captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: high stakes. despite stonewalling the process in 2016, senate leadership plans to move forward with a vote for a supreme court nominee. we talk with republican senator john barrasso about the contentious fight ahead. then, the viual world stage. covid-19 forces the united nations general asmbly to convene remotely as internional tensions over the pandemic remain. and, testing ground. colby college in maine manes to safely resume in-person classes by testing students and faculty muiple times a week. >> some schools had already

sent students back home, so that sort of understandably rawed my anxieties, but i k that we were in good hands because of the rigorous testing program. >> woodruff: all that and mo, on tonight's pbs newshour. aj >> funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety o no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv.

>> johnson & johnson.wa >> bnsf raily. >> fidelity wealth mement. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. re at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possibthe corporation for public broadcasting. station from viewers like you.bs thank you. >> woodruff: the united statess ficially passed 200,000 deaths in the covid-19 ppkdemic.

johns s university reported the number today.ds about two-thf those who have died were over 65, but young people are nowng increased infections in some states. still, president trump claimed last night that the virus "affects virtually nobody" in younger age groups. in brita, pub and restaurant restrictions spped back into place tonight as a new wave ofsoronavirus cases hits pa of europe. prime minister boris johnson waed the house of commons today that the curbs may last six months. ou>> we have reached a per turning point. i wish i could reassure the house that the growing number of cases is merely a function of more testing, but a rising proportion of the tests themselves are yielding a positive result. >> woodruff: also today, the presidt of the european council postponed a summit offt e.u. leaders he was

exposed to an infected security guard. he is now in self-quarantine. we'll return to the pandemic, later in the program. for the first time, the united nations general assembly met virtually today, due to the covid-19, as it marked its 75th anniversary. in video messages, president trump again attacked china overc the pand and, the president of iran attacked u.s. sanctions on his country. we'll get the details, later in the program. the u.s. senate's republican majority has moved a big step closer to filling thncy on the u.s. supreme court. of was created by the deat justice ru bader ginsburg last friday. today, utah republican mitt romneya key holdout, announced that he is prepared to vote on a replacement for ginsburg. >> i've indicated that what i

intend to do is to proceed with the consideration proces and if a nominee actually reaches the floor, then i ll vote based upon the qualificatiees of that nom the decision to proceed with a new nominee is also consistent h witory and precedent, and that's where i come out. >> woodruff: two of the 53 s g.o.ators have come out against taking up a high court nomination before the election. that made romney's decion even more significant. but democrats, led by chuck schumer, again accused republicans of changing their previous positions. >> change the rules of the senate to pass supreme court justices on a majority vote; rush it through before an election. it doesn't matter if you said thexact opposite thing fou years ago, two years ago, or even some senators, a few months ago. >> woodruff: presint trump said today that he will announce his court nominee on saturday. we'll look at all of this, after the news summary. tropical storm beta weakened today as it stalled over theea texas coast, uing heavy downpours.

inat least 14 inches of ra touched off flash floods that stranded cars and closed highways. the storm came ashore ernight near port o'connor, south of houston. a spreading inferno northeast of los angeles reatened more than 1,000 homes today.e -called bobcat fire is now larger than the city of denver, and advancing as much ah two miles anr. it's within striking distae of the mojave desert town of pearblossom. warnings for possible acuation have gone out to pasadena, that's home to the rose bowl and annual rose parade.ce the u.s. jusepartment has announced the arrest of 179pe le in the u.s. and overseas, in an opioid trafficking scheme. officials say they ao seized more than $6.5 million in cash. the operation focused on an illegal marketplace on the "darknet"-- that's a part of the internet hidden within an

encrypted network. a new audit finds the university of california system improperly admitted at least 64 wealthy students over six year some were falsely designated as athletes. others had ties to rnors and university staff. other questionable cases.of the audit followed a national admiions scandal. and on wall street, big tech stocks rebounded, and carried the dow jones indu averageem. gained 140 points to close at ,288. the nasdaq rose 184 points, and the s&p 500 added 34. still to come on the newshour: republican senator johasso discusses the supreme court vacancy. covid-19 forces the united convene remotely.ssembly to experts reconsider earlyna corus studies that focused on surface transmission. and, much more.

>> woodruff: as president trump makes his supreme court timing more clear, there's still much to sort out on capitol hill. lisa desjardins joins me now.t so, lisa, take us into the thinking of the republicans. what are they planning? >> a busy day, judy, and i have to say, in the last 16 rs, even, it's clear that most senate republicans have mov en masse, as you reported earlier, toward a vote on the. spk nomin you can get into a -- the you can get into a discussion about naeir rat now versus 2016, but it's clear from talking to senate offices, republicans stand a chance of

getting a conservative nominee on the court. don't think they will suffer too much. blere are vulnerepublicans hoping this helps them raise energy and money at the polls on >> woodruff: so, lisa, we have not yet heard a clear timeline from the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, but take us through what would the process but in order for them to get this done before election day, which is just six weekaway? >> that's right. today mcconnel wsaid ll chairman lindsey gto startiary the process, lay out a beginning of the ocess. but i think i's imprtant for viewers to be ready for this next intense looking month. i'm going to lay out a time line. i'm going to stress this is just my best guess fro m talkito sources about what needs to e,ppen and the time lin this is not a formal time line set in motion. so we get this nomination

saturday. let's start with the week after that. in theext two weeks, from september 27 to october 10, uhat's really a possible timeline tot evaluate the nominee, the nominee would meet with senators as we have been talking about, produce documents, do all of the research, senators and the nominee alike getting to know each other, it's not a lot of time. ter that is when you s the next time period, the next two weekin october seem aossible timeline for committee hearings. that could be one week or more and also a committee vote. democrats do have some ways delaying things in that committee, but just by one week and republicans can'trrule them. all of that, judy, look at this, nleads you to the fial kind of potential vote in the senate itself. that is the last week of october and, judy, that, of cosurse, i also the week before election day. so this is an incredibly tight timeline, but republican sources who back this idea tell me, it is doable. >> and it's also a time when

many of these senators have their own races to deal with back in their home states. but quickly, lisa, what are democrats thinking about how th handle all of ths? first, democrats are openly raising the idea that, should they gain trol of the senate next year, they could considerns all optand that means when you talk to them behind a kind of off the cord or on background, they're talking about perhaps changing the number of seats on the supreme court itself so that it changes the balance. they haven't made that decision yet but it's on the table. they're also raising proprocedural hurdle also as to what republicans are doing today chuck schumer took a raret and blocked a hearing counterintelligence officer in this country. that was an intelligence hearing that was supposed to happen, and schumer blocked it a point of

objection to how republicans are handling the suprert nomination. to most people, those things aren't relayed, but schumer is showing his base, that he's willing to throw some punches. republicans, of course, are we'll see tomorrowe expect an intelligence hearing on election security. it is not clear if democrats will block that or not. we will be watching very closely. m >> woodruff: sy divisions right now at the capitol. lisa desjardins, we thank you. senator john barrasso is >> woodruff: senator john ranking republican in thehest senate, and he joins us now from capitol hill. senator bras o thanks for joining us. we're a few days away from the death of justice ginsburg and a few months away from a flexion. why are they moving to fill her seat right away. >> according to the constitution

the president nominates when there's acancy and 29 times it's happened during an election year and times that president has made that nominatn. if the senate is of the same party, generally that person is confirmed going all the way bac8 to thes, and if the senate is of a different party then that person isn't confirmed. so we're juulst filling our constutional duties and responsibilities and i expect president trump to nominate a very highly qualified woman thi. saturd >> woodruff: i note your point about 29 times, but we went back and looked at the records. every supreme court justice confirmed in an election year going back almost 130 years wase confirmed han 100 days, almost four months at least, before the election. the last one to be confirmed even clo that was in 1892, justice shira under president benjamin harrsoison. ou want to do this just a couple of weeks before the election. it seems unprecedented.

>> well, i think judge ginsburg was wght when ss asked about this and she said the llesident is the president from the first day the last day to have the term. she was very clear. she is also clear on the kind of threats chuck schumerer is making about expanding the size of tm supreme court fronine to eleven to 13. ulruth marcus said, no, s't do that, nine is the right number, and if the democrats do the things they artee thrng to do, she said that would just politicize the court andt shouldn't be done. >> woodruff: she also said, senator, her dying wish was to have this nomination wait until afr heresident -- the next president is elected. well, she actually said a different president is in office. so she's been very clear on her opinions about president trump, but we are just fulfilling our constitutional responsibilities. i'm looking forward to the president maing a nomination this week and what i'm expecting the democrats to do is the same thing they did with the last nominee which is a seek and

destroy mission to go afters someonaracter, their credibility. their playbook is to go back to your hh school year book to try to find ways to discredit you. we'rgoing to proceed wih hearings. lindsey graham is calling for hearings afterhae have ance to vet this nominee. i think most likely this is somebody w's alrdy been vetted through the process because it's likely someone who is already sittin one of the circuit courts as a judge. so i expect to be able to move this through and clearly get this done this year. >> woodruff: senator, you were asked, four yearago when merrick garland had beenes nominated by ent obama along a number of other his nomination.ut co here's a clip of what you said, and this was in march 2016. >> republicans have said h >> republicae said there should not be a bitter political fight. e called on the presiden to spare the country this fight. the best way to avoid the fight is to agree to let thegieople

decide the people a voice, let thnext president put forth the nomination. woodruff: senator, i know you are saying now it's different because you have a esident and a majority in the senate being the same party, but it looks to e american people as if the only thing that's changed here is political party, esat political party tak precedence over everything. >> well, there's a materialistib differentween 2016 and 2020, and it's that thd president he senate is of the same party. and then you take a look at what happened in 2018 when there wasn't a presidential election in place, buwith the cavanaugh that the democrats himt grinder through, what we saw after that is the voters decided we needed and we actually picked up twoe seats.yo and i will tel, judy, if the shoe were on the other foot, the democrats would bge try right now, if there was a l mocrat senate and a democrat president, to fis vacancy. >> right now, it is the choice

of the republicans. again, i mean, for the american people looking at this, it looks as if, you know, their theregt wash goes again, it's all about political party over >> that's not whaear in wyoming. what i heard in wyoming this past weekend in thre difrent communities is fill this ccancy, make sure you put somebody on theourt who is somebody that realizes that the role of a justice to apply the law, not legislate from the bench. th's what we've tried to do with the last 200 judges that we've put on the court during the last several years othis trump administration. i think we have been very successful at that. we want to put an endhe to time of activist judges, and dwe're going to continue that with what i assume is going to be a terrific nominee by >> woodruff: senator, i hear you saying activist judges, but what is it that concerns youab t having a fourth justice

appointed by a democ i mean, i'm giving the hypothetical. what if joe bid were to win the election, and a democrat in the white house would appoint. what else it about a 5-4 court rsus a 6-3 court that matters so much? >> well, first of all, the democrats have a war room and a play book of what they plan to the senate and cul tlhe house of representatives. it's to expand the size to have the court, it's to add liberal activist partisan judges to the court, things that ruth rcus said please don't do that. they want to expand the size ofe thte and pack that as well by making d.c. a state. we have seen this whole list o hocials from the democrat playbook if they win -- >> we haven't heardhat fromfo er vice president biden or

senator schumer, the minority leader. >> i saw senator schumer in mah stasinding out the supreme court yelling at the building saying gor,su cavanaugh, you will pay the price. this is something that democrats came up in the bebaits for the presidency throughout by expanding. the house of representatives hai voted to pass to make d.c. a state to give the demoats two more senate seats in the senate, so this is part of their playbook,his is part of the plan and this is, to me, one of the main reasons that we cannot allow jden to get elected president or the senate to go to the democrats because they are going to continue this train going far to the left, and the driver of the train is not joe biden, it's bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, alexandria ocasio-cor az, i mean, tho the ones really controlling the parties. when you saw chuck schumer the other night having a press conference, this is a guy who doesn't li to share the

microphone or camera with anybody, but alexandria ocasio-cortez is with him, that tell us who's really running the cratic party today. >> woodruff: well, senator, i aink it's fair to say that's your perspecti a republican senator from the state of wyoming. that's not what oce demts would say or at least what i hear them saying. but we can continue this conversation another time. senator john barrasso, we thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: the united naons general assembly is under way, and with so much else in our world now, it is a changed event this year. the normal buzz around the east side of new york city, andg crush of dions, gave way to a virtual meeting this year. and, as nick schifrin tells us, in this 75th year ti the united s, unity is in short supply.

>> schifrin: today, the largest diplomatic stage in the rld was largely empty. and, calls for multi-lateralism were mutedy bilateral tensions. >> we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: china. >> schifrin: presidemp called covid-19, which first emerged in wuhan, the "china vis," and he accused the u.n.'s world healthga zation, which the u.s. is leaving, of aiding and abettingi >> these government, and the world heth organization--al lyich is vir controlled by china-- false declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. the united nations must hold china accountable for their action >> schifrin: each country was allowed one representative, and china's u.n. ambassador zhang jun respondeat >> ( tran ): china resolutely rejects the baseless accusation against c >> schifrin: in a prerecorded speech, chinese prident xi jinping obliquely criticized

from literature-- thea refence daydreaming knight don quixote who attacks imaginary enemies. >> ( translated ): burying one' head in nd like an ostrich in the face of economicio globaliz or trying to fight it with don quixote's lance, goes against the trend of history. let this be clear: the world will never return to isolati, and no one can sever the ties between countries.ri >> sch that summoning of solidarity comes as the world confronts arly one million covid deaths, and the u.s. crossed 200,000 today. >> we must be united. as we have seen, when counies go in their own direction, the virus goes in every direction.re >> schifrin: sry general antonio guetteres called for multi-lateralism, and warned the u.s. and china their confrontation could become conflict.vi >> we are in a very dangerous direction. our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a great

fracture, each with its own trade and financial rules, and intern and artificial telligence capacities. >> schifrin: the u.s. and china also clashed oveisclimate. chinhe world's largest polluter, but today pledged to become carboneutral by 2060. criticism of president trump came from adversars including iranian president hassan rouhani, who used the death of george floyd to accuse the u.s. of failed dominance. >> ( translated ): we instantly recognize the feet kneeling on e neck as the feet of arrogance on the neck oft independtions. >> schrin: the u.s. recently declared it reimposed u.n. sanctions on iranian enrichment, and weapon sales, incling for missile parts. but all the other members of the security council rejected the u.s. authority to snap back sanctions, since the trump admistration left the 2015 iran nuclear dea >> ( translated ): this is a victory nojust for iran, but for the global community, that

an aspirant of hegemony is humiliated in such self-created isolation. >> schifrin: french president emmanuel macron reiterated, europe will not work with the u.s. on snapback. >> ( translated ): this would undermine the unity of the c securincil, and the integrity of its decisions, and it would run the risk ofinurther aggravtensions in the region. >> san francisco, cali, a momentous conference begins. >> schifrin: 75 years ago, the omunited nations was born he horror of world war ii, and a u.s. president gave a remote address. >> if we do not want to die together in r, we must learn to live together in peace. >> schifrin: today, the trump administration argues the u.n. resists reform, lacks transparency, and israble to autocrats. and president trump today reiterated his worldview: >> as president, i have rejected e failed approaches of the past, and i am proudly putting america first, just as youe

should bputting your countries first. that's okay, that's what you should be ing. >>yschifrin: the u.n. has al reflected its membership, and today, countries are increasingly nationalist guterres warned that wouldn't work for covid vaccines. ed some countries are repo making side deals exclusively for their own populatiats. such "vaccnalism" is not only unfair, it is self- defeating. none of us is safe, until all of us are safe. >> schifrin: multiple countriesd are working onens of vaccines, some in collaboration, some alone. scientists fear russia has rushed its vaccine, but today, presidenvladimir putin offered it to the world. >> ( translated ): we are ready to share our eerience, and coordinate with all states and international entities, including in supplying theru ian vaccine, which is reliable, safe, and effective, to other countries.es >> schifrin:rday, every country agreed there was no other global organization with much legitimacy, impact, and

power to convene. but, if the u.n. was designed to address global issues, this year, it couldn't even meet in person, and gutteres admitted that in the rld today there's a surplus of problems, and a deficit of solutions. for the pbs newsho, i'm nick schifrin. >> oodruff: as we mentioned, the u.s. has passed yet another mitragic marker in the pan more than 200,000 people have died in this country from covid- 19 and related complications. that is nearly twice as many americans who have been killed in every major conflict since the kore war-- combined-- our understanding of how the coronavirus is spreading continues to evolve, but the we want to use this moment to clarify much of the latest scientific thinking.

first a report from stephanie sy, followed by a conversation with william brangham. >> sy: this was the sound of fear early in the pandemic, after studies showed that theco novenavirus could live onor surfacesours, even days. it led to a furious wave of scrubbg, disinfecting and soldut cleaning supplies across the country. >> the proem with those experiments is that they didn't relate to what a realife scenario would be like. >> sy: that's dr. emanuel goldman, a microolist at rutgers new jersey medical school. inuly, he published this article in the british medical journal "the lancet," arguing that these early studies greatly exaggerated the amount of virusa that couually be found on surfaces in the real wor. he pointed out that the lowest

amount of infectious particles researers used to test surfaces in the lab was 10,000, a huge amount. >>ealistically, what i wou you'd need something like 100 people coughing or sneezing on the same small surface area to get anywhere near the amount of virus that they used in these experiments. >> sy: he says these mistakes, and a lack of scrutiny, have siphoned limited resources from everything frobway systems to schools, for excessive deep cleaning that shows little idence of helping prevent covid spread. o mothers taught us: you go to the bathroom, you wash your hands. you prepare food, you wash your hands. you touch something dirty, you wash your hands.av that's all youto do. normal routine hygiene is sufficient to protect against this virus. >> sy: meanwhile, he adds, not enough money and attention have been paid to what we now know is the primary way the virus travels-- the air. >> i got a tcher from a school system saying they were going to shutown the schools one day

week for deep cleaning and disinfection. wouldn't it be better to use it instead on ventilation systemsir org more teachers so you could have fewer students per class? >> you want to try to replicat the outside, indoors, in your space. >> sy: dr. shelly miller is an environmental engineer at the university of colorado boulder. for decades, she's studied the way pollutants and infectious heseases spread in indoor spaces, and overummer helped her own university prepare for when students and faculty return to campus. >> you want to control the source of the contaminants. sources are the infectious people inside. and so, to control the release ofirus, you want to wear a mask, and you also want to be outside of their personal cloud. but some of the virus can potentially leak into th environment, and then you have to clean the environme. and the way to do that is the esltration and ventilation. >> sy: the simplway to do that, she says?

open a door or window. but in many parts of the country where it's still too hot, orbe ming too cold, to do that, miller says there are different ways to increase a building's mechanical ventilation and filtration. here's a basic guide: buildings up to code should already be replacing the inside air with outside air three times an hour. but withoronavirus, that should be doubled, to six llchanges per hour, and id to nine exchanges pehour. and crucially, the more people there are contained in a space, the more exchanges are need. hepa filters, which stands for gh efficiency particulate air, should alsbe added to ventilation systems to increase protection. if i walk into a restaurant or a classroom, is thera way for me to personally tell if that is a safe place to be, if there's ough ventilation? >> unfortunately, at this poin in time, no. and that is why a lot of times i've been saying, well, we

really need to address this.d we n give buildings and classrooms and other facilities resources they can-- so they how theythe public kno have attended to this. >> sy: she and others say the for disease control and prevention and the world health organization have been too slow on surface disinfe andy guidance towards clearer guidance on preventing airborne transmission. language on its website aboutdd aerosols from talking or breathing spreading the virus, and the need for ventilation; then, suddenly, removed it. >> so, the only rule of thumb i can say is, if you walk into a space and it feels hot and stuffy in there, and you can different odors, t'scan smell probably not ventilated enough and you probably shouldn't spend very much time in there. >> sy: even portable air cleaners can help, and dr. miller and her colleagues have created a guide for schools on

these, which you can find on our website. the bottom line: if you're thinking about going back to the gym, to a restaurant, your office or school, keep washing your hands, keep wearing your mask, and keep social distancing. but don't let those deepleans fool you. ask what they've done about the air. >> the problem is that it's been out there for so long and, as shakespeare said, at the best, what's done cannot be undone. and it's going to be a long timr tothe ship around, if ever, because a lot of people still are erating on these assumptions. >> sy: for the pbs new i'm stephanie sy in phoenix.ra >>ham: for more on what we are learning about just how this novel coronavirus gets into ou bodies, i'm joined now by dr. linsey ms r. shprofessor of civil and environmental engineering at virginia tech, and her expertise is in the airborne tssion of viruses. linsay marr, very nice to have

you on the newshour. could you help us initially with this-- a distinction over terminology? people have been hearing about aerosols versus droplets. what do those things mean, and them?o we really care about >> droplets and aerosols are really kind of opposite ends of a spectrum. they really refer to the same thing, which is a droplet of liquid that comes ouof your mouth. cad when it's really large and we can see it, w it a droplet. it flies through the air like a mini-cnonball and can land on someone who is close to you-- in their eyes, nose or mouth. aerosols are just microscopican dropletsthey come out of your mouth or nose and they're small enough that they can remain floating in the air for quite a while. and those, rather than flying through the air like mini-cannonballs, kind of float around like cigarette smoke, and just like that, you can breathe them in. >> brangham: so people have been hearing a lot of different kinds of advice. given what we're learning now, how should we be thinking about

this virus, as it-as it circulates in the air? >> we can think about it like cigarette smoke. so, the distancing really keeps you out of range of those big droplets that fly through the air and then will fall to the ground quickly. they don't really fly more than six feet or so. but, at the same time, for evert one of thot you see, there's hundreds oe thousands of croscopic ones, the ones we call aerosols, and those can stayn the air, again cigarette smoke. so, imagine you're interacting with a smoker. you want to stay as far away ash possible from , really, to avoid breathing in the smoke. the smoke doesn't stop at six feet. so, six feet is a guideline, and it keeps you kind of farther away from the most conted part of the smoke, the plume, but it doesn't guarantee that you're not going to be exposed. >> brangham: and i guess, too, that's a usefuouway to think it-- if you're traveling rin a car or inside a larm

or sitting outside with someone, if i'm directly next to you andv you'reg a cigarette, i'm going to be sharing in a lot of that. but if you're sitting at a farther distance and it's breezy, that might lessen my exposure. >> exactly. rethe cigarette smoke is a way to think about different specific scenarios, whether you're indoors-- do you want to be indoors with that smoker? or will you think about what affects that is the ventilation in the room. if the room is really well- ventilated and there's lots ofr outdoor ming in, then that smoke will be kind of pushed outside. but if the ventilation is poor, that smoke c build up, just ke the virus, can also build up in the air.as and exactlou suggested, if you're outdoors, you're really close to someone and you're right downwind of that and there's not much wind, you could end up breathing in a lot of that smoke.of but if you kinove a little bit and it's really windy out, you would greatly redur exposure to smoke. ff brangham: as we know, the c.d.c. has been ng back and forth about exposure,

aerosols, droplets. for the lay-person, does this going back and forth about their guidance have a real, tangible, world effect? >> the only thing it affects is the guidance on ventilation. so, whether it's droplets orae sols, we still want to wear masks, we still want to maintain distance, because masks and distance help reduce our t exposuboth the droplets and aerosols. ventilation is the one thing, though, that really only matters if aerosols are important, because the large droplets are-- just fall out close to you, whether it whether you've got ventilation or not. but the smaller things, the aerosols, that's where ventilation really matters. >> brangham: help me understand something else. we've seen president tru has been recently holding some of these indoor rallies, very he's been criticized for that.rt he and his sups point to,"

well, what about all of these protests we saw, which were mucg crowds, sometimes people wearing masks, but they're also yelling and crowded together." how do we know which of those things are risky? how do we measure the risk of those relative events? >> there are two importantff diences between an indoor rally and the outdoor protests. the indoor rally, first of all, was indoors, where w that virus can accumulate or build up in the air there's less opportunity for dilution, compared to being outdoors, for example, with the protests. the other important difference is that at the rallies, not many people are wearing mas and so, if someone there happens to be infected, then they are releasing a lot of virusnto the air, which can float around with the protests, almostin. everyone was wearing a mask, anv so the mask ts that virus from getting into the air. it also helps protect the wearee ances the amount to a

virus they might breathe in from the air around them. a third difference, actually, is that at the rally, people are stanng close together and they're in the same place for a long time. i think with the protests, in many cases, people are moving around is creates more space between them, there's more airflow. so that's another factor that would reduce the risk in the outdoor, masked event. >> brangham: all right, dr. linsey marr of virginia tech, thank you so much for your help. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: while many college classes across the country remain online-only, and otherske are seeing a sn covid-19 cases after students have returned to campus, oncampus in maine is aiming to buck the trend. jeffrey brown has our report. this story was produced in partnership with our pbs colleagues at maine public.

>> brown: move-in y at colby college, with some 2,000 students arriving from across the country and abroad to attend scthis private liberal artol in central maine. >> everyone's very excited to return. i think we've all been cooped up, maybe getting a little tired of our families. >> brown: after being sent home last march because of the pandemic, students were especially eager to return. >> it's really good to be back on campus and, you know, things feeling somewhat normal. >> brown: "normal"-- except for the masks and the covid tests they underwent. and several weeks later, on the glorious fall day we visited, with students tossing a frisbee, eating and talking together outdoors, it was almost "normal," except for the extraordinary situation here, shaping up as a kind of test case for coping with covid.do >> there's nt that i want to bring students back, because i know what we do in terms teaching and learning is done best when people are in person. >> brown: colby president david place an ambitious andinto

comprehensive plan that includes making testing as routine as going to classes.ar in a tent, students, staff and faculty are tested constantly-- three times a week at fir, twice a week nowth colby sends tests to the broad institute, a research firm in cambridge, massachu part of a special program for colleges. results come within hours. >> by now, most of us have had ten or more tests, and it's become rather routine. >> brown: you're standinadhere, you'veen or more tests. >> yes. >> bwn: faculty are able to opt-out of in-person teaching. but most, like east asian studies professor ankeney weitzc havehosen to be on campus. >> although it's a crisis and it's difficult, therhave been certain opportunities available in terms of thinking, rethinking student needs, and examining what is absolutely eal for what i'm doing. bahudodda, a bioloor,ya returned to campus because she needed the hands-on lab time.

>> a few days before coming to colby, i know there were reports that some schools had already sent students back home. so that's sort of, you know, understandably raised my anxieties. but i knew that colby, like, we were in good hands, because of the rigorous testing program that know a lot of other schools didn't have. >> brown: ashley guevera, a student government president from houston, says students are accepting a shared sense of ngsponsibility, which includes limiting gatherito no more than ten people. >> the charge is being led by the seniors being like, don't ruin my senior year. >> brown: that really works with students? i mean, especially the new students coming in. >> of course, there's always going to be people that might step o of line and that might, like, violate the rules. but i believe in everybody elset to be the peopstand up and say, hey, you're not wearing your mask, or, hey, let's not throw thatarty. >> brown: colby's plan anticipates there will be cases of covid. and there have been. six students and three faculty

tested positive to dat eight have recovered. one faculty member who tested positive last week continues to be monitored. and that's the key, says david greene, identifying those infected, quickly quarantining them, and monitoring everyone else who's hadseontact. one he said, easily could have led to many more. >> we have a student who comes in, travels to campus, tests negative at first because the student was infected just before coming to campus. a couple of days later, tests positive.hi roommate becomes infected. we were able to, by contact tracin contact with over the last few days-- he's the only person, ins ase, who was infected, because we were hile to isolate quickly, quarantine others. >> brown: stop the spread. >> stop the spread. >> brown: quarantining takes place in special housing the college rented. coy is also building a new hotel in downtown wateedille,

now uso more safely house studts off-campus. all in aeffort to avoid one worst-case scenario: an outbreak starti at colby and spreading to this town of ,000. >> understanding that if it came into my household, icould be fatal for several of my family members, means you take it incredibly seriously. brown: hilary koch, a former teacher now running for state senate, lives near the campus. one of her sons isigh risk for covid because he has diabetes. is her husband, a colby professor teaching remotely, whn was recently ded with a heart condition. >> we were concerned that if there were communal spread and the college had to shuwn, students could be se home. but residents and the town would be left to sort of pick up the pieces. and i don't know if our hospitals and our city was really prepared for that kind of response. >> brown: she's pleased with what she's

seen.ve >> we lot of students who are walking and running by the house. i see students everywhere with. masks so for me, just as a resident here, that makes me feel really, really good. >> brown: college officials say contingency plans toudurther limit t activities are in place if the number of cases rises. clll it all work? colby has severar advantages: a small campus in the middle of a sparsely populated state with relatively few covid-19 cases, engaged students and faculty, the funds fofrequent testing, and a willingness to spend them. campus authorities tell us itme will cost 10 million this semester. hanage is one outside expert tracking this carefully. >> i think the colby experiment may well tell us something about how possible it is to truly limit the introduction to acl comparativeled small community, which is monitored extremely carefully.'s now thmportant, that's

very important. >> brown: but, he cautions: >> the problem with colby as being a representative of everything else is that it's not necessarily going to have this large number of social events which are happening in a sort of uncontrolled fashion outside the school, because it's relatively nfined. that's a big difference from ace lot of p >> brown: colby president david greene insists his campus won't let down its guard, knows others are watching. how ch is this a model for other schools or other places in the country? >> well, i think it is. this should have been one of the first priorities for what our s governmeuld have been doing from the beginning, and they didn't do it. and so, places like colby and others are picking it up and saying, we are g ong to figure ourselves. we'll get this done. and that's really important to show that there is award on this, when as a country, we haven't been able to do that thus far. >> bro: and there's one more factor to watch, of course, even

on a gorgeous september day of outdoor classes: this is maine, and winter is coming. the real test, here and elsewhere, may be on its way. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at colby colle in waterville, maine. challenges when porecase of called to deal with a suspec who may have mental health issues. as john ferrugia of rocky mountainbs reports from denver, law enforcement officers are often critical in the effort crisis. with the mentally il a lack of mental healtfundinge means iminal justice system i those who need services to

access treatment. >> we get a call, basically, of a man wi r a weapon. >>eporter: it happens thousands of times a year across colorado and around the countryl police are cd about a person in a mental health crisis who wants to harm themselves or others. >> hey! weaponown!ands up, put the don't move! >> reporter: as officer richard adjones of the pueblo, colo police department walks up, he sees the man turn toward him with a gun in hand. jones has his own gun out and ready. >> put the weapon down! put the weapon down! puthe weapon down! >> reporter: jones sees the man is wearing a sweatsht indicating he is a veteran. immediately, jones uses his crisis intervention traini to try to find a "hook"-- some way to connect. >> i'm a vet. drop the weapon, drop the weapon, drop the weapon, dude. don't do it to another vet! don't do it to me. >> shoot me! >> no, i can't do that. >> reporter: after nearly er minutes of having his gun leveled at the v, the tense stand-off ends.

>> just drop it. op it. a turound. put your hands on your head for me. >> reporter: at that moment, thi re of not having to shoot was overwhelming. after gathering hielf best as he could, he went to the fellowu vet aned him. >> i am going to tell you, i am going to get you some help. we are going to get it started rit now. we are going to get you to parkview and get it taken care of, okay? love you bro. we deal with a lot of these cases, and we get a lot that have weapons with them. there's days that we're one after the other, after the other. i mean, this is normal. it is part of our job. but i can't do a burglary in progress because i'm-- i'm doing one mental patient or party having a bad day, ter another. >> reporter: and jones, like so many other officers, is frustrated that his efforts seem to make little difference. >> there's bn numerous times that i've been finished. i've left this patient with-- with the mental health counselor, left, gone to the

station, finished my paperwork, come back out, and the patient's walking down the street in front of m>> eporter: no place to put them. >> no. >> reporter: jones' frustration with lack of access to care, and placing people on a 72-hour mental health hold only to see they are getting little help, is borne out by the numbers. in 2018, there were more than 33,000 mental health holds inco rado, mostly executed by law enforcement. and, about 5,000 people were detained more than once. current safety net system that the individuals will get served with the level of services they need. >> reporter: robert werthwein is the director of colorado's office of behavioral health, tasked with overseeing the state's mental health system. >> i'd like a model thsn't require the law enforcement system to be an integral part of it. >> reporter: werthwein says the only way to break the cycle of jailing people with mental illness is to provide more and varied levels of services across the state. >> there are a lot of people who need inpatient level of care,e but the a lot of people who need community-based intense care. sometimes it ruires having a

social worker drop in daily, saying, did you take your meds today? ge you have bus tokens to get to esere you need tto? sometimes it tak that much. >> i would spend hours googling ion how to get help, wher could go, and i just couldn't findhat-- i couldn't find anything. they'd start, you know, talking about insurance. i'm like, well, i don't have that. so what am i going to do? >> reporter: kristin lipskey works two jobs, and has worked hard to overcome mental illness. >> when i was 14, i t admitted to a mental health hospital and i was diagnosed with depression. >> reporter: a year later, when she started drinking and smoking pot, things only got worse. >> it was in the drug rehab that the counselor semeally assaulted after that happened, i would say i went on downward spiral. i started using drugs i had never used before. >> reporter: it was a day, 3.5 years ago, she was coming down from a high, a day she threatened her mothehawith a knife,deputies were called.

it is clear both kristin, whose paranoia was peang, and the deputies, armed with a taser and a gun, were unsure what was going to happen. kristin was armed.o idea whether they just knew she wasin herent and saw the shotgun f over teplace, and kristin was moving closer to it. she stabbed one officer with a but, they finawiy subdued her out serious injury. >> i just had a knife because she stabbed one office a knife she had in her pocket. but, they finally subdued her wiout serious injury. >> i just had a knife because everybody raped me. >> reporter: oe in custody, kristin was given mental health treatment and medication to stabilize her. she then spent three months in jail before posting bond to begin daily treaent. she pled guilty to a felony in the incident and was sentenced to eight years in custody in a halfway house. now, she is getting the mental

health treatment she couldn'be gere being arrested. in fact, in colorado, a primary gateway to mental health care is >> you have to decat yourem. philosophy is going to be. >> reporter: boulder county, colorado sheriff joe pelle is a long-time proponent of providing mental health services in jail. >> and if it's warehousing and security, this problemever going to get solved.el >> reporter: says the jail population receiving mental health services has grown from 13% in 2002 when he beca sheriff, to now, on certain days, 60%. >> a lot of people would say, you know, you're not in the jail business any more, you are in the mental health business. >> yes. >> reporter: commander tim oliveira, who heads the jail programs and support services, helps inmates get specific mental health services. >> jails are becoming these mental health institutions because people don't have anywhere else to go. >> reporter: but in boulder county, jail services are only the beginning.

onoi released, there are ong support services to ensure the person does not continue the cycle of mental health crisis leading to incarcerationith no hope of success. >> we've put the probation office mental health provider, communithealth, public health provider, and a case mager all under one roof. so that they're not just leaving our jail without access to medication or without access to support. >> reporter: the program is focused on offenders like joe dankowski. >> a couple of years ago, i was a mess. i was into drugs. i have a mental illness. >> reporter: he has bipolar disorder and suffers from schizophrenia. if you if you hadn't gone through the boulder county jail and gotten the services, where you think you'd be now? >> dead. >> we provide people structure. >> reporter:att jaekel is manager of the boulder county program. it serves more than 0 people annually. >> our entire team knows who you are. you see them daily we build relationships. >> reporter: jaekel acknowledges

the upfront costs are expensive, but he contends, treatment for patients like dankowski vs. jail is a bargain for taxpayers. >> it costs more to put a person in jl and keep them there pe day than it does to utilize our services. >> reporter: but for most counties with far less funding, mental health programs in jails are simply not feasible, and that means those in need of seice simply languish behi bars, waiting, and often getting worse. >> whave a safety net system safety net being the behavioral health system, that guantees services, right? that doe't guarantee services. and that's-- that's a problem. >> the state is failing these people. >> we cado more. we will do more. >> reporter: colorado's governor appointed a mental hlth task force to figure out how to reform the system, and to pay for the services people need without relying on police. but the coronavirus crisis has now ravaged the state budget ann for increasing mental health services. that means the daily struggl continues for both law enforcement and those who find themselves in a mental health crisis. for the pbs newshour, i'm

john ferrugia in denver. >> woodruff: thank you joh u.s. house speaker nancy pelosi nounced a deal between democrats and republicans to fund the govnment avoid ago shutdown. and that's the "newshour" for tonight.od i'm judy ff, for all of us a and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here morrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you. please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provy:n >> we world gets complicated, a lot goes throug your mind. with fidelity wealth managementa a ded advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelitwealth managementce >> consumer llular. >> johnson & johnson. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm

raymond james. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.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 station from viewers like you. thank you. s captioninsored 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. if the power of the right to vote was truly made available to everyone in america, it would ge chhe future of this nation. >> unprecedented election challenges in the united stes from voter suppression to coronavirus. i speak to stacy abrams who ran for governor in georgia about r henew documentary "all in: the fight for democracy." then -- >> at the moment we think the s epidemicubling roughly every seven days. >> act now or risk a more deadly second wave. i'm ined by infectious disease