captioning sponsored by newshour productionsllc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the pandemic persists. the u.s. approaches 900,0 covid deaths, with a mortality rate far higher than other wealthy nations, as the vaccination campaign stagnates. then, a major lawsuit. a former n.f.l. head coach sues the league for racial discrimination, after being fired by the miami dolphins. and, a silent outbreak. scientists uncover rampant covid infections in white-tailed deer, raising questions about the future of the pandemic. >> this is the first time a widespread natural infection of a wild animal species has been demonstrated, which really changes the way we ought to understand this pandemic, and

the virus. >> woodrf: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. >> supportinsocial entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: president biden has ordered several thousand u.s. troops to take up new positions in eastern europe, as russian forces crowd ukraine's borders. the pentagon said today that 2,000 soldiers will deploy from fort bragg, north carolina, to poland and to germany. another 1,000 will move from germany to romania. >> these troops will not be going to ukraine to participate in the defense of ukraine-- the president has been very clear about that. these forces are going to

reassure and to bolster capabilities inside nato's eastern flank. >> woodruff: russia called the u.s. deployments "destructive." meanwhile, the pentagon confirmed the validity of documents leaked to a spanish newspaper. they indicate that the u.s. would agree to talks over reducing missile deployments in europe if russia backs away from ukraine. in congo, militia fighters attacked a refugee camp overnight, with machetes and guns. local officials say at least 60 people were killed. it was the latest violence in the eastern part of congo, in a long-running conflict between ethnic groups. back in this country, a sprawling winter storm pushed east, closing highways and canceling 5,000 flights through tomorrow. part of inrstate-70 was shut down in missouri, with a foot or more of snow falling. freezing rain and ice reached as far south as texas. all told, nearly a third of the u.s. population was under

winter weather alerts. the f.b.i. has identified as many as six possible suspects in bomb threats against historically black universities. news accounts today said all of those being investigated are juveniles. at least 18 schools received threats on monday and tuesday. no bombs were found. the c.d.c. warned today that it is too soon to start lifting covid-19 restrictions. that came amid reports that the u.s. death rate is running higher than in other wealthy nations, due in part to lagging vaccinations. the c.d.c.'s director acknowledged that infections are down sharply, but she said there are still too many cases. >> our hospitalization rates are still quite high, and certainly having hospital capacity challenges in many parts of the country still. so, we really do have to look to our hospitalization rates, and our death rates, to look to when is time to lift me of these

mitigation efforts. we will continue to reevaluate, and we know people are anxious. >> woodruff: walensky said it is still true that most patients hospitalized with covid are unvaccinated. four men have been charged with narcotics conspiracy, in the overdose death of actor michael k. williams. federal prosecutors in new york said today the men were in a drug crew that sold heroin laced with fentanyl. williams was found dead in his apartment last september. he was best known for his role in the tv series "the wire." a leading figure in american television news, jeff zucker, resigned todays president of cnn. he acknowledged that he had failed to disclose a consensual romantic relationship with another senior cnn executive. it came up when former cnn anchor chris cuomo was investigated and then fired for helping his brother andrew-- who was then, the governor of

new york-- during a sexual harassment scandal. the world's major oil-producing countries, opec and its allies, have agreed to raise output by another 400,000 barrels a day. it is part of an ongoing plan to restore deep cuts made when the pandemic hit. the increase is not expected to do much to cut oil prices, now at their highest since014. on wall street, communications and tech stocks kept this week's rally going. the dow jones industrial average gained 224 points to close at 35,629. the nasdaq rose 71 points. the s&p 500 added 42. and, competition has begun in the beijing winter olympics. in curling today, the u.s. mixed doubles team won its opening round against australia. initial action also got underway in hockey and skiing. the official opening ceremony takes place on friday. still to come on the newshour: we examine the president's pledge to diversify the federal judiciary.

whoopi goldberg is suspended from the tv show "the view" following remarks about the holocaust. a professor explores the history of the american south in a new memoir. plus, much more. >> woodruff: more than two years into this pandemic, the u.s.'s death toll is the highest in the world. the country is closing in on 900,000 deaths. and its death rate is alarming, particularly given that the u.s. was one of the first to have the vaccine. geoff bennett looks at why the u.s. is struggling, compared to much of the world. >> reporter: judy, those troubling statistics have been persistent since covid first spread, and today, an analysis by the "new york times" underscores just how deep these problems are. it compared the u.s. death rate

for covid to other wealthy industrialized countries. america had the highest rates. and as you can see on this simplified chart of the "times's" data, the u.s. rate was higher than britain, germany, canada, and japan-- to name a few. why are we continuing to struggle? we dig into that with jennifer nuzzo, who studies epidemiology and global health at the johns hopkins center for health. it's good to have you with us. we'll start there. what accounts for this high death rate the u.s. as compared to its peer nations. >> first of all we have to acknowledge it's a complete and utter tragedy because the vast majority of the deaths have been preventable because most have occurred since the development of the covid 19 vaccinings. what we're really seeing is the effect of the united states not

making enough progress in vaccinating adults against the virus and people not protected against severe illness by vaccine are unfortunately the ones most likely to tie. >> reporter: what accounts for the lack of progress on vaccination? >> ihink in shop places people still have a hard time getting vaccinated in part because they work hours that are not conducive to going and getting vaccines, but i think we also have not done enough effort to emphasize the benefits of vaccines, the fact they prevent you frosevere illness and death. many are focusing on the fact they know somebody who have been vaccinated and they still got covid, but the fact of the matter is if you're vaccinated your likelihood of ending up in the hospital is low compared to the unvaccinated. we have people doing research on the vaccine and it's more likely

to find lies than the benefits of the vaccines. we need to do more and protect the people who are most likely to suffer the severe outcomes of covid includes people who are in the nursing home who may benefit from a third dose, we've lagged compared to other countries in terms of getting third doses out thto people over the age of 60, but really all adults if you're not yet vaccinated, you haven't protected yourself against worse harms this virus can cause. >> the public health response in this country has you know has in many ways been so politicized. just the idea of wearing a mask, the notion of getting vaccinated. for lots of people, it's a partisan issue now. have you been able to quantify the impact of that on the overall death rate and how does the politicization in this country stack up with our industrialized peer nations. >> an interesting study came out recently in the lancet looking at the single biggest predictor

in how countries have performed in terms of covid outcomes and it comes out to trust. unfortunately, when political leaders make a political issue out of simple biology which is the virus is deadly and the vaccines protect people, it unfortunately deters people from getting vaccinated. i have spoken to a lot of people who are not yet vaccinated and they come to me earnestly but armed with lies, lies they've seen online, unfortunately, lies they've heard repeated from political leaders. if you spend a lot of time talking to people you can unpack it and change minds but it takes time and it's a hard thing to scale when we're in the midst of a crisis. we need to make sure people have access to the right information that they can talk to people they trust and that we can make vaccines vaibilityd them. we should not assume that people are not vaccinated don't care about covid. i know a lot of people who are scared about the vaccine because of things they've seen online but are worried about

contracting the virus but we need to have conversations with people and do so in a nonjudgmental, empathetic way to get to the point of their feeling of trust in the message and the benefits the vaccines offer. >> reporter: can you point to some things other countries are doing right when it comes to managing this pandemic? >> well, i think one of the things that we have failed to do in the nate is to help people comply with public health recommendation. we know there are barriers for people to comply. masks are expensive, getting tested is hard. when people test positive it may mean they get shut out of work for ten or more days and that's difficult for some people. we haven't supported them financially or socially to help them mply with recommendations. that's what we've seen a number of other countries do and helps people comply in a way they feel supported and perhaps not put upon or feeling as though their rights or freedoms have been restricted. >> as we enter year three, now, of this covid crisis, where are

we in the life of this pandemic? are we any closer, as close as we need to be, to having covid be endemic? >> well, everyone should understand that this virus is not going away. it's going to be with us for a long time, so any hope that you can sort of sit it out and ride out the storm is an unrealistic one. again, another reason why it's great to arm yourself against the virus, your first contact with the varieties through vaccines. the virus is not going away but we're still very much in more of an emergency response period because the case numbers we're seeing are still unprecedentedly high. even if people are protected because they have been vaccinated or maybe they have gotten covid before, we're still seeing high case numbers that wind up in the hospitals where that's a strain on the health system. so i think we have a ways to go. the good news is at least here in the united states is that the case numbers are going down, the hospitalizations are going down and i expect in a few weeks

we'll see the death numbers go down, but we have to remember this is a global pandemic so, really, our concerns about this virus and every other greek alphabet letter variant that still could request yet emerge is not going to be over till we make sure the world has vaccines and people can protect themselves and we reduce the likelihood of mutations occurring across the globe that will undermine the progress we've made today. jennifer nuzzo, who studies epidemiology and global health at the johns hopkins center for health, we appreciate your insights. >> thank you. >> woodruff: well over half of the players in the national football league are black. but, you could count on one hand the number of top head coaches or general managers who are black. that has been a problem for many years. but, a class action lawsuit filed in federal court yesterday has cast a stark new spotlight on it, alleging racism in hiring and recruitment.

william brangham has the latest. >> brangham: former miami dolphins head coach brian flores took to the morning shows today, explaining why he's suing the n.f.l. and its 32 teams over alleged racist hiring practices. >> we didn't have to file a lawsuit for the world to know that there's a problem, from a hiring standpoint, in regards to minority coaches in the national football league. the numbers speak for themselves, right? we filed the lawsuit so that we could create some change. >> brangham: flores said the league is "rife with racism," pointing to stark racial disparities in players versus management. the lawsuit notes, out of 32 n.f.l. teams, none has a black owner. only one has a black head coach. only four have a black offensive coordinator, and only 11 have a black defensive coordinator. that's against the backdrop of n.f.l. players, 70% of whom are

n.f.l. players, where 58% of whom are black. flores was fired last month, after three years leading the dolphins, the last two being winning seasons. he was interviewed for the head coach job with the new york giants, but flores alleges he wasn't really being considered. as evidence, his lawsuit includes text messages between flores and new england patriots coach bill belichick that were sent three days before flores's scheduled interview for the giants job. belichick said he'd heard from the other team that flores was "their guy." but belichick then realized he'd texted the wrong brian-- and admitted to flores, it was brian daboll who'd already been chosen. dall, who is white, was officially named the new giants head coach last week. in a statement, the giants said flores was "in the conversation to be our head coach until the 11th hour," but hired the individual the team felt was the most qualified. flores argues the giants' interview process is typical of how the n.f.l. carries out the so-called "rooney rule." that rule was created nearly 20

years ago to give more minority candidates opportunities to become n.f.l. head coaches. it was amended in 2020 to say that teams must interview at least two minority candidates not associated with their team for any head coach openings. >> it was humiliating. to be quite honest? it was disbelief. there was anger, there was... you know, a wave of emotions, for a lot of reasons. >> brangham: the n.f.l., in response, said it would defend against the lawsuit, and that diversity is "core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership spend more time." flores's suit, filed as a putative class action, will need certification from the court to proceed. to unpack more of this, i'm joined by kevin blackistone. he is a columnist at the "washington post," and a equent guest on espn. kevin blackistone, great to have you back on the "newshour".

so brian flores has two straight winning seasons, he's fired by the dolphins, and then he says that he is humiliated by the fact that he knows he's now interviewing for a job that's already been given to a white coach, and he says this makes an absolute mockery of this rooney rule. do you agree with that? >> oh, absolutely. the problem with the rooney rule is not the rule. the problem with the rooney rule are the people who have been entrusted to carry out the moral and ethic responsibilities embedded in the rooney rule, and that is what has let brian flores down and a number of other coaches down as well. i mean, how could the new york giants, their executive office, actually bring him in for an interview, for a job that they had already decided to give to someone else?

it is the ultimate embarrassment for brian flores, which he does not deserve, and it was the trger, obviously, for him to file this scorched earth lawsuit not just against the giants and the broncos and a couple of other teams he named but against all of the owners in the national football league. >> reporter: i mean, the giants, in their defense, say they did consider flores seriously. maybe they interviewed him very late in the process, but that they chose to go with somebody else, and that is still their legal right to do. if as you argue that this is about the people who are entrusted with enacting that rule, we can't force people to hire people of certain minority status, so how do we level this playing field? what's the path forward? >> well, you know, in the very beginning on the first page of the lawsuit that brian flores filed against all of these owners, he quotes martin luther

king talking about the difference in legislating morality and regulating morality, and i think that speaks to what brian flores and other blackoaches and aspiring coaches of color are concerned about, and it's having the same opportunities to get these jobs that their white counterparts have. it's also about being able to stay on those jobs and prove yourself for as long as your white counterparts, and it's being able to get another job again if, in fact, you are released or decide to leave a job that you already had, which is something that's not afforded to coaches of color as readily as it is to white coaches who may fail or, for whatever reasons, want to seek employment elsewhere. so, you know, it's the way that

the league goes about handling this situation that the lawsuit is going to change, making things more transparent, so that you don't walk into interviews that you know are just to check a box as brian flores pointed out, so you knothat you have a real opportunity. that's the problem here. and, so, good, he has filed a lawsuit. i mean, this lawsuit is stunning, and he's going to try and bring the 1 1/2 -- the n.f.. to its knees to reckon with this situation. the problem with africans in this country have rarely gotten anything unless we threaten to burn the house down or in brian flores' case, actually start the fire. >> reporter: it reminds me of the famous quote from john thompson fm georgetown university the famous black basketball coach who said black

coaches never get the opportunity, they have to be perfect every single time, they never get the opportunity to fail and get to try again like the white coaches get. >> sure, and condoleezza's boo quotes what's been said in black households many times, twice as good. brian flores has to be twice as good. the new york giants can d at a - say that in their defense but as long as they have been around in their cornerstone franchise of the n.f.l., they've never had a black coach, brian flores is from the section of brooklyn where the saying is never ran, never will. he's very present to want to be the coach of a giants team that he grew up in the shadow of. >> reporter: i want to turn to this other racially fraught piece of n.f.l. business in the news and that is the washington football team which for many

many years was named after what many argue is a racist slur about native americans, they have now changed that name, they are this washington commanders, announced today to great fanfare. you've watched this for a very long time, i know you've studied this in particular, what is it do you make of how the washington team has handled this? >> very poorly. it is with great disappointment. you know, i grew up in washington, d.c., i grew up in a family that had five season tickets when they were very hard to get to go see the team play. i was a big fan of the team maybe up until about ten years ago. and when i learned in the '90s about how dangerous, how racist the name was, i began to study it, i began to try and remove it

from my speech, from my writing and began to side with nati american activists like suzanne harjo who had been fighting to get this name removed from as far back as 1972, 50 years now. and, so, to hear dan snider some years ago almost sound -- >> reporter: the owner of the washington team. >> yes, the owner of the time almost sound like george wallace standing in the schoolhouse door when he said he would never, all caps, change the name of this team, it was very disheartening, knowing people are being hurt by this. and i've documented this in a film that will be released and premiered in april imagine the indianbout just how hurtful this name and this imagery is. so nothing was done here altruistically. this was done cause of

economic pressure brought on by fedex, which is the named sponsor of the washington football team stadium, it was brought on by the protest in the streets in the wake of the george floyd murder, when people began to try and reconcile with this long history of white supremacy in this country which is very much a part of the washington football team history. in fact, if you read through brian flores' suit about the history of racism in this country, he cites the original owner-founder of this franchise, george preston marshall, and how he kept this team all white until the very end when the federal government forced them to change the name, change to an integrated team. >> reporter: we should say the documentary of yours coming out soon is called "imagine the indian."

kevin blackistone of "the washington post," always good to see you. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: it is a big week in the u.s. senate for another major push by president biden: this time, to reshape american courts. as a candidate, mr. biden pledged to diversify the federal bench. his decision to appoint a black woman to the supreme court has dominated recent headlines, but the president also is trying to change the face of the federal court system. for more, i'm joined by our congressional correspondent, lisa desjardins. so, lisa, hello. we know the democrats on capitol hill have a very full agenda, already, but as you have been reporting a lot about it, but tell us about how big a priority this desire to change the courts is. >> this is a very high priority for democrats and for them a bright spot in what has been a difficult last two months. how high of a priory?

the only thing the u.s. senate is doing this week is voting on nominations. some of that is because democrats' agenda where that sits but a lot of that is because this is what they feel is important. i want to talk to you about how quickly president biden and democrats have been moving through to get judicial nominees confirmed. look at these numbers. president biden in his first year in office was able to get 42 federal judges confirmed, compare that with forme president trump in his first year, 23. that biden number by the way is a record for the last 60 years. we know that president trump went on to confirm many many federal judges. there's three more years left for president biden, but out of the gates that's a big number and part of what's happening this week. i want to look at four photos of some of his nominees. the three on the right were just confirmed yesterday to the district court in ohio, the other one, leonard stark, could be confirmed by the end of the week for the circuit court.

you notice something else about the photos, judy, that is a diverse group of judges and what the president is submitting to the senate and the kinds of judges getting confirmed. >> woodruff: those are four. give us the larger picture of what the biden nominees look like compared to previous slates of judges. >> to help people understand this universe, there are about 800 federal judges in this country, they all have a lifetime appointment to the court, that is an incredibly important group of theme in this country. so let's look back and i want to show you using excellent graphics from "the washington post," over what the different slates of nominees look like. here are the slates of nominees from president obama in two terms, president trump in one. at the bottom, the bottom half there, those are nominees who were white nominees, it appears in purple on your screen. those are the bottom numbers. you can see those are the largest ones. te top half there those are minority nominees. if you look in the upper -- there you go, there are the white nominees at the bottom,

minorities at the top, if you look at the upper left, those are minority women. that is the smallest group for both presidents obama and trump. now let's look at the kind of judges he's nominated. minority women the single largest category by quite a lot. you can also see that rather than white nominees being the vast majority, two-thirds to 80%, it's gone the other way. under president biden, white federal nominees are about a third of what we see being proposed. >> woodruff: you have are talking to people on capitol hill every day. what is it has been the reaction of all of this. >> this is what we heard from william in the last segment, the playing field, how do you even it? some republicans, they are divided, believe this is a form of affirmative action they believe is reverse discrimination. i start with ted cruz and roger wicker of mississippi talking about the idea that president biden would like a

black fee mall as his next supreme court justice. >> the fact he's >> the fact that he is willing to make a promise at the outset that it must be a black woman-- i've got to say, that's offensive. black women are, what, 6% of the u.s. population? he's saying to 94% of americans, "i don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible." >> the irony is that the supreme court is, at the very same time, hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination, while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota. but, of course, this is not new. i want to pull up a quote from former president reagan when he was a candidate for the presidency in 1980 when he promised himself it is time for a woman to offsit among our highest jurists and appointed sandra day o'connor. on the other side of this debate, there are those who say diversity isn't just something that is visual, it is something that makes a different.

i want to play sound from an interview with mia syn from harvard's kennedy school of government about diversity on the courts. >> i think a reason why diversity is important for the federal court system is that, you know, there are a number of studies, showing that judges of different backgrounds decide cases differently. white and black judges sometimes sentence criminal defendants differently, and in particular, that white judges tend to be harsher than black judges, especially against black defendants. >> this is a lot of information, but to some of us, judy, president biden is moving more quickly in an historic way and by far with the most diverse slate of federal judges to occupy the american bench in history. >> woodruff: and finally, lisa, i want to ask you about president biden making his decision in coming weeks on who he's going to pick for the supreme court. tonight, he was meeting with the senate democratic leader chuck schumer. i know you weren't in the meeting but what can you tell us

about it? >> if they won't invite me i'd love to go. we haven't heard from the meeting. i can tell you important news regarding senator ben ray luhan of new mexico. he suffered a stroke. his vote is critical to the 50/50 senate. he is expected to return in four to six weeks, and his vote is important. we need to watch the f four to x week timeline which is a potential timeline for when we see a supreme court nominee making it to the senate floor, one month to two months. >> woodruff: we wish him well. we know a lot of focus is on the supreme court but everyone wishing him well in terms of his 4 *e89, too. lisa desjardins, reporting on it all, lisa. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: the history of the

holocaust has been part of school curriculums for decades. but, how it is taught and how much americans really know about the mass genocide of european jews and other minority groups has changed in recent years. concerns about that very issue were triggered this week by remarks from whoopi goldberg. the comedian, actress, and talk show host made the comments monday on abc tv's "the view." goldberg and her co-hosts were discussing a school district's book ban on a graphic novel about the holocaust, "maus." here is some of what goldberg initially said during her conversation. >> the holocaust isn't about race. no, it is-- it's about-- >> it's about a different race. >> it's not about race. it's not about race. >> what do you think it's about? >> it's about man's inhumanity to man. that's what it's about. >> woodruff: those remarks were widely condemned, and, in response, a number of experts detailed the nazi's racism

against jews. the next day, goldberg invited the head of the anti-defamation league on the program to explain the historical record, and she apologized. >> i said that the holocaust wasn't about race, and it was instead about man's immunity to man. but it was indeed about race, because hitler and the nazis considered jews to be an inferior race. now, words matter. and mine are no exception. i regret my comments, as i said, and i stand corrected, and i also stand with the jewish people, as they know, and y'all know, because i've always done that. >> woodruff: afterward, abc suspended goldberg for two weeks. the episode has raised larger questions, and we want to spend a few minutes looking at those. ethan katz is the co-director of the berkeley anti-semitism education initiative, and an associate professor of history and jewish studies at u.c. berkeley.

ethan katz, welcome to the "newshour". first of all, what was your reaction to whoop whoop's -- whoopi goldberg's initial comments that the holocaust was not about race? >> thank you for having me on the show. this was a shocking thing for someone to say, someone who was well educated, someone who has many, many jewish friends and has for decades. and, so, the holocaust was all about race, right, the historical record of the nazis is so clear they thought they were fighting a race war primarily gainst jews, slaves, romans and other groups, so to make this statement indicates lack of historical knowledge about the holocaust and antisemitism as primarily a racial hatred of jews because it sees jews as a racial biological group. you can't change your race whereas, you know, people can convert religiously but nazis

didn't care if you had grown up christian, if you had three or four jewish grandparents, you were jewish and you were pposed to be annihilated. >> woodruff: i wonder ethan katz how many people do you think are out there who believe the holocaust was not only an attempt to eliminate the jews because of their religion but also because of their race? i'm asking because there was a pollone we know a couple of years ago showing a surprisingly high number, a large personally of young people aged 18 to 39, almost a quarter of them didn't have a clear memory of what the holocaust was about. what's your sense of what the public's understanding is of this? >> that's study from the claims conference from 2020 is very disturbing in terms of the numbers of people who didn't know how many people were murdered in the holocaust, one in ten under 40 had never heard the word holocaust before, they said. so i think we are in a moment of

diminished public consciousness about the holocaust. probably the 1990s with many anniversaries from world war ii, with if opening of the holocaust museum was perhaps the height of the moment, but now we're in a moment where it is certainly disturbing and the problem is you cannot understand the nature of antisemitism without unrstanding it was racial from the beginning and that at that holocaust was about race and, for american jews today, their experience with antisemitism is still profoundly shaped by that. >> woodruff: i think those have us who are having this conversation and listening to it understand the answer to this, but why is it important that people know this history? >> the history of the holocaust is a history that tells us so much about, you know, what can happen when we do not understand how to co-exist with different groups of people, right, and it's something that happened in what was supposed to be the most

sophisticated part of civilization in the middle of the 20th century. so it's partly important just because it tells us that if we begin to exclude people because of their race or religion or how they look that those can be taken to such destructive ends, but it's also important specifically with regard to antisemitism because no one could ever think about exclusion of jews the same way again. if you want to understand why the american jewisher community responds the way it does to certain perceptions of antisemitism today, one to have the fundamental reasons is because small kinds of exclusion that existed for centuries led to an attempt to annihilate all jews and the murder of 6 million jews and people said we have to stand up to all the small things now because we know where it could lead. >> woodruff: do you think that these conversations we're having right now around race could change the way we think about

antisemitism and visa versa? should we be thinking about the two things in a more, i guess, interconnected way? >> yes, that's a great question and i do think we need to. one of the challenges and one of the things exposed in this episode with whoopi goldberg is we're in this important moment of racial reckoning and it exposed the fact that jews racially in america is highly complex. most jews in america are primarily white-skinned, white-presenting, but most jews in america don't think of themselves as simply white because of their ethnic distinctiveness, because of the long history of persecution of jews that has been done in racial terms as we've spoken about here and, unftunately, we are also in a moment where there is a growing movement of white nationalists who not only don't see jews as white, they

actually see them as the primary catalyst in what they depict as a race war against the whites and at the same time, all the more complicated, the fact is like other people who have ite skins, white-skinned jews in america have benefited from not looking brown or black and are trying to come to terms with that. to all of those things are going on at the same time and we have to find a way to think about that complexity. >> woodruff: important conversations, for sure. ethan katz, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. s >> woodruff: scientists have recently discovered what they are calling a "silent outbreak" of coronavirus among white- tailed deer. william brangham is back now with this report about how one of the most ubiquitous species in north america got covid, and what that means for the future of the pandemic.

and, a warning: viewers may find some of the images in this report distressing. >> brangham: they are an elegant sight, dancing through the trees. there are an estimated 25 million white-tailed deer in the u.s. and now, scientists have learned some have shockingly high rates of covid infections. >> the level of infectivity we found in these animals was truly stunning. >> "gobsmacked" is the word i used. >> brangham: that's the technical term? >> that's the technical term, was gobsmacked. it was quite, quite striking. so, these are the penn state deer facilities. >> brangham: oh, i see where it gets its name! all the deer! >> brangham: stunning. gobsmacked. striking. not the usual vocabulary for scientists. so, on a cold pennsylvania day, i went out with veterinary virologists suresh kucihpudi and vivek kapur to see some deer up close. this is an enclosed facility at penn state university.

and the scientists said it's fine for us to be near them. and some of the deer-- like tiny “peanut,” who was raised in captivity and bottle-fed by humans-- wanted to be near us. it was in kapoor and kuchipudi's labs here at penn state that they made this remarkable discovery about widespread infections in deer, and it raises concerns about whether humans can fully control this coronavirus. >> this is the first time a widespread natural infection of a wild animal species has been demonstrated, which really changes the way we ought to understand this pandemic and the virus. >> brangham: it began with these deer lymph nodes from iowa, collected when deer were killed by hunters or cars at various times during the pandemic. researchers in iowa weren't looking for covid. they were tracking what's known as "chronic wasting disease." but, kapur and kuchipudi took the samples and tested them to see if deer had gotten covid,

and when. >> september, the first positive there. october, another one shows up. november. >> brangham: wow. >> december, all that positive. >> brangham: wow. >> you zoom out into the state. the whole state. you can see this event in different parts. so this actually with these samples, about 30% of them overall were positive at this stage. >> if you look at the spread of these red dots on the map, these are all individual clusters, which also points to the fact that there are multiple spillover events occurring. >> brangham: "spillover" meaning, the virus that was circulating in humans, spills over into the wild animal population. >> so, out of just under 2,000 samples collected, 1,200 were positive. it's just completely amazing. if this were happening in humans, you know, we would just give up. it's just incredible to see

that-- to see how ickly this occurred. >> brangham: and, of course, because there's no interventions, they're not-- they're not-- they don't know to distance or mask, or, no vaccines. there's no evidence infected deer showed any symptoms of covid-19. the virus seems not to affect them. the iowa samples showed they got the same variants we got. by tracking the timing of the infections, and using genomic sequencing, the researchers are certain humans gave the virus to the deer, not the reverse. but how? with the exception of peanut here, who does seem very eager to interact with humans, most humans don't have interactions like this with the deer. so, how is it that-- that we gave the virus to them? >> it doesn't necessarily require a direct interaction between a human and the deer. a kid throwing half-eaten apple or leftover food, or somebody's feeding deer in their backyard. all it takes is just one or two deer to pick up the infection.

they can transmit the virus among themselves very efctively. and once one animal gets infected, the virus spreads among them very, very quickly. >> if you-- if you look back there, you can simply see them interacting, right. there are quite a lot. they're all huddled up. >> brangham: right, they're all very packed together. >> and then, if you've ever walked in a forest and seen deer and they're blowing, you just see plumes of their breath come out. and given what we know about the amount of virus that these deer had, it's very easy to see why they were so susceptible and it spread explosively in herds. >> brangham: given what your findings in iowa indicate, should we just make the assumption that deer, white- tailed deer all over north america, are carrying the virus? >> i think it's safe to assume that that would be the case. >> brangham: these human-to- animal leaps by the coronavirus aren't unheard of. while this research is the

first-known case in a wild population, there are examples with more domesticated animals: in the netherlands, scientists discovered that when pet owners got covid, their dogs and cats had a one-in-five chance of getting it, too. in hong kong, a pet-store hamster got the virus, and officials then killed 2,000 others to stop any further spread. all this leads to an a potentially more troling issue-- if humans can mutate the virus and pass different variants to deer, could deer do the same, in reverse? meaning, could they create new variants and pass those back to us? it's not impossible. in 2020, in denmark, officials killed the country's entire population of farmed mink, after a mutated covid strain jumped from mink back to humans. but kapur and kuchipudi say,

thus far, there's no evidence that's happeng with deer. >> this is still primarily a pandemic of a virus that is spreading in human beings across the world, and so far, all the animal infections have been opportunistic spillover from human beings. >> my personal feeling is, actually deer are more likely to get the infection from humans than give it to humans. and so, i think we all have to be respectful that when we are going out, we're likely to be transmitting just as easily to deer, animals we love. and then, then getting an then, then getting an infection back. >> brangham: we're the problem here, for the most part, not them. >> we're the initial problem. we want to make sure that they don't become a problem for us in the future. >> brangham: these scientists say that, given how widespread deer-- and this virus-- are in north america today, much more research needs to be done about this potential threat. for the pbs newshour, in state coege, pennsylvania,

i'm william brangham. >> woodruff: a new book seeks to change how people view “the american south,” and thus, the country's history as a whole. jeffrey brown spoke to author imani perry, who traveled the south, and explored the complexities and misperceptions along the way. it's part of our arts and culture series, "canvas." as well as our "race matters." >> it's sort of like trying to get to the root and help readers from all over the place understand that it's the root. >> brown: the "root" of the country, for imani perry, is the south. and even on a recent walk in new york, she saw connections everywhere. >> so, harlem is filled with southern culture. wall street, right, is dependent upon the history of the u.s. slave trade.

>> brown: perry's new book takes us on trips she made all over the region below the mason-dixon line, from maryland to mississippi, and takes on what she sees as a misperception of the south's continuing role in who we are today. it's called “south to america.” >> the south is really not only where the idea begins, right, of what this nation would become, but it also has moved the country about, because it was the bounty of the south that allowed for the nation to become wealthy, to become a global power. and that it has continued to shape our tastes, our habits, our culture, in ways that we often deny, in part because, you know, it's done the dirty work of the nation in many ways. >> brown: perry is a professor of african american studies at princeton, whose work explores race, law, and history, often through the lens of culture and cultural figures, such as the writer lorraine hansbery.

her last book, “breathe,” was written as a letter to her two teenaged sons, on the perils of growing up black in america. she describes her sense of "mission" this w: >> i'm trying to figure out why we have this choreography, you know, of two steps forward, one step back, or sometimes three steps back. >> brown: "we," meaning? >> americans. the united states. and so, i want to use history, tradition, very particularly the history and tradition offrican american art, intellectual life, civic culture, to think creatively about how to move towards freedom, notwithstanding the fact that retrenchment happens over and over and over again. >> brown: she was born, she says, nine years after and a few miles from the site of the 1963 birmingham church bombing that killed four young black girls. birmingham remains the place she calls home.

>> i always think, that's the place i learned to walk, talk, laugh, read, dance. and so, there's a core part of me that i see as having created there. >> brown: at age five, with her mother and her adoptive father, a white civil rights activist from the north, she moved to cambridge, massachusetts, returning regularly to visit her close extended family. but for “south to america,” she did something different: visiting people and places she knew less well, to see the present interacting with the past. >> everywhere i went-- and i expect this will always be the case to a certain extent in the south-- you feel history, and then you feel the ghosts of the past, and, you know, even when the confederate monuments come down, it's still present. it's present in the way land is used, and it's present in the sort of quiet but collective memories of what happened in

those places. >> brown: from her northern perspective, she saw a place that people look down on for its racism and backwardness, ignoring how the entire country's history, economy and culture was shaped and implicated. >> to say "well, that's down there," without acknowledging that that is actually what made the wealth and the prosperity for the entire nation, is not just-- it's not just insincere, but it allows for a deep inconsistency between the truth of the nation and the way we narrate it. >> brown: this is what you mean by saying that the south did the dirty work. >> the south did the dirty work. >> brown: and everyone else, the rest could look noble. >> yes! our habit of being okay with people working hard and suffering or having very little, our habit of people being pushed out of their homes-- the ways of doing things in this country that i argue begin with the ways of that region.

and so, in order to fully understand what this place is and hopefully make it something closer to fair and just and kind to everybody who participates in it, i think we have to acknowledge, that's us. it's not some other place. that's us. >> brown: at the same time, she says, that other south, the place where social justice movements began and so much is happening today, isn't celebrated enough. her travels included montgomery, alabama, its profile changed by the work of the equal justice initiative in fighting mass incarceration, including the powerful “national memorial for peace and justice.” and political and social change in georgia and elsewhere impacting the direction of the country. all of this, of course, being fought over now. >> people say, you know, how can you be someone who is hopeful about the future? and i say, it's easy, i'm from birmingham.

right? if that place could change-- known as "bomb-ingham," known as the most racist, violent part of the south-- coming from that place, i have to have faith in the possibility of transformation. but, the openings are still quite narrow for people to occupy different social positions, and retrenchment is so common, right, so that every movement forward has to be so jealously guarded, or else there can be almost immediate backsliding. >> brown: all right, the book “" south to america.” imani perry, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: another way to think about the south and the entire country. and on the pbs newshour online, restaurants, businesses and schools in new orleans are requiring all children aged five and older to be fully vaccinated starting today. we talked to business owners across the city about how they are managing the transition as

mardis gras approaches. you can find that at www.pbs.org/newshour. 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 we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> 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. >> fidelity wealth management. >> care.com. >> the ford foundation. workg with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and individuals.

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