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San Diego County Urges Public To Use Face Coverings, Local Democratic Leader Recounts Fight With COVID-19, Coronavirus Effect On Children And Films To Escape From Pandemic

 April 3, 2020 at 1:31 PM PDT

Speaker 1: 00:00 The latest on guidelines for wearing face masks in San Diego and a San Diego Kovac 19 survivor tells his story. I'm wearing Kavanaugh. This is KPBS mid day edition. Speaker 2: 00:20 Sure. It's Friday, April 3rd. Speaker 1: 00:26 The focus of governor Newsome's coronavirus update today was to announce expanded resources for the state's homeless, including securing 7,000 hotel rooms across the state. Speaker 3: 00:37 What we want to do is relieve the stress in our shelter system, uh, so we can separate individuals, uh, and ultimately again relieve the impact and our medical care delivery system if left unaddressed, uh, we allow our most vulnerable residents in the state of California to be exposed to this virus. Speaker 1: 00:57 The governor said he expects some of the latest homeless resources to extend even after the Cove 19 crisis is over. San Diego County sheriff. Bill Gore said yesterday that the time for voluntary compliance is over starting tomorrow. Employees of gas stations, pharmacies, grocery convenience stores and restaurants must wear masks or face coverings while at work. Joining us with more on the county's coven crackdown is KPBS reporter John Carroll and John. Welcome. Thank you. Maureen. What reason is the County giving for these new ones Speaker 4: 01:31 orders? They are saying that it is just an increased step in helping people prevent either transmitting the virus or getting it. Uh, they made very clear yesterday a supervisor Fletcher when he was talking about it, that it is additive. Uh, it is not in place of physical distancing or all the other things had washing that we do. Um, but you know, it's sort of characteristic of this entire thing where it's been kind of a rolling series of measures and uh, adding the facial covering is just the latest one. Speaker 1: 02:05 And what's the penalty for noncompliance? Speaker 4: 02:07 Well, sheriff Gore was quite clear about that. Uh, it's six months in jail or a fine not to exceed $1,000. So they're getting serious about it. He even said yesterday that the time for non, you know, for voluntary compliance is over. Speaker 1: 02:23 Now will essential businesses be required to provide their employees with these face masks? Speaker 4: 02:29 Yes. They are required to give those face masks to their employees? Correct. Speaker 1: 02:34 Okay. Now talk to us if you can about how the national advice around facemasks has changed recently. Speaker 4: 02:41 Well, if you'll recall, Maureen, uh, when this first started becoming national news that was talked about and public health officials were saying, no need to wear those, um, you know, it's not gonna prevent it anyway. That has started to change, started to morph. We've gotten further into this pandemic to where they're now saying, well, actually it can be useful. Uh, it is an additive measure. It doesn't take the place of anything you still have to do. So social distancing, hand-washing, etc. But I think that they've just gotten to the point where they are saying, look, anything we can do to make it a little better, a little less easy to transmit or get the virus is worth doing. But that's been a big change. You're right. The, uh, initial advice from, uh, like all the world health organization folks and CDC was, yeah, they're not, uh, they're not necessary for the general public. And they were even saying more precisely that the general public should not be wearing them. So we've, we've come away as on that. Speaker 1: 03:50 And now, what about everyone else who doesn't work in an essential who store like a grocery store or a pharmacy? Just you know, regular San Diego. Do we have to wear masks or face coverings when we go out? Speaker 4: 04:04 We don't have to, but they are strongly encouraging it. Um, Dr. McDonald, uh, the county's chief medical officers said, uh, that when you leave your place, cover your face. So you know, it's the strongest possible recommendation they can make without crossing into mink making it mandatory. Speaker 1: 04:25 Is there a concern that this guidance on facial coverings, this order really for, for some people will impact the supply of masks for healthcare workers? Speaker 4: 04:35 Well, supervisor Fletcher also was very clear about that. He said that when we're talking about people wearing facial coverings, uh, for the general public, we're talking more about a bandanas or a scarf or if you have your, um, cloth mask, uh, we are not talking about in 95 masks, which are the ones that first responders, doctors, nurses, et cetera, need. And he was very clear about that. We are to not use those masks, those masks if you have them. They have asked you to donate them to local hospitals and healthcare facilities. Speaker 1: 05:12 So once again, the suggested types of face coverings for civilians in San Diego is a bandana Speaker 4: 05:19 bandana. And then there's this thing called a Gator, which I've been just now become familiar with, which is a kind of facial coverage. And you might typically see skiers wearing on the slopes, um, am scarf. Uh, that's, and then you'll see these a cloth masks that people are starting to make with the elastic, you know, bands. That's what they're talking about. Speaker 1: 05:42 Okay. When you leave your place, cover your face. I've been speaking with KPBS reporter John Carol. John. Thank you. Speaker 4: 05:49 Thank you. Maureen. Speaker 1: 05:50 If you see noncompliance of these new public health orders in an essential store, County officials are asking you, let them know by calling two one one or visiting two one one San diego.org, Speaker 5: 06:06 uh, Speaker 1: 06:08 while efforts intensified to slow the spread of coven 19 and limit the number of people who are sickened and whose lives are threatened by this disease. There are some who have already come out the other side. The head of the San Diego County democratic party will Rodriguez Kennedy is now out of the hospital after spending nearly a week in the intensive care unit fighting covert 19, he's continuing his recuperation in quarantine and he has a tale to tell. Will Rodriguez Kennedy. So pleased to be speaking with you. Welcome to the program. Speaker 3: 06:40 Thank you for having me. Speaker 1: 06:41 Well first of all, how are you feeling? Speaker 3: 06:43 Um, you know, I'm getting better every, every day. Um, I'm feeling pretty good today. I don't have any of the active symptoms of the disease, but it does attack your lungs and sort of diminish your breathing capacity and I'm dealing with that and getting stronger every day. Speaker 1: 06:58 Now you're still in quarantine. How long have doctors told you to remain in quarantine? Speaker 3: 07:02 That is an open question. I, it's hard to tell. Um, I think the county's guidelines are seven or eight days after losing your symptoms. So in theory, in the next couple of days I could be out of corn pain, but then I would go home and I would still basically being quarantined because of the stay at home order. Speaker 1: 07:20 Now, there are so many of us wondering what this Corona virus is like. What kind of symptoms did you experience and can you tell us how you first noticed you were getting sick? Speaker 3: 07:32 The day before I actually noticed my symptoms. I lost like sort of my sense of smell and taste. I didn't even know that was a symptom of, of, of coronavirus at the time, but the next day, however, I broke into a fever and had chills, nausea, and these excruciating muscle aches and I had already had the flu in January, so I knew that was sort of suspicious because you don't normally get the flu twice in such a short period. But then over that weekend, council member, Steve Pedea from Chula Vista had said that they had tested positive and at that point I had known that I had come in contact with someone who had the illness. Now it's not clear that I got it from him, but because he, I knew I was exposed. I got tested on that Monday, I think it was the 16th or 17th that's when I suspected that I had the disease. Speaker 1: 08:29 Now, how quickly did your illness develop into something really bad? Speaker 3: 08:33 Basically from the start, uh, on the 14th, I had symptoms of a flu that were really bad. I was determined to fight the illness from home. However, on Friday my condition deteriorated and it appears that the way this virus works is that it doesn't throw all the symptoms. Like, you know, if you get the flu, you, you get like all the bad symptoms and then there's sort of like a peak, then your fever breaks and then you get better. Well, we'll covert in 19. It sort of escalates later on in the period when you're sick and it throws respiratory symptoms Sachi or it can. And so seven days into my illness I started having trouble breathing. So I called the VA and it was still minor. Um, when I called the VA, uh, but they, they identified that, Hey, once just, you still have trouble breathing, it's time to come in. Speaker 3: 09:26 And they did, they took me in and my condition tearjerker did I, I got, I got sicker. I w I was just, I was on the path of getting worse. I, there was a period when I was sitting in a chair and I just couldn't sit up. So they did a bunch of tests. They did, they, they tested me again for coven 19, and they put me through a CT scan. The CT scan must've told doctors, cause there's, there's somethings you can see in the CT scan that can tell you, well, something's going on, you need to go into the hospital. And so they admitted me immediately and then ended up in the ICU that evening. Speaker 1: 09:59 Were you on a ventilator? Speaker 3: 10:01 No. So the process of intubation is very invasive and um, and I fought that and by, by basically intentionally breathing in like, so like consciously and you know, breathing is supposed to be sort of a subconscious thing. Like you just do it. But I specifically focused on fighting the intubation because it's invasive and there are more complications with it. Um, and they instead kept me on oxygen and was, I were treating my symptoms. Um, and there were a lot of symptoms. So Speaker 1: 10:32 now you write on your Facebook page that you were literally fighting for your life. Did you believe that you would survive this? Speaker 3: 10:40 I'm a Marine veteran and so it's one of the questions that often I get asked about this is that, you know, were you afraid for your life where you're afraid that you could die? And for veterans who are trained to go into combat, it's less, it's less about fear and more about like accepting the reality that this could, you could die from this. Right. And yes, when dealing with like the inability to breathe, that's something I've never had in an illness. That is a sobering realization that if you cannot breathe, you can die and I could not breathe. And I assisted, there were periods where like I was, it felt like if I, if like my whole, like if I, if I were to take a, a regular breath, that there wasn't enough air in the room for me to like breathe and that triggered coughing and vomiting and all sorts of like unfortunate symptoms as a result of not being able to breathe. And you know, I was, I, it was, yes, this could have killed me. Speaker 1: 11:40 I know you're very grateful for the care you got at the VA and you've been giving a shout out, a big shout out to the nurses and the doctors there. Speaker 3: 11:48 Yeah. So the doctors and nurses were truly great. Um, the nurses were practically heroic there. Um, well there was a period when I had fallen asleep and my oxygen mask, I guess for lack of a better word, fell off of my face. And as a result, the, uh, machine starts beeping crazily, which woke me up and then I woke up that in the inability to breathe, woke me up and I'm, I'm, I woke up gasping for air. I don't know, I just found it heroic to the way that they like came so close to me to like help you find my mask or whatever and like place like, cause like, you know, the closer that you get to the patient, the more likely you could get sick. Or even though they had their personal protective gear, you know, I could cough on the Marcel thing, um, because I can't help it cause I'm gasping for air. Right. And I just found that the, their willingness to put themselves on the line to like help me find an oxygen mask and to make sure that I was okay was heroic behavior. My doctors were the best. I, I feel like I got good care that that may have saved my life. Speaker 1: 12:53 Now there are people will who are still not taking this outbreak seriously and I know that you have a message for them. What's your message? Speaker 3: 13:02 So this disease does not discriminate. There are more and more stories about people in their twenties and thirties who are not only getting the disease, uh, but who are dying. In fact, I believe in the County of San Diego, the 30 to 39 range is the, uh, has the plurality of cases. And, and so there is this disease is very serious and there are some people who are like, well, Lou was very serious too, right? And the flu kills hundreds of thousands of people in the world every year. So this is the flu plus respiratory symptoms plus the lung, like, like greater damage over a long period of time. I think this is a very serious disease and I think people should take it seriously. And I, I think that it's important that while taking it seriously, it's also important not to panic. When I went into the hospital, I call the head, I didn't go into the ER, I called my, I called my health care provider and they walked me through the symptoms and they're like, no, you need to come in. Speaker 3: 14:03 At the same time, you know, some of us may be able to fight this from home or may have milder symptoms and it's going to be going to be important to have to be reasonable about how we look at our part in this because we have like sort of the societal commitment or like duty to one honor the States stay at home order and to, to like make sure that we're not freaking out every time we cough. Right. So I guess my two messages are to both take this seriously, but at the same time, not panic cause we can, we can survive this together. Speaker 1: 14:34 I've been speaking with will Rodriguez Kennedy. He's the head of the San Diego County democratic party. He is in quarantine after recovering from the ICU and his bout with coven 19 will continue your recovery. Take it easy and I'm so glad we a chance to speak. Thank you for having me. This is KPBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavanagh, Rady children's hospital confirmed this week. It's treating as first pediatric Corona virus patient. As we've heard from the beginning of this outbreak, people over 65 and adults with underlying health conditions run the greatest risk of serious illness from covert 19 but there are exceptions including one 25 year old San Diego who has died of the disease to assist in the outbreak. Rady has made some of its beds available to those up to age 26. KPB has health reporter Taryn mento asks Dr. Mark Sawyer and infectious disease specialist at radius why the virus isn't typically hitting the youngest patients as hard. Speaker 6: 15:38 What do we know about why it's affecting younger people differently? Speaker 7: 15:44 The simple answer is we don't really know why. Um, there are a number of hypotheses that are going to have to be studied. It may be more than one thing sort of happening all at once. So for example, young children in general do better with infections, most infections than adults, particularly older adults, seniors who have underlying health conditions. And that may simply be then most children don't have underlying chronic conditions. And so they're starting off healthy and can withstand the impact of infection like this cobot infection better than older adults can. But I suspect it's more than that. The disparity between involvement in illness and in children is so much different than it is in older adults that there's probably a fundamental virologic reason or or physiologic reason why children are not getting severely infected. So along the things that have been discussed, this virus attaches to various specific receptors on your cells and those receptors have different distributions and those distributions may change over time as you age. So children may just not have the receptors in their lung at the same amount as adults do. And that just makes them less susceptible to infection. And the other big area of hypothesis is that the immune response is different in young children. They may not Mount as brisk and an overly brisk response that some adults seem to be nodding to this infection. Speaker 6: 17:21 If we are noticing that there's a difference between the way that younger people handle or respond to this virus is they're going to have to be a way, a different way or a different approach to treat someone who, if you had a younger patient versus someone up to the age of 26 would that determine a different approach to treatment? Speaker 7: 17:40 I don't think so. From what we understand about this illness and the major treatment is to support people through the period where their lungs are compromised, the viral infection, and there are certainly many other infections that do that in children. So we are used to providing that kind of support. So at this point I don't think we understand enough about the immune response that would indicate we're going to treat young children any differently than we do adults. I know, hopefully we're not going to see very many because of this phenomenon. Speaker 6: 18:12 One of the things that recently happened was there was a reported death of an infant in Illinois. Um, that I'm sure is raising a lot of people's concerns as we hear that now. I think that they are, I'm working to determine what the exact cause of death, they haven't completely attributed it to Corona virus, but when, when people hear that they get really alarmed, you as, as a doctor, what do you, what do you think when you hear that and what are you waiting to hear about? Speaker 7: 18:39 Yeah, of course that's always tragic when a young baby dies, but there are lots of reasons that that could have happened independent of the fact that that baby apparently was infected with the Corona virus. So just because you're infected with something doesn't mean it's causing your major problems at that time. And we are quite reassured in the pediatric community by all of the data that have come out of China and Italy and New York city and Seattle communities that have started ahead of San Diego in this outbreak. And in all of those places, very small numbers of children that have ended up in the hospital much less severely. You know, Speaker 6: 19:19 there has been a lot of research coming out from, as you mentioned, all of the locations and clearly you're reading it, absorbing it, and paying attention to it. What has been some of the most fascinating, surprising or significant findings that have come out very quickly over the course of this outbreak? Speaker 7: 19:37 Right. And, uh, you know, in addition to the age difference that we've already talked about, one thing that's really a little bit unusual with this infection is that people who do get severely yell seem to do that after about a week, week of symptoms. So they start off with respiratory symptoms that are not particularly severe. They seem to be doing all right for as long as seven days or even longer. And then suddenly they get really sick. And that would suggest that there may be something to do with the immune response, which sometimes takes days to rep ramp up as it's responding to a new infection. Uh, and so I'll be interested to find out what the immune response turns out to be as we're able to study it more carefully. Speaker 6: 20:22 Yeah, I recall reading that with SARS and we know that this Corona viruses, SARS Kovi too with SARS, people were described as, you know, getting ill then almost getting better and then having a real quick turn for the worst. Is that kind of, would you characterize it the same way or is it just kind of a slow progression downward? Speaker 7: 20:43 No, as I understand it again, and we've yet to see any patients that severity at Randy children. So I have no personal experience, but as I read the reports, that does sound like what has been happening. Patients who been doing well or maybe even improving and, and people thought they were on the downslope getting better and suddenly they take a turn for the worst and that apparently can happen within hours. So that's quite unusual for most infections. Speaker 6: 21:09 There's a lot of concern regionally, statewide, nationally about ventilators and about bed capacity. How worried are you about that for this as a region? Speaker 7: 21:21 Yeah, it's a great question. And I think that's sort of why people are so worried. There are lots of unknowns and whenever there are unknowns, the natural human tendency is to sort of over-exaggerate or worry about the worst case scenario. But my observation at this point in time is that in San Diego we have reacted ahead of time given the number of cases that we've had in San Diego compared to other communities. I do expect those numbers will go up, but I do not expect them to go up to the level that they did in New York, for example. So I think San Diego is well prepared. I do know that the health department and the County medical society and all of the major institutions have really gotten together and compared notes and compared resources. And as I, we've already discussed, radius said we'll take young adult patients if that will help. So I think we're in pretty good shape. You're in San Diego as long as people continue to follow the social distancing Speaker 6: 22:20 you just brought up New York. Um, and obviously that's a city that's far more populated than San Diego. Um, but they did create some, um, you know, reactions and responses, some guidelines and orders, uh, to slow the spread and help flatten the curve. And up in LA, you know, statewide, we took some actions. Those are going to trickle down to LA and they're also locally taking actions there, but we're still seeing cases rise there at a much quicker rate than San Diego and in New York. So what did we actually do differently? Um, then those cities that we can say that we won't see that here Speaker 7: 22:58 based on the understanding of how this virus is spread. If you can, can disperse your community and not cluster together, you're going to blend any outbreaks. So, uh, I don't actually know the timing in Los Angeles and Seattle in New York in terms of when things were implemented, but my sense is that they were implemented quite early here in San Diego, measures like closing the schools and shutting down restaurants to take out only. So I think we, we were lucky in that we could see what was happening in those other cities that started before us and we reacted more quickly than they were able to as an as we got a better picture of this whole outbreak and how it plays out in any individual city. Uh, you know, our leadership said to, we better do something now to prevent that from happening in San Diego. Speaker 1: 23:50 That was Dr. Mark Sawyer speaking with KPBS health reporter. Terran mento distilleries all across California, including more than a dozen in San Diego are changing their production lines from making booze to bottling hand sanitizer to help with the acute shortage. Similar ingredients, different recipes, KCB Xs. Gretta Mart brings us this story from a distillery in the central coast Speaker 8: 24:21 for years. Ehrenberg has been making spirits, Speaker 9: 24:24 runs, gins, look cures whiskey, Brandy, a little bit of everything. Speaker 8: 24:28 Berg now runs the cow wise spirits company in Pasa Robles. Speaker 9: 24:32 Our flagship spirit is our big surge in that we make from grapes and native plants that grow in big Sur. Speaker 8: 24:39 But the pandemic has changed. All that Berg says. He started hearing about a shortage of hand sanitizer and figured while it may be sold out at local stores, hospitals and first responders must have a steady supply. Speaker 9: 24:51 These people who I assumed had access to this stuff do not and they're scrambling looking for it so that they can continue to to serve the community and take care of people. So within a matter of 12 hours I started producing hand sanitizer and getting it out to people. Speaker 8: 25:07 He got the recipe and guidelines from the federal agency that regulates distilleries Speaker 9: 25:12 for the first time ever. As far as I know, the FDA and the federal government has given distilleries emergency authority to make hand sanitizer, which, which is, which is crazy. I mean I never thought I would ever see something like that. Speaker 8: 25:28 Berg's phones are ringing almost nonstop these days. People looking to buy his sanitizer for the time being. He has enough of the necessary ingredients, high proof alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, glycerin. Even getting his hands on those proved challenging until he reached out to the local business community and got what he needed. A CBD oil producer had extra bottles, a Pasa Robles flavor extract producer had extra hydrogen peroxide. All use distilleries have permission to manufacture hand sanitizer through at least June 30th so far, Berg's made about 200 gallons. Joe Barton, co-owner crowbarred craft distillery and Pasa Robles started making sanitizer to use it as own retail store when crowds descended before the stay at home orders speaking inside his distillery, he said the wider need for sanitizer by hospitals, public safety, grocery stores quickly became a parent Speaker 10: 26:22 for us. It's been almost mind blowing to see how there isn't a whole lot there and it will just be us. Every distillery needs to try to help because there's such a lack that no, not one person here can fill it. Speaker 8: 26:36 Liking it too. How nine 11 changed air travel forever. Barton says the coronavirus pandemic has changed his outlook. This period of time is probably Speaker 11: 26:43 going to be life changing for all of us. I think there'll be a lot of things that we do in life that won't ever be the same because of this experience. Estimates he's bottled and sold it few hundred gallons Speaker 8: 26:53 of sanitizers so far and he plans to continue making it until the pandemic wanes. Then he'll return to producing gin, vodka and Brandy and welcoming crowds back to his Paso Robles property and tasting room. I'm Gretta Mart in San Louis Obispo County. Speaker 2: 27:12 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 27:14 now to a growing protest movement within a company you might have ordered a thing or two from during this pandemic. Amazon, the warehouse employees who package everything from pasta to toilet paper, say the company isn't doing enough to protect them from coven. 19 workers are staging, walkouts, and signing petitions demanding that their health be taken seriously. Reporter Mickey Kapor spoke with workers at the company's Riverside County warehouse, Speaker 12: 27:42 LGBT three Amazon's warehouse in Eastvale, California is enormous. It spans from one freeway exit to the next, but all that space still isn't enough to maintain proper social distancing. A few days after California stay at home order. One worker who wishes to remain anonymous because she worries she'll be fired. Found herself in a training group of seven or eight other workers gathered shoulder to shoulder to hear over the noise of the warehouse. Speaker 13: 28:05 We all kind of crowd in one so that you can hear your trainer speaking to so that you don't block someone trying to work or get in the way. Speaker 12: 28:15 Later she got nervous each time a manager came around her station. What if they're spreading coronavirus along with their daily rounds? Speaker 13: 28:22 In my mind, I'm thinking that person has just spoken with a person before that and a person before that and a person before that. Speaker 12: 28:30 She lives with her father who recently recovered from chemotherapy and pneumonia and she was afraid of bringing the virus home, so she was on the lookout for any sign of it or warehouse. Last weekend she found it not just one, but two Eastville workers tested positive for coven 19 between here, that first from Amazon, she saw it as a rumor on Facebook. Speaker 13: 28:49 On my newsfeed. They had taken a screenshot of another person's post on another newsfeed. Speaker 12: 28:56 Amazon eventually texted their workers later that night, but she couldn't wait to confirm whether it was safe to go to work, so she searched for more information. Speaker 13: 29:04 Amazon's United inland empire. Paige had popped up kind of at the top and then the first thing I saw was the petition. Speaker 12: 29:12 It demands that Amazon shut down the warehouse to sterilize it, pay workers during the shutdown and when they reopen, give workers paid sick leave so they don't come to work and risk infecting each other. She signed the petition and so did more than 500 of her coworkers, including this one who also has to be anonymous. Speaker 13: 29:27 Well, I signed it. The first day came on. I signed it. I told everybody, go get our voices heard and decided to petition to have the building closed down to have the sun prize and clean for us to work, get sick or not. Speaker 12: 29:42 She volunteered with one of her colleagues to submit the petition to HR in person on Tuesday night. She had been to the warehouse since the company announced the coven 19 cases and was shocked at how little it changed. Speaker 13: 29:52 Nobody had on, nobody had gloves on. It was like a normal day like nobody really cared. We went to HR, we turned the paperwork and they said, what is this for? Speaker 12: 30:04 She hopes next time customers open that smiling cardboard box. They think about the health of the employee who packed it. Speaker 13: 30:10 They touched it or they coughed on it or you know, you don't know. Speaker 12: 30:14 Amazon says they're doing temperature. Texas, I'm facilities and consulting with health authorities on building closures and deep cleaning in a statement. They also called their workers heroes. I'm Mickey copper. Speaker 1: 30:26 This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm Maureen Cavanagh. Staying at home sheltering from a dangerous disease is not exactly relaxing, so if you'd like to lift your spirits during this crazy time, KPBS cinema junkie, Beth AHCA, Mondo would like to suggest watching some screwball comedies. She checks in with Nora Fiori, author of the nitrate diva blog for some suggestions and to explain why screwball comedies offer the perfect escape in these trying times. Speaker 14: 30:57 Nora, we met through TCM because we both have a love of old movies and classic films. Give us a little background on yourself and kind of how you came to love older movies cause you're not old enough to have been seeing these when they first came out. Speaker 15: 31:13 No, I'm, I'm a millennial. I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Vermont and these films really spoke to me from a very young age. My gateway to classic cinema was classic horror, but that quickly expanded to classic comedy through arsenic and old lace, which is, you know, this wonderful horror comedy hybrid and I just got bitten by the bug. I loved the black and white. I loved that it showed a world that I had not lived through. They've been a very big part of my life. Speaker 14: 31:44 So for today we're going to choose to escape whatever anxieties and stress we may have and look to the world of screwball comedy, which you have a real love for. How do you define what makes a screwball comedy? Speaker 15: 32:00 For me, it's more about a sensibility that it's these wacky situations that people are thrown in that a lot of times it's about reversing the social order where somebody who would usually be on top of society is in a position where they're more vulnerable and is, or then they're dependent on the working man to save them. Or it's this battle of the sexes where, uh, you know, it's all the gender tensions and roles in society are being subverted. So they're, they're generally a very anarchic type of comedy. They're comedies that are really in revolt against the social order. It's rebellion, but it's rebellion in this breezy, flirtatious, extremely sexy way that that makes palatable, I mean, it's, it's worth noting that these films were made under under some pretty strict censorship. You know, in the form of the production code. They, there were a lot of limitations of what you could show in ways you could be irreverent. You know, you had to stay within certain moral confines. But writers, directors, actors, everybody had to come up with all these creative and unusual ways to evoke that revolt and that sexual chemistry without crossing lines of proprieties. So I feel like those films are kind of the sense of breaking through barriers and all of these creative and zany ways of this kind of subtle, a subtle revolt, revolt that is expressed in an acute breezy manner. Speaker 14: 33:21 Now, one thing that audiences today may have a little bit in common with the audiences in the 1930s was films were very much an escape during the depression, uh, during the depression. However, people could actually physically go to a theater to seek that escape. So, um, do you see that connection in terms of audiences maybe being able to find a similar sort of escape route through these films as people like in the 1930s did? Speaker 15: 33:50 Oh, absolutely. I think these are great escapist films. I think what makes them really great escapism is that they're wacky, romantic fantasies that are still allowing us to process some of the underlying tensions in society. So I feel like you just have to think of these as fantasies as as a dreamworld and yet a dream world that is still metabolizing and digesting the crux of, of issues that are still with us. Things like, you know, class 10 tensions in gender relations. Speaker 14: 34:17 Well, that seems to be a perfect point to start with. The first film on your list, which is Frank Capra's, it happened one night from 1934 and this sense of having kind of the escapism, but also that touch of realism is really clear in Capra's film. Speaker 15: 34:37 Yes, absolutely. I think this one has a little bit more of an aura of looking into the real world because it is about an intensely sheltered young woman who decides that she's going to Flay, that she's, she wants to marry a Playboy in her rich millionaire. Father says, no, you can't do that. So she, she escapes. But as soon as she gets out in the real world, she realizes that she doesn't have the skills to cope with that. And lucky for her out of work reporter a Clark Gable comes along and thinks I'm going to get her story because by this point she's a sensation. You know, she's the escape runaway heiress and in trying to get her story and keep her away from the cops and her father's hired goons, you know, they start to fall for each other and it has, you know, they have to become very resourceful to stay one step ahead of the people who are, are, are searching for them. Speaker 15: 35:21 And it's fun to watch all the identity play that takes place as they have to do that. You know, the famous scene that they have to share a hotel room for the night, which pretty racy for 1934 you know, good girl wasn't supposed to share a hotel room with some guy she just met in 1934 so what they do is they string up blanket in the middle of the room and they call it the walls of Jericho because nothing's going to bring that down. That's, that's their concession to propriety. And you know, the famous scene where Clark Gable to keep her on her side of the room starts taking his clothes. Speaker 16: 35:50 No, I have a method on my own. If you'll notice the Coke came first and the tie and the shirt now according to Hoyle, after that, the pain should be next. That's where I'm different. I go to the shoes next first, the right and the left after that, it's every man for himself Speaker 15: 36:15 tend to be a a plumber's daughter and her angry husband and you know quickly you can see this era's who has lived this airless boring existence is really starting to enjoy this freewheeling life that she's gotten herself into by escaping. You know, some of the most beautiful scenes are the ones that take place outdoors. I love the scene where they cross the river and he just scoops her right up. And then there's this dreamy sequence where they're, they're finding a bed among hay bales and the moon shining on them. It just has this wonderful air of ordinary romanticism of the way in which the, for her everyday life becomes a Wonderland. It's this whole side of human existence that she has not discovered and she, we get to see it almost through her eyes were things that ordinary depression era audiences would have been annoyed by. We know this would have been the, the daily, the mundane annoyance of their life. She sees as this world of freedom for her. So I think that's an interesting inversion in the film. Speaker 14: 37:15 As much as I hate to move on from, it happened one night, but another film, which is one of my top films because it features a couple of actors I adore, is my man Godfrey, which is from 1936. And this stars the absolutely effervescent Carole Lombard and William Powell playing a, uh, a homeless man, which usually we think of humans as this very area who died, you know, Nick and Nora Charles and, uh, very classic. Yes. Yes. And so he's a, a homeless person in this. What about this film? Um, do you find particularly memorable? Speaker 15: 37:48 Well, I, when I do think about it, I do always think about the sequence where Carole Lombard finds him at the city dump. Like you said, if only you could find William Powell at the city dump, you do not expect to see William Powell just hanging around. But I think that that's such a key part of the movies commentary is that somebody from the upper-class you middle-class, you know, might look at, you know, somebody's falling on hard times and think that it's their fault or just discount them when you, you can see it's William pal. You know, it's, it's a film that really reminds you to always understand that you are where you are because you're, because of your luck in many cases that the vagaries of fortune can take us all in strange directions. And I love that from the first she listens to him, you know, her sister comes and they will, the, the setup is that Carole Lombard and her sister Gail Patrick are both these Daffy socialites who are doing a scavenger hunt. They're looking for things to bring to the club and to show off so that they can win a prize. And one of the things they have to get as a forgotten man, which you know, in depression era terms would have meant a man who probably was a world war one veteran who had lost his job, had fallen on hard times and was living as a bum. Speaker 17: 38:54 Do you mind telling me just what a scavenger hunt is? Well, a scavenger hunt is exactly like a treasure hunt, except in a treasure hunt. You try to find something you want in a scavenger hunt. You try to find something that nobody wants, like a forgotten man. That's right. And the one that wins gets a prize on you. There really isn't a prize. It's just the honor of winning because all the money goes to charity. That is if there's any money left over, but then there never is. There's the whole amount her up beautifully. You know, I decided I don't want to play any more games with human beings. Adopt Jake. It's kind of sorted when you think of it. I mean when you think it over. Yeah. I don't know. I haven't thought it over. He had, I was like change the subject. But he was telling me why you live in a place like this and there's so many other nice places you really want to know. I'm very curious because my real estate agent felt that the altitude would be very good for my asthma. Oh my uncle has asthma. No. Wow. Oh, there's like a to them. Well I suppose I should be going though. She'll lie. Speaker 15: 39:54 That's with them. Ellie Andrews and it happened one night, Carol Lombard's character and my man Godfrey, she is open to hearing other perspectives. So she hires him to be her Butler and you know, pal and Lombard. They had been married and divorced by the time they made this film. But fortunately they stayed on good terms. William pal even recommended her for the role. He just thought she'd be perfect. And I think that they're friendly chemistry makes this really a very sweet film to watch again. Like it happened one night. It's a film about finding your better self because even though the wicked Gail Patrick comes around at the end, so it's a, you know, it's definitely about personal growth. Um, and it's interesting because on the one hand, while it's still doing all this social commentary on the idle rich, it still does have this glamour that is very attractive. Carole Lombard in these to die for Travis Banton gowns and the fancy house there is, there is more Daphnis per minute in this film than maybe in any other films. So well, you know, I make it sound like it's this serious social commentary and that's there. But the paradox of it is that's all there while all this crazy stuff is happening at the same time, that's really what screwball comedy did so well, Speaker 14: 41:02 so to wrap this all up, what do you think about screwball comedies offers the kind of escapism that might help people through some of this self isolation? Speaker 15: 41:11 That's a great question. I think that the sheer speed and amount of wit and joy in these films can really take a load off your mind. They're so fast paced and they're so beautiful. Look at, they're so well acted. They're so well directed and in most cases that you kind of can't take your eyes off them. You can't take your mind off. So they, they really do pull you out of reality for that span of time and plunge you into this other world. And yet, you know, it's not, it's not brain candy. It's not just totally numbing you out or taking you out. I mean, in many ways I find that these films are like exercise for the mind because as I said, I've watched a bunch of them many times and I still feel like I notice new details and new lines and new nuances to the characters. Speaker 15: 41:58 I feel like they're kind of keeping you alert and keeping you engaged with human emotions, uh, with, you know, both high and low emotions. Um, even while they are delighting you with this, this make believe world, uh, that Hollywood created so exquisitely all those years ago. Well, I want to thank you very much for taking some time to escape from some of the stress and anxiety of today's world. Oh, thank you. This has been a delight. This is talking about screwball comedy has been a tremendous, the delightful escape for me. So thank you so much for inviting me to talk about them. That was Beth haka, Mondo speaking with the nitrate diva, Nora Fiori. They will suggest more screwball comedies later this month on Beth's cinema junkie podcast.

San Diego County health officials are now ordering essential workers who interact with the public to wear face masks and recommending residents to cover their faces when leaving home. Plus, San Diego County Democratic Party Chairman Will Rodriguez-Kennedy shares his battle with COVID-19. Also, the coronavirus doesn’t seem to be affecting young children as much. Rady Children’s Hospital infectious disease specialist Dr. Mark Sawyer explains why. And, our film critic Beth Accomando has some suggestions for movies to take your mind off the pandemic.