Four weeks 60 Minutes has been reporting on the
fast developing story of coronavirus variance.
That's the UK variant which was you can see
here was identified of dates back to about September
of last year and then all of a sudden
you get a lot of these right and that's
because it's more transmissible tonight.
You'll hear from leading researchers in the field about
what we know about the variance and what science
is doing right now to try to stop their
spread.
The great city of St.
Louis is divided.
The North side is predominantly black
to the South.
It's whiter and more affluent.
The city's murder rate is at a 50-year high
and st.
Louis has one of the highest rates of police
shootings in the country.
Most of them
against black citizens
enter Kim Gardener
a progressive prosecutor
who has very publicly taken on the powerful police
Union
through
right off the bat.
You have not gotten along with the police Union
day one.
The entire music industry will have their eyes fixed
on the Grammys tonight.
But first we wanted to introduce you to New
Orleans self-proclaimed best band in the land
so you could hear them
and their story.
Thank you Eddie for a second.
I'm Leslie Stahl.
I'm Bill Whitaker.
I'm Anderson Cooper.
I'm Sharon all fancy.
I'm Scott Pelley
those stories and more tonight
on 60 Minutes.
Tonight.
Dr.
Jon LaPook on assignment for 60 minutes
over two million Americans are receiving vaccinations everyday
fueling.
Hope the end of the pandemic is near
but since the Stars Covey to virus emerged in
Wuhan China 14 months ago over a hundred million
people worldwide have been infected and with each infection.
The virus has had the chance to mutate into
genetic Offspring called variance one of those variants.
First identified in the UK
has spread across the US
and is estimated to be 50% more transmissible than
the original virus
and likely more deadly
Nationwide covid-19 cases have fallen but Public Health officials
are warning if these variants continue to spread
they could trigger a new surge of infections news.
The UK variant had reached American Shores came last
December at the University of California San Diego.
We don't know that
the variant was found as part of an extensive
coronavirus surveillance and testing system that has kept nearly
25,000 people living and working on campus.
Thank you
vending machines designed to dispense candy bars now offer
nasal swabs for covid testing.
And golf carts go on daily runs
collecting samples taken from Wastewater
there.
Sure.
So now if we pick this up
environmental engineer Smurfy Karthik Ian showed us how robots
place near over 300 student dorms and research buildings
suck up sewer samples
looking for early evidence.
Someone might be infected with the virus
and if there's a positive what happens
if there's a positive and they will send targeted
notices saying you're building the Wastewater.
In positive and please go get tested many positive
samples from Wastewater and nasal swabs are sent here
to nearby Scripps Research where infectious disease researcher Christian
Andersen's lab performs genetic sequencing to identify any variations
really important that we keep an eye on the
virus.
How is it evolving? How is it transmitting? How
is it changing genetic sequences from around the world
are constantly being analyzed in a database called neck
strain that Anderson and other scientists used to
Visualize how variants are spreading
these are beautiful colors, but
what am I looking at?
You can think of this as a family tree
and what we have is down here.
This is the first one in Wuhan
viruses mutate
over time.
You see mutations coming up and that's when you
start getting these branching patterns.
So then you have
sisters and brothers here and then you have aunts
and uncles and what's the Practical use of having
a tree like this
the Practical use is that somebody like me can
go in and let's look at like, how is
this
All related since the original virus was first identified
in December 2019 thousands of variants have been documented.
Anderson says scientists are keeping a close eye on
three of them.
They call variants of concern and that's the UK
variant which was you can see here was identified
of dates back to about September of last year
and then all of a sudden you get a
lot of these and that's because it's more transmissible.
So transmissible the Centers for Disease Control has projected
the UK.
Giant will be the dominant strain in the u.s.
In the next month
the variance from Brazil seen in red and South
Africa seen an orange
have already spread to dozens of countries,
including the u.s.
Variants arise because the tsarist Covey to virus is
constantly making copies of itself
as it replicates
tiny mistakes or mutations can occur in its genetic
code.
They're rare and usually insignificant,
but once in a while one or more mutations
team up,
To create a more dangerous variant of the virus.
We are reading Evolutions lab notebook
every time one of these pops up.
It's telling us exactly how Evolution benefits
at the expense of the fitness of humankind.
Dr.
Francis Collins director of the National Institutes of Health
is a geneticist who 20 years ago oversaw the
decoding of the human genome.
He says, he's surprised by how much this virus
is evolving.
Why are the variants of
concern that we're seeing in places like the United
Kingdom South Africa Brazil
of such concern.
It turns out that some of these mutations actually
change the behavior of this virus
in a way that makes it more infectious
or more serious
and the evidence is that for both the be
117, which is
primarily seen in the UK but increasingly in the
US
And the South African be 1351 that they are
more transmissible.
They're just really successful.
Seeing evolution in motion.
I think it's been rarely seen as clearly as
right now
how Evolution Works
in that way.
It was pretty predictable what wasn't predictable for me.
Anyway
was that there would be so many copies of
this virus
that even a slow evolutionary process
could in just a matter of a few months
a produce some viruses that we're worried about
and there are so many copies because
it's a pandemic and it's been very successful and
infecting millions and
Ian's of people these samples were from the patient's
lung an early clue about how the virus was
mutating came last summer at the University of Pittsburgh
medical center
infectious disease specialist.
Dr.
Gaudy hide our says
a cancer patient with a compromised immune system came
in with a covid-19 infection that persisted for over
70 days far beyond the typical few weeks.
We had no idea at the time that people
could still be actively infectious for that long and
it really wasn't until
After he passed away
that we started running some additional testing on samples
that had allowed us to collect from him when
he was alive.
And that's when we
found that the virus really quickly began to develop
all these deletions and mutations throughout the patient's life.
This electron microscope image shows a sample taken from
the patient's windpipe.
Tiny spheres looked like the original virus from Wuhan
China,
but genetic sequencing revealed a different story.
There were small gaps were in
Formation should be
irish-born University of Pittsburgh virologist.
Paul despres says the UK variant has some of
the same deletions
leading some scientists to believe it may have started
in an immunocompromised patient
when you have a patient who is sick for
so long,
there's the opportunity for the virus to replicate and
replicate and replicate and every time in virus has
that opportunity to replicate
is also an opportunity for to make a mistake,
right
and that's high viruses change those mistakes.
Give the virus just a little bit
of a Competitive Edge.
For example
kind of get into a sale batter.
Duprey says yes,
we use this animation to show us how
it starts with the spike protein
seen in red
which the virus uses to latch onto and to
enter a human cell.
So if you've been infected, you'll make antibodies these
blue
molecules that bind to the outside of the virus
Spike
and what they do is they block the virus
getting
Into
the sale.
They can't bind the receptor
know
here's a variant
the yellow
illustrating the variant.
The antibodies can no longer bind
the virus is able to attach to that
receptor latch on
and bingo
that person
gets infected.
Is there anything we can do to stop the
virus from mutating so much
we can certainly
stop at making as many mutations by stopping at
infecting as many people
if we
We block its transmission if we wear a mask
if we get vaccinated, we do social distancing.
So there is a practical thing that we can
do,
but physically biologically is there something that we can
do.
Is there a Magic Bullet that we can shoot
at it that stops at making mutations
dope
to understand the threat posed by mutations
Public Health experts are studying the Brazilian city of
manaus
last spring covid swept through the population leaving about
70% infected as a result some
Arches believe the city had reached herd immunity
but then starting this past December
epidemiologist suspect thousands were re infected with the Brazilian
variant
hospitals.
There were overwhelmed
Health officials reported up to a hundred and fifty
deaths a day
and a recent study suggests.
The variant is more infectious than earlier strains
and maybe better at evading antibodies.
We have a cluster of cases that Columbia University
Irving Medical Center.
Dr.
David Howe no,
For his groundbreaking HIV research
is now working to identify which variants are present
in New York City
since January.
His team has analyzed over 2,000 nasal swabs taken
from people who had tested positive for covid-19.
What was unexpected was there were only sporadic cases
the UK Brazilian and South African variance, but instead
we noticed that we had a homegrown Barian something
new something new that was dominating.
And Rising very rapidly
how rapidly is it growing?
It's over 20% over 20% So that's a rapid
rise in the last couple of months.
Dr.
Ho says the New York City variant is doubling
roughly every two weeks
and City Health officials announced this past week.
They found the variant in 39% of the covid-19
samples.
They recently sequenced dr.
Ho is concerned because that variant chairs a key
mutation with one found in South Africa.
Several studies have looked at the effectiveness of the
three vaccines authorized in the u.s.
Against that South African variant
both in laboratory tests and clinical trials
the vaccines appear to be somewhat less effective at
eliciting an immune response or preventing infection,
but the companies anticipate that vaccines will still provide
protection from severe disease
from that South African variant.
What people are worried about is I got of
vaccine.
I thought I was safe and now you're talking
about all these variants,
where am I?
I'm in the same boat.
I got vaccinated
and I felt protected for a while until
we realize there was so much
of the Homegrown variant
in New York.
How do you put this in perspective for people
who are watching this right now?
I think we have to be
a victim cerned
but that doesn't say the vaccines don't work
even in South Africa the vaccine still work to
some extent.
It's just not as
highly protective as we had against the original strain
in addition.
Vaccine may not protect against infection,
but may
protect against disease
or death.
Dr.
Cohen says so far the Pfizer and moderna vaccines
appear effective against the UK variant
and this past week a small laboratory study found
the Pfizer vaccine elicited the same strong immune response
against the Brazilian variant
as against the original virus
drug companies say they are working to retool their
vaccines and create booster shots as needed to keep
up with the
that's
what keeps you up at night in terms of
the variance down the line
if I have an anxiety, it's something worse than
the South African variant
is out there
that will get to the point where the vaccines
no longer appear to be fully protective against a
bad outcome
and that will certainly drive us then
to do a redesign
of the vaccines as quick as we can
recently
a variant has been found in New York city
that has some of the characteristics of the variant
of concern found in
Africa
I'm not on the surface of it overly alarmed
about that,
but it's going to deserve a real lab experiment
to make sure
that our vaccines would still provide immunity against that
this all ton of political economic and other pressure
to have these vaccines be successful
is the government committed to being totally transparent about
these variants about
whether or not the vaccines are working
or is there some kind of a filter
there cannot be a filter.
I will not
Not stand for that neither will dr.
Fauci
and absolutely
if we
ever
come across
as having the
truth of the matter distorted by what is politically
or economically convenient,
then we will have lost the public trust.
Dr.
Collins says right now we have a window of
opportunity.
I'm ready
and that Americans need to get vaccinated
avoid large Gatherings
and wear masks to prevent the virus from spreading
and mutating even more.
Just continue to hear that this isn't over yet
has got to be a hard thing
for all of us.
I don't want to sound so pessimistic though.
We are making amazing progress.
We just got to hang on
and don't blow it at the end.
If you're the guy running for the Finish Line
don't trip right there on the 10-yard line.
Try to get all the way to the goal.
We can see it.
We're going to get there
but this is not the moment to relax
or stop running.
Hard
a year of covid-19 reporting when you think that
a year ago.
We said that as many as 20 people have
died and now it's more than half a million
at 60 Minutes over time.com.
This past week former officer Derek Shogun went on
trial in Minneapolis
accused of the murder of George Floyd
watching on a knife edge.
Is st.
Louis, Missouri
where demands for police reform have been growing since
2014
when Michael Brown
an unarmed black teen
was shot dead by a white cop in a
nearby suburb
st.
Louis has one of the highest rates of police
shootings in the country
and black mistrust of police runs deep.
So when an African-American,
I can woman 1 the top prosecutors job first
in 2016.
And again this past November
many hoped for change
Kim Gardener a democrat in a red State promise
to hold police to account
instead.
She has run into Relentless opposition from the police
Union and it's powerful allies.
We went to st.
Louis to find out what happens when a reformer
takes on the status quo.
We as law enforcement have to hear
the cries for help in the community and deliver
and that's why
I'm not going to back down.
That's why I'm not going to Kiss the Ring
of the status quo to keep it a certain
away
inside the old st.
Louis courthouse where enslaved African Americans once sued for
their freedom.
Kim Gardener felt the weight of expectations
to keep her promise and rebuild the justice system
around fairness
is about the will of the people and the
people of the city of st.
Was overwhelmingly voted me in to do my job
to reform A system that we all know
is beyond repair in needs to be
dismantled and rebuilt.
What is at stake here
the Integrity of the whole Criminal Justice System.
She went right to work.
She stopped locking up nonviolent offenders dropped low level
drug cases
and ended cash bail
A system that hit black citizens hardest
but less than a year into the job
her hopes of building trust in police
suffered a setback.
Back
Jason stockley a white officer here on the left
was charged with the murder of a black man
a drug suspect who fled
dashcam video caught stockley swearing to kill him
moments later.
He did
only one gun was found.
It was covered with stock Lee's DNA and none
of the victims
stockley claimed self-defense
and was acquitted.
Protesters poured into the streets
years of mistrust and rage boiled over
a white boy
The Clash is triggered dozens of police brutality lawsuits
text messages released in court
showed some officers spoiling for a fight.
Let's whoop some ass texted one.
It's going to be fun beating the hell out
of these
heads read another
Kim Gardener told us for many st.
Louisans
with stockley verdict reinforced the belief
that City police often act with impunity.
She called on City Hall to fund an independent
team
to investigate police shootings.
It made her instant enemies.
So right off the bat you have not gotten
along with the police Union
day one
we work well with everyday police officers every day,
but
what we have is the police Union
who and who
basically
injects fear and misinformation in the police department.
The union called her a cop hater
and successfully lobbied to torpedo her reforms at City
Hall.
It's gone downhill from there.
This is that all police
this is not everyone in the system Belize this
but we have to
have the good people stand up
because silence
is also complicit
agreement with this type of behavior.
St.
Louis is a city divided.
The North side is predominantly black
manufacturing jobs have gone.
It has some of the poorest neighborhoods in the
country,
but cross to the South.
It's like a different city
whiter
more affluent.
There are private gated communities
like the McCluskey's neighborhood
the couple voltage and national attention last summer
when they brandished guns that black lives matter protesters
when Kim gardener,
Charge the couple with unlawful use of weapons.
She came in for a storm of criticism
McCluskey's pleaded not guilty.
I was sent emails and
it said I should be hung up by a
tree by the KKK.
This is just from like the last
week
the week's worth of hate mail.
This one the subject line is racist
you racist piece of
I wish someone would put
a bullet in your head.
Is this common?
Unfortunately it is
when it comes to me.
I know the one
I hope people destroy your neighborhood
threaten your family
and more you
import monkey.
What do you think when you
open up your mail? And you have something like
this?
Well, I think about the
People who paved the way for me to even
be in this position some of these are death
threats
that frighten you
well,
you know, I signed up for this
but what frightens me is now that it's
caused my family and I'm afraid that
a loved one
may be harmed because I took this job
Kim Gardener grew up above her family's Funeral Home
in North st.
Louis.
She got a degree in nursing
but switched to law
after her brother was sentenced to 17 years in
prison
for robbing.
Neighbor's house
crime and tough punishment are an all-too-familiar part of
life on the North side.
Let's start addressing the pain.
Let's start addressing and really understanding the communities and
those people are hardworking individuals who are not anti
police at the same time.
They want fairness and justice
under the laws people
say that you are
the prosecutor for
black st.
Louis.
I / take
all people in the city of st.
Louis
and
I'm not just a prosecutor for a
An American people,
we have
an out-of-control murder rate and an out-of-control violent crime
rate.
That's what's unfair.
Geoffroi de has been the public face of the
police Union for a decade
choosing his words carefully.
He told us Kim Gardener is in over her
head.
She's a prosecutor that
wants to second-guess everything law enforcement does and
and find fault when there's no fault to find
so Kim Gardener is the problem.
She's not the only
by any stretch of the imagination
but she's not a it's not a partner with
law enforcement
97.1 FM
but away from our cameras on talk radio.
Geoffroi de was less restrained.
I keep hearing this nonsense about she has this
Criminal Justice Reform
agenda.
It's just amnesty for the the most vicious criminals
in America where the deadliest city in America
and she thinks
that the problem is were not nice enough to
murderers and
heroin dealers and rapists
a former Suburban cop.
Jeff reuter was fired in
Thousand one for falsifying a police report
on the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown's death
roorda tweeted happy alive day
for the white officer who shot the black teen
Laura told us
it was to show solidarity with police who he
says are being vilified all across the country.
What we found is that
in
The vast majority of cases.
It's the aggression on the other side
of that encounter
that results in deadly force being used.
We've seen the videos
George Floyd wasn't doing anything aggressive
Brianna Taylor was in her bed.
So a lot of this is
problems with
with training with police policies.
And that's a problem.
We ought to be addressing
St.
Louis
has
by far
The largest number of police shootings in the country
per capita.
Why is that? Well, we don't shoot Bill.
We shoot back.
I mean we we live in a very violent
city and I don't think it's just surprised anybody
that sometimes the police were trying to disrupt that
violence become the victim of that violence.
Despite Kim gardeners mandate.
She's had a Rocky Run her reforms triggered a
record turnover of attorneys on Staff
St.
Louis is murder rate is at a 50-year high
State Republican lawmakers blame her
and tried to strip away her Authority.
In an unprecedented move.
She sued geoffroi de the police Union and the
city
using the Reconstruction Era Ku Klux Klan act
to claim a racist conspiracy was preventing her from
doing her job
more than 60 Law Enforcement Officers signed a statement
backing Gardner
six black women prosecutors flew in to support her.
We've been arresting people.
And locking them up and arresting people and locking
them up for decades
and it hasn't worked and it's not working.
So it's time to do something different
Meghan green told us.
She hears complaints about police from her constituents
in the more affluent South
one of a handful of reformers on city council.
She knows what Kim Gardener he's facing
when green question the police budget
the union
mounted a campaign to unseat her.
It was to send a message to other
Our elected officials like don't you dare
don't you be talking about how much money goes
into the police department? Because if you do this
is what we're going to do to you.
So what is the prognosis for reform?
It's really difficult.
They fight reform tooth and nail
and
and the tactics used to
you know, against elected officials are designed to quell
dissent and I think that
it scares a lot of folks.
I wish I was an easy fix to this
thing,
but I think it's going to take
A lot of people crossing the aisle
and
changing
we met Sergeant Robert Ogilvy in North st.
Louis
his beat before he quit the force in August
after 30 years.
He had become disillusioned.
I believe that most of the officers that come
out of the academy.
They all have
the same heart that idea coming out they want
to come out and do a good job.
But reality out here is this you're basically judged
by how
well you are at making a rest.
That's the bottom line.
You couldn't stomach being a policeman anymore.
Yeah, I couldn't do it anymore.
I was seeing the same thing over and over
again.
It just gets
it just too much for me
just as the city is divided black and white.
So Robert Ogilvy told us is the way Justice
is meted out.
He says police patrol with a heavier hand on
the North side and that has to change
so he has joined Kim gardeners reform program
to keep black youth out of prison.
Warden says he's all for
reform.
Okay.
You left
I'd like to see him do it.
I think I'd like to see him step up
and do something
like see what his version of Reform is.
It's like he's part of the problem.
I think he's part of the problem.
Yes.
I think the whole the system as a whole
is a problem
case in point
hundreds of racist slurs were found on Facebook posted
by 43 st.
Louis police officers.
There were also modified images of the Vigilante Punisher
a blue line added for police
Jeff Ward a told us.
The incident was overblown
now
many of those
all they had was like
comic book care like The Punisher or you know,
something benign like that.
They do know that the Punisher
image is being used by white supremacists.
Well, I mean
that
doesn't mean that that's why the officer put it
up there.
I mean it means different things.
What kind of message does that send to the
black citizens of
st.
Louis.
I mean, I think that that's
No.
A very
small percentage of the members.
I represent
two officers were fired for the Facebook posts
Kim Gardener put the rest on an exclusion list
blocking them from pursuing cases or testifying in court.
She told us she couldn't trust their work was
unbiased
the police union says the exclusion list is dangerous.
The reason being that they say it means that
fewer cases will
get to court.
Well, that's simply false the
It is so out of touch with reality that
listening to them is
is just not even productive
just as we finished speaking with Kim Gardener
word came her lawsuit claiming a racist conspiracy
had been dismissed
the judge called it nothing more than a compilation
of personal slights.
But Gardner told us
it won't stop her
the voters of st.
Louis have called for reform
and she intends to deliver.
Tonight musicians will hope to hear their names and
nouns does winners at the Grammy Awards
the thousands of miles away from the ceremony
one group has already claimed the title best band
in the land
the st.
Augustine High School Marching Band,
the New Orleans band has always been one of
the biggest crowd Pleasers of Mardi Gras.
But this year the Parade's did not roll.
We wondered if the band had been muted as
well.
We went to New Orleans to see
and found a story and a band
we thought
You should here
we go.
Hold up.
Dustin High School Marching Band needs no introduction in
New Orleans
the drums and horns have echoed through the city
since the band was founded in 1952,
but like any aging instrument
it was a need.
A tuna.
Alright badass know
the whole stadium heard that
enter Ray Johnson
do it again.
He was hired as the new band director last
summer
and he isn't wasting time with pleasantries.
Can you tell if they've been practicing?
Yes, I can
everything has to be precise
the marching the Precision
standing correctly and can you hear it? If
One of them is off I guess
and we call them out on that.
I sure will
and New Orleans
marching band is a culture
just like in some places they have football as
a culture
but here in this city.
They live breathe
eat sleep everything marching back
saying OG as it's known
is one of the few predominantly black all boys
Catholic high schools in the country.
It's it's a New Orleans Seventh Ward
seven blocks from the Mississippi River
not the part of the city usually found on
postcards.
The school was surrounded by reminders of a city
forever rebuilding
Rush
In Here
Ray Johnson is rebuilding to
the best band in the land is more of
a mission statement these days.
Yeah, I'm wrong notes coming from over here
since hurricane Katrina flooded the school in
2005
it's been a long haul the music library is
still a temporary trailer on the blacktop school didn't
come back the same and instruments.
We didn't have enough and uniforms with damage.
So we had to rebuild everything and just now
we were beginning to see the fruits of our
labor
and then Here Comes: how many kids are in
the band now on the role, I have 85,
where would you like that number to be, huh?
ER and fifty
a hundred and fifty allows for a full band
and a deep bench
for decades.
They easily hit that number
on a sizzling hot black top over the summer
hundreds of students would try out for a spot.
The competition was fierce
many of the kids had grown up playing music
Ray Johnson was one of them
would you have ever skipped practice back in the
80s?
Oh, no, man.
No,
not at all.
If you if you skill practice that you gotta
10 dues line.
Take the spot.
They were a Powerhouse
st.
Augustine played for eight presidents and a pope.
The band's founder Edwin.
Hampton
was a no-nonsense disciplinarian
who created the band's signature style
most marching bands what they call show bands,
they might dance or play popular music
the difference that sets st.
Augustine apart.
We played popular music, but we had a
military style
that
Mint eyes forward and chins up no matter what
pristine uniforms perfect lines and gravity-defying knees
would whip Mardi Gras crowds into a frenzy.
In 1960 Ruby Bridges famously desegregated New Orleans Public
Schools,
seven years later
st.
Augustine
desegregated Mardi Gras parades
band members say they were urinated on as they
passed under balconies.
Dr.
Kenneth st.
Charles is the school's president today have people throwing
things at them.
They had to not respond.
They had people yelling up sentences to them.
They could not respond.
Task of
a young guy.
So it's a lot to ask of a
of a
14 15 16 year old kid
to
Not
retaliate, you know, we teach them as we do,
you know Christian faith
turn the other cheek.
Dr.
St.
Charles knows the discipline required in those moments
in 1981.
He and his classmate
Ray Johnson
were marching in a Mardi Gras parade for Saint
Augustine
when an adult who was chaperoning the band
got into a scuffle.
Couple with a plainclothes police officer
the officer pulled his gun
and then the gun went off
and all of a sudden
the police started showing up on Horseback
and bad guy disarray and stuff like that.
So one of our baritone players said Ray you
have blood on your uniform
and that's when I started feeling the pain and
the side of my face here.
So that's where the bullet went in my giant
came out the back of my neck.
You didn't realize you'd been shot.
I didn't
I'll show
one police officer was trying to give me first
date.
So he said look, he said I got to
cut this uniform off you
to see if you hit anywhere else
and I said hold up.
I said you can't cut this uniform
I said it has buttons on and I can
take it off.
Why didn't you want him to cut the uniform?
Well,
I knew that if this man cut this uniform
Mr.
Hampton will probably kill me
after college Johnson returned to st.
Augustine where he worked as an assistant to Edwin
Hampton for 11 years
before leaving to teach at another School
Hampton stayed for another 12 years until he passed
away in 2009
without him some at st.
Augustine.
Thought the band had lost its Edge
Ray Johnson was hired back to sharpen it
for me.
It was like
dude
you're about to
fall.
Into the rituals of the tradition
Ray is like
the essence
of saying all along
Bryce Miller played the trumpet under Hampton the band's
founder and Johnson in the 90s
his son Bryce a sophomore
was a familiar name on Johnson's roster.
He already knew who I was because of my
dad.
So
He expect a lot from me
now having my son
participating not only in the band
but with your man director
It was a beautiful thing.
Beautiful might not be the way some of the
teenagers would describe the introduction
now y'all want to meet the real.
Mr.
Johnson.
Y'all won't meet the real.
Mr.
Johnson
if y'all gonna say y'all the best band y'all
gotta prove.
Senor Cabral Johnson and eighth grader.
Lorenzana re are part of the Drumline.
Honore wasn't much bigger than a snare drum when
he decided he wanted to play for st.
Augustine
but held together.
That's an array.
Tell me your impression of mr.
Ray.
I think he's pretty nice.
He could be placed at some times but that's
all discipline.
What do you mean if I see like
he owes
but
he has out of passion.
Everything has to be shocked
so tropical
Don't know.
I need y'all to play it every time that's
how y'all gonna get good at it.
I'm sitting here talking to you.
You're so
almost soft-spoken and you see you out there on
the blacktop and it gets up a level.
All right,
that's by Design.
I want you to be out your comfort zone
because I need you to pay attention and when
you pay attention
you learn.
A few minutes into practice and it's clear.
The band's program isn't just designed to produce good
musicians.
It's part of the school's larger mission
to produce good men.
Now look good man.
Great job proud of y'all.
Thank you.
That's the history of this of this school.
Your teachers are strong intellectual black men
your coaches
strong intellectual
Black Men
band director strong intellectual black men.
So you see that wide range that wide display
of again
blackmail.
Success
the school preaches discipline
and the band demands it
the only way to achieve Saint Augustine signature military
formations
is to stay in line
and make sure the guy next to you is
to
My family.
I need to
pick up the leg
tell me about mr.
Ray.
What has he done for the band one year
ago is not the same man.
You see today?
I'm not gonna lie.
I was a little bit less discipline.
But now
if you move you will be
You're going to have them push-ups after that parade.
If you move you have to do push-ups almost
definitely
the people try to get your attention.
Oh they do
I remember my cousin has tried.
My mother has tried to you just have to
be
Eyes forward locked in
right now.
Nothing seems to be moving in New Orleans.
The pandemic has shuttered the city.
Even Bourbon Street seems to have sobered up
is your responsibility to learn st.
Augustine has bounced between in-person and virtual learning all
year long.
We can't decide what God is going to do
if he say everything shut down
everything shuts down.
When band practice was canceled for a week, then
a month
Lawrence Honore
improvised
when they're high school football game was nearly flooded
the entire band called an audible.
And shook the stadium from below
and when they learned Mardi Gras parades were cancelled.
I don't know why y'all come and why I
like it me Johnson
didn't miss a beat.
Well, boom.
Bubble
bubble.
Well, it's hard
because it's a tradition,
you know, just like anything else, you know, you
got to suck it up and keep moving.
That's what Bryce Miller is doing.
He is a professional musician
the city shut down in March his work dried
up.
He started volunteering with the band
before this.
You know, your dad was busy all the time
right now.
You're seeing a lot more because the pandemic
what's that been like for you?
Like I'm actually proud of him because
he's also
kind of
Going,
you know, the professional position can't do none of
that jazz fest can't do anything,
but he really loves what he does, but he
left his family more.
I want him to be
the best.
The most successful
That he can possibly be
I don't want him to become
a statistic.
In any way,
that's the realism.
Raising a black boy
and raising a black board and city like the
ones
that realism doesn't take holidays off
Lauren's honorees good friend who attended a different school
was recently killed walking out of a store
all Christmas night.
He had got caught in the crossfire
and I shot him in the head.
And how old is he
14?
The same age is honoring
he played at his buddies funeral and then his
mom drove him straight to
And practice with just about everything canceled this year.
It's hard for anyone to find a reason to
get dressed.
But that's exactly why Ray Johnson had the band
do it anyway,
and then
directed them to march through the neighborhood.
The route black the Grandeur of a Mardi Gras
parade
the locals poured onto their porches.
Anyway,
even when there are little scratchy
and a lot loud
it is a joyful sound in the Seventh Ward.
I think when people
heard us starting to practice again and students coming
back
it gave us a sense of
okay things are getting better.
I think is so good that the band marches
around the block cuz I feel like
That is
that is a know.
That is woman's.
Yeah, that's what people need now in days because
of the fan dimmick.
They need something to cheer them up.
They March down the block hanging a right at
Hope Street
Ray Johnson behind them
at every step.
Now an update on a story we reported last
month called solarwinds
a Russian plot sabotage software used by 18,000 computer
networks.
At least nine government agencies are still trying to
figure out which emails and files are in Russian
hands
hundreds of US tech companies were also compromised including
Microsoft
its president Brad Smith told us
the hack was historic.
This is the largest and most sophisticated attack.
The world has ever seen
now and even broader breach
hackers used vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Exchange Server, its calendar
and email service
to access hundreds of thousands of networks
intelligence agencies this time
suspect China.
I'm Bill Whitaker
will be back next week with another edition
of 60 minutes.