July 28, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, we'll having Vice President Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket, help or hurt down ballot initiatives and candidates, then fewer doctors are going into pediatrics, leaving parents desperate to find needed care for their children.

WOMAN: The first available appointment was June 2025.

Isn't that terrible, you have to hope for somebody else to cancel an appointment to get your child the care that they need.

JOHN YANG: And the story of an artist who paved the way for equal rights for Americans with disabilities.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening, I'm John Yang.

Tonight, U.S. and other Western diplomats are busily trying to keep Israel and Hezbollah fighters from escalating attacks along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Overnight Israel Senate hit a number of targets in Lebanon in retaliation for Saturday's rocket strike that killed 12 children and teens on a soccer field in the Israeli Golan Heights.

While that response appeared to have been limited, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed today that Hezbollah will pay a price.

YOAV GALLANT, Israeli Minister of Defense (through translator): I moved to the Army's Northern Command to see the response plans.

This is Hezbollah we are talking about, Iran's proxy in the region.

Hezbollah will not be cleared if this event despite its ridiculous denials, it is committed to shooting and will bear a heavy price for its actions.

JOHN YANG: And fighting in Gaza continues, Gaza health ministry officials say at least 15 Palestinians are dead after two separate Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis.

Israel says they're acting to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

With just 100 days until Election Day, former President Donald Trump's running mate is stepping up attacks on the presumptive Democratic nominee vice president Kamala Harris.

Visiting a Minnesota diner, Senator J.D.

Vance criticized Harris on the economy, immigration and policing.

That's a tax don't seem to be dampening Democrats enthusiasm though the Harris campaign says it raised $200 million in its first week.

The campaign says most of the donations came from first time contributors.

In California the weather is helping firefighters combat the state's largest wildfires so far this year.

Cooler temperatures and higher humidity are bringing some relief to Butte County, the area that's about 100 miles north of Sacramento.

The park fire there has burned about 600 square miles over a period of four days.

Nearly 2,500 firefighters are battling the blaze and they say they'll try to take advantage of the favorable conditions to make more progress.

At the Paris Olympics, American women dominated in the pool, U.S. swimmers won gold and silver medals in the women's 100 meter butterfly.

Torri Huske finished first edging teammate Gretchen Walsh by for 100th of a second.

And Simone Biles made a triumphant return to the Olympic stage after pulling out of the Tokyo Games three years ago, the most decorated gymnast of all time overcame a minor calf injury she aggravated during warm ups after a doctor checked her out and with her lower leg taped, Biles was the top all-around qualifier today and moves on to Thursday's final.

And Irish writer Edna O'Brien has died.

In a career that spanned nearly six decades, O'Brien went from outcast to the pride of Ireland.

Her debut novel "Country Girls" told the story of young Irish women struggling in an oppressive male dominated world.

It was banned in Ireland but acclaimed abroad.

Her more than two are the books challenged our society's views on gender and religion.

O'Brien had recently talked about being treated for cancer.

She was 93.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, how a shortage of pediatricians is putting kids at risk for a lifetime of poor health and one woman's fight for the rights of Americans with disabilities.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: 100 days out from Election Day the political landscape is drastically different than it was just a little more than a week ago.

President Biden is out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee, that shaken up more than just the presidential race.

Effects are also being felt in the battle for the House and Senate and the fight over big issues on ballots in many states, including abortion.

Amy Walter is editor in chief of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

Amy, what has this done this change the to the ticket Democratic ticket done to the Democrats chances of taking back to the house or holding on to the Senate?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter: Well, John, I think you have to look at it regionally and maybe even look at it state by state, district by district, what you had was a real lack of enthusiasm from the Democratic base.

I think now what you're starting to see is that that enthusiasm now is up.

And that's going to help a lot of those blue state or blue district Democrats who were worried about low turnout.

Now, if you're in -- if you're a Democrat that's still sitting in a red or purple state, it's probably mixed.

There's something about having Biden on the ticket that helped spokes who were in maybe more rural leaning areas, rural areas that they could make the case that while they disagreed with Biden, on some issues, they were not going to go that Harris's positions, on some issues, maybe just a little too much for the folks in those districts and voters in those districts.

In other words, I don't know that it changes the race for the most competitive seats in the house.

What it does do is help Democrats not lose the seats that they should be winning in.

JOHN YANG: There is a competitive race for the Senate in Pennsylvania.

And we're seeing an example of Republicans trying to define Harris as she gets in this last sprint for the race and connect her with the this -- the Senate candidates.

This is an ad from Dave McCormack, who's running against Bob Casey.

WOMAN: The nonpartisan GovTrack has rated you as the most liberal Senator.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. Vice President: I am prepared to get rid of the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal.

There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking.

WOMAN: Would you ban offshore drilling?

KAMALA HARRIS: Yes.

MAN: What is the solution for voters in the fossil fuel industry?

KAMALA HARRIS: Giving the workers an ability to transition.

We're not going to treat people who are undocumented across borders criminals.

That's correct.

MAN: Raise your hand if you think it should be a civil offense rather than a fly across the border without documentation.

WOMAN: Abolish ice sounds that a position you agree with?

KAMALA HARRIS: We need to probably think about starting from scratch.

JOHN YANG: What does this add this approach?

Tell us about how Republicans are likely to dolly chair and challenge Harris, but also challenged Democratic candidates?

AMY WALTER: That's exactly right.

When I talked earlier about what difference does it make for those Democrats who sit in purple or red leaning areas, the argument would be that they now not don't have to defend just the fact that it's Democrats who are in charge in the White House with very high inflation and frustration about what's going on, on the border.

But the case is going to be made from Republicans both at the top of the ticket and in those down ballot races, that the Vice President is even more liberal than Biden, that positions she took many of the quotes in that ad came from position she took when she was running for the nomination back in 2019.

And so, that is a different challenge than if you are say somebody like Bob Casey, who was assuming that's the Democratic senator there.

He was assuming the biggest challenge with Biden was one the economy and trying to separate himself there, which he had been doing in ads.

The second and this was where Democrats were feeling it was almost untenable, which was the issue of Biden's age.

JOHN YANG: You talked earlier about the excitement on the Democratic side.

Can that excitement be sustained at this level for the next 100 days?

Or are we seeing a version of a convention bounce for the Democrats?

AMY WALTER: Yes, it's something have been enthusiasm boost.

But what I think we've known, really for months and months and months is the biggest challenge that Biden was having was with some of the traditional Democratic groups, they just did not think that Biden was either a good candidate, they weren't excited about his candidacy.

I think the fact that she's consolidated, the Democratic base is really important.

I don't think that's going to go anywhere.

I do think the challenge that Harris has, though, is that to win in those states, like Pennsylvania, you have to do more than just consolidate the base.

You have to be able to win over some of those swing voters that may be wavering right now, what is her pathway?

What is she going to be talking about when we do get to the convention that relates to the concerns of those voters who are not core democratic constituencies.

So, she's completed step one, which is get the base excited, or at least unified, be behind her candidacy?

Step number two, and this is where the convention, and the work that we're already seeing from outside Democratic groups, and I'm sure we'll see from the Harris campaign soon as well, is messaging that goes directly at the voters who are not hard partisans, but are the ones who will swing this election.

JOHN YANG: There are ballot issues in about a dozen states that are either on the ballot or trying to get on the ballot, dealing with abortion, is this change going to have any effect on that?

AMY WALTER: The folks who are trying to get Democrats elected, whether that's Kamala Harris, or down the ballot, have different strategy in some cases than those who are trying to pass these ballot initiatives.

You know, there were going to be a lot of people who vote for Donald Trump or Republican, but also vote for an amendment to protect abortion access.

We know there are a lot of pro-choice Republicans out there.

Before Biden dropped out what a lot of Democrats had hoped was that even if Biden couldn't really get the base excited, maybe some of these ballot initiatives could and that ultimately they would come to the polls, really to vote for the abortion bill or referendum, but would end up while they were they're pulling the lever for Biden.

Now I think if you've got a more revved up Democratic base, and they're going to come regardless, but I do think if you're trying to pass these initiatives, you don't want them to be connected exclusively to Democrats, because you need to win over a lot of people who are going to vote Republican.

JOHN YANG: Amy Walter, thank you very much.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

JOHN YANG: This year, the number of medical school graduates applying for residency programs set our record high, but the number of those choosing pediatrics went down.

Already, there's a shortage of pediatric specialists in areas like neurology or pulmonology.

That means long waits or long drives for specialized care.

We asked you to tell us about your experiences.

MELISSA BUSSE: Every year you have to take your child for health physical if they want to participate in sports and activities and things like that at school.

And so what we started noticing was that we had to schedule that well child check earlier and earlier.

TANIA ARIAS: The receptionist said, I just want to let you know there's a waiting list and it hasn't moved in a year.

Considering that one of my children is special needs.

There's things that I have to get going and me just having a wait that timeframe.

It doesn't work out for me at all.

MERRILL CURTIS: We had an emergency happened with my daughter, it was January 2023.

I found her having a full seizure in her sleep.

We showed up at the emergency room minutes later, everything went according to plan exactly as you would want it to an emergency.

The trouble came when we called the next morning when we got home to get that neurologist and we were told this was January we were told the next available appointment was in April.

KIMBERLY TIEDEKEN: My younger child has autism and cognitive delays.

We needed a neuro psych evaluation that has an 18 month waitlist.

MELISSA BUSSE: I called eight different practices, different providers, and they all say oh, we're not taking new patients.

I finally got one on the ninth try and that would take new patients and the first available appointment was June 2025.

Isn't that terrible you have to hope for somebody else to cancel an appointment to get your child the care that they need.

KIMBERLY TIEDEKEN: Some of the other options that they've given us were to drive, you know, an hour and a half to another town.

But what that also means is that once you're in that doctor, every time you go to see them, you have to make that same drive.

MERRILL CURTIS: How did we get here?

How did we get to the point where there isn't a neurosurgeon to see somebody that's been through the emergency room and is a candidate for surgery and surgery, that should happen sooner rather than later.

She was able to get a neurologist.

She did have successful brain surgery, but it sort of opened Pandora's box to ask questions.

TANIA ARIAS: Maybe I can get a therapist, someone that is certified and just, you know, pay out of pocket until I'm able to actually get an appointment.

But then you know, as a parent, that's another expense.

So it's not the ideal situation, but I guess we're forced to think outside the box.

JOHN YANG: The number of pediatric residents has been on a steady decline for the past 10 years or so.

But this year's drop was much steeper.

Dr. Sallie Permar is head of the Pediatrics Department at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the pediatrician in chief at New York Presbyterian Children's Hospital.

Doctor, why this decline in pediatric residents, why are they doctors reluctant to go into that field?

DR. SALLIE PERMAR, Head of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine: This is a really important issue that's facing a lot of American families and their children is access to a pediatrician is becoming harder.

And in fact, pediatricians have to think about when they come out of medical school with significant debt is how they're going to think about the economics of both paying off that debt while setting up their practice.

And it's been well established that pediatricians are paid at a lower level than that of adult doctors despite the same number of years of training and debt after medical school.

And so that's really facing them when they make their decision.

JOHN YANG: Explain that.

Why are pediatricians paid at a lower level?

SALLIE PERMAR: So in pediatrics, children are generally supported by either commercial insurance, or government insurance, which is Medicaid.

But Medicaid insurance pays at a lower level for doctors for reimbursement compared to Medicare in most states.

And that leads to a lower level of reimbursement for pediatric services.

And that translated into lower salaries.

JOHN YANG: Obviously, there are short term consequences of not being able to see a doctor as quickly as possible.

But are there long term consequences, health consequences?

SALLIE PERMAR: Absolutely.

Investment and health and well-being and prevention of disease, from the earliest times in life is going to pay off the most in the end.

And so, treating early things like mental health disease, preventing obesity, getting vaccines to prevent those vaccine preventable illnesses that can impact you lifelong.

Those are things that pediatricians do and do well.

And so if we don't have access to those preventative care measures from early in life, we're going to all pay the price as a society later, in our adult population.

JOHN YANG: Are there areas, either communities or specialty fields that are more affected by this than others?

SALLIE PERMAR: There absolutely are.

So there are areas of the country that have fewer, a pediatrician, there's some counties in many states that don't have a single pediatric provider and definitely don't have specialists.

So those rural areas lead to families having to drive for longer, or even have to go without specialty care.

And then high cost of living districts.

Like I'm here in New York City, it is hard for us to convince those that are going into the pediatrics field to move to New York City and take on pediatric specialty care with the salaries that we have available.

And then for specialties, it's the specialties that have the lowest ability to generate reimbursement that have traditionally had by national benchmarks, the lowest salaries, things that are really chronic, lifelong diseases that children need doctors for when they have those issues.

Those are the specialties that we're having a hard time filling now for many years.

JOHN YANG: What drew you to this field?

And did you consider this question of the lower pay when you chose pediatrics?

SALLIE PERMAR: I was really drawn into pediatrics because of that opportunity to prevent disease from the earliest points in life.

I was really excited to go into pediatrics as a pediatric infectious disease doctor and actually one of the lowest paying medical specialties because of the opportunity to vaccinate to create new vaccines to prevent infectious diseases and really generate immunity that would last lifelong.

Also children have charm.

We know that.

But what we're finding is that's not enough anymore to draw people into the field.

JOHN YANG: Are there other things other than getting rid of the the lower Medicaid reimbursement rate that could help this?

SALLIE PERMAR: Yeah, so the Center for Medicare Services also should reconsider how we value our services.

We value a surgical procedure are much higher than that of a preventative care visit.

They may take a similar amount of time, but we are funding them at a at a different level that that does not take advantage of the opportunity to prevent disease rather than treating it when it becomes severe.

JOHN YANG: Dr. Sallie Permar, thank you very much.

SALLIE PERMAR: Thank you for having me.

JOHN YANG: Scientists are uncovering the healing power of plants with help from an unlikely source, chimpanzees.

For years, researchers at the University of Oxford have taken samples of plants favored by wild chimps to learn about their medicinal properties.

Sangeeta Kandola of Independent Television News has the story.

SANGEETA KANDOLA, Independent Television News (voice-over): It's all about the survival of the fittest in the jungle, and to stay fit, you have to stay well.

According to new research, wild chimps are the champions are doing just that.

Eating wood.

Over the past four years, scientists have been observing to chimpanzee communities in the forests of Uganda, they found that chimps that were sick or injured was seeking out and eating plants that have pain relieving an antibacterial properties.

ELODIE FREYMANN, Primate Researcher, University of Oxford: Chimps have their diet and they stick to it relatively and several of these plants are very, very rarely consumed.

So the fact that these sick or injured chimpanzees were seeking out these rare plants at the specific time and other group members sitting nearby didn't seek them out.

One can read intentionality into that.

SANGEETA KANDOLA (voice-over): In total, researchers collected 17 samples from 13 different plant species used by the chimps and sent them to be tested in Germany.

FABIEN SCHULTZ, Zoopharmacologist: In 45 of these we detected at least some antibiotic effects and the strongest activity in the bacteria activity was actually from a tree called alstonia golden eye.

SANGEETA KANDOLA (voice-over): Discovery more plants with healing properties could potentially have huge implications for the human species, as chimps could help guide us in finding medicines we don't even know exist yet.

ELODIE FREYMANN: This is going to be incredibly important in the next few years as antibiotic resistance is on the rise and there's new global pandemics.

SANGEETA KANDOLA (voice-over): Scientists say the findings are significant and proves there is an urgent need to preserve these forest pharmacies for future generations.

JOHN YANG: That was Sangeeta Kandola of Independent Television News.

Finally tonight on the final weekend of Disability Pride Month, Ali Rogin tells us about an artist whose lawsuit over the conditions of her confinement and state institutions 25 years ago, ended up with the Supreme Court and established the rights of disabled Americans.

It's tonight's installment in our series, Hidden Histories.

ALI ROGIN (voice-over): Lois Curtis's confinement led to liberation for herself and all Americans with disabilities.

Born in 1967, Curtis grew up with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

Her family found it hard to care for her, and by the age of 11, she was committed to a hospital subjected to sedation and isolation, but she believed she do better in a group home and started calling the Atlanta Legal Aid Society for Assistance.

They helped her file a lawsuit at age 27 against the state of Georgia and its Commissioner of Human Resources Tommy Olmstead.

She claimed that by keeping her institutionalized the state was discriminating against her illegal under the newly passed Americans with Disabilities Act.

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court where the justices ruled six-three in her favor.

The landmark Olmstead Decision found that segregation of people with disabilities was a violation of the law.

It paved the way for more equitable treatment not just in psychiatric hospitals, but all institutions receiving state and federal funding.

Later in life, Curtis turned to art.

She once said, I came along when my art came along, drawing pretty pictures is a way to meet God in the world like it is.

Her work appeared in several galleries and even the White House.

In 2011, Curtis presented President Barack Obama with a work called girl in orange dress.

Even as Curtis came into her own, she struggled to find a place that felt like home.

The community support she fought so hard for it took time to build.

Towards the end of her life, she lived in her own apartment with a professional aide and a group of people who would meet regularly to help her achieve her goals.

Curtis passed Lost away in 2022 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

She was 55 years old.

Just as art freed Curtis to fully express herself, her fight for disability rights empowered millions of Americans whose inherent freedoms had once been denied.

For PBS News Weekend, I'm Ali Rogin.

JOHN YANG: Now online, how advocacy groups are trying to fight misinformation and engage voters in the battleground state of Michigan.

All that and more is on our website pbs.org/newshour.

And that is PBS News Weekend for this Sunday.

I'm John Yang.

For all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

Have a good week.