STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Police say a person who misplaced an election misplaced once more when he plotted towards the rival social gathering.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Solomon Pena ran for state Legislature in New Mexico. The Republican refused to simply accept his overwhelming defeat, and in accordance with police, he then paid folks to open fireplace on the houses of Democrats. He’s anticipated in court docket as we speak.
INSKEEP: Our colleague Alice Fordham is with member station KUNM and is on the road from Santa Fe. Good morning.
ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What are the costs towards this man?
FORDHAM: Well, they’re quite a few. He’s charged with a number of counts of taking pictures at houses, taking pictures from a automobile, conspiracy, firearms offenses. All of them are associated to 4 incidents in current weeks the place two Democratic county commissioners and two legislators in Albuquerque had their houses shot at. In at the least one case, the bullets handed by way of the partitions of a house. And Pena visited at the least one of many county commissioners, uninvited, beforehand with paperwork falsely claiming the election he misplaced was fraudulent. No one was injured in these assaults, however after all, they have been scary, not only for these focused however for different elected officers. Police say they’ve a lot of proof that Pena gave cash and firearms to 4 males to hold out these assaults and personally rode alongside for at the least one in all them.
INSKEEP: This election that he was upset about was not precisely a barnburner, as they are saying.
FORDHAM: No.
INSKEEP: He’s a Republican, ran in a closely Democratic district, misplaced to an incumbent by 48 factors, however made this declare that the system was rigged. Is this a widespread perception at this level in 2023 in New Mexico?
FORDHAM: Yeah. There are lots of people in New Mexico. There are activists who imagine that elections aren’t carried out accurately. One outstanding couple is David and Erin Clements, who journey the state and past, giving shows falsely saying that Dominion voting machines are to not be trusted. They have a giant following. And a former county commissioner from the south of the state, Couy Griffin, was convicted of trespassing after he participated within the occasions of January 6. But if these allegations about Solomon Pena transform true, it’s going to be an intersection of violent crime and election skepticism in a means we have not seen like this earlier than.
INSKEEP: How are folks responding who’re in workplace proper now?
FORDHAM: Well, he was arrested Monday, the day earlier than the New Mexico Legislature started its 2023 session. So that was prime of everybody’s minds yesterday. Democrats have a majority within the House and Senate right here, and the governor referred to as for gun management laws, together with a ban on assault weapons. On the Republican aspect, state leaders have condemned the violence, praised police, however did not handle the alleged political dimensions of the assaults up to now.
One individual I spoke with was New Mexico’s secretary of state, Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Now, she’s personally confronted threats which have been investigated by the FBI, and he or she’s highlighted the danger that native elected officers face, typically whereas administering elections. She laid the blame for these alleged assaults on the widespread promotion of the lie that the 2020 election and different elections within the U.S. aren’t legitimate.
MAGGIE TOULOUSE OLIVER: This is precisely the problem that I’ve been attempting to sound the alarm on right here in our state for the final couple of years, primarily based on what I’ve been by way of and what others are actually going by way of. This is when political rhetoric and, frankly, lies are used to incite political violence.
FORDHAM: And I spoke with Senator Linda Lopez, whose residence was focused, and he or she mentioned that she was fearful that individuals may not need to run for workplace in the event that they thought the worth could be placing their household and their neighborhood in danger.
INSKEEP: Reporter Alice Fordham with our member station KUNM. Thanks on your reporting.
FORDHAM: Thanks for having me.
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INSKEEP: You may consider this because the winter of respiratory viruses.
MARTÍNEZ: Yep. You title it, somebody’s caught it. RSV, flu, COVID – they’re all spreading quick this season, and a few folks come down with all three on the identical time. So what does that appear to be? And who’s most in danger? A brand new examine from the CDC is out as we speak.
INSKEEP: NPR well being correspondent Rob Stein is right here. Rob, good morning.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Just to be clear on the science right here – can folks be sick with multiple virus on the identical time?
STEIN: Yes, it undoubtedly can occur. There’s loads of proof of individuals testing constructive for, say, COVID and the flu or flu and RSV. I talked about this with Dr. Tina Tan, an infectious illness specialist at Northwestern University.
TINA TAN: Absolutely. You can catch multiple virus on the identical time. We’ve had youngsters which have truly had three completely different viruses. Some of them are available in with RSV. They’ve additionally had influenza and enterovirus. There have been different youngsters who’ve introduced with COVID and influenza. And so you will get multiple virus on the identical time.
STEIN: And, you realize, Steve, particularly this yr, which is so uncommon as a result of so many viruses have been surging concurrently.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
STEIN: Now, you realize, it is unclear simply how typically this occurs as a result of many of the testing for this form of factor is completed on hospitalized sufferers, who most likely aren’t consultant of most people. But some research have discovered co-infections in as much as 20% of these sufferers.
INSKEEP: Wow. Are some folks extra susceptible than others to this co-infection?
STEIN: Yes. Yes, youngsters. Kids look like much more more likely to get multiple bug on prime of the opposite, particularly very younger youngsters. Here’s Amanda Jamieson, who research respiratory viruses at Brown University.
AMANDA JAMIESON: It might be simply ‘trigger they’re continuously being uncovered to respiratory infections, but it surely is also that their immune techniques simply have not constructed up the immunity that older folks have.
STEIN: And, you realize, regardless of the cause, a lot of research have discovered that youngsters are more likely to get these so-called co-infections than older folks. That mentioned, co-infections can happen at any age, you realize, and particularly older folks and others with weaker immune techniques.
INSKEEP: If you get multiple virus, does that make you sicker?
STEIN: You know, it would not all the time, however there may be rising proof that it could possibly. In reality, a brand new CDC examine out as we speak finds that is the case. The examine, involving greater than 4,000 hospitalized youngsters, discovered those that had COVID plus one other virus, resembling, you realize, a chilly virus, have been considerably extra more likely to require oxygen to assist them breathe and to finish up requiring intensive care. Here’s Dr. Nickolas Agathis from the CDC, who led the examine of what he calls co-detections.
NICKOLAS AGATHIS: We discovered that kids below 5 had about twice the chances of getting extreme sickness after they had a co-detection in comparison with after they simply had SARS-CoV-2 an infection, and the youngsters below 2 who had RSV have been twice as more likely to have extreme sickness in comparison with kids who simply had COVID and never RSV additionally.
STEIN: Now, the explanation for that is not solely clear both, but it surely might be as a result of a number of infections trigger extra irritation within the physique and since completely different respiratory viruses injury the lungs in numerous methods.
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah. So what can folks do about this?
STEIN: So right here I’m going to sound like a damaged document and, you realize, speak about all of the stuff you’ve heard a lot about over the previous couple of years. Get vaccinated towards each COVID and the flu. Wash your palms quite a bit. Wear a masks in crowded, poorly ventilated locations, particularly round sick folks.
INSKEEP: Oh, certain. This is only a reminder that masks in a crowded place helps towards any virus in any respect.
STEIN: Absolutely. Absolutely.
INSKEEP: OK. NPR well being correspondent Rob Stein. Thanks.
STEIN: Thanks for having me.
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INSKEEP: And we’ve got some revelations as we speak about companies that obtained federal funds in the course of the early phases of the pandemic.
MARTÍNEZ: Interesting new knowledge is out on the Paycheck Protection Program – PPP for brief. It gave probably forgivable authorities loans to small companies throughout COVID. And that knowledge reveals the overwhelming majority of these loans have been forgiven. Sacha Pfeiffer of NPR’s Investigations staff is right here to clarify why that top forgiveness charge is troubling to many individuals. Sacha, individuals who acquired these loans have been hoping they’d be forgiven, so what’s to not like about these new numbers?
SACHA PFEIFFER, BYLINE: So there isn’t any doubt that these loans have been a lifesaver for a lot of firms, and anybody who acquired PPP funding might be relieved to listen to that 92% of all of the loans have been granted full or partial forgiveness up to now. That’s in accordance with Small Business Administration knowledge launched this month. But plenty of that cash went to companies that did not want it, rich celebrities like Khloe Kardashian and Tom Brady, for instance. They have firms that every acquired a PPP mortgage of about $1 million solely forgiven. Also, many companies that thrived throughout COVID acquired their loans forgiven, like some manufacturing and building corporations.
MARTÍNEZ: Was it authorized, although, for them to take that cash?
PFEIFFER: Yes, it was. To qualify for a mortgage, you simply needed to say you thought you wanted it, and to get it forgiven, you didn’t must show the cash was mandatory. So that meant not solely did folks get loans they did not actually want; it additionally attracted rip-off artists. Here’s how University of Texas finance professor Sam Kruger places it.
SAM KRUGER: The PPP program appears to have resulted in billions of {dollars} of fraudulent loans which have in the end was grants.
PFEIFFER: He estimates that $64 billion of the almost $800 billion in loans present indicators of fraud.
MARTÍNEZ: So why wasn’t the federal government stricter with forgiveness? I imply, could not they’ve tried a bit of bit more durable to weed out the fraudsters or informed a enterprise that prospered to repay the cash?
PFEIFFER: I spent plenty of time asking these questions. The easy reply is the federal government wished to get some huge cash on the market in a short time, and it was prepared to simply accept some waste. It additionally made forgiveness simple as a result of that is what many companies lobbied Congress for. I need to play one thing a former Treasury official below President Trump mentioned to me. His title is Michael Faulkender
MICHAEL FAULKENDER: Because PPP acquired up and operating, we didn’t notice the disaster that might have taken place had we failed. What would breadlines throughout a pandemic have regarded like? Do we need to know? I did not. And so we have been going to get that program up and operating.
PFEIFFER: He says the federal government prioritized velocity over accuracy when giving out loans.
MARTÍNEZ: Is it me or did he sound a bit of testy?
PFEIFFER: He sounded testy to me, too. I’d say he was, and so was a Biden administration SBA official named Patrick Kelley. He informed me it frustrates him when his company is criticized over this system as a result of it was simply finishing up a legislation handed by Congress. Here’s a part of what Kelley mentioned.
PATRICK KELLEY: It’s a simple sentiment to say, effectively, there goes the federal government once more; why did not they do it proper? But to me, it ignores the awesomeness of what did get completed proper. I’ve met many, many, many, many, many extra people who find themselves grateful for his or her PPP mortgage.
MARTÍNEZ: So he is specializing in the nice the cash did, however can any of the PPP loans that went astray be recovered?
PFEIFFER: Well, prosecutors have as much as 10 years to chase pandemic fraud, however nobody will likely be asking wealthy individuals who did not want a mortgage to please give it again. That cash is theirs to maintain. And by the way in which, A, that 92% forgiveness charge, it is anticipated to maintain getting greater as extra forgiveness requests are processed.
MARTÍNEZ: That’s NPR’s Sacha Pfeiffer. Sacha, thanks.
PFEIFFER: You’re welcome.
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