If the coronavirus pandemic wasn’t enough, the city of Flint, Michigan is fighting the consequences of a second public health crisis. Residents are still reeling after local officials chose to switch the city’s water source to the Flint River back in 2014. They also failed to treat the water, leading to corrosion and, eventually, contamination. City and state leaders insisted it was safe to drink, even as dozens got sick and at least a dozen others died. As Correspondent Jessica Gomez reports, the mistrust from that deadly experience is now seeping into the city’s efforts to vaccinate their most vulnerable communities.
This week, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien takes you to the center of the country’s first confrontation with COVID-19. A year ago, we set out to do a documentary on homelessness in Washington State. Then, the different public health crisis hit. We kept our cameras rolling as local health officials scrambled to deal with the nation’s first confirmed COVID cases. In our mini documentary episode, we will introduce you to a family struggling on the streets during the pandemic; a daughter fighting to get care for her father while he is quarantined inside a nursing home; and local caregivers working to protect the most vulnerable in the community.
This week on Matter of Fact, we talk to West Virginia’s COVID czar Dr. Clay Marsh. His state has vaccinated nearly 10 percent of its population. That’s one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. What are they doing right? Plus, What does the post-pandemic workplace look like? Elisabeth Reynolds, head of MIT’s Work of the Future, says we’ll probably see a hybrid model of being in the office and working remote. Soledad also talks to her about what we can do to make Americans with fewer tech skills aren’t left behind. And, preserving the unique heritage of the low country. Special Contributor Joie Chen travels into the heart of Gullah culture to show us how descendants of slaves held on to their rich traditions for nearly four centuries.
Even before the pandemic, evolving technology and artificial intelligence were already stoking fears that progress could eventually lead to jobs losses, pushing those without digital skills out of the work force. The divide only deepened when the pandemic forced millions of employees to start working from home. While technology made remote work possible for them, that wasn’t an option for millions of others. Now as vaccinations ramp up and employees are able to go back to the office, the U.S. workforce is primed for more change. Elizabeth Reynolds is the Executive Director of MIT’s Task Force on the “Work of the Future.” She talks with Soledad O’Brien about how we keep the next transition from leaving millions of Americans behind.
West Virginia has fully vaccinated 10 percent of its population against COVID-19. That’s one of the highest rates in the country. That’s despite the fact it usually scores on the bottom rung of health outcomes, on everything from obesity and diabetes to drug overdoses. Soledad O’Brien talks to Dr. Clay Marsh, West Virginia’s coronavirus czar, about what’s led to the state’s success.
It’s been a little more than a year since the U.S. confirmed its first death from COVID-19. This week, the nation passed what once would have been an unthinkable threshold: 500,000 lives lost to the coronavirus. Hope is the horizon with more than one million shots going into arms every day, but many have struggled just to make an appointment. Those who’ve been able to get a shot, say it’s a dose of relief.
This week on Matter of Fact, we meet a group of young activists leading the charge against Anti-Asian American violence in the Bay area. They’re fighting a spike in attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, that have been on the rise since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last spring. This is just latest in hared against the Asian American community. In 1982, two white men beat Vincent Chin to death. He was Chinese, but they blamed him for the rise Japan’s auto industry, while America lost manufacturing jobs. Soledad O’Brien talks to Helen Zia, who was a journalist during that time, before becoming the spokesperson for the Justice for Chin campaign. And, a retired mother of two determined to mount an Olympic comeback. We follow her quest for a spot on the women’s USA gymnastics team.
A record number of eligible voters cast their ballots in the 2020 election. Part of that is due to election officials in nearly every state working to make it easier to vote during the pandemic. That meant lifting restrictions on who could vote by mail, adopting early voting, or even sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters. But now, in just the first month of this year, 28 states have introduced more than 100 bills meant to restrict access to the ballot. That’s way up from 35 proposals the year before. Soledad O’Brien talks with Danielle Lang, a voting rights attorney at the Campaign Legal Center, about how those measures could suppress the vote.
Attacks against Asian Americans date back to the 19th century, but it was the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 that mobilized the Asian community to fight for their civil rights. At the time, America was losing manufacturing jobs fast while Japan’s auto industry was on the rise. Chin was Chinese, but that didn’t stop two white men from beating him to death a few days before his wedding. And they basically got away with it. They were only given probation and a $3,000 fine. Soledad O’Brien talks to Helen Zia, who was a journalist during that time, before becoming the spokesperson for the Justice for Chin campaign.
We’re seeing more viral videos of unprovoked violence against elderly Asian Americans across our social media feeds. Unfortunately, those are just the latest in a sharp spike of attacks. And activists say racist rhetoric about COVID-19 may be fueling that rise. Since last spring, more than 3,000 incidents of verbal or physical violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been reported. That’s about the same time the coronavirus began to spread rapidly across the U.S. after being originally discovered in China. We travel to the Bay Area where a group of young activists are trying to put an end to the violence.