Midfmorning With Aundrea - August 19, 2020 (Part 1)

(Part 1 of 2) We meet athletes training inside a COVID quarantine bubble.

And New York City's School of American Ballet scores an identity politics gold star by adding its first black female faculty member.

And ever since sports were sidelined in March due to the pandemic, those who make a livelihood in the orbit of the games like food vendors and hotel workers have found it difficult to make ends meet.

We'll be right back.

The nation's covid quarantines have slowly given way to expanding social bubbles.

But how satisfying can life in a bubble really be?

Here's lee cowan with a story that first aired on cbs sunday morning.

Nat/sot pelicans jazz game 00:00:04 "and here we are the ball's up.

And the nbk!is back!!

It's been a rollercoaster of a restart for the nba... "whoa!

Lebro james!!!"

While the games are as exciting as ever... nat sound: triple!

Yes!

The weirdness that is the 2020 season...is especially weird off the court.

"stick your tongu out and say aahh for me..."

It's not just the daily covid testing - a reality that for la lakers' star - javale mcgee - was uncomfortable enough.

Nat sound: "hom sweet home....ooh..."

But as nba players have shown through a blur of social media postings - nats oh, snacks the real challenge - has been the isolation.

Nat sound: whoa masks!

Nat sound, troy brown: "it's day of being in the bubble."

More than 300 of the nba's best - in addition to their coaches and staff - have been sealed inside the gates of walt disney world in florida - since early july.

Nat sound, basketball game: "redick turns th corners, squeezes it in, and the foul!"

And those who make it to the championship - will still be living in this basketball bubble come mid- october.

Lee cowan "do you feel safe there?"

Jj redick "i feel completel safe here.

// 00:07:59 they've thought of everything."

"jj redick has bee gold for them this year!"

Jj redick - sharpshooter for the new orleans pelicans - is a veteran of the nba.

"it's yours jay!

But he's a rookie when it comes to practicing b-ball in a ballroom.

So is everybody here.

Lee cowan "you're sitting i isolation, in a state that's a hot spot, you're away from your kids, and your wife, how do you put all of that aside, and try to win a game?"

Jj redick "it's actuall incredibly difficult to put it all aside.

// 00:25:52 i'm in my 6th week of not seeing my children, and i've never gone that long without seeing my kids or without seeing my wife // 00:26:10 and that can really tug at your soul a little bit."

It is unprecedented - in both scale and cost.

The deputy commissioner of the nba - mark tatum says to save the season, the league's lockdown - was the only safe choice.

"there is no socia distancing in basketball, and these players are playing near each other, close to each other, they're really breathing each other's air, and so the campus environment is something that we had to do to keep them safe and keep them healthy..."

Nats: say ahhhh .

Ahhhh.

So yeah they did the nostrils and they did the back of the throat for help in coming up with the health protocol - the nba turned to esteemed virologist and aids researcher, dr. david ho.

Lee cowan "when they firs came to you with this idea of trying to create this massive bubble, were you skeptical at first that it could work?"

David ho "well, i think n one should be so arrogant, to think that any plan will work.

// 00:09:23 we're in the first few minutes of this ballgame, so it's certainly no time to be complacent, or certainly not to celebrate."

Still - the mood inside the bubble is optimistic - mostly& "to whoever mad the decision that the 6ers had to practice at 9am, you suck!"

Matisse thybulle with the philadelphia 76ers has tried to find the humor in it all& nat sound thybulle: you know what's tragic is i don't have a fork and he's got quite a following.

Nat sound& ih maybe i'm supposed to use the lid as a spoon nat sound thybulle: "peopl in hazmat suits are here to test me, "is there anybod out there?"

"...ping pong... there are activities - i mean, this isn't alcatraz the two biggest - golf& "get there girl... &and fishing& "to miami!!!

&where there have been one too many fish tales for jj redick.

Nat sound: out the water comes this big gill "these lakes ar just stocked with fish.

This is not --- this doesn't seem like a very competitive environment between nba players and the fish!

."

Reddick figured for the sake of the fish - his free time in the bubble - was better spent hosting his new podcast - the old man and the three.

Nat/sot podcast so far - the nba's florida bubble is holding.

And it's not the only one.

"this is our secon round of testing.

No positives !"

This is tyler perry studios in atlanta.

A 330 acre "production bubble.

Since early july - hundreds of cast and crew of shows like sistas and the oval - have been locked in what they call camp quarantine.

Nat sound prayer: i can only say thank you.

Lee cowan "you lost a membe of your crew to covid pretty early on.

I guess, in april it was.

So this is really personal for you."

Tyler perry "yeah, it's beyon personal making sure all these people who work for me, who are mostly brown and black people.

// 00:03:45 we are at high much higher risk of dying from covid than any other group in the country.

So i didn't know any other way to do this other than just to be extreme about it."

Nats: hey man will you cut that out?

Extreme indeed.

The plan called for on-site housing to be built - lots of it.

It also included chartering planes to fly in actors in from other places - and keep them - after testing negative for covid - in their own tyler perry sized bubble.

Lee cowan "how big a investment was it?"

Tyler perry "we're approachin $18 million by the time we get to the last show.

So yeah, it added a little more than almost $5 million per show to the budget."

Nat sound, perry walking around: "everybody socia distancing, hand sanitizing?

6 feet, i see 6 feet!"

"i mean, for this t work, everybody's gotta buy into it, right?"

-- sligh-- slightly altered this "absolutely / but did have long conversations with them about understanding the risk of what this is.

/ 00:03:15 even though i'm taking every precaution, going above and beyond what any union or the state or the city as asked.

// and they were like, "listen we're in.

We're gonna make this happen."

Keeping social bubble from being burst - does take that kind of dedication.

"...splashing... even the youngest members of bubble life - seem to get it.

"if i get sick, th rest of the bubble gets sick, and if the rest of the bubble gets sick, it's a whole other issue."

Since march - on a street in alexandria virginia - three neighbors - and their collective family of five kids... "...laughing... ...have agreed to live their pandemic lives - as one.

Tara west "this is our grou and we're not going to go beyond that group."

Monica kramer "i rember it bein really super- secret, you know i have these two other families that i'm hanging out with and it was really secret, secret."

That is until the washington post found out.

Then - they actually became a model for other bubble broods.

Tara west "you have to kno who you're with, and know there's a potential risk but that // the benefits outweigh the risks."

Nats: that's so cool& tara west, maria magallanes and monica kramer - have made it a requirement that their bubble have structure.

"there's chips ove there, you forgot your broccoli..."

For example, they all share meals on some nights - but set aside family- only dinners on others.

"so everybody pu on your masks please... they take field trips outside the bubble too - nat sound: everybody ready?

Usually to places where they can avoid bumping bubbles with anybody else.

Nat sound: no, no, no.

Please stay together.

Every precaution is taken - until they're safely back home.

"it's really fu just to not be like wearing a mask and be like six feet and all that baloney..."

But that's not to say that bubble life - is free of frustrations.

"we see each othe every single day!

And we don't get along..."

He's kidding of course -- they do get along - they have to& and so do their parents.

Jacob: it's kinda like, we're all family now "i see monica an tara's kids as my kids and they see my kids as their kids, and so it's like we have three moms, three dads, and we're all on board and want the best for our kids, and... monica: that's why we have this bubble.

Maria: that's why we have this bubble.

Yeah."

"redick touchdown!"

As for the nba - its bubble is heading into the playoffs - but touchdown!"

As for the nba - its bubble is heading into the playoffs - but without the new orleans pelicans.

A tough loss - had the team packing "i "i see monica a tara's kids as my kids and they see my kids as their kids, and so it's like we have three moms, three dads, and we're all on board and want the best for our kids, and... monica: that's why we have this bubble.

Maria: that's why we have this bubble.

Yeah."

"redick touchdown!"

As for the nba - its bubble is heading into the playoffs - but without the new orleans pelicans.

A tough loss - had the team packing this past week.

Nat sound announcer: the pelicans a little too much last night.

Took way some of their hunger.

This the first time in 13 seasons jj redick won't be chasing a championship.

That said - he learned a thing or two while living life in this very big bubble; that it is possible to beat covid as its own game.

"if this virus ha shown us anything, it's that if we don't treat it with the respect that it deserves, it's only going to get worse, and it has gotten worse.

// 00:22:58 unless we get complete buy- in on some of these protocols, then this virus is going to be with us for a long time."

When we come back, dancing into history.

That story ahead on mid morning.

Ma made a career, breaking barriers in ballet.

And she's doing it again.

Here's elaine quijano.

After 86-years new york city's famed school of american ballet is making history not on the stage...but in the classroom, when aesha ash becomes the school's first black female ápermanentá faculty member.

Sot - elaine and aesha "what's th difference you hope to make for your students?"

"i feel that i hav this hyper- awareness now of that dancer who's struggling /// and sort of see that sort of self-doubt as a teenager, she had those self- doubts in a school with a mostly- white student population.

"when you look a performances, when you look at footage, when you see images on the wall ... are everything but your own, that is saying something to the dancers around."

But she preservered..earni ng a spot with the new york city ballet... one of only a few dancers of color.

Jonathan stafford,the school's new artistic director, says hearing ash's painful experiences ..

Helped them face hard truths.

It really lit a fire under us at the school and the company to to really dig into the work and look at all of our policies and practices and unconscious bias and how we make decisions.

Ash acknowledges that change isn't perfect.

We can't we can't run away from the ugly, the uncomfortable.

And i think that we're seeing that in society as a whole right now is that we can no longer close our eyes.

A historic step ..

Already making a difference.

Elaine quijano, cbs news, new york.

Just ahead, some professional sports may be back.

But not so the people who made a living selling beer and dogs.

That mid pr pro sports are trying to make a comeback in the pandemic.

The games -- played in empty stadiums or arenas.

The athletes -- earning paychecks.

But for the beer and food vendors -- these are tough times -- with no safety net.

Here's adriana diaz.

Joe aleman still can't get used to being outside wrigley field during baseball season.

Ive never stood here, without coming to work// he's hauled beer to cubs fans here for 38 years cold beer.

Who's thirsty here?

That all ended in early march, when the coronavirus sidelined sports.... and most workers who support the industry... like joe.

Usually when you lose a job you get more than, uh, uh, one hour notice for someone all of the sudden telling you& gone& its incredible 05 a recent estimate found the average major league team supports 23- hundred game day employees.

Add the nba and nhl...and without fans, that's roughly 680 million dollars in lost game day wages due to coronavirus.... according to patrick rishe, who directs the sports business program at washington university in st.

Louis.

These sporting events are huge spikes in business for restaurants, for retail.

So these sports suspensions, a huge loss for in come and revenue for restaurants and hotels around the ballpark.

ááá people like kat payne who lost her job as a hotel housekeeper in philadelphia i hope the govt realizes we're hardworking people.

We were tax payers.we pay their salary.

And now that we're out of work they should pay our salary this food distribution - just down the block from where the phillies play - specifically targeted the city's sports industry workers 0545- woman hands guy mil joe is especially worried because he cares for an adult daughter with autism.

What keep you up at night?

How unsure life is.

I want to work// i'm in the service industry and i'm not serving feeling looking forward?

I look at the glass half full.

I pray to the lord// - my father is in heaven now with my mom, and he's saying joey & you can do it&.

That's right seeking strength from above, to stay in the game.

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