captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, july 19, coronavirus cases continue to climb globally; workers compensation concerns for healthcare workers exposed to covid-19; and in our signature segment,gingrs caregin planning for the future. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bern dthe cheryl and philip milstein family. er barbara hope zkerbro charlenblum. 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. ltual of america financia group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, conmer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of what th like. our u.s.-based ctomer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the ameran people. d by contributions to yo pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. presidentrump is trailing presumptive democratic nominee joe biden by double digits in a new national poll today.po "the washingto"-abc survey shows 55% of registered voters questioned support biden, while

40% id they prefer mr. trump the president used a wide- ranging, one hour interview with fox news anchor chris wallacto say he won't commit to accepting election results in noven er and agised questions about mail-in voting. >> i think mail-in voting is going to r the election. s >> are ygesting that you might not accept the results? >> i have toee. >> sreenivasan: in 2016, the president also said he might not accept election results in a debate with democratry clinton. mr. trump said his tministration is not tryi discredit dr. anthony fauci even though a facebook post from one of his top aides mocked dr. fauci as "dr. fauc." >> it shows him as a leaker d an alarmist. >> well, i don't know that he's a leaker. he's a little bit of an alarmist. that's okay. o a little ban alarmist. >> sreenivasan: questioned aboui the number of coronavirus cases the president falselme clthat the u.s. has the lowest mortality rate in the world. >> i heard we have one of the lowest, ybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world.

do you have the numbers, please? because i heard we had the best mortality rate. mber, number one low mortality rate. >> sreenivasan: the u.s. mortality rate is currently 3.8%-- the eighth highest in rld-- according the johns hopkins coronavirus center. new confirmed coronavirus infections reached record highs for the second day in a row yesterday according to the world health organization. globally, there are now more cases and more than 602,0 deaths according to researchers at johns hopkins unirsity.s the united stantinues to lead the world, with me than 3.7 million cases and more than 140,000 deaths.te whiling has increased over the past month, the percentage of positive tests has also been rising, a sign that the virus is spreading, not just being detected more ofn. amid growing concern about the length of time many people are

waiting for test resulth, this weekenfood a drug administration authorized pooled testing for the t time. labs can now combine or pool up to four samp'ss. if the posite result, samples are re-tested individually. this method is already bei used to detect covid-19 in china, germany, and israel, and could expand testing capability and conserve testing supplies. across the u.s., confirmed infections are rising, on average, in the majority of states. in florida today, state health officials announced more than 12,000ew infections and 89 deaths in the last 24-hours. ne death toll in florida more than 5,000. texas also remains hot spot, than 10,000 new cayesterdayre for the fifth day in a row. for an update on what isas happening in te turn to joey palacio of xas public radio.

on thsday the city added more than 5500 new cases of covid-19 in a single di. now that is actually the result of a back log from a staci lab at the got all at once. yesterday in sane antonio saw 1100 cases added. and we're seei ovea thousand cases added in some texas cities. d there has even been some dispute between the san antonio tropolitan health department and also the state on different forms of testing. >> so ere is a discrepancy on what test result constituteds positive in texas? >> right, so t are two types of tests use. one is a molecular test and there are antigen tests, where the discrepancy is happening while san antonio is considering false the molecular aesigen in its total test results, the state is only taking the molecula test. they had to subtract 3500 cases and this week also texas crossed a 300,000 ses.

i think we're approacng if not over 320,000 cases. and a lot of this, i would say about half has happened in the last month. so texas is seeing a skyrketing amount of casi. >> what has been happening along the rio grande county, the border town. >> there is a county, on friday for instance there were 460 people who tested positive. a county of about 800,000 people or so. they hav 267 deaths in hidalgo county in aopulation of 800,000. here in bear county in santo o we also have about that number of deaths as well, maybe around 240 or so but we have two million people here. one of the big things to note is that hidalgo is a heavily latin. commun and we have seen this virus disproportionately affect people of color, affect the black community, affect the latino

community. it affects the black community, affects the latino community. and so, you're seeing a higher number of deathsn a county that is that is very heavily populated by latinos. >> sreenivasan: we're also hearing about a large number of infections of infants. >> yes. so on friday, nueces county announced that it was adding 8 infants that have tested positiveor covid-19. and the public health director, she had said that these babies have not celebrated even their first birthday yet. that's about all the information that we have so far as to, as to these children. so we are starting to see this, this virus effect very, very young children, even at a point where texas is, is debating on reopening schools. >> sreenivasan: are people taking this seriously? when you're out in your porting,o you see mask usage? >> after the cases just startede increasionentially, the

e governor put in a statewsk order r counties that have more than 20 cases of covid.om and you havefolks that aren't comfortable wearing masks. you have some folks that refuse to wear mask but i've noticed that since it's come back, at least here in san antonio, that mask weari has gone way, way, wp just from my own being out and about in some cases. s enivasan: joey palacios from texas public radio. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, hari. >> sreenivasan: for more national and interna news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: tributes to civil rights leader aner of congress john lewis continued today. lewis died friday of pancreatic cancer. many of his colleagues called for the renaming and passage of a bill that would restore a part of the voting rights a already passed in the house. house majority whip james clyburn called on president trump and republican senate leader mitch mcconnell to take up the bill. that, then tt's what we wouldign

do to honor jo. it should be the john r. lewis voting rights act of 2020. that's the way to do it. words may be powerful, but deeds are lasting. police, and federal agentss, clashed again last nightn the streets of portland, oregon. outside the federal courthouse, protesters removed protective fencing and set fires. deral agents protecting the building used tear gas to clear the area. protests against police brutality and racism in this section of dowhaown portland been ongoing since the police killing of george floyd in late may, but the recent deploynt of federal agents unr president trump's executive der to protect monunts and buildings has re-ignited sometimes violent clashes. in a tweet today, president trump said "we are trying to their leadership has, for months, lost control of the

anarchists and agitators." both the governor of oregon and portland's mayor have said the federal presence is making the situation worse. over the past week militarized federal agents detained protesters using unmarked cars. late friday, the state'sal attorney gued homeland security and the marshall's service in federal court, arguing such detention is unconstitutional. a european union summit stretched into an unplanned third day today, as the 27- nation bloc tried to reach an agreement a $2.1 trillion e.u. budget and coronavis relief package. disagreement over a proposed seven year, $857 million coronavirus fund became the main sticking point on saturday. some of the wealthier northernnt european ces, the so- called "frugal nations" led by nge netherlands, want strict controls on spenwhile southern european countries, like h argue conditions on the coronavirus aid should be minimal. died and tens of tds havele have been evacuated during days of heavy rains and severe seasonal flooding.

in southern and eastern regions oferhe country the yangtze r and some of its tributaries are far above flood levels. se levee broke and offici opened floodgates in other areas to preventore damage. rescue workers were sent into town remain under water.ps china's central and southern regions experience seasonal flooding annually but rainfall so far this year has been unusually high. >> sreenivasan: it's not surprising that healthcare the coronavirus pandem facein increased chances of contracting covid-19. they risk lost wages, expensive healthcare cos, and potential death. what is surprising is that sick workers and families of those ve died from the virus a finding themselves fighting for workers' compensation. recent "kaiser health news" report found that in some

states benefits paid are a long shot. i cently spoke with christina jewett, senior correspondent with "kais health news." so, what is happening to many healthcare workers as they go back to their hospitals and say, "hey, i got covid. i've got all these bills. i've beeout of work for weeks." what happens to them? >> employers a the insurance carriers are asking workers to h pinpoi they got covid at work. so, in the case of a d ytor or an r.n might have a really bulky medical record to look through and say, "oh, you know, this patient this day, thiis what i believe happened." but what we found was there were, was, you know, a laundry worker, a maintenance worker, someone changing the air filters in a covid room. those workers were getting their claims denied. i mean, it's very hard for a worker in that position to pinpoint a single patien they're probably not even privy to that, to that knowledge. so those were the cases that we workersing up whe

were initially seeing denials. rereenivasan: so, if the cleaning the sheets of sick paents and if they're cleaning the air filters from the room full of covid-19ir, they still have to prove that that's how they got covid in the first place to getompensation? yeah, in most states, the burden's on the worker. the worker has to pinpoint how they got it. but there e a spate of laws that are comg online, legislatures all over theok country arg at these types of laws. there are 16 laws addressing this, and what they'veis turn the tables and made that presumption that, look, if you're a healthcare worker, some states it's an essential, employu got it at work, and now the employer would have to prove that you didn't. so then the employer is starting to ask questions about, you know, what your cousin, you know, where your cousin's been or sort of what happened on the bus you are riding to work. workers in those states, but it's just really a mixed bag

around the cntry. >> sreenivasan: so, is there resistance to that idea? this legislation, is there ag reason that the other states haven't joined yet? >> the resistance is over cost. this isn't just an insurance line, just like any her insurance cost to a business. and, you know, the thought is that if they have p these claims, some of them potentially lifetime benefits to a surviving spouse or lifetime benefits if a worker has residual long term problems, that those cos could potentially cripple businesses and prevent them from reopening the way we want to see things happen. so that's sort of the flip side argument to really covering the workers. >> senivasan: you have been chronicling the lives of so many of these healthcare workers who've died duri this pandemic. what surprised you when you were reporting on these stories about the families w were trying to get compensation? >> we worked on this story and another in close proximity and

the sister of a nurse who recently died, she talked about the last days that her sister lived, and one of the things she spent time doing was provingot that sheovid at work for her own worker's compensation claim that she was expecting to backfill somlost wages. that was something she spent the last days of her life doing, where her employerertainly had the records where they could have seen she cared for ou patient who,now, at the time she cared for him, wasn't known that person had covid, but later it became apparent that was a cod patient. so that was a little bit saddening, just to know that that's a person who bravely went to work caring for incredibly sick patients and had that as of their waking lie last hours >> sreenivasan: christina jewett of "kaiser health news." thanks so much. thank you, hari.

>> sreenivasan: advances in healthcare and changes in public life expectancy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. many of them now live at home. but for the hundreds of thousands of aging caregivers oh aduldren with disabilities, many worry about what happens when they can no longer care for their ved ones. newsho weekend's christopher booker traveled to rock county, wisconsin, to see wh one community is doing to prepare.is tory is part of our ongoing series, "rethinking lifespan," and parts wereth recorded beforcovid-19 pandemic restrictions were in effect. >> reporter: it was just a few months aft virginia socwell gave birth to her second son, kent, that his health took a turn. within a few days he was back in the hospital undergoing surgery to removpart of his bowel. but he lost consciousness several times during the surgery, which led to brain damage. >> we always thought he was going to recover, because he was actually looking pretty good.

but it was a long time before we said, "well, he's justna get a lot better anymore." >> reporter: the dams permanent. kent can't walk unassisted and has very limited verbal skills. >> kent, what are you up to now? >> reporter: and f the past 51 years it's been his parents, ron and virginia, caring for him in rural wisconsin. diyou think you would still be in this caregiving position at your age? >> absolutely not. i didn't think i'd be taking care-- >> well, i didn't know-- you know, who else was gonna do it. i always said you know, 70s, th's about it. you get to be 80, it's over. well, then you get to be 80. d you say, "well, maybe 90-- >> 90. - t'll be over." >> reporter: both 85, the socwells are not alone among people their age caring for someone with an inllectual or developmental disability. in fact, there are estimates that between 800,000 and one milln americans over 60 are providing such care for a lovedn and many are not prepared for the day they can no longer do it.

>> and so, it's important to get ahead of that crisis and help families to think about what happens next when i can't provide that car >> reporter: lisa pugh is the head of the wisconsin chapter of a non-profit called the arc, a organization.vocacy as the mother of a daughter with intellecal and developmental disabilities, she could immediately relate to the socwells. >> meeting people like virginia and ron really is a gift to me in that i-- it's kinntof a windowmy own future, into our family's future. and it helps me to kd of tackle my own fears and think about the sorts of things that my husband and i want foour daught, and how we can take those incrental steps. >> reporter: pugh notes that as people live longer, inuding those with intellectual and developmental disabiliti, theris ireased pressure on family caregivers, who are often not paid there are state and federal programs available, the majority of which are funded through medicaid, but the ne for support often outweighs the availability of services. close to 600,000 people are ony waiting lists for community and

home based-services like skilled nursing care or physical therapy, according to the health non-profit kaiser fa foundation. but lisa pugh says wisconsin has >> wisconsin has dprettyhat. revolutionary thing in that we don't have the same long waitine lists as theren other states for the programs. we've done a good job investing in the sts of infrture that families need in-- in order to access supports. >> reporter: in the late 1990s, the state opened aging and disability resrce centers to give people access to information within their community. it has since expanded long terms cavices. wisconsin also changed the w it allocates money. in 28, some families began t manage their state funds directly, givingy hem greater what type of services they receive. according to the wisconsin department of health services, this has helped reduce wait times, which they say will be eliminated by next yea but even with these changes, challenges remain. >> so, while you might be able

to walk in the door and take a screen and they say, "yes, you are functionally and financially eligible for long term services and supports," your challenge is going to be finding the workers to fill those shifts. medicaid pays for kent's days, services and an aide who prior to the covid-19 pandemic would take kent swimming and do other activities with him. w, during the current health crisis, those activities are done behind a mask or shield at the socwl home. but it's kent's parents who do the bulk of the work. they bathe him, dress him, and feed him daily. but a question looms over the daily routine: who will do this after they're gone? where would you place where you folks are now in ter of preparation? >> i would say the very beginning. yeah. uh. >> we've-- we've been looking. we've been thinking. we've been thiing a lot about it, but i guess we're just-- we don't know where to go. >> reporter: if the socwells die without a plan in place, the decision for kent's ongoing care willr end up with his

olupr brother or it may end with the state. that means a social worker would step in and he would then be placedn emergency housing as he waited for a long term solution that may never come. >> so he would be moved from his home, from the home he's lived in for however many years. >> reporter: stefanie primm is the executive director of a wisconsin disability service provider, lov-inc. >> he would be grieving his parents. and then he would be putnto a setting that was brand-new to him with potentially roommatesis with otherilities that were brand-new to him, caregivers he had never met before. it's a very, very traumatic experience for, fothese individuals. >> reporter: are there things that the state or the federal government could do to help within this process? >> a lot of the-- the funding in the service system is directed at the individual with the disability, which is where it should be directed. but a lot-- it-- it neglects the needs of the caregiver and the support for the careto do things that are creative that

are outside the box. >> reporter: late last year, thn arc wisconsilov inc started getting families in rock county together to talk and plan. that means setting up a financial trust or securing long-term housing for a disateed son or dau virgin socwell was in attendance at on.of the meetin so were a couple of 92-year olds, bettand frank daniels. they and one of their eldest daughters were there to talk about another ild, 56-year old patty. >> patty was a beautul baby. when we brought her home from the hospital it seemed lik everything would be okay when we get her home. the infant had troeeding,t. the result of respiratory problems. and then she developed seizures. by the time pattturned two she was diagnosed with an intelltual disability. but with a family of 11 brothers and sisters, the danay patty has led a full life. and by several measures theda els are much further along with their preparation for patty's continuing care after they pass away. they have a financial trust for

her, and guardians in place who are aware of her needs. and she has long-term housing. since her early 20s patty has been living in a group home, paid for by medicaid and social security disability benefits. >> our philosophy was that we never wanted the rest of our children to have to take care of patty. didn't feel it was fair to she needed a place of her own.he and that's we were, really thought the group ho was-- esrfect solution. >> reporter: butte their early preparation, they haven't stopped worrying. >> we've tried the-- t ahead and-- and get as many of those things taken care of-- as we can.e- but ththere's always-- there's always a struggle. >> reporter: lov inc and tto arc are therelp with that struggle. they've created what they call "tits" to help parents and caregivers prepa. these kits serve as a central place to record important life details like bank information, doctors, or designated guardians.

they can even provide prompts about how to talk about planning for the future. meanwhile, wisconsin's gernor, state's first ever task force on care giving, hoping to recruit more workers like nursingsi ants and expand support for unpaid family members. lisa pugh of the arc wisconsin isn that task force and th solutions it comes up with could have an impact on her familyr and ughter'suture. >> any family wants their love ofe to be accepted and par community. and that she'll have her own life. >> reporter: you're certainly putting-- a hell of an effort make sure that happens. yeah. and i'm glad i've got a lot of years ahead of me to plan for it, too.>> eporter: and for the socwells... what do you worry most about when you're thinking aboutng caor kent?g. >> us dy that's, i pray every morning i'm alive to change his diapers.

really, i-- i do. i-- i'm justappy that i can ill do that. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." for the latevi news updates t pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and he a good night. captioningponsored by wnet captioned by media access groupt wgbh acce.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. e anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg.

charles rosenblu we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front ofs. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation f public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by thee. american peo utions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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