07/16/20 07/16/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> if we could get everyone to wear a mask right now, i think at the next four to 68 weeks we can bring this under control. amy: as health expert sworn the coronavirus is on the rise in 41 states, many governors are re-imposing restrictions after attempts at opening up their state, but trump wants schools open. we will speak with public health historian john barry who says

the pandemic could get much, much worse if we don't take bolder action now. he is the author of "the great influenza." the newly released police body cam footage reveals devastating new details of the police killing of george floyd. in louisville, kentucky, 87 people are arrested after they heheld a peaceful l protest outd the state attorney general's house to demand the arrest of the officers who killed breonna taylor. >> breonna taylor! >> say her name1 amy: much more with professor marc lamont hill, author of "nobody: casualties of america's war on the vulnerablble from ferguson to flint d d beyond."." as covid himself. all of that in morore, coming u.

all that and morore, coming up. welcome e to democracy n now!, dedemocracynow.orgrg, the quarae repoport. i'i'm amy goodman. the u.s. continues to shatter coronavirus records, with 41 u.s. states recording increasing cases of covid-19. more than 67,000 new cases were reported wednesday, nearly tying the previous daily record. the official us death toll is now over 137,000. shattering any recordn the world. in houston, texas, the u.s. army deployed hundreds of medical personnel to set up a covid-19 ward in united memorial medical cecenter as intensivive care uns filled to capacity. texas congressmember sheila jackson lee toured the hospital wednesday. >> whenever you enlist united ststates military for citizens, you're at a peak crisis period. i think that is important for

everyone who thinks this is going away. anyone who thinks we are at the end of it. amy: the houston independent school district said wednesday it will start the school year with at least six weeks of online classes, with a tentative plan to open classrooms in late october. in florida, confirmed coronavirus cases topped 300,000 wednesday, even as disney world completed a phased reopening of its orlando theme parks. in miami, hospitals have run out of regular intensive care beds, with new patients moved into converted icu's. florida governor ron desantis said he was mobilizing 1000 medical workers to fill critical staffing shortages. he refuses to impose a state mask mandate. in alabama, governor kay ivey has issued a statewide mask order until the end of july, reversing months of opposition to a mask mandate. alabama hospitals reported 47 deaths on wednesday, another single-day record.

the alabama governor's order came after the director of the centers for disease control and prevention, dr. robert redfield, said a nationwide mask mandate could save tens of thousands of lives. >> if we can get everyone to wearar a mask right now, i think in four to six weeks we can get this under control. amy: in georgia, where the official covid-19 death toll passed 3000 this week, governor brian kemp issued an executive order wednesday voiding local mask ordinances. savannah mayor van johnson, who was the first mayor in georgia to mandate masks, tweeted in response -- "it is officially official. governor kemp does not give a damn about us." earlier wednesday, governokemp grgreeted donaldld trump on thte tarmac as ththe president t arrd at hartsfieleld-jackson internrnional airport in atnta. both trump a and kemp wore n no mamasks as they y greeted eachch other, thougugh the georgigia governor q quickly put his back on. atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms, who's in self-isolation

with covid-19, said trp p broke ththe law by violating h executive order requiring facial coveringin public. in oklahoma, republican governor kevin stitt has become the first u.s. governor to test positive for coronavirus. speaking from self-isolation wednesday, governor stitt continued to resist making masks mandatory for oklahomans. >> not thinking about a mask mandate at all. if we want to give businesses the freedom, i know some are mandating masks and that is great you can't take a and chooe what freedoms you're going to get people. amy: oklahoma governor stitt was photographed wearing no mask as he welcomed president trump to a campaign rally in tulsa on june 20. so was former republican presidential candidate herman cain, an afrfrican american canr survivor over the age of 70 who contracted covid-19 after trump's rally and has been hospitalized for weeks.

meanwhile, walmart said wednesday all its u.s. customers will be required to wear masks beginning july 20. the white house is distancing itself from president trump's sesenior trade adviser peter navarro, who accuseded top u.s. infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci of being wrong about everything related to thee pandemic. a white house statement wednesday claimed navarro "didn't go through normal white house clearance processes" before publishing the criticisms in a "usa today" op-ed. speaking to an online healthcare summit, dr. fauci called on u.s. officials s to "stop this nonsense" and get back to the work of fighting the pandedemic. >> i think they y realize nonowt was s not a prudedent thing to o because it is only reflecting negatively on them. i can't explain peter navarro. he is in a world by himself so i don't even want to go there. amy: despite the fact the white house try to distance itself from the trade advisor peter

navavarro, thehe white house itf put out oppositition-like bullet points against fauci earlier. worldwide, the pandemic continues to accelerate. india reported a record one-day spike of nearly 33,000 new cases. kenya's health ministry says it's fighting a massive covid-19 outbreak at the nation's largest maternity hospital in nairobi. at least 450 kenyan healthcare workers have fallen ill, with four deaths. in the peruvian amazon, activists are warning the virus could devastate isolated indigenous communities, after six coronavirus cases were confirmed among the nahua people. the tribe was only recently contacted and its memembers lack immunity to many viruses , including the common cold. in brazil, far-right president jair bolsonaro said wednesday he's tested positive for covid-19 for the second time since falling ill a week ago. bolsonaro claims he's taking hydroxychloroquine for the disease, a drug once touted by president trump that's been

shown by several scientific studies to provide no benefit against the disease. in fact, could kill the patient who takes it. brazil's death toll is now over 75,300. back in the united states, president trump wednesday unilaterally rolled back the 50-year-old national environmental policy act, speeding up approval for federal projects like pipelines, highways, and waste incinerators. environmental groups immediately promised legal challenges. in a statement, greenpeace usa said -- "the trump administration's anti-environment agenda is a racist agenda. dismantling nepa is a blatant attempt to silence the working class communities of color who are resisting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure into their communities." on capitol hill, republican senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said monday he won't open new talks on another federal stimulus until next week

at the earliest. without congressional action, a $600 weekly boost to unemployment benefits will expire at the end of july for more than 30 million people. this comes as harvard researchers estimated some 110,000 small businesses have closed permanently since the start of the pandemic. on wednesday, goldman sachs reported over $2.4 billion in second-quarter profits, shattering investor expectations. and a new study by americans for tax fairness finds u.s. billionaireses have added d $584 billion to their personal wealth since march -- a greater amount than thehe budget shortfalls of3 u.s. states. in m minneapolis, newly r relead police body camera footage reveals devastating g new detais of george flfloyd's killlling on memorial day, showing officers at georgeun, swore

floyd.d. it also showed medics did not appear to rush to floyd's aid after r they arrived. this comes as george floyd's family filed a lawsuit against four of the former officers involved in his killing, and also against the city of minneapolis, saying it failed to properly dismiss officers with records of abuse and/or properly train new ones. this is the family's attorney benjamin crump. >> the city of minneapolis has a history of policies and procedures and deliberate indifference when it comes to the treatment of arrestees, especiallyly black men. amy: w we'll have the e latest n george floyd's killing by minneapolis police after headlines, speakaking with professor marc lamont hillll, wo has covid-19 himself. in louisville, k kentucky, callg

on prosecutors to drop felony charges against 87 people who held a peaceful sit in p protest tuesday outside the home of state attorney general daniel cameron. the demonstrators were demanding the arrest and prosecution of the officers who killed breonna taylor. the black global resident who was shot inside her own home by police. among those arrested, the president of t the minneapolis naacp, houston texans wide receiver kenny still and men's march cofounder lin sarsour. if convicted on felony charg, th couldace up tfive years in pson. here inew yorknewly reased police body cam footage shows a police officer assaulting an unhoused man who refused to give up his seat on a subway train during the coronavirus lockdown in may. manhattan district attorney cyrus vance is charging the victim with felony assault of an officer, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

elsewhere, the nypd arrested 37 people wednesday as counter-protesters confronted a pro-police march on the brooklyn bridge. several protesters and four police officers were injured in the skirmishes, which came as mayor bill de blasio signed new police accountability measures into law. asheville, nororth carolina, has formally apologized to black residents for the city's role in slavery. a resolution approved unanimously by asheville's city council wednesday calls for investments in black businesses and home ownerership as a form f repaparations. in b berkeley, california, city leaders are moving forward with a plan to replace traffic police with a new, unarmed civilian force. under the plan, armed police officers would no longer respond to emergencies involving unhoused people or residents with mental illness. berkeley's city council has set a goal of cutting the police budget in half.

in bristol, england, a statue of 17th century slave trader edward colston toppled by protesters last month has been replaced wiwith a tribute to a blblack ls matter protester. -- administrator. demonstrator. the new monument features a life-s-sized replica of activist jen reid, who stood on the former statue's empty pedestal, fist held high, after it was torn from its perch and thrown into the harbor on june 7. fist andme, i raised my i did so to give power back to the people, back to the slaves -- iied at the hands of gave power to george floyd. and for other black people who have faced injustices for being black, you know? amy: the statue was installed by a london-based artist without permission from bristol officials, though the city's mayor stopped short wednesday of

saying it would be removed. in northern yemen, medical workers say a u.s.-backed, saudi-led bombing raid on a residential neighborhood wednesday killed 25 civilians, while critically injuring nine others. a local doctor treated several children injured in the airstrikes. >> the only injured victims are all children. we received three or four people . today is a painful and sadad day for the e freedom many p people. amy: t the yemen data project estimates the saudi-led coalition has carried out more than 21,000 airstrikes in five years of war, killing more than 8700 civilians. most of the raids were carried ouout with weapopons sold by t e uned states. we will have more on this r rept tomorrow on democracacy now! meanwhile, the united nationonss warning of a looming environmental disaster in the red sea, where a stricken oil tanker has been abandoned off

yemen's coast since the start of civil war five years ago. the vessel is loaded with more than a million barrels of crude oil -- four times as much oil as spilled from the exxon valdez in 1989. u.n. humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator mark lowcock said wednesday a spill would directly affect 1.6 million yemenis. yemenenng the west coast t of , whenen see t their livelihoods collapsese and wouldld suffer substantial economic losses. about 90 percent of these people already need humanitarian assistance. amy: in moscow, police arrested dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators wednesday as they protested constitutional reforms paving the way for president vladimir putin to remain in power for another 16 years. the mass arrests follow days of large-scale protests against putin in russia's far east that erupted after the arrest of a

regional governor on murder charges. the protesters say the charges are trumped up and aimed at unseating a governor who beat a kremlin-backed candidate in a 2018 election. twitter says it is investigating a coordinated social engineering attack that saw the accounts of prominent politicians and celebrities briefly have to wednesday. the accounts of former president barack obama, joe biden, billionaires and adding jeff bezos, elon musk, and bill gates tweeted out messages linked to a cryptocurrency a scam. the incident raised fears over twitter's ability to prevent international incidents and domestic crises as political leaders, including donald trump, use the formrm to make policy announcements. and senior white house advisor you ivanka trump under fire for violating government ethics rules after she tweeted a photo of herself endorsing goya foods while clutching a can of black beans. she captioner put "if it is goya, it has to be good."

it came amidst a boycott of goya whos sparked by ceo lavished praise on president trump at a white house event last week. you ivanka trump's tweet appears to violate a law permitting using public office for private gain. on wednesday, as coronavirus deaths topped over 130 7000, donald trump's instagram account tweeted a photo of the president himself flashing a thumbs up sign over an array of goya food products on the resolute desk in the oval office. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the e war and peace report, in new york, mcgibbon, with nermeen shaikh, who is broadcasting from home. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we e begin in minneapolis wewere newly released fofootagem

police body c cameras reveals devastating new details of george floyd's killing on memorial day showing medics did not appear to rush to floyd's eight after they arrived. a warning to our viewers and listeners, we are about to describe scenes of police violence. reporters who were allowed to view the v video at a a court he wednesday say that after the officers arrived on the scene and talked to a store clerk who had called 911, they then point a gun at floyd within 36 seconds when he was -- they banged on his car door and yell at him to get out of the effing car as he pleaded with them, please, don't shoot me. then in footage not previously seen, the officers are shown dragging him to the ground as he is handcuffed. this is cnn's omar jimenez

describing floydyd's final moments. >> p part of what he pointed ton the motion that was on camera was lane asked if floyd should be moved to his side, which shall been responded, no, he is staying put where we have him which planes has, and just worried about excited delirium. it is in those moments s right after that that floyd is still pleaeading, please, please, rigt before that, it is listed in the transcript, the pleases seem to get weaker with each please. eventually, not listed in the transcript, got man, i can't breathe." amy: the attorney for former officer thomas lane requested the footage be released to the court as part of a motion to dismiss the charges against lane. until now, only the written transcripts were made public. this comes as george floyd's family filed a lawsuit against four of the former officers involved in his killing and also against the city of minneapolis, saying it failed to properly dismiss officers with records of abuse and/or properly train new ones.

this is the family's attorney benjamin crump. >> we are going to have an important conversation that continues based on this lawsuit that documents what we have said all along. and that is, it was not just the one of officer derek chauvin george floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, but it was the knee of the entire minneapolis police department on the neck of george floyd that killed him. amy: well, to o respond to these new developments in the case of george floyd's killing by police that sparked a national uprising against t racism and police violence, and much more, we're joined by marc lamont hill, professor of media studies and urban education at temple university and the author of severaral books, incncluding

"nobody: casualties of america's war on the vulnerable, from ferguson to flint and beyond." he is also the host of a new podcast launched this week "coffee and bobooks." professor, welcome back to democracy now!, especially given that yesterday you tweeted -- "i've been fighting covid-19 this week. it's been tough but i'm managing and self-quarantining. please wear masks. please observe social distancing. please stop sharing conspiracy theories and bad science." marc, let's begin there before we go to the latest video of minneaeapolis. thank you so much for joining us. covid-1-19 andof righght now how w you are copin? >> thank you, thank you for asking. i am happy to say that things have been fairly manageable. itit is a very reaeal thihing.

, , ry have been intensese tired, my body is very sore. spend pain, weird things like that. some things i ananticipated d ad semi-did n not. fortunately, my breathining has been ok. not as bad a as some peopleses e been. i feel very fortunate. i'm very fortunate i was ablbleo cess a test and t result re quickly than many people hahave been able to. i encourage people to observe social distancing and wear masks. it is not enough for me e to wer my mask. you have to wear yours, too, in order to make sure no one is in danger as much as possible. obviously, nothing is full proof. we have to do the best we can. marc lamont hill, if you can talk about, as you are home, sort of viewing this through the prism of covid-19 right now in dealing with this, there is a

surge of new information about rryt happened to george pe floyd in his last moments. we now see s some reporters have gotten to o look at, though this video has not been released, bodycam footage of those last -- not himmr. floyd on the ground with the knee on his neck, but when he was in his own car, when the police first came up, and his terror when they came over to the car, cursing at him, "get out of the effing car." he could not figure out what they wanted. he kept asking. this is reported by omar jimenez, reporter, who was arrested, even though they clearly knew he was a cnn reporter. he did get to view this footage. in the pleading that o omar descscribed of george void sang,

even as he is in his ownwn car, please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me. >> you mention the lens ofof covid-19 and in many ways for the last four or five months,s,o many people in this country have felt a sense of and safety --unsaftey, thatat the statate s not have aa concern of making sure the vulnenerable are e takg care of. that is the e chair that many he built, the unpredictability and violence is something that many felt people havave throughout our time in america. what you saw in gegeorge floyd is a senseoyd's face of terror knowing when the police show up, they're not showing up to protect them. they're not showing up to ensure he is ok, not even to figure out how a crime occurred. there simply coming to advance a

very f familiar ritualal of criminalizing and brutalizing blacktentimimes k killing a body. what we see e is terrifying. it is disturbing that george floyd, the moment he shows up, know there's a problem but can't get answerers. likeke many black people have experienced, when you ask a blblack police officer, "what ts the e problem?" that only enrags them further. it is disturbing. i have no desire to see thatat footage, but america needs to know that it happened. nermeen: canan you also responoo ththe financial damages t that benjamin crumpmp, the attorney r geor floydyd's family, has proposed? he s said that,t, although theye not didisclose the sum, crurumps said that he hopes to "set a prececedence that makes it financially prohibitive for

police to wrongfully kill marginalized people." could you responded to that and what effect you think financial settlements could have as a disincentive for the police to exercise this kind of violence? >> i support attorney crimes efforts toc crump's demand some sort of cash settlement from the state because they kill george floyd. that is indisputablele. i am not sure that long-term that will be the ultimate solution. absolutely within a white supremacist capitalistic empire, ofting a rock in the levers capital can always cause things state respond, but this is the deeper issue. in the moment the police officer is faced with a black person,

irrational white supremacist fears about black people emerge. i'm not sure financial logic can stop that. i'm not sure qualified immunity can stop that. although, we need all of those things, i'm not sure that is enough. ultimatetely, wewe have to understand as long as there is policingng in this country, we'e going to have people who are criminalized in ways that affect white supremacy, sesexism, transphobia. disismantle, we have to and a abolish policing. in the meantime, these types of reforms could d be helpful. i amam not againstst reforms tht don't undermine abolition. i think k if we can place presse on the states financially and individual officers financiallyy as a means of gettingg us somewhere, i'm for that. but we cannonot believe that an economic sanction is going to stop police officecers from killing the vulnerable. inin many ways, that is part and parcel of what american policing is and always has been. amy: we're going to go to break

and come back to our discussion and go down to louisville to talk about what happened this week outside the state attorney general's house. 87 protesters arrested as they demanded that the officers involved in the killing of brbreonna taylor be arrested and prosecututed. marc lamont t hill is professorf media studies and urban education at temple university. he is the author of several books including author of "nobody: casualties of america's war on the vulnerable, from ferguson to flint and beyond." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: amy:: this s is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine reporort. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. are protesters gathered tuesday for a peaceful sit in outside the home of the kentucky attorney general, urging him to charge the officers involved in the killing of breonna taylor.

she is the 26-year-old black woman, emt, who is treating covid patients, aspiring nurse, who was shot to death by police inside her own apartment in march. several celebrities, including nfl there kenny stills of the houston texans, activivist tamia mallory and linda sarsour, were arrested along with more than 80 other protesters. they all face several charges, including a felony for intimidating a participant in the legal process. hayes gagardner, a reporter for the courier-joururnal in louisville, tweeted sarsour saying -- "we are being charged with a felony as an intimididation tacc byby the lmpd in hopes that they believe we will never do this ever again because of that charge. as you know, we are not intimidated, in n fact, very emboboldened right now." for more, we continue our conversation with marc lamontt hill, author of a number of books including "nobody: casualties of america's war on the vulnerable, from ferguson to

flint and beyond." talk about what happened in louisville. this killing of breonna taylor, this remarkable young woman who was treating people with covid-19, emt, hoping to be a nurse. police storm her apartment. she is there with her boyfriend. they shoot into it blindly. one of the officers shooting into the window of her bedroom where there were curtains. she was shot to death with eight bullets in her. talk about what happened ththis week. >> i think you're right, and i know you know this very well, amy, breonna taylor was an extraordinary, remarkable woman. unremarkable, been even if she had made many mistakes, even if she e had not been a hero, she still deserervs not to die at the hands of the state. what we saw this week was the public responding very me, thely -- excucuse

peoplele responding very powerfully to the state's failure to h have a any semblblf jujustice e in her case.e. when i sawaw 87 people were arrested -- we have all been arresteded. ususually we get a slap p on the wrist, a misdemeanor for civil disobedience. when you seeee someone gettitina class d felony for intimidating a person invnvolved in a legalal processs, as s linda sarsour sa, whatat they are a attempting too is intimidate protesters come to send a message that no one should be out here investigating something that clearly needs investigation. you have someone who dies in march and until this public scrutiny is on there, we get no movement. even though there is so much on this case from why they were there toto why he was s wantonly policeing a gun to o why thee had no information about even her being killed or even harmed to why the statete attororney is acting so slowly and with so little commitment to justicece. so you s see people risking ther

careers and it is a beautiful statement, but we can't stand here as a public and allow them to intimidate these protesters. i want to thank you, amy, for keeping breonna taylor's case in the public eye. for so long this was not a story. too often the deaths of black women, girls, go unnoticed. it is important people like you and others keep ththe stories in ththe public minind. nermeen: marc, could youou talk ababout thehe kentucky attorney general daniel cameronon who iss the statate's first black attoty gegeneral in the e first republn to hold the office in more than 17 years? he has been backed by president trump. > you know, the great anthropologist acknowledges kirsten said, s sometimes yourr n't your convoke.n

i don't look at black people in popower to necessarily produce justice for black people. i'm interested in their commitments. when i see a black appppointee reinforcining the very same ract practices and policies thahat hs white predecessors have, i find no joy or pleasure in that. the fact this is a trump apappointee speaks not only to w unlikely we are totoet justicece fromom this position, but how important is in november for us to do everything we can to remove trump from office. nermeen: i want to go to anothtr case, the decision by the manhattan distririct attorney's office to indict amy c cooper. you have question this dedecisi. amy cooperer is the woman who called the police anand falselyy claimed a blblack andnd in centl park wasas threatening her. yoyou tweeted in response -- jon "we can'n'triminalizeze our way out of sococial problems. these attributive approaches

wiwill not largegely impact the powerful who will be most likely criminalized if we i intensify prosecutions foror filing false police reports?? not ththe amy coopers of the world." could you elaborate on n why you think this is so problematic? >> ultimatelyy -- fundadamentally,i am an ababolitionistst. i believe in the abolition ofof prisons and police. i statand in the long tradititif people who believe this. the angela davises, rick gilmore scum whoho intntellectually anad polilitically led the e way towd who intellectually and politically led the way. caging human beings as a primary response to social problems, whether drug addition were b beg unhoused, p poverty, i try to fd the prisonre outside

and the logic of the prison. for me, amy cooper was a way to do that, not given the specifics of that case. i understand very much in this moment that without t any other mechanism for justice, i don't shame or criticize or even challenge people who call for the killer copops to be arresesd or incarcerateted. that is not an abolitionist vision for me. i do understand without any otother tools s or resources, we left with anythingng else to hod onto with regard toto the possibilities of justitice. i want u us to have a more robut and ambitious freedom in the long-term. in the short-term, opportunities to not use prison for drug addiction, for using -- dealing with the dispute for people coming to deal with someone asleep in a wendy's parking lot like rayshard brooks. i say let's do it. in cases like breonna taylor and othehers, i understand we have fewer mechanisms and have to do something to hold the state accountable in the short-term while we look for a broader and more ambitious freedom dream in the long term. amy: marc, we will in where we

began, with covid. the reports and studies showing african-americans and let next people are nearly three times as likely to be infected and twice as likely to die from the virus compared to their white neighbors. we just heard the republican white governor of oklahoma, governor stitt, has tested positive for covid. he was maskless at trump's also rally held almost on juneteenth, had to push it to the next because of outcry. what trump has not been tweeting out about is that herman cain, a major supporter who came to support trump at the tulsa rally, also has tested positive, has been hospitalized for weeks -- he is a 70-year-old former african-american presidential candidate, cancer survivor. can you talk about the connection between president

trump trying to "move on" and not do with the pandemic as over 137,000 people have died in this country, disproportionatately african-n-americanan and latinx people? >> we liveve in a country that renders the poor disposable. anyone who we can extract value from, disposable,e, like in bron peoplele. transfer, disposable. as soon as it became clear the people catatching the mostst h , the people w were dying the most from covid, w were people blackk and brbrown and poor, therere wa very movement to "open the up," a move to not worry y about the healalth consequences for those who weree leleft behind. and that is something that trump has been clear about. we saw that throughout the country. the same with the elderly.. the lieutenant governor of texas a few month ago talking about

grandparents being willing to sacrifice their lives for t the country. now when trump is s walking arod without aask, for the last feww months, when he is essentially saying we should just open things up and everything will just be fine, he is essentially saying some people are death -eligible and other people are not. that is very -- it is a dangerous thing. hermrman cain someone was some sense of power and resource and access and yet h he stilll vulnerable. the elderly are vulnerable. peopople who don'tt h have the y of working fromm home e or socil distancingng are vulnerarable. until we have a serious conversation about the vulnerablele, we're going to contntinue to have t this probl. as long as we have an administratition willing to o on up's, open up the economy, to continue to let people die in the streets as long as they are not i am privileled, we're going to continue to have the moral crisis that is amamerica right now. amy: marc lamont hill, thank you for being with us, professor of

media studies and urban education at temple university. author of several books including author of "nobody: casualties of america's war on the vulnerable, from ferguson to flint t and beyond." we wish you the very best as you cope with covid. we will be thinking about you. not just thinking, taking action. we, too, will be wearing our masks. this news just in, the u.s. just carried out its seconond executn this week. killing wesley purkey by lethal injection, even though his lawyers argued he had dementia. the last federal e execution before this week w was 17 years ago. next, we spepeak with john barry who says the pandemic could get much worse if we don't take bolder action now. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: elsa nilsson playing for the latticice concert series at home in greenpoint, brooklyn. this is democracy y now!, democracynowow.org, the e quarae report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as the c coronavirus is on the rise in 41 states, the u.s. reported a record number off daily new w cases tuesday, w wih wednesday's count just barely below at more than 67,000 new cases. the official u.s. death h toll s over 137,00000. hospital beds are running low in texas and arizona. as several other states face increasingly dire circumstances, many governors are re-imposing lockdowns after attempts at opening up the economy. earlier this week, california governor gavin newsom ordered the closure of indoor restaurants, movie theaters, and other institutions. alabama and montana have ordered all people in public to wear masks.

this comes as oklahoma republican governor kevin stitt of oklahoma has become the first governor to test positive for the virus. he attended trump's indoor tulsa rally on june 20 and did not wear. african-american, 70-year-old former presidential candidate, also attended the rally without a mask. he is a trump supporter and has been hospitalized ever since with covid. we turn now to a guest who warns the pandedemic could get much, much worse if wewe don't t take bolder a action now. professor john barry is professor at the tulane university school of public health and tropical medicine. author of "the great influenza: the story of the deadliest pandemic in history." in recent "new york times" op-ed, he e argues a conferencef shutdown may be required in much of the country in order to regain control of the pandemic. professor, welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us from new orleans. if you could start off by

talking about why you believe this pandemic can get much, much worse and what that bold action he think the c country needs to take t to turn it around. the united states, the wealthiest country in the world, has a quarter of the deaths and more than a quarter of the infections in the world, even though it has less than 5% of the populationon of the world. professor barry? -- problem problem will come lalater when redfield, the cdc director said, much the same thing a couple of days ago, there had beenen hope that hott weather would l limit the spread of the virus. a andesespiratory viruses probably this one as well do transmit less wellll in n hot weather.r. seeing thewe are

spread to momost of the e county right now. unfortunately, there every reason to bebelieve that if the spread will actually get worsese when the weaeather turns colder orces people into ininor poorly y ventilated spac. that is s standard for most evey respiratory i iection frorom influencnce of the common cold. right now, obvioiously, we are t in a a good place. i thinink when you compare where we are to europe, i it gives yoa real sense of how bad things are herere. seemedds a place that totallyy d devastated by coronanavirus first. righght now they have on average ababout 200 new cases a day in e entire countryry. yet theirr population is roughly equivalent to tetexas, florida,

arizona, georgia combined.d. if you at the caseses up inin af those states, you''re talking abouout probably close to o well over 30,000. 35,00000 cases compared to fewer than 200. thatthat demonstrates is ththe public health measures tht unanimouslyadvocated by every pererson in publicc health, thatat is what italy di. and they got t the cases in the entire country d down to 200 a day. if we had done that the first time around, if we have brorougt our baseline down to a a levell like that, then we wouldld not e having a debate over opening schools. we would not h have a debate ovr plain football. those things would be automatically going forward with precautions. and the economy would be operating at practically 100%

now. we failed to do o that ininitia. curve, sort ofthe flattened it, but we did not brining it down. so that baseline remained too hihigh. and when we reopened too soon in many s states with thahat basele already high, it just took off. we are pretty close to being too late but we are not too late at this point. don't, when the weather gets cold and people are inside, it could be pretty devastating. it is s ready devastating. nermrmeen: professor barry, the country -- italy, shshe mentione was initially the e epicenter of the pandemimic. what these countries have done, not justst in europe but in asi, in addition to massively

expanding testing, is also using contact tracing. but that scarcely has been used in the u.s.... you point out in a recent article that even where e it has bebeen attempted in miami for people who tested positive for covid, only 70% of f those pepee cocompleted the questionnaires - 17% of the people completed the questionnaires that wiwill be requirired for carrying out contact t tracing. could yoyou explain why you thik this has not been one of the principal strategies that the u.s. has followed despspite the successes this strategy has resulted i in elsewhere? and also, whethther it is even possible for contactraracing to work in a country with such enormous numbers of infefection? >> well, it has bebeen a strate, but the strategy hahas not been exececuted. again, it goes back to the investment o of resources, how

seriouslsly people take the disease. obviously, we havave got no leadershipip out of washiningto. a prettytetes have done good job on cocontact tring.g. too many states s have not. ain, the case count is pretty low, it is preretty easy to contact trace. when the case count isis over 10,000 in a singngle state every day, no, that is not possible. havec health experts recommenended somewhere between- some as low as 100,000 contatact traces nationally. others have thought as many as 300,000 were needed. the actual number employed, the best number i could find was about 27,000. obviously, way below the minimum estimate. much less the higher estimate of

what is needed. it is just a question of resources. and seriousness. we have not had that. evenen: professor barry, thouough the u.s. leads byby fan withunumber of infections respect to countries -- i mean, individual countries, the vast majority of increases now are occurring in the developing world. in india we all just in fact believes india's case numbers will very soon e eclipse the ununited states. he poiointed out, of written an entire book on the spspanish fl. yoy've havave said that t most pepeople -- - more peoplple dien the develoloping wororld than bebecause people under the west have been exposed d to other influenznza viruses. so already had some prorotection against the spanish flu when it emerged. how much do we e know about whether exposure to othther

viruses is a factor here as well in covid-19 in determining or influencing mortrtality rates? >> there is some slightt indication t that there may be some verery, ver small cross protecection from other coronavirus's. but t that would not bmamajor. thosose things probably y have n worldwide. influenza was a little bit different. most of the developed world, people probabably have seenn multiplele influenzaza viruses. the 1918 paris wasas a new viru. but you s still got -- yoyostill got some cross protection if you had been exposed to influenza viruses. so-called virgin populations, and this is true only -- not true only of i influence of utmt viruses, when people had not

seen a any influenza v virus, tr immune systems were completely naive, t then you are getting instances where 20%, sometetimes highgher than that, of the entie killed.on w was being true that is s not really t the case here. ththis virus is dififferent. is pretty common cold general around the world. most coronavirus is. i dodon't think there are indications of a lot of benefit from them. amy: john barry, i want to say on this issue of this -- blue, -- spanish flu, you wrote the book "the great influenza: the story of the deadliest pandemic in history." i was wondering as i his terrain, if you could give us a history lesson as to what happened there and specifically, i mean, we're calling it the spanish flu, but i'm wondering, right the single most important lesson from m the 1918 influenza

was to tell the truth. the trump administration is doing exactly the opposite. i hurriedly learned about the spanish flu and certainly learned about world war i in school, but not the spanish flu of 1918. i wonder if that was linked to actually a censoring of this story? and if we could see something similar to people trying to speak out about what is happening right now in this country as president trump tries to tamp down the discussioion ad move on? it was even918, why called the spanish flulu -- not hahaving anything g to do with n -- where it cameme from and howt is linked toto w war. >> of course most of e europe ad north u.s. a andanada wewere at war. in the warring countries, there is censorship or in thee u.s., pretty effectitive self-censorship. spain was not at war. e are not sure where that

1918 v virus imitated frfrom. it could have been france, vietnam. but he did not start in spain.. it was well established before it got teased thth because s spn was nonot at war, theieir press wrote about it. the warrining countries, the powers that be, did not want any bad news -- any bad news about anything to get out because they felt it would hurt m morale and hurt the war effort. spain was writing about it. the spanish king got sick.. celebrity culture, then as it is now, got a lot of attention and bebecame known as the spanish f. in thehe united states,s, theres no tony fauci. even natational public health issers were s saying this ordinary influenza b by another name. for the rereasons they were tryg

to maintain morale. hoaxobody was calling it a inin 1918. the virus was much more lethahal than we are seeing now. sesee your neighbor die 24 hours afteter the first symptptom, you know perfectly well it is not a hoax. of that happened as a result the lying that was going on. pepeople lost all trust. it spread fear, tear in some cases. places, society actually began to fray. and people died who otherwise would have survived if they had been told the truth, if they had been able to recognize early on from the very beginning how serious it was andnd take some measurures to precect yourself - themselves, and those measures are exactly what people rerecommend toy. wearing,distancing,ask

wash your handsds exactly y the same things. we know ththat they are effecti. italyas saying earlier, got its cases d down to 2 200 a. germanany, roughly 400 a day in cocountry sisignificantly larger than itataly. most of europe has the disease well under control at this point. of course, in asia, the numbers are even smaller. vietnam, which shares a border with china, has not ordered a single death -- not o one. so public health measures work. but you have to do them. in unitedt done them states -- were too many people have not done the in the united states. nermeen: profefessor barry, in

florida, one e of the states whe cacases are rising, one in three , must onethat is 31% in three children come have tested p positive now in florida and health officials are concerned it is too e early to tell. we can say with any degree of certainty that children wilil not be affected long-term by getting g the virus.. i wawant to go -- you made the case in marchh that there was no indication that covid-19 9 will become more e biller lenent -- verlander that it is nowow, bute did say will l come in seseveral ways and become endemic. i mean, that was 3.5 months ago when it first began, spreread here. thet still the case, does latest researcrch still nfnfirm that covid-19 want to become

more virulent? >> t the 1918 virus was ququited in the first wave ananthen turnn very lethal.. but there is not the slightest sign anywherere that that is gog to be the case with covivid-19. ththere hahas been some m mutats that suggestst as it is. as you say, we're not sure the

long-term implications are, whether there will be complications some damage to the body that does not recover or takes a very long time to recover from. we just don't know. it is too new of a virus. amy: john berry, thank you for being with us, professor at the tulane university school of public health and tropical medicine. author of "the great influenza: the story of the deadliest pandemic in history." we will link to your pieces in the new york times come the latest "the pandemic could get , much, much worse.

♪ thank you for joining us. from our studio in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." we begin in japan where the rising numumr of corononavirus cases have reported a new for infebs thursday, breaking a record set only a week before. the capital confirmed 286 cases, a return to