 Hello and welcome back to teens on topic social distancing version. I'm your host Cedric Hughes and today I'm joined by two special guests Ben Skinner and Zoe Poppingay. Today we'll be talking about our government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. So Zoe and Ben first let's start off on a national level. Every day we hear more news coming out of the Trump administration and our United States government about our response to the coronavirus. What do you guys think about our national, our federal government's response to this pandemic? Ben? I think what's interesting is that we're hearing so much news on both sides. Some people are saying that Trump's doing a really bad job dealing with it and that the entire federal government's doing a really bad job and then some people say that it's been fine overall and as a non-medical professional it's really hard to be able to make that judgment call as to whether or not the response has been effective. I think just looking at kind of how it's worked out in in the in the U.S. I would say there are a lot of people who would probably say that it has not been a very effective response since we've had so many people dying, so many people being infected especially compared to a lot of other countries. So I think it's really tough like I said for a person who doesn't know the medicine world to be able to judge how effectively the government's been able to respond but my inclination at least is to say that the response has not been as effective as it could have been. I agree like there's a lot of people arguing well we don't know we don't know how much better this could have been handled in the first place but there are also a lot of people saying that Trump did not heed the warnings of China or of any other country that this was going to hit and this was going to hit really big. So Trump not listening to that I know is a really I know is a really prominent argument that I've heard a lot about but it's yeah again I have a non-medical perspective as well on this but it seems like it could have been handled a lot better and I understand leaving a lot of this quarantine health crisis thing to the states but states like Florida who are just totally disregarding all the safety warnings from scientists from doctors even from some politicians to stay home and stay safe they're just completely disregard of this. That's not necessarily national that's specific to their state but it's just I don't want to be associated with that kind of carelessness of this pandemic. Sure yeah so you guys both talk about President Trump when talking about the federal government's response and I think you know a lot of Americans remember when he first addressed the nation concerning the coronavirus I'm sure you guys remember the press conference where he had said you know soon those 15 cases will be down to zero and we're set to shoot over 900,000 cases if we haven't already so clearly you know we we didn't go down quite as quickly as those at the top thought we would but it's it's more than just Trump's response as well it's also Congress as well so we see in seemingly you know in in these times of political polarization a seemingly unprecedented move by Democrats and Republicans to come together to create the coronavirus stimulus package so this was a two trillion dollar package passed by Congress in efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the American people so how familiar are you with this stimulus package that Congress passed and its effects that it's had? Well what I've heard a lot of is the whole idea of the small business loan it's like you're talking about that too right yeah yeah so I've heard of actually some larger businesses receiving those small business loans and then returning them because there was so much backlash that it was being given to larger businesses and I think what's important is that the money that's being given to these businesses and and just money that's being distributed in general actually ends up being used for what it's supposed to be used for like it's not very helpful to give a business money and and then have all of that money sit in a bank account till this crisis is over if people aren't spending it then it's not going to be helpful so if the money is to a business it needs to be used to keep that business open and paying employees and if it's to an individual then it needs to be going and being spent by that person because throwing money at a problem isn't going to make it go away if the people are just taking that money and hoarding it. Yeah Zoey what do you think? I'm with I'm with everything that Ben said unfortunately I don't really understand that much about the stimulus package so I was wondering if he could give some context regarding that? Sure yeah so like what Ben had talked about with these larger companies to included Shake Shack and Ruth Chris's Steakhouse were two of those large companies that took out of a 350 billion dollar fund that Congress made that was supposed to go to small businesses and this is what Ben was referring to however unfortunately Congress's definition of a small business was a business with under 500 employees and I don't think you know anyone's definition of a small business would be something that has under 500 employees I think for myself at least when I think of a small business I think of you know kind of a corner store or a local laundromat or a local restaurant and more than just the 500 employees you know after they set those guidelines that was when lobbyists came in and they made it so that companies that were hardest hit like hotels could get money from the 350 billion dollar fund that had over 500 employees and we also Shake Shack which was one of the companies that Ben was talking about they have some 7,000 employees so again you know we saw that these rules you know already giving a lot of room as to what could be called a small business were kind of loose right and the problem that a lot of Americans had with this wasn't that companies like Shake Shack or Ruth Chris were getting money it was that they were getting money from the 350 billion dollars that was meant for small businesses there was another pot of money that was allocated for companies that were mid to large size so that Shake Shack or Ruth Chris should have been taking out of now Shake Shack got 10 million dollars and they've since returned that and Ruth Chris also just today returned the 10 million dollars that they got from the stimulus package facing the backlash so just as a little bit of fill in for information that you were asking for of course so now what this money was meant for was the paycheck protection program so companies were to get two and a half months worth of payroll money in order to pay their employees so for most companies small companies this averaged out to be around 200,000 dollars now we've seen just the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the American people not just in a health arena like what we were talking about in the federal government's response when talking about Trump but also in the job market so we've seen over 20 million Americans now file for unemployment and just recently I'm sure you guys have heard about the stimulus checks that have gone out the $1,200 stimulus checks so in your guys' opinions do you think that these responses the paycheck protection program the 350 billion dollars for small businesses the two trillion dollars overall that was passed to bailout industries and individuals alike do you think that that was not enough according or too much? I think it's not enough because obviously the crisis is persisting but I don't think that's necessarily the fault of the government because it's not something where there's an easy solution in sight that they're they're not taking I think they're doing the best they can and that might not be enough but it still is the best that they can do as far as I know so while we would hope that they would be able to take steps that would be more effective and would be able to just immediately completely make all of these problems go away that's really not something that it's reasonable for us to hope for so while I would say not enough I also don't hold it against the government I don't think they're being lazy or incompetent I just think it's a tough issue to work out and nobody really knows how to solve it so of course and that that stimulus bill that was passed you know we saw Americans were demanding action from Congress so they were really hard pressed to get something out there you know an 800 page bill was written and passed in under a week so you know we saw the extreme amount of pressure that Congress was under and you know while shore $600 million was maybe allocated to people who it wasn't necessarily meant for it was still getting out into the economy and it was it left over 349 billion dollars for small businesses so I think then what you say there in that it's easy to go on the attack route and look at kind of the negatives we still see a government that is doing a lot and you know the two trillion dollars that is the largest stimulus package that America has ever passed including the Great Depression so yeah I think that what you say is is really valid Zoe what do you think I would I would definitely agree with both of you it's not enough it's never going to feel like enough but that is definitely not yeah it's not the fault of the government they're not choosing to ignore the best solution this is the best solution that they currently are able to give especially since there's so many there's so many different there's so many different angles that this coronavirus pandemic there's so many issues that we don't know which ones to take absolute priority then there's the financial crisis there's a health crisis and all that so I definitely agree with both of you that I this is not something to really point fingers at the government app for not doing the best job that they can because this is the best job that they can but the best the best job that they can do but the best job that they can do is not quite enough at this point for sure yeah so now let's take it away from the national government and let's take a look at state governments so we've seen governors have been making national news governors like Andrew Cuomo and our very own Gavin Newsom who have taken large steps in trying to address the crisis in calling out the flaws that the national government has had and taking matters into their own hands so we've seen both now on the west coast and the east coast states like California Oregon and Washington as well as New York New Jersey Connecticut and more on the east coast are forming coalitions to coordinate the reopening of their states and this has been much to the annoyance of Donald Trump but we've seen press conferences with people like Gavin Newsom calling California a nation state you know I'm sure something that really provokes Trump and these governors have all been saying that because the federal government has failed in their duties to protect the people of the state that they are no longer beholden to the federal government in terms of planning for the coronavirus so they have moved on with their own plans what is your guys's take on this kind of interesting problem that arises out of federalism and the conflict between state governments and national governments I think states being more involved in trying to stop the the problem can be a good thing obviously like California was one of the the leaders in trying to take steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus so I think by and large it's a good thing to have states be more involved the more like the more actors are involved in trying to stop it the more likely we are to be able to find an effective solution I feel like but the issue when states get too much power is that then if states want to do something that's not really very smart they can end up doing that like I think it's Florida is like is not doing as good of a job at staying locked down as California is so there's a chance that we'll start seeing problems there and resurgence is in the number of coronavirus cases so I think whether or not federalism is a good thing in this case really depends on whether or not the states are being smart with the actions that they're taking I think Gavin Newsom has done a fantastic job of handling this problem he's been saying like let's not pull the plug on the social distancing thing too soon we have to kind of stay locked down and just make sure that we we do this in a smart and effective way I think that's great but when governors of states and state governments are not doing things effectively then I think it's a problem with states of more power sure is Zoe what's your take yeah our California governor has been really really smart about this but again yeah like Ben said not everyone has been as like has been quite as intelligent with this whole situation with the ability to choose there's also the ability to choose wrong and Florida is a prime example of that occurring um I still I still support that the states get to decide what they want but as I said before um as I said before I don't I I have no desire to associate with like Florida or any state that decides to make those dumb decisions sure so now um you know we began this discussion about the states talking about um some of the good things right you know um California and New York um and the states around them working together to provide effective reopening plans as well as doing their best to keep their citizens safe so we you know we saw um Gavin Newsom you know we we've all now um sung the praises of him and what he's done for the California people but we also talked a little bit about the negative so Ben you talked about uh the governor of Florida you know kind of reopening maybe a bit too soon and maybe you know provoking that that curve to to go back up you know so we've seen we flattened it but if we reopen too early as experts like Dr Fauci have worn time and time again that that could lead to a spike and you know that's what we saw in Japan and in Hong Kong so you know it's it's something that could definitely happen here as well so I think that that's definitely going to be something um for governors throughout America to have to keep to keep watch of so yeah but now let's go you know even even one step smaller um Ben Skinner joining us on the show he is um the president of Davis senior high school now Ben what is your take on how Davis senior high school has handled the coronavirus and what um the Davis joint unified school district has done for its students yeah so I I think what's interesting just generally speaking is that local governments actually usually I would say have a much larger impact on people's lives than do federal or state governments all of the attention is usually on the president or the governor but in reality our day-to-day lives are probably controlled the most by the actions that people in our local community take and I think for us in Davis that's a very good thing because I think our community has done a fantastic job of handling it our school closed down before we had a single coronavirus case at school it would have been really bad if we didn't close down until people started getting sick because by that point half the school could have been infected without us knowing it so I think it's good that our our school board and our superintendent made the choice to move over to distance learning I think so far that's been done about as effectively as it possibly could I mean obviously there are challenges with people not having access to technology I'm sure or just the lack of kind of a structured school day like we're all used to but that's really not a very large price to pay in like in relation to what we've been able to do in preventing coronavirus cases from increasing in our county we've had very few and I think that's just an indication that the policies that our local policymakers have been making are extremely effective and I think we are very lucky to have a both a city council and a school board that is doing a fantastic job and is doing a good job of taking care of us wonderful Zoe what do you think about how our school district has handled the crisis or more specifically um Davis senior high school I think that Davis Davis senior high school handled it really really efficiently um and I know the school board is you're not you're never going to please anyone and I know that the school board has been getting complaints several like tens and hundreds of complaints every single day about how things could be better handled there was the concern about internet and then kids who couldn't um and then some kids who are on meal plans um because they cannot they can't get a meal at home but those I feel like those were all handled really efficiently like within the first week of within the first week of school shutting down I know the school board um took measures to make sure like the meals were handled and then internet access um each individual family was reached out to and asked if they had proper internet access for their further ongoing education and while not every family could respond just it's the efforts to make sure that um every single kid can deal with this um in both an academic and like a helping safe way I just I think the school district has been doing a really good job yeah sure yeah so I you know I think um from this conversation you know I think that we all know that there's more that we could be doing on all levels both you know local state and national but I think that um this conversation has also been rather optimistic you know we've looked at um the doings of congress and what they've done at a federal level to try and help the american people and we've looked at how governors have really come together in this crisis to try and lead their states to you know to the end of the tunnel and to get through this and we've looked at our own um you know government here in davis and what the school district has done in order to protect its students so that's all the time we have um for now but thank you zoe and ben for joining us and until next time stay safe and um enjoy your rest of quarantine thank you this has been teens on topic and i've been your host cedar keys