03/20/20 03/20/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy y now! >> we need to remember this is a global disease, that this is a global spread, that there are lessons from countries that are ahead of our curve that we can learn from. this is a pandemic because pandemic, essentially, are diseases that are sustained through many continents that questionrders and

state sovereignty and governance. amy: the worldwide capital from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000 with nearly 250 thousand confirmed cases off covid-19 as italy surpasses china and coronavirus deaths and cases grow in the middle east and latin america anand africa e governor of calpine orders all 40 million residents to shelter in place. >> the virus will impact about 56% of us. you do the math and the state of califofornia, that is a particularly large number. amy: we wiwill go to california just week with stanford university's global health .xpert dr. michele barry then solidarity,ot chari. we look at the networkf mumutu ai groups emerging acrossss the country to protetect each othehn the face of covid-19. >> is a form of politicacal pies

of patient in which h people tae responsibibility for caring for one another andnd changing political conditions, not just through symbolic acts or putting pressure on their representatives inin government but by actualllly building new social relations that are more survivable. amy: we will speak with longtime organizers mariame kaba and dean spade. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the worldwidide death tollll frm the coronavirus s pandemic has topped 10,000, witith nearly a quarter of a million confirmed cases of covid-19. italy's death toll now surpassed the opera was cases.eported, with 3400 -- with 3400 deaths and more than 4100 casese in milan, nurses rort they''ve

stoppeped counting t the dead as wave afterave of covid-19 patients with respiratory ailments overwhelm intensive care units. >> the problem is so many of o r staff are at home because theher testing positive for covid-19, so t that leaeaves a handfuful s toto run everything. we a a working i in a state a vy high strtress and tension. psychological tensnsion has gone through ththe roof. unfortunately, w we cannot contn e s situation in lombarardi. there's a high h level of cocontagion and w we are not evn counting the dead anymore. amy: fearsrs are grorowing for mimillions of refugees livivg in overcrowded and unsanitary cps around the wororld, including a million south sudanese and congolese refugees in uganda, tens of thousands of central americans in mexico near the u.s. border, some one million rohingya muslims in bananglades. the secretary-general of the refugee council warned "there will also be carnage when the virus reaches parts of syria, yemen, and venezuela where hospitals have been abolished

and health systems have collapsed." in australia, officials are tracking down thousands of passengers who left a prprincess cruise ship in sydney after four people tested positive with covid-19. prince of monaco has become the first head of state to announce a positive test. in latin america, el salvadorr and nicaragua have reported their first confirmed d cases of coronavirus, while south america has nearly 1000 confirmed infections. brazil, chchile, and peru all report hundreds of infections. venezuela has also announced a nationwide quarantine. in sth africa,a, govnment officials plan to ininstall a 25-mile fence on its border with zimbabwewe to block entry to undocumented immigrants as part of an emergency measure to contain the spread o of coronavirus. there are now moree than 700 confirmed cacases of corononavis and d africa. inin the middle e east, saudi ia has s suspended alall prayersrsn overflow arenas outsidide holy cities in n mecca and medina. meanwhile, netflix and youtube

say they will reduce the quality of their streaming video services in europe as millions of people on lockdown in italy, spain, and other countries have dramatically increased their internet use. in the united states, where confirmed coronavirus cases have doubled over the past two days, california governor gavin newsom on thursday orderered all 40 million residents to remain at home effective immediately. the order came as models for the coronavirus outbreak estimated 56% of californians will become infected in the next eight weeks with the state's hospital capacity at 20,000 fewer beds than w will be needed at the pek ofof the epidemic.c. >> the curve in the state of california. in order to do that, we need to recognize the realityty. the fact is, the experience we are having on the ground

throughout the state of california, the experience manifesting all across the united states ---- for that matterer, the rest of the e wor- requires us to adjust our thinking and to adjust our activities. amy: california governor newsom's order will close restaurants, bars, social clubs, and gyms across california with essential services will remain open, including pharmacies, grocery stores, takeout and delivery restaurants, and banks. the lockdown order came as a group of unhoused and housing-insecure people in los angeles, including mothers and their children, have moved into at least 12 vacant and publicly owned hohomes in the neighbobord of el sereno. the families say the government has failed to provide them with shelter to protect their health during the pandemic. in new york, mayor bill de blasio said the city's hospitals are dramatically under-supplied for the coming wave of covid-19 patients, with a peak expected in 6 weeks' time. at a news confnference thursday, the mayor called on president trumump to mobilize e massive

industrial production of medicil equipment,t, including 3 million air-filtering masks, 50 million surgical masks, 15,000 ventilators, and tens of millions of surgical gowns, coveralls, gloves, and facee masks. >> we expect those goods that are produced that we need for our hospitals to get there in time. there's only one organization that can guarantee that, and that is the united states military. we will president trtrump give e order? that is my question, when will he give the order? yc hesitating? people arere suffering n now and they will be suffering so much more in the month of april. and the preresident gives himsef "a" great t and congratutulates himselelf and yet he willll nott in the way we need it the most. amy: around the country, healthcare workers are being told to reuse n95 air-filtering respirator masks amid a critical shortage. president trump says the federal

government has ordered 500 million masks, but bloomberg news reports they could take up to 18 months to deliver. in georgia, all 236 state legislators have been urged to self-isolate for weeks after a state senator disclosed he tested positive for covid-19. in florida, miami beach, fort lauderdale, and other seaside parts of south florida have closed beaches but many others remain open. florida senator rick scott pleaded thursday for spring break revelers to stop crowding together on beaches. he is in isolation. two regional airlines, compass and trans state, which partner with united airlines and delta, sasaid they will suspend service by the end of the month. elsewhere in the united states, at least 90 cities and states have suspended water shutoffs during the pandemic. in new jersey, a medical worker at the elizabeth immigration detention center has tested positive for covid-19 and has

entered self-quarantine. officials with h e, that is immigration and customs enforcement, said one other ice employee had tested positive elsewhere in the u.s., though the agency declined to say whe. in a letter sent to acting ice director matthew albence thursday signed by nearly 800 non-governmental organizations, the detention watch network wrote -- "outbreaks of mumps, scabies and other highly contagious diseases have been documented to spread aggressively in detention facilities. ice has repeatedly proven to be incapable of adequately responding and providing the proper care for people in its custody, under normal circumstances." meanwhile, imprisoned immigrants and asylum seekers at the essex county jail in newark are on a hunger strike demanding their immediate release on bond or deportation to their home countries. this comes as a 27-year-old asylum seeker from honduras has died of an apparent suicide wednesday while imprisoned by ice in texas. his death is the ninth in ice

custody in the 2020 fiscal year. at the white house, president trump sought to deflect criticism of hisis administration's disastrous handliling of the coronavirus pandemic, lashing out at china and excoriating the media as "fake" and "corrupt news." reporters in thursday's white house briefing sat in every other chair t tincrease s social distanancing. faced with a barrage of critical questions, trump threatened to empty the room even further. pres. trump: you're actually sitting too close. really, we should probably get rid of about another 75%, 80% of you. have just two or three i like in this room. we just figured a new way of doing it. you're actually much too close. you too, should leave. immediately. amy: trump gave the final question of thursday's press briefing to chanel rion, a republican political operative with the far-right website one america news. >> it is alarming that people

are consistently siding with -- islamic radicals [indiscernible] amy: do not press conference, trump recommended the use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine for patients suffering from covid-19. pres.. trump: we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that is where the fda has been so great. they h have gone through the approval process. it is been approved. amy: moments after trump made those comments, fda commissioner dr. stephehen hahn denied his agency approved chloroquine for covid-19 treatment, saying the drug first n needs to be testedn a large clinical trial. rising pharmrmaceuticals, , thew jersey based company that produces chloroquine, doubled the price of the drug after trump's comments before reversing its decision later thursday. calls are growing for a number of u.s. senators to resign

following reports they sold millions of dollars' worth of stocks after receiving privileged briefings about the coronavirus' threat to the global economy. propublica reports republican richard burr, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee, unloaded as much as $1.7 million of his holdings on february 13 in 33 separate transactions. at the time, he had access to classified information about the coronavirus and was receiving daily intelligence briefings. the stock market began plummeting a week after burr's sales and has since lost about 30% of its value. at least four other senators also sold major holdings ahead of the crash -- republicans james inhofe of oklahoma, kelly loeffler of georgia, and ron johnson of wisconsin, as well as democratic senator dianne feinstein. senator feinstein is also on the intelligence committee and senator loeffler is married to the chairman and ceo of the new york stock exchange. the news came as npr published a secretly-recorded audiotape of senator burr addressing business

leaders and members of the elite tar heel circle at a luncheon in the capitol hill club in washington on february 27, when there were just 15 confirmed cases of covid-19 in the u.s. youne thing i can tell about this, it is much more aggressive in transmission than anything we have seen in recent history. thes probably more akin to 1918 pandemic. amy: after the npr and propublica stories broke, the hashtag #burrmustresign trended on social media and even far-right fox news host tucker carlson called for s senator burr's resignation. economists at goldman sachs estimated thursday some 2.25 million americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits this week, the fastest rush o of jobless claims in u.s. history. many of those working outside of their homes report traumatic levels of stress and a dangerous lack of safety equipment. in san diego, hospital nurses treating covid-19 patients are

protesting a new policy that allows the use of less-protectivive surgical masks instead of more-protective n95 respirator masks, which are in short supply. in california's fields, farm workers say they're caught between the risk of catching the coronavirus and not earning enough to feed their families. minnesota and vermont have classified grocery store clerks as emergency personnel and will offer them free child care. in queens, new york, amazon employees shut down a fulfillment center after a worker tested positive for covid-19. the confirmed case came two days after 1500 amazon workers around the world called publicly for amazon to adopt stronger safety measures. in brooklyn, new york, employees of the retail store art to frames held a protest outside their shop yesterday to demand more protections. >> my name is isabel. we are out here because this morning we came in asking for

something simple as a mask, gloves, hand sanitizer to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. we were denied. we were told there were no more masks, there is no more hand sanitizer, that they could not get it. we gave the manager the opportunity to give us a solution, and his only solution go can go, wants to but we are not paying you for your time. i have kids i have to take care of. i have kids i have to support. i am here and i come here to work because i need to provide for them, and i'm going to be bringing germs to them and i'm going to go home not to bring germs to them, i'm going g to sy home but with what income? my employer is not willing to pay me.. amy: indndia hasas hanged four n convicted of the brutal gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in delhi in 2012. hundreds of police deployed outside the delhi jail where the men were executed, as packed crowds of protesters held signs reading "justice for women" and "hang the culprits." the protesters gathered as prime

minister narendra modi went on nationwide television to urge india's 1.3 billion citizens to avoid crowds, stay at home, and practice social distancing to slow the spread d coronaviriru. in climate news, newly released data from nasa shows greenland lost a record 600 billion tons of ice during an exceptionally warm summer in 2019, surpassing the previous record melt set in 2012. greenland's ice sheets are now losing ice six times faster than in the 1990's. the melt from greenland over the past year alone was enough to raise global sea levels by more than 2 millimeters. the past winter, which officially ended thursday, was the warmest on record for europe by far, with average temperatures 1.4 degrees celsius -- or 2.5 degrees fahrenheit -- above the previous high set in 2016. in ecuador's amazon region, hundreds of families were left homeless this week as extreme weather swelled the bobonaza river basin, washing away homes,

schools, crops, animals, and a bridge in the sarayaku community. this is reresident helena gualinga. >> i it is important to o know t this has everythininto do withth clate change, and these commununities right now ththat e beining affected by these floooodings have for years been fighting againinst the fossil fl industry, for yearars have been fightingng against extractivist. amamy: and in eltion news,s, rerepresentatitive tulsi gababbf hawaii dropppped out of thee presidential r race thursday and immediately endorsrsed former ve president t joe biden in a video posted on twitter. in 2016, she endorsed sesenator bebeie sandersrs for presisiden. gabbard is a an iraq war veteran and current natitional guard member whoho ran on a foreieign polilicy focuseded campaigign ad advocated to end forever wars. the 38-year-old has served as a -- is the hindu elected to first congress. and those are some of the

headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.n. the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000 with nearly a ququarter of a million confirmed cases of covid-19. italy's deathh toll l has now surpassed c china's, where the outbreak was first reported, with over 340000 deaths and more than 41,000 confirmed cases. eastern the middle nation, worst hit by coronavirus, the health ministry said the death toll has approached 1300 with one person died from it every 10 minutes and 50 becoming infected every hour. in latin america, salvador, nicaragua reported the first confirmed cases of coronavirus. south america has nearly 1000 confirmed infectionons as brazi, chile comiming through all repot hundreds of confirmed cases. venezuela has annoued a nationwidede quarantine. it never got, the number has

risen to 700 and the world health organization had said africa must "wake up to the coronavirus threat and prepare for the worst." in the u.s., confirmed coronavirus cases have doubled over the past two days. new york has become the epicenter of the pandemic with more than 5200 confirmed cases, the highest in the nation. in california, governor gavin newsom on thursday ordered allll 40 million residents to remain at home to shelter-in-place effective immediately. >> the virus will impact about 56% of us. you do the math in the state of california, that is are particularly large number. that number in and of itself should not be overly alarmining, the vast majority of us. the overwhelming majority of us won't have symptoms, will be perfectly fine. amy: with over 22 million people facing infection in california over the next eight weeks, governor newsom estimated the state hospital capacity has

20,000 fewer beds and will be needed at the p peak of the pandemic. for more, we go to california where we are joined by dr. michele barry, director of the center for innovation in global health at stanford university. incoming chair for the consortium of universities for global health. dr. barry is also the past president of the american society of tropical medicicine. she is joining us from her home as california is under a shelter-in-place order. dr. barry, thank you so much for joining us. before we start on the global picture, if you could simply explain -- people s s coronavirus, peoplple say covid-19. explain where that term "covid-19" camame from, what it ofns, and then the class coronarus is, what that means as well. >> good morning and thank you. fromamame coronavirus comes seseries of viruses t that are

found in batss. there are abouout 1300 speciesef bats. abobout one time, there are six x to eight corononavirus's t are circululating in bats. so there are many y different species of bats. there are only seven specieses that have e the known -- - haven known to affecect man so f far. four of which we all know very cold ththey cause the commonn , and there are three that are more deadly. sasars i is one -- sars 1, sars, and mers. the term corunna comes from thee halo scecene around the virus wh the spikes that come out o of te coronavirus s when you look k at electron mimicroscope. amy: and covid-19 means? >> it is a term m that actually most people -- it a cororonavir

disease anand it happened d in e year 19. some people use the worord "nov" in front o of it but itt is synonymomous for what is called sars 2. it is the second such coronavivirus that we e have sen that causes severe acute respiratory disease. amy: so let's talk about where this pandemic is hitting hardest. in our heaeadlines, we just tald about italy surpassing china. why don't you take us on a tour of the world. how does this happen? epicenter, europe itself the epicenter, and also iran so hard-hit at this point? how did this allll unfold? >> welell, it is a an interestig story. i am going to step back and take a largrger picture about it because i am very intereststed n

health and planetary health. i knowow we are alall obsessed t this virirus, but i think w we e to think aboutut what someme ofe acactivities that t have happenn this scene were menn have impacted the planet. we have changed the ecology of how we live with animals so that if you look at most of these emerging viriruses in the emergg diseases that t have happepenedr the lastst 100 years, they whate call zoooo and ocs. and those are spillovers from animals. this particular coronavirus was noted first in the seafood market. it has to do w with the fact tht probably even thoughhis is a bad coronavirus, we e do not knw whether therere is an n amplifir which alsoars 1, started in a seafood market in an area in china.

it is the intimate living with huhumans and animals and spillover. inin sars 1, w was probably a at being sold. for a a while, sars 2, this particular virus was thought to be an amplifier with the penguin, h highly traffickedd animal. wewe know now thatat is probablt true and we don't know exactly how it actually began in the seafood markrket. but i want to bring g us back to ththis idea that we n need to be doing better surveillance in our animals and doing g a better j b wiwith our planet. whwhat epidemic had a t t to do with you for statation and movement o of bats closer r to r animals. in another narrow -- novel virus emerged. i wowould to bring peoplple baco some o of the larger issues when we thinknk about these emerging viruruses that happepen in the world. amy: a and a a connectiototo the climate cris?

>> well, that is important.. climate change,, deforesestatio, and chananging ecology is crucil for how we have a animal and hun ecology change. forr instance, we saw the zeke outbtbreak happened several yeas ago in with these brazil.l. there's been a a lot of inteteresting discucussion hohow deforestation may have played a rorole in thatnd higherr temperatures may have plplayed a rorole in changingng vectors, mosquito v vectorsn n that role. mosquitoes played no role in sars, don't worry. but it is a very important question. but i think when this all quiets down, we're sort of in the thick of the epidemimic, i think we nd to pay more attention to this content t of what i'i'm calling human and planetary health. we are actuaually trying to buid

a new cenenter planetary hehealth at stanforor. we're workiking on a new postdoctoral fellowship for scientists a actually study this human ecology change. amy: we're going to go to break and then we want you to take us from italy to china to iran. we want to look at africa, you have called a ticking time bomb, and latin america, asia. dr. michele barry, d director of the center for innovation and global health at stanford university. she is an infectious disease doctor. stay w with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: that is quarantined italian noner, passionately singing

sh -- singing from hisis balcony while the country is locked down from the coronavirus. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has 250ed 10,000 with nearly thousand confirmed cases of covid-19. argan n asked is d dr. michele barrrry, center for the innovatn in g global health at stanford university.. she is an infectious disease doctor herself. so take us on a tour -- but began with -- we just played this magnifificent music of a quarantined opera singer singing out to hisis c community. quarantine. what d ds that word mean, dr.. rrrry? -- i is an interesting ththink there's s a lot of d dit unundersnding of what isolatioio and quaranti is.

the word "quarantinene" actually is an italian word that comes means " word t that daysys." those arare the amomount of days that i ship had to stay in port before being released into venice when the black p plague s ocrrrring. so -- lee comes from thatt word duduring the black death. when we thinkk about quararantie and the difference between quararantine and isolation, isolation isis when one has a sk persrson and you isolate them. whereas quararantine is if you d contntact with the person,n, you need t to stay at home and family -- contactctith well, with other peoeople other than your familily for 14 days. amy: let's talk a about italy. why is it the epicenter right now?

white has italy become the epicenter? it has surpassed china and it has a link to chchina. >> i'm sorry? amy: it surpassed china and it has a lilink to china. what is the connection? why has it bebe hit so hard a ad compare it to south korea. >> i t think what sosouth koa -i can't comment on what ititaly hs beenen hit so hardrd. we c can only speculate. and i don't want to say anything about a lot of italian colleagugues that t are working incredibly hard d to statave ths epididemic. most of us feel l they got behid the curve andnd behind the curve is -- we really y have noo vacae or effffective t treatment yet r this virus. but we d do have is what we call nonpharmrmaceutitical intervent. and that i is basasically quarae andd isolation, and good transpararent communication and testing, testing, and

surveillance. and i think what south korea and what taiwawan and whwhat singape did d that have madede such a he difffference is that they did early testing, early surveillance, they quarantntined peoplele who had contact, and isolated those that were sick. it is clear whwhen you look k ae chinese n numbers and what wuhan hundred was pretty amazing - -- did was pretty amazing. ththey h had isolation and quarantine whehere as the italis -- a and one can say, it has too taken inures that are not only a goverernmental -- and you can arargue about whether te chinese word draconian, , but ty , you canryy effective talk about d different kininds f cucultures,, h how accccepd it o isolatee yourself and wear a mask, but whateverer it was, ity started behind the cururve.

in califorornia, i t think we're trying to o be as aggressive ase can. we are very early, partrticurly in my y county which was an eary epicenteter, santa clalara coun. i had to giveve kudos to ouour public health cocommissioner. she did earlyly s shelter in ho. so i think t these nonpnpharmaceutical interervents are really i important. more of n -- and this is your s show -- i think we need very stronong central coooordinn . if y you read a p paper writteny he e talks about ththe early taiwan approach. theyey had the m ministers of l, the ministers of educatiti, the ministers of transportation alll working t together to g give day communication and notot misinformation out there.

amy: is a connection between particularly northern italy and china, popopulation n movements? alsoso, the whole supply chain, companies that are in china but serving populations i in italy, the unitited statetes, etc.? amount of manpowethat stopping ththe tranansmission in chchina was amazing. they sent 40,0,000 doctotors toe wuhann area. they had thousandsds of epidemiologigists so that teamap just adjusust -- jimmy i'i'll would d do contract tracing for one person.. i don't thinknk italy has that manpower. they certainly don't now with her doctors or nururses. many of f us ithe u.s. are very worried about overwrwhelming our hospital systems.

you heardrd a lot of discussions recently about flatten the curve. what d does that mean, flattttee curve? it doesn't necessarily mean curing the disease. whwhat it does is hehelp not overwhelm our hohospital systet, which is what wewe'rellll worrid ababout. alalready we are worried ababout haviving e enough nasal swa to o testing. i meaean, we are way behind in r testing. if you look at south korea, they did 5000 tests per million pepeople. wewe are not even upo o 100 testing per million people.e. amy: how did thahahappen, dr.. barry? hhow did this happen? the u.s. is supposed to be the leader in the world. was this a c combination of president trump's antiscience approach and his nationalist approach, xenophobic approach? didn't the world health organization have a test that all of these countries have used, but the u.s. rejected the

cdc then put out its own andnd t was s flawed?? >> i can't comomment on that because i was not involved in that decision, but certainly, it is really a travesty that we don't have enough tests and we are not testing aggressivelely. it did not help to have e a president that does not believe actually, eararly on, called us all a hoax. it reallyy helps when a presidet believes in science and evididence-based science. so, yes, that isis distuturbing. but t i can't commenon whahat te machinations w were. our cdc is workiking very hardd. many of my cleleagues are woworking around the clock tryig to stave this all. one of the things abobout epidemics is thahait is realally important toto have what i c cal shared globall governancnce. and i dodon't think in this word

it is grereat that we d''t havea stronger central government of our world hehealth. we have a world health orgaganization that has a b budt thatat is l less than many ofofr hospitals in the united statete. here,n the united state allowed to come into a state unless it is invited by t the state. we have a legacy of federalalism where the states are really thte forefrfront of public health. and even within the state of california, , our county hass differentt recommendations than the next countnty over. so each h of our c counties aree mamaking decisions. i i think whwhat is soso amazing powewerful b by some of the countries that have been able to contain this, likeke singapore, taiwan, and china, has been

central coordination. you may argue that some have been verery draconian, but then when you have a small little country like taiwan that abutss china and was s able to do it wh centrall command -- and actually visited the central command station in taiwan about two years ago was not it is very impressive. they set that up all stop in italy, those countries that have done v very w well -- amy, peope hahave not talked about thisis - that had the experience of sasas 1 so they were set up.p. for instancnce, thereerere fever clclinics set up where i it peoe had fever, they were immedidiaty transferred to these clininics. ththey hadhehe ability to buil hospitalals rapidly, which we he not t had that abilility. ixey werere able to isolalate peopople -- - sick people and nt necessarily put themem back into familyly unitsts. if you look at the chinina data, most of f the transnsssion d dre

was in family clustersrs. it wasn't necessssarily in nursing homemes or schools, which h is e we usually think thehe drive for these clusters are. the e majority of the clusterirg ofof illnenesses were in thehe . so isolating sick ople becomomes very key. we have a problem in this country with are homeless. i was talking to a public health official and she is really working endlesslsly to try to by tryry to b,uy r rv's figure out h how to isolate ourr homeless population. amy: to not get covid-19. >> yes. and because ofof what happenenen iranan? >> oh, iran.n. iriran was the perfect stotorm - let's talk a little bit about thatatbut it wasas the perfect storm o of religion and p pitics anand public health. and this had to do with the f ft

-- it is kind o of an interesti, iat wouldld you thinknk iran -- have alide witith the c curves f that can come up, of h how fast that c curve went upup. you might wowonder why i it is t iran sort t of exploded. it had to do with the fafact thy have a very y holy shrine in the town of kom. what happened, according t to my runnnning colleagues 've beeeen talking to, therere was a groupf 700 chinese pilgrims that were there. homaget of how one gives to the shrine is by kissing it or licking it. so you can imagine how that was a very easy way to immediately disseminate it. my understanding from my iranian colleagues also has been very hardrd to actuallyly even barrie this shrine e off currentlyeven in the midst of this epidemic.

and we havave seen how religion has also plalayed a role in souh korea. ththearliest clusterer was in a have a large you gathering of people. even in new york city, and please correct me but i have been following your epidemic as well, there's been a real problem in the early orthodox jewish population where that outbreak in the hasidic population has occurred. amy: so riright nowow it is just explploding in iran. then i want yoyou to talk about africa, which you've called ee ticking timeme bomb. >> y yeah. i think k are too tickingng time bobombs i'm worried abouout. nonot only africa, b but india. we have not heard a lot about india, and that is over a billion people that are very closely geographic space. but the time bomb in africa is really about health care

capacity. i spent a lot of time working in aresaharan africa and we all l extremely worrrried about. we are starting to see a takeoff in south africa. thee issue about why it is a ticking bomb is, again, it has to do with surveillance and the lack of ability to test. the last numbers -- and, be a little outdated -- it is like a firehose. we are all watching these numbers. the last numbers i looked at as there were only 40 out of 50 or countries s that were a able too testing for covid-19. thisis i is not ththe only coros will will sesee unless we pay attention. i'm reallyly going to come down hardrd on thihis on t this concf one healalth,eeping an n eye on the intersection of our animals, our envirironment, and our human

healthth are we going to get ahd of the ball for epidemics.s. because this is s not the big o. you think we are living g in the bibig one? the big one is reaeally a pandec flu, which is s airborne and not droplet-borne. amy: what does that mean? isis the coronavirus not only an issue of someone coughing or sneezing or getting droplets on another person, butut this whole questionon of what d does it meo be aerosolized? can bee, sars 2 aerosolilized if y you're doinga procedure e which vigorouslyly causeses massive a air selection likekely intimate somomeone. -- intubate someonone. there we 4000 health-care care workers in china that actual got infefected. the lovely thing about infecting young peoplple is that ththere'a

much smaller, even though it is really imporortant to thinink at ththe young peoeople, the mtatay ratete in yoyoung peoplple is mh lower. butt letet's go back to t this ququestion of air slilicing. this has t to do with the sisizf the d droplets and how they're actually suspendeded in the air. the size of the droplet for sars 2 o or covid-1-19 are larger withins and they falll six feet which is whyhy we havea sisix what d distance e we are g people to stay awaway from.m. although, health care workers are at much higher risk k when ththey d do aerosolizing procedures.. wewe need to be careful about that. in sars s 1,, actually, one o oe earliest seven nationsns was through fecal dissesemination in the eararly resesidential gildin hohong kong where there e was a problem and a a toilet. and we allll know sars 1 andnd -

amy: andnd sars 22 is covovid-1? >> covid-19 is sarars 2.. mostst of us a u using sarars 1d sars 2. in this case, wewe use cov-1-19. ofrere have not beeee-- first alall, diarrhea is not a major mafestationn in that. but what i i was talking abo in the firsrst of endemicic with s1 , not covidid-19, there was fecl dissemination when there was a toiletet that malfunctctioned ad aerosolized feces. yes, therere is the potential of only withtion, but unique procedures that happens. amy: we have to go to break but we are asking to talk to you at the top of the hour and then we are going to post part two online, and incredible tutorial as we look at what is happening in the world and also how

coronanavirus is transmitted wih dr. michele barry, director of the center for innovation in global health at stanford university. incoming chair for the consortium of universities for global health. dr. barry is also the past president of the american society of tropical medicine. go to democracynow.org for part 2. solidarity, back, not charity. we look at the network of mutual aid groups emerging across the country to protect each other in the face of the coronavirus. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the end of the world as we know it" by rem. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show looking at the incredible community networks across the united states that are coming together to protect their neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic and how you can get involved. as lockdowns and lay-offs sweep the country, leaving millions at risk, mutual aid groups are forming to protect and provide for the vulnerable, including the elderly, incarcerated, undocumented, and unhous.

their aim isololidary, n not chcharit in whington,he tacommutual aid coective iorganizi free fd progra for kidhit by schooclosures in the bay area, the west oakland punks with lunch is working with the houseless community and distributing lunch and supplies. in arizona, tucson mutual aid is coordinating food and supply drop-offs to people's front doors. in colorado, the denver service worker solidarity group is building a network to demand an immediate moratorium on rent collection and evictions, city -white. in minnesota, the twin cities queer and trans mutual aid group is organizing assistance for queer, transgender, and gender non-binary people affected by covid-19. here in new york city, nyc united against coronavirus has put together a network of resources for childcare, grocery delivery, food donations, housing needs, bail funds, and

other types of support across the five boroughs. and those are just a few of the thousands of efforts. for more, we go to two of the hot spots of the pandemic -- seattle, washington, and new york city. we are joined by two longtime mutual aid organizers and activists. in new york city, mariame kaba is a longtime organizer, abolitionist, education and the founder of the grassroots organization project nia, which works to end the incarceration of children and young adults. she has raised tens of thousands of dollars and redistributed it to groups across the country in response to the coronavirus pandemic. and she just did a public conference call with congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez on mutual aid. and in seattle, washington, dean spade is an associate professor at seattle university school of law and founder of the sylvia rivera law project. creator of mutual aid resource website bigdoorbrigade.com.

we welcome you both to democracynow.org in the so difficult, trying, challenging time. mariame kaba, tells about a few more of these mutual aid efforts and whwhat you are doing. as i mentioned -- as you mentioned, there are several projects happening around the country. i have been sing the work happening in chicago where kelly hayes and other organizers pulled together on very short notice a google doc to help people with direct need, who needed any number of dollars weather r for rentr r food orr . , provided an opportunity for people to sign up and then for people who could offer to support to stetep into do that. so that is one way that through technology people are reaching out to each other in o order toe able to o meet people's s direct needs. ththere are folks here in new wk

city, and you mentioned, that pulled together and abolitionist group, mutu aid finthat rais money tbebe able provide grocerieso fks, ocery moneyo people. amy: explain what you mean when you say abolitionist. >> in this case, it wasn't abolitionist collective meaning people who are prison i industrl collection abolitionist who believe we need to create the conditions in the world to be able to abolish prisons, policing, , and surveillance. in this particular case, this group came together -- their socialist, abolititionist, feminist, and try to raise meyey ordrdero bebe ae to provide grocery moneforr folks not jus in n yk, think beyond rkrk as well. thiss an important pntnt, which wa tt they raised a tt of money qcklylybout $4000, bubut th request that camen were $220,000.

you can see there is an incredibible need and that need neso find a way to t t met. it wonon't juste happening your individual donions, it h to also be the state mobilizing t o provide for thehe needs of thohe peoplele. those are jujust a couple of soaplples. new rkrk did a drive to raise money so soapp could bebe sent to incarcerated pepeople, firsrst inew y york ad our araround the country. bebecause i dodo know incacarced people c can be hired, for example,e, through govovernor co to create hand sanitizer that wouldd help ththe restst of the community but they themselveses cannot have hand sanitizer within the prisons because of the alcohol level within those paparticular -- withinin a particularar hand sanitizer. trtrying to mobibilize to meet e materialal needs of the folks wo thats support and to have reciprocity is key. amy: i want to go to dean spade.

in seattle, associate professor of seattle university school of law. talk about the history of mutual aid for people who have never heard that term before. > the term mutual aid basicay neneeds when people band togeter totoeet immediatate survival n , usualllly because of a sharared understanding that the systems in place areren't coming to meet him or cerertainly not fast enough, if at all, and we can do it together right now. usually yoyou see them visisibly duduring sudden n disasters s le earthquakes, storms, floods, or people rescuing eachch other and diststribute in water or masks, things like that. and there's also an ongoing doing mutualpeople aid projects to deal withth the ongogoing disasasters of the sys we live under. an example a lot of pepeople of heard of is nono more deaths s n arizizona, which puts water into the desert and fooood to the people who w were crossining -- hopefully -- are less mortal for

them. oror abortion fundss to help p l access abortioion right now or bail funds or project to have people coming out of foster care or prison find housing or prison penpal projejects. those are e the ongoing waways people are meeting each other's needs. i think the probably most visible examample of mutual aidn the usa people talk about a lot , free blackck panther party breakfast programs, health programs which were a vital part of the parties work and it is a go example of f how cial movements pretty y much aays essentially organizmutual a because pelele come into social movents to getmmediateeeds met andhey alsoesperate wanto help oths facingith their facing when th're there ey can bld a a shared analys, why don't we ha food? why don'we have shelter? what systems are in ace that we all want to get to the root causes o of? one otr piece to say aut is, in aountry le ours,

the story is elitesill solv th problem you changlawsws or get t pocies passesed and wao te for thoseeople orobby em and a them do things. tual aid h has a differentnt feelining to it. its like, you knowhat? wewe're not going to wait and he --hey solve our problems especiallyly because mt t really does notot e up reacaching the pooresest people or the stst rgeteted people -- inste we're going to dsosomethg ririghnow build the world we want to live i in. it ivevery empowering participatory kind of work that tends to build people's ability to mobilize generally. solidarity,he idea of not charity? >> c charity is a word we e oftn thinink about like social servis or nonprprofit thahat give stufo poor people if y you qualify. if you meet these eligibility revocation, if you're the right kikind of person, ununless you e sober or take these meds or have kids.

unless y you'rere properly chrin or not queerer or whateverer. charitity is a k kind of thing e usually money is coming from the rich and they y get to determine who is deserving. that is the oppositete of solidarity. people areis, wow, in need? that is not because they have done something wrong and we need to find the good ones or reform them, it is because there something wrong with the system that makes people homeless, makes people from allies, makes people desperate and ask people have no immigration status, whatever that situation may be. it is not about savior is a or about an elite determining who should get what relief, it is about all of us getting together practically and trying to be each other's needs and solve immediate problems together in a very grassroots bottom-up way instead of a top-down way. amy: mariame kaba, we only have a few minutes. how do you hope to see these networks being developed in response to the pandemic evolved even after -- and that is a

hopeful question, thinking about after the pandemic -- and also where people can go to sesee the kind off groups that thehey can support? >> sure. i think one of the most important parts about mutual aid has to do with changing thehe sosocial relationships that we have amongst each other in order to be able to fight beyond thihs current momoment, beyond the current crisis, beyond their current form of a disaster that we are trying to work from. one of the beautiful aspects is that you really don't know where the connecections are going to take you. you're going to make and build new relationships that will kind of lead to new projects and lead to new understanding that will shape the potential future e of your community and beyond. i think the fact that these are hyper local projects is actually a very helpful thing because you're definitely going to run

into these folks again and they can provide the foundation for future political action if it is done in a good way where people feel good about it and good about each other. so i think that is very important. in terms of where people can go to find some of these mutual aid projects, there is a new hub that was created that somebody put together using all of these docs that havee been circulating so people could find each other and find themselves. i will send that -- i don't have the actual name for right now. but i will send that over so you can put it on your site. that is away y were people can connect -- people can go to twitter, instagram, facebook. there's s so many facebook pages that have come up. amy: we will link to it at democracynow.org. there have been calls by progressive prosecutors, da's, the abolitionist movement

to release people in jail at this critical point and detention centers. we jusust have 20 seconds. can you comment? >> absolutely. specifically for new y york, governor cuomo has complete discretion t to be able to issue mass clemency's for the prisons. we know de blasio, the mayor, has the power to be able to release hundreds and thousands of peoeople from rikers islaland other jails. we really wantnt them to be able to do o that. there is lots of pressure in demand that has been issued by local groups. amy: we will leave it there but i want to thanank you both fofor being with us, mariame kaba and dean spade. i want to take this moment to thank the remarkable team of

family, my coworkers at democracy now! who are mainly working from home. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013.

>> another surgeon coronavirus deaths in italy. the global number above 11,000. a new warning from the who. >> i have e a message for young people. you are not invincible. this fire risks could put you in hospital for weeks. or even kill you. ♪ >> this is al jazeera was continuing coverage of the coronavivirus pandemic. the british prime minister has ordered cafes and figures to close.