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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Friday, September 3rd. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Ask parents how they're doing these days and many will tell you they're not okay. After a long and tough year and a half, this was supposed to be an exciting return to the classroom. But instead, because of the Delta variant, many parents say they're stressed, feeling conflicted about going back to the old ways of socializing while some of their kids are too young to be vaccinated.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We know that all of this can be tricky to navigate. So we asked you, our listeners, to send us your questions about safety, school and socializing for kids. And we took those questions to Dr. Lina Nguyen. Different people are going to be making very different decisions about risk. I think that people who are vaccinated should be able to make the right choice for them and their families, while also recognizing that other people are going to make different choices too.
--:-- Dr. Lina Nguyen: Dr. Nguyen is an emergency room physician and public health professor at George Washington University. She's also a Washington Post columnist and has two young children who are not old enough to be vaccinated. and she spent a lot of time thinking about how to keep her family safe.
--:-- Shamita Basu: My name is Sandra Aguayo and I'm from Inglewood, California. My daughter started first grade last week and there was a COVID scare in a kindergarten classroom. And this has made me realize that this can happen to her in her classroom and after school program as well. And it's definitely making me question whether or not I am making the right choice for her.
--:-- Dr. Lina Nguyen: Well, I think it's important to think about schooling as being essential, that our children have really suffered so much as a result of not being in in-person school. And so being back in school is so essential that it's something that needs to be done despite the risks involved. That's the first thing. The second thing is that there are definitely ways we know after a year and a half of living through the pandemic that there are ways to reduce the risk at school such that schools can actually be some of the safest places from an in-school transmission perspective compared to other community settings.
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--:-- Mike: This is Mike from Oregon. Some research is starting to come out showing that children born during the pandemic are not getting the stimulation and interaction they need to develop normally And this might have a negative impact on their IQ and their ability to interact socially So my question is what can I do to mitigate this potential shortcoming
--:-- Dr. Lina Nguyen: I say two things One is that kids are resilient, and we would expect for younger kids to develop regardless of this very difficult time. But the other thing, too, is now we also know that outdoors is pretty safe. It's not risk-free, but it's a much, much safer environment. And so what we have been doing with our daughter is to have her be exposed to other kids and to people in outdoor settings. We bring her to the playground a lot. She's also in various playgroups that all occur outdoors. And so I would encourage perhaps other families to think in this way as well.
--:-- [Guest speaker from Maryland]
--:-- Tom: I'm Tom from Odenton, Maryland. I've got a first grader who's going to her first year of in-person school this year. And I wanted to know if it's reasonable to expect our school to confirm the vaccination status of our teacher.
--:-- Dr. Lina Nguyen: I definitely think so. We know that another important layer of protection for children is having all the adults who are around them be vaccinated. I mean, our children don't have that ability. The younger kids at least don't have the ability to be vaccinated themselves. I have certainly asked the question of my son's preschool, whether all the teachers and staff that my son will be interacting with are vaccinated. I got the resounding answer of yes. They're very proud of the fact. And anyone who says, who tries to use the excuse of HIPAA needs to look this up themselves because HIPAA is a law that protects the individual from having their medical information disclosed against their wishes. But HIPAA does not prevent you yourself from disclosing anything about your medical history to anyone. And so it's entirely a reasonable question for parents to be asking of their school.
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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Dr. Wynn's recent Washington Post column has seven suggestions for parents on how to keep your kids safe as school starts. If you're listening on the Apple News app, just tap the notification we send you midway through the show.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The remnants of Hurricane Ida caused catastrophic flooding in the Northeast this week. More than 40 people died in that region. And in Louisiana, where Ida originally made landfall, people are still struggling to recover. The state is getting hit with severe heat and humidity. And hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses there still don't have electricity after Ida.
--:-- [Guest speaker from Louisiana]
--:-- Wes Muller: You got to think about things that you use running water for. It's not just to take a shower or, you know, brush your teeth. You can't really use the bathroom anywhere. You have to go outside. The relief checkpoints with which started popping up if you don have transportation or fuel for your vehicle it can be difficult to get to one of those And when you do, the lines are typically very, very long.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And what are authorities saying to people who live there? They are being told to stay where they are if they have evacuated, and that's because the area has no electricity, a lack of running water or potable water. The areas that do have running water are under boil water advisories because there were so many breaks in water lines, and that's mainly due to large trees being uprooted by the wind.
--:-- Wes Muller: And when that happens, their root systems come out of the ground and they take with it anything that's surrounding the roots, which typically are water pipes. And so for these reasons, as well as the lack of businesses, lack of food, of course, there are no schools open. You won't really have childcare. It's just not the place that they left when they evacuated. And the estimates are putting that timeline anywhere from two weeks to 30 days. New Orleans might not have electricity for up to 30 days. Jefferson Parish, I've heard estimates, up to three weeks.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Wesley Muller is a staff writer at the Louisiana Illuminator. Wes, thank you for joining us and thanks to your colleagues in the newsroom for continuing to do your work under such difficult circumstances. Thank you.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: President Biden says his administration is working to make sure Texans can access safe and legal abortions. But it's not clear how much the president can do about the new Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to freeze the law. So now doctors and patients are dealing with the reality of it on the ground.
--:-- [Guest speaker from Texas]
--:-- Dr. Bhavik Kumar: The Texas Tribune spoke with Dr. Bhavik Kumar. He works at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston. And he's one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against the new law. Dr. Kumar says he normally performs between 20 and 30 abortions every day. But on Wednesday, he saw only six patients and had to deny abortions to half of them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dr. Kumar says when one patient was told she may have to go out of state for a procedure, she was distraught. At other clinics staffers have been advised not to refer patients who are past the six mark out of state They concerned this may be considered helping someone get an abortion which is now a violation of the Texas law
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Under the new legislation, private citizens can sue an abortion provider or anyone who helps someone get access to an abortion. Those who win in court can get a minimum of $10,000. Providers say this may lead to so-called abortion bounty hunters.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Apple News has put together a collection of stories explaining this law, its impact, and the legal and political debate around it. It's all in the app.
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--:-- Duarte Giraldino: If you're a milkshake fan and not getting your creamy fix, the feds are coming to the rescue. For years, McDonald's ice cream machines have been a problem. Frequent breakdowns mean McFlurry and soft-serve lovers often leave the drive-thrus just unsatisfied.
--:-- Shamita Basu: It's gotten so bad, late-night comedians are joking about it, and people on social media, they are outraged. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting the Federal Trade Commission is getting involved.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: It helps to know a little bit of context here. People who run McDonald's franchises have complained for a long time that the ice cream machines are too complicated and too difficult to fix. See, when these machines break down, you can't use them until you get an authorized technician to come in and make repairs. And sometimes that can take a while.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Two years ago, a company called Kitsch made a device that monitors the machines and helps franchisees keep them running. That led to a complicated legal battle involving this company, McDonald's, franchisees, and the company that makes the ice cream machine. Earlier this year, Kitsch sued, accusing several parties, including the company that makes the machine, of conspiring to replicate Kitsch's problem-solving technology.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: So here's the scoop from The Wall Street Journal. And this is not a pun because we're talking about soft serve. This summer, the FTC got involved. It sent letters to McDonald's franchisees asking for information about the broken ice cream machines. The letter says it's a preliminary investigation, and it doesn't mean the FTC has found wrongdoing yet.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In the meantime, during these final days of summer, you may have to keep waiting for your McFlurry. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And check out our weekend interview show, In Conversation. This week, I spoke with Jason Fagoni. He writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, and he recently wrote about a man named Joshua, whose fiancée Jessica died. and as a way to process his grief, Joshua created an AI chatbot based on her.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He could really take the conversation to the place that he wanted to take it, which was he wanted to say all kinds of things that he wished that he had said when Jessica was still alive.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Enjoy that weekend listen. We'll be back with the news on Tuesday.
