ptioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff.ne on thehour" tonight, the kempaign intensifies. president trump heat for telling voters to cast ballots twice to test the system as joe biden escalates his rhetoric against the administration. then, covid questions. misinformation abounds about s and death tolls as the c.d.c. tells states to prepare for a possib coronavirus vaccine by this fall. and we visit austral to examine medical system with universal coverage optionshat still relies heavily on private insurance. >> just as one of the tenets of they should have access to

element that choicart ofo an what a lot of australians seem to value. >> woodruff: all tt and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."or >> munding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:rl >> when the gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity alth nagement. >> consumer cellular.

>> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work strough innts in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations i education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> ts program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributionsur pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president trump has taken his re-election campaign his democratic opponent, joe

biden, spent the day in wisconsin, visiting thlatest crucible in the national churning over racial jestice. lisa djardins has our report. >> repter: kenosha: a community still reeling. once again pulled into the national limelight, this time, with democratic presidential nominee joe biden arriving. thisollowed president trump' visit on tuesday. >> this should never happen, a haing like thishould never en. >> reporter: despite local objections that the city be left to recover and reflect on its own. community leaders and law enforcement officials, the former vice president pitched himself as a unifying figure. >> i honest to god believe we have an enormous opportunity noe thatcreen, the curtain has been pulled back, address what's going on in the country, to do a lot of real positive things. >> reporter: protests in kenosha over policing and racie been mostly peaceful in the past

few days. officials last night lifted the curfew they put in place after violence that left extensive destruction in the city's upto area. s.den heard some direct wo >> we are heavily angry, not angry as to where peop say, oh, they're protesting, there's and a riot.e between a protester enm only 31, and i've seen gh in the past two years to say, i'm tired. >> reporter: biden again condemned all violence, saying >> regardless how angry you are, you should be held accountable someone who does anythi else. period. >> reporter: earlier, after landing in milwaukee, biden and his wife privatelypent an hour with the family of jacob blake, whose shooting by police lastf month touched e city's protests and racial reckoning. blake is now paralyzed, in a hospital. biden said he spoke with blake himself by phone. president trump did not meet with blake's family during his visit. meantimethe president faced sharp scrutiny for his words in

north carolina yesrday, advising that voters send in mail-in ballots and then also go vote in person as a kind of insurance. and the vote is going to count. you can't let them take your vote away. and if it's not tabulated, you vote. >> reporter: but somrts call that a clear path to fraud. north carolina's state board of elections issued a strong statement today, writing "it is illegal to vote twice in an election," underscoring it is a felony, and ressing the state has a firm system to ensure mailed-in ballots are countedou and not doubleed. the president doubled-down today, retweeting his idea. surrounding mail-in ballots, with debate over whether the president is addressing problemr penly creating them.is there t least confusion. meantime, facebook announcedl

today it wock new political ads the week before the election. and the company said it will add labels to any post decforing victory re final results are in. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, wall street's great tech rally hit a wall, and triggered a broad sell-off. the dow jones industrial average lost 800 pois, 3%, to close at 28,292. the nasdaq fell almost 600 points-- 5%. also today, the lapartment. reported new claims for jobless benefits hit 881,000 last we. that's the lowest since march, but it's partly due to a change in how the number is calculated. the u.s. covid-19 death toll

topped 186,000 today out of 6.1 million confirmecases. that news came as pandemic expert dr. anthony fauci said it is unlikely a vaccin ready by late october, as the c.d.c. has suggested. 'll focus on this after the news summary. the mayor of rochester, new york, has suspended police involved in the death of a black man last march.ne y released video shows daniel prude ran naked into the street. police said he was spitting. they put a hod on him, and pressed him to the pavfor two minutes. heekied of asphyxiation a we later. last night, protesters gathered outside police headquarters. today, activists demand charges be filed. >> we're not stupid. we know that if someone is murdered in march and then it yotakes until september foto say something, you covered that up. that's the literal definition of it.'r and not standing for it and we're not tolerating it. so, we're asking for the officers to be terminated and

then arrested immediately. >> woodruff: prude's family says he had mental health problems, but was harmless. a medical examiner's reporthi found p.c.p. isystem. it ruled the death a homicide caused primarily by physical restraint. and, the kremlin today dismissed allegations that it ordered the poisoning of russian opposition leaderlexei navalny. he is now hospitalized in berlin, germany, in an induced coma. german officls say he was poisoned with a soviet-era nerve agent. a spokesman for russian president vladimir putin said germany has not shown adequate proof. still to come on the "newshour," the c.d.c. tells states to prepare for a possibleco navirus vaccine by this fall; how the airline industryue contto struggle with the impact of the pandemic; wepr examine thident's s mplicated relationship with national media pch more. >>

oodruff: some of the federal government's top health officials are suggesting a vaccine for covicould be sent out in less than two months. it would be done through a special emergency authorization of the food and drug administration. but as amna nawaz tells us, the accelerating speedf this process is raising many questions. >> nawaz: in fact, the c.d.c. confirmed it has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prep for potential vaccine distribution. that would be for some higher- risk people as early as late october or early november. but there are a number of concerns about developing and distributing a rushed vaccine, especially when the president himself has been promising one.

dr. michael mina is an assistant professor of epidemiology, diseases at harvard's school of center for communicable disease dynamics. j and ns me now from boston. dr. mina thanks for beinwith you should point out to people the normal vaccine process takes year. it's been dramically accelerated during the pandec. and the firms that are developing vaccine are already in phase three of the trialsic is the final phase before they are supposed to seek fda approval. so how would an emergency authorizeation change the timehe line androcess? >> well, essentially what happen is havg the emergency authorization as the goal to get this vaccine approved ve the manufacturer of the vaccine quite a bit more room to accelerate the yefer all design and study of this. so what we have seen, fors example, overpping of the different phases.

phase one, phasewo and phase three, that normally don't overlap in nearly the thme way we have seen. and this is compressed the time ndow considerably by years, essentially. to actually get this vaccine, potentially over the first hurdle to get it out into the public domain. >> nawaz: but with an emerincy authorizeation doet reduce the hurdles, lower the standards in anyway. w l ideally it would in the lower the standards.no necessarily reduce the actual -- the overall hurdles that need to dpet through. it certainly allows for thebe evaluation tccelerated in many ways. of course there have been concerns about who ite might getting approved too quickly and sort of rusghhed thr and that is not necessarily a function of the eoan this case,o thoserns are really being driven i think more from some ou

the coon that happened at the political lev. but it is still intended to keep safety first and fore moses, try to he ral yait r efficacy as well as possible before the vac. evens get >> nawaz: if you are further accelerating the process, what the potential risk of that? >> well, the risk certainly are to-- if these are not necessarily recruiting and evaluating as many people as they might otherwise look at, what we are concerned with, for example, we are talking about safety, is that phase one and two are really designed around. safe so mawk sure that people aren't getting harmed by the vaccine. we didn't seeae any rl serious safety signals during phase one and two of ts. but these were also, these were accelerated. and there is a chance that when these really move out to phase three and to post market we could see what we think of asa

fringe effect. what happens at the edges of thi distri if you have a bulk of people, for example, getting slight feversthere is always a concern that in a rare number of pem that those fevers could become more serious in terms of adverse effects. so we haven't really had ths protoct up and the time to really rigorously evaluate those pieces, so that is a risk. >> nawaz: let me ask youbo t some higher rusk communities that they say the vaccine could be deployed too first we know front line health care workers, essential workersi al security people. also among the high risk, you did talk about black and brown community, and native americans, they have been disproportionately affected in the pandemic. the covid death rate is higher for latinos, for native populations, nearly two times higher for black populations versus white populations, is there a way to convince these communities that already losfat in them, to willingly

accept a vaccine? >> i tnk there is a lot of concern around that. the vaccine, unfortunately, has been polarized. and this certainly is-- it polarized bipolar particulars, the ole virus and our reponse polarized.rus has become d i think any time we are infusing so much divisiveness into what needs to be a coeerted effort, in this c to keep people meaty, to suppress the virus in to transmit to a population level torque get people to tst that e fda and cdc and federal government are doing their due dill against to keep people safe, whether it is tfr virus or from the vaccine. st not surprising that there is so much concern and confusion public. abounding in the general >> nawaz: dr. mina i want to ask you to address a claim the president himself has ade and othe picking up. there is this idea that the covid-19 death toll is

overstated. that it is now circulating at hospitals are misreporting covid-19 diagnoses for reimbursement incentives, is there any evidence or truth to s at? >> no, t all misunderstanding whether intentional or unintentional. it is very common, byim the e somebody dies from an infectica, many thingn go wrong during that course in the hospital. and so it actually very rarem that when sody dies in a hospital that they have a single cause odeath necessarily written on their death certificate. so this piece of information has been picked up and completely miscamstrued. for e, somebody dying of covid, who also has diabetes, for example, we know ta diabetes is a risk factor for severe infections of covid. but you still are dying of this virus. even if you havs.e diabe the diabetes will make its way on to the certificate, perhaps, but st not the thing that is

killing you. so i think that this has been, unfortunately, another piece that has been politicized, taken up by people who want to projec ssage that this virus isn't something to talk seriously. and that is, it is an unfortunate hat we are having to even have this conversation. clarification that iste the dr. michael mina from harvard school of public health. thanks so much for time. >> thanks very much. f:>> woodrhere are troubles in the skies. major airlines are sending out warnings about huge losses and they are making pleas for help in big way. tens of thousands of flights are cancelled for the fall, plus change fees are now eliminat to attract travelers. paul solman has the story for our series, "making sense." >> all of these people on the

plane, i didn't get in nobody's face. >> reporter: call them mask wars, beinwaged on tarmacs everywhere. >> in my last flight there was refused to wear a mask, and so they had to bring in airport security a the person from airport security said, like, hey, we already had this conversation at the gate. and the person said no. and so airport security took (happlauseh) plane. >> reporter: as they escorted this woman off, to a sitting ovation. no wonder so many passengers now have a fear of flying. even nick ewen, an airlines list. >> i have personally not taken a flight since march 1, and that is pretty unheard of. >> reporter: and if you do want to fly, like n.y.u. professor paul glimcher... >> it's really hard to imagine jumping on a plane and flying out to n.y.ushanghai, of course, because the chinese government wouldn't let me go. the u.s. government wouldn't let me come back. ( laughs )ee there'd be two of quarantine at either end. i mean, it seems impossible. ct reporter: and thus the on the ground: passenger volume

anwn some 70% from last year; about 2,000 in dry dock because airlines need them to run at least 80% full to make money. former spirit airlines c.e.o. ben baldanza. >> now, if they're not going to be able to fill that much, they're going to have to get a higher price. when the prices go up, many fewer people choose to travel. and so, if airlines are going to have to rely on a higher price point, because the planes aren't full, there are going tlabe many fewers in the air because they're not going to be able to support as big a fleet. >> reporter: so the indust is faced with an ever-more-pressing question: is this the new abnormal? >> if the traveler is confident that they are going to have al minisk of contracting covid-19 when they go to the airport and when they get onan board a that's really when we are going to see a rebound in the overall market. >> reporter: airlines are pushing new safety measures, disinfecting assiduously, ltering the air every few

minutes. carriers like southwest, jetblue and delta are restricting capacity. and some passengers are flying, worry-freelike timothy strack. >> i have flown approximately, i believe, nine legs. i have not contracted covid. i've tested negative consistently and have nohad any issues with flying and i will do it again soon whether >> eporter: but many more former travelers are staying put. >> it would probably be a while and that's just a t of the career i'm in and the things i've seen. >> reporter: nurse holly urettler, who's treated covid patients, was did that her partner's recent flight was fully booked. american and united airlines opting to maximize sales on the planes they are flying. >> the pilot made an announcement that said we have a reallyull, full flight today, so if you have trouble finding overhead bin space, let us know. which, in my opinion, during a pandemic, there should not be any flight flying that is so full that you cannot find overhead bin space. t >> reporter: are are the

non-mask wearers during this politicized pandemic. >> so, for all the people that may want to get off because they don't feel safe, then get theck ff! i'm staying right here. ( laughs )e >> reporter: se belligerent, says sara nelson of the flight attendants union, who told us about one of her members. >> the passenger hit her, assaulted her. >> reporter: for enforcing the mask picy. >> yes. the passenger became violent against the flight attendants and hit her and hurt her. and she is recovering from that now. >> reporter: nelson says the federal vernment needs to impose rules and penalties to force compliance. >> there's notlear communication about how to wear those masks that it's necessary to wear the masks and that don't.s consequences if you >> reporter: leaving the policing to the airlines themselves, despite the fact that over 1,000 flight attendants have been infected and at least 11 have died. >> pthere isture of a man right behind me. his names paul frishkorn, and he was the firstlight attendant to die, was a friend

of mine. and he sys here-- with me while i do this work on safety and on protecting our jobs. >> reporter: jobs. thousands of workers have already taken buyouts, with the airlines warning that re jobs-- ts thousands-- could be cut once $25 billionid in cares actuns out in october. able to fly again,bout not being devastating. >> reporter: yolanda hughes is a flight attendant for united airlines. airlines which lost 17 billion dollars in the first half of the year i asking for another $25 billion in federal aid. pandemic relief talks have stalled in congress but the

president said he will support the industry. >> i think iy is vekely that we will see at least one notable bankruptcy among the u.s. airlines. >> it is not just because travelers are afraid to fly. >> reporter: and it's not just because travelers are afraid to fly. many now realize they don't have i. ben baldan't afraid, but he says... >> i think that there is some business travel that is not going to come back because they're, they will have gottenle so comfortith the way we're talking right now. >> reporter: exactly! >> and how productive they can be. >> reporter: yes! >> that they're just going to say, i don't need that expense. ( coughs ) excuse me. i'm really sorry. >> reporter: if i were there in peon, would you be more comfortable than you are right now?us >> there'smore complications about it. , mean, i coughed twice in this cad that didn't make you nervous. if we'd been live, that might have made you nervous. >> reporter: a yet another problem: airlines are alienating customers with their reluctance to refund. sign language interpreter bettyo colohas been trying to get her money back since march. >> this has almost become a 20

hour a week job chasing after these refunds because the phone calls, the emails, uh, waiting. >> reporter: but she'd purchased flight insurance. the response "o her claim? , well, we categorize coronavirus to be something ounder the certain categowe don't cover that and blah, blah, blah." so i said, "great, i got insurance in case something happens. and guess what? something happened," but they're not owning it, so, here i am! >> reporter: are you flying again? >> no, i am not flying and i have no intention of flyinany time soon. >> reporter: and so, the big question: when will enough folks take to the skies once again? right now, 52% of travelers say they're uncomfortable flying, like professor andrew caplin and his wife, psychotherapist ruth wyatt, who'd planned to go, she says... >> on a snorkeling trip indonesia about a month before covid hit. but, um, i don't want to get on an airplane. don't want to travel. >> reporter: how many years

before you actually take that trip to indonesia do you suppose? >> um...hree? >> five. >> reporte anybody give me six here? professors heidi and richard brooks both had cod in the spring. he was hospitalized. >> so, my antibodies are sti robust and i feel because of the antibodies, a little bit more comfortable traveling imagine most people. >> reporter: wife heidi had a milder case.t >> a risk, but we can't necessarily lock ourselves into never being in another country again. >> reporter: but even the brooks' travel plans are on hold 'til 2022. and the airlines don't expect a rebound until 2024. r the pbs newshour, paul solman, not flying anywhere. >> woodruff: as we get deeper into the presidential campaign season, there are ques being raised every day not just

about the candidates, but out hothe news media cover them. and, in the case of president trump, about his relationship to one particular news organization.ne there's book about that, and before we speak to its author, here's some background. >> the country's in very good shape, and we're set to rock and roll. >> repter: for an embattled president fighting for reelection in a year of crises and chaos, a friendly platform is just a phone call away. even as some journalists at fox news have covered the human toll of the coronavirus pandemic, and challenged predent trump on his record overseeing it: >> i think we have one of the lowest mortality rates-- >> that's not true, sir, we had 0 deaths in a single day. >> reporte a number of its most prominent hosts have downplayed the seriousness ofs the vid defended the president's handling of the outbreak. >> the media and frankt democrats have been acting like president trump is directly responsible for every case of

covid-19 in the u.s. >> theonstant belittling of the administration's efforts is deeply unfair. >> reporter: fox's primetime identical messages to the president's, on largely peaceful protests that have broken out this year across the country americans.killings of black >> this is clearly an effort to disrupt and take over the country. >> woodruff: and when the president said police are "under siege" in a recent interview swith fox's laura ingraha tried to steer him away from comparing controversial police shootings to "choking" while playing golf. >> but they choke just like in a golf tournament. they miss a three-foot putt. >> you're not comparing it to golf bec what the media.that's >> no! i'm saying people choke. >> reporter: but perhaps no one conservative hosts has been more influential than seahannity. he's reported to have a direct

line to the president, who in turn is a frequent caller on hannity's show. mr. trump has used the outlet to pushback.e claims without >> this will be the mostfr dulent election in history. >> reporter: even so, the combination has drawn large in revenue.nd made many millions in june and july, fox news was the highest rated channel in primetime on all of television. the president's relationship f wi is the focus of brian stelter's new book, "hoax: donald trump, fox news, and the he is also cnn's chief mediah." correspondent and the host of "reliable sources." he joins us now om new york. brian stelter, thank you so much for being he. you say at the outset that you wrote this as a citizen and father, not as a journalist. is it possible to separate the two? >> i think it is possible to separate the two because all of

us when we are journalists are also humans, living in this country, trying to make the best of it ano trying create a better future for our kids. think in 20 years when they asked me what was the trump era all about, what happed to america, i think understanding fok news is essential to derstanding the trump years. you can't understand why the reesident is out the misleading the country about voter fraud and about anarchy in cities th isn't reay happening, without understanding where he is getting it from. he is getting from fox & friends in the morning, and sean hannity in the evening. it is that feedback loop the likes of which america has nevee before. and because he is oftentimes getting low quality information, not the kind of high quality hinformation you get from nightly news, he ends up misleading everybody as a result. >> woodruff: you do paint this remarkable picture of this loo as you describe it between sean hannity, other f hosts and the president, sharing information, sharing perception of what is

going on in the world. how does it work, who is helping whom here. >> i heard from a lot of readers who say i didn't know it s this extreme, that there are even more examples than they i thx helps trump more k alized. than trump helps fox at thi point. but also ese stars on fox hurt trump. when they are trying to help him or do a service, they do a b disservimisinforming him and it affects everybody. this is the fox if i kaition of america anst why w feel like we live in two separate information universes, when you have a relative in your family and you feel like they are tacking a different lae, it is oftentimes because of fox. >> woodruff: brian stelter, you say some of the decisions that have most seriously damaged the trump presidency could arguably be traced to his tvg viewabits. given some example of that, and how much tv does wch? >> well, that is what i mean when they try to help him, they on the very first day, first

weakened, inauguration crowdsi , the president was getting bad advice from foxment and more importantly with the impeachment saga the president was hearing negative news about ukraine onat fox hieves of ukraine were planted on hannity's show and lead to trump's impeachment.s a lot of thisout what sources of information the president is receiving. and that was most dangerous this year, judy, with the pandemic, as fox's stars downplayed the pandemic, trump did as well. and that has had life-and-death quengses. >> woodruff: what are those consequences?r i mean youte extensively about how dangerous this is. what are the consequseces you and why do you think this program is so successful, as we said, their programming over the summer, most watched of all television anywhere. >> yh, fox is lie resentment news t is like grieveance news, it taps int white christian american grieveances about what is happening in the country and increasingly multiculture america, some of the narratives are about that. that is why we heard all about

car a began-- caravans and invasion before the mid terms, now about law and order because fox it emphasizing violence in the city, new york, seattle and elsewhere. of course the cities are not nearly as severely endangered as fox portrays them. but the president watches and reflects those talking pecnts and theyo back and forth. and that is why we live in these two separate information universes. >> woodruff: you do focus a lot, most this brian stelter, on the prime time hosts. you also write about the other, the journalists at fox bothen cu journalists, former journalists who were yourr sources information. how much do they take tir orders, take their guidance from the ownros, fm management at fox. and we know what their political ews are. >> right, rupert murdoch is a right wing political leader who has always wanted a close relationship with the president. and now he has one. company day by day. the i think fox takes his cues more

from the audience, eom th ratings. and that is what made the channel trumpier and trumpier. hundreds of staffers in and around fox connifieded in me saying we--vwe hae gone off the rails thrk is always a channel good, there should beht, tha conservative leaning new, liberal leaning news, lots of news. they say no, it has gotten tohe extreme, theric is too extreme, the racism, xenophobia in prime time is too extreme. some journalus at fox have lefte other stayuse they want to try to make it better there are anchors li chris wallace who will moderate the debate, who is the exception of the rue. even those like countries time-- .have had a hard >> woodruff: so you are saying some of the journalists at fox are able to escape this influence that you des.crib >> yeah, i think the problem though is that you the new side is losing the propaganda side is one. that is what fox viewers seem to want. they prefer the proump talking helds, they prefer the praganda.

st a problem for america. when he uses hope, nobody knows what to believe any more, we will have a challenge in this country that will long outlast the trump prenddency. >> a f bottomline question brian stelter, you have done a great job at cnn, would you ever want to work for fox? >> i think if anybody-- whe it is all out fac checking, all about being as accurate as possible, there should be room right now the audience doesn't seem to want it, and neither does the network. but you know, i don't think fox has to be this way. one of murdoch's sons james lachlan may try to take over some day. is he more liberal leaning son. i wonder what could happen if he trays take oer. woodruff: brian stelter, we thank you very much. >> thank you, judy.

>> woodruff: we continue with our series on universal healthcare. as the u.s. struggles with the most expensive healthcare system in the world-- one that leaves some have started looking to william brangham and producer jason kane report on how that nation has achieved universal coverage alower cost, using a their story was shot before thed paic began. >> hello, guys! hello! ( laughs ) >> repor this happy scene.d by this is a family divided. okay, it's not quite that s rious, but the division is stark when it coto, of all things, health insurance. on one side: felofani elisara and her husband paul dunn rely on australia's public healthcare system. it's known as medicare, it's paid for by taxes, and it's available to all australians and permanent residents. that public system has gotten traumatic stuff: i.v.f.y treatment and a hysterectomy for

felofani, and for paul, brain surgery to remove an invasive tumor. at first they panicked over what they feared would be a huge price tag.y >> i was reaared. i was like, "what am i going to do? do i need to start a gofundme?" which my friends did for me and my family did for anyway. >> reporter: but then you found out that the public system was going to cover a majority of that >> majority of that, yea >> it covered all of it. >> it covered all of it, actually. >> reporter: on the other side: paul's parents-- carole and ross-- are evangelists of the private sort. they skip over the public system and buy their own private insurance coverage.lf about he country does this. carole recently had her kn placed and said she got great care and terric perks. she says if she'd been in the public system she'd be in agonys on a waiting >> well, i'd be crippled, really, in one leg. >> rm,orter: this hybrid syste with the public medicare system as a base, but then layered with

private insurance onis by design. they're meant to work together, with the private system taking pressure off the busier public one. this unique set-up meets two basic values, sayst,ealth economosalie viney. >> just as one of the tenets of australian's beliefs, is that they should have access to public care, there's alsan element that choice is part of what a lot of australians seem to value. >> reporter: why would i, as an istralian, ever want to pay extra if i can gfor free? >> so, some of it is about access to elective care at the time when ey want it. some of it is about access to the amenities that a private hospital might offer. >> reporter: amenities like?

>> private room, better food, ose sorts of things, a choice of menu. some of it is about choice of your own doctor. but some of it is actually about getting quicker access. so, waiting lists can be long, and particularly for ective surgery, waiting lists in the public system tend to be long. >> the whole sense of waiting for me, with endometriosis you could be in bed, like, chronic n in. so, that could myear without working... two years without working. and that's not feasible either. >> reporter: a private health plan makes sense for sarah kozicki.o she's trainingcome a nurse, and every couple of years, she needs a costly surgery for endometriosis, which is a painful disorder involving. the uter >> so, for that, i choose to have private health insurance that i can go and have surgery when i need to have surgery.ca do it in a private hospital, or do it in a public hospital as a ivate patient, and i get to choose my specialist. >> reporter: the outcomes-- for

both systems-- have been quite od. australians live longer than americans, they're healthier and they see their doctors more. they don't die of preventable diseases nearly as often as we do. and they get these results for less money, spending about half what we do per person. costs are kept low partially because the government sets prices for drugs, treatments an. other expens but there's one major problem. australians are choosing not to buy private insurance. people like emily maguire. she's a teacher, she's healthy, and she says the rising cost of living makes it hard to justify paying for a private plan. >> and, like, the public health system is so great. they do a great job. so, i'm just like, no, i think i'll trust them, and if i need something then i'll pay for it myself. i'm not too worried. it's a ltle bit about, i think, my values, as well, like, i don't want to be paying for something that i'm not really

gettinanything from, if you know what mean. >> reporter: an estimated 64,000 australians opped their private health insurance in called a dth spiral for the system. younger people, o tend to be healthier, have been leaving the private market, while older people, who tend to be sicker, have been joining it. rosalie viney says that cycle ceen perpetuates itself. >> private insurolders tend to be those who are more likely to use private insurance, and so we see premiums start to creep up, associated with use of e care. >> reporter: remember, the private system is meant to relieve pressure on the public one. so n, the government is spending over $4 billion a year in subsidies to encourage people to buy private care. and that cost keeps going up. >> what would be bette actually took a reinvestment of those private healthcare dollars, and put it into our primary healthcare system.

>> reporter: janine mohamed has a very different idea where those billions ought to go. she runs the lowitja institute-- a research organization that abvocates for better healthcare for australia's iginal and torres straight islander populations-- people who've suffered decades of racism and discmination. on avege, people from indigenous groups, like kylie battese, sufr higher rates of chronic diseases than their peers. mohammed says they die 11 years earlier on average than non- usindigeustralians >> it just seems ridiculous that they can't be, those fds can't be redirected to aboriginal torres strait islander health coen we know that we have the poorest health os in australia. so, for us, it's, you know,os giving the mprivileged more funding. >> reporter: dr. ashish jha,de of the brown school of public health and a collaborator with us on this series, says,

yes, there are significant problems here-- but every nation's health system is a work in progress, and australia has made important strides that the u.s. hasn't. >> when we look across the world, we see lots of different systems that seem to work. they get universal coverage, good outcomes, reasonable costs. they don't all look like each other. and there's a lot we can learn from australia, from the u.k., from switzerland, all of which have very different systems from each other. but each of them can teach us t specifngs about how we can improve coverage and lower costs, improve outcomes for our own country. h that's the ke, is to learn those lessons without worrying abouimporting any of these systems wholesale and trying to states.ant them into the united >> rorter: the members of th dunn family have given up trying to convince each other that their healthcare choices are best.he >> guys. >> cheers! >> reporter: they're okay withon the divisi. >> and i was going to say, ¡vive

le difference." vive le difference!ep >> rorter: for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham outside sydney, australia. >> woodruff: tonight's "brief but spectacular" features gertrude kabwazi, the country director for a nonprofit that is working to break the cycle of poverty in malawi. >> i am in malawi, which is situated in the southern part of afri. the poverty levels in this almost 52% of the population is living under a dollar a day. these people are suffering more with covid-19 because there are communities that were already struggling.

oni work for an organizati called yamba malawi. our mission is to upli lives of vulnerable children by emkwering communities to br the cycle of poverty. having gwn in the village myself, i understand the challenges thapeople in the rural communities face every single day. malawi was very late to recognize covid cases. simply because we didn't have the facilities to test. b but alause many people in malawi do not have access to information. it was very difficult for those people who are in remote areas, to understand what covid is. but even what to do when they're infected. nine out of ten households do not have soap. members do not havcess to running water, clean water. they live in a one room house. there may be 6-10 members in that house. so isolation will be practically impossible. we are fearing that even the

small gains that have been madeh ugh programs, like yamba malawi, they are going to be eroded by the impact of the covid-19. their savings are only minimal, and those savings can not last them that long. the community members themselves, they're geared up to contribute something to deal c wiid-19 in whatever way. they would love to. the households that with the other households that op not have something. so it gives me he that we are all more united than ever. ♪ ♪ i.my name is gertrude kabw this is my brief, but spectacular take on empowering the people of malawi during covid-19. >> woodruff: thank you. stay with us. we reflect on e life of hall of fame pitcher and new yo mets legend tom seaver. but first, take a moment to hear

from your local pbs station.

>> woodruff: finally tonight, remembering tom seaver, the hall of fame player who was one of baseball's greatest power hitchers. stephanie sy has appreciation. >> two strike count to and seaver sets up, now checks back over his shoulder. here'she pitch-- swing and a miss! struck him out! an ovation for seaver! ( cheers and app ruse ) >>orter: ask any new york mets fan who was the greatest player in the team's history, the surefire answer is tom seaver. he holds the record in a bevy of mets all-time pitching tegories, including most wins, strikeouts and shutouts. a winner of three cy young the greatest pitchers in theof history of the game. over the course ofecades, he won 311 games and was a 12-time all-star and is stillon sixt the list for most strikeouts of all time. known as "the franchise," seaver led the transformation of thend

mets from a f lovable losers to world champions. in 2011, he reflected on winning the 1969 world series and what ally drove him. >> it isn't the celebration, it isn't the joy, it ise.t the champa it isn't. it's what's on the field. that's wherehe art form is, >> reporter: seaver debuted with the struggling mets in 1967 andi his impact wediate. he won 16 games in his first season and was voted the naeonal league rookie of th year. in 19, seaver racked up 25 wins-- more than any major league pitcher that season. that's when "tom terrific" won his first cy young award.hr the first of national that year, the mets defeated the heavily favored baltimore orioles to win their first-ever world series. >> they thought they were gonna run us right off the field. we come to play. >> reporter: in 1977, seaver was tre aded to ncinnati reds, but he wasn't done making history. in 1978, he achieved what had until then elud him: pitching

a no-hitter. >> he bounces to first base, tdriessen has it, he goesthe bag and seaver's got it! ( cheers and applause ) tom seaver has pitched his first major league no-hitter! >> reporter: in 1985, seaver notched another place in history when he won his 300th career game. >> the ball game is over!as seaveron 300! >> reporter: seaver retired from baseball in ol86 at 41 years he pivoted to sportscasting, working alongside the lendary n scully. in 1992, seaver was elected to the tional baseball hall of fame by the highest vote percentage ever recorded at that time. in 2019, seaver's family announced th he would "completely retire from public life" after being diagnosed with a devastating form of dementia. that, combined with a recent diagnos of covid, led to the baseball great's passing on monday. gege thomas seaver was

75 years old. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy >>woodruff: why we love baseball. and that's the newshou tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all ofs at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> architect beekeeper raym0nd james >> consumer cellular. >> johnson anjohnson >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change

wodwide. >> the alfred p. sloan foundation. driven by the promise of great ideas. >> and with the ongoing support s these instituti and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc roaptioned by media access at wg access.wgbh.org

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