Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“ Shout out to our small businesses in the community, let's give you a rundown update of our small businesses in our community and what's going on for you. A lot of stuff has happened, these reopening really apply to you, the small businesses.
So just three quick things we could talk about. So businesses can check online to see what phase they're in, it's the New York Forward plan is what lets you know what industries can reopen. But importantly, all businesses that we just talked about that are reopening need to have a business safety plan up and pasted in their place of business. ”

“ And it's hard, and it's not gonna be all very right-or-wrong answer, it's gonna be a lot of zones of grey here, and I think that's something that we haven't had to deal with as Americans for a long long time when it comes to an infectious disease risk. I think everybody has to realize no activities can be without this virus, but we can go forward with this if we actually are mindful and listen to the guidance that's out there, and try our best to avoid exposing ourselves, or becoming a transmission belt of this virus to somebody that might be more vulnerable. ”

“ And we also need to make sure that that if your risk tolerance is lower because you - not even from a personality perspective but if your risk tolerance is lower because you are caring for a parent, or you yourself may be immunocompromised, or you are living with someone who may be immunocompromised, that we make sure that mask wearing is really really high and that we make sure that we're sanitizing everything everything everything that you take on the subway with you. As he said, surface transmission is definitely lower than being within six feet of another person, but it still is a factor. ”

“ Because we know that the economy - in the end - is people's lives, that's their livelihood, that's how they feed themselves, and that's how they pursue things that are important to them. So we can't really dogmatically say 'nothing, you can't do anything' because you have to realize that this virus is with us until we have a vaccine, so we've gotta find a way to make ourselves able to deal with this risk. ”

“ I work in Manhattan and I live in Woodside, and my question is more revolving what the expectation and the City's plan, or what plans are in place, to help with social distancing once we're in let's say Phase 4, and we are back on the subway system.
As a subway rider who spends an hour and a half every day traveling to and from the city that is my main concern, and I also have a high risk mother that I take care of at home. What do you see as a vision? ”

“ Even when - my role in the business is the marketing, to make the business grow, right now my mind is just busy operating the business and trying to keep the ship floating. You know it is very, very hard, and I'm very worried about all that is going on because I don't know even if we are in Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, any of the different phases makes a difference for me in my personal case. ”

“ But it may very well be doable, if you can realistically create social distancing, even if it's like a takeout situation, or if you're able to spray those circles in the grass so people can remain socially distanced like they're doing in San Francisco and other places across the country, in the City. And so my recommendation would be there are a lot of areas just like we're seeing with green markets in Jackson Heights and Parkchester across the district where outdoor events have been doable, and with enough mask-wearing they are not leading to transmission or any spikes in transmission. ”

“ We have amazing guests who are coming on into this conversation to talk about the community impact, the health impact, and of course we have you - the audience - always always on, available to ask questions and we invite you to call in and join us.
So just to get this conversation started and rolling, in April, just a few months ago, New York State developed a plan to reopen non-essential businesses. This reopening plan is called "New York Forward" and it divides the state, New York state, into ten regions. All across in New York City itself, the five boroughs, it's one region. ”

“ It can actually be more helpful for that small business, if you can swing it, if it's something that's possible in your budget, to buy a gift card almost for the month and say you know what I'm going to spend $100 at this place in the next month or two. And if you just give them that $100 up front in terms of a gift card, and then use your gift card when you buy food, it gives that person that cash flow upfront and so that small business has more liquidity. ”

“ There is the mortality that is the natural mortality of the disease and the severity of the disease, but then there's also the mortality and severity that are due to resource issues, and that's really what we're talking about when we hit this moment of full economic shutdown. ”

“ We have to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to avoid service shutdowns, which drive people into other lines, which overcrowd them. And we know especially during summertime and early fall, you know that can happen quite a lot. And we also need to make sure that while people are on these trains, as you get these trains that get more people on them, that we are maintaining compliance with mask-wearing as much as possible because all it takes to get someone sick is just one person who's carrying COVID to not wear a mask - even if that person doesn't know that they're carrying it. ”

“ I happen to work in a very large school and a lot of teachers are concerned. How can the Congresswoman supply, or help supply, the schools with the resources they need to ensure that they're open safely?
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Well, thank you so so much for your question, it's a really important one. And you know so many of us parents, community members, people who have children in their lives, it's a really complicated time for all of us because we're all dealing with this question of are schools reopening? If they are, how are they reopening, how are we making sure that everybody's safe? ”

“ Antibodies do arise in people who've been infected, and it likely indicates past infection, but the big question is, is how protective are they from reinfection, and it takes some time to figure that out. We do what are called natural history studies where we follow people out for maybe a year or so and see when they get re-exposed do they get reinfected and we hypothesize - with good evidence, from other infectious disease - that likely once you've gotten this you, probably cannot get it again for a period of time. ”

“ What we should be doing is making these decisions from a public health perspective. What is going to keep our kids safe, our families safe, our teachers safe, and our school staff safe.
And so you know what we're seeing is that these decisions - I'm just gonna keep it real with everybody - Mom and Dad, the governor and the mayor, are fighting again so there's a little bit of confusion about New York City Public Schools in particular. But the governor asserted today his decision-making and his power, and in making that decision as it comes to New York City Public Schools. ”

“ If you're doing group activities make sure nobody is sick, make sure you ask people that. Some people don't realize - it's some mild symptoms they might have - could be consistent with coronavirus. But again it's going to be very, very hard because that everything is going to have some level of risk, and I think it's very challenging to try and navigate this. And it's going to be lots of people are gonna maybe make mistakes, they may end up going to something and getting themselves exposed, and then they're gonna be very nervous, and that's gonna be the norm. ”

“ They have stark seasonality where they peak in the fall and the winter and the spring, and then they kind of go away in the summer. And that's why we believe this coronavirus will behave like that, so that means when we get into the cold months, when the flu season starts, we have to be expecting an acceleration of transmission of this virus. And that's going to be challenging, because they're going to be competing for the same resources as influenza patients. They're going to be competing for beds and ICUs and personal protective equipment in hospitals and it could be very, very challenging. ”

“ If you cannot provide masks, if you cannot provide PPE in order to facilitate a school operating, then we have no business reopening schools, because we shouldn't be putting our school staff and teachers' lives in the hands of a charity cause because that's inappropriate and it's wrong. ”

“ So we know now there's seven metrics that every region is looking to monitor, and there's ten regions across New York State. There's industry, small businesses, will different types get to reopen as we enter a certain phase?
So you may remember Phase 1, maybe felt so long ago, New York City entered Phase 1 a month ago, June 8th. It's a happy month one month anniversary, New York City entering Phase 1. Fun fact: two days ago New York City entered Phase 3 but let's get into the phases. we're getting ahead of ourselves here. ”

“ And it's probably a little bit of a red zone, a little flagged community in the city as well, and so what happens is that we can't fund kids and we cannot fund families that we do not know are there. If you send your child to a school where there's 25, 30 kids in the classroom, we can't get more teachers to that school if your children don't essentially exist in the eyes of the census. That's why it's so important that we fill out the census. ”

“ So Phase 1, what was able to reopen across all of New York State in Phase 1? Every region in New York State has gone through Phase 1 and Phase 2, and now that New York City is in we're all in Phase 3 at least - some are in Phase 4.
So in Phase 1 the construction industry - so shout out to the trades there - they can reopen. We know that was a tough pain point they were in during the COVID shut down. The agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting - a lot of folks upstate New York - Catskills, Western New York - that's big up there. ”

“ Sure, so this is also something that doesn't have a one-size-fits-all answer, you've got to look at your personal risk tolerance, what your risk factors are for severe disease, and see can you do this activity in a safer way? It's very easy for you to wear a face covering like a mask or a face shield, it's easy for you to wash your hands, you can try and avoid places that are very crowded. ”

“ But the key thing is not everybody makes antibodies, and we don't have a good way of measuring non-antibody based immunity, so this is all kind of evolving every day. And it is going to be complicated especially for the general public who's not engrossed in all of this back-and-forth of the scientific debate. ”

“ Japan I think is an excellent example where they - you know the country didn't really approach full economic total shut down, but also their mask wearing compliance is really really high. And so really those are the questions that we have to address, and that's kind of what I try to share with folks, is that making sure that you know going into a full economic shutdown can be an avoidable situation. ”

“ I suppose my last question would be, there's a lot of people - it's summertime, people want to go to the beach, they want to do all of these things. What would you say to folks who either don't know what to do regarding travel, or visiting family, or what measures they could take if they are in a high-risk situation. ”

“ And you know one of the fastest ways - if anyone's watching and they're a regular, or they want to support a local business - you know just one of the easiest immediate ways that you can do is to buy a gift certificate for that business. You can even buy a gift certificate for yourself. ”

“ But that being said, schools should not be reliant - just like so many other schools supplies - we should not be relying on charity to make sure that teachers and school staff have the critical supplies that they need to do their job. ”

“ I think that the Open Streets Program has been very successful, and that we should try to preserve it as much as possible because it allows people to distance if they also choose other forms of public transit. ”

“ Now let's talk about some funds, some loans, some economic opportunities and a lot of talk - oh wow I'm talking about PPP and the Congresswoman shows up. Well though everyone, PPP is still on, you can still get that and New York State does have its own small business loan program for - also small landlords - so check out the New York Forward Loan Fund, New York Forward Loan Fund. ”

“ I'm very thankful that our campaign and my office, particularly in addition to partnering with as you know state senators, City Council members, State Assembly members in our community, we've been personally raising for PPE and and other materials that are needed to make sure that we keep people safe in the community. ”

“ You can just try to schedule things around that. If something is gonna be unavoidable, and when it is that way you've got to be very meticulous with washing your hands a lot, not touching your face, trying to stay away from people. ”