Leslie Marshall Show -7/13/20- Health Security Expert Talks Criteria for Safely Reopening Schools

Progressive Voices

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET. Brad is first joined by Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, and the Department of Epidemiology, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also part of Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Testing Insights Initiative, which is working to fill the void of publicly accessible COVID-19 testing data. Her Twitter handle is @JenniferNuzzo. Dr. Nuzzo and Brad discuss what criteria should be used to help guide schools on whether to reopen with in-person classes, virtual learning, or a combination of both, and how to best protect students and teachers during school. She also explains why it's important that the decision to reopen schools should be made locally, but why it's also important that schools receive guidance from our national scientific leaders like the CDC. Dr. Nuzzo also reveals that she and her colleagues are calling for increased funding where schools are requesting it in order to properly train their staff, and prepare their buildings, to create the safest possible learning environment during the pandemic. She also expresses concern that the debate to open schools has become an unproductive political fight that we need to change in order to best serve students and teachers. During the second half of the show, Brad leads a political round-table with Tim Zenk and Mark Grimaldi. The roundtable discusses President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos attempting to bully schools into reopening by threatening their federal funding, Joe Biden's 'Build Back Better' economic plan, and whether Biden should try to 'go big' and expand the electoral map this coming fall. Tim is a Principle at 'Molecule,' a business and public affairs company, a former Democratic staffer, and a well known renewable energy expert. His Twitter handle is @greencrude. Mark Grimaldi has been a progressive political activist for the past 12 years. He volunteered for the campaigns of President Obama (2008 and 2012), Senator Bernie Sanders (2016), and Secretary Hillary Clinton (2016). Mark is also involved in campaign finance reform efforts around the country, and philanthropic efforts for Cancer research. His Twitter handle is @MarkJGrimaldi. Brad writes a column every Sunday on the 2020 Presidential race for 'The Hill.' He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon. Watch a video broadcast of the show here: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1mrxmEjYoeLxy