07/17/20 07/17/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, ththis is democracy now! >> kinda framed narrative around these outbreaks is something foreign, like encroachment from outside that invades as an kind of posits as as these passive victims. and i think that obscures the larger story, which is therere s a lot t of human agency involved in how we are turning microbes into pathogenic and pandemic-causing pathogens. amy: "it's time to tell a new

story about coronavirus -- our lives depend on it." as united states shatters its willd for covid-19, we speak with sites investigative journalist sonia shah. then to yemen where unicef is warning children face deadly hunger as ththe pandemic spread. quotes when there was a spike in the deaths because of the coronavirus and the diseases, the workers were not able to keep up with the digging, the burial, and the finishing of the graves. amy: this comes after u.s.-backed saudi bombing that has created the world's worst to mentoring crisis. and as the center for disease control says unhoused people who are living in encampments should be allowed to remain where they are to help stop the spread of covid-19, we go to philadelphia, where the mayor has postponed the eviction of an encampment of cash planned this morning. is dignity.

and we demand that philadelphia house your homeless. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, dedemocracynow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goododman. the united s states has shatterd its own record for covid-19, confirmingng 75,600 cases of the disease on t thursday as texas d florida both reported their highest death tolls of the pandemic. speaking in an online form hosted by facebook, dr. anthony fauci said the record spike in infections, which is the worst in the world, resulted from states rushing to reopen their economies too quickly. steps,can't jump over which is very peerless when n yu think about rebound. the proof of the pudding is look

what has happened. there really is no reason why we are havingg 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 other than the fact we are not doing something correctly. w whfauci was speaking mark zuckerberg. dr. fauci set the u.s. economy will continue to suffer unless the virus is brought under control through simple measures like mask-wearing, avoiding crowds, and practicing social distancing. in colorado, demraratic goveoror jared polis issued a statewide masksk mandate t thursday, a wek after refusing public health officials' pleas to require facial coverings in public. arkansas republican governor asa hutchinson issued a similar mask mandate. in georgia, republican govovernr brian kemp filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn an atltlanta mask ordinances ordered by mayor keisha lance bottoms, who is at home sick with covid. meanwhile, target and cvs became the latest major u.s. retailers

to require masks nationwide. mayor barros is hohome diagnosed with covid as her husband and her child. in detroit, michigan, police arrested 11 people thursday as they blocked school buses in a nonviolent protest demanding the cancellation of in-person classes during the pandemic. at least 600 children are attending summer classes at detroit-area public schools, even as coronavirus infections have been rising in michigan for the e last three weeks.. in st. louis, missouri, contact tracers have linked the spread of coronavirus t to summer extracurricular programs, including football conditioning camps at two high schools.s. despite ththe surge, missosourih school football games are set to beginn august t 28. at the w white house, presess secretetary kayleigh mcecenany d thursday that science should not stanand in the way of reopening schools. >> the president has said i mistakenly that he wants schools to open. i was just in the oval talking with them about that. he meets open and full, kids

bebeing able to atattend eacachd every day at their school. science should not stand in the way of this. amy: in response, american federation of teachers president randi weingarten accused president trump and education secretary betsy devos of disregarding the safety of children and school employees. she told the guardian -- "it's as if trump and devos want to create chaos and want to jeopardize reopening. there's no other reason why they would be this reckless, this callous, this cruel." in brazil, confirmed cases of coronavirus have surpassed the 2 million mark, with an official covid-19 death toll of more than 76,000. india recorded another record daily toll as coronavirus cases passed the 1 m million mark. several indian states have reintroduced lockdown measures they lifted just last month. in eastern india, flooooding frm monsoon rains has forced more than a million people into shelters where social didistancg is difficucult or imssssible. in bogota, colombia, doctors are

demanding a citywide lockdown as a surge of covid-19 cases overwhelms hospitals. this is dr. herman bayona, president ofof the colombian medical college. services are overcrowded. in some places, respiratory rooms are at more than 150% occupancy. we are very close to collapse. even in emergency words, there are patients on respirators that are waiting to be transferred to intensive care. amy: elsewhere in colombia, illegal armed groups have been enforcing their own quarantines in areas with limited government control, threatening civiliansns who fail to comply with orders by paramilitaries. human rights watch reports at least nine people have been killed for defying the measures, with some residents barred from leaving their homes even if they are e sick. backck in the united statetes, republican leaders s said thuruy they will scale back in-person attendance at the republicanan national convention in jacksonville nexext month, as florida suffers one of the world's worst outbreaks of covid-19.

the republican national committee's plans call for a mix of indoor and outdoor events, with only regular delegates permitted to attend the first three days of convention business -- about 2500 people each day. when president trump formally accepts the nomination on august 27, the rnc plan calls for a crowd of up to 7000 people. a federal j judge on thursday extended a deadline e for immigration and cucustoms enforcement, icece, to release immigrant childrdren in its custody. last month, u.s. district judge dolly gee told ice it had until today, july 17, to release children from its family detention centers in texas and pennsylvania due to concerns over rising coronavirus infections. ice now has until july 27 to comply with the order. ththis comes as another federal judge is poised to rule next week on a trump administration request to keep immigrant families jailed in family -- "family detention centers,

prompting fears that immigrant children could once again n be separated d from their parents. after a year-long investigation, u.s. customs and border protection says it has fired four employees and suspendeded dozezens more without pay y over their participation in a facebook group filled with racist, homophobic, and misogynistic content. in one post, a photoshopped image depicted congressmembeber alexandria ocasio-cortez being sexually assaulted by president trump. in another thread, members of the group made fun of a video of an immigrant man trying to carry a child through a raging river in a plastic bag. one group member commented, "at least it's already in a trash bag." in monroe, louisiana, a 46-year-old guatemalan man in the custody of immigration and customs enforcement has died in a hospital, where he had been receiving care since february. luis sanchez-perez h had been imprisoned at the catahoula correctional center, where over 100 people have tested positive for covid-19.

ice alleges his death was unrelated to coronavirus. the american immigration lawyers association reports at least 13 asylum-seekers have died this year after being jailed by ice. in texas, a houston jail is reporting a a new surge inin coronavirurus cases linknked to newly-booked prisoners. confnfirmed cases at harris couy jail had dropped in recent weeks after the jail cut some of its population to ease an earlier outbreak. nearly 1000 people held in the jail have tested positive for covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. in portland, oregon, police arrerested nine people thursday momorning after declaring their protest encampmentnt near a downtown federal courthouse an illegal assembly. the crackdown came as acting homeland security secretary chad wolf accused portland officials of failing to restore order during seven weeks of protests that erurupted after the killing of george floyd. during a visit to portland thursday, wolf blasted black lives matter protesters as "lawle a anarchiststs" and a a "v"violent mob" " that desecratd and dedestroyed federal l prope.

oregon governor kate brown clapped back on twitter, writing -- "this political theater from president trump has nothing to do with public safety. the president is failing to lead this nation. now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government." videos circulating on social media show heavily armed federal officers with no agency markings snatching people off portland's streets and forcing them into unmarked cars. oregon public broadcasting reports one protester ran when he saw people wearing camouflage jump out of an unmarked vehicle, not knowing whether he was being arrested or kidnapped. the u.s. suprememe court has declineded to overturn a lowower court's ruling that cocould rirp the e voting rights of 1 million formerly incarcerated citizens in florida. in an unsigned opinion, the court let stand an appeals court ruling upholding a florida law,

signed by republican governor ron desantis, that requires people with felony convictions to pay court fines and fees before they can register to vote. a u.s. district court previously compared the fees to the poll taxes of the jim crow south. in a scathing dissent signed by justices kagan and ginsburg, justice sonia sotomayor wrote -- "this court's order prevents thousands of otherwise eligible voters from participating in florida's primary election simply because they are poor." here in new york, hundreds of immigrant protesters camped out overnight outside amazon ceo jeff bezezos' p penthouse a apat on fifth a avenue calllling fore passagage of a newew york statax on bilononaire a propoposed capitital gains t , backeded by congreressmember alexexandria ocacasio-cortezez,d fund fooanand real a asstancee for pelele wh'veost jojo during t pandemic, including immigrants shut out of unemployment benefits and government stimulus funds.

u.s., canadian, british inintelligence agencies on thursdsday accused russian hacks of stealing from right terry research on the development of vaccines for cov-19. ththe national s security agency blend a russian hahacker group that intelligence o officials accused of hacking into democratic party servers d durig campaign. 6 presidential the hacking claim has raisedd fears of growing vaccine nationalism with countries competing to become the first with a vaccine rather than sharing research data. college of the public health at the university of nebraska medical center tweeted -- russia h has denied the claims. in climate news, new researchh finds a record-breaking heat wave in siberia is directly linked to greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.

the study by the u.k. met office finds temperatures in russia's arctic this year were 5 degrees celsius above historical averages. the report warns of the widespread melting of siberia's permafrost and an explosion of populalations of silk momoths tt have damaged forests, helplpingo spark massive arctic wildfires. meanwhile, the united states is heading into a record-breaking heat wave, with forecasters warning nine out of 10 u.s. residents will experience high temperatures of 90 degrees or more over the next week. death valley, california, reached 128 degrees fahrenheit on sunday, just one degree shy of the highest temperature ever recorded anywhere on earth. a federal judge has barred the trump adadministration fromm gutting an obama-era rule limiting emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. thursday's ruling by u.s. district judge yvonne rogers will re-impose limits on the amount of methane that oil and gas companies can allow to leak from drilling sites on public lands.s.

scoreses of prominent environmentaliststs have signedn open letter demanding a halt to all investments in fossil fuel explororation and exextraction,d anan immediate end to o all fosl fuel subsidies.. they're also calling on member states of the international criminal court to make ecocide an international crime. the letter was co-written by swedish climate activist greta thunberg, who says world leaders need face the climate emergency. >> we e need to seek, aboveve a, an exixistential crisis. as l long as it is treated as a crisis, we can have as many of these negotiations and talks, conferences as possiblele, it won't change anything. amy: in california, a 22-year-old transgender woman was found killed in an abandoned building in the city of brawley earlier this week. police are investigating the death of marilyn cazares as a homicide. cazares' aunt described her as charismatic, brave and outspoken. cazares is at least the 23rd transgender or gender non-conforming person killed in the u.s. this year.

in sports news, at least 15 women have come forward wiwith allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse against several executives and o other employees of washington's nfl team. the name is the. in details provided to "the washington post," the women describe male executives commenting on their looks, sending inappropriate messages, and pursuing unwanted relationships. the team annouounced this weweet would be changing its name and mascot -- a racist slur against native americans -- whwhh it first adopted in 1933. a tell-all book by presidedent trump's niece sold nearly 1 million copies thursday on i i first day ofof publication, a record for publisher simon & schuster. in her book titled "too much and never enough: how my family created the world's most dangerous man," clinical psychologist mary trump describes her uncle donald as a sociopath who grew up in a dysfunctional family that fostered his greed and cruelty.

on thursday, mary trump told msnbc host rachel maddow she's heard her uncle repeatedly using racist language. >> have you heard the president use the n-word? >> yeah. >> and anti-semititic slurs specifically? >> y yes. amy: a and a former game show ht whose conspiracy theheory about coronavirus wawas recently retweeted by presisident trump s rerevealed his son cononacted covid 19. over t the weekend, trump retweeted a claim byy chuck woolery, the former host of "love connection," that "the most outrageous lies are the ones about covid-19. everyone is lying. tweeted "covid-19 is real and it is here. my son tested positive and i feel for those who are suffering and especially those who have

lost loved ones." president trumpmp did not retwet that tweet. on wednesday, chuck woolery deactivated hihis twitter accou. and those are some of thee headlines. this is s democracy now!, democracynowow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy y goodman.n. we begin today's show in yemen which already faces the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and now unicef is warning children face deadly hunger and aidid shortages as covid-19 the pandememic spreads. this comes as medical workers say a u.s.-backed, saudi-led bombing raid on a residential neighborhood in northern yemen wednesday killed 25 civilians, critically injuring nine others. a local doctor treated several injured children. the only injured victims are all children. we received three or four people, eight martyred women and children. today is a painful and sad d day fothe free yemeni pelele. amy: the yemenen 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 out with weapons sold by the united states. they have not stopped even amidst the global pandemic. meanwhile, the united nations is 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 the 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. >> every finish -- essesentially evevery fishing coast wldld see their livelilihoods collapse and would supper substantial economic losses. in these of people communities already need humanitarian assistance.

this is happening as the u.s.-backed saudi bombing campaign has been devastated by conflict, leaving millions of peoplele without accesto t to proper health care, clean water, or sanitation. for more, we're joined by shireen al-adeimi, yemeni scholar, activist, and an assistant professor at michigagn state university. welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us, professor. can you start off by talking about the situation of the coronavirus and yemen right now, a country devastated by the u.s.-backed saudi bombing? >> thank you for having me back. the situation come as you said, is dire. every time i i come on t the sht seems s to be getting g worse. the reason is because the war continues, the bombing continues, the blockade isis stl going forth. with coronavirus, initially there were not any reported cases until april. ever since then, it is starting toto read, and we are seeing deh

rates that are astronomical. the nearly 30% death rates from coronavirus in the cases that have been indoctrinated -- that have been documented, which is difficult to do. amamy: i want to turn to the yemeni epidemimiologist ehehab alsaqqaf speaking to bbcbc. >> the medical team knew this was covovid-19, t that e auororities didid not announce t will stop but then n the cases starteted to increase rapapidly. the next day thehere were 17 confirmed cacases. ththe day afteranother 22. then we started hearing people were dying in their homes. amy: professor shireen al-adeimi , you are here e michigan n whe yoyou teach. yoyour familily remains in yeme. how are they doing in the midst of this pandemic? >> i mean, there's not much they

can do given their livelihoods depend -- those of them who are still able to work, still h have to g go out and work. if you're talking about protecting themselves with masks, they try to do what they can but it is not easy to purchase these things. there's a lot of misinformation. people are not sure should they be taking precautions, is this really happening? there interviewee said, were certain this was happening but it was not announced. people are still unsure about what is happening but also not able to take the precautions that we are able to take -- many of us are able to take your. for example, 70 0 million peopoe in yemen, about 56% of the population, does not have access to clean water. we have three or four money people who are internally dispsplaced that are in camps. how will they social distance? where will they get water? give 80% of the population

immunocompromised because they are hungry. -- you have 80% of the population immunocomompromised bebecause they are hungry. people are confused. they know a lot of people are dying around them. france, my parents, professors -- we received a lisist of those who died and we are not sure they died of coronavirus but chances are these are coronavirus but what of the m me outbrereaks that are currerently plplaguing the y yemeni healtlte sysystem. amy: are any of your family member sicick with covid? >> we did have a few family members -- they were not tested because they can't really get tested but the symptoms seem to be coronavirus symptoms. soso far they have recovered but we are still keeping in touch with them. there is very little anyone can do. amy: can you talalk about the u.s.-backed saudi bombingg campaign?? is it still going on to the pandemic? and what have been the

u.s. measures that have been taken or not taken? thing,'s the frustrating amy. all of this is happening and the u.s. is s still helping the saus emirates. --- airstrikes are still ongoing. the blockade is still ongoing. this is in the middle of a pandemic. i can't imagine a country that has a worse than yemen currently. --was the worst you manning humanitarian crisisis before cod and now it is even worse than that.. there is a fuel crisis where there killing for fuel. run theneeded to generators, the water pumps, the ventilators, the very few hundred ventilators that remain in the country.

this will be absolutely catastrophic. it is all because of the root cause, which is this ongoing bombardment of yemen a and the ongoing blockade enforced by the saudi led coalition. amy: president trump vetoed legislation last year, bipartisan legislation, that sought to bring u.s. complicity in the war to an end. what do you think congress should be doing right now? >> it took congress four years to pass that legislation, which is frankly, unacceptable, , ven they all agree this is an unconstitutional war. this started by -- - with obama and continued into the trump presidency. four years later, it was great we had this bipartisan bill,, vetoed, bubut the role of congrs should not end there. it was predicted that trump was going to veto this. he has spoken publicly about the support for the saudi led coalition because of the contracts for the defense industry here. you knknow, congress still has e

authority to declare war. i don't think they should be giving up. we have not had any kikind of debate o on yemen for year and a half tss bill was passed. i would urge them to i introduce legislation that continues t to chalallenge this.. there are e ways to introduce legislation that is veto-proof. that is what they have to keep going. this cannot be an issue that is discussed for short period of time and then forgotten about because of suffering -- because the suffering is unbelievable. we will have millions of people dead before anyone what to do anything about it and then it will be too late. amy: there has been a lot of blame on migrants passing through yemen that they are .ringing covid-19 in without discussing the devastation that t the bombing, the constant bombing of yemen a destruction of the infrastructure. >> absolutely.

there's s no infrastructure to speak up. of the hospitals have been bombed. the other r half are barely functioning at capacity. the blocockade is keeping important medicine out. people are volunteering in these hospitals. most -- theyir the are the most vulnerable. if you have to cross yemen to get your destination, that is a very a awful thing to o have to. before the work, yemen was home to many migrants, hundreds of thousands of migrants from east africa and vicice versa. but the situation right now is dire for everybody. we can't talk about these things in isolation. the root cause here is yemen is under occupation, under a blockade that is killing a child every 10 minutes att least for the last five years from preventable illnesses.

a child could die from a simple fever because there is no medicine to relieieve the fever. children are starving to death because there is no food or water. we really have to be talking about the root causes and not think about all of these as isolated incidents. amy: and the problem of people already grappling with diphtheria, chcholera in n yeme? > salute lee. and h1n1. there are four outbreaks currently stressing whatever remaining health care system is in yemenen. and now talking about coronavirus, and there's really no way to track it, to treat it, to supply people with the kinds of medicines they need. there are only 300 ventilators in the entire country of 3 million people. what are people going to do? they just expect they will die from whatever diseasese is going to come e at thehem next. amy: your messagage to lawawmaks here in the united states and to

the world? >> it is time to take back responsibility for people to be held accountable for this. this is congress' doing if they continue to stay silent whilele trump is perpetuatiting violence against the emmys. and countries are benefiting still from the sale of weapons. you can go and say we want arele in yemen when we profititing from the were participatining in the killilinf civilians in yemen. i think mnes feel the international community has let them down. it is time to stop blaming people who are occupied d and think k about the peoplele wee occupying them and bombing them and starving them to death and time to put an end to all of that. amy: shireen al-adeimi, thank you for being with us yemeni , scholar, activist, and an asasstant profofessor at michign state university. next up, it is time e to tell aa : oururry about coronavirus

lives depend o on it.t. that is the headadline of a neww pipiece by science invnvestigate journalist sonia shahah. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: yemeni artists singnging at homeme as part of the socicial a cacampaign #remoteyeminiart. this is democrcracy now!, i'm m amy goodman. the united states hit an all-time high of 75,600 new covid cases thursday, the largesest number rececorded in a singlele day since t the pandemc began. and that number is expected to be much higher as it is increasingly difficult now to get tests acrososs thehe countr. in some places, texas and arizona and other states, the lines are hours and hours long. texas and florida hit record covid-19 daily death tolls thursday, joining alabama, arizona, hawaii, idaho, montana, oregon, south carolina, and utah -- which all saw their highest number of dead in a single day this week. as the u.s. spirals into a

disaster that public health expertrts warn could get much worse in thehe fall, half of the states in the country have now issued mask mandates. but some republican leaderaree continuing to fighththe bac public heaeah measur georgigia governor brian kemp sususpended d local mask requirements this wewe and has sued the city of atlanta and its mayor, mayor bottoms, for its mask mandate. president trump has s repeatedly refused to wear a mask. as he did when he landed in atlanta thisis week. a university of washington model predicts near-universal mask wearing could save up to 28,000 lives in the u.s. before october 1. top u.s. infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci said thursday the spike in coronavirus cases resulted from states rushihing to reopen their economies and that the economy will continue to suffer unless the virus is brought under control through simple measures like mask-wearing, avoiding crowds, and practicing social

distancing. despite this, president trump and educatation secretary betsy devos are continuiuing to push schools to reopen in person in the fall. this is the white house press secretary speaking at the white house. >> the president has said he wants schools to open. when he says "he means open in full, kids being able to attend each andnd every day at their school. science should not stand in thee way ofof this. amy: we are joined by sonia shah , investigative journalist and the author of "pandemic: tracking contagion from cholera to ebola and beyond." her new book is titled "the next great migration: the beauty and terror of life on the move" and her new piece in the nation is titled "it's time to tell a new story about coronavirus -- our lives depend on it." welcome back to democracy now! what i is that new story that mt be told? >> i think the way we think about infectious diseases like covid-d-19 is as if they are a

foforeign incursion that we have to repel through with military might anand weapononry bubut in facact, we are not pase victims of these thihings. there's a a lot of humuman gen z involved in n the infectious disease process, anand i think e neneed to start talklking about covid-19 another infectious didiseases as a social and political phenomenon that they also are. amy: talk about that. further elaborate on what you think is the real crisis h here and that even n finding a vavace is n not goingng to c cure that cacatastrophe wewere facing. >> the way we talk about the propels that is what our policy responses. so if we think o of it as a foreign incursion, we want to do ththings like close thee borderr control people's movements who are unwanted peoeople's movemen, and wewe want to greet these weapons -- vaccines and drugs. that might work for older

diseases that we already h have under control,l, but when yoyoue a brand-new w disease like this1 -- we arare already seeing this- yoyou cannot make the drdrug or vaccine fast enougugh torotect peoplerorom the firstst way. the firstt wave e is the most deadly w way because that t is n weavave no immmmunity atat all. we are seeing the effect t of tt now. instead of -- should have been spending way more time and resources pririitizing collecective actions, which we e having so much difficulty doing now after the fact, after we have had these huguge outbreaksn there soso much virus around, nw we're trying t to talk about, well, maybe we should wear masksks, close r rtaurants. we should hahave been doing that early on. i think i if we had told didifferent story ababout this pathogen, that it is a social phenomenonon, that it is within our ability to arrest its spread by changining our behavior to cooperative actions together, i think wewe might have bebeen ina different place. amy: some i say the best vaccine for the coronavirus is medicare

for all, is health care for all. can y you 50 disparities, the raracial disisparities iwhwho ls and whwho dies, whwho get the kd who doesn't t come into that?? >> i think t that is r right. whwhen we spspen-- if you look t where wewe're spending our reresources a as a nation, where we're spepending our attention,t is very much into this market driven proprietary vaccine development. that serves certain intere. those companies are goingg to make a lot of m money, get the glory for creating a vaccine. the ccine will help us s if we actually get one but t the peope who can wait for the vaccine have privileges. there e are a lot of peoplee who can't waitor a vaccine. we need toto do coectitive actis and behavior chaeses now we need to buildhat trurust up agaiain antoto thi of this diseasis something that is within our power. we are not the passive victims we blame other people for, that

ththere bring it -- they are bringing it to us anand we n neo describe the m micro centerr bo, we neeeed to think -- these microbeses have no independe locomotion. they rely entirely on us to spread from one personon to the next. even if you have the introduction o of a deadly pathogen in a communinity, and e have seen n this over r time histstorically, you may notot he anan epidemimic of behaviorsrs't sustaiain it. these are things we need to rethink what our role is in the disease e process. amy: sonia shah, give us a history lelesson, take u us baco the contagions from 1832, the 1832 and comeeak, to the present. > when itit first emerged ine 1800s, it was like covid-19 today. brand-d-new disease. it t tore acrososs the world. ittarted in n south asia, moved in e europe anand then across io

north america. it was carried thrhrough contaminated water. , physiciansnew yorkk collected data s showing clearly thatat cholera was coming down e hudson river, , coming down thte ear canal, headingng straight fr new yoyork city. cocommercial interests at ththee said we cannonot quarantine the waterways becaususe that would e too disruptive to trade. intnterventionsthh never inuded any q quarantines of the waterways. thatat was out of ththe resistae to controllingng the disisease s it was t t costly to the economy. the other papart was it wawasn'e way they undnderstood d the dis. the way they understood diseases at that time was thahat contagis diseases were carried in the air,r,hese were e carried by smel clouds s of gas that if you inhaled ththem, that is s what d make you sicick. rather t than quarantitining the wateterways, people didid things like string up sides of bebeef o soak up the choholera vapors or

repel barrels of tar to the miasma. in the city of london,n, pple wash h toilets,s, wawater closetsts, t because thy wanted t to get rid of human wae and c containment, but because they wanted d to get rid o of te smsmells. sisince t they did not care abot thee contetent of t their outho, they dumped all l of that humann waste ininto their drinkingg war come into o the riverr thames.s. they i installed morore fleshed after evevery outbreakak to tope into theaste drininking water. there probablbly madade chololea lot worse. we hadad these outbrbreaks continuing for n nearly a centuy over that 19th-century and thousands and thousands of people die. amamy: talk about how society hs dealt with, for exexample, zika and ebola and how covid-19 is different from those pandemics..

and ebola never became full o pandemics, but as outbrereaks, those are much more -- have been much morere containanable. but i i think -- it is the same approach where we look f for drs anvavaccines r rather than l log at the deep root causes, whichch are h han-driven.n. all t these things are e cong ouout of wildlife and anals.s. all ofof these micicrobes live n anims s and wildlife anand are heartless in t those environmen. we think of them as invading us, bubut we arare invading their territitory. when w we invade w wildlife hab, we dtroyoy worthy -- they don''t go away. theyey come and live in ourur fs and backyayards instead. that facilititat all kind off novevel intimate contatact betwn wildlilife and human bods, whether itit is why like trade r wewet market or casusual contac.

any number of those thinings. we' not getting at those root causes. since 19 or do we h have had hundreds of these new patathoges emererge whether it be ebola or z zika or cororonavirus. this is a drip of new pathogens emerging and the u underlying reasons are becausese of the way we are interacting with the environment and with nature. these are things thahat are undr our control, so we need to start talking about it that way rather than casting ourselves as the passive victims of these foreign invading gererms. amy: people in many cases are learning the w word zoonotic disease for the first time. the spillover, the jumping from animals to humans. if you couould explain thatt further, just what you u were talking ababout? newbout 60% of the pathogens s that we have been

saying since 1940 originatin the bodies of animals. about 70% originate nato bodies of wild ananimals. those are not microbes that cause disease in those creatures. just like we have one son micro center buddies that don't make us sick, they actually are beneficial to us, so those microbes are living in animals buddies. when we come into novel intimate contact with those animals, for xcrete is readt e and your kid gets some on their hand and puts it in her mouth, the microbes that live inside the bat's body into the human body. if that happens again and again often enough, that micro will start to adapt to the human body. like every other living thing when it finds a new territory to exploit, startrts to thrive, starts to adapt t and e evolve o colonize that n n environmement. that is how ththese new pathohos are being born. we are creating these bridges

between the bododies of w wild animals and ourur own bodies because we arere destroying so much o of the habitat where tyy lilive. instead d of these animals livig in far-off plalaces where they don't encounter us v very much,e are cutting d down the forerestd paving ovever the wetlands where they would normally live and instead they're living in our farms a and gardedens and backys instead. amy: w with the climate crisis contribubuting to this. >> yeses. because of the climate crisis,s, we havave wild animals living in didifferent t places.. 8080% of wild f feces -- spececn the heightvingng into and tore ththe coal so o they ae encountetering n new popululatis they move intnto new places. those movements are lifesaving for r them but it adds to t thee collisions between humans, microbes, andnd animals and that is the process that brings us new diseases. amy: before we end, i want to get into what you think are e se solutions.

for r example, explain the ccect of one health. concecept in h is a public healtlth circles a and aa theoretical construct, it has got a a lot of purchase. the ideaea is human healthth ist just the absence of pathogens or the absence of certain kinds of sicknesses. human hehealth is connnnected te health are livestock, thehe heah of our wildlife, the health of our ecosystem. if we think k of human health tt way, it is not just an issue for biomedical experts. it is not just an issue foror dg companies to, but new mediciness and vaccines f for us. what we veve to d do to createe good healtis m make surere our miceli, our ecosystems are healthy. that is the idea of one health. level,,nalized on a low therere's s a lot more we canano makeke the one health approach more common, but it is starting.

-- ask this is something we move into this new era, sing a a lot more of t these emergin- amy: in our headlines today, we cover these story o of the u.k., canada, and the united states hackg russia is trying to the vaccine research ththat is bebeing donee i in differenent countries. i was wondering, and of course rurussia is denying g this. if you can talk about taxing nationalism instead of sharing knowledge to cure the woworld, countries are racing g to be the first to make the vaccine and then get a monopoly on it. khan,t spoke to dr. ali former c cdc official, now deanf the school -- university of nebraska. he just tweeted that if all of this werere open source,e, thenu would not havee the time spent n

these accusations. >> absolutely. i ththink he is s right. it needs to be open sourcece. ththis goes back to the whole wy wehihink aboutut diseases as a problem of foreign invasion. it really lends itself to these nationalalistic your prices. -- e enterprisises. what we would have alreadady sen is the only thing that isis helping in this last six months is international solidarity. it is the fact that we understand so much about the disease because scientists in china and europe and elsewhere have b been sharingg data with others around the world. that is what is helping us ununderstandnd how does this thg spread for one person to another, how m much pathogens yu need to have an infnfectious se, do m masks wk, doeses handwashig workrk? all l of these things s we are learning because of international solidarity across

borders, these collaboratns, which are really unhnheard o of. it is unprecededented the amount ofollaboration hapning ross theorordersight now that is what we ne to suppt mong forward. thishohole ia of a vcinene searchch thahat is fund d throuh taxpxpayer dollars, to a large extent, yet being capitalized and creating -- that we are creating proprietary products instead is going in thee absolue wrong direction. y: there''s a front-pagee piecee , got $1 york times billion too fund vaccine research. but this issue of where the money goes and where the money could be e better spent makes me think about jonas salk, he refused to make the polilio vaccine -- let it be trademarked. he saiaid it must be fe to alll. >> absolututely. i think the other part ofof it,

amy, we have put a lot of faith and stock ininto vaccine development. if you look at the history of there haveehreats been f few we have b been able o control or e edicate youour vaccccines. only one we e ever eradicated through a vaccinine, and that ws smallpox the smallpox vaccine was not based on a proprietary, high-tech process. it was based on a f folk remedy developed for hundreds of years in asia and africa. this idea that we e can very rapidly y produce this product d it will save us all l i think ia little exaggerated when yoyou really consider the whole history of how vaccines have been able to control contagious diseases. almost all of the big diseases we have encountered in our history, it has been behavior-c-change that is saveds from -- housing reform and

social reform, sanitary reform, clean water. those things. social c changes that actually built as out of the contagious way of life. for sonia shah, t thank you being with us.s. i want to end d with jonas salk, asked who ownsns thiss patent? he replied "well, the people, i would say. there is no patent. ?"uld you patent the sun sonia shah, science investigative journalist and the author of "pandemic: tracking contagion from cholera to ebola and beyond." as well as "the next great migration: the beauty and terror of life on the move." we will link to your article published in the nation is titled "it's time to tell a new storory about coronavirurus -- r lilives depepend on it when we come back on the centers for disease control says unhoused people living in and chemist should be able to remain there, which will help p stop te spread of covidid-19. we will go to philadelphia stop

ststay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "have mercy" by eryn allen kane. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goododman. asas public health o officials d people to follow guidance from the centers for disease control and prevention to stop the spread of the cocoronavirus, may cities are going against thehese recommendations when it comes to working with people who are unhoused. cdc guidelines state -- "if individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are." despite this, sweeps have been conducted in new york, st. louis, minneapolis, denvnver, ad elelsewhere. fofor more, we go to philaladel, where the mayoyor has postponed the eviction of an encampment of unhoused people that was scheduled for this morning -- about right now, in fact. philadelphia mayor jim kenney said in a statement thursday that the camp "casts an important light on the racial inequities in our society that impact homelessness" and said he is committed to taking steps to provide affordable housing. for more, we're going to go to

one of those encampments of and the house people -- unhoused people near the benjamin franklin parkway and be joined by sterling johnson, an organizer with black and brown workers cooperative in philadelphia, and a spokesperson for philadelphia housing action. welcome to democracy now! please describe rerest where you are and what is happening at this encampment. amy, fofor having us. right now we are a at -- right between the city hall and art museum. we have taken this spacece, occupied this space. it is s right in front of the plaza were people hay about $5,000 a month to stay. it is a very, very open and clear occupation of land that is not meant for us. amy: talk about how it is that the encampment of houseless

people managed to get the mayor not to rate and take down this encampment today. what kd of negotiations have been taking place? u upon setting up tents, they did contact me specifically about negototiation. we have been in negotiations for a long evening of time. yett a demands. the first demand was to transfer the vacant homes that the city of phihiladelphia and the housig into a community land trust. they refused to talk toto us abt those issues. they raised many other issues that were imporortant, but refud to talk about those. we dececided we would walk out, that we needed that one conversation that was about permanent housing. upon doing that, they started to escalate and threaten us and to

cut our sanitation contracts. we then engaged them again. that is where we are at now. they have decided to come to the table with the actual mayor and the actual housing authority ceo to have a real conversation about permanent low income housing. amy: last month, one of your fellow housing activists,, jennifer bennetch, announced they were helping unhoused families occupy multiple homes. in this clclip from an intntervw with unicorn riot, she describes who owns the homes. >> so we're over there right across the street from the $45 million housing authority had -- headquarters. these are all vacant public housing. are processing applications from 2010. they are just vacant properties will stop there are two more

down there at the end. by of these lots are owned the housing authority also. amy: that is jennifer bennetch. she is standing in front of f al of these closed homes, boarded up homes. sterling, can you tell us what is the philadelphia housing authority? hohow ny homes doeoes it own? hohow many are in the e --mpty? >> it is the largest housing provider in the city of philadelphia. they have a waitlist where nobody has moved -- closed since 2013. they are a group that has a history of f malfeasance, histoy of corruption, of using money -- to make market rate housing. the history of lighting properties, taking black and brown homeowners properties and giving themm dimes for their property. they have a history of also

putting money into their headquarters, which is $45 million. not really focusing on the people that are around them. the phililadelphia housing auththority has about 5000 vacat properties right now. create ao use them to community land trust. what they want to do is auction them off to private developers cany single year so they act as a private renental compa, rereal estate company. we have decided to occupypy thoe households. we don't believeve it is a c cre to placece a family with small children intnta homome so they n sleep safely and soundly. those aree not crimes. that is an act of love. it is really important is it with the housing authority in philadelphia -- not just philadelphia, but across the country - -- have been doing to privatize public property. this is public property.

amy: sterling, i about the resignation this week of philadelphia mayor jim kenney's second in command, managing director brian abernathy, who faced criticism for his handling of homeless services and policing. it's been reported that investigators from a police counterterrorism unit visited the home of a philadelphia man, jose de marco, who sent flower arrangements to abernathy's house as part of a demonstration to call attention to the covid death of a man living in a shelter and the city's affordable housing crisis. talk about the r resignation and what this was all about. important to see the response to legitimate protests. activists.o is an we are a group -- we spoke

specifically about a all of the trouble people are going to have staying at home due to covid-19. they continue to increase the budget for the police. they continue e to say that they were doing whahat they could for homeless services.s. we know that i is not true when they cut the budget by $12 million. we have a cacall to defund the police and invnvest in housing d invest in the people that are here, invest -- don't take federal money that is supposedd to go to people experiencing homelessness and give it to the police. that is a very simple ask. amy: sterling johnson, talk about what is next. the philadelphia mayor says he and stu meet with the encampment 's organizers directly next week. will you be there? what do plan to tell him? your standing in front of this encampment, not the only y one n phililadelphia, and we also be able to meet with kelvin jeremiah, ceo of the housing

authority? we just have 30 seconds. >> they hahave both said they wl meet. meet with us. we will tell them that this is not for us. we are not the beneficiaries. we have a deep love for everybody that is low in kendo income. we are not asking for affordable housing, we needed for disabled people, no income people. i am disabled. we have a right to stay in the city and the peacefully. amy: i s see you have a mask you have pulled down just for this interview. how are folks staying safe? >> we have regular testing. wewe have ppe, handwashing, hand sanitizer. we care about everybody. amy: it might shock people to know t the cdc recommendation is that unhoused people not to be moved from encampments like yours. >> of course. philadelphia has rejected that was not they have told us it is

one man's opinion. we have that on video. amy: sterling johnson, thank you for being with us, organize her with black and brown workers cooperative in philadelphia, and a spokesperson for philadelphia housing action. that does it for our show.

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