The Vaccine Mandate Debate | September 15, 2021

hi i m carl azuz welcome to the show today today's down the middle coverage starts with a controversial facet of the coronavirus pandemic should american workers be required to be vaccinated in an effort to pressure more americans to get one of the country's three available coveted vaccines president joe biden announced new rules last week among them concerns all businesses that have 100 or more employees they have to require these workers either to get vaccinated or to be tested for covid every week this could apply to 100 million workers or two-thirds of the american workforce according to the president at hospitals or other medical care facilities that get government health care funding roughly 17 million workers will have to be inoculated federal government employees will have to get the vaccine without the option of regular testing but the new mandate does not apply to members of congress so representatives senators and the people who work for them will not have to get a vaccine president biden blamed politics and unvaccinated americans for spreading covet 19 and threatening to hinder the recovery of the american economy but critics point to cdc data that shows more than 11 000 americans have been hospitalized and more than 2 2600 have died even though they were already vaccinated many americans still have concerns about the health effects of the vaccines and because they were developed last year any long-term effects they may have are unknown one of america's top infectious disease specialists says many more vaccine mandates may be necessary to get the coronavirus pandemic under control but there are a lot of questions about whether people can get exemptions to the mandate for medical reasons or religious beliefs or if they've recovered from the virus and have natural immunity the responses from employers have been mixed some large companies like amazon and walmart support the mandates and hope they'll lower their health care costs and reduce the number of sick days their employees need to take but others are concerned about losing workers who refuse to get the vaccines at a time when many businesses are struggling with a shortage of workers to begin with a number of lawsuits have been filed against companies that required vaccines before the government mandate was announced and at least 19 republican governors have spoken out against the democratic president saying a government mandate will only increase the determination of some people not to get vaccinated and that workers shouldn't lose their jobs over a personal medical decision again this is just one example of one debate concerning coronavirus in america we expect the subject to be in the news for months to come ten-second trivia which of these animals was the last to go extinct saber-toothed tiger woolly mammoth megalodon or eurasian cave lion scientists believe certain woolly mammoths survived until 4 000 years ago long after these other animals are thought to have gone extinct [Music] can scientists use genetic engineering to bring back the woolly mammoth and should they this sounds like something out of jurassic park but scientists can't directly clone a woolly mammoth the dna they've gotten from these animals remains has deteriorated too much what they are hoping to do is use genetic engineering to create a hybrid of an elephant and a mammoth that would look just like the extinct animal a biosciences and genetics company has raised 15 million dollars to do this and it says it hopes to have calves walking around in four to six years but there are still a lot of questions about how this would happen for one thing researchers say they'll have to make 50 changes to an elephant's genetic code so it's able to survive in the arctic and even then critics say this won't create a mammoth just a hairier fatter elephant they're also concerned that the possibility of using elephant mothers to carry a genetically engineered baby could be unethical supporters hope the project will create a lot of new interest in genetic science it's just not known whether it'll work or what the consequences would be next we're talking about coral coral no coral specifically coral reefs they cover less than one percent of the ocean floor but they're home to more than 25 percent of known marine life pollution and mining have destroyed much of the coral off the coast of hong kong but a company that makes clay tiles is seeing some success in restoring coral creating the tiles takes a lot of energy and produces a lot of carbon dioxide the costs and challenges of getting the materials may keep them from being a large scale solution but there are upsides as diving destinations go hong kong might not boast the most spectacular views but for marine biologists rico you these murky waters offer more than initially meets the eye it's a lie if anybody tells you corals in hong kong are pretty because they're not but they're always there in fact we do have more coral species than entire caribbean [Music] hong kong's corals are persisting against the odds surviving centuries of land development coral mining and pollution but for more coral to grow there needs to be stable bedrock something hong kong's degraded ocean floor is lacking you says working with other scientists and architects from the university of hong kong you developed technology to restore hong kong's coral reefs using 3d printing we were thinking about what's the best material or what kind of structure would best provide the foundation for corals to grow the team makes the hexagonal tiles out of clay a material non-toxic to ocean life while 3d printing allows them to mimic the complex surface structure of corals that are already suited to hong kong's environment the design of the roof tiles is actually inspired by the brain coral where they have this valley of patterns that looks cool but also effective in attracting marine life [Music] so we're now in coral beach this is our experiment site where we deployed about 130 reef tiles we just went down there to see how the corals are performing what is surprisingly good is that after the typhoon season all of them survived they installed the first tiles in 2020 so far four times more coral has survived on the clay tiles than on traditionally used structures like concrete blocks says you but coral doesn't grow overnight he predicts it will take at least three to five years for the reef to mature in the meantime you and partnering professor david baker have founded startup arkey reef to expand the project beyond the university they're refining the printing technology and studying coral behaviors to prepare for their next installation where paying companies can adopt a reef tile and follow its progress we don't want to be a company that is simply fabricating an object that people put in the ocean and walk away from it we have to engage with our clients across that whole spectrum from consulting to installation and to monitoring and management archie reef isn't the only startup restoring coral coral vita grows coral fragments on a land-based farm in the caribbean where the company says it can develop faster than in the ocean and replants them onto degraded reefs but baker believes that arkey reef can help regrow coral in areas where it has entirely disappeared a situation which is becoming increasingly common creating that new hard bottom can help overcome that problem and kind of reset the clock on these coral communities while the startup will need to overcome challenges before it can implement its technology at scale including lowering the environmental footprint and cost of producing the tiles you says the demand is there as people in hong kong become increasingly conscious of their impact on the marine environment we live by the sea and everything that we do is closely tied to the ocean all the pollutants that we have in our daily life will potentially end up in the ocean at some point restoration is not only what the government should be doing or academics or scientists is really about everybody [Applause] fantastic fair food favorites for me corn dogs popcorn and fried oreos but on the healthier side there are veggies and they're good for the people and the bears that eat them the giant veggies that farmers grow and compete with at the alaska state fair are later brought to the brown bears in a wildlife conservation center for the animals it's a chance to gorge themselves and maybe even roll in hundreds of pounds of vegetables some can't bear to eat their veggies others grin and bear it or just barely choke them down but if you've been berated for forbearing to bear your greens take some inspiration from the animals because they hibernate all of them dc international school thank you for watching from washington dc our web producer picks the schools we mentioned from youtube.com cnn10 nowhere else i m carl azuz [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021