06/25/20 06/25/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amamy: from new york, this is democracy nonow! >> the next couple of weekeks ae going to be critical in our ability to address those surgings piercing in florida, texas, arizona, and in other states. amy: as covid-19 cases soar in the united states to a new single day high, we look at how the pandemic is devastating the hemisphere's two largest countries -- the united states and brazil. >> in south america, this

weekend, results are passed one million covid19 cases, joining the united states as the only other country in the world with cases in the six digits. amy: we will speak with marcia .astro then to the reverend william barber, co-founder of the poor people's campaign. >> in recent weeks, we have heard the media ask when will the protests stop? since we have lunch this campaign, people have asked what one demand is your top priority? decided toy when you dodo covid respoponse, you get 5 trillion, nearlrly $3 trillion o the banks and the corporations. if they can have $3 trillion, don't ask us what is our one thing.

all that anand more, comiming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. welcome to democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. the united states reported nearly 37,000 coronavirus cases nationwide wednesday, the highest daily toll yet, as much of the u.s., south, and west barreled toward a new and deadlier phase of the pandemic. florida, oklahoma, south carolina, and texas all confirmed record numbers of new covid-19 cases, with infections increasing in 29 states. in houston, the texas medical center reports 97% of its intensive care unit beds are full. officials are planning to convert standard hospital beds into icu's, many of them staffed by medical workers who don't have experience treating critical care patients. california hit a record-high of over 7000 new cases tuesday, as governor gavin newsom warned residents to follow mandatory

mask-use and social distancing requirements or face a new round of lockdowns. disneyland in southern california said it has abandoned plans to reopen the theme park on july 17. organizers of the new york city marathon have canceled plans for the november race. meanwhile, the governors of new york, new jersey and connecticut issued a travel advisory warning people arriving from states with high rates of coronavirus to quarantine for 14 days of face heavy fines. in march, new york governor cuomo threatened to sue rhode island when it imposed similar limits on new yorkers. in geneva, switzerland, the head of the w world health organizatn warned wednesday the pandemic will soon reach a grim milestone of 10 million confirmed coronavirus cases. ameriricasemic in the

in general is still intense. particularly in tens south america and across a range of countries. a steady and worrying continuation of trend with many countries experiencing between 25% and 50% rise of cases in the last week, which means in many many countriries, still suffering sustained community transmission. amy: that is the world health organization's dr. michael ryan. brazil remains the hardest hit nation in latin america, with an official death toll of nearly 54,000. india continues to report record coronavirus cases almost daily, and hospitals in new delhi, the epicenter of india's outbreak, are bracing for a half a million covid-19 caseses by late july. back in e e united s states, dozens of secretet service agens who worked security at president trump's campaign rally in tulsa,

oklahoma, last weekend have been ordered to self-isolate after two of their colleagues tested positive for covid-19. this comes as tulsa county recorded 259 new coronavirus cases wednesday, a record daily toll. meanwhile, white house counselor kellyanne conway on wednesday defended presidentnt trump's use of the racist term " "kung flu"o describe covid-19 at rallies in tulsa and phoenix thisis week. that thectionon is presidident has made cleaear he wants everybody to understand, and i think many americans understand that the virus originateded in china, and hadad china been more transnsparent ad honest with the e united states and the world, we would not have all the death and destruction that unfortunately we have suffered.. amy: kelellyanne conway'y's statement contrarasts sharply wh agoremarks three months when she c called the term "kung flu" highly offensive and atattacked asian-american reporr

weijia j jiang for notot naminga white house official who reportedly used the slur. >> and that is highly offensive so you should tell us all who it is. i would like to know who it is. i'm not going to engage in hypotheticals. i am marrieded to an asian. my kids are. amamy: one month after g george floyd was killed by minneapolis police officers, protests in support of black lives and against police brutality continue across the united states. here in new york, activists have set up a 24-hour protest encampment outside city hall, demanding $1 billion in cuts to the city's $6 billion police budget, with the money reinvested in health care, housing, and social services. in sttle, washington, protesters have largely ended their occupation of a six block "autonomous zone" known as the capitol hill occupied protest. in a statatement protest leaders wrote -- "we successfully built a

self-governing community a and convinced city leaders to enact meaningful police reform, including substantial budget cuts to the seattle police department." in oakland, california, the school board voted unanimously wednesday to eliminate its police force. meanwhile, chicago's school board voted 4-3 to keep police in public scschools. on capitol hill, senate democrats blocked debate on a republican police reform bill wednesday, saying the legislation failed to limit the use of no-knock warrants while allowing federal law enforcement officers to continue using chokeholds. the statement means it's unlikely congress will pass any new measures limiting police use of force until after november's election. a warning to our audience, the following stories contain graphic imagess of police violence. calls are growing for r the city of aurora, colorado,o, to condut a a new investstigation into the death last year of elisha

mclean. he was a 23-year-old african-american massage therapist who died after being tackled by police and placed in a police chokehold and t then being injected with ketamine by paramedics. mcclain was stoppeped by three police officers on august 24, 2019, after picking up p an iced tea for his brother at a convenience store. police claimed he was acting suspicious. he died on august 30 after days on life support the hospital. on wednesday, colorado governor jared polis announced the state would review the c case. in new york city, police officers responding to a 911 call used tasersrs to electrocue a queens man to death inside his own home late sundayay, after a neighbor falsely reported he had a gun. another neighbor said the 29-yeaear-old zapantis, who hada

history of mental illness, had been playing with the sword dressed as a gladiator in his own babasement when police arrid on the s scene. a lawyer for the family disputed a police account that zapantis threatened officers and has demanded the nypd turn over body cam footage. meanwhile, new york police officer who was filmed using a banned chokehold o on an african american manan last sunday will face second-degree strtrangulatn charges.s. offificer david afanador previously faced criminal charges after he repeatedly pistol whipped a 16-year-old boy during a mararijuana bust, sendg the boy to the hospital with two broken teeth. the police chiefef in tucson ararizona has offefered to resin following the dedeath of a man n police custody. 27-year-old carlos ingram-lopez died on april 21 after police tasered him at his grandmother's house.

his family had called the police because the man was drunk and running around the house naked. when police arrived they wrestled the man to the ground and handcuffed him with his hands behind his back. they then tasered him, ordering him to chill down and relax. in police body cam video, carlos ingram-lopez can be heard asking for water and his grandmother. at one point he says "i can't breathe." the pima county attorney's office is now conducting a criminal investigation of the actions of the officers who have all resigned. in wisconsin, a 19-year-old black young woman facing life in prison on charges of killing her alleged sex trafficker was freed from jail on bail monday. chrystal kizer had been imprisoned for two years while awaiting trial. she was allegedly trafficked beginning at the age of 16 by randall volar, a 34-year-old white man. court records reportedly show volar had a history of sexually abusing underage black girls but remained free. kizer says she shot and killed volar in self-defense in 2018

after he drugged her and tried to rape her. advocates have pointed to the striking similarities between kizer's case and that of cyntoia brown's, who was freed from prison last year after being granted clemency while serving a life sentence for killing a man who bought her for sex when she was just 16 years old. in georgia, a grand jury has indicted three white men on murder charges for killing ahmaud arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was chased down and shot to death february 23. retired police officer greg mcmichael and his son travis, along with their friend william bryan, walked free for months after arbery's killing and were only arrested after a video of the killing filmed by bryan went viral on social media. the three men remain in a glynn county jail and have not yet been arraigned. also in georgia, a republican-controlled committee of state lawmakers has advanced a bill that would bar election officials from mailing absentee ballot applications to millions

of active registered voters ahead of november's election. under senate bill 463, voters who want to cast ballots by mail would have to initiate the process themselves. rhode island's gogovernor has signgned an executive ororder to shorten the state's official name on officials documents from "the state of rhode island and providence plantations" to just "the state of rhode island." state senator harold metts, who is african-american, s said he will also push for the state to officially change the state's name as well. metts said -- "the word 'plantations' conjures extremely painful imimages for many rhode islanders." democratic state senator tim carpenter was hospitalized after he was assaulted on tuesday during a chaotic night in madison. carpenter said he was punched multiple times and kicked in the head after he took a brief video of protesters on his phone. on the same ninight, a groupup f people took down two statues in

madison -- one for the abolitionist union army colonel hans christian hegeg and another known as the "forward" statue that has come to represent women's rights. several hihistorians queuestiond why these statues were targeted but one activist said the prominent display of those statues create a "false rerepresentation of f what thisy is." israel is facing increasing international condemnation over its plan to annex parts of the occupied west bank. on wednesday, u.n. secretatary general antonio guterres called on israel toto abandon its plan. >> if implemented, constitutes the most serious relatation of international law, grievously harmrmed the prospect of a two state solution, and possibilitieies of negegotiatio. i call on the isisraeli governmt to abandon the annexation planes. amy: meanwhile, seven european nations have issue a joint statement saying annexation would violate international law

and weaken efforts to advance regional peace. belgium, britain, estonia, france, germany, ireland, and norway signened the statemt.t. back in the e united states, a hospital in n philadelphia has t off plans to deport an undocumented guatemalan man back to his home country after facing protests from medical students and immigrants rights activists. the guatemalan man has been treated at the jefferson torresdale hospital since suffering a serious head injury in may during a motorcycle accident. the man's family feared he would die if transferred back to guatemala. the case is bringing renewed attention to what's known as "medical repatriations" where a hospital arranges to privately deport individuals who cannot pay for r medical treatment. in a majajor win for progressive democrats, jamaal bowman has claimed victory in tuesday's primary election over 16-term new york congressmember eliot engel, the powerful chair of the house foreign affairs committee. bowman tweeted -- "i'm a black man raised by a

single mother in a housing project. that story doesn't usually end in congress. but today, that 11-year-old boy beaten by police is about to be your representative. i can't wait to get to d.c. and cause problems for those maintaining the status quo." while bowman leads by over 25 percentage points, many absentee ballots have not yet been counted. the democratic national committee has announced plans to hold its national convtition almost entiry y onli to o sl communitspspreadf cocorovirus.s. joe deden isxpececteto acccct the mocraticararty'ss presidential nominatn n at a inerson event in mwawaukeen gust 20, but delates are being asd d not traraveto wiscsisin fothe e coentionons initiallplplanned. buhold t conntntion ross amica. a fedel appealcourt ha orded a lowecourt to dmiss e crimin case agnst ump'former nional serity ener miael flyn thgh flynnwice pleed guil to lyinto the f about

his commicationsith the russian bassador the ling is major viory for the justice departrtment, which has sought t to drop its case againstst flynn. the ruling came as the house judiciary committee held a hearing on the politicization of the justice department. former deputy attorney general donald ayer who served under george h.w. bush said william barr poses "the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law." >> we are on the way to something far worse than watergate where you had a problem of public distrust because it is becoming very transparent that many things are being done, essentially, for reasons that are completelyly unrelated to the meritits of the case.. amy: the pharmaceuticacal giantt bayer whicich acquired monsasano two years ago has agreed to pay $10 billion to settle tetens of thousands of claims that the popular weed killer roundup causes cancer. the deal has been described as among the largest settlements ever in u.s. civil litigation.

in the caribbean, a massive dust plume from the sahara desert has darkened s skies and fororced residedents with resespiratory illness s to shelter i indoors. models show haze soon settttle over the united states, bringing hazardous air quality to states as far north as michigan. meteorologist a this one is unprecedented in at least half a centntury. minnesota attorney general keith ellison has filed suit against exxonmobil, koch industries, and the american petroleum institute, accusing the fossil fuel organizations of defrauding consumers by covering up the effects of climate change. minnesota joins at least 15 other plaintiffs, including attorneys general in massachusetts, new york, and rhode island, who've brought similar lawsuiuits. ellison was joined at a press conference wednesday by juwaria jama, a 16-year-old leader with the minnesota a youth climate strike. >> these corporations s do the impacts of climate change long before. they could have sounded the

alarm and beganan working toward solutions. instead, they decided to d decee the public. they knew exactltly whatat was happening. instead of making choices to repair our planet, they covered up the damage. instead of allowing experts to craft solutions, they hid the problem. i am here today because these corporations h have gone far too long without ever being held accountable for the damages they have caused to o our globe and r fututure. amy: and thosese are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.orgrg, the quarante rereport. when we come back, we look at how the p pandemicc iss devastg the western hemisphere's twoo largesest countrtries, the unitd states and brazil. ststay with usus. ♪ [music break]

y:y: musian n key swayay performing "lean omeme" wi thsands s peaceful protesters ving the cell l one

flashligs in fro of the white use earlr this mth. is is democracy w!, democrynow.orgththe quantitine report. i am amyoodman he in n york with nermeenhahaikh broaoaasting fm her home. neeen: welcomto all oour listeners anviewers omom arnd the cntry andround the world. y: as cod-19 cas soar in e unitedtates to new sile day hh, we look at ho thpandemics devasting th hemihere's two laest counies, thenited stes and brazil. we will start south in brazil. as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide approaches 10 million, nearly half of all of them can be found in the americas. because of an explosion of cases in n brazil, whicich nw has s the worst infection ratetn the woworld. some e epidemiologisists say the death toll of the pandemic in brazil could pass the united

states by next month. this comes as a judge has ordered brazil's far-right president jair bolsonaro to wear a mask in public or he'll face a fine of nearly $400 per violation. bolsonaro continues to attend massive political rallies across brazil. during a virtual briefing wednesday, the world health organization's marcos espinal said brazil is not doioing enouh teststing. >> brazil is a countrtry that hs many resources that could increase the number ofof tests s conducting. ovover the past few weeks, b brl ss made progress in increasing its tests but still does not arrive at 10,000 t tests per eah main residence and it is necessary that they do more. amy: meanwnwhile, brazil joining other countries in testing an experimental coronavirus vaccine crcreated by oxford university. but the country's health minister sayays that the government has yet to strike a

deal to get the vaccine, if it works. well, for more, we're joined by marcia castro, who is professor of demography and chair of the department of global health and population at the harvard t.h. chan school of public health. she also co-chairs the brazil studies program at harvard's center f for for latin american studies. professor castro, we welcome you to democracy now! why don't you start off by talking about the scope of the problem in brazil, purging only the united states -- which is number one in the world -- when it comes to these coronavirus cases of infection and deaths. we will talk about the u u.s. ia moment, but tata about whahat is happening in your country, in brazil. >> i just want to start by saying the frustrating thing about this story iss that brazil could be teaching a lesson to the entire world on how to respond toto a pandemic by leveraging its h history, its

network of primary care -- which is one of the largesest in thehe world -- and by using i its universal health care system. what we see in the country is a reflection of the leadership that we have. a leadership that has andnd continues s to downplay the importance of the virus, that neglects science -- and that is an important point of swell -- increases situation thatat mayos and gogovernors who wawant to ge the right r response of actctio, ththey face a sisituationn thatt they're doing somomethingng thas against with the president says. so it makes it hard for the population to adhere to what they're trying toto do. it is also a failure bebecause e could have our community help agents -- and we have almost 300,000 of those -- being the backbone of the response. and yet the primary care in a

community health agents s are nt being used as part of the response. we're not doing contact tracing, either. the community health agents could be doing the contact tracing. they could be identifying the elderly, the people that are more vulnerable. they could identify thohose peoe that don't have water at h home. that is the other thing. brazil is a country with lots of inequalities. we cannot expect you're just going to take whatever countries in europe or high income countries have done and implement in brazil and it is going to work. you really have to be adapted to those inequalities of informal labor r -- peoeople cannot stop working. people that live in high density households. there's no way they can do self isolation. and people that don't have access to water. and we keep going wiwith ineqequalities, the numberer of hospital beds.

those numbers are worse in the states in the amazon region. it is not t by chance that we te regional pattern of debts in cases in brazil that we are observining. it is a shame that they could be very different if we actually use what we have. we don't have to reinvent the wheel, but just use the n netwok of health care resources the country has, and we are neglecting to do this. nermeen: profefessor castro, you mentioned -- you just talked about these communitity heaealth centers and how they could be used to combat this pandemic. i would like to ask about, first of all, the region that has been the worst afaffected by the pandemic in brazil, mainly the amazon, and whwhether such community health centers exist in the region. the situation is so bad -- we spoke to world-renowowned lastlian photographer

month anand he said the i indigs populalation of the e amazon are effectivively facing a g genocif the government d doesn't interve , they y are so vulnerablble and have died in such large e numbe. so couould you talk about accccs to health services in the amazon , why the reregion hasas been dispsproportionately affefectedd also the acceleratated ratate of deforestation that p presently s ococcurring anand how that is impacting the spread of the virus? >> that is a very important point, amy. whatat we have is the region alreadady has the worst indicats in termsf health services.. so it is the e place e in brazil where you have the lowest numbers of hospital l beds per .erson, physicians per person

many municipalities don't have hospitals and icu beds is even worse. you already start the pandemic having fewer resources in those places. in addition, we have several communities in the region that have other inequalities that i mentioned. overall in the amazon region, 43% of the population don't have access to water. but in some states, it is higher than that. there is a completely separate health care foror the indigenous population. and those have lost a a lot of e physicians in the past few years when a large progrgram that exisisted in brazizil that brout foreigner physicians to work in those underserved areas was completely dismantled. again, keep adding thohose slayerers, right?? since the new president took term, there is not a lot of attention in terms of preserving the environment. in fact, last year, we saw

deforestation, horrible firere season. and this year, we have already passed the deforestation from last year and we still have about a month and hahave to go f the cutting season. whenevever you have thiss dedeforestation, y you have cont of this people that want to exploit the lands with indigenous areasas. we see it is exactly in the indigenous reserves where we are seeing most of the damage. and those areas are supposed to be preserved. and they used to be. indndigenousou haveve peoplele dying because of this encounter but on top of this, now they are being infected because the e people that come into the area briring the virus. they c can bring any p pathogen. it is not jujust deforestatitio. we have e to remember there is also mining, which is another activity that exposes indigenous pepeople to that. 100all in brazil, we have

indigenous areas that have been infected with covid. we have about 7200 indigenous people that have been infected and the number keeps rising. in about 330 deaths that have already been reported. what happens also is b because a lot of mumunicipalities don't he hohospitals, don't have beds, te health system woworks with sortf a regionalization scheme. so whenever r people need hospil care, need to be hospitalized, there e is a reference municipality that takes those people. what we saw in manau, the first capital in the amazon region that really had a completely overload of the health system, is that once the capital is completely overloaded and they cannot even provide hospitalizations for people living in the capital, they can't serve all the minutes of polities that depend on them. -- municipalities that depend on them.

they very high numbers of deaths that we deserved those areas, part of them could have been avoided if we had enough hospital servivices available. above all, ththey couldld have n avoided if we prprovided a bettr responsese. soso the commumunity health age, they are all ovever brazil. they basically act on the community. they know the people they served. a oneh team has about physician, one nurse come in about six community health workers. they go house to house to provide care. iny had very good coveragee the poor and vulnerable areas, so in the north and nortrtheast. but once the panandemic started, those community y health agents were notot provided with protecective equipment so they can't go on the street. theyey were not provideded with training, either. so those people that could be right there on the ground helping to identify symptoms,

helping to isolate people, therefore,e, helping to do contt tracing, therefore helping to flatten the curve so wewe could have avoided the overload of the hospital system, they werernot working. so it is not just about the inequalities.. they do play a role. it is not just about thehe low provision of health services in ththarea. theyey also play a role. bubut is about ththe completety chaotic response that basically exacerbated all of those inequalities and created the situation n we saw in manaus and elsewhwhere anand right now anor capital in the amazon has more than 90% occupancy of hospital beds. so we can start hearing from the capital pretty soon. thato want to make a point the fire season is about to start in about a month or so.

if we have a high level of deforestation, the fireses will come because that is the process. the wood is on the floor. whatever thehey could not sell, they're going to burn. whenever we have the fire season, we have an increase in the respiratory conditions. we have an increase in the demand for hospitalizations because of f respiratoryy conditions. and we have an increase in t the mortality of chihildren under te age off 10.0. now, this is a v very -- it is a horrible combination. increasing respiratory conditions may make people more susceptible to a severere covid9 infection. twowocan have an overlay of huge problems that will createe again another collapse in the hospital system. we have been trying to raise awareness of this and trying to avoid a fire season like we had last year because this would bee devaststating.

andd the effects w would not sty just in the amazon. what happens in the amamazon dos not t stay in the amazon. as we s saw last year, the smoke anand the particulatess that coe from the forest fire, they c can go to other areas and therefore affect other people in brazil as well. amy: earlier this month, the kayapoamazon indigenous chief paulinho paiakan died of covid-19. he was 66 years old. he was a lifelong defender of the amazon rainforest, who in the 1980's led the resistance against the belo monte hydroelectric project, an environmentally destructive massive complex of dams planned to be built on the xingu river in the heart of the amazon. the project was successfully suspended at the time, but later reinstated. in recent years, paiakan had warned against brazilian president jair bolsonaro's calls to open the amazon for agriculture and mining. which brings us back to the

president and his policies and how the fact that he is being fined by a judge for himself not protecting himself, similar to his ally president trump. but his policieses in the amazon and what they're doing now, professor castro? >> well, it is unfortunate because when you see what is being done i in the e amazon noe are e basically losing about 20 years of achievements of really protected to makake reserve forest, protected indigenous areas. we had the forest code e that ws real a a m model. we were able to r reduce the forestation to the lowest levels. and wewe are losing ththis. we're losing this at rampant rates. that is bringing a a lot of deas . a lot of the deaths of local leaders, indigenous peoples,

people just try to protect the forest, are not even advertise.. the situation is very complicated because those are big business people. they are making money by clclearing the f forest. in the local producers, the local communinities -- it has vy hahard for them toto fight agait those people, especially when they are backed up by the government. rerecentlyly, the government fininds peoplened had to pay because of deforestation. that sendsds a big messagege. if you are not would you be penalized or held accocountable, let's go a ahead a d do more. what we're seeing in thehe environmental l agenda in brazil is very concerning. rececently, there have been difffferent g groups that wrote letters to international peoplpe -- relatedlly import to the agro business in brazil..

and now w i hope this is goinino create some discussion at the federal level because if there is one thing that they don't want to damage, is thee agribusisiness i in brazil. to stope big importersrs buying their products because they're causing a lot of deforestation or a lot of -- thees in t the balance environmental balance in the amazon, thatat could create a reaction. but if nothing happens, if they just c can profit in ways that e really not understandable bebecause we have enough data to show that during the years when deforestation is going down, the amazon was extremely productive. the agribusiness was productive. we can make the amazon to be productive a and profitable without ving to remove more forestst cover.

again, they are big fish and it is hard for local communities to fight against them. nermeen: professor castrtro, mentionened earlier that brazil haless resources to be able to do the kinds of things, take the measures that countries in europe have taken like social distancicing and quarantines and wearing masksks and so on. and now if course, covid is spreading g at an acceleleratede in developing countries a and te poor countries of latin america, south asia, and africica, where there is also a massive shortage ofof medical eququipment, inclug the most urgent providing covid, namely, oxygen. in onene country in latitin ame, in peru, oxygen is being sololdn the black art -- market for up to 1000%0% markup.

meanwhilile, yemen, which was alalready the popoorest countryn saudi-l-ledfore the coalition bombing of the country, covid i is also spreadg there and, unlike most of the world, 25% of the people who contract covid19 in yemen d die. thatat is five times m more thae global average. so if you could talk a little bit aboutut you have been workig -- attending a conference that looks at the develelopment o of tocine foror covid19 and how ensure access to the vaccine in most vulnererable to it spread, including result. could you tell us where thahat stands now? >> that is a very gogo question. test twow is going to

vavaccines. there is an n agreement signed with the chinese pharmaceutical company and with a vaccine from oxford. and then there arare also groups in brazil developing different types of vaccinene. so there is s a different effort in different fronts. the key issue for l low and mide income countriries will be if we imimagine a scenario, hypothetil scenarioio that we getet a good vaccine -- w whatever "good" mes , that is another discussion -- is ready to be prododuced at sce vacaccination at scale. the first item,m, production at scale, right? if the production is going to be restricted to the high income countries, does raise the question,n, who is gog toto get it first?? we saw this before when we had the h1n1, that the rich countries g got the vaccine firt because they couould pay for itr

they were producing it, and then the othersrs had t to wait. thatat is the fifirst discussio. that is s why it is so importatt for those agreements come international agreements that are being made, so that countries can have access to the science behind the vaccine development, but t they can also have a access to the vaccine beg produced. brazil is unique in the sense they do have at least two public institutions -- i will go back to this point in a moment -- but and have an open institute -- that they already produce most of thee v vaccines didistrd in the country. they can do o it. however, it depends what t typef coronavirus vaccine we are going to have. there differerent types of them. each one of them demands a different type of industrial plans to be able t to produce. what countries shohould be doing

now -- and s some european countries are e doing this -- te ones that have the industrial capacicity to produce the vacci, they should be trying to find ways to expedite the industrial production so the moment something is ready, they can do it. again, not every country will be able to do this and it will depend on the countries producing the vaccine to have access to it. the second t thing is, it depens on how the vaccine will be distribubuted. is that a type of vaccine that is verery stable and easy to carry? is it the type that is not very stable and he will be much more tricky to go around the country and to the very isolated areas to distribute? wewe don't t know that yet. but that can bring challenges to the whole logistic c process of doing vaccination at scale. the other thing is, we don't know how many doses we're going to need. we don't know how countries insight each country they willll -- insight eacach country they

will prioritize who will get it first. the case of brazil is interesting because we do have a universal health sysystem. everybody gets access to care and a vaccination for free. you don't pay a penny for it. in theory, every persoson in brazazil will bee eligible to receive the vaccine once it is available. but if it takes a long period of time to produce the vaccine --- we have 80 million peopople in e world. how long will it takekeo produce that many doses?s? if youou can only produce onene billllion per r year, you can imimagine thatat we are going to onave t to set priorities both inside the c country who i is gg to get first cup and how countries will make agreements on how many of those they're going to receive. the vaccination at scale is going to be extremely complicated. i think witith the support from who and others, we have to find ways to make this as equitable

as possible so we d don't sesee another situationon where the mt vulnerable takeses the heavier burdenen in the vaccine -- nine amy: professor castro, i want to ask about ththis massive spike f coronavirus infections in the united states. in the most populous states, texas, california, florida, which make up one quarter of u.s. population, they are seeing the largest fight in the history of t this pandemic. this comes as the white house now says it will no longer fund federal testing sites. and you president trump refusing to wear a mask in public. you have dozens of secret service agents who were with him in tulsa and now are in self-isolation -- just one example, a spike in tulsa where he w was. very quickly, if you can s say what you t think needs to happen in this country. >> honestly, what we n need is better leaeadership.

inwe keep putting people closed envnvironments s where pe don't t wear masks, , if we keep sending the message that it is no big deal while people are i canan't think k of any waway to solve the problem. only two countries that have been more than one million cases other than having better leadership, leadershihip they cn trust in science. ,my: professor mararcia castror, thank you being with us professor of demography and , chair of the deparartment of global health and population at the e harvard t.h. chan n schoof public health. cochairs the brazil's studies program at harvard's center f fr latin american studies. when we co back, thehe reverend william barber. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "hold on just a little while longer" virtual choir during the mass poor people's assembly & mororal march on washington earlier this week organized by our next guest, reverend william barber. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodmanwith nermeen shaikh. hours before president trump spoke in tulsa, oklahoma, the poor people's campaign offered a counterpoint with a mass digital gathering wherere the camampaign under the policy platform to

spur transformative action. in minute, we will be joined by one of its key organizers, dr. reverend william barber, cochair of the poor people's campaign, but first we turn to his speech on saturday watched by millions. >> in recent weeks, we have had the media ask, when will the protests stop? since we have lunch this campaign, people of asked, what one demand is your top priority? well, we say when you decided to $2.5vid response, y you gave trillion, nearly $3 trillion to the banks and corporationsns. if they can have 3 trillion things, don't ask us what is our one thing. amy: that is reverend dr. william barber, cochair of the poor people's campaign. we welcome y you to demomocracy! yoyou are speaking on saturday. he is joining us from raleigh, north carolina, were covered 19 cases are surging. governor roy cooper has issued

an executive order for people across north carolina to wear masks or face coverings in public to fight the spread of covid19 and president trump has moved republican convention from north cararolina to floridada because he did not want any limitations or requirements that masks be worn at the convention for at there b be social distancicing. reverend barber, welcome back to democracy now! if you can start out by talking about where you go from here -- what was this mass march on washington, virtually, that you held? what are y you demanding now? > thank you u so much, amy. you open with that song that was written and designed in one of our musicolologiststs andnd it s the story y that for more thanan three yearss we have been moving across this country organizing the poor people's s campaign and national call for moral revival. we now have 45 coordinated committees, more than 200

partners. we have more than 19 religious dedenominations and various gros that are part of this effort, and many others. what happened on saturdayay, we one planned giving in d.c. pepennsylvania avenue but becaue of covid19, we could not. but our people said, we have to still dodo this. and soso we did. when you heard me s speaking, tt wawas after 500 peoeople -- at t 50 peoplee come impacted people from across this country, pooror and low wealth, told their stories, their d domains. morere than two point finally people t turned out for the mass poor people civil is moralal mah on washihington, digital a affa, 2.5 million jusust on facebeboo. that doesn't include what happened on other networks and cnn -- excuse meme, c-spanan and radio across this land. peoeopleas wasas

cocounterintuitivevely, commone, for full from -- saying there are five issues that we have to address. systemic racism in all of its form, like people, brown people my first nation people, systemic worldrty, the f false must doe. we it with h deep love but also whh the truth. theyey decided we want to tell r story. we went to show amererica herse, we want to put a face on these issues and then we want t to put the facts araround these issues and then we want to putut forwad an agenda. that is whwhat we didd onn satuy and wawas overwhelmingly beyond

ourrxpectationons. one of the t things our agenda says to people is, do you realize that when voter suppression is put in place that it s suppresses the vote, targes the black folk, but what it does is also alloww people to get electeted to them blblock health care and block living wages? and that hurts all of us, regardless ofof your race, gender, or color. if we took one e military contract, wewe could find every state that has refefused to acat the affordable care act. just one military contntct could get preschool to all the children we need. if we just took the money that we spent since 9/11, we could've had a green grid for our country to deal with new kinds of energy. --you realize if we spent move the living which to 15

dolollars, people couldld come out of poverty and the well. that is the focus of this agenda say the e choicess we are making our bad choices. that is what we have 140 million people poor and the w will in ts country and 60 trillllion people who work everyry day without a livingng wage and 80 billion people without insururance were underinsured. it does s not have to bebe this. nermeen: reverend barber, you justst said that t there were fe domains which you listed, things that n need to happen. i would likeke to turn to aa lengthy pipiece for "the new yok titimes" magazine headlined "wht is owed" b by report nicole hannah j jones thahat lays out e case for reparations, saying most nototably that it is wealth and not income ththat is a means to security in america but wealth is not t something that people create solely b by themselves, it is s accumulated

across generations. she goes onon to sasay that t an history has systematically robbeded african-americansns ofs possibibility and that the racil wealth gap is about the same today as it was in the 1950's. she says reparations are the only means through which to compensate for the structures of inequality that have made it all but impossible for african-americans to achieve anything like the financial security that white americans take for granted. she cites a young university study which found that in fact most americans have absolutely no idea of the extraordinary gale of this racial inequality. the report finds that americans are under the russian that black households -- impression that black households hold 90% of wealalth held by -- but the truh

is, black households have only $10 for every $100 in what households. could you reresponded that and whether you support the idea that there should be reparations? >> what our dear sister is sayiying to us is thate e have o de with the reality of this inequality how much was sewn into the very foundation -- economic foundation, social foundation of this country.. yes,s, we needed to do w with te issue of r reparations. yes, she is exalyly right that it is about weaealth. an income to some degree. bubut that is why we e can't jut lklk about p peoe hahaving a jo. because just having a job, if it is a low-wage job, it does notot allow you to do withth wealtlthr accumulate wealth. she's also right thahat you cant

fix these inequalities by just having black businesses in the community y or just by sayingg people pull themselves up by theieir own bootststraps. it is government policicy that created disisenfranchisement, tt ststole wealth, that built thths countrtry on the backs of people withouout them having to pay ananything. ththink about it, 250 years of free labor is no wonder that america has the greatest gross domestic product and is the wealthiest nation in the country. 250 years of free labor? on top of that, 100 y years of sesegregation. and we still pay people less $7.25.stly pay people for african-americans come that has taken is 4 400 years to o go $7.255 an hour because we s stad out at zero dollars in slavery. you cannot wait another 400 years. what we do in the poor people's campaign is we also want to show

-- talk about reparations, and to talk about our first nation brothers and sisters. you cannot leave them out. you cannot leave them out. how all of show sose systems have undermined much possibility for people. that is why we are dealing with people -- poor folks in appalachia. we point out while there are 140 mimillion poor and low w wealth people in this couountry, 66 million of them are white. 20 six lane our blood. the 26 lien black -- the 26 million black are 61% of alall african-americans. our campaign sayss we cannot d l with t these issues separately. just like we fight f for reparatitions for african americans, we also have to figit fofor the same for firstst natin people, are tive a american mothers and sisters but we alsoo have to showveryrybody else that racism is t targeted at black

people and peopl of color but ends up undermining this democracy. one thing we pointed out on sasaturday is every regressiveve policy has what i call a dm onn the dl. depth measurement on the down low. what we talk about the death of geororge floyd - -- which we hao and pololice violence, but polie violence is only one part of racism that kills in classism that kills. for every 500,000 people that are denied health care, 2800 people die. 700 people die every day from poverty, even before covid. we know we're headed toward poverty plus 50% in this economic downturn. policy has assive depth measurement on the down low. we have got to bring those things out.. even after shohow people that racicist vototers -- voter -- onceon

people get elected come they block health care, living wages, block repeparationsns. they in fact are blocking policies that could cause people to liviv in blocking them, people d die. the first declclaration this country made -- never lived up to a fully -- is the declaration to life. life and the pursuit of happiness. life. in far too much of our regressive policies, we have never dealt with the issue of life becausese we haveve never t with so many policies -- racism has alwaways had debt in it. classism has death in it. we have to -- it has to o be pat if we are truly going to ever be the democracy we claim to be on paper. in theu cowrote a piece appeal headlined "american democracy cannot breathe" annually protester low income workers writing "is that is no

coincidence that george floyd was lack more that he was an unemployed restaurant wororker." let's end there. as we speak in this historic election europe 2 2020 in the midst of this pandemic, georgia trying to deny absenteee b balls autotomaticacally going out, who you think needs to happen by november? >> what has to happen is our lawywyers have to get into its imimmediately this sumummer and fight for m more opportununitieo vote. we have to make e sure we byrwhelm m the system registration and participation. we have to make susure our p pee know about mail-in balallots in eaearly voting. weavave to figight for all those things. we're going to have to have protection. anand we're goioing to have to p doing whwhat the p protestererse dodoing and we are d doing, andt isis refusing to all anyone toto suffffocate this democracycy. i thinink atat is what we're sayingng in the streets, people are trying to breathe, justice is trying to breathe, truth is

trying to breathe, and we have to make sure that at the ballot box there is all of us are there and we vote and vote and vote until justice is revived. amy: we have to leave it there. thank you so much, reverend dr. william

narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," climate change is forcing people to migrate in search of food and shelter, altering traditional lifestyles across the globe. in tijuana, mexico, haitians fleeing devastation are building a neighborhood as their dreams of entering the united states dwindle. while in mongolia, the traditional herding lifestyle is threatened as drought forces a new generation to the capital in search of opportunities.