More Money For More Small Local Businesses

April 14, 2020 at 2:41 AM PDT

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We are here to announce some very good news for small businesses looking for support during these turbulent times. When the city of San Diego's coven 19 small business relief fund opened for applications at the end of March, the city's website was immediately flooded. It got so much traffic, it crashed more than 9,000 local small businesses applied for the financial aid in under two weeks. The huge demand went further than the $6 million fund could stretch. This speaks, I think, to how deeply our small local businesses need help and support from our community, from our city. We knew immediately that we needed to do more [inaudible]. So on Monday, mayor Kevin Faulkner said that things to more than 300,000 in private donations. The city is now expanding its coven 19 small business relief fund providing more funds to more small local businesses. And the hope is that the fund will continue to grow, go fund me, which is that online donation platform and one of the three local businesses that donated 100,000 each is working to get more contributions by aggressively promoting the initiative on its own website. [inaudible] and governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday. He's working with other West coast States on a data driven approach to reopen the region's economies. He says any potential changes to stay at home orders in California as well as in Oregon and Washington would be based on science, not politics, but he didn't give a specific timeline. Local officials say they hope to be a part of that conversation about opening things back up, but they were cautious about moving too quickly. Supervisor Nathan Fletcher says he supports the governor's data driven approach, but getting back to normal life is still a ways off. While we see those conversations taking place and we see those efforts underway. It is very, very important to know that the ability to implement those as directly tied to our ability to stay the course and continue to see progress in the coming weeks in San Diego County [inaudible] and now for today's coven numbers. Two more deaths in San Diego for a total of 47 due to coven 19 and 43 new positive cases for a total of 1,847 and the Navy announced Monday that a sailor died of coven 19 related complications after contracting the virus while onboard the San Diego based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. I'm Kinsey Moreland and you're listening to KPBS daily news podcast. San Diego news matters. It's Tuesday, April 14th stay with me for more of the local news you need nationally. Covet 19 is hitting black Americans harder than groups. While California's racial data is still incomplete, experts are predicting more illness in communities of color. Epidemiologist flow, John Cofer says this is about financial instability as long as Lee are still requiring people to exchange money for goods and services. Making a livelihood is going to factor into people's thoughts and feelings and it is going to be a matter of privilege. Who is able to better adhere to things than others. She says many low income minority Californians must continue working outside the home to pay the bills. Black residents may also be more susceptible to Cova 19 due to preexisting conditions like diabetes and obesity and a lack of access to regular medical care. Experts nationwide are calling on government leaders to better support disadvantaged communities during the crisis. Many communities are struggling financially because of the Corona virus pandemic, but military families face some unique challenges. KPBS military reporter Steve Walsh says the virus has placed extra burdens on younger military families, families who were already struggling to make ends meet or a Wayne is working in the back room of a store, front office in San Diego or information all the sleeves, a diaper, so when they get in they know who they came from and if we can help White's group step councils, members of the military in financial trouble. The recent weeks, a lot of their effort has gone into providing care packages with basic necessities to families caught off guard by coronavirus. What we're seeing is definitely a little bit of panic as we all are kind of feeling these days. Um, but another level with our military families, because they have some stricter stay at home rules. You know, when your spouse is deployed and you're still a parent, we don't want that parent here to get sick. So they're delivering to single parents who are often living far from their own extended families. In late March, secretary of defense, Mark Esper imposed a 60 days stop movement order throughout the world. At least 90,000 service members were caught up in the restriction. People were frozen in place. Kathleen Martinez, his husband is a Marine officer at camp Pendleton North of San Diego. He was supposed to deploy overseas for the first time. Now that's on hold. We were planning to have me go live back in the Midwest while he's deployed to be near family because it is the first deployment. I'm a little nervous about it. Um, we don't have any family or support system out here so we thought that would be a smart idea in San Diego where vacancy rates remain low, they're at least full run out at the end of the month. They can continue to lease month to month, but their landlord has already told her it will be significantly more expensive. It feels stuck, uncertain. Uh, everything is up in the air. I'm a planner and I can't plan right now so that's a little nerve wracking, just not knowing what's next. The secretary's order came down so quickly. Some families were stuck mid move, some arrived in San Diego before their furniture, other sailors and Marines had set up their new places and were ready to move when the order came down. Blue star families, a military support group is asking families about the disruption caused by COBIT 19 in the militaries for response. Jessica Strong is the senior researcher for the survey because this stop movement order, people are not able to move from one place to another. If you are caught in the middle of that right now, 21% of our respondents in our week one said that they will be paying two rents or mortgages in the next 60 days after they've just lost a position or lost half their income. That that's not easy to do. By the second week of the survey, 37% of respondents said their spouse had become unemployed. About a third say they plan to dip into savings. There's a lot of financial repercussions. People are without housing or unable to make rent or unable to afford food even or a white with the group that helps. Military families says denial plays a big role in compounding financial problems. She seen people's stack, unopened bills when they know they can't pay. We want you to take a deep breath and realize that the a big part of the world is just come to a halt so you're not in any different situation than a lot of other people. Get them in order and start making phone calls to each one of those people and talk about your situation. You're going to be able to put something on hold, you're going to be able to come up with some payment plans if a creditor won't work with you. The next step is to contact state or federal consumer protection offices. New laws have put temporary holds on some evictions. People in the military should also reach out to their command. Above all else, white says try to stay calm. There are solutions and that story was produced by the American Homefront project that is a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting. Maybe you've heard the stories about people with coven 19 losing their sense of taste and smell. Well. Now UC San Diego researchers show evidence that loss of smell and taste are indeed among the symptoms. Coven 19 patients could be experiencing KPBS science and technology reporter Shelina Chet Lani has details on a new peer reviewed study. People can experience loss of smell and taste with a number of conditions like a sinus infection. So while it's been observed that Corona virus patients experience these symptoms, there has not been much statistical evidence until this study says UC San Diego surgeon, Carol Yan. We looked at anyone who came in that thought they had coordinated symptoms when they ended up getting tested. The Komen 19 positive group are 10 times more likely to have smell. Yeah, and says smell and taste loss aren't top symptoms and patients observed had mild coronavirus cases. She says since the city was relatively small, she thinks more should be done to show if these findings apply to a larger population of coven. 19 patients, senior care facilities in California and elsewhere have been hit hard by the virus. Critics say governor Gavin Newsome's efforts to protect people who live and work in California's nursing homes don't go far enough. KPBS reporter, the Sharma has more as Corona virus outbreaks continue to kill the elderly at California's nursing homes. Nuisance says the state has retrained 600 nurses to help senior care places handle COBIT. 19 cases. Lawyer, Mike Derrick, who has pushed for nursing home reform, lauded that measure, but said it's still not clear whether those nurses will actually be on site to help and we have to have eyes on the ground in these facilities. There are no longer visitors permitted that had been the safety net in these places for years without any outside presence. Dark says it will be difficult to spot other issues like proper infection control, under-staffing and lack of protective gear [inaudible] all right, so you are probably getting all kinds of advice out there on how to stay healthy, how to plan in case you get sick. But have you thought about your pets? What if you were sick and had to go to the hospital? Who would take care of them? KPBS reporter Claire Traeger, sir says the San Diego humane society is asking people to make these plans as part of their coronavirus preparation. No one wants to think about leaving their pet behind, but especially for someone who lives alone, there should be plans for who would care for your pets. So says Nina Thompson with the San Diego humane society. It's important that you have a plan and a backup plan and a backup to the backup plan because right now, um, with numbers possibly spiking, you don't know if the backup plan that you may have, you know, there's an unfortunate situation and that person may be hospitalized or something like that. Thompson says if a pet owner gets sick or dies and hasn't made arrangements, the humane society would take the pet in. She says so far relinquishment haven't gone up because of the current virus. So I have two very cute and lovely pets that I'm sure the sound designer of this show. Ms Emily Jen Koski will watch when or if my family falls ill. Emily, you are officially on notice. There's an international effort to find a Corona virus treatment and that effort includes research organizations headquartered right here in San scientist at LA Jolla Institute for immunology are leading that global hunt for antibodies. KPBS health reporter Taryn mento speaks with some of these researchers. Then she talks to midday additions, Mark Sauer about who could be treated with antibody therapy, how soon it could be available and more. There's a new international effort to find a Corona virus treatment and it's headquartered in San Diego. Researchers at LA Jolla Institute for immunology are leading a global hunt for antibodies. KPBS health reporter Terran mento finds out how it will all work. First things first, what are antibodies? The LA Jolla institutes, Erika Omand Sapphire explains they're your own personal defense system. I reached her over zoom, so they are what your own immune system makes to attack a foreign invader like a virus and destroy it and to signal the rest of your immune system that there's a threat there to be neutral. She's leading the newly launched Corona virus immunotherapy consortium or Kovac to find the best antibodies to create a treatment. She's done it before in response to the Ebola outbreak. This effort is funded by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The goal of the collaboration is to sift through antibodies created in labs, but mostly those produced by humans who have survived the virus. How are we actually going to be able to take antibodies from humans who have beaten the virus and use that to study how we can manufacture it for widespread distribution. What we're going to do is receive those samples and do what's called blinding meeting. Everything gets given a code names make it very fair instead of the antibodies real name and they're all going to be called Kobek one two three 548 then we're going to send identical box sets of the world's array of antibodies out to different participating analysis labs. Each of them are using a different kind of technique. Some may examine how antibodies attached to the virus while others look at how they deactivate it. Sapphire says the Institute will assess results from dozens of partners, but so far they've only publicly announced Duke university and companies in the Bay area and Canada. The Institute will then pick the best antibody therapy and recommend it to funders like the world health organization or the Gates foundation. It sounds simple, but the LA Jolla institutes, Shane Crotty says it is an easy word. How do you figure out the best antibody which, which ones are, uh, are the best and a really good antibody is a thousand times better than an okay antibody. Okay. There there's, there's an enormous range of functionalities. Even when they do find the right antibodies and create a therapy, that treatment doesn't last forever. The antibodies only last a while after the injection. Just like any drug essentially, right? There's a, there's a time window where it, where to act and antibodies are, are great, uh, great drugs cause they'll, they'll last for three weeks or more. Um, so they can really, it's not like taking a Tylenol that you know, works for like four hours, but it's still a short term solution. So while Sapphire is working on injecting antibodies as a treatment, karate is tapping into that research to develop a vaccine. That's what teaches ourselves how to make our own antibodies. It sounds like Erica is working on the short term way to address Corona virus and you will be participating in the consortium by looking at the longterm way to address Corona virus. Yeah, that's right. Um, generally speaking, um, the flip side, Sapphire says, vaccines take much longer than antibody therapy to provide protection against the virus. You get your immunity four to eight weeks after receiving the vaccine. Well, that's great for a virus that you expect to encounter four to eight weeks from now. But if you need to meet any now delivering it in this way can do that for you today still that today is months away at least she says the earliest a partner will begin testing antibody therapies on humans is June and the Institute plans to review results from all of the labs to find the very best treatment. I'm joined now by KPBS health reporter Taren mento. Hi Taryn. Hi Mark. So first off, how common is antibody therapy? Right. So I asked Shane karate about this. He's a virologist and immunologist at the LA Jolla Institute. And for treatment injecting antibodies, he says that we've been doing this for more than a hundred years, about 120 years. And he says the first Nobel prize was actually for injectable antibodies. And then for vaccines it's also really common. He said there's about 28 licensed vaccines, um, and about 20 of them are based on antibodies and who could be treated with antibody therapy. So Erica Allman Sapphire at the LA Jolla Institute, she's leading the consortium. She said it could be used to protect healthcare providers, people really on the front lines to, to prevent them from actually contracting it, give them a muni immunity immediately or a close contact of someone who has Corona virus or is suspected of having Corona virus or maybe even someone that's already sick with it. And what success have we had with antibody therapy treating Corona by risk patients. So in the U S there's a lot of institutions that are really just starting out using this and the Mayo clinic. And then here locally, the blood bank is collecting plasma from survivors and as possibly working with some local hospitals. But there was a report, uh, coming out of China. Um, they used, uh, this, this, uh, plasma or antibodies from survivors on five critically ill patients. And they noticed them. And these were people who were really, really, um, just very critically ill and they, they did notice that like body temperature started to regulate after like about three or four days. So they did see success there. But again, it's only five people. Um, so there's a lot more, uh, findings to come out of these studies that are happening. And you mentioned the San blood bank collecting plasma from survivors. Uh, are they a part of this effort? They are not formally a part of the effort, no. Um, but Erica Allman Sapphire, she says that, you know, any results coming out of these efforts will help, you know, inform their work as well. So that'll be some additional data that they could incorporate as they're looking at results from people who are a part of the consortium and doing these experiments in these studies. You mentioned the LA Jolla Institute, we'll be working on a vaccine too, but they're not the only company, not even the only local company. What progress have we made it all on a vaccine. So globally there's more than a hundred institutions working on a vaccine, but there's only about five that have actually progressed to testing in humans. And one of those is a Novio pharmaceuticals. They just announced that they injected, um, their first human volunteer this week. Uh, there was another company that was just ahead of them last month, but that other company actually didn't even do, um, animal testing before human testing. They're kind of doing it at the same time and Novio did do some animal testing ahead of time and saw some positive results. So we're still waiting to see progress on those five, including the one with the Novio. Um, but there's, there's, there's more than a hundred and in progress. And you said in your story, the earliest the LA Jolla Institute will begin testing the antibodies in humans. Is this June and the big question of course, any idea how soon we'll know if their efforts are successful. That is the main question obviously that everyone wants answered. The Mo, the positive note is that a lot of the scientists that I've talked to about this have said that they are, they are confident that we will get a treatment. Um, and not even just a treatment but also a vaccine. Uh, you know, when everyone kind of says it's not clear who's it'll be, but everyone's making progress on and, and working really well and they w they know they will achieve it. But yeah, the question is, is when, and that's something we'll have to be looking for and progress will be made when they start testing in June and hopefully LA Jolla Institute will report out some results not too long after Covin 19 survivors can contact Kovac that cov I see at LJ [inaudible] dot org for more information or to contribute to a study. Earth day is this month and the San Diego zoo global on Monday began a virtual earth day celebration of its own. You can go to their website that is that zoo dot San diego.org/earth day and participate in all kinds of activities and gain educational resources. Well, of course, learning ways to coexist with nature and animals. You and your kids can study animal behavior, view and classify photos taken on remote trail cameras. There's a gorilla themed coloring project for kids and an earth day nature scavenger hunt, and there's all kinds live webcams you can tap into. You can even look at archival tape of the beloved live Panda cam. I had a coworker who used to just sit on that thing constantly. Anyway, I really wish we could play some sound of a Panda munching on bamboo here, but the panic hands don't include audio, so you'll just have to imagine it. That's all for today. Thanks for listening and don't forget, you can always call or text your Corona virus questions or stories to me at (619) 452-0228 please. People send me a text. I love texts. [inaudible].

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On Monday, Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced more than $300,000 in private donations to expand the city’s small business relief fund. Also on the San Diego News Matters podcast: Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology are leading the global hunt for coronavirus antibodies, a virtual Earth Day celebration and more local news you need.