WYPR Coronavirus Coverage

Baltimore’s Mayor announces a new COVID-19 testing site. In Baltimore County, more than half of businesses surveyed say they’re hurting. A second round of relief funding is on the way, but what can small businesses do to stay afloat now? And a local arts organization is finding ways to keep the community engaged and pay its artists and performers.

Today, a discussion with the people working to put food on the tables of Maryland families who are experiencing food insecurity because of COVID-19. 

Tom’s first guest is Carmen Del Guercio, the president and CEO of the Maryland Food Bank, a non-profit organization that distributes food to pantries, soup kitchens and other organizations. Donations to the Food Bank are currently down 90%. To make a donation, click here. 

A little later in the program Tom is joined by Michael J. Wilson, the director of Maryland Hunger Solutions and an advocate for the expansion of nutrition and food assistance programs. Wilson sets the record straight on new guidelines for federal food assistance programs. 

Artists and arts organizations have taken a hard financial hit since public gatherings were banned more than a month ago. Josh Kohn, Creative Alliance performance director, talks about inventive ways the non-profit is continuing to pay artists and connecting them with audiences at a safe distance during a time when he views the arts as crucial. Plus, community artist and writer Christy Zuccarini tells us why makers of all kinds find solace with the online group she founded called ‘Made In Isolation.’

Check out Creative Alliance programming here. Find Made In Isolation on Facebook and Instagram or at madeinisolation.org.

AVAM, Baltimore Museum of Art, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore Heritage, all have online activities or experiences to offer. Follow these local photographers on Instagram to see their take on Baltimore during the COVID-19 lockdown, and the Peale Center is offering this webinair for storytellers to access funding. To access the Maryland State Arts Council relief fund, visit their site.

Maryland’s governor has secured a windfall of COVID-19 test kits. Some of the state’s low-risk inmates are being released to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. A local community college tries to help its students and the community. And, realistically, how close are we to developing a vaccine?

Today on Midday, updates on efforts to mitigate COVID-19, the outlook for testing, and redoubled efforts of outreach to the African American community here in Baltimore.  Later this hour, Tom is joined by Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, the Commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department.  Their conversation is posted separately, here.

Tom's first guest is Dr. Lisa Maragakis, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist with Johns Hopkins Medicine, who serves on Governor Hogan’s Maryland Coronavirus Response Team.  She’s also the Executive Director of the Hopkins Biocontainment Unit and the Incidents Commander for COVID-19 response at John Hopkins.  

This morning, Maryland officials announced 854 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to at least 13,684 patients afflicted with COVID-19.  At least 582 Marylanders have perished so far in the pandemic. 

When Maryland’s General Assembly leaders cut short their 2020 session in March because of the coronavirus threat, they said they’d come back in May for a special session.

Monday, they announced there would be no special session to take care of unfinished business.

Governor Larry Hogan issued an executive order Sunday that has the potential to free hundreds of inmates, as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to grow in Maryland’s prisons.

The order directs Maryland’s Commissioner of Corrections to expedite the release of prisoners who are within three months of being paroled, who are over 60 and have a plan for home release and have not been convicted of a violent crime.

It would not apply, however, to those who have been convicted of sex offenses or those displaying symptoms of COVID-19.

Today on Midday, two leading public health experts provide updates on efforts to mitigate COVID-19, the outlook for testing, and redoubled efforts to reach out to the African American community here in Baltimore.

Earlier in today's program, Tom spoke with Dr. Lisa Maragakis, a senior specialist in epidemiology and infectious diseases with Johns Hopkins Medicine, and a member of the Governor's MD Coronavirus Response Team.  Their conversation is posted separately on this site.  Now, Tom talks with Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, the Commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department, who joins us on the line to discuss the local dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This morning we kick off a series of conversations with candidates running to fill Baltimore’s top elective office. Up first, former federal and city prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah.

Maryland’s back-to-school date gets pushed back, again. Baltimore’s mayor asks food delivery apps to lower their fees. The city’s schools superintendent hears from parents about distance learning challenges. Plus, a report about ‘contact tracing,' the next crucial phase of pandemic management.

Restaurants throughout Maryland are still open, but operating only as carry-out establishments under emergency orders because of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning many residents are turning to delivery apps to bring meals to their door. 

The problem, some restaurant workers say, is that the fees the delivery services charge greatly reduce the already razor-thin margins that most restaurants skate by on. 

Last month, after Governor Hogan issued a stay-at-home order for Marylanders, theater companies had to cancel the live performances that are at the heart of their artform. 

But many of the 40+ theater groups in our area are pivoting to digital technology to stream performances directly onto computers and tablets and TV screens, and they’re devising other imaginative ways to keep their audiences engaged. 

Joining Tom on the line today is the award-winning Brooklyn-based actor and playwright Donnetta Lavinia Grays. She stars in the one-person play she wrote and video-produced with Baltimore Center Stage, called Where We Stand.  The play is being streamed online to pay-what-you-can ticket buyers until April 26. Center Stage Artistic Director Stephanie Ybarra also joins Tom to discuss the theater company's innovative response to the pandemic shutdown, and its quick pivot to virtual audience engagements, including its multi-theater collaboration on Play At Home, in which playwrights (including Ms. Grays) were commissioned to write short, ten-minute plays that house-bound audiences can download, for free, to read or perform in their homes. 

Then, Tom talks with Genevieve de Mahy, founder and Artistic Director of Single Carrot Theatre, a company that intentionally left its theater home last year to seek novel venues and to engage in more educational and community-centered theater. Ms. DeMahy talks about the next installment in Single Carrot’s popular Flipside Series (which include its Cabarets and Drunk Classics), one-night-only events that de Mahy says "are fun...and embrace the unexpected." Tonight's event, called "Pajama Party! A Virtual Variety Show," takes place via Zoom at 8pm.

For more info on the Single Carrot theater event, click here.

Hang up the phone. That’s Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh’s advice on how to steer clear of scammers hawking at-home COVID-19 tests or cures for the virus. If it’s an email, don’t open any attachments. If it’s a phone call, end it.

Frosh also tells how to report suspected price gouging, where to get help if you’re threatened with foreclosure or eviction, and why he’s worried about the coronavirus spreading in prisons.

Check out this FAQ list compiled by the OAG. The consumer hotline number is 410-528-8662.

Governor Hogan lays out crucial steps that must happen before stay-at-home restrictions are eased. What happens when ‘sheltering in place’ actually harms some of our most vulnerable citizens? Baltimore county opens its first COVID-19 testing site, but test shortages limit capacity. And one of our own shares the experience of getting tested.

When we head to the mailbox to cast our votes in Maryland’s June 2 Primary Election, the winner of the Democratic Presidential Primary will be a foregone conclusion. Joe Biden is the last person standing among two dozen candidates. This week, Pres. Barack Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have all endorsed the former vice president. 

My guest today is Washington Post columnist and Brooking Institution senior fellow E.J. Dionne, who has written a timely book that makes the case for how Biden can bring the Progressive and Moderate wings of the party together. The book is called Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country.

Dionne calls for a Politics of Remedy and a Politics of Dignity, premised in a shared vision of citizenship. He advocates for what the scholar Robert Wright first called, “Progressive Realism,” which embraces democratic and social justice concerns, but also takes into account America’s role in a dangerous world, rife with threats from countries like Russia, China and a handful of regional autocracies.   

In this terrific book, Dionne takes an insightful look back at the ebb and flow of Conservative and Progressive ideologies, and he makes a cogent case for moving forward from the current administration, which six out of ten Americans have repudiated for the last four years.

During the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans are staying home in order to stay safe. But what if home is the opposite of safe … because you’re trapped inside with your abuser? Fushena Cruickshank from the ‘The Maryland Health Care Coalition Against Domestic Violence,’ tells us how they’re training healthcare providers to help patients in these dangerous circumstances. And Lauren Shaivitz, director of the non-profit Chana, talks about the unique challenges their clients are facing during lockdown.

Also check The National Domestic Abuse Hotline for resources or call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As COVID 19 continues its stampede across the US and the world, there is a concurrent pandemic of misinformation being disseminated on websites that millions of people are visiting. Who can you trust?  How can you tell if a source is credible?  How do some conspiracy theories gain so much traction?

Today on Midday,  author and entrepreneur Steven Brill discusses his latest project, NewsGuard, a source that exposes sites that are deliberately  misleading people at a time when fear and anxiety are daily companions.

A new face-covering order is in effect for all Maryland residents. The state’s top judge orders early release for some prisoners. Baltimore’s mayor extends the city’s property tax sales deadline. Hospitals face drug shortages for COVID-19 patients. A first-person story of survival. And a worker shortage signals trouble for Maryland’s crab season.