judy: good evening. i am judy woodruff. tonight, confronting climate change. the president announces ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions as part of the fight against the global crisis. a troubling surge. india records the highest one-day number of new covid infections of any nation since the pandemic began, overwhelming the country's already stressed health care system. plus, the plastic problem. single use items like masks, gloves, and take out containers pile up in landfills and recap it on the environment -- wreck havoc on the environment.

>> it is not just that masks are not biodegradable. it is the fact they are a hazard for our wildlife. judy: all of that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> before we talk about your investments, what is new? >> audrey is expecting. >> twins! >> a change in plans. >> at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. >> johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. consumer cellular. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through

investments in transformative leaders and ideas. carnegie corporation of new york. supporting democratic engagement and the support of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. an with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: i am stephanie sy.

we will return to judy woodruff the full program after the latest headlines. leaders of the united states and other countries have set ambitious new goals to slow the planet from heating up. during a virtual gathering, they left open exactly how they would accomplish those goals. william brangham has our report. william: with dozens of world leaders in attendance virtually, president biden said it was urgent for the world to addrs climate change. >> this is a moral imperative, economic imperative, a moment of peril but also extraordinary possibility. william: the president pledged to cut america's greenhouse gas emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030, and he urged other nations to follow suit. >> all of us, particularly those of us who represent the world's largest economies, we have to step up. william: some of the world's largest carbon emitters heated

the call. china's president cited an earlier pledge. >> china will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. william: india's prime minister modi promised to boost renewable projects by 2030. >> we in india are doing our part. william: commitments to new benchmarks came from elsewhere. japan committed to cutting emissions by the end of the decade, and canada planned to slash 40% of its 2005 emission levels in the same timeframe. the summit was scheduled to coincide with earth day and coincided with calls from climate activist greta thornburg on capitol hill. >> how long do you believe people in power like you will get away with it? how long do you think you can

continue to ignore the climate crisis, a global aspect of equity and historic emissions, without being held accountable? william: the global meeting continues tomorrow, leading up to a larger u.n. conference slated for november in scotland. i am william brangham. stephanie: a major shift in how the military handles sexual assault charges in its ranks is being recommended by a pentagon panel. according to the associated press, the commission delivered to the report to defense secretary lloyd austin today. at recommends that decisions on prosecuting service members for sexual assault be made outside of the military chain of command and by independent authorities, a change long resisted by military commanders. the centers for disease control is investigating the death of a woman in oregon who received the johnson & johnson vaccine. the oregon health authority said it is too early to draw a connection, but she had the same

serious blood clot that several vaccinated women experienced. the cdc is looking into one other death potentially related to the j&j vaccine in virginia. the vaccine has been on pause since april 13. california's two university systems joined a wave of colleges mandating covid-19 vaccines for students this fall, and overseas, india reported a global record of 315,000 infections in 24 hours, with another 2100 deaths. details on india after the news summary. the u.s. senate passed a bipartisan covid-19 hate crimes bill, responded to attacks on asian americans and pacific islanders. it includes funding to increase data collection and reporting. hawaii's democratic senator mazie hirono cosponsored the measure. >> as important as the content of the bill is, the message of

this bill that will be the senate are going to stand with our aapi community and any community that is discriminated against on the basis of race or any of the categories that you and i can think of. stephanie: today, the u.s. house of representatives voted again to make washington, d.c. the nation's 51st state. democrats pushed it through on party lines with no republican support. prospects for passage in the evenly divided senate arlo. russia has announced its troops are withdrawing from the border with ukraine, but leaving their heavy weapons in place. thousands of russian troops took part in maneuvers in crimea and western russia. the defense minister said today they have achieved their goals. ukraine's president welcome to the move. indonesia is searching for a submarine with 53 crewmen aboard that disappeared wednesday. the hunt centered off bali where

the sub sank in deep water. extreme pressure may have crushed it. if not, the crew runs out of oxygen by saturday. in this country, senate republicans offered their own infrastructure plan. it would cost nearly $570 billion over five years. president biden wants to $.3 trillion over eight years. both sides talked of compromise and their own plans. >> it is time to say, we want to do things that are in the best interest of the american people, what the american people are asking for, and that is why we are here with this proposal. >> the president has said from the beginning he would welcome any good faith effort to find common ground. the only unacceptable step would be in action. stephanie: the white house said the president would consider smaller steps and not just one mega bill. the governor of kansas vetoed a bill aimed at bahrain transgender students from girls sports teams in public schools.

democrat laura kelly called the legislation regressive. north dakota's republican governor doug burgum vetoed a similar measure but faced a possible override. several states have enacted such bans. still to come, the president announces ambitious targets for confronting climate change. single use plastic items pile up in landfills and wreck havoc on the environment. the u.s. continues to grapple with police shootings despite the chauvin conviction. and much more. announcer: this is the pbs newshour. from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. judy: now to the covid-19 disaster in india. more than a year into the pandemic, the caseloads and

deaths in the south asian nation are skyrocketing. as amna navaz reports, stopping the spread is proving a monumental task. amna: a grim reminder in india that the global pandemic is far from over as the second most populous country in the world recorded the most new covid cases in a single day, nearly 315,000, more than any other country at any point in the pandemic. india's infection total of 15.9 million is second only to the united states. >> people are really scared. they are terrified. most people have isolated themselves in a self-imposed lockdown. the roads are all empty. amna: early in the pandemic, prime minister narendra modi swiftly imposed a nationwide 21-day lockdown, the largest in the world. even as cases rose, modi hosted

huge political rallies and allowed a mask to gatrings, including thousands of hindu pilgrims at a time along the ganges river for a festival. on tuesday, modi addressed to the surge. >> until a few weeks ago, the situation was in control, and then the second wave has come like a storm. in the current situation, we have to save the country from another lockdown. i would like to request states to only use lockdown as a last resort. amna: meanwhile, india's hospitals are overrun. oxygen supplies are depleted, and crematorium's are overwhelmed, leaving some begging for help online. the 65-year-old journalist tweeted as his oxygen levels plummeted. my oxygen is 31. when will someone help me? no hospital could take him, and he died soon after.

on wednesday, on oxygen leak in western india lead to 24 deaths, including this woman's mother. >> she could not get oxygen, and she died in agony. she's been here the past five days. there was no oxygen. shdied in agony. everyone there died. amna: the new delhi high has ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals to try to save lives as the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow. our guest is an economist, epidemiologist, and senior research scholar. you are in new delhi. can you describe what it is you are seeing? >> people are without hospital

beds. people are dying. it is undescribable, and i hope to never witness anything like that again. amna: as an epidemiologist, when you see that spike, do you worry what happens if that goes unchecked? >> i know that the place the curve grows, it's there because mask to gatherings were allowed. the messaging was poor in terms of how serious the virus was and is. the system is already overrun. we can't imagine what it's going to look like over the next three or four days. amna: you mentioned the mask to gatherings. we remember when prime minister modi locked down the entire country.

what led to the decision to reopen? >> the count was locked down because there was an understanding they could not deal with what we are seeing. after september, cases started coming down. like many countries, outsiders assumed the worst was over and india had heard immunity. that was obviously not true. in a country the size of india, even if you have 300 million infections, that still leaves over one billion people who have not been infected, and that is sufficient to have a second or third or fourth wave. amna: many of the reports we are seeing are coming from urban centers or city locations. what about the non-urban areas or rural areas? >> 70% of india lives in rural areas.

even this round, the predominantly affected populations are the urban well off who escaped the virus the first round. the lockdown protected the well off as it ravaged the poor. this time around, the infrastructure is much weaker. amna: what about vaccines? where is india in its vaccination process? >> india got off to a great start, one developed by oxford and licensed to india. india was exporting a lot of vaccines, but the production was not accounted for properly. there is a shortage of vaccines now. there is hardly enough to meet the domestic demand, let alone export vaccines to other countries. amna: do you expect there to be more leaders instituting lockdown? >> i think a national lockdown

is unlikely both because it is probably not necessary. it is probably not sustainable given the condition of india's economy, but state level lockdowns, these will likely continue. in some sense, it is the only tool left to governments. amna: if the messaging is not made clear, what do you worry will happen? >> even now, after all the scenes that we hear, every family has been affected by covid at this point in time, but if these people don't take that seriously, policymakers and ordinary folks, we could see this be a lot more painful over the next few weeks. amna: thank you so much for your time. we wish you well.

>> thanks for having me. judy: let's turn to the ambitions of today's climate summit and the real challenges to president biden's plans. michael mann is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at penn state. he is the author of "the new climate war: the fight to take back our planet." our continuing coverage is part of the international journalism collaborative called covering climate now. michael, welcome to the "newshour." let me ask you, how ambitious is president biden's plan? michael: thanks, judy. it is a bold plan. make no mistake about it. i think joe biden is surprising

some of the skeptics who did not think he would lead on the issue of climate change or were skeptical he would show the sort of bold leadership necessary, but here we have the united states laying down the gauntlet for other countries, a commitment to lower carbon emissions by a factor of two within the next 10 years. it is doable and essential if we are to avoid the catastrophic warming of the planet where we will start to see some of the worst impacts of climate change. that is what we've got to do globally. the united states is setting an example for other countries to follow. judy:judy: let me read for you what "the new york times" is reporting what would be required to meet the president's goal of cutting emissions in half. more than half of all new cars and suvs would have to be powered by electricity, not gasoline. nearly all coal-flowered -- coal-fired power plants would

need to be shut down forests would need to be expanded, and the number of wind turbines and solar panels would have to be quadrupled. michael: nothing that is worth doing is easy. there is quite a bit of research now, teams from stanford and the university of california, for example, who have demonstrated we can get there with existing technology. we don't need a miracle. it was bill gates who has said that. we have the technology necessary. what we need is the political willpower and the policies. we've got leadership from the president in terms of executive actions that address the climate crisis. we are going to need a legislative component. we are going to need climate legislation to make its way through congress if we are to meet those commitments.

judy: what are going to be the easier pieces of this and the harder pieces? michael: there's lots of low hanging fruit. there are lots of things we can do that save us money and decrease our carbon emissions. clean energy jobs, creating a resilient smart grid that can be powered with renewable energy, these are things that will improve our infrastructure, provide jobs, but it's not going to be easy. if we are going to wean ourselves from coal and natural gas and oil within a decade, we are going to need policies that incentivize that shift. we need to provide massive subsidies for renewable energy. we need to block additional fossil fuel infrastructure. these are things the biden plan supports, but we need to codify that in terms of legislation. judy: we know this is a global

crisis, hence the 40 world leaders participating in today's summit. tell us, how important is it what other major contributors to climate change like china, india, how important is it, what they contribute? michael: we are the world's largest cumulative producer of carbon pollution. right now, china is the largest current emitter of carbon pollution, so clearly, we need the world's largest emitters to come together to in fact create an atmosphere that leads other countries to make meaningful commitment that is what happened under the obama administration. we had a bilateral agreement between the u.s. and china that had teeth in it, and it laid the

groundwork for a successful paris treaty. successfully, donald trump came in. he pulled out of the paris agreement. after having been decommissioning coal-fired power plants, they started building them again. there is reason to be optimistic. with the u.s. once again demonstrating leadership, reaching a bilateral agreement again last week with china, that creates an environment where other countries, in particular some intransigent actors like australia's scott morrissey who has made feeble commitments thus far, this is going to put more pressure on them. judy: you raised something i want to ask you about. because we elect a president who could be of a different party every four years, eight years, how much could that be a setback to what the united states and

world are trying to do? michael: you live by the executive action, you die by the executive action. anything one at ministration does their executive action can be reversed. so much of the progress made under the obama administration was reversed in four years what we need to do, as i said, we need to use those executive actions. the biden administration is doing that, but it can only go so far. we need to codify those changes. with the divided congress and senate, with the tie-breaking vote by the democratic vice president and some democrats who might sign on to expensive climate legislation, joe biden is going to need all of the diplomatic tools at his

disposal, and democrats in congress may have to use some of the parliamentary tools that they have at their disposal if we are to get climate legislation that will complement the executive actions that are being taken, and that is what we need. judy: ambitious but clearly complicated. michael mann, thank you very much. we appreciate it. ♪ as we've been mentioning, today is earth day. while carbon emissions and climate change are front and center, this is a good moment to look at another major environmental problem. as the world has become hyper hygienic since the pandemic began, plastic is playing an oversized role. stephanie sy looks at how the single use nature of many

pandemic items are piling up in our landfills and our environment. stephanie: there's one item we know helps stop the spread of covid-19, face masks. they come in different shapes and sizes, and many are disposable. in the past year, they have become an important part of living safely in the middle of a pandemic. around the world, 129 billion are used every month, and 3 million are thrown out every single minute. most are made of layer's of plastic microfibers. it is creating a new kind of plastic pollution, contaminating waterways and hurting wildlife. >> let's see what we can collect. stephanie:stephanie: at the beginning of the pandemic, she found she had to expand her cleanup beyond the beach. she started the glove challenge, asking people to tag places they

found latex gloves littered. the results came flooding in. single use face masks were strewn. >> we are collecting from 50-100 masks. stephanie: to see how easy it is to spot pandemic pollution, we asked our staff to keep their eyes open for it from washington, d.c. to california. they shared videos and photos of this new kind of litter. why is the mask pollution particularly concerning to you? >> it is not just about the fact that masks are not biodegradable or recyclable. it's the fact that they are a hazard for our wildlife. animals get entangled in the straps. stephanie:stephanie: she and her team found a mask twisted around a puffer fish. birds are getting caught up, and marine life are eating them.

if i needed to dispose of this mass, do you have advice on how i could do that to minimize harm to animals and the environment? >> the idea is to dispose of your mask properly, put it in the bin, but remember to rip off the straps. that will be saving so many lives. stephanie: jenna has made a career studying the waste we create. >> we are the top generator of waste per person in the world. stephanie: the university of georgia professor is driving and camping the length of the mississippi river with her husband and two kids, all the while hunting for plastic debris. it is part of an initiative started by mayors of cities along the river to reduce plastic pollution by 20%. she brought her scientific expertise and is a fellow at national geographic, a network of educators. one way they are helping is with data. marine debris tracker helps

people log what they are finding and where. like maria noticed in miami, she said it did not take long for reports of ppe in the environment to roll in. >> including masks, gloves, and wipes, we've seen over 11,500 items reported through just our app alone. i think it is reflective of our action and activity and what we use on a daily basis. some of that leaks out, and we immediately saw that through this system. stephanie:stephanie: why and how are these things making their way into the environment? >> you go to the grocery store using a disposable mask, you go in, and you need it. you come out, and let's say you have a mask and gloves. these are dirty now. what do i do with them? we often don't think about end-of-life. what do we do when we need to

dispose of anything in the environment? it came to light through the ppe we were wearing. stephanie: it is not just a medical protective gear adding to pandemic pollution. many busy families balancing home school and work from home schedules rely on endless days and nights of takeout. much of it, including my family's, comes in the plastic containers with single use utensils. >> i saw lots of to go packaging, clamshells, foam and paszek -- plastic. stephanie: in some cases, places overcompensated onndividual plastic packaging, believing it would prevent covid from spreading, but many of these containers are not recyclable. in the u.s., we recycle less than 9% of the plastic we use. one company based outside of

phoenix is trying to disrupt the plastic packaging industry. the ceo and cofounder showed us around. >> we take waste and make something with a short useful life. stephanie: the containers are made of plant-based fiber, including wood the company says is harvested from sustainable forests. they are composed of bull and biodegradable. their biggest client is conagra who uses footprint containers for their brands. sweet green is a big client, and even mcdonald's is testing out some of their lids. to compete with plastic food packaging, footprint tests its containers for durability. this experiment looks at whether the oil from the salad dressing bleeds through the product. the key for why it doesn't is a proprietary coding -- coating they bake in. >> may focus on being

plastic-free. we wanted something with multiple end-of-life options. we wanted something nature could digest. if it got in an ocean, it would disappear without being toxic to animals or the water. stephanie: do your products cost the same as the plastic alternative? >> we designed everything to be cost competitive. from day one, we wanted to have a massive impact. we said we would develop the technologies to compete with plastic not only in performance but price. stephanie: it is not where a product ends up that matters. it is where it begins. energy and water go into production. >> alternative materials are definitely going to be part of the integrated approach, i think , but we don't necessarily want to switch all single use over to that.

we would like to reduce quantities where we can. stephanie: ultimately, maria says, change will be driven by each of us demanding more of governments, corporations, and ourselves. it starts with us. stephanie: for the "pbs newshour," i am stephanie sy. ♪ judy: the verdict in the trial of derek chauvin brought celebration to the streets of minneapolis, but that same community came together today tomorrow the death of another black man killed at the hands of police. john yang reports on how the country is reacting, and a warning. some of the content of this report is graphic. ♪

john: in minneapolis today, the funeral of black 20-year-old daunte wright shot by a white police officer during a traffic stop. the funeral comes days after a minneapolis jury said former police officer derek chauvin was guilty of murdering george floyd, a rare conviction of a police officer in the killing of a black person, but minutes before in columbus, ohio, a white police officer shot and killed mikiah bryant in front of her foster home. hours later, columbus police released a footage of the shooting. it appears to show bryant holding a knife as she lunges towards another person a moment

before she is shot. >> get down. john: state officials were investigating. >> under any circumstances, that is a horrendous tragedy, but the video shows that there is more to this. it requires us to pause, take a close look at the sequence of events, and though it is not sy, wait for the facts as determined by an independent investigation. john: a day later, a police officer shot and killed a 40-year-old black man in elizabeth city, north carolina. >> it's just sad. john: the shootings are a reminder of the unending pattern of killings of black americans, often at the hands of police who, despite the derek chauvin conviction, are rarely convicted of a crime. in the 20 14 killing of unarmed

18-year-old michael brown in ferguson, missouri at the hands of a white officer, no charges were ever filed. the incident sparked months of unrest. two years earlier, trayvon martin, was shot and killed in sanford, florida by george zimmerman. the killing became a national flashpoint. zimmerman was acquitted. martin's mother sabrina fulton continues to speak out. >> i want to say whoever said "time heals all wounds" did not lose a child. we are never going to heal. this country has done something to us that will never be repaired. john: in chicago, the shooting of 13-year-old adam toledo who ran from police with a gun before holding up his empty hands shook a community who

years before lived through another police shooting where law enforcement initially lied about what happened. white officer jason van dyke came the city's first patrolman in over 50 years to be convicted of murder. the verdict came four years after the shooting, and only after police were ordered to release dashcam footage of van dyck shooting laquan mcdonald 16 times as he appeared to be walking away from police. to see how communities across the country are reacting to the derek chauvin verdict, we are joined by public media reporters from communities that have had to deal with the killing of unarmed black man. jason rosenbaum is with st. louis public radio. brandis friedman is with wttw, the pbs station in chicago, and wilken brutus is a reporter for south florida's npr member station. thank you for joining us.

in chicago, even as the trial was going on, chicago was dealing with the adam toledo case. what has the reaction been to what happened in minneapolis? brandis: all of this has reinforced what a lot of activists have already been saying even since last summer and long before the george floyd death last summer. you are aware we had the laquan mcdonald case several years ago, a 17-year-old young man killed at the hands of a police officer. folks are calling for more accountability out of the chicago poce department and the mayor. specifically, they want to see civilian oversight over the chicago police department, which is something they have been fighting for for quite a while and will take quite some time before they reach something where both sides are satisfied. john: jason, in st. louis, the

michael brown case in ferguson, a flashpoint in this whole issue. what has been the reaction in st. louis? it's jason: been a reaction of relief and a lot of surprise. with the michael brown case, there was never any sort of trial on a state or federal level. to see a police officer be guilty of a litany of charges for killing on unarmed black man, i think a lot of activists are not used to that sort of thing. st. louis and the region have changed quite a bit since 2014 when michael brown was killed by a police officer, both politically and policy wise, but while they feel this does bring a sense of closure to one incident, there's a lot of ways to go to engender trust between police departments here and around the region. john: in ferguson last year in

the midst of the protes over the george floyd death, ferguson elected its first black mayor. st. louis elected its first black mayor. has this changed people's attitudes? is there hope there is going to be a greater connection between communities and city hall? jason: certainly, there is hope. one thing people around the country need to realize his michael brown was shot and killed seven years ago, and it took almost seven years to see monumental political change. it is not only monumental because of that designation, but she ran on a number of platform planks that featured things that activists have been calling for since brown's death, which include shifting money from the police department to things like social workers and closing

things like the workhouse, which is aotorious jail in the city. now is the time for people who have been calling for change to put a lot of the cause of action into action, and they are hoping for people like jones to follow through. john: in florida, the trayvon martin case was the first or one of the first to focus attention on this issue. it was not police, but it was a community watch captain. what has changed since in florida, or has anything changed? wilken: trayvon martin's case was a catalyst to bring attention to this broader movement to address police and law enforcement accountability. there are pallor ells i can -- parallels i can think of regarding the case of cory jones, and that was a case where

the police officer actually went to prison. it showed multiracial solidarity, and that multiracial solidarity added pressure to local officials to pass legislation or attempt to pass legislation. we are seeing that in the city of west palm beach where the mayor enacted a racial and economic equality task force to address disparities surrounding these underserved communities, which includes access to affordable housing and health care. there's a myriad of social and economic issues that extend far beyond police brutality. that trayvon martin case certainly amplified it. it is not just that black women were dying. there are also black female victims involved. martin and other cases involving law enforcement accountability. john: in chicago since laquan

mcdonald, there's a new mayor, state prosecutor, states attorney, and yet we now find with the adam toledo case, many of the same issues back, many frustrations back. has anything changed the echo -- changed? brandis: the mayor who is in office, she is the one who headed up the police accountability task force in the wake of the laquan mcdonald shooting. she ran as a reformer, and she's getting criticism now for not really presenting the reform she promised would come. this week, she says s does stand by her superintendent of police who took the job a little over a year ago and what some people would say is the worst time to take a new job like that , but some things have changed. there is the consent decree that the city and police department have entered into with the federal government. that is obviously a very long

process. as i mentioned, what a lot of activists would like is a lot more civilian oversight. they've got a long way to go. john: she mentioned the consent decree that chicago police are operating under. ferguson police are also operating under a consent decree. is that led to any changes substantive -- substantively at the department? jason: it has, but many people feel that the fact that the federal government only put a consent decree on ferguson and not many other surrounding cities that are largely black or largely white with long records of police misconduct against black people was a huge missed opportunity.

just changing ferguson's not going to be the cure all for the systemic racism permeating around a huge region. ferguson has changed. there is a black mayor. many key people in city government are african-american, and african-americans have more representation on the city council. because the consent decree was in place, they've had to make changes because they've had no choice, but the fact that the rest of the region has not had that, i think many people feel it was a missed opportunity on behalf of the obama administration, and because we had a more conservative president who didn't really get into consent decrees or pattern of practice arrangements. there was no opportunity to do anything else. the justice department has resumed that with the minneapolis police department, and republicans like roy blunt have praised the justice

department for doing that. they are hoping that more things happening in ferguson happen in other police departments. john: wilken brutus, brandis friedman in chicago, jason rosenbaum in st. louis. thank you very much. brandis: thanks, john. judy: can summercamp change the world? the documentary "crip camp" makes the case that one particular camp impacted the lives of not only the young people there, but the culture at large through the fight for disability rights." the film is vying for an oscar this sunday. jeffrey brown has our look for our arts and culture series "campus." >> there i was. i was at woodstock. >> summercamp in upstate new

york, 1971. fun and frolicking, the woodstock air are revived. -- era was revived. >> come to camp jeanette and find yourself. >> that made all the difference. >> boy, as a 15-year-old, it was like freedom. you didn't feel like you were a spectacle even if people were staring at you. you didn't feel like you were a burden. >> which was different from life back at home? >> you knew you were really different. there i was not different. >> many years later, a couple has made "crip camp," a movie about the larger disability rights movement. it features interviews with former campers and counselors. >> i feel like these people are crazy. >> and archival footage shot in the 1970's.

it follows camp participants who became trail blazers in a wider struggle. >> it started with this theory that jim had, which was this camp was connected to the change that happened, and the idea was to go back and try to find the seminal moments that connected through these characters you meet as friends in summercamp. filling that in an abled us to see something, which otherwise we wouldn't be able to see, which is the impact of something small and how it grows. >> among the key protagonists, judy human, a camp counselor who contracted polio as a child. she would go on to become a leading disability rights activist. >> there were only 50 of us, but basically, we were able to shut the city down. >> she opened up my mind about the fact that, my gosh, we can

actually fight back. i know it's not fair. i have a hard time getting around in the real world, but we actually have legal recourse? >> the structure we thought of was this camp experience of liberation, like a stone thrown in a pond. as the ripples of that impact of that liberatory experience grow, the movement grows, and the community grows with it. >> the film follows campers who moved to california's bay area and built a flourishing community. >> an army of handicapped have occupied this building. >> several took part in a harrowing 1977 sit in in san francisco to demand federal regulations guaranteeing civil rights for the disabled. >> that is when people started really feeling like we couldn't leave because no one knew what we were talking about. >> i figured, ok. we are going to have to spend the night. >> activism would culminate in

the landmark 1990 americans with disabilities act, prohibiting discrimination based on disability and bringing changes to many aspects of american life . many years later, that fight continues. the veteran sound designer has pushed for more representation of the disabled in television and movies on and off camera. >> i believe the entertainment industry needs to embrace us as part of their diversity and inclusion efforts and apply the same mentor ships opportunities for people within the community to establish and cultivate their careers the fact of the matter is, because you may not see us working side-by-side on a set or in front of the camera doesn't mean we don't exist. >> their own films says noon, hopes to open a window for a new audience. >> the goal we held dear was

that we could shift people's disability from a medical model or charity model. the people could see the exciting new perspective of coming to stories from a disabled point of view. >> when we were there, there was no outside world. >> "crip camp" vies for an oscar this sunday. for the "pbs newshour," i am jeffrey brown. ♪ judy: as we all hope, an end to the pandemic is insight. this past year leaves a spotlight on a disease often overlooked, chronic fatigue syndrome. this week, more than 1000 people living with chronic illnesses lobbied members of congress for

more support. now disability advocate rivka solomon offers her brief but spectacular take. >> leading up to this interview, i was definitely nervous and anxious. i've done a lot of public speaking. what is tricky about doing these interviews is you never know when your brain is going to fly away, and i will not bei won't e sentences. when i was 21, 2 of my college roommates and i all got mononucleosis at the same time. they got better in a month or so, and i never got better. after a year of being bedroom it --- bedridden, i had a semi-remission. they called it chronic mono, then chronic fatigue syndrome, and now they call it my obj --

me. there are up to 2.5 million of us in the u.s. with me. we have no treatments, no cure, and people can be sick and disabled for decades, often bedridden like me. 80% of people with me got it after a viral or bacterial infection like me, and 75% of us are women. i may look vibrant and full of life now, but what happens is, many of us with me, all of us have post-exertion of malaise. that means after we do anything that requires any energy output, we will often collapse. we have a disproportionate feedback. after i do this interview, i might end up bedridden and unable to move. when you have me, it affects solutely every single dimension of your life.

many of us are families -- many of us, our families don't believe we actually ar sick. right now, there are millions getting sick with vid-19 from the coronavirus, and some are not getting better. they are staying sick with long covid. many with covid will likely be eligible for an me diagnosis after six months of being sick, but something beautiful has come out of this. the me and long covid communities are helping each other. it is like the old-timers helping the newbies, but the newbies have much more political clout and are helping us. one of the problems we have had as a community is that there has been a faction of the medical establishment that has put forth and propagated the myth that this is not a real disease, that it is a psychological condition.

in the 1980's, "newsweek" had a cover -- sorry -as you can see, my brain is beginning to go. you can see that happening here? even as i'm doing this interview with you, i can feel the brain fog is taking over, and i cannot remember what your question was and cannot remember what the beginning of my sentence was. i don't remember the point i was trying to make. the one thing i want people at home to take away is to believe a person when they tell you how they are feeling. don't dismiss them. don't disregard them. believe them, and have compassion. my name is rivka solomon, and this is my brief but spectacular take on advocating for people with chronic illness. judy: we thank you for sharing your story and the story of so many others. you can find all of our brief

but spectacular segments online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. that is the "newshour" for tonight. i am judy woodruff. for all of us here, please stay safe, and we will see you soon. unanswered: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> consumer cellular has been offering contract plans to help people do whatever they like. our customer service team can help you find the plan that fits you. for more, visit consumercellular.tv. announcer: johnson & johnson. bnsf railway. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. ♪ >> the alfred p. sloan foundation, driven by the

promise of great ideas. ♪ i announcer: and with the ongoing support of these institutions. and friends of the "newshour." this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. this is "pbs newshour" west. from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. univeris your family ready for an emergency?

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