captioning sponsored by wnet for sunday, october 4: the president remains hospitalized with a diagnosis of coronavirus, but his doctors say he could rnretuo the white house soon. and "roads to election 2020," voters will decide the future of gig workers in the state of california. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made ssible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard d denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope ckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum.

the jpb foundation. rosalind p. walter. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we belie taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of toda mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. to learn more, visit www.consumeellular.tv. additional support has been provided by:he and byorporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. you.station from viewers likean k you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. prctident trump's s said today that he could be discharged as soon as tomorrow from walter reed national military medal center where he

is being treated for the coronavirus. at a news conference today, ouse physician, dr. se conley said that mr. trump has" continued to improve." as with any illness, there are frequent ups and downs, particularly when a patient is being watched so closely 24 hours a day. >> sreenivasan: but despite the optimistic timeline, the medical team said they added a third medication--the steroid dexamethasone-- to the president's treatment. dexamethasone is an anti- inflammatory drug normally used to treat a range of allergic arthritis and asthma that has been found to reduce he risk of de in seriously ill covid patients by about a third. yesterday dr. conley and white house chief of staff mark meadows made conflicting atements about the president's condition. today conley admitted the president did receive supplemental oxygen on friday when he had a high fever and oxygen levels below 94% and >> i was trying to reflect the

upbeat attitude that the team, the president, in his course of his illness, has had. i didn't want to give any informathtion that mteer the course of illness in another direction. and in doyoing soknow, came off that we were trying to hide somethingsn, which necessarily true. the fact of the matter is he's doing really well. >> sreenivasan: doctors said the president received a second dire of remdesa drug approved for emergency use in patients with covid-19. last night m trump, who was not wearing a mask, shared a video recorded at the hospital. >> i'm starting to feel good. you don't of the next few days, i guess that's the real test, so we'll be seeing what happens over the nextouple of days. >> sreenivasan: for more on the president's diagnosis and treatment, i spoke with doctor craig spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at new york presbyyrian/columbia univers

medical center. today's briefing, the sunday briefing, certainly gave us mor information than, than what we i think they did allude to the fact that they weren't completely forthcoming yesterday. and i think what they said was that they were trying to convey an upbeat attitude of the team, which is great, but i don't thi that's neceicarily what me providers are supposed 're supposed to report on what's actually happening. and i do believe that it's important for the american public to undppstand what's ning with the president's illness. this is both a health issue as we as a national security issue. we're in theemiddle of a pa that's taken over 200,000 lives in the united states. so, i think we need more details. >> sreenivasan: one of the things that the doctor mentioned that they saw in his lung scans what they would expect to and that there was nothing that was of clinical concern. so, what are the things that you'd expect when somebody is going >> i think it's most important to point out that they didn't say "normal."

so it means it's not normal. what i normally expect when i do an x-ray or a cat scan of someone which covid-19 is what we call bilateral ground glass opacities or infiltrates.si lly, this kind of looks a haziness on both sides of the lung. it looks pretty characteristic for covid-19. we've seen this a lot, especially since herch and april e in new york city. other things, though, are possible-- pneumonias, other things that we may see in chest x-rays or cat-scans couldlso be considered normal in an, a covid-19 chest x-ray. >> sreenivasan: there was a new drug added to this, a steroid dexamethasone, and that has shown at least some trials to decrease the rate of mortality. good idea? >> it's really hard to say. i think we need more, more details. yes, you're right, dexamethasone, which is a steroid meant to reduce inflammation, is one of the medications that's been shown to have ctthe most profound imn decreasing mortality. that being said, the impact was

primarily in patients who were being mechanically ventilated, so on ra ventilator, eiving sulemental oxygen. for patients who were not on oxygenme there was actually hinting that it may make things worse as opposed to actually help. it's hard for me to speculate without knowing bul the details, if you were my patient, a 74-year-old man not currently on oxygen, i think there'd be a lot more questions. i'd need a lot more information bere i dide to start that. >> sreenivasan: i want to ask about the experimustal drug, be he's the president of the united states, should he have access to anything that's showing any promise or should we be taking the most conservative approach possible because he's the president of the united states? >> this is a huge etcal question you could make the argument that right now we don't have really manyagic bullets for this treatment and the president of the united states needs to receive the best cutting-edge care. there does seem to be a good indication that things regeneron monoclonal antibodies

are helpful and that the benefits outweigh the risks. others are saying that this is treating the present as a guinea pig and it's not the right thing to do. i think this is a discussion thateeds to happen amongst the medical team involving the patient and involving kind of eryone else that will be impacted by this to determine whether or not this is the right course of treatment. and i presume that's what's happened here, the same thing that would happen if i were taking care of a similar patient my emergency department. >> sreenivasan: and to thos w folks watch this and say, let's say best case scenario, the pntresiecovers, is back in the white house in a couple of days and decides to go back ton the campaiil and says, "you know what? i don't ed to wear a mask because i've already had covid." what's wrong with that? >> one, i sti think that the esident, everye else in this country right now, needs to set a precedent and wear a mask. if this virus can infect the president, it can infect all of us. it's not done with the u.s. it'g s go continue to roll around in this country. and, really, one of the best

things that we can do, in addition to distancing, washing our hands, you kno being in prty well-ventilated areas, is wearing a mask. now, we do know that for many patients there is likely some immunity in the months following an infection with covid-19. u build up antibodies. we suspect that that makes it impossible for the overwhelming majority of people to be reinfected. wever, we've seen over a dozen cases of very well-documented reinfection in people who have already had covid. that means that immunity is certainly not 100% for 100% of people. and it's going to be really hard to say whether that's going to be the case for the president. i woulndd recommend to him everyone else that's had this, to take the same precautions, because you don't know if you're one of those people who will, is unlucky, potentially unluc enough to have covid twice. >> sreenivasan: if people follow you and ve seen you before it really was in the wake of not just ebola, but whahaened this spring in new york city.

we've heard doctors in texas say it. this past week it was doctors in wiscouonsin talking how overwhelmed their facilities are. when you keep seeing this, what goes through your mind? >> we got hit on the head here in new york city. arizona and texasda and it will continue to happen in every community in this country that does not take it seriously. remains true in october, if this virus finds you, it will infect you and for a significant percentage of the people th are infected they will have a negative outcome. they may die from ts. and many of them, unfortunately, even if they survive, can have long-term consequences. >> sreenivasan: dr. craig spencer, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: for updates on the health of president trumpat and the latestnal and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: new cases of the coronavirus increased at record

levels in nine states this past week. "reuters" analyzed data showing states in the upper midwest and west where coseer weather is ding more people indoors had the highest rates of new fections. kansas, nebraska, new hampshire, south dakota and wyoming set new records last week. yesterday four states-- kentuy, minnesota, montana and wisconsin-- set new one-day records according to the reuters analysis. johns hopkins university's coronavirus resource center sho t u.s. with more than 20% of all confirmecases worldwide as of this morning. there are cloonse to 35 milnfections globally and nearly 7.4-million of those are in the united states. violence between armenian and azerbaijani forces continued today over the separatist region nagorno karabakh. ethnic armenian officials from nagornrakh took responsibility fothe latest round of strikes in ganja azerbaijan's second largest city. one civilian was killed and dozens were injured, according to azerbaijan's government. eethe decades-long disputn the countries is over the nagorno karabakh region, whic

is part of azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic armenian forces backed by armenia. both sides have accused the other of targeting civilians. poperancis says that the loss of millions of js due to the coronavirus pandemic proves that the "magic theories" of market capitalism have failed the world. at the vatican today, the pope released a 70-page encyclical, the highest form of papal teaching, to the public after travelling to thtown of sisi yesterday. it was his first travel outside of rome since late february. in his vion for a post-covid world, francis called on world aders to listen to popular movements and marginalized groups and to form a new type of politics promoting dialogue and solidarity. the pope criticized the idea thaalt all sociroblems can be solved by market freedoms. the written teachings titled" brothers all" covers a wide range of topics including immi agration, populis economic justice.

>> sreenivasanwe'rsecontinuing oues "roads to election 2020" today with a look at the state of california, where 21 millotion ba- more than any state in the country-- will be mailed to registered voters by tomorrow. on that ballot will be a decision on the frkure of "gig" companies, like uber, lyft and doordash want their rideshare and delivery drivers to be classified as "indepdent contractors." but a new state law categorizes them as "employees." in response, ube lyft and other gig companies are funding the most expensive ballot measure in the state's history, and voters to decide.ornia newshour weekend's laura fong has the story. ( cars honking ) >> reporter: app-based drivers have organized across the state from los angeles to san francisco, calling on the gig companies to start treating them as employees under a new state law that went into effect earlier this year.

last yeae r lifornia state legislature and governor gavin newsom plaassed known as a.b. five that narrows the definition of an independent contractor. it codifiea california supreme court case against a same-day delivery company called dynamex that ruled in favor of workers who claimed they were" contractors." as independent the a.b. five law requires that a worker must meet three factors under the so-called "a-b-c test" in order to be considered an independent contonctor: the peust be free from the control and direction of the company, performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business, and is engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business. under the a.b. five law, rideshare and delivery apps would have to give employee protections to their drivers, such as paid sick leave, unemployment insurance and overtime. but uber, lyft and other app- based companies have fought a.b. fivere in the courts, and be

the bill came into effect, they drafted an opposition ballot measure prop 22, that lets voters decide the issue this november 3. >> prop 22 is the solution we need; 22 would allow app-based drivers to continue working as independent contractors. >> reporter: prop 22 overrides a. five and creates some new benefits for app-based drivers, including an "earnings guarantee tied to 120% of minimum wage" and a "healthcare subsidy" starting at 15 hours a week. but critics of prop 22 say it doesn't offer as many benefits as employee statusand the benefits only cover the "engaged time" when drivers have passengers. >> my name i mead. i am an app-based driver in palm springs, california. >> reporter: app drivers doug mead andlizabeth clews support prop 22. they say that the flexibility of being an independent contractor allows them to set their own schedule. clos is a single mother of

she began working for doordash as a delivery driver this year when she lost a waitressing job duri the height of the pandemic. she says the schedule and pay is better than what she made as a waitress. >> i like being able to cash out immediately. i mean, i have kids, you know, they have immediate needs that, youow know, just pop up, you they need diapers. i don't necessarily have cash. i can go do two deliveries and i can go buy diapers. >> i started part time ori oginally just to kiget out of the house for a few hours a day. >> reporter: doug meadrives r uber eats and postmates and has a heart condition. he says the job allows him to take the breaks that he needs. >> if i decide after two and half hours that i'm a little rest, i can just simply turn the apps off. as an independent contractor, i'm essentially running my own business. and if i'm running my own business the right way, then i'm able to put aside money for healthcare. i'm able to put aside time for sick leave or for vacations.ep

>>orter: rideshare apps uber and lyft and delivery apps doordash, instacart and more than $181 million towards the yesai on prop 22 ca, making it the most expensive orballot iniative in cala history. the opposition campaign, meanwhe, has a little over $5 million, primarily from union groups. >> there are stories of drivers who have lost their lives, yet our companies once agato were nowherbe found. >> reporter: cherri murp and edan alva are lyft drivers who oppose prop 22 and have actions with worker advocacy groups such as gig workers rising. this one is outside the house of uber c.e.o. dara khosrowshahi. >> gig workers rising is an organization that advocates for ir wages and protections, labor protections. >> reporter: murphy began driving three years ago while

she was in graduate school to become a minister. the idea of a flexible work situation was attractive to you. >> so, it seemed like an answer, a godsend, a b with a future that allowed you to make money after completing sermon or paper. they were also able to provide you with a real rental vehicle. and over the years, as the number of bonuses decrease, while rides increased, making major cuts to take-home pay, it was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain a, a living. >> reporter: for edan alva, he began driving for lyft part-time six years ago as a way to supplement his income. but then he lost his primary job full time.turned to lyft >> the moment i started doing lyft as a primary source of income and did rides according to their schedule, not mine, that's when the problems began. tht ey ktting and cutting and cutting their pay until it dropped

you deduct expenses.en >> reporter: alva said tt even though he got sick with the flu in january, he could barely as an independent contractor, he had no paid sick leave. >> i had no choice. i had to continue working. i word just until i earned enough money to pay my rent and then i physically just couldn't work anymore. and i still couldn't see a doctor because i couldn't afford it. i, luckily, have the friends and the family that helped me in that situation. but over the years i've been doing this work, i've met plenty of drivers who do not have the system of support that i happen to have and wind up homeless or living in their cars because of regular mishaps that happen to them. >> reporter: in april, alva said the health risks were so high to work in a pandemic, that he cid to quit. >> disinfecting the car and buying disinfectants for the car ngand burotection gear for

myself. >> reporter: in may, after unemployment claims skyrocketed due to the pandemic recession, california's attorney general ecxavierra and cy attorneys from san francisco, san diego and los angeles sued uber and lyft for" miscssification of drivers" and claimed the companies have" exploited hundreds of thousands of califoia workers" for ars. a university of california berkeley study estimated that uber and lyft "would have paid $413 million into the state's unemployment insurance fund" over the paswofive years if s were treated as employees. >>li i know what it' to be misclassified and having to struggle for three months to get unntemployn the middle of a pandemic. >> reporter: cherri murphy, like other gig workers, found she couldn't get unemployment insurance because lyft didn't classify her as an employee. she says the fight over this ballot measure is critical for worker otections. >> it's a smoke and mirror attempt to convince voters to be complicit with stealing and cheating their way of that

responsibility. and so, i know that there are a number of voters who are voting to hold uber and lyft and doordash accountable by voting no on proposition 22. >> sreenivasan: reporter sam harnett covers tech and labor for public media's kqed. i spoke with him for more on cifornia proposition 22 and what it can get done if it passes. >> so, uber and lyft want to continue clang the workers ash contractors, whans they don't have to pay for things like unemployment insurance, overtime, they have to have guaranteed minimum wage. so they put this proposition on the ballot, which gives california the ability-- california voters the ability te von it. and if the ballot, if proposition 22 passes, these works will be labeled as contractors, and the only way to get rid of that 7/en will be for 8 of the california legislature to overturn the proposition. so it's a huge bill. soer, if this passes, nd lyft drivers are going to be contractors for the foreseeable future.

>> sreenivasan: so, what has the pandemic done in the middle of this eight year long struggle to gure out if somebody is an employee or a contractor? re comes this unforeseen ent that changes howe live and work and, more important for this business, move about? >> right. i'd say the pandemic did two real big things. first thing it did was suddenly you had all these uber and lyft drivers that didn't have work anymorebut they couldn't collect unemployment because uber and lyft, by classifying their drivers as contractors, have not paid one cent into the state unemployment funds. thousands of drivers going,f like, "i can't get a ride. can i get some money?" and e california unemployment fund is like, "we don't have any money for you." california lawmakers to move on this, because there was a real monetary issue. the second thing that it did is uber d ft have consistently relied on their consumers, on their riders, for-- to basically

put pressure on regulators. basically, they've gone to the, you know, riders love uber and leryft because it'scheap, because the companies don't pay their workers that much. sieo they ron consumers, and in the past, that's been very successful. in places where they threatened to leave, consumers he been really upset and politicians have then helped uber and lyft get the regulations that they wanted. but with the pandemic, suddenly people aret riding as much. so ubernd lyft have lost a litt bit of that leverage because people simply aren't taking as many rides and that rt of ened the door for, for the attorney general to sue these companies and not risk public backlash from consumers and for this bacally issue to come to a head. >> sreenivasan: we talk about ubeisr and lyft, but s really a bellwether for the entire gig economy. there's lots of other companies as door dash or task rabbit or other companies that have sprung up with the same business model. is there any indication that there are other states watching what happens in this election and then really, that that it could have an impact much bigger

than just the ride sharing >> absolutely. so, you know this, the issue that is playing out in california over where-- how to classify these drivers-- is coaying out in every other state in thtry and actually global, in different countries around the world. so, evs eryoneoking to california to see what's going to happen. now, tht e thing is te way the proposition is written is working on platforms doingople delivery or transportation. so,, agampanies like uber lift also postmates doordash. so it edis limn who it is targeting now, but if you create this precedent of having a basic third option between employee and contractor, this kind of contractor-- and we didn't that third category, the worry is that aunch of other corporations are going to look and be, like, "hey, you know, that's a gmoat way to save ey.

let's maybe create an app for trucking service or a delivery service, and then we can instead of, you know, pang the workers as employees, we can use this kind of contractor plus model. and, again, if you look at the history of the independent contractor in america, this was added-- the independent contractor model was added as a caveat for very specific kinds of situations. and then you saw corporations over time moving more of their workforce from employees, which pensive because they hav benefits of protections, over to contractors, which are cheaper. so, again, the worry is you make this third, kind of third s y, and compane gog to find a way to exploit it. >> sreenivasan: sam harnett, kqed, thanks so much for joining us >> yeah, thanks for having me. california has one quarter of the nation's eligibino voters but it was not always that way. a pbs sokal documentary prop 187 the se of theatino vote explains how an anti-immigrant agballot proposal, more an 25

years mobiliz latino he's to register to vote. for more visit pbs.org/newshour. newshour will have more this week on the state of t president's health and how it y affect the upcoming election which is now less than one month away. that's all for this edition of for the latest updates visit pbs.org/newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan, thanks for watchihy, stay healtnd have a good night. ). access.wgbh.org >> pbs wsur weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwart the cheryl a philip milstein rbamily. a hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine tharles rosenblum.

to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: tand by the corpo for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the ameran people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. kes squealing)

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