write down phone numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbo. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight... >> the motion is adopted. (gavel pounds) >> woodruff: ...historic economic stimulus-- president biden gets his first legislative victory, as the u.s. house passes his $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill without republican support. then, vaccine passports-- questions arise as one european country becomes the first to implement a system allowing vaccinated people to travel more freely. and... >> ♪ i got the vaccine, you got the vaccine ♪ >> woodruff: community immunity: a new national advocacy campaign uses hip hop to inspire trust in the covid vaccine.

>> we've always been able to use music as a way to reach people in ways that politics and religion can't. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.

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thank you. >> woodruff: a monumental covid economic relief bill is headed for president biden's desk tonight. it spends nearly $2 trillion on jobless benefits, vaccines, school reopenings and $1,400 dollar checks to most families, among many other things. final approval came in the u.s. house of representatives, split almost entirely down party lines over how much aid is really needed. >> now we see our economy opening up and coming back to full strength. what's more-- what's more is that we have yet to spend one trillion that has already been enacted, appropriated, already been voted on! so why do we need to pass another $1.9 trillion?

>> we can tell the american people help is on the way! and to listen to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you wonder, where do they live? because according to them all this has been resolved, the pandemic is gone, people are back to work, the economy has recovered. that's not reality! this bill will provide desperately needed relief to those we serve. >> woodruff: president biden called it a historic victory. he plans to sign it on friday. we'll examine its implications for healthare, after the news summary. the federal budget deficit has hit an all-time high, fueled by previous covid relief spending. the red ink topped $1 trillion through five months of the fiscal year. that shatters the old mark by $350 billion. the federal government is buying another 100 million doses of johnson & johnson's covid vaccine. the white house said today it's for the second half of the year. separately, infection disease leader dr. anthony fauci said

the growing pace of vaccinations is moving the country toward normal. >> every day that you put two million to three million vaccinations into people makes society be more and more protected. so you don't have to wait until you get full herd immunity to really get a profound effect on what you could do. >> woodruff: also today, texas officially ended its face-mask mandate, and it lifted limits on restaurants and other businesses. there's fresh evidence of a growing crush of migrants along the u.s. southern border. new nuers show more than 100,000 people tried to cross illegally in february. that's up 28% from january, and the most since mid-2019. it's also taxing detention facilities to the limit. the u.s. senate today confirmed federal appeals judge merrick garland for attorney general. he'd been nominated for the u.s.

supreme court in 2016, but senate republicans blocked any action. and, ohio congresswoman marcia fudge was confirmed today as secretary of housing and urban development. president biden's top diplomat is set to face off with chinese officials for the first time. secretary of state antony blinken will meet with his chinese counterpart and others, next week in alaska. blinken told a house hearing today that he'll raise a range of disputes, from hong kong to trade to the abuse of ethnic uighurs. >> this is an important opportunity for us to lay out in very frank terms, the many concerns that we have with beijing's actions and behavior that are challenging the security, the prosperity and the values of the united states and our partners and allies. >> woodruff: national security adviser jake sullivan will also

take part in the alaska meetings. part of hawaii is under a state of emergency after days of heavy rain touched off flooding, and put dams at risk. surging water has roared through streets and across neighborhoods. officials have ordered several thousand people to evacuate from a community north of honolulu. the u.s. house of representatives passed an expansive labor rights bill overnight, but it's unlikely to become law. the measure makes it easier for workers to organize, and it penalizes employers who interfere. republicans are expected to block the bill in the senate. and, on wall street, stock mostly advanced on news that inflation remains in check. the dow jones industrial average gained 464 points to close at 32,297, a new record. the nasdaq marked time, losing five points. the s&p 500 added 23.

still to come on the newshour: the u.s. house passes president biden's historic coronavirus stimulus bill. questions arise as one european country implements a system for vaccinated people to travel more freely. jury selection is underway in the trial of the police killing of george floyd. and much more. >> woodruff: a key part of the covid relief bill creates the most significant changes to the affordable care act since it was passed 10 years ago. some important provisions include: providing larger subsidies to buy insurance. reducing deductibles. covering the entire costs of

cobra, the insurance extension program for those who recently lost a job, and giving states more money to expand medicaid. the congressional budget office estimates these changes would cost more than $90 billion over the next two years. julie rovner of kaiser health news watches this closely and joins me now. julie, thank you so much for joining us. so let's first talk about the aca, the parts that affect the aca. how does that money reach people? tell us how it works. >> it basically boosts subsidies by about $35 billion. this is temporary, just two years, but it will particularly help people at the very top and very bottom of the eligibility threshold for the law. people at the top right now if you earn more than four times the poverty level, that's about $50,000 for an individual, you basically get no help. there's this cliff where you suddenly have to pay everything yourself. they'd change that so you would

only have to pay 8.5% of your income. that could dramatically reduc premiums for people at that cutoff threshold by as much as half. then people at the bottom would also get larger subsidies so that people up to one and a half times poverty, about $19,000 for an individual, would basically have access to a zero premium silver plan, that's that middle level plan. so they're pretty significant increases. >> woodruff: it sounds very significant is. and, julie, i want to ask you about medicaid. there's enticements for states who have schoasen not to expand medicaid. how would that work. >> a dozen states have not expanded medicaid. basically texas and florida. they would encourage these states by giving them a larger share of federal funding for their current medicaid populations, not the expansion

population. again, it would be temporary, it would be two years, in the hopes that maybe that sort of financial relief would encourage some of these states to go ahead and expand medicaid eligibility upwards a little bit. >> woodruff: and then, julie, i'm ticking these off as we mentioned. there's yet another provision here to help people who have been laid off from their jobs continue to receive this employer-paid health insurance, the so-called cobra provision. >> that's right, cobra dates back to 1986 and it allows people to continue their employer coverage when they lose their jobs but they have to pay the entire premium themselves, which can be many many hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a month. so this is a very short-term provision that said if you'v been laid off or if you've had your hours cut so that you don't qualify for coverage anymore, the federal government will pay 100% of your cobra premium, but only for as much as six months. >> woodruff: and you were telling us, julie, efforts are

being made to make some of these changes, instead of being just two years, to be permant? >> well, certainly they'll expire in two years and clearly a political fight. i imagine democrats will want to continue them and republicans won't, and they're going to argue they're going to basically decide who's going to take the political hit there. >> woodruff: jewel, one other thing i want to ask you about, republicans were aiming some of their criticism today among many others at this covid relief bill at what they say is a provision that would require $36 billion worth of cuts to medicare. how do we understand that? >> this was actually a provision last put in by democrats in 2010 to keep the deficit from exploding, and it says if you don't pay for new spending, then we will cut medicare. so that is, in fact, true. now congress can and has in the past waived this. so, again, another political fight about whether they will

lets medicare cuts take place or whether they will actually vote to wave those cuts. >> woodruff: but we'll see is what you're saying on that last one? >> yeah. >> woodruff: julie rovner covering all the healthcare changes in this new piece of legislation. thank you, julie. >> thank you. meantime, starting today, texans can work and gather without a statewide mandate for masks or social distancing, after governor abbott signed an executive order earlier this month that declared the state "100% open." lisa desjardins talks to a local leader there about what comes next. >> reporter: we get a sense of where things stand with judge lina hidalgo, a democrat. she is the head of the governing body of harris county, texas, which includes houston and is the third largest county in this country. judge hidalgo, set the scene for us. take us there. are people wearing masks for the

most part or no, and do you think it's safe to lift the mask mandate now in texas? >> starting today in texas, every kind of entity, big or small, gathering big or small, can take place at 100% capacity and all mask mandates have been lifted. in fact, counties and cities have been prohibited from implementing their own mask mandate. remains to be seen what folks do, but if history is any indication, we will see folks wearing mazics less and less as the days go by. initially we had a mask mandate here in harris county about a year ago at this point. folks were wearing the masks, the governor superseded that, eliminated it, and then folks started wearing the masks until the governor removed it. was it a good idea? i'm afraid not. i'm afraid it was premature. we have such goodness in terms of the stimulus package, in terms of the vaccines that are steadily coming, so we know

we're going to get to the point that we need to get to, but we're not there yet. in harris county, for example, less than one in ten people over age 16 have been vaccinated, so we've got a ways to go, and there's no reason why to open ourselves up to unnecessary death and hospitalizations just for the sake of wanting to claim a premature victory. >> woodruff: i hear you talking about that concern over safety, but you know some business owners in harris county, i've seen their words, they say that they're thrilled that they can reopen fully, and they say they can decide for themselves if they want to impose restrictions within their place of business, enforce a mask mandate of their own within their restaurant, for example. why shouldn't business owners be able to do that? what to you say to the struggling owners who really want to reopen? >> first, i understand the challenges that everybody has been facing over the past year and the very real economic challenges that folks are facing.

but the truth of the matter is we are not going to fully recover economically until we get past this virus. now, we've known that every time there's been a reopening in this state, within a month or so, the hospitalizations and the deaths have shot up. we don't need to lose more people, knowing that the end is in sight. why should government intervene in this kind of situation? because it's a disaster. the lack of government engagement, regulation in terms of preserving our ability to produce energy is what led to the crisis just a few weeks back here in terms of the winter weather. now again, with covid, during a disaster, specifically the time when individuals alone, private businesses alone can't possibly take care of the entire community, that is when government needs to step in. >> reporter: i know you spent time with president biden in the past few weeks when he visited, and a bill now moving to his

desk is the american rescue plan. inside that bill is $900 million just for harris county alone. more for the city of houston as well. that's almost a third of your annual budget. why is that much money necessary right now and how do you plan to spend it? >> we're very grateful to our congressional partners, the administration of this bill. of course, the aid for individuals is huge, but for localities as well because we're out there providing the vaccines, the clinics, folks need us more than ever. in fact, we've used local dollars, tens of millions of local coffers in supporting small business folks who have lost their employment, and we were getting to a point where we were concerned about whether we would be able to balance the budget with the reduced revenues we're expecting. so it's big help. we're going to continue as we did with the past set of federal dollars to give that straight to these ailing businesses. these folks who frankly have

been on the front lines. you're talking about the business leaders who say 100% no masks, but we've got a lot of people still maintaining the mask order hand limitations to protect the community. >> reporter: briefly in the last 30 seconds, you were able to make your budgets, you did have a balanced budgets in the last year and, in fact, just a bit more revenue you have to spend this year, but why should the federal government, republicans are asking, be sending money to counties like yours which don't have a budget problem. >> it defends, right. so the cities, they were, like, on the sales tax. so they're feeling the hit right now. for us as harris county, we rely on property taxes. we're going to feel the bigger impact in the next year, and we are seeing additional needs not just from covid but also from the winter storm. so, as we make our budgetary projections, we do need to be able to make up the gap, and we

have been doing, you know, broadband programs, domestic violence, childcare, all kind of programs directly to the community, and this will let us continue to do more. the sooner we get through this, get the vaccinations, wear the masks, the faster we recover and the economy is going to be back on track. >> reporter: judge lina hidalgo of harris county, texas. thank you for joining us. >> tha you. >> woodruff: europe's tourist industry has taken a beating during this pandemic, and, as a way to boost travel denmark is set to introduce vaccine passports. the digital documents will provide proof of a traveler's covid-related health, eliminating the need to quarantine upon arrival in a new country. but opponents fear this could create billions of second class

citizens. special correspondent maolm brabant reports. >> reporter: london's gatwick airport has been little more than a giant jet parking lot since covid struck. it symbolizes how we've all been imprisoned by the coronavirus. governments across the world hope vaccinations will liberate their citizens and economies. britain's prime minister boris >> reporter: the british government is backing research by a company led by andrew bud. it specializes in facial recognition technology. >> the world health organization is currently working on international standards for digital vaccine certificates, which will make this much more feasible. >> reporter: bud says his system is ready to roll. >> the technology of this is the easy part of it. we've built this technology so that it can be trialed, so that it can be put in different use cases and the political and social and ethical aspects of this can be explored. those are the real challenges of vaccine certificates. >> vaccination passports give rise to some really significant human rights and civil liberties concerns. >> reporter: rosalind comyn is

the policy and campaigns manager of liberty, a non profit that challenges injustice and inequality in britain. >> this will essentially create a two tier system, so in essence, what vaccine passports are trying to do is create a system whereby some people can access freedoms, services or other kind of spaces and places and other people are excluded from them. >> reporter: demonstrations have already taken place in copenhagen. chanting freedom for denmark protestors marched against government plans to introduce a vaccine certificate. lars sandahl sorensen is a leading advocate for the prect. >> we think that it's going to open up society substantially has the potential to do that. >> reporter: why's that? >> well, simply that you can then start accessing restaurants, venues, sports venues, but certainly also give you the opportunity to travel and to document to sources that you actually have a vaccine, you actually have been tested, et cetera. >> reporter: but isn't there a danger of vaccine apartheid? >> in our opinion, absolutely not.

it is going to help to open society, to create more mobility for all of us who needs to go out and interact with other people. >> reporter: restoring tourism to copenhagen is just one objective of danish business, and of jens zimmer christensen who heads danish and pan european restaurant lobbying groups. he owns a restaurant not far from this harbor. but he has reservations. >> there are also a number of people we should not forget that people with allergies, there are pregnancies, and then there are some which do not believe in vaccination at all. one way or the other, they have to be included in society also in the future. >> reporter: tourism generates $200 billion a year for spain. the european union's decision to back vaccine certification is good news for prime minister pedro sanchez. >> ( translated ): the objective in the view of the spanish government is to resume normality in the tourism industry as soon as possible without increasing a sanitary

risk. >> the rich people can get the vaccination or the rich country can get the vaccination and they are going to be the only ones able to travel. >> reporter: gloria guevara from mexico is c.e.o. of the world travel and tourism council. globally, the industry has lost $100 billion during the pandemic, empty cruise ships represent a small fraction of that figure. with poorer countries struggling to vaccinate their citizens, guevara opposes vaccine passports. >> you might have two people, for instance, competing exactly. for the same job with exactly the same skills and just one having the vaccination and the other one. no. and the question is, is that going to be the driver to decide who you hired? i don't think so >> reporter: vaccination passports are some way off for community leader sabia akram. her priority is combating resistance to the vaccine amongst ethnic minorities. she's in the muslim cemetery in slough, west of london urging

british pakistanis to get inoculated. slough is one of britain's most ethnically diverse towns. there's concern that anti vax conspiracy theorists have swayed young asians and those with afro caribbean heritage. >> i'm not really that bothered by the vaccine. i kind of don't trust it, so, yeah, that's why i'm probably looking at i'm not i'm not going to get it. >> reporter: sabia akram is worried that vaccine skepticism will exacerbate racial differences in britain. >> i think that divide that already exists will just become greater. i think it's more important than ever for ethnic minorities to understand their vulnerabilities, some of the inherent genetic disorders and diseases that they are vulnerable to. that message hasn't been loud and clear enough from public health, and covid is just another virus that will seek out their vulnerabilities and unfortunately, cause death. >> reporter: those who don't get vaccinated face exclusion from

sections of the job market as more organizations, such as britain's health service, contemplate making inoculation a condition of employment. >> well, very clear, no jab, no job. >> reporter: charlie mullins owns a high profile repair and service company and is among britain's most vocal advocates of the vaccine. he's currently in dubai. >> as an employer, we have an obligation to and a duty to make sure that our staff are safe and to our customers are safe. and there's many, many people in the u.k. that will call across the snow half naked to get this vaccine done at the moment. >> reporter: those views resonated in slough's main street. >> you need to take the vaccine to save others. so i think it's quite important that people can see that you took the vaccine, that they can differentiate between the person who took the vaccine and the one who didn't take the vaccine. this is the first vaccination i've had since 2011. the last time was a disaster i had the yellow fever vaccine

that fried my brain and made me crazy and we lost everything. my wife and son are full of trepidation today as i go to have this vaccine but i want to have it because i want my freedom back. >> ready? yeah. >> reporter: if everything runs on schedule, i should get my second shot in about three months' time, then my interim vaccine certificate will be fully loaded. the documentation envisaged by the european union will be digital. for millions of britains, local attractions are losing their allure after a year of lockdown. as winter fades, more exotic pastures beckon. f for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in brighton. >> woodruff: jury selection is underway in the murder trial of former police officer derek chauvin, who is charged with the killing of george floyd.

and one of the central questions: whether a police officer will be convicted on murder charges. yamiche cindor picks up the story from here. >> alcindor: judy, since 2005, more than 125 non-feral officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter for an on-duty shooting. and a little more than 40 officers were convicted, and often of a lesser charge. to explain why that is, we're joined by professor paul butler, a former prosecutor, who now teaches criminal law and race relations at georgetown weucd . xlk erhe tter.chan executive research forum, an organization dedicated to improving best practices in poli.ci thank you both for being here. paul, i want to start with you. so many people have seen the video, the tragic video of george floyd's death. a lot of people think this would be a slam dunk case, but it's very rare for police officers to be charged and convicted. why is that? >> u.s. officers kill about 1,000 people every year. the vast majority of those killings are ruled justified.

when officers are charged, they're usually found not guilty or the charges are dismissed. the law is set up in a way that makes it very difficult to convict police officers of misconduct. the supreme court says that jurors should evaluate the evidence from the perspective of the police officer. cops are not required to use deadly force as a last resort, so even if they can resolve the situation without killing someone, they're allowed to shoot to kill, if they reasonably believe that their life is at risk, and then when cops are prosecuted, they usually testify that they fear for their safety. so even when they kill people who are unarmed and didn't seem to pose a threat, often that defense, i fear for my safety, is successful. >> reporter: and, chuck, there are some who think we give officers too wide a latitude and then you get officers who develop a pattern of bad behavior that maybe ends up with an unjustifiable killing. what do you make to have the

latitude that we give officers? is it too much? >> well, i think that paul was referring to was graham vs. connor the 1989 supreme court decision which judges officers, whether or not they were object i'm reasonable in their use of force, and that has been the standard in police departments for, what, 40-some-odd years. so, until we create policy and training that equips officers to deescalate situations, i think, you know, the juries are going to be challenged to convict. >> reporter: chuck just said something really important about juries. paul, i want to come to you. on jury selection going on in the derek chauvin trial, how does race factor into jury selection and possibly how officers are viewed during trials? >> yamiche, jurors are instructed in every case that, when they evaluate evidence, they should use their life

experiences and common sense, and everything that we know about policing suggests that african-americans and latinx people have different experiences with police officers than many white people, experiences that leave people of color to be more skeptical. it's just as valid to bring those life experiences into the jury room as any other kinds of experiences with police officers, but defense attorneys, when police officers are on trial, often try to exclude black jurors and latinx jurors because they think that they will vote guilty. >> reporter: chuck, going to you on policing, you mentioned training. i wonder what you think about whether or not it's time to, in some ways, update training and what you think about the factors that go into training that then end up with these fatal police encounters? >> well, i think what's happened, especially in the last

five years, is the american people are seeing a side of policing that has been going on for quite some time and that's use of force. and t "the washington post" did their study of 1,000 officer-involved shooting, 60% involve people with guns, 40% involve people who are under some sort of crisis, using a knife and some other object like that. those are the ones with the right training we can impact. but you know what? training hasn't fundamentally changed in 25 years. so this is about training. this is also about culture and changing culture. >> reporter: i want to stick to that. there are some hearing you say training hasn't changed fundamentally, there has been talk of body cameras and community policing. talk to me a little bit about why those conversations and what we've seen over the last few years isn't fundamentally changing training. >> i think what body-worn

cameras have done is simply recorded how police are twraind now. when there's an officer-involved shooting, and i know paul would agree, when asked why did they do it, they did it because that's how they were trained. so i think what you're seeing today is a recognition that we have to change our thinking. there is a use of force continuum that police are taught, and what that means is if someone uses one level of force, police officers should use a higher level of force. if we change that thinking when people are in crisis and rather than trying to use more force, sometimes recognize that in some cases slowing it down, using time and distance and backing away and talking might be more effective. >> reporter: paul, i want to come to you. chuck is talking about slowing it down, but he's also talking about and i asked about body cameras. we've seen videos, for as long as we can remember, from rodney king to the death of eric garner, we've seen officers do things on video that maybe the

wide majority of the public says that should result in some sort of conviction or some sort of charge, and that hasn't happened in many cases. what do you make of how video and body camera footage has impacted this conversation around charging police officers and the role they play? >> so video cameras have certainly increased awareness, especially in the white community, about the frequency of police violence and police abuse. it hasn't seemed to make a big difference in terms of getting convictions of officers for misconduct. so we can think about eric garner, we can think about walter scott, tamir rice. none of those cases resulted in convictions in state court for officers who were filmed doing what the prosecutors charge that they are doing. it's often the case that jurors think that, even if the officer is guilty, the person was just trying to do their job.

jurors are often sympathetic about the danger of police work and, so, they think, even if the police officer made a mistake, they're reluctant to punish them. >> reporter: what usually makes a difference, when we do see an officer charged and convicted, what makes those cases different than other kind of cases? >> what a lot of reformers are doing is looking beyond convictions in criminal court to civil reforms like the george floyd act passed in congress this week, passed by the house and pending before the senate. the idea is that that kind of reform which outlaws racial profiling and chokeholds and requires better training for police officers creates a data base of bad apple cops. the idea is those kinds of civil reforms will transform policing

more than any conviction of one police officer. >> reporter: chuck, in the last few section we have here, what do you make of what paul is saying? >> well, i think what we have to do is go upstream on some of the use of force cases. we have to ask ourselves what could the police officer have done before the incident, what kind of training, what kind of policy? all those things matter. today what good police departments do is they monday morning quarterback. they look at an incident whether kenosha or rochester and say what could we have done differently. i think that's where the future lies. >> reporter: an important topic. paul butler, chuck wexler. >> always a pleasure. thank you. >> woodruff: there's a considerable percentage of americans who are reluctant to get a covid vaccine. a recent survey by pew found

nearly 30% of all americans say they are either unlikely to get the vaccine or opposed to doing so. the survey shows big partisan differences, particularly among skeptical republicans. several polls also show concerns among communities of color, due in part to past racism in medicine and historical inequities. efforts are underway to persuade people, including a new national public health campaign trying to reach one in four black americans. it's leveraging the power of art to achieve "community immunity." jeffrey brown has a look and a listen, for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> ♪ i got the vaccine you got the vaccine ♪ they got the vaccine we got the vaccine ♪ >> brown: it's an attempt to make getting the covid-19 vaccine a social norm in the black community... >> if doc says it's good, we know it's good. >> brown: ...to fight fear with facts. >> people want to know is the

vaccine safe >> brown: “community immunity” is a vaccine literacy program in the form of animated rap songs. the work of a group called ”hip hop public health”, founded in 2004 by dr. olajide williams, a self-described “hip hop fanatic”... as a bridge between public health and the streets he walked every day. >> i would walk past these young kids and they would be rapping whole jay-z songs from beginning to the end. it was fascinating. >> it's about community immunity. >> so i said to myself, how about if we took health information and we put it in a song, but we made it just as cool as a jay-z song. and that was really how everything came about in terms of using music as a vehicle for health education. >> brown: williams is a top neurologist at columbia university and new york- presbyterian hospital, who'd grown concerned seeing how social factors inhibit recognition oftroke and other

diseases. >> but how do you communicate that to a community that is bogged down with the daily hustle of survival? how do you communicate a stroke message to that community? and that was the challenge. >> brown: williams worked with leading rappers and producers like doug e. fresh, put the videos out through a social media public service campaign, and saw results. >> i'm working with the hip hop doc >> brown: he then expanded the project to address other public health stresses in communities of color. in the pandemic, the message turned to safe personal behavior. and now with the vaccine, toward deep skepticism and fears, grounded in centuries of neglect, discrimination and outright abuse by the medical world. >> trust me, believe me, we're not going to have another tuskegee. >> brown: as a black doctor, williams says he has an important role. and he's playing it in many ways

including, >> the vaccine is safe. i got the shot myself. >> my kids get very embarrassed when i rap. i'm not very good, but you know what? i would do anything for the community. >> brown: whatever you think of the doc's musical skills, he has surrounded himself with real talent: veteran producer artie green, singer-songwriter gerry gunn, and hip hop legend darryl mcdaniels, better known as ¡dmc' from the influentialro run- dmc, which sold more than 200 million records worldwide. >> in hip hop we got a saying:“ keep it real”. so we're trying to keep it real within our communities. >> it's 90% effective and is legit. >> brown: we watched a recent recording session for the¡ community immunity' songs-- five altogether, each with a verse addressing specific

questions: what are vaccines? are they safe and how do i know this? the recordings were then sent to animators to bring them to life. >> we've always been able to use music as a way to reach people in ways that politics and religion can't. the black community is not trustful of our government. so we figure if people in the black community especially could see somebody that looks like them, th sounds like them, that has walked the walk and also talk the talk, maybe they'll say, oh, if this is dmc, maybe it's ok for me to go get the shots so that things could be better for all of us. the song is just the bait, so we can educate. >> brown: and it's not just a matter of educating the public. trust must be earned back, too and a number of groups are reaching out. the ad council put out this public service announcement:

the black coalition against covid 19 worked with the kaiser family foundation to produce“ the conversation: between us, about us." and the national basketball association produced a video featuring hall of famer bil russell. >> i've got the vaccine, you've got the vaccine. brown: “hip hop public health” is also working with grassroots groups like ¡heart smiles' in baltimore, which offers young people leadership training and career opportunities. >> let me remind you, don't let the gossip blind you. >> browntwo young rappers: 19 year old ¡young elder' on and 17 year old tayybandz, gave us a sample, and spoke of the wild rumors they feel bombarded with on social media. >> like if you get the vaccine, there's the side effects. and one of the rumors that i seen, they said a lady had got the vaccine, her face was stiff, she couldn't even move her mouth, and that went viral and a lot of people was like, no, i'm not getting this vaccine.

>> brown: their verses use local references and language. >> to help get places, sayings that really relate to baltimore, so that people, when they see the video they can say, oh, you know, that's my street. or, i know about that landmark. and it will be easier for them to relate because it'll be more credible. they'll see stuff that they recognize, things that they know about. >> yeah, we know if our message get to the youth, they'll say it to their parents and their parents share to their parents, so our method will go through generations. >> community immunity instead of a eulogy. >> brown: that's a key insight for the ¡hip hop public health' approach, in fact.“ heart smiles” founder and director joni holifield: >> so when you have young people in the home who are informed and who can be credible messengers, then at least you have parents and adults who can now take some of that, do research on their own, and then make the right choice for themselves and for their families. >> what we really need to do is

vaccinate our way out of this pandemic. >> brown: on valentines day, dr. williams took his message to a church in harlem. the challenge, he told us, is great. but there's also another fear: >> if we move people from pre- contemplation to action, “i'm ready”, and then they can't access it, mistrust is going to bubble up again and say perhaps there is a problem with equity. and i see the white communities getting the vaccine without a problem. so it's absolutely important for us to make sure we address access and we address supply to avoid this potential problem that i'm very concerned about. >> we can get back to normal. >> brown: and now: an ambitious rollout, including public service announcements on radio, and a campaign through partnerships with state health agencies, churches, businesses and schools. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown.

>> woodruff: and we'll be back shortly, with a look at one woman's effort to protect those at high-risk from becoming targets of abuse. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> woodruff: help wanted: paul solman explores the increasing need for skilled tradespeople in the u.s. this encore presentation is part of our series, "work shift." >> reporter: superstar seattle, where the high tech young make six figures and up. but you can make that much in low tech too, says plumber vinnie sposari. >> drain cleaning, light plumbing repairs and that kind of thing, we've got guys making,

you know, over $100,000 a year. >> reporter: sposari owns seattle's mr. rooter franchise. >> i've got plumbers that work for me today that make 200,000 plus a year. >> reporter: and they're what age? >> in any age. >> reporter: making $200,000 a year or more. >> absolutely. >> reporter: that's because there simply aren't enough plumbers-- not in boomtowns like seattle, not anywhere. >> manpower is one of the most frustrating parts of my job, is filling all the spots i can hire six, eight experienced plumbers right now. >> reporter: but they're just not out there? >> they're just not out there. guys that are my age, they're aging out. >> reporter: but why aren't they being replaced with the young, given their historically low labor participation rate, made worse by the pandemic? there are all these kids who either aren't working at all or are working in dead end, low wage jobs. why can't you just say to them, hey, by age of 25 or 30, you

could be making six figures. just come with me. >> i would love to. i've gone to some career days. and you know, the kids, you're waiting for them to come talk to you. and they just don't. >> reporter: so why no takers? >> first and foremost is the perception of plumbing. >> reporter: trevor caldwell is vinnie sposari's right hand man. >> there's this stigma that goes along with getting your hands dirty. just a plumber, not a person, just a plumber. and i don't want to be that guy. >> reporter: or that gal. >> you're doing manual labor. people look down on that. and that makes people not want to go into it, clearly. >> reporter: sarah schnabel isn't a plumber, but an ithaca, new york electrical apprentice, another well-paying trade which can't find good help these days, a frustration for schnabel's boss, brian lamorte and his colleagues. >> i know lots of guys in the trade who are contractors, and they're looking for help.

>> reporter: and willing to pay for it. >> i recently raised our rates as a business to $90 an hour and we are not pushing the envelope. we were 75 a little while ago and 65 a little while before that. it's getting to the point where you probably pay us more to come fix your light switch than you do to go to the doctor. >> reporter: so again, why no takers? >> i do think for people my age that it's definitely more glamorous to think of the tech job where you're in a really nice cushy office building. we're the kind of people who are going to hire someone to go change a light bulb, let alone go into the trades. that's kind of where my generation is right now. >> i can't give them a power tool, they might kill themselves with it. they've never held a power tool in their life. >> reporter: yes, says detroit master plumber adrienne bennett, whose firm is currently helping to revitalize "michigan central station," it takes a non-cushy mindset. >> this is physical work. you need to be there on the job site every day. and you got to be on time. and a lot of the young people today, they don't have work

ethics. >> reporter: but plenty do. determined to breed new plumbers, vinnie sposari runs his own year-long training program, paying young people from theet-go to learn the trade. >> we're paying our trainees 15, 16, $18 an hour. and then when you're done with the program, you're not a full licensed plumber, you're a service technician who's able to snake drains and to do the kind of small plumbing repairs and whatnot and get close to that six figure income. you're getting paid to learn that! >> reporter: after a certain number of hours and possibly an exam; the requirements vary by locality; you can become a licensed plumber, a quality credential in an economy where only 11% of employers think colleges and universities are doing a good job of preparing people for the workforce. says sposari of his apprenticeship program:

>> it's open for everybody. i would welcome anybody. >> reporter: but says sposari... >> you'd be amazed how many people we want to hire, but our insurance company won't insure them because of driving violations, drugs, you know, can't keep a job. you know, you see some applicants come in here in a ripped t-shirt, hasn't shaved. you go out, look at his car and it's full of garbage. it hasn't been washed in a month. those are the things we look at. >> reporter: but hey, plenty of young folks have intact t- shirts, clean faces, clean cars. maybe they realize, or learn, that you need an apprenticeship to get licensed, says plumber adrienne bennett... >> and the apprenticeships are five years. and you start out at maybe 15, $16 an hour and to get to 40, $50 an hour is going to take you five or six years. >> reporter: plus, to get a job, isn't it who you know? and few potential candidates know tradespeople, it seems. >> i didn't knew nobody.

>> reporter: manuel rios, a mr. rooter trainee, used to work on electric motors for $18 an hour with little prospect of making much more. but by chance, he met some plumbers there. >> they say that they make a lot of money. and i realize that the plumbing is never going to end because you always going to need a plumber. so the business is always going to be there. >> reporter: the final barrier to entry in the trades is a familiar one, says electrician lamorte. >> there is a certain feeling that it's kind of like a white man's game. i hate to say it. so people who are l.g.b.t.q., minorities, are a little bit intimidated by the boys club that exists. >> reporter: and of course women. added together, that's about two-thirds of the country. in the late 1970s, adrienne bennett was recruited as a union plumbing apprentice under a federal program targeting women. similar programs exist today. >> this is something that will keep food on the table. it will keep clothes on your back.

it will keep a roof over your head. i'm living proof. >> reporter: living proof, as c.e.o. of her own industrial contracting plumbing business since 2008. for the pbs newshour, paul solman. >> woodruff: many victims of domestic violence have been trapped at home with their abusers during this pandemic. in tonight's brief but spectacular, we meet kathryn jacob. she is c.e.o. of safehaven, which focuses on creating preventative programs that help high-risk people before they become survivors. >> it's interesting that we use the word pandemic, uh, to descbe what's happening in our, all of our communities right now, because domestic violence has been a pandemic, in tarrant county, texas, but really all over the united

states for many, many years. one in three women in tarrant county, texas will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. that is far greater than the number of people who are currently experiencing covid-19. it is not as deadly, but it is certainly as transformative. everything is bigger in texas. so tarrant county is a very large place. but we have hundreds and hundreds of domestic violence cases thousands every year. safe haven started in the late 1970s, a group of like-minded women in fort worth, texas decided that a domestic violence was an issue in this community, and they decided they wanted to do something about it. and so we run the emergency shelters and the hotline and all the kind of normal services that you would see out of a domestic violence organization. we have clients who are actively seeking our services because

someone is in pursuit of them shame and gaslighting is pervasive in our work. it happens even with, from people who have the best intentions. so even asking the question, why doesn't she just leave, uh, really puts the blame on the victim for staying in a relationship. so when a victim calls us and says, i'm a victim of domestic violence, um, we don't ask to investigate that or ask for of them being a victim. we start by believing the words that they're telling us. in 2020, we've had sadly a spike during covid. so we actually went from september of 2019 to march of 2020 without experiencing a single intimate partner homicide. but sadly since march, we have had 17 intimate partner homicides. one of the tools and tactics that a domestic violence offender has is the tool of isolation. the idea that they would isolate their victim from their friends and family, so the idea that,

this tool of isolation is being requested by our government officials to use in a good way with a good intention. it really puts domestic violence victims in a very scary situation. i would say the biggest thing that we want to tell everybody is to check on your friends and family. my name is kathryn jacob, and this is my brief, but spectacular take on confronting the pandemic of gender-based violence. >> woodruff: and it is such an important message. and you can find all of our "brief but spectacular" and you can find all of our brief but spectacular segments online at: pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again 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:

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