captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, hack attack-- new details on the scope of a dangerous cyber intrusion on the u.s. government and major companies. then, the biden agenda-- the president-elect names key climate officials for his administration, signaling a major departure from president trump. plus, trusting the vaccine-- we examine the many historical reasons for reluctance surrounding immunizations in communities of color. and, invisible scars-- what we know now about treating and preventing childhoodrauma.

>> if we could get rid of childhood trauma and maltreatment as a stressor, we'd actually be able to prevent most of the mental health conditions that we see. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas.

more at kendedafund.org. >> 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: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: there is new and troubling information on a massive cyber attack against the u.s.

the cyber security and infrastructure agency has determined that the recent hacking of federal, state, and local governments, as well as critical infrastructure and other private sector organizations poses "a grave risk." they also said eliminating the malicious computer code from compromised computer networks will be highly complex and challenging. we start by turning again to dmitri alperovitch, co-founded of silverado policy accelerator, a washington based think tank. da dmitri alperovitch, thank you so much for being with us. we are learning from the cyberagency that the hackers used possibly more than one path to get in. how vig is that? >> -- the campaigns in history, are just breaking this tonight before you went on the air that microsoft was one of

the other vendors whose software was impacted here. and the russians were able to verage it to get in. so victims in addition to the original company. but the impact is huge because you have so many companies using the software, that essentially gave a map to the russian intelligence service who is believed to be behind this to gain entry, dpoft agency, private sector companies alike. >> woodruff: well, it sounds serious enough but then there is this additional reporting today from "politico" that they managed to get inside the energy department, inside the national nuclear security administration, which manages the nuclear weapons stock piles. it sounds serious. how serious is this? >> well, this was a supply chain hack. so in fact the russians were able to infiltrate into the software companies whose software is used by tebs of thousands of organizations globally including most of the sensitive government agencies. and then they cherry picked. they decided which targets they wanted to go after, to actually

get into the doors and exfill trait sensitive information from those networks and that is why we are seeing this report of numerous government agencies that you can imagine would be of high interest to the russian intelligence services like the state department, like the treasury department, like the pent dpon and now the department of energy as well and others. >> woodruff: so dmitri alperovitch, do we have a sense of how close they came to triggering something? i mean the whole thing is serious enough, but to triggering a nuclear incident or some other unthinkable sort of incident, step, emergency? >> this is an incredibly dangerous situation. and very detrimental to our national security but there are two silver linings that is useful for us to remember. one it looks like this was a traditional espionage attack it looks like we were not interested in destruction t

looks like no data has been changed. we may find out differently in the future but for now at least it looks like they went in and did traditional information, it could have been so much worse and second silver lining is that in this particular case it looks like they were not able to get access to classified networks. those are networks that are disconnected from the internet so they are extremely difficult to infiltrate and that's where most of the secret reports are located on. even compromising the unclassified network, they still contain enormous amounts of sensitive information. so this is going to be very, very damaging to our national security for many years to come. >> woodruff: and as we reported, a very difficult to unwind, to undo whatever damage was done. >> it is going to take us months to get the russians out of those networks. in particular if it is the fd, r. russian foreign intelligence service, they infiltrated the white house, the joint cheefers of staff and state department in 2015 and it took many, many

weeks for those organizations back then to kick them out because they are so good at burying themselves in, staying stealty, maintaining the foothold in the organization t will take us probably months to get them out of all of the net works they have been able to infiltrate. >> woodruff: dmitri alperovitch, as always, we thank you. >> thank you so much. bisola and anthony in office >> woodruff: we continue our look at the extent of this hack. earlier this evening, william brangham spoke with fiona hill. she served as senior director for european and russian affairs on the national security council from 2017 to 2019. she is now a senior fellow at the brookings institution. >> brangham: neona hill very good to have you on the newshour, thank you for being here. start offer by-- start off by helping us understand is there any doubt in your mind that the russians are behind this sth. >> not reallyk know, i'm sure more information will come out over the next few days and weeks that will confirm that. >> brangham: why is that, why are you so certain? >> it has all the hallmarks of

trade craft t is a very sophisticated operation. clearly it has been obviously many months if not longer in the planning, just the nature of the execution. the way it is also being revealed, first of all by-- and other entities that have been following the russians for some time, it has all the hallmarks of a sophisticated operation, probably carried out by the f-- but the russian-- services. >> this is obviously self-evident to people like new your field but help us understand what the russians gain from this attack. >> well, this is actually class ickes meanage. it is an attack on cybersecurity systems it is kind of thing that back in the old days this he would have executed in obviously a different way by having to have people infiltrate to extract information. obviously in this world that we operate now with the internet and so much data, backed up on a large system, it gives all kinds of opportunities now to

penetrate information on a scale we never had before. so i mean again this isn't something we should be particularly surprised about, obviously it is disturbing and troubling that they managed to pull something off on this scale but it is in the out of the ordinary in anyway whatsoever, the long partners of espionage and soviet union have engaged in. >> given that, that this is classic trade craft, something that superpowers do too each other, i'm sure we are doing something similar to the russians or trying to, is it your sense that there is anything that we could have done leading up to this point that would have de terred this behavior? we saw this the obama administration struggle whack to do about russian meddling back in 2016. we have seen the trump administration's response. do you think we could have done differently to have de terred this? >> yes, what we could have done is have an-- approach and not be-- with each other. part of the problem in this administration has been that we failed to pull together as a

coheesive unit. not just across the executive branch but between the eck tiffs and all the departments and agency and also with congress. we have also been at os with our allies. and part of the deterrent approach is working in unity. in fact we have seen over the last several years where we have been able to pull you've yawnified response be it sanctions against russian activity in ukraine, after the annexation of crimea as one example. and also where we exk pelled a whole russian operatives across europe and the united sates after the poisoning. we did see the russians pulling back to some extent. so if we can pull something off where we are all working together and not add odds, we don't have the president on one page an everybody else on another and working together with our allies to push back on this, then that could have a serious deterrent effect and it would also make a much more effective at rooting out

the-- of this kind of attack. >> so from this point forward, the tail end of the trump administration and the beginning of the biden administration, what do you think we ought to be doing to respond? >> what we need is a coherent approach, this is something we failed to have under the previous administration. we have some. >> when you say previous administration. >> i mean the outgoing administration, the trump administration that i was part of, we set up entities like fifa-- the cybersecurity entitds within the department of homeland security, and chris krebs for the role he played in calling out the president and others in the election campaign, calling out their ds information about the election security. so we need to beef up those entities. and what we really need to to do is have a coherent teamworking together and clearly working very closely with the white

house. because under the outgoing administration we have the president doing one thing. he didn't del gate authority down to even some of the key cabinet officials. and he certainly undermined on many efforts to cork work across the departments and agencies, so we need a team of people who trust each other, who are working and pulling together and also working together with congress and all the other entities that have to be part of this. we can't just have one sort of people doing their own thing. we need to be calling this out for what st. and we also need to be working with our partners. >> all right, feeona hill thank you for your time. >> thank you, william. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a panel of experts endorsed a second covid-19 vaccine for emergency use. they recommended the moderna vaccine to the u.s. food and

drug administration, as deaths nationwide neared 310,000. in california, hospital staffers have beds in hallways and ambulances lined up, and it's getting worse, with 100,000 new infections in two days. >> nurses and physicia and all the health care workers are really working so hard through this, hours and hours and hours and hours per day nonstop. people are taking two shifts just to get through this. >> woodruff: meanwhile, weekly aims for unemployment benefits jumped to 885,000, the most since september. and, overseas, french president emmanuel macron tested positive for covid-19. he said he will self-isolate for a week. president-elect joe biden is rounding out his environmental team. the newshour confirms michael regan is the choice for the environmental protection agency. he now leads north carolina's environmental agency.

and, new mexico congresswoman deb haaland is being tapped for interior secretary. she would be the first native american in that job. in russia, president vladimir putin denied today that his government ordered opposition leader alexei navalny poisoned, last august. navalny was dosed with a soviet- era nerve agent, but is now recovering. putin held his annual news conference today, and accused u.s. intelligence agencies of supporting the dissident. >> ( translated ): if this is right, then it's interesting and those services have to look after him. but it doesn't mean that it's necessary to poison him. who cares about him? if someone wanted him poisoned, they would have finished him off. >> woodruff: an investigation by several news organizations has identified russian security agents as those who carried out the poisoning. more than 340 boys kidnapped in northern nigeria have been free

they'd been kidnapped last week by the islamist group boko haram. now, a top state official says government agents recovered most of the boys today. he did not say if a ransom was paid. back in this country, a major snowstorm broke records across the northeast and new england today. williamsport, pennsylvania got more than two feet, the most since 1964, and parts of upstate new york got three feet. in new york city, snow plows and shovels were busy after six inches of snow overnight. that's more than the city got all of last winter. members of the family that owns purdue pharma acknowledged today that the painkiller oxycontin has helped fuel opioid addictions. the epidemic is blamed for 470,000 deaths across the u.s. but, at a virtual u.s. house hearing, david and kathy sackler did not apologize or admit

personal wrongdoing. >> is there's anything i could have done differently knowing what i knew then, not what i know now? and i have to say, i can't-- there is nothing that i can find that i would have done differently based on what i believed and understood then. >> woodruff: purdue pharma has admitted criminal wrongdoing and will pay $8 billion in fines. the sacklers do not face criminal prosecution. the c.d.c. reports drug overdose deaths in the u.s. topped 81,000 in the 12 months ending last may. that's a record, and it's getting worse as covid-19 disrupts daily life. the agency says the upheaval can hit drug abusers especially hard. google is now facing a third major anti-trust action. 35 states, plus the district of columbia, guam and puerto rico sued today.

they charged the company has an illegal monopoly over online search results. ten other states and the u.s. justice department have separate suits pending against google. and, on wall street, the major indexes finished at record highs, on hope for ecomic relief from congress. the dow jones industrial average gained 148 points to close at 30,303. the nasdaq rose 106 points, and, the s&p 500 added 21. still to come on the newshour: how cities across the country might not get covid relief from congress. president-elect biden names key climate officials for his administration. we examine the many reasons for reluctance surrounding vaccines in communities of color. and much more.

>> woodruff: while congress continues to debate a new round of covid relief money, one chunk of aid appears to be left on the chopping block: funding for state and local governments. for how this development may affect cities across the country, i'm joined by two mayors on the front lines of the covid fight: nan whaley, democrat of dayton, ohio. and david holt, republican of oklahoma city. we welcome both of you to the newshour. thank you so much for joining us. mayor whaley i'm going to start with you. how has covid affected the people of dayton? how has it affected your community? >> well, certainly it's very close to everybody as we have seen, a really tremendous surge this past month in our community. so your friends, everyone knows

someone now that has passed away from the disease. and then it has really affected our schools, every day life. really everything that you used to do. even from the summer to the winter. and then you know, while we're very hopeful and excited by the vaccine, the vaccine still hasn't made it to dayton. so we are concerned about the economic recovery being pretty slow even with the vaccine coming. >> woodruff: and mayor holt, oklahoma city with a population of what, over 650,000, how has oklahoma city been hit by this pandemic? >> well, like everybody, we've had you know serious levels of death that we have never experienced, or at least i should say never not since 1918. and we've had our health-care system stretched to its limit. for several weeks now we've had about 600 patients in the hospitals of oklahoma city for

covid-19 which is about a third of our capacity de voted to that. and obviously the secondary economic affect that we have earns sped. you know, i think other places probably have suffered more economicically than oklahoma city has. but st not as if we have been immune from that. and it affects everything. and it certainly affects our city government functions as well. we're a government that is almost primarily and almost exclusively depend ents on sales tax which means that we get hit pretty fast when there is an economic downturn. so we like many other governments have had to tighten our belts as well. and that means fewer services for our residents. >> woodruff: and mayor whaley, what about the financial impact in dayton? how has that been effected? how has it affected your ability to conduct the services that citizens need? >> well, when the covid pandemic first hit we quickly offered a volunteer separation plan for all of our employees.

we ran a little over 1800 employees. 102 of them took the buyout. so that made our, the folks working at the city a lot less and they've been doing a lot more during a pandemic with less people. that is simply not sustainable long-term. because you know when people retire they move to different parts of the organization get really, really hit in places that you just can't afford to keep on doing that. so that helped us through the 21 budget. we were hoping to get federal relief. if we don't see federal relief we're prepared to not have a police class in 21. not have a fire class in 216789 and you know people retire every year, so that means that our levels will be lower coming in the 21 year. >> woodruff: and mayor holt, what about in oklahoma city in terms of it. you touched on it a moment ago. but what has it meant, what kind of hit have you taken, and what difference could federal aid make one way or another?

>> well, we're dun about five percent in sales tax this fiscal year. so we have had to freeze a lot of hiring that we expected to make this year. we certainly had to cut back programming especially in our rec centers. it is hard, our first thick we want to protect are the people we have on staff now but that means that we really, the worst impact is felt by our programming and these are programs that people care about. but i do want to say something real quick because i don't want mayor whaley to have to say this. 36 cities did get funding back in may from the originals cares act. app we are blessed to be one of those cities in oklahoma city because we are over 500,000. but there are 3,000 cities across america, over 10,000. there are 300 cities over 100,000, and only 36 of those got that funding. that funding had a lot of strngs attached so we haven't necessarily been able to use it as much as we would have liked on our revenue short falls but

it has certainly given us a little bit of breathing room. and even though we benefited from that, i want to speak for mayor whaley and other cities around the country, hundreds of them, thousands of them that never gt that benefit and that is why this package is so very important. >> and judy. >> we appreciate your point g ahead, mayor whaley, go ahead. >> i was just going to say, david is right, the smaller the town, the more this is felt. because the smaller you are, you don't have the ability to really hold this loss,o not gettin in the federal relief package affects small communities all across the country. and i don't really know what some of these smaller comeums in day ton are really going to do in the next hour. >> and just quickly, mayor holt, without that federal money making a difference w yeah, yeah, i mean listen, cities and states are some of biggest employers in any community. and the federal government has rightfully so supported many employers across our country in

ways that have allowed them to retain their staff, pay their employees and maintain their business. and our business is providing services to our residents and we need that same support and we need it across our cities, not just our biggest ones. again very grateful for that, back in the spring here in oklahoma city but really want to see that same support given to cities and states across the united states. >> woodruff: well, we need to hear this message and we thank both of you for sharing your story with us. mayor david holt, oklahoma city, mayor nan whaley of dayton. thank you. >> thank you, judy. >> thank you. >> woodruff: president-elect biden has said tackling climate change, the environment and greener energy is a top priority of his administration. and today he filled out the rest of his team.

the newshour's yamiche alcindor reports that new mexico representative deb haaland is mr. biden's pick to be interior secretary. if confirmed, she would be the first native american to lead the department overseeing a big piece of nation's natural resources, including tribal lands. john yang looks at what his picks bring to the table. >> yang: judy, mr. biden's team appears to be a mix of familiar faces and some not-so familiar. the president-elect's other choices: michael regan, the head of north carolina's department of environmental quality, to head the environmental protection agency. former e.p.a. administrator gina mccarthy to be his senior climate change advisor. and former michigan governor jennifer granholm to be energy secretary. earlier, mr. biden named former secretary of state john kerry as his global climate change envoy. amy harder covers energy and the climate for axios.

amy p thanks so much for joining us. let me start with interior, what is the significants, representative haaland would be if con firnled the first native american to run the interior department which oversees a huge amount of land in the united states, including tribal land. >> definitely, it s significant because she will be the first, if con furmd, she will be the first native american to lead this agency. in its 171 year history. and so that's important because the interior department really runs and governs everything about the tribal lands including extraction and conservation of their lands, to is it is very significant it is not unlike when president obama was elected president, as the first african-american to the way african-americans peel in the u.s. there is almost 2 million american indians and alaska natives in the country, so it will be very sigificant.

>> and the dpt has not always had the greatest relationship with tribal nations. >> correct. there has been a lot of conflict, particularly under this administration where the trump administration, according to some native american tribes, that he was not inuding them in consultations and also he was rolling ck, he had rolled pack a whole host of conservation land including some on tribal land. and so i think biden will be really looking to menld those relationships. within and among the names that we have been able to confirm, michael regan at epa is probably the least familiar to people around the country. what can you tell us about michael regan. >> well, he will be the first african-american male to be the epa administrator. the first african-american at all was lisa jackson under president obama. he is actually winning accolades from a lot of people across the spectrum including some industry

lawyers that i've talked to in d.c. and environmental groups. so i think he brings what will be critical, is state experience. so president-elect biden will be leaning heavily upon what states have already done and what they are going to continue to do in order to meet his climate change agenda. so i think that experience is going to be really important. >> when you look at this team as a whole, what does it tell us about plm brideen's approach to the environment, to energy? >> right, well i will say two things on that. first he is leaning heavily on obama era officialing because he knows i wants to hit the ground running the second january 20th arrives. that is why he takes gina mccarthy obama epa administra tore be the white house coordinator on climate change and also taking a really picking a diverse cabinet, this year in the pandemic and, america has really been grappling with systemic racism. and so the call to elect, to

nominate a really diverse cabinet is really evident in these picks. and so i think it is a significant from that perspective. and then when it comes to the policy, you know, ultimately the policy comes from the top down. so i anticipate these people to really enforce the policies that president-elect biden has campaigned on. >> we don't know the eventual makeup of the senate yet, whether it is going to be republican or democrat, either way it will be very, very narrow. how likely is or how much trouble or how easy is it going to be for mr. biden to get his energy, environment, climate change agenda through congress? >> it is going to be very difficult. even if democrats eke out a win in the senate races in georgia. the democratic party is not monolithic. and there will be some energy-intensive representative democrats that are controlling the committees in a democrat

controlled senate such as senator joe manson of west virginia. so i anticipate biden to not try to go too big from a congressional perspective on energy and climate change which is why these picks across the government and executive branch are so important. representative haaland is pretty progressive even though show hails from new mexico which is a huge gas and oil state and the oil industry was quick o to point out in a statement that it provides a lot of jobs in the oil & gas industry. but none the less deb haaland said she wants the interior department to go full steam ahead on renewable energy on that land. so i believe that is the policy biden goes full forward on. as opposed to doing something like figuring a new deal or a carbon tax in congress. because there is really not the support in that no matter who controls the senate. >> amy harder of axios, thank you so much. >> you're welcome, thank you.

>> woodruff: the trump administration said today it expects to ship six million doses of that new covid vacicone from moderna to more than 3200 locations next week. but with new cases at high levels and states reporting they may not get as much of the other vaccine from pfizer as expected next week, there are real concerns. as miles o'brien tells us, there also are questions of equity and public trust around vaccines, especially in communities of color. his story is part of our reporting on the "leading edge" of science. >> reporter: in the frantic race to get covid vaccines out the door, public health experts have labored long and harto figure out who should go first, and who can wait. they also hope to inject an

antidote to deep rooted unfairness, laid bare by the virus. bisola ojikutus an infectious disease physician at boston's brigham and womes hospital. >> black, latin x, and indigenous populations are about three times more likely than white individuals to be diagnosed with covid-19. >> reporter: they are about five times more likely to be hospitalized, and almost twice as likely to die of covid-19. >> the numbers, are devastating, okay? and i think that a lot of people initially were shocked. though those of us who've been working in the area of disparities for a long time weren't shocked. >> reporter: there is no evidence biology or genetics are reasons for this. rather, it is a symptom of chronic racism and poverty. social vulnerability puts minorities at disproportionate risk. victor dzau is president of the national academy of medicine. >> it's where you live, what you do, how you're exposed that increases your chance and then, with the comorbidities, which we

all know is rooted in health inequity wch are mainly related to issues of access, racism, and others that increases the chance of people getting their transmission infection. >> reporter: dr. dzau helped create a diverse committ of public health and infectious disease experts to offer a framework to the states as the vaccinations begin. the committee did not use race as a factor in its deliberations. instead it used the centers for disease control and prevention's social vulnerability index which measures how external issues adversely affect human health. the committee is giving priority to high risk health workers, first responders, teachers, prisoners and correctional staff, and people who hold critical jobs. dzau says it is a color blind way to address racial disparities. >> when you look at who's being mainly affected, they are in fact communities of color, minorities and others who are

basically socioeconomic disadvantaged. i think it's an objective way of looking at it rather than just labeling people just because of skin color. >> reporter: and getting enough people vaccinated to slow the exponential spread of the coronavirus will not be easy. in the u.s., vaccine hesitancy has been a persistent problem for many years. >> mandating vaccines for education, that is coercion. >> reporter: andhe rapid and seemingly politicized development of covid-19 vaccines has deepened those suspicions. only 61 percent of americans say they will take the vaccine. among minority communities most affected by covid, the number is even smaller. only 24% of black americans and 34% of hispanics say they will get a shot. >> the question is who is going to be willing to participate? >> reporter: reuben warren is director of the tuskegee university national center for

bioethics in research and health care. >> and it's the question of not the level of science but the trustworthiness of the scientists. as i've been taught and i believe that science doesn't lie but scientists do. >> reporter: from 1932 through 1972, the united states public health service and the c.d.c. conducted a study based here on syilis among 600 african americans, most of them poor sharecroppers. despite the fact that researchers discovered penicillin is a cure in 1947, none of the men were treated. it's the most infamous example in a long history of shameful mistreatment of black americans by scientists conducting medical experiments. >> we know the history but history doesn't have to repeat itself. it's not inevitae and i think the notion of inevitability is a false notion. we have the opportunity to change how things are if there's a commitment to do so. >> reporter: in boston, bisola

ojikutu is doing her part. >> in fact, you know, it would be strange if there wasn't, you know that level of mistrust. because if you see institutions where this is occurring, if you see health care providers in the government that's not addressing this issue. you know, that seemingly, you know allowing it to exist, to tolerate it. why would you trust? >> reporter: so she recruited minority volunteers for the moderna vaccine trial. people like anthony shivers. here for a follow up after receiving his shots. >> so, tell me how you're feeling. you've been in the trial for a while. >> reporter: he is in a high- risk category with some underlying health issues. but he too is concerned people in his community will remain hesitant. >> i felt compelled to come and be a part of this because like i said, i was watching the news one night and it just really struck me how it's really hitting useniors and the black community. you got to come together and you got to join in and be a part of a solution, not just sit back and be a bystander.

>> reporter: public health experts say at least 70% of the population will need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, stopping the pandemic. so the first jabs are crucial in more ways than one. some polls suggest growing numbers are willing to be vaccinated. the success may be contagious. >> see, i got it! >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in atlanta. >> woodruff: over the past several days, we've looked at hochildhood trauma impacts people around the country. now, we focus on solutions. just as our understanding of trauma's long-term impacts has grown, so too has our grasp of how to treat and prevent it. special correspondent cat wise and producer rachel wellford

have the final report of our series "invisible scars: america's childhood trauma crisis." >> reporter: it's a friday morning and eamani williams is getting her son sha'quan and daughter amara off to preschool. raised by a single mother, eamani says her childhood was sometimes tough. now a 22-year-old single mom herself, eamani realized there was a lot she didn't know when her son was born four years ago. when you had your son, was it tough being a new mom? >> honestly, it was. that pregnancy wasn't planned. i didn't know what to do, like how to bond with him. >> reporter: and we now know how important those bonds are. research shows that early, positive interactions with caregivers can help kids better cope with trauma down the line. at this clinic, in schenectady, new york, eamani connected with a program that helps her kids become more resilient, by working through her own past traumas. the program, called healthysteps, places child

development experts like bernadette mcdaniel in pediatric offices. >> we're seeing in the parents domestic violence, abuse, all kinds of sexual sexual abuse, neglect. >> reporter: she shares parenting skills and other resources to help reduce day-to- day stresses that can lead to trauma for kids. >> before the days of covid, i would be able to hold the babies and cradle the babies and talk to the babies and talk to mom about how the baby responds to a smile, how the baby responds to your voice. >> reporter: eamani sa that information has changed how she parents. >> when i get, like, my depression episodes, i try not to, like, be depressed in front of them because they're like a mirror. so i try to like just not show it around them, at least try to just be the happy mom. >> you can see the children, they're healthy, inquisitive children who want to learn about their world. you don't see the stresses in the children. >> reporter: prevention, on a

wide-scale, could have a big impact according to clinical psychologist hilary hodgdon, who co-directs the complex trauma treatment network. >> if we could get rid of childhood trauma and maltreatment as a stressor, we'd actually be able to prevent most of the mental health conditions that we see. >> reporter: an estimated 60% of u.s. adults had at least one adverse or traumatic experience as a child. not all of them will need treatment, but for those who do, there are now a range of proven treatments to meet a range of needs. hodgdon says the treatments considered the most effective share some common principles. >> there has been more of a focus to help kids have safe and secure relationships, to help kids build regulation skills, to help kids be able to process some of the difficult and painful experiences that they've had in their life. >> we get deer, turkey. >> reporter: for some, like 13- year-old yary bentancourt, intensive and sustained treatment is needed. >> reporter: six years ago,

after time in the foster care system, yary and her two older brothers were adopted by gabrielle and luis betancourt who live in connecticut. >> her biological mother used substances and had some mental health conditions that made it difficult for her to parent. she went hungry for long periods of time. >> reporter: that trauma often led to anxiety and fear of being abandoned. do you remember a little bit about some big emotions that you had. maybe when your mom was in a different room? >> i was scared. i thought she wouldn't come back. >> reporter: to help her feel safer and manage those emotions, the betancourts tried a variety of treatments including family and talk therapy. and for awhile they were helping, but then things changed. >> when yary started puberty, it was very difficult for her to regulate her emotions. and even though she had so many skills and she had worked so hard, it was very difficult to maintain her safely in-home. >> reporter: after a lot of searching, they found a unique residential treatment program and school run by the justice

resource institute, a non-profit that provides mental health care for those with trauma histories and special education needs. >> they believe in yary, and then they help yary be the best that she can be. >> reporter: the program helps caregivers and children buil stronger, more understanding relationships; encourages kids to regulate their behavior through things like breathing techniques and exercise, when they are experiencing unhappy memories or thoughts, and builds resiliency by having children spend time doing what they love. and for yary that included time with animals. after nearly two years of full- time care, yary was finally able to move back home. today she still attends the program's day school and goes to weekly therapy sessions, all equipping her with effective trauma coping skills. when my son has big emotions, one of the things we talk about is doing dragon breaths, deep in and out breaths. did you do anything like that? >> mmhmm... the monkey hug. >> reporter: tell me, what's the monkey hug?

>> where you do this and tap back and forth slowly. >> reporter: and when you do that, how do you feel? >> better. i feel good. >> reporter: but the betancourts are lucky. they live in connecticut where childhood trauma treatments are more accessible than in some parts of the country. >> it's expensive and no one wants to pay. but here's the thing: we do pay. foster care is expensive. having generation upon generation of trauma that perpetuates itself is expensive. >> reporter: those are some of the issues now driving efforts to expand mental health care access for children. schools are often on the front lines of the childhood trauma crisis in this country. here in connecticut, where a horrific shooting eight years ago continues to have a lingering impact, big investments were made to bring trauma and for mental health services to children in schools. hope bray is a social worker in the wtown school district where that shooting occurred. here at reed intermediate school, bray runs a program called "bounce back". it's a voluntary trauma intervention, specifically

designed for use in schools. children, who have been referred by school counselors, meet for 10 group sessions, in addition to working with bray one on one. >> we're not referencing a particular trauma. we're talking about trauma or scary experiences, and then we kind of move on to, well, how might we feel if we've experienced trauma to kind of normalize the experiences that children have. then we move on to what can we do about it. >> reporter: bray says providing trauma treatment in schools can remove many of the financial and logistical barriers for families. but she sees another benefit too. >> for a child where i don't know that they have a support system in home, i just don't know what it looks like. i know they have a support system in my building. >> reporter: success is being seen in schools and beyond. more than 15,000 kids in connecticut have now received therapy that focuses on trauma- like bounce back. 80% have shown improvement in trauma symptoms, like depression, anxiety and p.t.s.d.

but bray is concerned that much of the progress that's been made in her community could be upended by the pandemic. >> the unfortunate fact is not everybody is safe at home. we have a lot of cldren who are experiencing more fear, more uncertainty, more hunger. i think we're really going to need more trauma treatment. >> reporter: some trauma advocates say it's important to remember not everyone finds relief inside a therapist's office. >> this is my spare bedroom which is also my healing space. >> reporter: cissy white, a writer and childhood trauma survivor, has charted her own journey toward healing. she experienced a number of traumas, from divorce to physical and sexual abuse, all before the age of ten. after more than a decade of talk therapy, she realized it wasn't working the way she needed it to. >> it helped me understand there's a reason i'm feeling this way. there's cause and effect. but it didn't help my trauma symptoms.

it didn't help me sleep. it didn't help digestion issues. it didn't help me feel cm. >> reporter: instead she turned to less traditional therapies like meditation, yoga and expressive writing, all practices she feels should be more widely available. >> the this that most people are still going to get is talk therapy and medication. they're not super effective for post-traumatic stress. so we still have that problem. and that's a big problem. >> reporter: but she and many others we met during our reporting shared a resounding message of hope. >> trauma treatment is often treated like it's so depressing, but it gives you back your birthright to joy, to feeling safe, to feeling good in your skin, to being able to relate. so it's triumphant. >> there is always hope. i'm not just saying that because it's mname, but absolutely we can turn that tide. >> reporter: there might be some kids around the country watching this.

what would you say to them? >> that it'll get better and someone's always there for you. >> reporter: for the pbs newshouri'm cat wise in connecticut. >> woodruff: now, the science of laughter, as told by the one and only jerry seinfeld. he's had a big year with a netflix special and a recent book which has been on bestseller lists for the past 10 weeks. jeffrey brown caught up with him for our ongoing arts and culture series, canvas. >> brown: it's an especially harsh holiday season in new york, but on a recent walk wit daughter sascha, jerry seinfeld got quite a thrill. >> oh my god, holy cow, oh my god, i can't believe it. >> brown: above them: a giant

billboard blow-up of an op-ed he'd written for the "new york times" last august, titled "so you think new york is dead: it's not", a response to doomsayers arguing the city will never recover from covid. >> brown: he greeted grateful fellow new yorkers. >> you see this? unlievable. >> it's gorgeous! >> please record your message. >> brown: after a technologica¡' near-miss', he reached me to talk about it. >> it was unreal. i'm used to seeing myself on things, but that was something so different and so, frankly, powerful to me that i could have that impact on anyone, is an unbelievable feeling. >> brown: you wrote that op-ed piece, you clearly didn't like all this talk. >> i did not >> brown: new york's small comedy clubs are where seinfeld

started and continues to return. >> brown: ¡seinfeld' the show brought world fame and fortune. but, he told me the next day from his manhattan apartment, stand-upomedy is all he ever wanted. >> i love living in the little world of stand-up comedy. it's a small universe. >> brown: now, five decades of his jokes and routines are gathered in a book titled: "is this anything?" it's what comedians ask as they try out new material, seeking the magic of getting a laugh. >> i do enjoy the mechanics and the dismantling and i think i would like ¡watch repair'. i think that's a field i would enjoy because that's what i like to do with my stuff. i like to get into the gears of how it works.

>> brown: this is a very disciplined thing for you, you >> for me it is, but it's not for everyone. would say it took me about two years after i started, to realize this whole racket is writing. it's all writing. if you learn to write, to become a writer, you will survive in this business. if you don't, you will die. >> brown: but why is that? the writing is what really brings you into the comedy? >> you just need a lot of stuff. (laughing) it's like, you know, it's like a bakery. you need fresh donuts, you got and it kind of takes you down the road of what you see and who you are. and you must always be able to look around. you have to be able to see it and go, "there's something funny there. i have to find it." >> brown: of course, once you've

written a joke you have to deliver it." 23 hours to kill", seinfeld's latest netflixpecial, released earlier this year, shows his trademark style. >> a lot of people around my age like to make a bucket list. i made a bucket list, turned the b to an f, and i was done with that too. comedy is just about the feeling of connection. that's what standup comedy is. when you get a laugh from an audience, you're like (claps)-- it just a few, only lasts a few seconds. but you feel completely connected to them. they feel connected to you. and it's very satisfying. whether you have confidence or not does not matter. you need the veneer of it. >> brown: yeah, i noticed the word "veneer". so, whether it's real or not. >> it doesn't need to be real at all. >> brown: in fact, seinfeld sees himself as most authentic when he's onstage. he's not a naturally outgoing or

even attention-seeking person, but says that helps him as a performer. >> this could be my favorite spot in the entire world. for me, that stage is my only outlet to humanity. >> brown: you're serious? that performance is your way to meet people, to interact with people? >> well, i can really be myself. on stage, that's really me. at a cocktail party, that's a total performance. >> brown: seinfeld has called the show that made him rich and famous a "nine year detour" from his real job of standup, but one for which he's extremely grateful. >> it was a stunning, mind boggling experience. but it was really like being part of a weather event, to tell you the truth. >> brown: a weather event? you mean like a big hurricane or something? >> yeah, like a giant swirling funny of energy. that just feltike hanging on to a rocket the whole time. it's like, i don't know what thing is doing, but let's try and keep it from crashing.

>> brown: "seinfeld" the series ended in 1998, but is seemingly on somewhere at all times to this day. more recently he created a populaweb series," comedians in cars getting coffee": seinfeld and friends, and a memorable episode with president obama. for jerry seinfeld, though, there's just one thing he wants to hold onto: the old accordion folders in which he's stored decades of jokes. that's not near you,s it? >> um, it is, i have it near me. why, you want to see it? >> brown: d love to see it, yeah. can you grab it? >> yeah, c'mon on! so this is the accordion folder. >> brown: this is the famous folder thaholds all of jerry seinfeld's jokes? >> i have a few of these, this

and i had these jokes. is my first one i bought in ¡76. >> brown: and you arted saving them because you gotta hold on to everything? or just for posterity? >> this is-- i had two pairs of jeans and two shirts. i had no socks. and i had these jokes. so what am i going to save? i'm going to save the jokes. the jokes are the only thing i had. you know, you don't have anything in your pockets when go on stage to do standup. all you have is your jokes. >> brown: with the pandemic raging, jerry seinfeld says, now is not a time for comedy. but just wait. soon enough, the jokes will come ouof the folder, the laughs will come again. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown.

>> woodruff: boy, do we need jerry seinfeld now more than ever. thank you, jeffrey brown. and that's the and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online andgain here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >>rchitect. bee-keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan designed for you. with talk, text and data. consumer cellular. learn more at consumercellular.tv

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hello, everyone. welce to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> women are great. women are tough. don't screw with them. >> cher. an irresistible forceful the living legend weighs in on her life as a pop goddess and conservationist. also tonight. >> the virus has now penetrated into every corner of every day life of people. >> once the envy of the world. south korean's foreign minister kang kyung-wha. and -- >> the family that i was born into had already spent years trying to main stream white supremacy. >>