captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, january 22: the omicron variant continues to spread, with hospitalizations down in some states, but spiking in others. jeff greenfield, with a look at the biden presidency, one year in. and, advocating for equal pay in mississippi. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation.

koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group: retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. as the omicron variant continues

to sweep across the country, confirmed cases and hospitalizations are beginning to fall in some places, as they rise in others. overall, new hospital admissions for covid-19 are falling slightly, compared to those of a week ago. but the level of hospitalization remains way above peaks from both last winter and from the delta variant surge last summer, straining healthcare workers and facilities. as omicron spreads, new studies released yesterday from the centers for disease control and prevention confirm that boosters are effective at protecting people from the new variant. a third dose of the pfizer or moderna covid-19 vaccine was 90% effective against hospitalization from omicron. the rise in cases has also stretched labs testing for the virus, with many processing more tests each day than at any point during the pandemic. meanwhile, the federal government has now started to ship at-home antigen tests to those who have requested them,

and free, high-quality n95 masks from the government will be available at health care centers and pharmacies within days. we'll have more on the biden administration's plan to distribute tts and masks, after the news summary. the first shipment of newly- approved u.s.- military aid has arrived in ukraine. nearly 100 tons of lethal aid, including ammunition for frontline soldiers, arrived at the kyiv airport last night, according to the u.s. embassy in ukraine. the shipment is rt of a $200 million security package congress approved in late december. the baltic nations of lithuania, estonia, and latvia-- all members of the nato alliance and former soviet republics-- are also sending anti-tank and anti- aircraft weapons to ukraine. it's a transfer that secretary of state antony blinken said that he authorized, adding in a tweet, “we salute them for their longstanding support to ukraine.” the military aid comes a day after blinken met with his russian counterpart in geneva over the escalating tensions

between ukraine and russia. the hastily-arranged summit did not lead to a diplomatic breakthrough, but both sides agreed to keep talking. russia has amassed an estimated 100,000 troops near the border with ukraine, leading to fears about an imminent invasion. there are now at least 82 people dead following a saudi-led coalition air strike in northern yemen yesterday. rescuers continue to sift through the debris of a detention center run by houthi rebels near the yemeni/saudi rder, which was hit during the early hours on friday. the strikes leveled the facility, as well as a telecommunications hub, cutting off internet access. fighting escalated this week after the houthis attacked fuel tankers in abu dhabi with drones, killing three and wounding six others. abu dhabi is the capital of the united arab emirates, which is a partner in the saudi coati. the saudi coalition began fighting in 2015, after iran-backed houthi rebels took control of northern yemen. aid groups say the situation in yemen constitutes one the world's worst humanitarian

disasters. aid organizations continue to slowly assess the damage from last weeks' volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami in tonga, which killed at least three people. international aid has begun to arrive, and some communication is slowly being restored to the small pacific isnd nation. before-and-after satellite photos reveal near-total devastation to three of the hardest-hit islands. one of the world's largest volcanic eruptions in years, the disaster cut a crucial undersea communication cable that likely will not be fixed for weeks. water supplies have also been contaminated by a giant volcanic ash cloud that has spread throughout the region. as on-the-ground cell phone footage starts to emerge, officials there say the road to recovery will be a long one. one new york city police officer is dead and another remains in critical condition, following a fatal shooting last night in harlem. the shooter, armed with a stolen gun, fired on police officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance call.

22-year old rookie officer jason rivera was killed. 27-year-old officer wilbert mora was critically wounded. the shooter was wounded, and remains in critical care. the officers were the third and fourth police officers to be shot in new york this week. new york city's new mayor, eric adams, who has promised to improve public safety, had this to say. >> it is our city against the killers. it is our city against the killers. this was just not an attack on three brave officers. this was an attack on the city of new york. >> sreenivasan: authorities report the gun used in yesterday's attack was a glock 45 with a high-capacity magazine. it was reported stolen in baltimore in 2017. as part of his mayoral campaign, adams pledged to create a city prosecutor for illegal guns and has called for federal

authorities to target out-of- state gun traffiing. a raging wildfire prompted evacuation orders in the big sur area of california last night. monterey county officials told residents to leave their homes after a wildfire in the palo colorado canyon rapidly spread, causing a portion of highway 1 to be closed in both directions. as of this morning, the wildfire has burned 1,500 acres, and is 5% contained, according to fire officials. >> sreenivasan: for more national and international news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: in order to expand testing access and help stop the spread of the omicron variant, the biden administration announced this week that it would begin distributing millions of covid tests and masks to americans for free. for more on the response, and its potential impact, i spoke with infectious disease epidemiologist jessica malaty rivera. we've seen a few things come out of the administration recently, that we are going to have access to more tests and

access to more masks. in a way, a lot of us thought that these responses would happen a couple of years ago. is this better late than never? >> i mean, it's better to happen than never, for sure, but i am one of those people, too, that lamented the fact that it took this long, particularly because if you look ck at the beginning of the pandemic, one of the most obvious failures in our response was that we weren't testing enough. and unfortunately, we're still not testing enough. and i think one of the ways in which we could have alleviated some of that testing burden was to provide easy access and free testing to every american. >> sreenivasan: where are we falling short? what are the communities that are still not covered by these new policies? >> i mean, throughout the pandemic, we've seen a lot of disparities in access to things like testing, proximity to testing facilities, even the ability to have time off work to get tests. there's been a lot of disproportionate burdens on communities of color, who may live in testing deserts--

or vaccine deserts, for that matter. it's also become cost- prohibitive. i know that recently, to acquire a lot of these at-home tests, we've seen price gouging, we've seen shortages, and an inability to find them in every drugstore. and so, i think that the fact that we didn't prioritize a stkpile and distribution early means that we're kind of in a bottleneck now and having to catch up. >> sreenivasan: there's this sentiment going around-- i don't think it's sentifically accurate-- that, "hey, guess what? this omicron thing is kind of e best thing that could happen, because so many people are going to be getting it, that, well, we're going to reach herd immunity." that's not how it works, is it? >> you're absolutely right that it's not scientifically accurate. i mean, there is a degree to which people are protected, for some time. that time is relative, though. it's not standard at all. people's immunity post-infection varies a lot. that variability makes it really difficult for us to understand who's actually protected. now, we do have some data on hybrid immunity-- those who've been vaccinated and infected-- and those people seem to be

faring pretty well against new variants, and severe illness in particular. we know that vaccine-induced immunity is far superior, that it's much more long-lasting. we have recent data that shows that the booster dose has a significant advantage for those who received it against omicron infection, when it has to do with severe infection, hospitalizations, and deaths. so, that said, we can't specifically rely on the mass amounts of inctions to get us to that finish line or herd immunity. >> sreenivasan: what do we need to do here to try to increase the vaccination rates? because it seems that we've, at best, reached a plateau. there's a certain percentage of the population that is still completely opposed to doing this, and i don't know what proportion of the people who are willing to, already have it, but it seems like everyone who wants a vaccination might have already gotten one. >> that's correct, to a degree. i definitely think that there will be people who will absolutely refuse vaccination till the very end. and my work, especially as

somebody who works in science communication and vaccine advocacy, is not necessarily to convince those who are most vehemently opposed. it's to help those who are confused, or who are on the fence, or who are looking for more information, feel overwhelmed by the decision, feel overwhelmed by the data. and those people are still changing their minds. those people are still choosing to get their first and second doses as recent as this month. and i'm encouraged by that, so i'm not ite losing hope. but i do think that our lens should be broader, right? i'm not thinking just specifically about the united states. i'm thinking about the whole world here, and there are millions of people across the world who have yet to receive first and second doses, and that's where a lot of the opportunities arise. >> sreenivasan: the variants that we've seen so far, before omicron, were sort of related. branches off the same branch, so to speak. this seems different. so, does that mean that there could be variants of omicron that emerge? given the fact that it's been circulating in this population for a month or more now? >> it's possible.

through the genomic sequencing, you can kind of see a family tree, a origin of how these variants emerged from the original wild-type sars-cov-2 virus. omicron did deviate on its own to create its own branch, effectively. and so, as we continue to have vulnerable populations that are not vaccinated, the vulnerability for the whole world is still continuing, because that's when we know those conditions create opportities for more virus to circulate, more mutations to accumulate. and when you have that, that is an increased risk of variants evolving from that. >> sreenivasan: there's this hierarchy of masks, and not everybody knows about them. but, how should we be looking at the type of masks that we're wearing, and the situations in which we're wearing them? >> right, so, the best public health recommendation has always been to wear the best mask you can in a certain situation. if you only have a cloth mask, is it better to just wear a cloth mask? absolutely. any physical barrier is going to be better than nothing. but you want to be having the

most layers of protection with the most amount of coverage over your nose bridge and your cheeks to avoid any sort of exposure for yourself and others. and , i think that the distribution of these n95 masks to drugstores around the world from the national stockpile is a step in the right direction. a little bit late as well. but it's in an attempt to have people wearing the most protective p.p.e., in the context of a very transmissible variant, omicron. >> senivasan: we're going to just wear masks forever? >> a lot of us have acquired this muscle memory for it, and i think that knowing now, especially-- it's much more known that this is a very common practice in a lot of asian countries, as common courtesy to protect other people, if you've got a tickle in your throat. i think that, at least for our family, we've adopted this public health practice of, if we're feeling sick, if it's flu season, if we're going to be on a plane or in a crowded place, iight keep some masks in my handbag. do i think we're going to be wearing them forever? no. but i can't see them fully gone, you know, for a lot of folks who've now become pretty

accustomed to it as a way to-- to stay safe. >> sreenivasan: jessica malaty rivera,, thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> sreenivasan: last week in mississippi, the state house passed the equal pay for equal work act, which would create legal recourse for employees paid less for the same work, bed on sex. mississippi is the last state in the nation without an equal pay provision in state law, after alabama enacted one in 2019. the equal pay bill now heads to the mississippi senate, where a similar measure is also pending. the momentum around enacting equal pay legislation is in part due to the work of the mississippi black women's roundtable. for years, the advocacy organization has called attention to the racial implications of mississippi's gender wage gap, and has lobbied for an equal pay law at the state level. last month, before the new bills were introduced in the legislature, newshour weekend's

ivette feliciano sat down with executive director of the mississippi black women's roundtable, cassandra welchlin. >> reporter: cassandra, who are your clients here at the mississippi black women's roundtable, and why is the work you do so important for women in this state? >> so, the mississippi black women's roundtable, we are actually an intergenerational network of black women and girls working to increase the civic participation among black women and girls, increasing voting rights among black women and girls, and advocating for just public policies that impact their lives. our peop are black women and girls in the state of mississippi. >> reporter: mississippi is the only state in the country without a law that requires equal pay for equal work by women and men. what does that mean for women of color in mississippi, specifically black women in the state? >> what that means is, women are losing wages at higher levels,

because they are black and because they are a woman. when women can't earn a living wage andake care of their families, right, it impacts every area of their life. and when we talk about black women? black women make 56 cents on the dollar, compared to a white non-hispanic man, and she's losing, over the course of a year, over $21,000. over the course of a 40-year career, she loses over $849,000. so what that means is that she doesn't have enough money to save up for retirement. she doesn't have resources for health care, for putting her children through college. and so, she's never able to recover those lost wages. we have been working for the last, i'd say, six years to get an equal pay law passed in the state of mississippi. so, women in the state a half the workforce, two-thirds of the minimum wage earners, and

when we talk about who are the breadwinners and co-breadwinners of their families, they are women. and eight out of ten black women are breadwinners of their families. women in thistate-- black, white, latina, indigenous women, are the backbone, economic drivers here in the state of mississippi. but yet, we're not making the wages that we need to, and black and brown women are really at the center of tt. >> reporter: why have efforts to pass an equal pay law fallen short in the state of mississippi? >> there really n't an excuse at all on why we shouldn't have equal pay law. but what we have heard is that it's going to hurt small businesses. or it's going to hurt business-- businesses as a whole. we want employers to be a partner with us in this. the state of mississippi always says that we are a business- friendly state. we need to then treat our

employees, who are the women in this state, like they are valued. we'vheard there's a federal law. what we know is that that federal law does not protect women at the state level the way it should, because it creates a lot of loopholes. >> reporter: the two federal laws, the equal pay act of 196 and the lilly ledbetter fair pay act of 2009. what are the loopholes? >> there's no consistency, you know, across the board. and so every state can interpret it, right, differently. when the judges interpret the laws in a way that prevents women from recovering the damages, it has in some ways put the burden on employees to prove there there's wage discrimination. it's just problematic, you know, all the way around. >> reporter: what are your hopes for this next legislative session? >> we want a good equal pay law. we have built a bipartisan coalition on this issue because we understand that it is good for mississippi's economy.

if we had an equal pay law, it would put $4.15 billion back into the state's economy. at is huge! we also think this gives us an opportunity to, not just talk about equal pay, but to talk about women's economic security. our initiative, the mississippi women's economic security, introduces paid leave, sick leave, increasing wages, child care. it's putting an agenda, a woman's agenda, before the legislature. and so this is just one way our labor has built this country. it is past time that our labor is honed and is valued. and we're not going away, and we're bringing these women to the table with us.

>> sreenivasan: president biden marked his first year in office on a downbeat note: low approval ratings; a defeat of the democrats' voting rights bill on the senate floor; his key domestic agenda item, the build back better bill, stalled. but perhaps his biggest political concern is how he fares within his own party. for a look at why that is crucial, along with some history, i spoke with special correspondent jeff greenfield, who joined us from santa barbara. so, jeff, when we see these twists and turns, where does the president stand with his own party, among democrats? >> well, a new associated press poll says his approval rating among democrats is 71%. which might sound high, except that's a sharp decline from the near-unanimous 97% approval rating he had at the start of his presidency. and also, only 48% of democrats say they want biden to run in 2024. that's three years away. you can't overanalyze that.

but he's also hurt amongomen, the young, latinos, blacks-- core elements of the democratic party. >> sreenivasan: so what's the kind of short-term implication of that? >> well, it's pretty obvious that if you go into a midterm where the president's party is always up against it, with an unhappy democratic electorate, that affects everythg from working to get out the vote to actually showing up at the polls. but there's even a more fundamental problem for an embattled president, if he doesn't have a united party behind him. think back to watergate. when nixon began to get in trouble, a number of republicans started to ask very tough questions, people like howard baker and lowell weicker. when impeachment came up, seven republicans on the house judiciary committee voted to impeach nixon. and towards the en people like barry goldwater, stalwart republican, went to the white house and said, you've got to leave. contrast that with bill clinton's impeachment. virtually no house democrat

voted for impeachment. no senate democrat did. and the party itself was so solidly behind clinton that, in the fall of 1998, democrats actually won seats in the midterms, which is a rarity. so, that can tell you how important it is for a president to have his own party united, and especially given how stalwart the republicans are in opposing virtually everything biden wants to do. >> sreenivasan: so, even though we're at the midterms, how does party support affect your reelection chances? >> you know, it's a fascinating statistic. this is not scienc but some things reallstrike you as almost a rule. for 70 years, every president who's faced serious problems in his own party has failed to win another term. harry truman in 1952, after being challenged by estes kefauver, said, "i'm not running again." lyndon johnson in 1968, challenged by gene mccarthy and bobby kennedy, said, "i'm not running again." gerry ford was almost unseated by ronald reagan. he lost to jimmy carter.

jimmy carter was pushed hard by d kennedy. he lost to ronald reagan. and even the first president bush, who was kind of pushed a little by pat buchanan, that hurt him in his reelection, and he lost to bill clinton. and the contrast is, every president who has had a united party has won reelection, except one. and that's donald trump. >> sreenivasan: wow. so, is there anything that joe biden can do, or what does he do to improve his prospects? >> well, the first thing that would be helpful is if covid finally got under control, because it's making thentire country just basically unhappy and frustrated and annoyed, and that's never good for an incumbent. beyond that, i think he has to be, and to remind his party and the country about what has been accomplished. instead of havg democrats complain about what hasn't been done, on voting rights or on build back better, he's got to say, look, we have this big infrastructure bill. we had an american rescue plan. we've got unemployment way down.

and go around the country, to purple and even red stat, saying, i know you may not vote for me, but here's what we have done, in the face of opposition from the people you have sent to congress. and lastly, i think it would be really significant for biden to keep donald trump front and center in the minds of democrats, because nothing will unite the democratic party than the feeling that donald trump is trying to put his own candidates into governorships and senate and house seats, maybe trying to rewrite the rules for 2024. because every election is a choice. and it's not a choice for joe biden between "me and perfection." it's a choice between "me and the fellow who i beat last fall, and who is still very much on the horizon." >> sreenivasan: jeff greenfield. thanks so much. >> pleasure.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

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

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