October 20, 2024 - PBS News Weekend full episode

JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, as the recovery from Helene and Milton continues, the economic toll can reach far beyond the storm's path for months to come.

Then how laws targeting transgender people affect the mental health of LGBTQ youth.

WOMAN: Not only is it causing extreme mental health impact to these youth with stress and again, attempts of increasing suicide, it's also causing some youth and their families have to move out of their state.

JOHN YANG: And why overdose deaths in the United States involving antidepressants are on the rise.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

There have been more deadly Israeli airstrikes today on both of its battle fronts.

In Northern Gaza, 100 people were dead or missing in overnight bombardments, and in Beit Lahia, another 40 people were wounded.

Israel said it was targeting Hamas militants who are regrouping, and the Lebanese army is blaming an Israeli air strike on a vehicle for the death of three of its soldiers.

The country's army hasn't been able to either deal with Hezbollah or repel an Israeli invasion.

American officials are investigating the major disclosure of intelligence documents describing Israel's preparation for a strike in Iran.

The top secret analysis of information collected by U.S. spy satellites was posted on the messaging app Telegram.

It's not clear whether it was a leak or the result of a hack.

Former President Donald Trump says he's told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do what you have to do.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. Former President: I congratulated him on obviously doing a very good job keeping Israel safe.

He's doing very well.

He posed me on occasion, I think he wants my views on things.

He's had very little cooperation from the White House, as you know, they don't -- they didn't want him to do anything, and they would not be in the good position they're in right now.

JOHN YANG: With 16 days to go in the campaign.

Trump was in Pennsylvania today, stopping at a McDonald's north of Philadelphia.

Vice President Harris spent the day in Georgia at a church service this morning, she warned against another Trump term.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. Vice President: Do we have leaders in place who understand that in the face of a stranger, one should see a name.

In this moment across our nation what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos.

JOHN YANG: Last night in a rambling and often vulgar speech at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which had been billed as a preview of his campaign's closing argument, Trump used a profanity to describe Kamala Harris and referred to the late golfer Arnold Palmer's genitalia.

In Georgia, investigators are trying to figure out why a three-year-old ferry dock gangway collapsed Saturday night, killing seven people.

Officials say about 40 people were on the gangway when a catastrophic failure sent half of them into the water.

It was on Sapelo Island, where a celebration of a community of slave descendants was being held.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, the effect anti-transgender legislation is having on LGBTQ youth and the complex connection between antidepressants and overdose deaths.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Massive storms like hurricanes Helene and Milton can devastate the people and properties that take direct hits, causing billions of dollars in damages, but the economic effects of these events can be felt thousands of miles away and for many months to come.

Megan Leonhardt is senior economics writer for Barron's.

Megan we talked to a tomato farmer who got took a whack from both Helene and Milton in Tennessee and Florida.

Let's listen to what he had to say.

JON ESFORMES, Farmer: When Milton hit there was significant damage already done from Helene coming by to the coastal communities.

This just made it worse.

It will be a traumatic period of time, both for retail, but particularly for food service, the restaurant chains.

JOHN YANG: So he's talking about the effect on the people who are buying his product.

What are the other ways that people, far from these storms will be feeling effects?

MEGAN LEONHARDT, Senior Economic Writer, Barron's: He makes some great points there.

I mean, this is something where our food chain is national and international, and it's interesting, some of the initial estimates coming out of Florida alone for just Milton, it's going to be a $2.5 billion damage that the food and agricultural communities are going to sustain from this.

So this is something where we're going to see it affect food prices in the short term.

Keep in mind the citrus production in Florida makes up about 17 percent of the nation's citrus production.

And of course, it's going to be one of those things where it might not be a today problem, but it could also be a tomorrow problem.

Keep in mind that some of these agricultural products are things that go towards animal feed, which, of course, then goes into that kind of production and food chain, it's not only, you know, families who are getting tomatoes from their local grocery store, but as you know, the farmer did point out, this is going to affect the restaurant industry and food services industry, because they obviously need these items in bulk.

JONH YANG: And I presume that it's not just agriculture we're talking about.

It could also apply to manufacturing output.

MEGAN LEONHARDT: Certainly.

I mean, you have to look at what was affected in Helene.

I mean, you know South Carolina in particular, and certainly, you know, Virginia, Tennessee, those are big manufacturing areas.

We're probably going to see that come out actually, in the economic data in the coming months, and not to mention the idea that, like places like Asheville, I mean, you had major highways that were damaged in North Carolina, those repairs are going to take some time.

In fact, actually, initial estimates are saying that we might not even see those repairs completely finished until 2025 and that actually could impact even things like tourism in Asheville and the surrounding areas.

The employment situation, 17 percent of the labor market is actually in tourism, and this was an area that was incredibly hard hit in Helene in particular.

This could make, you know, this very difficult for people, not only in the terms of the people living there, but those who want to go and enjoy the sort of Asheville scene that's developed in recent years.

JOHN YANG: You talk about some of these showing up in the economic data that comes out.

Does any of this affect the numbers that policy makers watch?

MEGAN LEONHARDT: Absolutely.

And it's what those situations where it's potentially not even coming out yet.

We did have some of the employment effects start to take place.

We saw that in some of the initial jobless claims data.

You know, those filing for unemployment have ticked up in recent weeks.

But then, of course, you know, we are going to see it, probably most pronounced in the upcoming October jobs report, which is going to be released November 1.

Now this is one of the final reports that we're going to get before the federal officials start really doing their analysis on whether or not to lower interest rates again for their November meeting and by how much.

Now, of course, this could also affect bigger national issues like gross domestic product.

In fact, some estimates are already sitting there and saying that we could see a short term hit to GDP as much as about four-tenths of a percentage point.

That doesn't sound like a ton, but keep in mind, this is the national GDP, and so it really does actually take quite a bit to make this kind of sway in the wind.

JOHN YANG: Do recoveries actually give you a little up to rebound construction jobs, demand for lumber and other building supplies?

MEGAN LEONHARDT: It's a great question.

And this is why I say it may be a short term, kind of, you know issue where we have this theory.

It's called the broken window theory.

And of course it means, you know, it's going to take a little bit of resources, people, jobs, to actually replace the broken window.

In this case, you know, many houses, and of course, a lot of the damage and wind damage.

But of course, this can be a little bit tricky to estimate.

And of course you do have this issue where in the U.S. in particular, we've really seen an uptick in the frequency of national disaster.

So in the 1980s for example, there we have about a 30, 33 events that were billion dollar disaster.

In the 90s, we had about 57 events.

In the last four years, from 2019 to 2023, we've had over $100 billion disasters.

That makes it very difficult to have these speedy recoveries and things that we can just continually bounce back from when we're dealing with so many events.

JOHN YANG: The way emergency response works in this country is the federal government comes in, pours in money and resources after an event.

Should there be more attention on before an event, trying to protect and sort of make systems more resilient?

MEGAN LEONHARDT: It's really interesting.

We are actually seeing insurers in particular, really come out ahead of this and say, Look, there's things that every day, ordinary Americans can do to actually help themselves in these kind of natural disaster events.

And they're not just talking about hurricanes in Florida.

They're also talking about, you know, California residents who may be exposed to wildfires.

They're talking about folks in the Midwest who may be dealing with tornadoes and heck, even places in like Austin, Texas that have had incredible storms, where we've seen golf ball sized hail, you know, coming down.

Those are all things where you -- no matter where you are in the country, you may have to worry about natural disasters and sort of flooding events and all these different issues.

And so we are sort of saying, Yes, we probably do need to be more proactive, both the you know, ordinary everyday Americans like us, as well as the big corporations that you know may actually have a lot of exposure to this kind of event.

JOHN YANG: Megan Leonhardt of Barron's, thank you very much.

MEGAN LEONHARDT: Thanks so much.

JOHN YANG: This past week, the Texas Attorney General sued a pediatrician for violating the state's ban on gender affirming care.

It's the first time that law has been enforced.

In all, more than half the states have laws that target transgender people one way or another, including bathroom bans and school sports bans.

Now, as Ali Rogin reports, there's a new study that looks at how these laws affect young people's mental health.

ALI ROGIN: Suicide attempts increased between seven and 72 percent for transgender and non-binary young people living in states that enacted anti-trans legislation.

That's according to a new study by The Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

The study relied on national survey data from 61,000 transgender and non-binary youth, and the results were published in the peer reviewed journal nature, human behavior.

Trevor Project, CEO, Jaymes Black joins us now.

Jaymes, thank you so much for being here.

Tell us about the study.

How significant are the findings?

JAYMES BLACK, The Trevor Project: Very significant.

And the study is not only significant, it's groundbreaking, and is because it is the first time to our knowledge that a causal relationship has been shown between the states that are enacting anti-trans legislation and the rate of suicide attempts.

So that causal relationship, which is the highest level of research, is really important because it shows strong evidence that the enactment of these laws are causing increase in suicide amongst non-binary and transgender youth in these states.

ALI ROGIN: During the studies period from 2018 to 2022 there were 48 pieces of legislation against transgender young people enacted in 19 states.

What types of laws were they?

JAYMES BLACK: They run the gamut.

So laws like access to bathrooms, access to gender affirming care, pronoun usage, discussing LGBTQ, plus issues at school that right run the gamut.

ALI ROGIN: And how do these laws affect young people?

And we know that there are direct and indirect impacts?

JAYMES BLACK: Well, let's think about this.

You remember how it felt when you were 13 years old, right?

And when you were 13, you were going through probably an awkward time trying to figure your life out, socially, at school, et cetera.

And then to think about on top of that, you now have your existence questioned.

You now have to sometimes testify and justify who you are that is a direct hit on your mental health.

So in the ways in which it's affecting our youth is not only is it causing extreme mental health impact to these youth with stress, and again, attempts of increase in suicide.

It's also causing some youth and their families have to move out of their state, so to find a safe state, moving out of a state that's unfriendly, and to go find another home that is friendly to them.

An entirely new place that they actually have to live and sometimes it even splits the family up.

It's impacting our youth, but it's also impacting our families as well.

ALI ROGIN: And I know that this affected you and your family personally.

You moved states.

Can you tell us a bit about your family's experience?

If you could?

JAYMES BLACK: Yes.

So I'm a native Texan, and in 2022 my wife and I decided to move our family from Texas to the DMV area for multitude of reasons, all connected to the way that the state was heading in terms of anti-LGBTQ, plus legislation, the threat of legislation, the words and the rhetoric that we were hearing from the politicians, and what my boys were hearing.

We didn't feel safe as an LGBTQ plus family.

As two women raising boys in Texas, we didn't feel safe anymore, and our boys were hearing things at school that's that just weren't right, that weren't okay.

And as we continue to hear the rhetoric from politicians that trickles down to the community, and it trickles down into the schools, and you start to hear that type of rhetoric from kids' mouths, and that's passed on to kids like mine.

So we decided to move.

ALI ROGIN: And also kids in schools, is one thing that's hard enough for young people, but then to include instruments of the state also taking legislative action in ways that influence their identity, I just can't imagine what that is like for these kids.

JAYMES BLACK: Exactly and we need politicians understand that their jobs are to not use our children as political pawns.

That's not a way to get political points.

They are responsible for protecting and supporting and serving, being of service to all constituents, and that also means the trans and non-binary youth.

That also means the LGBTQ plus families.

That means everybody.

You can't siphon off a section of your constituency because you don't understand them.

ALI ROGIN: There are lots of families who can't move to a different state, so what sort of things can people who want to support them do to make them feel more welcome, and what sort of resources are available to those people who are being directly impacted by these laws?

JAYMES BLACK: First, in order to support our youth, we know that one supportive adult can significantly decrease the attempts of suicide.

So we need adults to be supportive adults.

We have research at Trevor and resources on how to be a great ally, so please go look that up on our website.

We also know that you have to build community around our LGBTQ plus youth, so they need people who can understand them, support them, use the appropriate pronouns that significantly decreases the attempts of suicide.

And we also know that gender neutral restrooms, they need access to the basics bathrooms, gender neutral bathrooms also significantly decrease the stress that they are actually going through right now.

ALI ROGIN: And this problem is not going anywhere this year past the studies term, hundreds more anti-LGBTQ plus bills have been proposed.

44 so far have passed into law, according to the ACLU.

They include bathroom bans, healthcare restrictions, ID laws, sports restrictions, curriculum censorship.

Do you think the pace of the passage and the considerations of these laws is going to be affected, one way or the other, by whoever wins the presidential election next month?

JAYMES BLACK: I think that there's a chance that whoever wins the presidential election that we are going to continue to see an increase in the states, that we're going to continue to see, and maybe perhaps out on the federal level, but in the states, and that's because we have the same politicians who are continuing to be divisive, who are continuing to pass misinformation.

So really, the way that we fix that there's an education gap, people do not understand or know who trans people are, what it means to be non-binary, they don't understand.

So what we need to do is to reduce the stigma attached to it, and we need to educate people if we don't educate people, if we don't fill that knowledge gap where people don't know and so they're being fear mongered, is what I'll say.

There's lots of fear amongst people when it comes to trans and non-binary people.

So, regardless of who wins the election, I believe that we're still going to see that type of rhetoric, and the pace could increase even right.

I believe that we have to fill that education gap and show people who people are.

They are afraid of people like me.

They're afraid of people who look like me, of youth who look like me.

And the bottom line is we're all human.

ALI ROGIN: That is the Trevor Projects' Jaymes Black, thank you so much for joining us.

JAYMES BLACK: Thanks so much for having me.

JOHN YANG: For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sharp drop in U.S. deaths from drug overdoses, both accidental and suicidal, but at the same time, numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that overdoses involving antidepressants have been on the rise for the past two decades.

Now, the connection between overdoses and antidepressants is not a simple one.

Alison Athey is a clinical psychologist and a behavioral scientist at Rand, the nonpartisan research organization.

She also teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

So Alison, what is your biggest takeaway from this data?

ALISON ATHEY, Clinical Psychologist: Well, I think it's very heartening to see overdose deaths overall decrease.

Right now, we don't understand totally why the overall numbers decreased or if this trend will be sustained, but it's really hopeful that things are taking a turn.

I think the other big takeaway from these data are that there are important differences between suicidal overdose and unintentional overdose, and we need to tailor our treatments to match the needs of people who are at risk for one the other or for both.

JOHN YANG: Now the fact that the overdoses involving antidepressants have been on the rise.

What do you make of that?

ALISON ATHEY: You know, it's really puzzling.

I think first, an important thing to know is that the CDC data we're looking specifically at rates of antidepressants in overdose deaths.

So the vast majority of suicide deaths in our country, unfortunately, are suicide by firearms.

So the impact of antidepressants on that group is really unknown, but what we do see is there is that change in antidepressants in overdose deaths, whether they're suicidal or unintentional.

What it could mean is that there's some problem related to the drugs themselves, but it could also mean, and I think this might be more likely that people who are depressed are having easier access to antidepressants, so there are more antidepressants out in the world that happen to be available to people who go on to die by suicide or an unintentional overdose.

JOHN YANG: Does that suggest anything about the prescribing of antidepressants and what doctors learn about antidepressants and what they pass on to their patients about them?

ALISON ATHEY: That's a great question.

I think that as more and more people are taking antidepressants, there's unfortunately a strain on our healthcare system, because those who start antidepressants really should be following up with a doctor within a week or two of starting or when they decide to discontinue, because those are the periods of risk.

That being said, I think overall, it seems like antidepressants have helped protect us at the population level against suicide, that they are an effective treatment, but occasionally they don't work for people, and those people are at higher risk for suicide because their depression severity is persistent.

JOHN YANG: Prescriptions for antidepressants went way up during the pandemic.

ALISON ATHEY: That's right.

JOHN YANG: What are patients not being told that they should be told when they're prescribed?

ALISON ATHEY: So a few things.

So first of all, it's important to take medications consistently fluctuations in medication levels in the blood are really terrible for mood and for the body, and so being consistent and also speaking to a doctor before coming off of medications is critically important.

The other thing that patients should know is that if they do start thinking about suicide, that there is help out there, and that their doctor is a great resource who can connect them to mental health professionals, if they're not a mental health professional themselves.

JOHN YANG: Are physicians when they prescribe antidepressants, saying enough that you should also seek therapy.

Should also find good therapists to talk to.

ALISON ATHEY: I think by and large, physicians do really love it when their patients go to therapy because we know that therapy is as effective as antidepressant medication, and that antidepressants plus therapy is the gold standard treatment.

That being said, there simply aren't enough therapists in the community, and it's really hard to find a therapist, especially one who fits the person's needs.

So, physicians aren't at fault here.

I think our system is just not meeting the demand.

JOHN YANG: Starting with the Affordable Care Act, it put physical health and mental health and equal footing in terms of insurance.

Is affordability an issue?

The affordability of finding a therapist?

ALISON ATHEY: I would say it is.

I myself worked both in private practice and now at Johns Hopkins at a public hospital, and access is drastically different in private practice, you can usually get to see someone really quickly, but then people end up paying out of pocket, and it's quite expensive, and it's very difficult to get reimbursement for those fees in public hospital systems.

The opposite is true.

It's really hard to get an appointment, but typically the insurance question when the out of pocket pay is much lower, making it somewhat more accessible, but also inaccessible because of the demand on the system.

JOHN YANG: What can someone do if their friend or loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis and maybe thinking about suicide?

ALISON ATHEY: I think there are three important things that loved ones can do, first of all, and perhaps most importantly, loved ones can make sure that the environment that their loved one is in is safe.

So if you see someone who's riding around in a car without a seatbelt, you tell them to put it on when you're at home.

The way you can make your home safe is by securing firearms and securing medications so that someone in their darkest moment, in a fleeting moment of darkness, doesn't end their life.

So that's a big one.

Another important thing to know is that anyone can call 988, which is a crisis lifeline that's available for people who are in crisis, but also for those who care about them, who want information and connections to resources.

And the third thing that people can do is ask their loved one, are you thinking about ending your life?

And that question is not dangerous.

It doesn't implant that idea in the person's head, but it can allow you to know, is this a mental health emergency, and do we need emergency resources for my loved one?

JOHN YANG: Alison Athey, thank you very much.

ALISON ATHEY: My pleasure.

Thank you.

JOHN YANG: 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.