03/24/20 03/24/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york city, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, this is democracy now! pres. trump: america will again and soon be open for business. very soon. a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was adjusting. we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem i itself. amy: not dying for wall street. that's trending on twitter as

president trump defies his top scientists and soaring infection rate, saying he will ease restrictions soon to jumpstart the economy. we will speak with economist jeffrey sachs about the stimulus package that's failed again with democrats calling the business bailout a slush fund. then a brigade of cuban doctors arrived in italy to fighght the coronavirus as italy's death toll tops 6000. afraid, but there is revolutionary work to be due. for can be put to the side. whoever says he is notot afraids a superhero and we are not superhereroes, we are revolulutionary doctors. and because this is the sixth brigade have said to come at the pandemic. andill get an update covid-19 is spreading on new york city's rikers island where at least 60 prisoners and staff have tested positive f for the

virus. as advocates call for mass release, we speak with the former chief medical officer for new york city's correctional health services who wrote the book "life and death in rikers island." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the world health organization warns the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, with cases recorded in at least 184 of 195 countries. there are nearly 385,000 cases 1600 500 --d over 16,500 deaths. the world health organization directoror said he would addrers world leaderers this week k and request global powers coordinate efforts to fight the pandemic and increase production of protective gear for frontline healthcare workers. united nations secretary-general antonio guterres monday called

for a global ceasefire to "end the sickness of war" and focusus all of the world's resources on fighting the pandemic. >> it is a common enemy, covid-19. the virus does not c care abobot nationality or ethnicity. it attacks all lit loosely. and while it rages around the world, the most vulnerable e -- women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized and displaced -- pay the highest price. there also the highest risk ofof sufferining devaststating losses from covid-19. amy: in europe, italy's death toll has topped 6000 with nearly 64,000 confirmed cases as the country remains in near total lockdown. in a slight glimmer of hope, italy recorded a lower daily increase of cases for r the secd day in a row monday. spain continues to be hit hard by the pandemic, recording over

460 deaths monday -- the bigiggt daily number so far. officials sasay nearly 4000 heah workers have been infected with the coronavirus in spain, amounting to more than one in 10 of all confirmed cases. spain's defense minister said soldiers called in to help with the outbreak have reported finding older people dead and abandoned in nursing homes. france reported a surge of 186 coronavirus deaths monday, raising the death toll to 860. people and france are under strict lockdown orders and ari are to show paperwork when outside of their homes come indicating the purpose of their outing. in briritain, prime ministster s ordered peoplele to ononly leaee their h hes for food oror other essentiall needs and is restriricting publicic gatherino no more than two people. police will enforce the measures with fines and by breaking up larger groups. here in the united states, as

fatalities exceed 100 for the first time monday, president trump said america will be "open for business very soon" and suggested the u.s. could dramatically change its approach to handling the pandemic. pres. . trump: we cannot let the purely worse than the problem itself. we're not when you let the cure be worse than the problem. aat the end of the 15 day perio, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go, where we want to go, the timing, and essentially referring to the timing of the opening -- essentially the opening of our country. amy: trump's message was in stark contrast to the united nations, public health experts, and leaders around the world. this is canadian prime minister justin trudeau monday. >> we've all seen the pictures online of people who seem to think they are invincible. well, , you are not. enough is enough. go home and stay home. amy: and this is british prime

minister boris johnson monday. >> this evening i must give the british people a very simple instruction. you must stay-at-home. because the critical thing we must do to stop the disease spreading between households. amy: president trump also s said if solving the pandemic were up to doctors, they would "keep it shuhut for aworld couple of years." this comes as rereports say trup is growing impatient with dr. anthony fauci, head of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, who has had to correct trump's repeated falsehoods about the pandemic. fauci was not present at monday evening's press briefing. 16 states around the united states have so far announced or enacted stay-at-home orders affecting over 40% of the u.s. population as coronavirus cases start to overwhelm hospitals and threaten severe medical supply shortages. defense secretary mark esper

said monday the military is getting ready to deploy field hospitals to new york and seattle, and the first of two military hospitatal ships was dispatched on monday to increase hospital bed capacity. louisiana governor john bel edwards warned his state is seeing the fastest growth rate in coronavirus cases in the world and that louisiana could become the next italy. over 1000 cases have been identified, over half in new orleans, with 34 deaths statewide. louisiana stay-at-home order went into effect monday. texas has become the latest state to attack reproductive freedoms amid the coronavirus crisis as attorney general ken paxton ordered abortion providers to stop performing the procedure, claiming they are not medically necessary. medical providers could face fines or even jail time for violating the order. in other news from texas, lieutenant governor dan patrick rejected the idea of social distancing, urging a swift return to work, saying older

people -- who are much more vulnerable to the virus -- should sacrififice for the country's economy. in arizona, a man has died and his wife is in critical condition after the couple took chloroquine to try to prevent a coronavirus infection. the anti-malarial drug has been touted as a possible treatment for coronavirus by president trump, but it has not been approved by the fda or the world health organization for that use. the american society of health-system pharmacists added hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of chloroquine, to a list of drug shortages last week following trump's statements. world healthth organization director general tedros adhanom ghebreyeyesus urged peoplele noo use untested drugs to treat covid-19. >> there is currently no treatment that has been proven to be effective against covid-19. it is great to see the level of energy now being directed to

against and development covid-19. studies willtional not give us the answers we need. withouttested medicines the right evidence could raise harm hope and even do more than good. amy: in new york, officials with the office of refugee resettlement have refusesed to free migrant children who are currently being held in two facilities where staff members tested positive for covid-19 this week. officials say the children won't be released to sponsors, who are usually family members, until quarantines at the facilities are lifted. new jersey said it would start releasing as many as 1000 prisoners from county jails starting today to limit the spread of coronavirus. in new york city, mayor bill de blasio said monday 75 prisoners

hahave already been releleased d officialals are reviewing casesf hunddsds more. at r rikers islandnd, 39 cororos caseses have been reported a amg prisoners and 21 among staff as of monday. meanwhile, in chicago, local authorities say they are planning to release low-risk prisoners after two prisoners at the cook county jail tested positive for covid-19. a corrections officer at the facility also recently tested positive for the coronavirus. new york remains the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the united states and now accounts for around 5% of all cases s around the world. the totatal number o of confirid cases stands at just over 23,000 this morning. the attack rate, or the percentage of the population infected with the virus, was nearly one in 1000 in new york -- five times s higher than in other parts of the country. over 180 new yorkers have died.

the pace of deaths is expected to accelerate. on monday, the brooklyn democracy academy announced the passing of the school's principal, dezann romain, due to complications from covid-19. she was just 36 years old. she is the first public school employee in new york known to have died from coronavirus . governor andrew cuomo said new york is now able to test 16,000 people a day. at a daily news briefing, cuomo ordered new york hospitals t to increase theheir capacity by 50. the javits convention center is expected to be converted into an additional hospital this week to start handling the overflow of coronavirus patients. cuomo again urged the federal government to take decisive action to send emergency funding to new york, as well as to produce and distribute much needed medicical supplies. >> let the federal government put in place the federal defense

production act. it does not nationalize any industry. all it does is say to a factory, you must produce this quantity. that's all it does. amy: in other parts of the country, governors and local officials arerelamoring for much needed supieies. michigan gernor gretchen whitmer said mony a recent shipment of f personal prorotece equipment, or ppe, frorom the national stockpile wasas barely enough to cover one shift at a hospital. new york city mamar bill de blasio said 400 ventilators from the federal stockpile were sent to new york city to help treat the growing number of patients. governor cuomo also announced monday new york will be the first state to test a coronavirus treatment that involves injecting blood plasma from recovered covid-19 patients into individuals fighting off the disease. puerto rico passed a record $787

million financial package to fight the economic hit caused by the pandemic. measures include a t three-month moratorium on mortgage payments, as well as other loans, bonuses for essential services providers such as medical staff and police, and improving remote ededucation b buyintablblets ad educational tools. governor wanda vazquez also said puerto rico's public sector employees will keep getting paid and smsmall businesssses and self-employed workers s will receive cash to cope with the crisis. in washington, d.c., senate minority leader chuck schumer and treasury secretary steven mnuchin monday said they are close to a $2 trillion deal and expect to come to an agreement sometime this morning. earlier mondnday, senate democrs again blococked a coronavirus bill, which they said did not have enough worker protections and created a slush fund to bail out corporations. when asked w who would provide oversight for corporate bailouts at monday night's press

briefing, trump respononded, "'l be the oversight." the hashtag #notdying4wallstreet is trending on twitter. calls have been mounting to allow remote voting so that lawmakers can avoid d gathering and potentially spreading the virus. meanwhile, commerce members --- congress membebers ayanna pressy and ilhan omar unveiled a bill to c cancel $30,000 for all student debt during the crisis. in a an unprecedenteted move to salvage the u.s. economy, the federal reserve said monday it would buy unlimited amounts of treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities and extend loans to businesses. the labor department is expected to report next week that a record-breaking 3 million americans have filed first-time claims for unemployment. the president ofof the st. louis federal reserve predicted the u.s. employment rate could hit 30% in the coming weekeks and months.. the coronavirus death toll in iran is approaching 2000 with

neararly 25,000 coconfirmed cas. president hassan rouhani blamed u.s. sanctions for the devastating toll the virus has had in iran as the crumbling medical infrastructure is struggling to keep up with new cases. the number of coronavirus cases in pakistan has topped 900 with seven deaths, prompting the government to ban all to national flights. saudi arabia has the highest number of infections in the gulf -- 560with over 500 confirmed cases. in africa, the virus has been spreadining quickly, with confirirmed covid-19 cases surpassing 1700 across 45 countries. south african president cyril ramaphososa on monday announceda three-week lockdown monday as over 550 cases have been confirmed -- the highest in sub-saharan africa. in zimimbwe, promiminent 30-year-old televivision journalilist zororo o makamba hs died after contracting covid-19.

he reportedly contracted the virus while he was recently visiting new york. in west africa, senegal and ivory coast on monday each declared statates of emergenencs they grapple to stem the spread of the virus. japanese television is reporting prime minister abe propose a one-year postponement of the tokyo olympic games during talks with the international olympic committee. indonenesia reported over 100 cases tuesday, marking its biggest daily surge. indonesia now has nearly 700 confirmed cases and at least 55 deaths. meanwhile, china has announced it w will lifift the lockdown on wuhan, the city where the first covid-19 infections were reported, unable a, they will lifted after two months of quarantine. other lockdowns will be lifted wednesday across other cities in hubei province. secretary of state mike pompeoeo annonounced the u.u.s. is cutti1 billion of aid to afghanistan

after he failed to make any headway onon his visit monday.y. afghanistan has been a political turmoil as ahan presidt ashraf ghani and rival abdullah abdullah both claim they won last year's election. the fragile afghan peace deal is also stalled over a disagreement between the government and the taliban on the e release of thoususands of prisoners. in immigration news, buzzfeed news reports a 42-year-old man from mexico died at a hospital while in the custody of immigration and customs enforcement, or ice, in texas. his death is the 10th since october, the second to occur just three days after the death by an apparent suicide of a 27-year-old honduran man at the karnes detention center r last week. in california, pacific gas & electric announced it pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in the devastating 2018 camp fire, which killed 85 people and burned the town of paradisese to the grouound.

and in colorado, governor jared polis signed into law a bill abolishing the deathth penalty d commuting the sentences of three men on colorado's death row to life in prison. colorado joins 21 states and the district of columbia, which have alreadady banned the d death penalty. and those are e some of thee headlines. thisis is democracy now!w!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman reporting from here in new york city, the epicenter of the pandemic in the united states. one gonzalez joining me as cohost in new brunswick, new jersey, where he teaches at nearby rutgers university. welcome, jeffrey sachs -- welclcomej,uan. juan: welcome e to all of ouour listeners and viewers from around t c country andnd around the worlrld. transformed all around the globe. i teach journalism here at rutgers and ththe campusasas ben closed for morore than 10 days

now.w. we just begagan remote teachingo the students yesterday. the whole new exexperiment as millions of f people arere basiy learning online students and colleges and high schools and public schools arounund the country are learning o online r the fifirst time. we will see how that goes. meanwhwhile, we e have to deal h these transformed times of ours. i may cut television across the country looks very different as hosts all of a their video streams, skype, other ways of communicating from t their homes to protect them. here in new york, one in five cases are in new york city, which is absolutely astounding. we hear ambulances pass on a regular basis. we are going to turn now to what is happening in washington, d.c., with not only an economist, but with pandemic expert.

after four days o of negotiatio, senate democrats s stopped republicans from a advancing a nearly $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus packakage that criticis say is a massive b bailout for corporate america that does little to a hard-hit workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. former labor secretary robert reich tweeted in response that "senate dems were right to reject this corporate bailout" and noted it "creates a $500b slush fund for corporations that treasury secretary steven mnuchin has complete control over" and "provides s only a one-e-time $1200 check and jusut $600 for those who need it most." this is connecticut senator chris murprphy speaking on the senate floor ahead of the vote. >> it may make a lot of people rich, but it doesn't have the resources in it today to take care of the most vulnerable in

this country and it is not going to do their primary job at hand, which is to stop the virus. amy: when asked who would provide oversight for corporate bailouts at monday night's press briefing, president trump responded, "i'll be the oversight." this comes as the hashtag #notdying4wallstreet is trending on twitter. as recorded covid-19 fatalities in the united states exceeded 100 for the first time monday, trump said america will be open for business very soon. he suggested the u.s. could dramaticallyly change its approh to handling the pandemic. pres. trump: w we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. we are in the let the cure be worse than the problem. at the end of the 15 day period, we will make a decision as to which way we want to go, where we want to go, the timing, and essentially we are referring to the e timing of thee opening --

essentially, the opening of our country. amy: meanwhile, calls are mounting to allow remote voting for lawmakers in washington so they can avoid gathering and potentially spreading the coronavirus. senator randnd paul has already testeded positive for covid-19 d was seen just a few hours before the announcement came swimming in the senate pool. house democrats ayanna pressley and ilhan omar have unveiled a bill to cancel $30,000 for all student debts during the coronavirus crisis. the labor department is expected to report a record-breaking 3 million americans filing first-time claims forr unemployment next weekek. the u.s. unempmployment rate cod hit 30% in the coming weeks and months. for more, we're joined by jeffrey sachs, leading economist and director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university. interestingly, he also led the world health organization's commission on macroeconomics and health from 2000 to 2001.

playing a key role in conceiving and establishing the global fund to fight aids, tuberculosis, and malaria, which helped distribute new medicines to fight infectious diseases. he is the author of a number of books, including most recently, "a new foreign policy: beyond american exceptionalism." his forthcoming book "the ages , of globalization." he joins us via video stream. and juan gonzalez z cohosting fm his home in new brunswick, new jersey. jeffrey sachs, thank you so much for joining us. you work in new york, the epicenter of the pandemic in the united states. talk about what is happening in washington and then around the world, and president trump switching once again yesterday, reversing course, his top scientific advisor not standing at his side noticeably, dr. pyeongchang, saying the u.s. is going toto be open n for busines soon as the pandemic rates sore

in this country. >> amy, thank you for your comp of coverage. thank you, juan. ,t is terrifying, this pandemic which is spreading all over the world, as you so conference only reported. and it is doubly terrifying that we have the complete nitwit as president who understands nothing, listens to nothing, judges nothing, except by the stock market and is endangering the american people. what just hard to believe a colossal mess our country is which they a virus to world population is immunologically naive, in other words, when that can spread wild and rapidly everywhere because there isn't acquired immunity, there isn't an experience with this virus, but a president who

is certainly the most incompetent presidedent in histy of our country, who not only has personal incompetence, but is completely unable to bring together and listen to qualified people like dr. fauci and others who should be helping to control this pandemic. instead, we have one ignoramus after another without guidance, without strategy, so every mayor and governor in this country is on the frontlines wiwithout fefederal support and congress s just -- it is just bewildering. there should be money available immediately to the states and cities for every emergency step to actually fight the pandemic.

instead, they're talking about the airline industry. they are talking about which bailououts of which secectors inststead of fighting the spread of the virus.. you noted at the top of the show, remarkable fact which is probably the most pertinent fact for all of us to focus on, in china, at the very epicenter of this crisis at the start, bay province, china battled this virus under control and is now lifting the lockdown measures after about two months. rigoroushe result of containment policies. comprehensiveo testing, contact tracing, isolation of people with symptoms, and they have tracked hundreds and hundreds of

thousands of cases. they have been able to stop the spread of the pandemic. and china is not alone in that. modela kind of east asian kong,gapore, taiwan, hong to a large extent, have all used public health means to bring the spread of the virus under control. this is what our focus should be in the united states right now. stop the spread of the virus. protect the frontline health workers. contain the pandemic. help people who are in a desperate situation to get by. there's not a lot of consumption to do right now other than our food in our basic provisioning. and nobody being evicted d or losing shelter or otherwise

losing the means for their survival right now stop we are not out partying. we don't need large money for entertainment. we donon't need large money forr travel, toto say the least. we need survival mode. but what the east t asian yourience shows is that if are aggressive inin the public health response, the lockdown isn't for months ananyears. the lockdown is 60 or 90 days depending on how well things are done. and then it is possible to start going back to some kind ofof normalcy, with care, but with a greatly expanded public health effort in place -- which the u.s. did not have at t the start of this epidemic, which trump, in his it is the, disdained. the man knows nothing.

we should understand this. we need expertise right now. we lost the vital weeks, now we need to build that capacity so that after 60 or 90 days, we can start to lift the siege and there is plenty of experience now of how to do this if you would only look, learn, and aca. juan: jeffrey sasachs, in termsf the actions in congress right now, you menentioned you were critical of ththe f failure o of congreress to act. it isnsn't t part of the problem herere that rather than comome s you say, a d deal with appropriations that wowould hehp people s stay in place and not fall further and further behind financially, the senate has trtried this huge package, which obviously involveves so much negotiations bacack and forth between the democrats and the house and the senate, that it makes it far more difficult --

for instance, then just toto pas 90 dayss of f full pay and implemenent benefits for wororks right now while they figure out the other asaspects of what to o with businesses?s? this attempt to create the largest spspending bill ever conceived in congress all in one fell swoop like this, is this going to just bog things down further? >> you are completely right. the focus should be seriously on stopping the spread of the disease, keeping people protected, helping the health workers and especially helping the mayors and the governors around this country who are on the frontline. there should have been immediately emergency $100 billion, $200 million for the toernors and the mayors quickly be able to get the financial flows so they can hire emergency social supupport, they

can take whatever measures are available given the supply constraints for the hospitals, for requisitioning safe space ar enabling therere to be viable and civilized shut down so that people who are in isolation can survive this period. that is the first order of priority. it should have been one day to recognize this. it should be supervised. if we had a functioning cdc, the centers for diseasee control, by cdc, by y nih, by the e national academies off science, national academy of medicine, we could have improvised a kind of supervisioion -- not the e dolta presidenent who says, "i amm the one respoponsible." my god w with all of t the expee in this country.. but congress went ofoff on some kind of mind-boggling economic

excursion of $2 trillion rather thanan focusing on the epidemic. they just don't understand what is actually happening. they should be listening to the mayors in the govovernors becaue those e are the e political leas truly dealing on the frontlines, and they should be helping those on the frontlines to keep the health workers alive, to get the social support, and to h help people to stay home -- to shelter-in-place and to break the transmission and to stay safe personally. those are the points of the shelelter-in-place, stay safe individually and end this transmission. because this transmission, if everybody that now has symptoms be kept infected, could sheltered in place and some kind

of isolation, given of course hohospitalization as needed, the epidemic then goes away. normally.e recover some are hospitalized. trtragically, sosome will d die. at thehe epidemic does not spred then. this should be the order of business for the u.s. and if it is a bit abstracact, all one has to look to come of the countries actually succeeding and doing this to get some lessons because ththere areeveral come e as a mission. juan: i want to ask a broader question, more systemic questitn about the e u.s. response compad to othther countries. we a are in a time when capitalm really has evolved into this question of constant -- the bean counters constantly modeliling economic projejections to the future in terms of profofit and loss, in termsms of f just in te prododuction so there are neverr

any goods p piled up in warehouses. and what t they never model arae precisely thesese periodsds of complete qualitative change in when something completely unexpected hapappens. in the system is not prepared to deal with that, so o now you hae all of these companies going to the white house demanding help because they never planned for possible crises of this type in their modeleling and in their plans for the future. i am wondering -- similarly, , e health system, is more concenentrated on curing disease .atherer than preventing i am wondering if there aren't systemic issues that this crisis has now on baird? >> absolutely right. our health system is focused not even first and foremost on curing disease, first get -- focused first and foremost on making money. we have drugs that could stop

many other epidemics now like hepatitis c that don't get -- do so because they are priced hundreds of times more than the production cost because of the unbelievably broken system we have to get monopoly power to powerful companies who then use their unbelievable profits in part to buy the congress. so the corruption of our political system has driven so much attention to the wrong things come away from our well-being and now even away fromom our survival. and itit is amazing to listen -- it should not be amazing to me, but it is amazing to listen to conservative commentatorss say, yeah, we should go back to work quickly. the president come of course, said this y yesterday. but others and the conservative

movement saying, we need to save the economy, of course, some people will die, but why are we wasting so much money on lives? this is a corruption of the most basic human spirit. it is the kind of sickness that has infiltrated our public lifee of nowow literally money before lives, money before survival. and it leads to a kind of blindness becaususe it is not oy cruelty we are seeing, we're seeing profound ignorance. of course, the president is the ignoramus in chief. he knows nothing, underststands nothing, is a vulgar narcissist. but we have so many people in this country that know something, but where are they when congress is spending $2 trillion? where are the experts being listen to? our system is broken because the

greed has supplanted the basic values and the greed has supplanted people who know what to do. is texasrey, this lieutenant governor dan patrick who rejects the idea of social distancing, urging a swift return to work saying older people who are much more vulnerable to the virus should sacrifice for the country's economy. patrick spoke monday on fox news with tucker carlsen. >> someone reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the america that all america loves for your children and grandchildren? and if that is the exchange, i am all in. that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that. i just think there are lots of grandparents o out there in this country like tme.

amy: death panels, right now that the republicans are suggesting come as goes texas, so because the nation. this is on fox. we know what trump watches and gets his advice from. you look at the panel yesterday at the news conferences as others are calling for only scientists to speak and doctors to speak to the country. --mp is increasingly just yesterday he was surrounded by william barr, it was vice president pence. dr. fauci was not there. said heike texas, has is questioning all of this scientificic advice, that if the doctors headed their way, he said we woululd be closed for years stuff can you respond to what the lieutenant attorney general of texas has just suggested? >> i am speechless. the egner ends and the cruelty

displayed by that is beyond almost anything that i can recall. in american life by elected officials. of course we have a lot of sickness in this country, a venomous type, but the expressions of this sort that it is time for the older people to --rifice for the economy is is not only y despicable, it iso stupid. it is so ignorant. it is so completely bereft of the most basic ideas of public health. if people would understand, t ts --a controllable epidemic many countries are controlling it. the united states is not. the unitited states is not becae it is not implementing because ofour broken system, because

our incredibly incompetent and psychopathic president, we're not implementing but -- basic public health measures but countries that are are not sacrificing their old for the economy. there controlling the epidemic. so we need some education in this country quickly. we need to hear dr. fauci and .ther experts it is not hard to find them. our country is fililled with knowledgeable people. amy: jeffrey sachs, we want to thank you for joining us. we're going to be calling on you again. this is going to go on for a long time. leading economist and director of the center for sustainable development at columbia university. lead the world health organization's commission on mac or economic sun health years ago. when we come back, we look at cuba. it is sending doctors out around the world to help fight the pandemic. stay with us.

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amy: amy: neil diamond singing "hands, washing hands" in a 2020 update to his classic "sweet caroline." singing from his home where everyone needs to be. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. as weith juan gonzalez turn to look at the cuban doctors who are helping countries like italy fight the coronavirus, as italy's death toll tops 6000 with nearly 64,000 confirmed cases.

it is the epicenter of the pandemic in europe. this weekend, brigade of more than 50 0 cuban doctors and nurs arrived in lombardy -- one of the worst affected regions in italy -- in response to a plea for international help. >> this is a challenge for me and even more so for cuban medicine. we cuban spies apart to fulfill this honorable work for nearly which all cubans have trained for and is based on the principles of solidarity. cooks we're all afraid, but there's revolutionary work to do. for can be controlled and put it aside. whoever says that he isn't afraid is a superhehero and we e not superheroes. we are revolutionary doctorsrs. amy: thihis is the sixth medical brbrigade cuba has sent. cubaba has alslso deployed docts to venezuela, nicaragua, jamaica, suriname, and grenada. this comes as many cuban

hospitals are scrambling for resources and cuban residents say they are having difficulty finding medicine -- a struggle the cuban government attributes to decades-old u.s. economic sanctions. cuba announced a temporary travel ban for non-cuban residents on friday. this came just two days after allowing a british cruise ship with at least 1000 passengers and staff to dock on the island after five people onboard tested positive with covid-19. as the ship reached the cuban harbor of mariel last wednesday, british cruise ship crew members held a banner that read "i love you cuba." from -- for more, we are joined by peter kornbluh, director of the national security archive's cuba documentation project at george washington university. he covers cuba for the nation magazine, where his new column is headlined "cuba's welcome to a covid-19-stricken cruise ship reflects a long pattern of global humanitarian commitment." also with this, one gonzalez from his home in new brunswick, new jersey. peter, it is great to have you

with us. can you talk about several things, one is what cuba is doing at home, sending out the brigades like to italy right now, brigades of cuban doctors, and then also experimental treatments they're working on like intnterferon at home. looks the arrival of the medical brigade from cuba to italy is pretty historic. you haveve a leading europeann nationon accepting s support ine form of a memedical team from a small caribbean island. it just goes to the history of cuba''s deep and l long-lasting commitment too humanitarian solidarity with other countries. and cuba has done this before. they were on the frontlines of the fight against ebola and africa. they received the utmost compliments from our u.n. investors amid the power at the time. she pointed out, that is an awesome thing for a country of

11 million people to be sending doctors to africa to fight ebola and similarly awesome thing for cuba to be sending doctors to italy as part of a worldwide effort, really, to fight this pandemic. cuba faces the spread of the virus on the island now. they've only had one reported death so far, but more than 1000 people are under observation. more than 40 cases have been confirmed. hohopefully, the c closing of te borders or as the cuban official site, the regulation of their borders, keeping non-residents and tourists out for at least a month, if not longer, will kind of thth virus,read which of course has come from abroadad. cuba's resources are going to be extremely strained in the situation.

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of humanity riright now.w. juan: peter, if you could talk a live bit more about thiss interference a file -- alpha-2 b, which i realize wasas utilizd by the c chinese in china as thy were fightining the pandemic the and is it true cuba and china together have a plant producing some of these medicines in china? we are in the situation now where it was just a few weeks ago that bernie sanders was raked overer the coals by the commercial media for daring to say that cuba had a a good healh sysystem and eduducation systemt now we're seeing a situation where even the brazilian president jair bolsonaro who had expelled cuban dococtors w whene came to power is now open to the possibility of their coming back to help him fight the covid-19 virus in brazil. > it is an extraordrdinary iy that the brazilians, soon as

bolsonaro o came to power, kickd 8000 or so cuban doctors out to kind of f cozy up to thehe trump admininistration. and the same thing happenened in bolivia.a. and now both of those countntris understand the benefitits that these thousands of cuban doctors were providing to theieir sosoeties, whichch nobody else wiwill p provide. it would be the ultimate irorony of cuban dococtors did return no country like b brazil. the interferon medicine was develoloped and patented by cuba in the 1980's.s. it is beeeen around promised 40 years. ththe cubans had chinesese have manufafactured it in bulk in a plant in china. china picked i it as s one of 30 medidicines it w was using to ft the s spread of coronavavirus ad the outbreak t they. thehemmune syststem so it is part of a package of

medicinenes. it is not thend-d-all, cararol medicine standndalontype of medicine, but t it is part of a package that may prove very usefulul to fighting the spreadf this pandemic. amy: finally, the effect of the u.s. sanctions, especially at this t time, on cuba, if you cod talk about that and is there any effort in the u.s. congress to eaease those sanctions in this time of a pandememic? >> we'e're in a timime when we really do need sanctions relief or countriries that are strugglg and people w who are dying. and d cuba is s the obvious candidate e for trump to be much morere reaealistic and set his priority straight here. we are at a a fight against a common enemy, and cuba is a coununtry that can make a sisignificant contribution to tt struggle. cuba should not be hamststrung d handicapped by u.s. sanctions. the united states is penalizing

boats and shipping companies that ship food and petroleum too cubaba. this is alreready weweakening te cuban economy and it will be even weaker with the cutoff of thee bordeders and the endnd of tourisism for the foreseeablble future. there is a movemenent and washington led by the center for democracy and d the americacas o put forth h the petition with se congressional l support for lifting sanctions. sanctions relilief against cuba. we will see if that gained some traction andnd momentum in the comiming days. yourur audience shoululd keep ae ouout for it, support this petitition because cububa really deserveses to have a freee hand- free of the ridiculous and outrageous sanctions and penenalties and interventioion f the united states, particularly at this time and in such a contribution to make to the state of the world community. amy: and then maybe cuba could send cubanan doctors to the unid dates for help right now. >> w we need help, they need he.

it what they need right now is the abilityty to get petroleum,o have mobility on their island, some support from the world community, and they deserve that support. we haven't even talked about the cruisese sp from briritain that they helped.d. they w were the only country in the e caribbean afteter four ore other countries turned this coronana stricken shipip away. cuba was the o only ununtry that said, sure, we will facilitate you flying bacack to great britn . it was a tremendouss humanan attotorney gesture. i think it will be remembered by the european countries, by the world community. amy: we want to thank you, peter kornbluh. we will be coming back to you over these days, dirirector of e nationalal secured archive at george washington university. when we come back, the pandemic spreads to new york city's notorious s rikers island wheree thousands are locked up and are reportrting terrible conditionss the pandemic spreads behind the

bars. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the era is giving birth to a new heart" by the cuban musician silvio rodriguez. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan gonzalez is joining us. the bulimics have been postponed for a year -- the all ebix has been postponed for a year. we're going to turn right now to life behind bars, life and death. covid-19 has begun to spread in the u.s. prison system. in new york city, the epicenter of the pandemic in the united states, at least 39 prisoners and 21 staff at rikers island have tested positive for the virus. mayor bill de blasio said monday the city had released 75 people from rikers and is considering releasining up to 200 more. but public defenenders and advovocates say y the city m mt rerelease thouousands of incarcrcerated peoeople to s ste

spread o of the virus and save lives. rike i is the cocountry's second largest jail systetem, with neay 5300 people. the independent news outlet the city reports that correctional officers at rikers pepper sprayed eight prisoners this weekend when they tried to go to a jail clinic to check their temperatures after a possible covid-19 case surfaced inside their unit. this comes as new jersey says it will begin releasing up to 1000 people from its jail system in the pandemic. for more, we are joined by dr. homer venters, a physician and the former chief medical officer for new york city's correctional health services. his latest book is titled, "life and death in rikers island." his recent piece for the hill is headlined "coronavirus behind bars: 4 priorities to save the lives of prisoners." again, juan gonzalez is still with us from his home in new brunswick. homer also joining us from his home as people stay put to stop the spread of the virus. ,, thank you for

beining with us. what hasas to happen rig nowow t rikers? >> the story of rikers is the story of all 5000 jails and prisons and ice attention centers around the countryry. ththe top priority is lelease. we m must get people outf f thee places, partiticularly those wih healthth risk for serious injury and death. we also haveve to makeke sure te peopople were ststill behind bas have access today to hospital level caca when theyey become sick. we have to avoid the temptation to use lockdown as a p public health i intervention. it is not. we need to get the cdc and dates toppppoint high-level correction help her nadader's to make e sue these processes are happepening and that patients were behind bars do not get a second levele, lower level of a access to h heh care. david koch homer venters, if you could talk about what we're hearing right now, looks like 60 people they say have tested positive, do the thousands of

people on rikers, are they being tested? people in the free world do not have access to these tests. is eveveryone e getting tested inside? >> i have not been in rikers island. i have great jusust one thing tt is unique about rikers island, the heaealth serviceses indepen. itit iss part t of the public hospital system. i have c confidence that at riks islandnd in thatat jai s system, there is evidence-basased approaoaching two testing happining today. but i will say as s the doctorss who lead that health service have said in thehe last week, ty are not able to stop p the spred of thihis virus. it comeses from the commmmunityd comes into the jails and prisisons. it is imimpossible to keepep ths virus out of the correctional setting.g. find people who have these riskk factors for serious injury answers illness and death and

get them out of the system. juan: we only have about a minute left, but what is the normal health situation at rikers? isn't the main treatment for illnesses at bellevuvue hospiti, not on rikers island itself? >> there's an inpatient ward at bellevue and a also the nation's largrgest collection o of negave pressurere celells left over frm the tbb epidemic.c. these are rooms that people are put in for observationon. i will say there is more resource, skills, and smarts at rikers island in the health servicice than any other h healh seservice in the countntry. but those fofolks have told us what we e need to listen to, w h is you have to get these patients who are at risk off the island a and out of the system. amy: homer venters, thank you for being with us. in the corporate media, the only reason they're talking about jails is because harvey wants dean apparently it when present has reportedly tested positive

for covid-19. is former chief medical officer for new york city's correctional health services, author of "life and death in rikers island." i would think the amazing democracy now! team