02/07/20 02/07/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> deployed the first new nuclear weapons since the end of the cold war, and it has gone by almost without anybody even noticing. and it is occurring under donald trump at a time when the military is concerned about his decision-making and also the many crises that we face around the world. amy: in a major development in u.s. nuclear policy, the navy

has deployed a submarine armed with a low yield nuclear warhead for the first time. will this heighten the risk of nuclear war? we will speaeak with lonongtime joururlist bil arkin who broke the story. then the death toll from the coronavirus has topped 630 peopople in chinwiwith more thtn 31,000 confirmed cases worldwide. we will continue our discussion with pulitzer prize-winning journalist laurie garrett. >> it is only we who aid and abet and we have seen one epidemic after another, the worst-case one being hiv. it is we humans who aid and abet the spread of disease by carrying out our own discriminatory, racist, bigoted attitude toward other humans rather than tackling the virus. amy: and deported to danger. united states importation policies expose salvadorans to death and abuse. a new human rights watch report says at least 200 salvadoran

asylum-seekers have been either killed, raped, or tortured after being deported from the united states. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump hailed his up each meant portal thursday and lashed out at his d democratitic opponents, calling the congress members who voted to impeach him sick, evil, and corrupt. anding out nancy pelosi mitt romney. this is trump at the white house thursday. pres. trump: this is really not a news conference. it is not a speech. it is not anything, it is just sort of we are -- it is a lebrationn because we have something that just worked out. it worked out. we went through hell unfairly. did nothing wrong.

did nonothing wrong. amy: trump also attacked house speaker nancy pelosi and others during the national prayer breakfast thursday morning while she was sitting next to him. from has reportedly been preparing to oust lieutenant colonel alexander goodman, who testified to the house president trump's impeachment inquiry. "the washington post" reports aids within the trump administration are discussing whether to remove or reassign several administration officials who testified during the impeachment hearings. in election news, democratic national committee chairman tom perez is callingng for a recanvs of some of some voting precincts in iowa as the latest caucus results show senator bernie sanders and south bend mayor pete buttigieg virtually tied with 100% of the results now reported. sanders is still leading in the popular vote by thousands, but buttigieg maintains a 10th of a percentage point advantage inn what's known as the state delegate equivalent race. but "the new york times" is

calling even these results into question after its investigation found the results released by the iowa democratic party were "riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws." on thursday, sanders declared victory in iowa. this is sanders responding to a reporter's question in new hampshire. >> mayor pete has been declaring a win for days. why should people believe your victory speech over his? i got 6000 more votes. from where i come, when you get 6000 more votes, that is generally regarded to be the winner. amy: latest polls show sanders is leading in new hampshire, where seven democratic presidential candidates will take the stage for a debate tonight ahead of the primary tuesday. in more election news, "the daily beast" reports earlier this week former mayor pete

former campaign -- let me start that one again. in this news "the daily beast" weekorts earlier this former mayor pete buttigieg's campaign remove the name of that former head of a data company that contracts with ice, that's immigration and customs enforcement, from the list of co-hosts of a buttigieg fundraiser in washington, d.c., after rain contacted by "the daily beast." jacob shapiro is the former president of giant oak, which was founded by a former high-level customs and border protection official and has received nearly $45 million in ice contracts over the past six years. the chinese doctor who warned the government about a possible coronavirus outbreak has died after contracting the virus while working at wuhan central hospital. 34-year-old ophthalmologist li wenliang warned his fellow medical workers about coronavirus on december 30.

he was then investigated by police and accused of "making false comments." his death has sparked a wave of anger and outrage in china, where the hashtag #wewantfreedomofspeech went viral on chinese social media site weibo thursday. the death toll from the coronavirus has s now topped 6 0 people in china, with morere thn 31,000 confirmed cases worldwide. the central chinese government has ordered officials in wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to round up and quarantine all infected residents. residents are being ordered to report family members who show symptoms of the virus to authorities. meanwhile, a at least 61 people have now tesested positive for coronavirus on a cruise ship that has been quarantined off the coast of japan. at least eight of those diagnosed with the virus are americans. the ship has thousands of people on board, including 428 americans, and all passengers are being forced to stay in their rooms. we'll have more on the

coronavirus later in the broadcast with pulitzer prize-winning journalist laurie garrett. president trump says the pentagon has killed the leader of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. trump said in a statement the u.s. killed qasim al-raymi in a military operation in yemen. he did not give any details about when or how the killing took place. al-raymi had reportedly led al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula since 2015. in israeli-occupied west bank, israeli forces killed three more palestinians thursday in israel's crackdown against intensifying protests president trump's middle east plan. this comes as a 17-year-old teenager was shot to death by israeli military on wednesday. demonstrations erupted after trump unveiled his so-called peace plan last week, while standing alongside israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. under the plan, drafted by trump's son-in-law jared kushner without any input from

palestinians, israel would gain sovereignty over large areas of the occupied west bank, jerusalem would be under total israeli control, and all jewish settlers in the occupied territory would be allowed to remain in their homes. in canada, federal police on thursd r raidethe prott campof indigouous la defenders whhahave bn blblocng the nsnstrucon o of controversial pepelinen wet'wewet'en s sacd terrrrory r r mont. several indinonous aivisists were arrted as t p polic enfoeded a crt injunion n to remove the aivivistsighthtin the construconon of transcana's 400-mileonong, $4.7 bilon coast gaslink pililine. this is a clip of ththursday ght'raid. >> you are not welcome here! you are are not allies people. u arare rtining r landnd you are hurting us. you are killing our people! you wi never sp until u

realizthat youre wrong y: in ziabwe, twminers have dieand at lst 20 more pele have en trapp dergrounsince weesday night after a go mine sht collsesed. erators the minwere not alerteuntil thsday whethe mine did noturface athe end ofheir shi. rescuefforts a underery. in bzil, a jge has dlined to pure chargeagainst pulitz prize-wning jourlist ando-foundeof the inteept glengreenwal-- for now. azilian deral precutors january led a crinal complainagainst eenwald connecon to a jor investation he sarheaded th exposedisconducamong feral prosutors ana former judge. the investigation used previously undisclosed private chats, audio recordings, videos and other information provided by an anonymous source to expose the wrongdoing of top officials, including brazil's justice minister sergio moro, who oversaw the anti-corruption crusade known as "operation car wash." in immigration news, the government of el salvador says it is not ready to receive

asylum seekers under an agreement brokered between the trump administration and el salvador last year. the agreement allows the united states to send asylum seekers arriving at the u.s.-mexico border to el salvador to apply for asylum there instead. salvadoran foreign minister alexandra hill tinoco said el salvador will not accept wednesday asylum seekers until the country can provide the necessary resources and protection. meanwhile, a caravan of some 200 salvadoran asylum seekers left the capital of san salvador monday and headed north. this is one of the caravan members, 22-year-old oscar lopez. truth is here in el salvador. you can't even pay for your children to go to school or for food. that is why we are fleeing. amy: this all comes as a new shocking report published by human rights watch found that some 200 salvadoran asylum seekers deported from the u.s. were either killed, tortured, or sexually assaulted after being sent back to el salvador.

more on that later in the newswscast. states, andunited immigration and customs enforcement agent in brooklyn thursday shot a man in the face while attempting to apprehend the man's mother's boyfriend, who is undocumented. the 26-year-old man was later taken to the hospital, where he is in critical condition. new york city immigration activists gathered outside the hospital for hours and into the night to take guard as ice vehicles were spotted in the hospital's parking lot. this is ravi ragbir, the executive director of the new sanctuary coalition, speaking outside the hospital. >> we're going to stay here get until ice leaves and the family goes home. all right? more and more people are going to come until that happens. this is a sanctuary space. this is a sanctuary city. [indiscernible] amy: in el paso, texas, the white man suspected of killing 22 people at an el paso walmart

last august has been charged with federal hate crimes. the alleged killer is accused of targeting latinos in a racially motivated massacre. moments before the august 3 shooting, the white nationalist published an online manifesto echoing president trump's rhetoric about an invasion of immigrants. and luxury fashion brand prada will work to promote cultural followingng massive backlash for selling merchandise that resembled black face. in 2018, civil rights attorney chinyere ezie uploaded a photo on social media that showed the window display of a new york city prada store filled with figurines that she described as "racist and dedenigrating blackface imagery." this is herr speaking at a newss conference in new york city following news of the historic settlement thursday. >> our voices are outraged. ouour deman f for dignified treatment can and will change the world. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

as the nation focused on president trump's impeachment trial, a major story recently broke about a new development in u.s. nuclear weapons policy that received attention. the federation of american scientists revealed in late january that the u.s. navy had deployed for the first time a submarine armed with a low-yield trident nuclear warhead. the uss tennessee deployed from kings bay submarine base in georgia in late 2019. it was armed with a warhead which is estimated to have about a third of the explosive power of the atomic bomb the u.s. dropped on hiroshima. the deployment is facing criticism at home and abroad. the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, called the news "an alarming development that heightens the risk of nuclear war." on capitol hill, house armed services committee chairman adam smith said -- "this destabilizing deployment further increases the potential for miscalculation during a crisis."

smith also criticized the pentagon for its inability and unwillingness to answer congressional questions about the weapon over the past few months. meanwhile, russian deputy foreign minister sergei ryabkov responded by saying -- "this reflects the fact that the united states is actually lowering the nuclear threshold and that they are conceding the possibility of them waging a limited nuclear war and winning this war. this is extremely alarming." we are joined now william arkin, longtime reporter who focuses on military and nuclear policy. he broke the storyry about the deployment of the new low-yield nuclear weapon in an article he cowrote for the federation of american scientists. he also wrote the cover story for newsweek headlined "with a new weapon in donald trump's hands, the iran crisis risks going nuclear." he is the author of many books, including "top secret america: the rise of the new american security state."

bill arkin, it is great to have you back. to say the least, this has been an explosive week of news in washington, d.c., and your news -- which has hardly gotten reported -- should really be one of the top news stories of these last weeks. >> during the very time when the iran crisis was at its highest, the united states last december deployed a new nuclear weapon. the first new nuclear weapon to be deployed, amy, since the end of the cold war. have not just a momentous occasion, but a weapon which is intended explicitly to be more usable -- i not just more usable against russia and china, but to be more usable against iran and north korea as well. it seemed to me that looking more deeply at this weapon, looking more deeply at the doctrines behind it, and then really what surprised me in my reporting, looking more at donald trump and the role that

he might play in the future, was a story that was just as important, if not more important, then what was going on in the political world. amy: talk about what does it mean low yield nuclear weapon? >> low yield is a little bit wrong. the united states actually possesses nuclear weapons with even smaller yields at five to six kilototons, which i is whats is estimated at. that is 5000 to 6000 tons. that would become if you thought of it in manhattan terms, it would be probably something on the order of 20 square city blocks of ---- obliterated in radiation coming from that area. littleay low yield is a bit wrong. but it is the lowest yield missile warhead available through the strategic nuclear forces. and the real reason behind deploying a trident warhead with this though yield weapon was that the united states, the nuclear planners, felt they did

not have a prompt and assured capability to threaten russia or threatened other adversaries. prompt, meaning would be quickly delivered, 30 minutes or even a submarine is close, as low as 15 minutes. and assured, meaning it is in an in order to get to the target. those two things, prompt and assured, is what they really wanted. anand putting a warhead on the missiles, , on the submarines, allowed them both covert employments as well as getting close to the target. amy: talk about with his means between the united states and russia. really doesn't change much between the united states and russia. the russians can denounce the trident warhead, but the reality is they have 2000 of their own small new weapons of this sort opposite europe. and one of the justifications fofor the deployment of this new

nuclear weapon, amy, was that the russians in fact, if you will, had a numerical advantage against nato. and there was a desire to have a more usable new there weapon in order to eliminate that advantage. i think the u.s.-russian situation is certainly tense, but it is not really what this weapon is about to stop what this weapon is about is having a more usable nuclear weapon against countries like iran and north korea, where in fact a shocking first use of nuclear weapon, perimeter of nuclear weapons would be used to either stop a war or to destroy a very important target, say, for instance, if there were a missile e on the launchpad ready to strike at that united states. amy: in a 2017 general john hyten, who is now vice chairman the joint chiefs of staff, said militaryalready has

capabilities to respond to russian deployment of nuclear weapons. >> the plans we have right now, one of the things that surprised me most when i took comommand nonovember 3, was the flflexible options and all options today. so we have very flexible options in our plans. so if something bad happens in the world and there is a response and i'm on the phone the secretary of defense and the president and the entire staff, which is the attorney general, secretary of state, and everybody, i actually have a series of very flexible options from conventional all the way up to large-scale nuke that i can advise the president on to give him options on what he would want to do. amamy: bill arkin, if you could respond? >> options. that is what they are always think of options. they need better opoptions to do this or that. you have to look at this do weapon and say, in its most basic terms, what does it give the united states that it doesn't already have? and those two things i already

mentioned, a prompt capability -- being able to strike a target in 15 minutes or less -- and second, and assured capability -- that is a missile that is able to penetrate any enemy air defenses. that makes it a particularly dangerous weapon in the hands of the current president because i have heard from many people -- more than i expected in my reporting -- that they were concerned that donald trump in his own way might be more prone to accept the use of nuclear weapons as one of options when he was presented with a long list of options. one senior officer said to me, we are afraid that if we present donald trump with 100 options of what to do in a certain crisis and only one of them is a nuclear option, that he might go down the list and choose the one that is the most catastrophic. and that officer said in 35

years of my y being in ththe militaryry, i've never thought before that i had to think of the personality of the president in presenting milititary optiti. amy: let's talk about iran and what this means for iran. >> the deployment happened very quickly. the decision was made in february 2018. the trident warhead was already on the production line for the strategic submarines. soso i the end of the run of the warheads, they made about 50 new woods that were at the low yield variety because the production line was already operating. so it happened very quickly. ironically it happened at the very time the house of representatives was debating whether or not the weapon should even be deployed. by the time that was finished and president trumpad signedd the defefense appropriations bil on december 20, the weapon had already been in the field. so it shows really a disconnect as well in the congressional

debate between what is actually happening on the ground and what it is they are talking about. been passed..ave the hououse is controlled by democrats. so the democrats passed this. >> correcect. but in the end, the senate turned down the house recommendation that the weapon not be deployed. in really, the tragedy here is whilell of this occurred the tennessee was being loaded with the new missile, while the tennessee was being prepared to go out on a new patrol, while the tennessee actually went out into the atlantic ocean. amy: talk again about iran exactly. >> iran is important because injury -- in june when the drone was, the president declined to retaliliate militarily. and i think he got a lot of criticism from his party, from his wing that he had made the wrong decision, that the united states should have retaliated

against iran. i think that stuck with donald trump. i think in the end when it came to the killing of qassem soleimani, the head of the kuds force killed on january 2, that strike people have told me specifically was approved by donald trump, enthusiastically pushed by donald trump because it kind of erarased the mistakef him not retaliating in june. at the same time, the united states was also increasing the u.s. military presence in the persian gulf, the iran area, b-52 bombers were flown to qatar, the uss abraham lincoln was sailed into the region, and there was a general buildup of defensive forces and plalaces le kuwait, bahrarain, the e uae, si arabia. at this very moment when u.s. -iranian relations are as such a deep divide and at a time also

when iran is free -- and it is not clear that they will -- but free to continue to develop new their materials and nuclear weapons, i think we see maybe the beginning of a little bit of a creation of an argument that iran is developing weapons of mass destruction and that the united states is going to have to take action against that. you have seen n now from the president a number of very blunt statements that have said, we will not allow iran to obtain a new their weapon. that is not necessarily what anyone i am talking to in the military is focusing their attention on. they are much more concerned 'sout iran and syria, iran role in iraq. but inin terms of war planning,i think at the highest levels within the u.s. government, there is a general consensus about iran is being still one of the axis of evil, still being in pursuit of nuclear weapons.

and the trumpet administration particularly if reelected is going to make iran i think the centerpiece of a new defense strategy. amy: of course it is president trump that said that situation up by pulling the u.s. out of the iran nuclear cord and decimating it. >> yes, that and also the second decision made which was designatining the could force aa foreign terrorist organization. ththis ironically in the bureaucracy of terrorism triggered a number of decisions and a number of actions, one of foreign terrorist organizations, the was military then begins the process of targeting their leadership. that is what resulted and are starting to track qassem soleimani and ultimately killing him. it seems to me we have these two separate tracks kind of converging at the same time. a foreign terrorist organization designation on the one hand and weapons of mass destruction on the other.

amy: the bulletin of atomic scientists recently advanced the doomsday clock 20 seconds closer to midnight. the clock is symbobolic timekeer that tracks the likekeliodod of nuclclear war anand otherr existential l threatats. it nowow stands clososer to catastrophe e than at any y time since its creaeation in 191947. thisis is mamary robinsoson, for irish president and former u.n. human rights chief, speaking last month a as the clock was st to 100 seconds to midnight. >> the doomsday clock is a globally recognized indicator of the vulnerability of our existence. it is a striking metaphor that the precarious state of the world, but most frighteningly, as we have just heard, it is a metaphor backed by rigorous scientific scrutiny.y. this is s no mere analogy.y. we a are n now 100 seconds to midnight a and the worldld neeeo wake up. ouour planet faces twowo simultaneous existential threats, the climate crisis and nuclear weapons. amy: former irish president mary

robinson. the significance of the doomsday clock? >> i think the real significance is the lack of public interaction, public activismsm n the question of new weapons. really, that is the missing ingredient today. where thesituation united states and russia are engaged in multi-hundreds of billions of dollars worth of nuclear modernization at a time when the united states is at a high level of crisis with iran and north korea, and where is the public? where's the anti-nuclear movement? there is even any candidate speaking up about the subject? anti-nuclear of movement, the nuclear arms summering we are talking about was deployed from kings bay naval submarine base in georgia. this is the same base where seven catholic peace activists were recently found guilty of three felony counts and misdemeanor charge for breaking into the base on the 50th anniversary of dr. martin luther

king's birth on april 4, 2018. this is plowshares activists martha hennessey, the granddaughter of dorothy day. it was actually the anniversary of his assassination. but this is martha hennessey, the granddaughter of dorothy day speaking after she was convicted. >> the weapons are still there. the treaties are being knocked down one after the next. but we are called to keep trying. and we will do this together. we have no other choice. thank you so much. amy: martha hennessey is the granddaughter of the catholic worker founder dorothy day, one of the seven who were found guilty when they went on to that nuclear base. bill, in this last comment, if you can talk about the significance of their action and also when you say low yield nuclear weapon, it must calm people. but this is one third of the bomb dropped on hiroshima?

>> low yield is merely the title. it is like saying a hummer is a small truck. i think what is important for people to take away from this development is that the united states has a new usable nuclear weapon. what the military itself considers to be more usable. that is the change. and it is also a weapon that can be stealthily and covertly deployed in the oceans. and that is a change. and we do it at a time when at least against russia and north korea and iran, the united states is engaged in nuclear brinksmanship, at a time when it seems to me the congress is out to lunch and there isn't really an anti-nuclear movement in the united states, a mass movement that could take up arms against this. amy: and the significance of martha hennessey, liz mcallister , the peace activist and widow of phil berrigan, and others

gettingg convicted on their protest at the base? >> i started writing about nuclear weapons in 1981 when ronald reagan became president. i believe that is about the time when we met. in whichwe had marches hundreds of thousands of people were in central park and in europe and around the world. and today we have nothing of the sort. yes, it is important these peace workers continue to do their work and continue to do their important attention. operations and exercises, their own, if you will come actions against nuclear weapons. but it is not enough. the public has to be more engaged. i believe the democratic party candidates for president need to speak up and say something about nuclear weapons as well. amy: there is a debate tonight in new hampshire. we will see if that question is raised. william arkin, longtime reporter who focused on military and nuclear policy. author of many books including "top secret america: the rise of the new american security

state." we will link to your articles and your cover story in newsweek magazine. we will be back in a minute looking at the coronavirus. over 31,000 people worldwide have been infected.. ♪ [music break]

amy: "mesquite" by paul arambula. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. the chinese dodoctor who warned about the possible corona a break has died after contracting the virus while working at wuhan central hospital. he was a 34-year-old ophthalmologist named li wenliang warned his fellow medical workers about coronavirus on december 30. he was then investigated by police and accused of "making false comments." his death has sparked a wave of anger and outrage in china, where the hashtag #wewantfreedomofspeech went

viral on chinese social media thurursday. the death toll from the coronavirus has now topped 630 people in china, with more t thn 31,00000 confirmed c cases worldwide.e. the central l chinese e governmt has ordered officials in wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, to round up and quarantine all infectcted residents. residents are bebeing orred d to report family members who show symptoms of the virus to authorities. meanwhile, at least 61 people have now tested positive for coronavirus on a cruise ship thatat is quarantined off the coast of japan. at least eight of those diagnosed with the virus are americans. the ship has thousandsds of peoe on board, including 428 americans, and all passengers are being forced to stay in their rooms. we turn now to part two of our conversation with pulitzer prize winning science journalist laurie garrett, author of several books including "ebola: story of an outbreak." trust."as "betrayal of i spoke e to her on monday, days

before the whistleblower doctor died. she talked about him as well as her reporting from china during the sars outbreak 17 years ago. i asked her about what is happening now. looks this is really hard,d, am, because china is doing things that really no other nation on earth could do. it is accommodation of authoritarian government and tremendous infrastructure. they built a thousand bed hospital in wuhan in a dazaze. it is admitting patients today. i witnessed them m building hospitals in t the provincial areas in six days, seven days. i'm not talking about a slslapdh little shed. it is a rereal sophisticated negative air pressure hospital. in measures they're having to resort to are so extreme -- basically, 100 million people in the nation right at this moment are in some form of shutdown or lockdown. they have to o move hundreds of

billions of pounds of food all over the country in mass convoys to feed the locked down population. wuhan is 11 million people. beijing is essentially under a de facto quarantine. amy: explain how it is. we have seen movies with plagues, but how actually -- what does it look like? you can't drive outside? you are met by men with guns? they cut down the transportation as public transportation. >> you can go through usual train stations, airports. in some places, those are completely shut down and in others you have to go through a whole set of fever checks and questions and so on by people in the spacesuits, the ppe's, to determine whether or not it is safe for you to move on, are your potential disease carrier -- argue a potential disease

carrier. if you are driving, will be stopped every roughly 10 miles and you'll have to get out of your vehicle. your vehicle will be disinfected with sprays and you'll have to go through yet another fever check. it wasn't uncommon during sars and i'm hearing the same thing from colleagues there now, to have myself go through a dozen to 20 fever checks a day just almost every building would require whatever you were doing. this -- i just can't underscore inept there is no other nation on earth that could do this right now. we certainly could not, nor would wait. can you imagine how many days it would take just to get approval for a piece of land to build a hospital on in the united states? here in new york city, we would be bickering on it two years from now to build a high-end hospital in a days? forget it. we should be watching what they

are having to go through and thinking, what will we do if it comes here? where is our resources? it is a hard thing to fight an epidemic in a democracy. it is harder to fight when the internet can scream all kinds of lies, whereas they have been locking people up in china for theg online and telling truth. amy: explain what that truth is. >> for example, there's a young doctor, and ophthalmologist in wuhan who was one of the first to spot there was a new kind of pneumonia a foot. he thought it looked a lot like sars. he went on social media. he put out his analysis of it. they immediately arrested him and he was thrown in prison. he was recently released from prison and went back to treat patients and he has come down with the coronavirus and is now fighting for his life. anybody who is giving information -- for example, some of you, if you are following

this, you have seen these horrible pictures of people who have died in their body is just sitting on the sidewalk. they are in a hallway. they have died trying to get to the hospital in smashed into a tree and they're just sitting there in the car. and no one comes because they are afraid to touch these bodies. theou tweet those images in united states, that is ok. but in china, that could get you imprisoned if it is tracked you're the one posting those images. there'shappening now is psalmist a lockdown of information on top of everything else. let me just say what is the appropriate way the americans should be looking at this right now. we are at that danger moment in sortnited states between of being disease voyeurs, watching what is over --

happening overseas was some strange interest versus going into panic because we think it is coming to us. we are in an election year. we are with the government that has pared back its own ability to respond, and with a public that is very panic-prone and addicted to looking at their telephones. you put all of this together and we have a recipe for a possible really severe overreaction that would include, you know, clamping down on chinese descendent people inside the united states, that could also include measures that could be hideous. just the fear of something that is thousands of miles away has made us run out of masks. i challenge your viewers to go out and find a facemask right now, and appropriate one, and actual medical -- not a dust mask, not a a construction mask, but one that is designed to block viruses. amy: what are they called? >> it won't help to tell you

because now a social media everyone is advertising masks and they are just dust masks. everybody is lying. there is hoarding of masks all over the world. the fact is, almost all of the facemasks that work, medical facemasks, are not made in the united states. they may be distributed by u.s. company, but they are made -- fill in the blank, china, the philippines for the most part. we go down the list of things that we can see there is already panic buying. you are hahard-pressed to find medically designed latex gloves right now and drugstores anywhere in the united states. amazon is out of masks. if y y do point where amazon.com cannot fill it, you know, you are in real trouble. amy: how does the coronavirus relate to the flu? and that goes to the flu vaccine and what is happening. i think there is a push to develop a coronavirus vaccine. >> that we will not havave what

anytime soon. amy: how does the flu and the toll it is taking, let's say just in the united states and then around the world, compare? >> certainly, the numbers of people who every year get the flu dwarfs any epidemic. so you could use that and people always do come as a red herring to say, so wire was so worried about this other epidemic? it is trivial compared to the flu, blah, bloah, blah. why do we keep having this high death rate from flu? i mean, that is an indication the american people are not listening to public health, not getting vaccinated, not taking precautions. and they sort of have alexa days ago attitude toward it until they get really sick. that shows the level of the struggle for the pubublic health system. but also, you don't want to get the flu right now and have it be mistaken for coronavirus. since both have respiratory system -- symptoms and high fever, that would be a problem. this is all the more reason you

should get vaccinated and reduce your chances of getting the flu and being misdiagnosed or having your real coronavirus missed because they thought it was the flu most of amy: you think china is now making up or lost time? what will you say are china's biggest mistakes they have made so far and what about what they're doing now? >> well, they covered it up. this is typical, what i've seen every time in china come every outbreak i have been in there, is, you know, outsiders don't understand china really has two governments that run in parallel. one is the official government with people with titles. minister of whatever. the other is the party. the communist party. one trumps the other, and that is the communist party. essentially kind of a shadow government in the sense that not everybody knows who the party officially is in charge of x, y, or z. but the mode of the party is to always strive for stability, and

that is the most common word in the chinese political lexicon, "stability." so nothing can rock the boat. nothing can upset the order of society. what is upsetting to order of society more than an epidemic? of partyitial response officials whenever there is an outbreak is to stifle it as quickly as possible and stifle all news and information about it and spend as much time arresting come as i wrote about several weeks ago when this was first starting that they were spending more energy arresting people for talking about the epidemic -- almost all health-care workers, by the way -- and they were in dealing with it and confronting it. so by the time they actually put out honest numbers and actually start telling the world the true several weeks in and we have a huge problem on our hands. and then now they are just racing to keep up.

hong kong university has a spectacular team of you bidding the ologies decisions who have been through -- statisticians who have been through sars and bird flu and on and on. they have been analyzing the numbers of cases and reports through a variety of means and then shown the underreporting rapist pretty consistently by more than 50%. in fact, considerably more. so they say this currently reported team -- total of about 17,000 and change cases in mainland china, actually that is the number of probably was about 10 days ago. in the true number at this moment is significantly larger. amy: so where do you see this going? how do you see this playing out and maybe base it on what you saw? what happened with sars? >> when you ask why did sars end, you get different answers. in china, one of the most common

responses is to say because the weather changed. as if the virus somehow was related to cold-weather and that as summer approached and it got hotter, the virus disappeared. that makes no sense to me biologically at all. it may make sense in terms of surfaces. certain cooler services may harbor virus longer than a hot surface, but other than that, he does make a lot of sense to me. what i observed is china asically stopped it by doing massive fever and quarantine program across the entire nation. it was brought to a stop by a level of vigorous and robust action. you see they are doing the same thing now. as i mentioned before, it is all based on fever checks. and we now know this virus can spread from people who don't have fevers. policy are building a that biologically is flawed.

won't work. so when people asked me, where is this all going, i say, this is much worse than sars. it is not as terrifically dangerous as a very lint flu flipmic -- very lint adamic, but far more dangerous that anything we have seen on our horizon since the arrival of hiv. amy: and looking at the secretary-general of world health organization's comments and he said, "the speed with which china detected the outbreak, isolated the virus, sequenced the genome, shared it with world health organization and the world, are very impressive and beyond words. so is china's commitment to transparency and to supporting other countries. the only way we will defeat this outbreak is for all countries to work together in the spirit of solidarity and cooperation. we are all in this together and we can only stop it together. this is the time for facts, not fear. this is the time for science,

not rumors. this is the time for solidarity, not statement. i thank you." >> i'm not t sure i would go as far as he e did in praising chia for its s early response,e, bute is right about all of the rest of it. we're not going to get out of this by waiting political sticks at each other. the virus does not know the race, the politics, the religion of the human it infects, nor does it give a darn. it is only we who aid and abet and we've seen this in one epidemic after another come the worst-case one being hiv. it is we humans who aid and abet the spread of disease. by carrying out our own discriminatory racist, bigoted attitudes toward other humans rather than tackling the virus. amy: appeal is a prize-winning journalist laurie garrett. i spoke to her earlier this week. to see part one of our conversation, go to democracynow.org. when we come back, deported to danger.

united states deportation policies expose salvadorans to death and abuse. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "buffalo soldier" by bob marley and the wailers. this week would have been bob marley's 75th birthday. this is democracy nonow!, i'm amy goodman. looking at ashow shocking report has has at least 200 salvadoran asylum seekers were either killed, raped, or tortured after being deported from the united states back to el salvador. human rights watch found 130 eight people deported to el salvador were murdered by gang members, police, soldiers, death squads, or expertness between 2013 and 2019. the report says most of the victims were killed within two years after being deported for the same perpetrators the asylum seekers had fled from. the human rights watch report is titled " "deported to danger: united states deportation policies expose salvadorans to death and abuse." for more, we're joined by clara long, senior researcher for human rights watch. she joins us from denver. and from el salvador, we are joined by a salvadoran man who was deported back to the country after living in the united

states for 19 years. to protect his identity, he asked us to call him arturo. we welcome you both to democracy now! clara, lay out the findings of this report. >> thank you, amy. as you said, we found over 200 cases of people who were harmed after being deported by the united states to el salvador. in most of the cases we identified and investigated, that harm occurred within a year of their return and some longer. in a couple of cases, some people were killed within a day of arrival. what we found is people who suffered harm had -- came from many different categories. they had lived in the u.s. for a long period of time and then were deported. they had fled abusers, domestic violence in el salvador, and then were return by the united states and then suffered harm from the same abusers. some of them were police officers who fled because of

threats from gangs and then upon being deported were killed by the same people who had threatened them. others were people who have been recruited into gangs, fled that sufferednt, and again, -- were returned and suffered -- were killed. concluded from this flawsch is these enormous that exist in the u.s. asylum protection system are causing huge harm. we believe the number we have identified here to be an undercount. methodology for finding these cases, and what comes out of that methodology is that since no government entity tracks whether deportees are among people who are being murdered or harmed or sexually assaulted, what we have really been able to identify could just

be the tip of the iceberg. amy: so this has gone from the obama yeaears to the trump year. if you could explain that and how now the situation is. >> right. says they're going to enter into the presidency and rollback everything trump has that is not seeing enough. the trump administration has engaged in dedicated campaign to eviscerate the right to seek asylum in the united states, and that has resulted in an almost closed space for seeking protection. however, the trump administration and herded from the obama administration a flawed system that is not adequately way asylum-seekers cleanse. and thatat is borne out in this research. people were deported under the obama administration also did not have the adequate opportunity to get protection

for the threats they faced upon return to el salvador. and that is due to a couple of things. one is the way the system works, the lack of due process, lack of attorneys, these overloaded immigration cords, but it is also do to u.s. law and the fact that u.s. law is simply too narrow to protect against the range of threats that people face upon return. we recommend the u.s. law should be changed, that we should bee not only offering protection to people who qualify on a narrow range of grounds under the current asylum definition, but using the sort of logical standard of -- is someone going to face a real risk of harm if they are returned? if so, no matter what the source of that harm, they should be protected from that. amy: let's turn to arturo, salvadoran national deported after living in the u.s. 19 years.

thank you for joining us. explain what happened to you. during my stay in the united states, i was found guilty of a crime which i was trying to appeal in the court system. just as she was mentioning, there's a lack of due process. and during my process, the appeals and i served five years in prison. by the time i was granted parole -- was my behavior thrown out the window pretty much because i was not given the right of appealing it to the court. there were some discrepancies in the proceedings. they withheld evidence, evidence that could have helped me were at least present --

and because [no audio] immigration system, the immigration just got me in a decided to not give me the chance to proceed on these court proceedings and i was deported back to el salvador. amy: and what have you faced at home? are so many different things that i have faced. first i live in a dangerous to onerhood that belongs of the gangs. by me going to a different ofghborhood, i face a danger not coming out of thatat neighborhood. the way they do it in here is when they don't recognize somebody that is from that neighborhood, even if you visited family members or anything as such nature, they will stop you.

they will question you where you are from. they will take your id by force. they will make you take your clothes, make sure that you don't have -- amy: we are having some trouble hearing arturo. >> might disisappear. couldrturo, if you explain your ptsd diagnosis. salvador after the peace agreement because i grew up in the war. i went to the united states. volunteer. a trauma, gotis messed up a little bit. so i got diagnosed with ptsd and stress. medicine because se things i had

seen, not just during the war, but also -- amy: when arturo talks about the war in el salvador, the history books now reflect in the 1980's into the 1990's, the u.s. supporting the paramilitary death squads in the salvadoran military, which was responsible for so many deaths in el salvador. clara long, how typical is arturo's story? > very typical. what we find -- what we found is people who are deeply rooted in the united states, who have lived there, built homes, families, communities there, are easily identifiable in el salvador, targets for extortion. sometimes targeted because of any tattoos they may have, no matter what the origin of those tattoos. the other thing that is important to underline here is

everyone should have the right to seek asylum, to have a fair hearing on their claimims and me sure whatever arguments they have or reasons they have for needing protection are considered, and i did not happen for arturo. typical,ortunately, is has been typical. under the trumpet administration, is completely the norm. amy: what are you calling foror? immediately -- the media call here needs to be congress needs to end the harmful micro protection protocols, this remained in mexico program along the u.s.-mexico border that is putting tens of thousands of people in immediate danger and also giving them no chance of a fair shake in their asylum claims. amy: clara long, we want to thank you so much for being with us, senior researcher human rights watch. and arturo, not his real name, but her fear of reprisal,

speaking to us from el salvador after being deported from the united states where he lived for 19 years. democracy now! is accepting applications for paid your longest fellowship. go to democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed

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