04/23/20 04/23/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york city, the epicenter of the pandemic, this is democracy now! the beauty parlors, i love them, but they can wait a little bit longer. just a little bit. not much. because safetyty has to predominate. amy: despite strong objections of public health officials, governors in georgia, tennessee, and south carolina still plan to rereopen parks, beaches, and nonessential businesses.

like massage parlors and hair salons. even trump reverse to support. increased testing will be critical for the whole country, but t where are the tests? we will look at the path ahead with infectious disease specialist dr. syra madad. most of the world's population ststill remains s vulnerable t e coronavirus. >> make no mistakeke, we have aa long way t to go. this virus will be with us for a long time.e. amy: we'll look at new efforts to stop the deadly spread of covid-19 with contract tracing -- finding who infected patients have been in contact with so they can get isolated. we'll speak with dr. joia mukherjee, with partners in health, about a contract tracing project underway now in massachusetts. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine reportrt. i'm amy goodman. the known death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 184,000 with the united states continuing to lead the world in confirmed cases and fatalities. according to johns hopkins researchers, more than 46,000 u.s. residents have died of covid 19, more than 10,000 of the deaths have occurred at nursing homes and other long-term care centers. in new york, where the death toll from covid-19 has passed 15,000, six prisoners have died in state prisons -- four of them at the notorious sing sing prison north of new york city. inin chicago, sisix prisoners ad one guguard have died of c covi9 at the cooook coununty jail, whe hundreds are sick. in ohio, a federal judge has ordered the release or transfer of hundreds of elderly or vulnerable prisoners held at the

elkton prison, where six people have died of covid-19. this comes as the american civil liberties union warns u.s. models for the spread of coronavirus may be underestimating future deaths by nearly 100,000 unless counties take immediate steps to reduce jail populations. and the aclu notes thosese figus don't even account for state- and federal prisons and immigration detention centers. the aclu warns -- "unequivocally, keeping people out of jail saves lives -- both inside the jail and in the surrounding community. lives are at stake. the time to act is now." a top scientist at the department of health and human services says he was removed from his job after resisting president trump's promotion of an untested coronavirus treatment. dr. rick bright directed the biomedical advanced research and development authority, or barda, until he was abruptly removed from his post this week and reassigned to the national

institutes of health. in a scathing statement released wednesday, dr. briright wrote -- "specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, i limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit. while i am prepared to look at all options and to think 'outside the box' for effective treatments, i rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the american public." dr. bright wrote. barda has hired lawyers with the firm katz, marshall & banks, which represents whistleblowers. bright h has. he added in his statemenent -- "i will l request that the inspector general of the department of health and human services investigate the manner in which this administration has politicized the work of barda and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections as well as efforts that lack scientific merit." meanwhile, reuters reports

healalth and h human services secretetary alex azar tapped brn harrison, a long-time dog breeder with minimal public health experience, to head the u.s. coronavirus task force, just as the first case of covid-19 was detected in the u.s. in late january, before he joined hhs in 2018, harrison ran a company called dallas labradoodles. at the white house, president donald trump reversed course wednesday and criticized georgia republican governor brian kemp, a major ally of the president, --er camp promisesed to reopen kemp promised to reopen nonessential businesses on friday. pres. trump: the spas, beauty parlors, tattoo shops. i love them. but they can wait just a littlee bit longer. safety has to predominate. we have to have that. so i told the governor very simply that i disagree with this

decision, but yes to do what he thinks is right. amy: more than 700 people have died of the coronavirus in georgia, which has one of the slowest testing rates in the u.s. governors in tennessee, florida, and south carolina are also reopenining parks, beacheses and nononessentialal businesses, ovr the strong objections of public health officials who say reopening now will lead to a second wave of new i infectionss and dedeaths. in california, a pair of scieientific teamsms reported ts week that blood tests found antibodies f for the coronavirus in people at dozens of times the known rate of infection. the findings appear to suggest that most cases of covid-19 are mild, making the disease's mortality rate much lower than previously reported. but many researchers are skeptical, warning the findings were first presented to the press and haven't been peer reviewed. they're also based on new serology tests that have an unknown rate of false-positives. in new jersey, the director of the state funeral directors association believes covid-19 has claimed far more lives than officially reported.

after the centers for disease control and prevention april 15 ordered changes and how likely deaths due to the disease are reported. in britain, a review by the financial times found u.k. coronavirus deaths are likely more than double official figure, with 41,000 deaths so far likely caused by the virus. here in new york, doctors report a large number of patients hospitalized with covid-19 are developing high levels of life-threatening blood clots. this is dr. jay mocco, vice chair of the mt. sinaiai health system. >> w we began toto notice e as e s started to o take off in new yorkk city, then across all of nenew york cititye werere seeing a large numbmber f strokekes and that these strokes were extremely concerning and ththey were blocking big vessels to the brain. in treating these patients, they appeared to o be verery what wel

pro coagulant are making lots of clots. amy: some doctors have begun treating patients with high doses ofof a blood-thinnnning dg even before they present symptoms of blot clotting. in germany, researchers are beginning human trials of vaccine candidates this week. they joioin simimilar trials aly underway in the united states, britain, and china. health officials warn that even under an accelerated timetable, it may take well over a year before a vaccine becomes widely available -- if an effecective vaccine is even possible. in n new york state, t two catse tested posositive for novel coronavirus, the first c confird case of transmission to pets. the cats showed mild symptoms and likely caught the disease from their owners. it's not known if pets can infect h humans. on capitol hill, house speaker nanancy pelosi canceled plplans wednesday to allow lawmakekers o cast votes and hold hearings remotely after republicans objected. pelosi has scheduled a vote this

afternoon on $484 billion in additional coronavirus relief funding, most of it to replenish the paycheck protection program that provides forgivable loans to small businesses. lawmakers are expected to take up an even larger phase 4 coronavirus package in the coming weeks. in a letter to congressional leaders, more than 60 prprogressive organizations are demanding no additional funding for the pentagon's $756 billion budget in any future covid-19 response bills. they write -- "the coronavirus pandemic has made it crystal clear that federal spending is dangerously misaligned with our national priorities and actual threats to human security." in nebebraska, meatpacking communities in h hall, dawson, d dakota couounties are seseeing coronavirus cases at a rate 15 times higher than the rest of the state, and over five times higher than the national avaverage. in iowa, tyson foods on wednesday shut down its pork

processing plant in the city of waterloo -- the company's largest pork plant in the nation -- after at least 90% of coronavirus cases in black hawk county were traced back to tyson plant workers.s. president trump on wednesday signeded an executive ordeder suspenending thehe processing of imimmigrants' g green card applications f for 60 daysys. in related news, "the los angeles times" reports millions of u.s. citizens will not receive coronavirus stimulus checks because they are married to immigrants who use an individual taxpayer identification number -- an id issued by the irs to workers who don't have a social security number. this comes as education secretary betsy devos is blocking undocumenented collllee students from m receiving coronavirus emergency aid. congressss had allocated $66 billion in its stimulus package to help college students cover living expenses such as food and housing. the education department then issued a new guideline mandating the money can only be given to students who qualify for federal financial aid,d, meaningng u.s. citizens a and some e lawful

permanent residents. at the u.s.-mexico border, mexican authorities are forcing people recently deported from the u.s. to walk through disinfection tunnels upon their arrival. recently, there was a large coronavirus outbreak at a border state after a recently deported person arrived from the u.s. without knowing he was a carrier of covid-19. memexico has over 10,000 casased a death toll of nenearly 1000 people. in h honduras, cububa has dispad another medicacal brigade to hep the country's fragile health syststem cope with t the coronas outbreak.. covid-19 cases in n honduras now top 500, leaviving hospipitals h alalready y weak infrastructure, scarce medicines, and m medical ststaff completetely overwhelml. in brazil, the largest c cemetey in the city of manaus has begun digging mass graves to handle 100 burials a day -- more than three times the usual rate, suggesting covid-19 has taken a much larger toll on the city

than the official figure of 156 deaths. the public system in the state of amazonas has collapsed, with 100% of hospital beds occupied, little safety equipment for medical workers, and ventilators in crititically short supply.. meanwhile,e, satellite data show deforestation inin brazil's aman rainforest has accelererated sie the pandememic idled environonml enforcement agagents. in uganda, a women's rights group reports atat least 11 pregnant women and several children have died preventable deaths since a nationwide transport ban came into effect as part of a lockdown against the coronavirus. the travel ban has left many ugandans seeking treatment unable to reach hospitals, with ambulances in short supply. south africa has deployed an additional 70,000 troops to enforce a nationwide lockdown which began four weeks ago. it's the largest internal deployment of south african troops since the end of apartheid in 1994. at least 65 people have died of covid-19 in south africa, which

has more than n 3600 confirmed cases. in singapore, about 80% of the country's coronavirus cases hahe been linked d to migrant w works from south a asia who are forcrd to live in squalid and crowded dormitories, prompting outcry against the singapore government for not doing enough to o protet them. in china, , a journalistst who d gone missingng for nearly twoo months after p posting a video frfrom wuhan has reportedlyy reappeared, saying he was detained by police and forcibly quarantined. li zehua provided critical reporting from the front lines during some of the worst weeks of the coronavirus outbreak in wuhan. at the united nations, secretary-general antonio gutteres warned wednesday that authoritarian governments are exploiting the pandemic to crack down on human rights.. rising populismof and authoritarianism and the pushback against human rights in some countries, the crisis can adopte the pretext t to

oppressive meaeasures for purpos unrelated to the pandemic. amy: u.n. secretary-general gutteres has called for a global ceasefire of all warring parties in order to focus on battling the coronavirus pandemic. in somalia, the u.s. military has carried out more airstrikes so far this year than it did duduring all eight years of bark obama's presidency. u.s. a africa command says it carried out 39 attacks in somalia sinince january 1, evens the coronavirus cocontinued to spread. somalia has confirmed 286 cases of coronavirus but testing remains extremely limited. somalia's health care system is one of the poorest in the world, with just one doctor for every 100,000 people. back in the united states, secretary of state mike pompeo on wednesday said it was israel's decision whether to annex parts of the occupied west bank. >> for the annexation of the west bank, the israelis will ultimately make those decisions,

it was a an israeli decision, ad we will work closely with them to share with them our views of this in a private setting. amy: in response, palestinian president mahmoud abbas said palestinians "will not stand handcuffed if israel annexes of any part of our land." in november, 14 members of the u.n. security council rebuked the trump administration's announcement that it no longer considers israeli settlements in the occupied west bank illegal under international law. in more news from the middle east, a palestinian refugee camp in lebanon has reported its first coronavirus case. the palestinian woman has since been reportedly taken to a hospital in beirut. at least 3000 other refugees are housed in the wavel l refugee camp. this comes as public health officials and human rights advocates warn of the threat off catastrophic outbreaks i in crowded refugee camps around the world that lack sufficient sanitation and medical supplies. i federal appealals court isis allowing the state of ararkansas

to enforce a ban on most surgical abortions. arkansas officials have deemed abortions to be "not essential" or urgent during the coronavirus outbreak. meanwhile, a ban on nearly all abortionons in texas during thte pandemic appears to be over as clinics began to offer the procedure again starting on wednesday. and those are some of the headlines. this is s democracy now!, democracynow.orgrg, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman in new york,k, e center of the pandemic, joined by my co-host nermeen shaihk, who is also in new york but she is broadcasting from her home instead of where we most like to be, together in the studio, inn order r to stop cocommunity spr. hihi, nermeen. nermeen:n: good d morning. welclcome to all o of our listes anand viewers from around the country and around the world. arere broadcasting from new yorkrk city, w where the covid-19 death toll has passed 15,000. the number of daily deaths has finally begun to decrease after more than a month of strict

social distancing, but officials warn there is still a long road ahead for new york's recovery. increased testing will be critical as new york city and other localities look to slowly reopen certain parts of society. new york governor andrew cuomo met with president trump in washington on tuesday to discuss federal aid for expanding testing capacity, and said the president committed to helping new york state double both its covid-19 and antibody tests to 40,000 a day. but wednesday, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said was against giving states more federal aid in future pandemic legislation, suggesting states should instead consider filing for bankruptcy. governor cuomo called the statement "one of the saddest, really dumb comments of all time." this all comes as the governors in georgia, tennessee, and south carolina are preparing to reopen parks, beaches, and nonessential

businesses despite the strong objections of public health officials. last weekend, president trump encouraged far-right anti-quarantine protesters -- many of them openly brandishing assault rifles -- twtweeting thy should libiberate michchigan, minnesota, and virginia. but on tuesday, trump said he disagreed strongly with georgia republican governor brian kemp's decision to reopen businesses. pres. trump: the spas and the beauty parlors and barbershops, tattoo parlors. i love them. but they can wait a little bit longer, just a little bit, not much, because safety has to predominate. we have to have that. verytold the governor simply that i disagree with his decision. but he has to do what he thinks is right. amy: meanwhile, the head of the centers for disease control and prevention has warned that a second wave of the coronavirus could hit the u.s. in the winter with even more devastating results. for more, we're joined by dr.

syra madad, an infectious disease specialist and special pathogens expert here in new york city. she was recently featured in the netflix docuseries "pandemicic," whwhich premiered in january. welcomome to democracycy now!, . madad. it is great to have you with us. why don't we start off with what seems to be, to the shock of many, this controvoversial issue of testing. how is it possible in the united states that we are still at the point -- just last week, 92-year-old woman, the mother of our cohost juan gonzalez, went to a top hospital in new jersey, 92 years old, with covid symptoms, and she was told she could not be tested. only when they finally agreed to admit her did they say they then had to do a covid test and decide which wing to put her in. but that is when a many, many examples. the lack of access that governors for that people in general all of the country have to test.

why is testing so o important? >> that is a great question. everyone is asking why testing is so important. many people keep heaearing about ramping up testing. the reason why it is so important, not only to know that you actually are infected with coronavirus disease, while mamanagementnt won't chchange mh unleless you''re in the high-rik group and d require adddditional services, but it is also extremely important to know your positive so we can isolate you and so you don't start new chains of transmission. unfortunately h here in the u.s, we have a must hit a plateau when it comes to testing. we're not increasing the number of testing being done yet for number of different reasons. one big one is because of the supply chain aspect. swabsis not enough of the and agents needed to conduct the testing. a lot of tesests havave -- stats

have the ininfrastructure but the supplies are not there yeyet. we realllly needed to make suree have widespreaead t testing and etiquette infrastructure is in place so we can test anybody that needs it. if you're symptomatic, even asymptomatic, we want to make sure we have tests available to see if you have coronavirus. the biggest thing is we want to make sure you're able to isolate yourself so they don't start these new chains of transmission. this is a very highly transmisissible virusus. we need to really make sure we have these in place in order for us to opepen back up ifif you w. nermrmeen: dr. madad, could you expend with the different kinds of tests are that are being carried ouout? are they all the same across the board? what, fofor example, is the difference between an antibody test and a test to determine whether you have covid-19 right

now? are they the s same? and you talked about the problem with supply chain. where is the material being produced for these tests? and is t there any likelelihoodt produduction cocould be expedited d now and cocontinue l they arere needed? >> in terms of testing, there's an antigen test that looks for acute infectioion, meaning you test for the coronavirus itself through molecular assay and the other test is the antibody test that actually lookoks to see if you had the infection previously and have developed an immune response. it is lookoking at the antibibos in your blood. distincnct means. one could be useded for diagnosc purposes, the intention test. thehe -- the antigen test.

the e antibodydy t test, i would highlyly caution anyonee using e serology test right now to make any type of decision post the reason why i say that is because the essays being used because the blood thahat is drawn andnd tested, is very hard to interpreret the information. first, the testing itself. you're getting a lot of false positives, false negatives. it does not seem to be -- depending on t the type of test you're using, a lot of these are not validated. providingee if there true results. the other big issue when it comes to serolology, it is important for people to see, we just don't know a whole lot about this virus. there still a lot of the science we do not know. -- evennot know aboutut the if y you may have a positive antibody test, what does that

mean? does that mean you are immune to coronavirus disease and can't get reinfected? wewe don't know t that. we don't know what you need to confirm immunity. on top of that, we don't know the risk of reinfection. these are things i think we need to be very public about. there's the science that we don't know, that we hope to know in the future. it is not there yet. it is a puzzle that is missing a number of pieces. while wewe want to rely on conducting surveysys and seeing how people actually immune, we need to take that with a grain of salt. i i would askmadad, about the possibility of how you open the country, what president trump is pushing so hard for, has been saying the gun toting

activists around thehe country o are domain name their states open are liberating their states. what a rational plan would be. i want to ask you what y you thk of the rockefeller plan, the nobel prize-winning economist has recently said some very interesting things. they are calling for 30 million tests a day in the united states so that people -- a date, and that united states. the report i think is calling for 30 million tests a week. i think he c compared it to the u.s. make something like 350 million cans of soda a day, why can't we do 30 million a day? the report is so calling for 30 million a week. that. so far from any of i think that would clearly go to the issue of the defense production act. thatdent trump d demanding

come to start to convert to making these tests. trump has been extremely resistant to this idea of mass testing. but how else do you open the country without having to shut it down right away because there's another mass outbreak because workers come together who are bothh posositive and t e that wereren't exposed? >> you're a absolutely right.t. i think the best way to reaeally whahatthe amerirican public situation we are in is look at where we are right now. one of the reasons why we're seeing a decrease in the number of cases depending o on where yu are is because of our collective action, doing what we call social distancing. physically distancing ourselves. we're doingng that becaususe wet to make sure we're not going out, not coming in contact with the virus. the endgame is the whole goal is making sure we don't come in contact witith the virus. because if you come in contact with the virus, can get

infected. right now w no one has immunityo this virus because it is brand-new. virus is still out there. one of the reasons why we have been able to decrease the number of cases is because of sococial distancing. if you take that away, the very public health measure, we're going to be in the same position that we were back in january, february, march. because nothing has changed between now and then. we still do not have enough testing. a treatmento not have option yet.. they w we have critical triaial- medical trials in the pipelinin. peoplele are gettingng confusedn talking about these different medications. these are thinking cures. there is no cure for coronavirus. there are number of different treatments in clinical stages. how effective and safe they are,

that is something still being explored. nothing has changed. if we are to reopen the economy being the same situation we're going to put ourselves in, we are obviously going to see a resurgence of cases. as we have seen with history, a lot of people have compared this to the 1918 spanish flu, the second wave was much more higher and severe than the first one. i think we need to make sure we are prepared for it. at this point, we are not. the othther thing we need to thk about is howw do we define risk and how do we define the word "safe." living with covid-19 is going to be our new normal. what risk are we ablble to take, if at all? what does the word "safe" really mean? we are not going to be safe as long as the viruses out there lingering. we need to continue to do various public health insurers to really protect everybody. nermrmeen: dr. madad, that isisa gogood pointnt that you u make t how essential social distancing

is given whehere we are now with both testing and clinical trials for drugs. could you give u us some senens- obviouously, the cost of sociail distancingng a and the impossisy of social distatancing in a lare part o of the world, the developing worldld in particula, and in -- among poorerer commmmunity's everywywhere whert is simimply not possibible to be socially distant from others, how far arare we along in n clil triaials? and are there any other alternrnatives a at all to socil ddistancing atat the moment or n thee foreseeable future, the ner future? >> any of these potential treatments a are being stutudie. they arere not goingng to be e a silver bullelet. what i mean is they're not going toto be e 100%. we're stitill waititing on the a for a number of these different clinical interventions to come

out. you're seeing some come out right now. for example, hydroxychloroquine. you're seeing whether it is in -- it is efeffective. your seeing other studies c come out with remdisiver that is looking promising. when youou're doing t the clinil trtrials, we need to g go to th- through the proper channenels ad making s sure you are ststudying these indivividuals for norormal period of time. these are very quick, short studies. , until weing weeks get more information in terms of the variouss clinical trials out there around the world and not just in the united dates. amy: dr. madad, do it away and on the huge controversy happening with dr. bright right now? president trump, the trumpet administration fires the person in charge of vaccines in the government who has been fighting hard to coordinate all of these kinds of tests you're talking

about, clearly opposed to prescribing hydroxychloroquine or cork when without the proper studies, and now being taken out as he resists president trump's drug of choice, which hasn't even been adequately tested. >> we've been saying from the get go,o, we need to lolook at e facts,s, follow the e facts. there e is a lot we don't know d we need d to be clear about tha. we need to makake sure people understatand, when wee d don't w something, we are provividing te information. we do know something, we s suppy that information. doing these types of [indiscernible] it is unfortunate because it is showing the credibility of the administration in and ofof itself. a lot of lives are on the line. wewe need to make sure wewe are follllowing g the facts. we need to make sure we are having experts be able to o be t

the table and drive these conversations. amy: we want to go to a break and then we will come back to dr. syra madad, i infectiouous diseasase specialist and special papathogens expert. we will be back wiwith dr. madad in a moment. ♪ [music break]

amy: "oh, what a world 2.0" by kacey musgraves. she reworkeded her song frfrom 8 and re-r-released itit wednesdan the 50th anniversary of earth day. this is demomocracy now!, democrcracynow.org, the e quarae report. i am amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we are both in the epicenter of the pandemic as we continue to look at the path ahead for this pandemic, how we respond, how we consider winter reopen with dr. syra madad, infectious disease specialist, special pathogens expert. if you can talk about your own experience. didn't you test posositive for

covid-19? >> i did. i think anyone getting that type of test reresults comeme it is scary, especially knowing if you hahave loved ones at home, t the in higigh-risk category -- which for me, i do -- is that something went i got the test reresult wasn't surprising,, really, unfortrtunately, given e cicircumstanances and d being ot there, butut i was able t to quy isolate m myselff and, luckilil, everyone in my household was able to recover. one e of the symptomoms i had wa smell.of taste and i had that for quite a few weeks. recently, i was able to get my full taste and smell bacack ande able to enjoy, fofor example, my cup of coffefee. with the coronavirus disease, the illness is so wide and variable. you people that are asymptomatic, those e that have mild symptptoms of the disiseas,

and then you have those that are more severe and critical. people follow in those buckets. right now there are certain aspects that put those in high-risk categories but also healthy individuals fall anywhere on the spectrum. about't know whole lot the disease, but we are hopeful that as the days and hours and weeks progress that we can learn factual means. whehen i say factual l means, 'e seeing a lot of things been published not going through a peer review. i encourage anyone reading a lot about this, make sure your reading peer-reviewed information. amy: dr. syra madad, before we talk about that information, it is so important for people to see someone who has recovered from covid-19. you have three kids. your last child you just gave birth to in january.

can you talk about the kind of decisions you had to make when you tested positive and what it means to isolatete for a mom lie you and d a new mother? > as you mentioned, i delived in january by baby girl -- my baby girl. i am a breast-feeding mother 100%. it is difficult to be able to isolate myself or my children knowing i could potentiaially expose thehem aftfter i had goty test results.. fromom what we know, y you can spread the virus beforore being symptomatic. so everyone was already exposed in ourur household. lucuckily,ned, everybody recovered. but as soon as i became symptomatic, we did isolate myself for at leastst 72 hours. it really had a big impact on my family. luckily, i have a great support system. my husband was able to watch the kids. he had it as well.

well.e had it as i was able to isolate myself. we had already exposed our childrenen. signs, they had very mild and symptoms. wewe did not get them tested. the only person that did get tested was myself, , a person working in health care system. my in-laws, , both high-risk, oe on hospipice care. he did g get tested and tested positive. we''re very y lucky that everyoe was s able to rerecover. nermeen: dr. madad, you mentioned ththe spectrum of ilillness is so o wide with covid-19. obviously,y, we are all just learning aboutut how thihis dis, this virirus spreads. but is there anynything that can predict howw severe the illness will be in p people who get it? >> thahat is an excellent

question. what we're seeing is while we know the virus can affect anybody and anyone comee if youu willll, regardless of your age, regardless of your h health stas -- we know --- at the same e time, there e are these health disparitities that may y put you at an even high-rk . for examplple, sining higher raf infection in the afrirican-americican community, higher rate of infection in the latino community. i think when you look at some of it, are also looking at the socioeconomic status and some of those variables that t may put them at higher risk because of the work they're a are doing -- for example, essential workers -- also lookingng at the bibig condnditions, liviving in close ququarters. one of the first h hospitals overwhelmed in n new york hospsl was elmhurst. ththat particularr area, one ofe

most diverse urban areas in the u.u.s., we h have a lot of famis living together in close quarters. we talk about social distancing earlier, some people don't have the privilege of sococial distancing themselves because of so many pepeople living inin thr households. because of that, you can spread the vivirus much morore easily d quickly. we are seeing a lot of that play out. amy: can i ask you about this new observation -- not really new among ththe docs all of the country. i had gotten this random text last week. it is not about pneumonia, it is about the blood clots. i want to read to you from a "washington post" piece. it's as increasingly doctors are also reporting bizarre and selling cases that don't seem to follow any of the textbooks they have trained on. they describe patients with startling low oxygen levels, so low that would normally be unconscious or near-death, talkining and swipingng on their

phoneses. asasymptomatic print women suddenly in cardiac arrest. patients who by all conventional measure seem to have mild disease deteriorating within minutes and dying at home. and they are saying it seems to be this issue of blood clots. in fact, the first pererson now who is believed to be weeks before we really believed, 57-year-old woman in california who is in very good shape, no pre-existing conditions, it looks like she also died in this way, said mamaybe cardiac arrrr, and people e did not identify it as coronavirus i in the beginnig of february. what about this blood clotting issue? >> i it certaiainly is an isiss. from what we are saying g at hospitals reporting, it is becoming -- i would essay becoming, it seems to be a common issue. while maybeseeing folks think covid-19 is more implicated with the lungs, we are seeing a number of different organs in the body in distresess

and having varioious manifestatioions. issues with h kidneys and hearat and brain and livever. it maninifests is different and depepends on the individual in the way thehe body responds. we also don't k know the long-tm effects of covid-19. this is s a new virus. only about four or five months old. we are learning a lot about it but there's a lot we d don't kn. eveveryone is really learniningt the same time. we are relying on each othther o be transparent andnd show data d share some of the studies that wewe are seeing that may help others that are trereating individuals withth covid-19. an example,, zika. it was relatively somethingng te health care syststem had notot expressed in the magnitutude we did a a few years ago -- experienced in the magnitude we

didid a few years ago. thosose individuals, thohose children are s still being studd long-t-term to look at the effes of zika. you still l see data coming out. similar with covid-19, this bebeing a new virus in and of itself, it is going g to take years for usus to see the longng-term effects because e we need to o follow the individuals for their entitire lifetime to actualally s see doesn''t have additional effectsts on them, nt just in the acute stage when they are infected and in the hospital w would alslso once thy get dischaharged? that is a a question that we d't have an answer t to yet. nermeen: d dr. madad, befofore e concludede, as i'mm sure you u , many people are relying on the development of a vaccine evevenf it will take from 12 to 18 months. but you u have said that even a vaccine won't be a silver bullet, as you said. why y is that? what a about your concererns abt certaiain people p perhaps not getting g the vaccicine even ont

is availablele? why would d people d do that?? > first, i think when we say 12 to 18 months, that is an optimistic timeline. is it realistic? i don't think it is, knowing that developing a vaccine takes years and years. we need to be carareful. i think once they y do have a vaccine that i is safe andnd prn to be e safe andnd effective and whenever thahat will be, we're going to have to jump through additional hurdles like those getting pepeople vaccinated. you may be a aware, the anti-vax movement is vast. it is one of the biggest global health problems that we have in the world. we need to make sure even once we have a vaccine available, -- people are reluctant to get vaccinated. on top of that, not everybody is going to get the vaccine at the

same time. there will be a short supply. to get everyone vaccinateted wil tatake years. we are verery large countntry wh manyny individuals. and to be able to vaccinate everybody eligible, will take at least a year or two or longer. we need to face the fact that this i is where we are at and we know there is going to be additional hurdles once the vaccine is available. the whole notion of herd immumunity should be g given moe ththought. amy: we e want to thank you u so muchch dr. syra madad, infnfects , disease e specialist and specl pathogens exexpert. featureded in the first episodef the remarkable series that came out on netflix "pandemic" which came out right at the beginning. we're so thanankful you and your family are safe, are healthy, and we just hope that for the rest of the country and the world. we also have this breaking news, the labor department has jusust reported another $4.4 --

4.4 million people filed unemployment claims, bringing the total of the past five weeks to over 26 million. that does not even include the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the u.s. to of lost their jobs due to the pandemic and those who tried to apply but were not able to. when we come back, we speak to another doctor, a global health expert about the efforts to stop the daily spread of covid-19 with contact tracing in massachusetts, following those who haveve been i in contact wih those w who have covid-1919. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "he will see you through." distancing inial two different places as part of the humanity in concert series. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am a amy goodman with nermeen shaikh.

covid-d-19 has infected more thn 2.6 6 million people and killedt least 183,000 worldwide. these figures don't anywhere reflect actually the proper numbers because of the lack of testing. the head of the world health organization warned wednesday that most of the world's population s still remainsns suscsceptible to t the coronavis and it could continue to spread for a very l long t time. >> most of the epidemics in western europe appear to be altlthough,ceclining, worryingre low, , we see upward trends in africa,a, centl and d south america, and eastern eurorope. most countries arere still in te early ststages of theieir epide. anand some thahat were affected early in the pandemic are now startiting to see a resurgence n cases. make no mistake, , we have a log

way to g go. this virus will be with us for a long time. amy: the world health organization recommends social distancing to control the spread of the virus. but these measures are nearly impossible for the poor in many countries, where families share single-room dwellings and lack running water to wash their hands. many have limited or no access to life-saving medical facilities. this comes as new efforts are underway not just to slow down but to stop the deadly spread of covid-19 with contact tracing, finding who infected patients have come in contact with so they can get tested and isolation and treatment. in the united states, in massachusetts, they are investing $44 million to hire and train 1000 people to call contacts and inform them they've possibly been exposed. participating in testing and isolation is voluntary. for more, we're joined by

someone who is playing a key role in this effort. dr. joia mukherjee is chief medical officer at partners in health, a boston-based nonprofit known for its work in fighting infectious diseases around the world. they have also read contact tracing projects, including for ebola in west africa. dr. mukherjee joins us from brookline, massachusetts. she has just recently returned from sierra leone in liberia. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us dr. mukherjee. we want to talk about the contact tracing project you have going in massachusetts. at first, talk about what we're facing right now in africa. expectinge there are and are going through right t n. >> thahank you very much for having me on today, amy. and thank you so much for highlightingng the need to p pay , someion to this epidedemic

of the world's most impoverished countries. in africa, in asia, in latin america, this kind of social distancing t that we have now in the united states -- which is also gearing toward a lockdown -- really is intolerable for very poor people. you have to have the material means to quarantine or isolate. it is a privilege to be able to have a home, e enough food, a refrigerator to stock. so we are exceptionally y worrid about the impact -- just the measures alone will have on the poor here at home in the u.s. as well as around the world. but therere are many countries, particularly on the african continent,t, that are doing a lt more on the preventive side than wewe did in the united states. i just recently got off the phone with c colleagues inin rw.

in that country, they have been so serious about contact tracing, quarantine, isolation governmentnt support of people n quarantine and isolation with food and housingng, that from te first case to one month later, they only had 134 cases. and that is with lots of testing. so that is not an underestimate. that is thousands and thousands of tests. fofocusing o on that early on is really the hope for impoverished countries. ththis is happening in libererid sierra leone. you mention i just got back from those couountries where inn februauary, i was screenened wih temperature, my phone numbeber, where i was going in february, retuturn to jfk and absolutely nothing. countries are at least aware and exexperienced in cataclysm and they are really

investing in those upfront strategies, which we did not in the united states. , y you: dr.r. joia mumukherjee mementioned these measures themselves c can be anand have n extremely dangerousus for very large numbers of people in the world. anand jusust to be clear,r, the ininternational l labor organann has said that t 2 billion people around t the world are dependent on daily wageses and i if they'e , oftenle to g go to work that means they won't be able to eat. of course it is imperative that other means of addressing this lethal pandemic are addressed. i want to ask about the specific proposal that was put forward by indian epidemiologist who said that "no country can afford a prolonged period of lockdowns, and least of all a country like india.

you may be able to reach a point of herd immunity without infection really catching up with the elderly. and when the herd immunity reaches a sufficient number the outbreak will stop, and the elderly are also safe." could you respond to t that? >> i think the t talk of herd immuninity is extremely dangero, nihilistic. i think we can do bebetter as humidity. we do o not know first of f all whether immunity is lasting in covid. two, we don't know what proportion of the populationn would have to be immmmune to hae what we call herd immunitity. it may be as high as 60%.. to have 60% of the population affected -- and we know about 4%, 2% to 4% of people die. so that is a death toll in the hundredsds and hundreds of millions. i think k that is anan unaccepte moral choice for estimate. i think, rather, we should

employ people to be contact tracers, to deliver the fooood o the sick, we should be ramping up ppe to protect peoeople to do their work. if we harness the trillions of dollars that are needed right now to prop up the stock market and the global economy toward creating jobs that would actually end the epidemic and could be synergize with the needs of the vulnerable to in the epidemic, that is a far better moral choice and it is probably a faster choice to enter the epidemic, certainly, in a much more moral choice than herd immunity. i think herd immunity is dangerous. miko boris johnson follow that route at the beginning before he got sick, his partner got stick. now britain is way behind when it comes to testing and having the proper gear a available forr doctors and nurses. i want to ask you about massachusetts and what you're

doing there. we only have a few minutes. explain what contact tracing is and how you're planning g to cay itit out. hirired ande alreadady trained anand paid 750 0 contact tracers toto add to the function of the department ofof public health is doing. all of the department of public health to c contact tracing. itit is a staple. but they are unmatched by t this need and scale of ththis epidem. and we have gutttted our public health programs s over 40 yearan the united states and d around e worlrld as part off the neolibel project. so we are trying to amplify and augment what to permits off public health too. contact ththe people who are infected, go through the lisistf people they y have beeeen in cle contact with, inform those people, and then it needs to be paired with support -- socicial and material support -- to isolate and quarantine. amy: how does this work specifically?

you're saying something like 300,000 people would be needed in the united states to do this, and you actually go to a patient and say, who have you been with over the l last, what? > since the time you're symptomatic c and a couple o ofs before. whwhat we know is w with social distancing, this is a bit easier. our averagee person in massachusetts oh far in the two weweeks we have been doing this only has a couple of contacts because people are adheriring to social distancing. you can contact those people and then try t to keep them safe. for examample, in my situatitioy family, i live with my momom who isis older and s so we wouould - if i have been in c contact with someone, so i was o out to do grocery shopping, if i've been in contactct w with someonone, d neneed to quarantine -- which is different than social didistancing. it means not sharing a bathroom. it means washing got all the counters, etc.

if i could not do that, then i woululd need a safe place to quarantine. and here in massachusetts, we are looking at dormitories, hotel rooms,s, and many y people want to do this.s. many healtlth workers are begegg for these kinds of safe quarantine places where you would thenen stay for 14 days, , havered regegularlyly, f fed access to a cell phohone, can contntact her r family. this i is voluntary. but this is part of f how w we o epidemic control. thisis is how wewe thought ebol. 14 days of tracingng and moninitoring and then you can be released. but that way you d don't infect your closest contacts. because most of this infection is spread through very close contact -- family members, etc. amy: we want to thank you so much, dr. joia mukherjee, for being wiwith us s infectious die , specialist. associate professor of global health at harvard medical school and chief medical officer for

partners in health. that does it for our broadcast. if you want to get our daily quarantine report, you can s sed 6686866 "democracacynow" to or go to our website democracynow.org and sign up for our quarantine report there. also, all of our coverage of this pandemic. democracy now! at that epicenter of the pandemic here in new york city. democracy now! is workrking with asas few people onsite as possible. the majority of our amazing team is 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 1001313. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

narrarator: on ththis episodedef "eaarth focus"s"... the e race to transition to sustainable solar powower is underway. in zanzibar, rural women are learning solar skills, bucking a tradition of entrenched gender roles, empowering their communities in the process, while in southernrn californini, it's genererating the e growth f grgreen jobs s and winning over skeptics. [filmlm advance clicking]