Kamala Harris Joins Joe Biden on History-Making Presidential Ticket
On Tuesday, history was made when Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden selected California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris is the first Black woman and the first Asian American to be nominated for the vice presidency of a major political party. On Wednesday, Biden announced that their campaign had raised $26 million within the 24 hours of announcing Harris as his running mate. In December, Harris ended her own presidential bid, after struggling to define herself on key issues and fundraising difficulties. Before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, she served as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney.
Guests:
- Scott Shafer, KQED politics and government senior editor
- Marisa Lagos, KQED politics and government correspondent
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on the Economy
Last week, the number of Americans filing state unemployment claims fell below 1 million for the first time since March, according to the U.S. Labor Department. But the economy continues to be battered by the coronavirus as the pace of rehiring slows and the national unemployment rate continues to hover above 10%. California’s economic outlook is particularly bleak, with an unemployment rate of nearly 15% in June and nearly 10 million unemployment claims processed since March. Congress remains at an impasse over extending unemployment benefits to millions of Americans that expired nearly two weeks ago. Meanwhile, tech behemoths such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google posted strong quarterly earnings, indicating their resilience amid economic uncertainty and mass layoffs.
Guest:
- Robert Reich, professor of public policy, UC Berkeley, and former U.S. secretary of labor (1993 - 1997)
Nabbing the Coronavirus Before It Can Do Harm
This week, scientists at UCSF announced the early stage of what could become a promising new way to protect people from coronavirus infection until a vaccine is developed and readily available. In a lab, they engineered a tiny antibody, normally present in the immune systems of llamas and camels, to act like a molecular mousetrap by latching onto spikes that coronavirus molecules use to infect cells in the airways and pump out copies of the virus. With the spikes blocked, the coronavirus would then no longer be able to hijack cells, propagate inside the body and damage lungs and other organs. The scientists are calling their discovery “AeroNabs” and published their findings online as a preprint before being peer reviewed, a process which has become common recently to quickly disseminate coronavirus research to the broader scientific community. Unlike other COVID-19 treatments, AeroNabs could also be administered as a nasal spray or inhaler, and at home instead of a hospital.