit empty. but even as children turn this one to a makeshift playgroun

there's no rest for the weary. the new threat is coronavirus. >> ( translated ): we saw that in the west, covid-19 is killinp hundreds of a day, it's even more dangerous than ebola. we are very afraid. >> reporter: i met jean-jacques muyembe late last year, when he was leading the charge against ebola. he helpefind the first effective treatment. t now he's heading up th nationwide effort to contain covid. >> ( translated ): ebola showed that politicians nd to call on scientists in a crisis, and the scientific community should not disappoint. >> reporter: the first case was kinshasa, the capital city of 12 million people. a lockdown began three weeks later. but after fierce complaints, it was loosened in mid-may, even as

new infections kept going up. annie rimoin is an americanio epidgist who has run a researchnd training program in r.c. for neay 20 years. >> the real picture of what'sin going on in thrior of the country is very, very difficult to paint at this point. without widespread access to testing, really good disease a surveillance a roderstanding of what's happening on thed. >> reporter: despite vast mineral wealth, including gold,s diamnd cobalt, or in part because of that wealth, d.r.c. has a long htory of suffering. brutal rule by belgians, homegrown dictators, corruptn, poverty and civil war. life expectancy here is amont the lowest in the world. what's the state of the health system in congo right now? >> the health system is very weak, very weak. and the outbreaks are detected very-- are detected late, very late, beuse the health system

doesn't work very well, doesn't function. >> reporter: but muyembe says success, against ebola, shows it ist hopeless. what's the message for you to tell the world now about ebola? >> now we have the vaccine, we have treatment. seola is now a curable dis >> reporter: in late june, the two-year outbreak was declared over. >> we will have small outbres, sporadic outbreaks, but it willl be quickly cond and not have now.gh fatality like we >> so jean-jacques refers to me as his daughter. my wedding photo is in his office. >> reporter: rimoin been working ongside muyembe since 2002, trying to build up d.r.c.'s public alth capacity: training doctors a nurses to utot and respond to outbreaks.

>> it isn't parascience that's going to save the day; it's going to benvesting in people like jean-jacques muyembe scientists that he has trained over time, who are really the future of outbreak prevention and control. >> reporter: rimoin says the itical challenge is to stomp out epidemics, while they're still small. >> you get it while it's still just a spark, because once you have a wildfire, it's very, very difficult to contain.ep >>ter: that's exactly what happened with the ebola outbreak, in eastern d.r.c. containing it ok more than two years of grueling effort, in the midst of a civil war. that fighting in northu hasn't stopped. and health care is still what you'd call, "low-tech." >> congo is not a place wher you are going to have great access to vaccines andly therapeutics en. the key in a place like the acd.r.c. is having adequatss

to testing, contact tracing, being ableo isolate individuals who are anck and to qune the people around them. >> reporter: in d.r.c., the vast majority of coronavirus cases are in kinshasa. in north kivu, cases are still rare. but they are getting ready all the me. here, making masks. these people told us thehope the hard lessons of ebola will stick. >> ( translated ): we should respect the social distancing. and they tell us n to forget washing hands, like as we were doing for ebola prevention. >> ( translated ): this is a disease we can't resist, it can kill us all. r orter: in a place where nothing comes easy, covid-19 could prove to be the hardest test so far. i'm monica villamizar for the pbs newshour.

>> nawaz: now, we continue our "race matters" coverage aboutra inequalityal justice and specific challenges for black americans.fi tht a story on major economic gaps in wealth and income. the second on hollywood's needes for greater retation on economics correspondent paul solman starts with a report on the historic disparities african-americans face, and how that history is making the current problems of covid even worse. it's part of hisegul reporting for our "making sense" series. >> when the rest of the country catches a cold, a place like the black belt catches the flu. >> reporter: or these days, somethinworse. >> covid h r us hard. >>eporter: the pandemic has delivered a knockout blow to black americans physically-- they're dying at twice or more the rate of whites. >> good afternoon. >> reporter: but they are also hit much harder economically. why? concentrated in the areas of thh economy at have been hardest hit by covid-19.

>> reporterso: economics prof lisa cook. >> let's just look at unemployment statistics. there's 14% unemployment rate among black women. 16.3% among black men. >> reporter: compare0.1% for whites. now it so happens a black-white unemployment gap, widening when times are bad, is sadly par for the course. in the great depression. the great recession, as economist william rogers told me in 09. when we entered the recession, african-americans started with a higher unemployment rate and as we have gone through these last 16 months, the gap has widened. >> reporter: pre-pandemic, black unemplment had hit a record low of 5.8%, a fact president trump ofn touted. >> we have the best numbers we've ever had. n reporter: but cook says black worker stuck iw wage service jobs, embody t adage, "last hired, first fired." >> the last hired means that

there is not the ability to accumulate income, and that makes african-americans less able to weather such storm. >> reporter: in alabama's so- called black belt, the jobless rate is at 20%.n lydia chatmo the selma center for nonviolence. >> so where other people are able to still survive, work from home, we don't have a whole lot of businesses and industries that allow for that. so the financial impact has been great. >> the black/white wage gapn among as large as it was in 1950. >> reporter: w that's "rk times" writer david leonhardt. >> we see that black men make only 51 cents on the dollar relative to white men. >> reporter: therefore, says ecomist trevon logan... >> much less of a cushion to cushion the blow. bch more likely then, of course, to need employed in placeeswhere they are ntial workers. >> so, yes, there iould be desperwith respect to >> you guys need tide usob. with masks, you need to provide us with gloves. >> reporter: starting in marc

amazon warehouse workers, disproportionately people of color, staged protests around the country over what they said were unsafe working conditions. are going by c.d.c. standards, but when we call the c.d.c. theo ar >> reporter: amazon fired several of the activists, though the company has since rolled out safety measures. but good proction still isn't available to many of america'ses ial workers. >> this coronavirus ( bleep ) is for real. and we out here as public workers doing our job trying to make an honest living to take re of our families. jason hargrove on march 21, in a facebook video complaining about a passenger. >> that woman that was on this bus that sod up behind the r ne where they not supposed to be and coughed f five times and didn't cover up her mouth! >> reporter: 11 days later,

hargrove, a 50-year-old father of six, died of covid-19. african-americans like hargrov make up only 13% or so of the u.s. population, but nearly double that percentage of transportation, warehouse and delivery workers. just imagine what happens to a family's finances when that worker is incapacitated, or worse. and the problem is, african- american finances haveeen deteriorating for years, says honomist logan. >> wealth actual receded for african-americans since the last great recession. and in fact, the wealth disparities are larger than they were 20 years ago.>> he typical white family has a net worth 41 times the typical black family, which is just remarkable. >> reporter: and, adds david leonhardt, to a large extent, the wealth gap is a functi of policy. >> the u.s. government in the decades after world war ii subsidized families to buy houses, which is a key way that

people build wealth. but the way the policy was written, they essentially said t to getse low interest loans, you have to live in a predominantly white ighborhood. the government justified this by saying that white neighborhoods were essentially better housing vestments. >> and then i looked at the map of columbus, my home rig r in that gia box. were literally "red-lined" onods the housing investment thats to builds wealth. >> i can show you this map for every city in the united states. it's the same in indianapolis, it's the same in cleveland, it's the same in detroit, it's the same in philadelphia r. orter: and during the crash of 2008, those neighborhoods became hot-beds of sleazy sub-prime loans and often, as a result, foreclosure. less wealth, and ts less access to capital for buying a home, or building a business. is having operating capita everything.

we are not afforded the same kinds of opportunities because we're looked at as a risk and we're looked at as a risk because we don't have access to the capital in order for there >> reporter: alphonzo cross owns parlor, a craft cocktail lounge in atlanta. it's in a building his family owns, in a less fashionable part of town. >> as a black business owner, t there are still places tu cannot get a lease no matter what. >> reporter: but they don't say to you, ¡we're not leasing to you because you're black?' >> well, this isn't 1952, of course they're not saying that. (laughing) >> reporter: but being locked out of high traffic areas means ess revenue, even during good times. >> throw a pandemic into the mio and yoneed access to more capital to get thrgh this dumpster fire of a year. >> african-american businesses >> reporter: marc morial isr. president and c.e.o. of the national urban league. >> less of a reserve in cash and

money and thereore harder to weather the storm. >> reporter: what's so infuriating to african-americans is that this is a legacy of an intentional past: slavery and jim crow, most notably segregation. >> segregation is the secretes sauce that creacial inequality in the united states. >> reporter: harvard sociologist david williams in a 2017 ted talk. >>f you could eliminate residential segregation you would completely erase blae - whfferences in income, education and unemployment. >> reporter: and, williams might have added, perhaps thein differences leto a very different covid-19 death rate. it's the reasons behind th death rate that we'll explore in our ne making sense report.

>> nawaz: this week, cbsd announ is committing 25% of its budget for tv script development to projects from creators and producers who are "black, indigenous and people of color." the net% percent representation in writers roomssifor the tele season ginning in the fall of 2021. it's all part of a bigger reckong across hollywood, since the death of george floyd sparked nationwide pros over police brutality and racial inequality. jeffrey brown has the story for canvasts and culture series, >> brown: one of the first casualties: the popular reality tv show "cops". past for normalizing heavy- handed behavesr by the police, pecially against african americans. but for more than 30 years it remained on the air, untilast

month when the paramountwaetwork said iremoving the show from its schedule. soon after, the even more popular a&e sees "live p.d.," one of the higst rated shows on basic cable, met the same fate at a ment when policing is the subject of protests and demands for change, hollywood is being forcedo re-examine its long- running love affair with cop shows and much more.tv np critic eric deggans:>> think there are a lot of discussions now about what kind of stories hollywood is tellg, who gets to tell them and how that can change. make cop shows less pragandistic for law enforcement and try to make them more realistic, try to increase the diversity in shows that don't have diversity. >> brown: the re-examination o quite personal, asnights become stars and star popular

sitcoms have apologized or pulled episodes because of the use of blackface. now on the table, says deggans: questions of content, but also representation in front of and behind t camera: >> what's happened is that people have realized that they can no longer go aloget along. and it's a sad fact of hollywood that often the way to get, you know, film and tv projects to make strides on diversity is that you have to embarrass them publicly and you have to create the sense that theudience will no longer tolerate what they're doing and then they will turn inound. they will change. >> brown: one prt group, headed by actors kendrick sampson and tessa thompson, is calling for changes both in the larger society, such as broad divestment from police, and in the entertainment world itself, including: how police and people of color are portrayed, and suring more behind-the-scenes

roles for african-american writers and producers. they're not new issues for hollywood. recall the #oscar-so-white campaign of recent years, but now come with a new urgency. >> you know, i was an executiv at columbia pictures 30 yearso, nd they're still not that much inclusively at the table where it happens. >> brown: veteran producer wostephanie allain, whose includes "boyz n the hood,"" hustle and flow," and "dear white people," says hollywood must recognize its role in shaping how we see ourselves and our history. >> right now the movement is about creating content that humanizes black people, that illustrates the long history of racism in our countrand slavery and how we ce to this int in time and how we're still living the vestiges of slavery, of domination, of police brutality.

>> brown: that includes taking a fresh look at one ofost acclaimed and successful films in history, "gone with the wind," watch and loved by millions since its release in 1939, but also heavilyic cred for its romanticized portrait of the confederacy and slavery. >> when you see the opening crawl that say oh, what a beautiful place, this was a place of master and slave. that feeling perpetuates white supremacy, pure d simple. and it can't you? i don't believe you can just take the movies and burn them. you know, that's, that is just not what should happen. we have to remind ourselves who we were when we made that vie and who we are today. >> brown: to that end, the h streaming si max pulled the film from its library brought it back, pged with a new intruction by film

historian and turner classic movies host jacqueline stewart, explaining its significance but also its botry. >> the film's treatment of this world through the lens ofa nostalnies the horrors of slavery as well as its legacy of inequality. >> brown: also part of the re- packaging: a panel discussion about the film in which m ephanie allain took part. >> we have a sysre in america where we label films. they're too adult, they're too violent. they're too this, they're too that. asat movie is racist and it should be labeleuch. and then watch the movie knowin that t the context for it. >> brown: eric deggans saysho change iywood is possible, but responsibility also lies he consumers of entertainment. >> because we have so much media now, people have more power than they've ever had. you can say something on twitter that becomes a meme an threaten the profits and profitability of $100 million franise.

so along with all that power comes a certain responsibility to consume wisely. be aware of what you're consuming. >> brown: in other words, amid continued otests, watch your screens carefully, and make your own decisions about llywood's portrait of our world. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> nawaz: and tonight on the pbs newshour online, our own williaw brangham spoh public health expert dr. leana wen about what returning tschool could look like for miions of students in the coming months, especially as coronavirus case counts continue to climb in the united states. that conversation is on our website, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm amna nawaz. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. foall of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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>> this program was made possible by the corporation foro publiccasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. is america back to square one with coronavirus surging, some states shut down again? i ask epidemic exphat richard tchett about the race for a -va before politics. plus -- the biggest jailer in the world. we look at the mass incarcerations of blacks in the united states anhe failure of the 13th amendment treally outlaw slavery. then -- >> this is a public health crisis. it should not be a partisan healthcr is. >> now, re-opening schools becomes a partisan political battleground. outgoing president to the university of california, janet