Election Workers Voice Concerns, Influencers In Springfield, Sickle Cell Treatments

0:01Early voting has started for this year's presidential election. And after 2020, when Donald Trump tried to overturn the results and slander election workers, officials are getting ready for new conspiracy theories. I'm Steve Inskeep with Layla Fathol, and this is Up First from NPR News. Former President Trump picked up a false story off the internet, and ever since, influencers have been trying to find evidence of imaginary events in Springfield, Ohio. I have seen a lot of those independent journalists just walking around with their phone Okay, what are they finding? And there are now genetic treatments for people living with sickle cell disease, but some people have been slow to opt in.

0:44I'm really nervous about how that will affect fertility. Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day.

1:00Voting has begun in the 2024 general election. States are starting to send out absentee ballots, and early in-person voting starts today in Virginia and Minnesota. This is the first presidential election since Donald Trump's efforts in 2020 to overturn his defeat. Part of that effort included demonizing election administrators and other acts. And now election officials are supposed to do their jobs in a presidential race again. NPR's Miles Parks covers voting, and he joins us now from the swing state of Michigan. Hey, Miles. Hey, Laila. So you were at a media briefing with swing state voting officials.

1:38How are they feeling? Yeah. So the energy yesterday was really interesting. You know, I'm from Florida originally, and I could not help thinking that this meeting reminded me a lot of the feeling a day or two before a hurricane was set to make landfall when I was a kid. You know, these officials, they've spent the last four years preparing, trying to improve their systems, educate voters, try to persuade the many skeptical people in their communities about their processes. But in some ways, the next couple weeks as voting starts are a little bit out of their control. They don't know exactly what's going to happen.

2:09And there's this nervous energy and a sense that some unknown variable could happen at kind of any time. Here's the executive director of North Carolina's Board of Elections, Karen Brinson-Bell. Hopefully, we're returning to a world of civility where we understand that there are winners and losers in every contest, be it a sporting event or an electoral contest. and that has to be accepted. You know, you can hear in her voice, that is not really a sure thing right now. But I also heard from a lot of election officials that they feel battle-tested at this point, that they feel prepared for the sort of conspiracy theories and schemes that they're expecting to see over the next couple of weeks.

2:46Did you get a sense from voting officials which of these schemes, conspiracy theories they may be expecting in November? Yes, it is clear that the number one narrative for the election denial wing of the Republican Party around this time is going to be non-citizens voting in American elections. Studies and audits have repeatedly confirmed that this is not a thing. It isn't happening in anything but microscopic numbers. But the far right has really centered their messaging on this idea online, and Trump, former President Trump, is already talking about it. Officials say it is almost certainly going to be a key narrative if Trump loses the election.

3:22But to voting officials, it doesn't make much sense. You know, there are processes in place that make it really difficult for non-citizens to vote, but they also don't think it's logical that a person would go through all the trouble of getting to the United States only to put themselves on a government list, a public record, and put themselves at risk of deportation or arrest. One clerk in Georgia yesterday told me the only time he's ever found non-citizens on his voting rolls are because they've come into his office crying, begging to be taken off when they were added by mistake. Now, Miles, election officials, I mean, it's kind of a dangerous job these days.

3:53It's an increased threat environment. More than a dozen state election officials said they were sent suspicious packages this week. How are they feeling about their safety? Yeah, four of the six states represented this meeting yesterday said their office was sent one of these packages. They didn't end up being dangerous so far. They ended up containing white powder that in some cases was found to be flour. But physical safety is a big theme. And also the mental toll that this environment is taking on these people. You know, workers are going to be more likely to make mistakes if they're looking over their shoulder constantly.

4:23And then those sort of human mistakes are what further this cycle of misinformation. Gabriel Sterling, who's another election official in Georgia, made a plea to the audience during the town hall portion of this meeting yesterday to just remember that these are all humans in your neighborhood who are running this elections process. NPR's Miles Parks, thank you, Miles. Thank you.

4:48Social media influencers keep trying to find evidence of an imaginary story about Haitians eating pets. Now, let's recall some of the basics. People online repeated a story that's not true for months about migrants in Springfield, Ohio. The origin is obscure, though some of the people who repeated the rumors later apologized for spreading this false and dehumanizing information. Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance picked up the tale that plays on stereotypes of immigrants. And then former President Trump stated it as fact in a televised presidential debate. So supporters have been trying to find something on the streets of Springfield.

5:26And P.R.'s Hwo Jinn-Gun also spent time reporting there and has come back and is in our Studio 31 here. Good morning. Thanks for coming by. So who were these? Who are these online personalities? Well, some of these influencers might not be household names to you and I. but they have millions of followers. Some are part of big organizations like the pro-Trump conservative group Turning Point USA. Oh, yeah. And others seem pretty much on their own, like this guy, Tyler Oliveira, whose video about Springfield got 4 million views in a week. I pulled up to Springfield myself to see if this was real or overblown fake news.

6:02What they all share, though, is a skepticism of mainstream journalism and what the city has said about the story. And moments like this are a big opportunity for them to build a following and get lots of clicks and views that they can monetize. Okay, big mystery, citizen journalists, lots of suspense, lots of people on the ground. Have they found anything? No. There were a lot of suggestive headlines, but I went through a bunch of these videos with my colleagues Jude Joffe-Block and Audrey Wynn, and oddly, we didn't see anybody who has any concrete evidence. To the end, here's one example of note.

6:36Christopher Ruffo is a prominent conservative activist, and he put out a$5 ,000 bounty online asking for evidence that Haitian immigrants are eating cats in Springfield. What he was able to come up with several days later is this grainy year-old video, not from Springfield, but from Dayton, which is 30 miles away, purporting to show cats being grilled. But when you look at the video, it's actually kind of hard to see what was going on. Yeah, I've seen it. When you went to Springfield, what did you find? Well, we kind of tried to do what the inference did. Like we drove around, we talked to some of these people.

7:12And again, we found no evidence to back up these claims. We reached out to some of these people that we saw in these videos who either say they have witnessed something or like may know somebody who might have witnessed something. But at the end of the day, they would not speak to us on the record. And on the other hand, the Haitians there were very nervous. They're really fearful. But one person did speak up. Rilis Dorsonville is a community leader, and he says that he and a fellow Haitian were misrepresented in a video by Tyler Oliveira, that YouTuber. Dorsonville's image was presented alongside car crashes he said he has nothing to do with.

7:49And his fellow Haitian's image was edited to show that he had a cat in his hand. We reached out to Oliveira for comment, and he has not responded to our request. Okay, you mentioned car crashes. That's another of the fake stories about immigrants and car crashes. What has life been like for the Haitians in this community where there are a lot of Haitians? The community has been dealing with bomb threats and extremists marching through the streets following Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, like making these claims. The intense media coverage adds to the anxiety. In a popular Haitian restaurant, I talked to Junior Berville, who moved from Haiti to Springfield recently.

8:23Berville says he feels safe himself for now, but his family doesn't. My mom, she wants to leave, my sister as well, because they are afraid. Residents that we talk to across the board want this national attention to move on. But for now, no, Trump said he wants to visit the city soon. And Piers Phong Jingnan, thanks so much. Thanks so much.

8:49There's a problem with treatments for sickle cell disease. An announcement of genetic treatments generated excitement a year ago, but so far, not very many people have signed up. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has been asking why. Rob, good morning. Good morning, Steve. First, how bad is this disease? You know, Steve, it's just an awful disease. Sickle cell patients are born with a genetic mutation that causes deformed red blood cells. And those deformed red blood cells just kind of wreak havoc in the body. They damage vital organs and they cause these episodes known as pain crises. I talked about this with Olaide Adekanbe.

9:24She's a 29-year-old sickle cell patient who lives in Boston. It gets to the point sometimes where you're like, I cannot continue living this way. You feel like you're losing your mind because sometimes I just can't move. I just lay in one spot and try to distract myself from the pain. But these new treatments, they can help patients like her by giving them genetically modified cells that compensate for the sickle cell mutation. Well, Rob, you would think if it's that bad an experience that people would jump at the chance to address it somehow. Yeah. And, you know, there is a lot of excitement about this among patients and doctors and advocates.

10:03But so far, only about 60 of the tens of thousands of patients who are eligible for these treatments have started so far. And there are a bunch of reasons. One is that patients need to get a course of chemotherapy, and that chemotherapy can leave them infertile. And that's one reason why Atacanbe is on the fence. I know I would like to have children in the, not too near, but in the future. And so I'm really nervous about how that will affect fertility. But that's not all. Patients also have to go through lots of tests and procedures, and they might have to spend weeks, maybe even months in a hospital that may not be near where they live, then years of follow-up.

10:46And these treatments, they're really expensive. $2 to$3 million per patient. And some patients are also worried about, you know, what's going to happen in the long term? Will it keep working? Will it be safe? I'm glad that you brought me the voice of that patient because I feel that I can hear the anxiety in her voice and the difficulty of this decision. So what does the future hold for people like her? Yeah, it's a really tough decision that patients are agonizing over. And, you know, it's not surprising that it's going slowly so far because these treatments are so complicated, but the companies that make them say that interest is accelerating.

11:22Dozens of hospitals are online now and more are coming. More insurance companies are paying for it. I talked to another patient, Deshaun Chow. He's 19, lives in Irvine, California, and he's on track to get his genetically modified cells at the City of Hope Children's Cancer Center in Los Angeles by the end of the year. The first time I heard about it. I was kind of uncertain about it, but I'm hoping that it will change my life. So the hope is with time, more and more patients will benefit from this new cutting-edge treatments for sickle cell disease. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein brings us fascinating stories about genetics.

11:58Rob, thanks so much. Oh, sure thing, Steve. Great to be here.

12:05And that's Up First for Friday, September 20th. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Up First comes your way on the weekend. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode of Up First was edited by Ben Swayze, Brett Neely, Scott Hensley, H.J. Mai, and Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Iman Ma 'ani, Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Monsi Karana. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director, Isaac Coleman, join us again on Monday.

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