12/01/20 12/01/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> [indiscernible] amy: as moderna seeks emergency authorization for its covid-19 vaccine, the cdc is meeting

today to decide on who should be first to get the vaccine once one is available. with the pandemic raging across the united states, we will speak to two african-american doctors who have spent years fighting racial disparities in healthcare. one of them joined moderna's vaccine study to honor her father who died from covid-19. plus, we will mark world aids day with professor steven thrasher. >> aids continues to kill too many people, almost 700,000 peop were killed by it last year, and that was decades after education became available. as we are on the verge of potentially having a coronavirus vaccine to rollout, we don't antiracist,vely anticapitalist approach, hundreds of thousands of millions of people could continue to suffer and die. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman.

the u.s. centers for disease control and convention is convening a panel of advisers today to determine who will be the first in line to be vaccinated against covid-19 -- as the u.s. coronavirus outbreak continues to shatter world records. on monday, u.s. hospitalizations top 96,000 -- a record high. there were new 168,000 confirmed cases and nearly 1300 new deaths. there were over 4 million confirmed u.s. infections in november alone. here in new york, governor andrew cuomo warned of a looming "nightmare of overwhelmed hospitals," saying he's prepared to once again close nonessential businesses if cases keep rising. cuomo also ordered hospitals to call up retired medical workers. >> every hospital has to identify retired nurses and doctors now. we are already experiencing

staff shortages. staff just gets exhausted after a while. they have had a horrendous year. amy: in california, a new remain-at-home order went into effect across los angeles county monday as governor gavin newsom warned similar orders could soon follow for nearly all of california's 58 counties. >> if these trends continue, we are to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic, action. amy: on monday, president trump's hand-picked coronavirus adviser dr. scott atlas resigned. he is the former fox news contributor and neuro-radiologist from stanford's conservative hoover institution with no expertise in epidemiology or infectious disease. dr. atlas' appointment drew condemnation from stanford doctors who wrote in an "l.a. times" op-ed -- "the guidance he is giving to the white house does not reflect sound epidemiological reasoning, nor is it consistent with the current body of scientific knowledge about covid-19."

president trump's personal to doctorsonded letter from stanford of about 100 researchers, infectious disease doctors, by threatening to sue them for defamation. dr. atlas has dismissed overwhelming scientific evidence that face masks slow the spread of coronavirus. he's also pushed a widely discredited strategy of herd immunity through natural infection -- a policy that public health officials say could result in the deaths of millions of more americans. last month, atlas called on michiganders to rise up against public health measures aimed at slowing the spread of covid-19 -- drawing condemnation from michigan's democratic governor gretchen whitmer, who was at the center of an alleged terrorist plot by far-right militia members to overthrow the michigan government and kidnap her. the government accountability office reports millions of u.s. workers left unemployed by the pandemic have been denied the full jobless benefits they're owed, with a majority of states

paying out the minimum benefit instead of a higher amount based on workers' prior earnings. the gao also found weekly labor department unemployment figures -- which reached historic highs in 2020 -- have significantly under-counted the number of people out of work. meanwhile, new research finds more than 400,000 covid-19 cases and nearly 11,000 deaths resulted from evictis after many states allowed eviction moratoriums to expire over the summer. emergency room physician dr. jason wilson tweeted in response -- "stable housing is even more important than wearing a mask. getting out of this pandemic means following all the cdc guidelines -- including the one about not evicting people during a global pandemic." wisconsin and arizona have formally certified joe biden's win over donald trump, dealing the latest blow to trump's quest to overturn the results of the 2020 election. on monday, trump campaign lawyer

joseph digenova said former u.s. cybersecurity chief chris krebs -- who was fired by trump after he called the 2020 election the most secure election in american history -- should be put to death. digenova was speaking on the howie carr talk radio show. >> that guy is a class a more on. he should be drawn and ported, taken out at dawn and shot. amy: this comes as "the washington post" reports the trump campaign has raised more -- as much as $170 million since election day by appealing to supporters for help with legal challenges. much of the many will reportedly go into an account for president to use on future political elections -- future political activities or even on himself. one trump donor, north carolina businessman fredric eshelman, has sued the campaign to recover his $2.5 million donation, citing disappointing results.

president trump continues to lash out at top republicans who refused to back his claims of election fraud. on monday, trump demanded georgia republican governor brian kemp overrule secretary of state brad raffensperger's certification of biden's win, calling kemp hapless. trump also attacked arizona's republican governor doug ducey monday, saying he had "betrayed the people of arizona" by certifying joe biden's win. this comes as arizona democratic senator-elect mark kelly, who defeated republican incumbent martha mcsally, is set to be sworn in on wednesday. his victory means the senate's balance of power will be decided in georgia's twin run-off elections scheduled for january 5, when republican incumbents kelly loeffler and david perdue will face challengers reverend raphael warnock and david ossoff. some georgia republicans have raised fears that trump's attacks could suppress republican voter turnout,

leading to a democratic-controlled senate. schools in baltimore, maryland, are closed for a second day after a ransomware attack shut down much of the school district's computer network. authorities have revealed few details on what was compromised or if the attacker made any demands. this comes as "the new york times" reveals hospitals and other medical institutions are coming under an increasing wave of cyber attacks. a recent attack on the university of vermont health network took down the electronic medical record system for nearly a month, disrupting care for chemotherapy patients and others. in immigration news, politico -- a federal court has ordered immigration and customs enforcement to bring immigrants in front of a judge within 10 days of being apprehended. new york immigration rights activists celebrated monday's ruling saying it will protect immigrants to process rights as ice can no longer subject them to indefinite detention before a

related to their case. the ruling only affects new york. in guatemala, indigenous leaders and thousands of protesters took to the streets of the western region of sololá monday as anti-government actions continued across the country for the second week. protesters blocked one of the major highway and roads for hours. this comes as indignation continues to mount over the government's response to the pandemic and two back-to-back hurricanes, eta and iota, which displaced hundreds of thousands of people last month. many protesters are calling for the president to resign. tois causing great ha society and that is why we demand the resignation of the president. get out. amy: thousands of people also led a protest in guatemala city saturday, with vows to continue mobilizations until president giammattei and other government officials step down. meanwhile, amnesty international is condemning the excessive use of force by guatemalan police against protesters and

journalists at a massive action last month, triggered by a now-retracted budget passed by the guatemalan congress which proposed cuts to health and education. in news from capitol hill, a number of major corporations including apple, nike, and coca-cola, are opposing a bill to ban goods made using forced labor by uighurs and other muslim minority groups in china's xinjiang region. the house passed the legislation 406 to 3 but the senate has not yet voted. a congressional report earlier this year found many corporations have directly or indirectly relied or forced labor in xinjiang, including adidas, calvin klein, campbell soup, costco, h&m, tommy hilfiger, nike, and patagonia. french politicians have announced they will totally rewrite a controversial new security bill after weeks of nationwide protests. the proposed law would have banned the publication of images of police officers and increased police powers. on monday, four french police officers were charged with

assaulting black music producer michel zecler while hurling racial epithets at him. video of the incident has gone viral at a time when many in franceeared the security law would be used to cover up future cases of police brutality. in environmental news, the brazilian government has confirmed over 2.7 million acres of the amazon rainforest were destroyed over the past year -- the largest amount in 12 years. deforestation has surged under the right-wing presidency of jair bolsonaro. scientists say preserving the amazon is crucial in addressing the climate crisis. construction is set to begin on the new enbridge line 3 pipeline after the minnesota pollution control agency approved the final needed permit on monday. the controversial proposed pipeline would carry tar sands oil from alberta, canada, to a terminal in wisconsin, cutting through indigenous territory in minnesota and running under more than 200 streams. indigenous groups have been fighting the project for years. and the winners of the 2020

prestigious goldman environmental prize have been announced. among this year's winners are -- kristal ambrose from the bahamas, who pressured the government to ban single-use plastic bags, cutlery and straws, and styrofoam containers and cups. chibeze ezekiel from ghana, the national coordinator of 350 ghana reducing our carbon. he also works with ghana's youth climate activists. nemonte nenquimo, an indigenous leader in the ecuadorian amazon who led legal action against oil extraction in the region. and leydy pech, a maya woman from opelchén, mexico, who promotes sustainable development practices for mayan communities. pech is also a beekeeper, protecting a rare native bee species. this is pech speaking at this year's goldman virtual ceremony. >> the price gives me the opportunity to tell the world that the lanes of the indigenous people are being stripped away by the imposition of mega

extraction projects, echo dustry, tourism, and others that strengthen a model of capitalism that threatens natural resources and our way of life. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. it is great to see you. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention is meeting today to vote on who should be the first to get the coronavirus vaccine once one is available. this comes as drug makers pfizer and moderna are seeking emergency regulatory approval of their vaccines for widespread use, with pfizer set to be reviewed by the fda on december 10 and moderna's review a week later. the coronaviruss raging across itedtates with 4 million

cases in november alone. the pandemic is disproportionately impacting african american, latinx, and indigenous communities and exposing long-standing inequities and systemic racism in our health-care system. these same communities are underrepresented in clinical trials for covid-19 vaccines, due in part to centuries of abusive treatment at the hands of medical researchers. we begin today's show with someone whose work focuses on how systemic racism undermines the health of people of color. she herself participated in moderna's vaccine trial, in part as a way to honor her late father and to ensure african-americans are included in these studies. dr. chris pernell is a public health physician in newark, new jersey, where hospitals in the early days of the pandemic were described as "bursting at the seams" with black and latinx patients infected with covid. around the same time, her father timothy pernell was hospitalized and tragically died

from covid complications on april 13. soon after, her sister kim, a breast cancer survivor, was diagnosed with covid and is still suffering from long-term symptoms. their father timothy pernell was recognized by new jersey governor phil murphy, who tweeted about how he "worked his way up from the grounds keeping crew at bell labs to becoming a member of the technical staff." for more, dr. chris pernell joins us from montclair, new jersey. dr. pernell, it is great to have you with us. our condolences on the death of your father. just take us on the chronology of what happened with your dad, but remarkable man he was, and then ultimately your decision to be a participant in the moderna trial. >> thank you for having me this morning. if we can think back to the spring when things were really

just beginning to explode in new jersey, in particularly centering on york, new jersey, which was unfortunately an epenter of the pandemic when hospitals were starting to restrict visitation, when cases were starting to pile up, my dad, unfortunately, got admitted to a local hospital -- just a mere four miles away from where i work. he went in for an related cause. heas stable. he was laughing. he was talking about eating his favorite food and then suddenly one day he became violently ill. he had vigorous chls, fever, difficulty breathing. we were concerned. his medical team was concerned. after having several of those episodes, and partially, he had to be tested and tested positive. when my father tested positive, it was very much in the early days of this coronavirus pandemic when there was little that we knew about how to treat coronavirus, little that we knew about how to sustain life.

unfortunately, we could not be there in person with him. i could at best speak with him over the phone. then he just grew to week. he grew too tired. i think i left her my father's voice the thursday before he died and he died on a monday. amy: tell us who he was. >> my dad was heroic. i thought he was the bionic man. a man who came up during the jim crow south, came north during the time when many blacks did following the migratory pattern , theng systemic racism terror of jim crow south, and settled in that new jersey a new york area. ultimately, my father became a research scientist but not before he took on a host of jobs. .ne was a groundsman my father always had a knack for math and science but college was

not a possibility for him in the 1950's in richmond, virginia. one fateful day led to an opportunity. my dad was self-taught. he would read textbooks at night. he would go to classes provided at the lab by some of thehd scientists. was a part ofhe from breaking work at bell labs. he fought at advocated for black stabbed -- blacks to have opportunity in research. juan: dr. pernell, her father was not the only number of your family afflicted by the coronavirus. could you talk about the experiences of other family members and then your decision to participate in the vaccine trial? >> sure. i have been saying clearly it is so important to put a face to this pandemic. so important to put a face to the science. only talk about how coronavirus is disproportionately impacting

black and brown lives, i oftentimes point to own story. the week where we buried my father to a virtual ceremony, my sister was confirmed positive for coronavirus. my sister, who is a breast cancer survivor, worked in a central retail industry and likely got exposed on her job. she became sick. she was not hospitalized but was sick at home. we closely monitor her. promised eight or nine months later, my sister still has lingering aftereffects of the infection. she just got up supplemental oxygen. she is not yet returned to work. even this past sunday, i lost another relative. toost a beloved cousin coronavirus who suffered a catastrophic stroke. juan: in terms of your decision to participate in the trial? i sawfather's death, when my sister go through, what i saw

the patients at our safety net hospital in york encounter and deal with and being a public health physician, i needed a way to be a part of the solution. you could say it put a fire in my belly. i wanted a way to be a part of that science. my dad would frequently say to me, follow the science, follow the data. an opportunity was made available. was a sponsoring site. so i was able to volunteer. i did not hesitate at the opportunity. i knew what was known at that time from phase 1 research and i knew also no serious medical event had happened in phase 2, and i knew it was important for black and brown persons to participate if we were ever to get at a truly effective solution. amy: can you talk about where their effects, side effects? people are describing feeling sick for a day or two.

it is astounding, dr. pernell, that with your dad who has died, with your sister who is a long hauler, that you're willing to go through this even as you treat covid patients. >> let me talk about that. i am not a frontline provider. i work in leadership, but i am definitely a part of an institution caring for those frontline patients. i would say to you i had to do something. i saw my community decimated. an understanding the legacy of systemic racism -- that is why this pandemic has disproportional impacted black and brown lives. i needed a way to say, can we get at an effective solution to beat back this pandemic? so i enrolled. i very much aware of the legacy of medical experimentation, the legacy of medical exploitation. but this was an opportunity to be a part of something rooted in sound, ethical practice and

upheld informed consent. when i got my first injection at the end of august, i could tell you if it like when i got my flu vaccine. i had local pain or soreness at the injection site. i did have some headaches and things of that nature, but nothing too out of the ordinary, nothing that was concerning for my basine. in addition to the first injection, i the second jection in the early days of october. that experience was a little different. that day, by the end of that day that i got that injection, i felt extreme fatigue. i felt like i could not get out of my car. i felt overcome with fatig. i had a more severe headache. not lastptoms did longer than 24 to 36 hours. for me, it was wth it. was in theow if i placebo or active vaccine arm,

but my experiences to date have been worth it. juan: could you talk about some of the historic barriers to getting people of color, particularly african-americans, to want to participate in vaccine trials? there's a natural skepticism. as you mentioned, the legacy of previous experiments done on people of color. >> we can go back to slavery when doctors then were doing gynecological procedures on enslaved black women without anesthesia, without their consent. they were not even considered human beings. we could talk about how black bodies were robbed from cemeteries out of that civil war era to allow medical students to learn anatomy and dissection. we can talk about the unfortunate experience of the simplest study where we had -- syphilis study where we had a treatment for syphilis but that was withheld. woman talk about a black

in segregated baltimore who had metastatic cervical cancer and had tissue taken from her womb unknowingly to become one of the most productive cell lines that have led to groundbreaking research. we can talk about mississippi appendectomies we are describing where black and brown women have undergone forced sterilization under the guise of something else. there are a host of examples in the literature and the lived onerience that is weighed the collective psyche of the black and brown community. in addition to the past, we in health care -- i describe it as we are still grappling with systemic racism. we are still grappling with inequities that lead to staggering health care disparities, whether it is disproportionate disease prevalence, rate, or implicit bias that impactsrovider and patient interaction. there is a truth that we cannot deny.

i am cognizant of that truth in my work centered on health equity and justice. so important as we go into communitiethat we talk about thgs we do have to be back the pandemic and clinical research being one which has gott us to emergencywhere -- authorization. the epicenter that transparency and authenticity. then we have to demonstrate trustworthiness. we in academic edison, health care, so that we can win back, we can cultivate trust in these communities. amy: dr. pernell, we going as dr. monica peek this question as well in a minute at the university of chicago. but your thoughts on what is being proposed now to increase participation -- and that is paying people to take the vaccine. i think john delaney, the former democratic presidential candidate, former congressman from maryland is proposing

something like $1500. your thoughts on this? >> i am against that. i'm against that because i think that is an unfair inducement. having a financial incentive such as that, people would be most sensitive to that or people struggling with poverty. we can't have any shortcuts. we have to do the hard work. in the hard work is demonstrating trustworthiness. the hard work is beating back the misinformation, th disinformation. and hearing people's fears and concerns and allowing science to listen with an empathetic ear and then demonstrate why this is the right choice, why this is so necessary to include our communities. i don't think paying people is the way to go about it. i think that is a short-range result that doesn't center itself in the health equity approach. amy: chris pernell, thank you for being with us, public health physician in newark, new jersey, and a moderna vaccine trial

participant. thank you for being with us. next up, we will continue to discuss the covid vaccines as drugmakers press for emergency approval and the debate over whether people could be paid to take those vaccines, as well as cdc now considering today who should get the millions of vaccines that will probably be made available in the next weeks. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the firewood collector" by bernard kabanda. the late uganda musician died of aids. today is world aids day. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we continue to look at the coronavirus pandemic spike here in the u.s. and how the vaccine will be distributed as the cdc prepares to meet today to vote on who should be the first to get the vaccine on it is available.

as distribution drs near, recent pl suggests 42% of americans are reluctant to take the vaccine. in response, some, including john delaney, are pushing to pay people to get vaccinated. this is delaney on cnn responding to criticism the plan would cause an undue burden on people who are economicall disadvantaged. >> those who are least economically among us, have suffered disproportionately under this pandemic. so many of those people are not sitting at home and zooming into work, they're getting a public transportation, going to grocery stores, and making sure the essential things that we all need are available. they are the people who will nefit the most from getting the vaccination rate of. amy: for more on vaccine distribution, we're joined by

dr. monica peek, physician, associate professor of medicine, and health disparities researcher at the university of chicago. she is meeting at the university today to determine how their university will rollout the vaccine there. and a chicago, like other cities across the country, those killed by covid-19 have been disproportionately african-american and latinx. dr. peek, welcome to democracy now! why do you start off by responding to with the former congressman is proposing. if there is a problem with people being concerned about the vaccine, pay them to take it. purcell andith dr. that we should separate the two issues of economic need and the issue of vaccine implementation because we don't want the andeption of vaccine safety

trt in the vaccine to cloud the waters of economic need. and so it is really important that people are able to look at the science. the people are able to follow the words of the scientists and the public health professionals and say, this is something that is safe that i believe in, that the trust professionals are recommending that i take, and that they are not saying, this is something that financially i need to do and i think there might be more risk associated with it because i'm having to be paid to take it. but because i'm so broke, i'm gog to put my body in harm's way in order to get this money. we don't want peopl feeling like they have to make that choice. towe need to be able disentangle those two things and make sure we have given the

people the stimulus they need. those conversations are in gridlock. itself andto fix come to an agreement about how to make sure we are financially supporting the people that are in this economic crisis separately we need to figure out how to ensure we have the trust vaccinate our entire u.s. population. everybody has to get vaccinated quickly, so those are two separate conversations. juan: and on this issue, dr. peek, of getting everyone vaccinated, clearly, there will have to be steps in the decisions that are being made today in terms of priorities at the federal level -- even at your university or at the local level, how do the health professionals -- what kind of things today think about in terms of after the first

responders, the people in the health care system, who gets it next? >> well, you know, there are millions of people that need this vaccine. so a lot of thought has been going into how to faly way beforee vaccine we do the vaccines would even be ready. so it is a miracle that we have two that are coming on the market this quickly. as of the national academy of sciences engineering and medicine have been meeting already for months and have come up with a recommendation. the cdc is currently meeting. individual hospitals are coming up with their individual rollout plans. of the general consensus is that people who are frontline workers, people who are considered frontline health care workers, high risk health care workers, people who are essential workers, those who are sick, have chronic medical

problems, those who are living in close quarters -- cover facilities like nursing homes, homeless shelters, prison, people that are elderly, all of these high risk populations for whatever reason based onour job, where you're living, how sick you are, those are the populations that need to be vaccinated early. k-12 teachers. we need to beble to get people back into school into settings where they can be close together. rollouthere is a staged where we have a phase i bag, face 2, phase 3 so we can sort of in an orderly fashion figure out who is going to go first. and ultimately get to make sure that everyone of the population goes. so right now we're trying to think about phase 1a, just high-risk health care workers

and first responders. timeing things happen on and december 10, the first vaccine is made available and starts being shipped out, than the hospitals are beginning to look inwardly and think about how we are going to vaccinate our own hospital employee population. where i am, we have about 6500 employees, little more than that, so we think we can vaccinate everybody in a week. if we did 1000 vaccinations a day, then we could get everyone done within a week's time. we are sort of looking at that time frame. juan: when we talk about, for instance, first responders and folks in health care facilities, i am sitting for instance in hospital, that includes not just the nurses and the doctors and -- but also the maintenance

staff and kitchen workers and all the other people that are part of the hospital complex? hooks that is true. isrybody in the hospital potentially exposed. we think about when you are a patient in the hospital, somebody's coming in to can your room, coming into deliver your food, take her temperature. there are many people that come in and out of that door. deliver magazines. who arnot your nurse or your physician but have contact with you. there are people who are changing your bed linens that are, you know, having contact with soiled, contaminated, infectious products. so everybody needs to be protected. we are all in this together. hospital is a bubble that we are all in, and we are all at

risk. yes, hospital workers means all hospital workers. amy: as we were just talking about usehris pernell of experimentation, especially on the african-american community, medical experimentation, one of your specialties is racial disparities. i had two questions. this is related just to disparities. he said everyone could be vaccinated in a week, but these are two-part vaccine. there is this question of will they use all the 40 million or and thenes all at once wait for the next ones to be developed, or will they only use 20 million of them so you can get the second vaccine in whatever that period is? if you could talk about whether it conveys immunity or you can actually get sick but you will be asymptomatic and you can still spread and? all of these questions about

vaccine. it than also, and the wider population, if that is what you do with also outside of the university of chicago, workers meatpackingp -- plants, farmworkers, people who are documented. how do we ensure they all have access? these are excellent questions. and difficult questions, but ones that we have to think about. place tove a system in rollout implementation. already it shows that this is not something that hospitals in and of themselves are going to do. the vaccines are primarily going to be shipped to health departments, and then health departments parcel them out to different institutions. know,some cases, you hospitals will be working

alongside the other kinds of organizations to make sure that populations are effectively vaccinated. certainly, we are used for caring for patients so we will be carg for our own patients who are medically vulnerable and making sure they get vaccinated, but not everyone has primary care physicians. unfortunately,t, without routine care but we need to make sure that everyone in this country is vaccinated. and so we are going to have to think about nonhealth health care sites for vaccination, just like we're doing for covid testing where we have pop-up testing sites. we are going to have to be more creative in how we think about reaching populations that don't ordinarily show up at our doors for care to ensure that we are reaching everyone for vaccine delivery. juan: dr. peek, given the fact

that vaccine will be rolled out probably right around the time the deaths and hospitalizations from the virus are at record levels, there is going to be enormous pressure by sectors of the population to get the vaccine. i am thinking over the last nine months, there's a whole section of the american public that is had the ability to work remotely from home and therefore protect themselves, whereas those workers who have to go to work every day have been increasingly the ones most exposed. so shouldn't the vaccine then be rolled out to those who are being forced to work every day as a result of the kind of jobs they have? and won't there be pressure from those w generally more professional, or middle-class who have stayed at home all these nine months, to also get the vaccine? how do you monitor -- what will

be the monitoring process to make sure there is not abuses? >> that is an excellent question. sort of the of eth or the penalties for people jumping in line and trying to abuse the system. but what we have tried to put in and aare parameters rollout system so that, you know, think about a buffet line on a cruise ship or something. now we are taking people who are having the blue card. these ar the people do to get vaccinated. this week you're doing everyone who is employee. next week we are doing essential workers for the next month. how we're going to figure out exactly how we find those people and whatever, you know, those are the plans and implementation

policies and things were going to have to be working through in conjunction with city planners and this is where the rubber hits the road and all of the infrastructure and planning has to start working and has been working. areessential workers that keeping our cities and townships functioning, they are high up on the list. they are part of phase 2. are performingho critical functions for the city as well as people who are caring higher burdens of disease are priority people. frequently, those are the same people because people who have been bdened by oppreion, by structural inequities and racism , that has affected their health. the same is structural inequities has meant they have had them at it opportunities as far as education and career

advancement, so a lot of times they're more likely to be working in essential worker jobs. so many of the people that we are talking about being high-priority for a medical reason or for an occupational reason are the same people. so those people may have multiple reasons to be priority individuals getting vaccinated. maybend dr. monica peek, we're getting ahead of ourselves -- she had stephen hahn, the doctor has been called to the white house because mark meadows, the chief of staff who also came down with covid mr. president trump, course the white house is a hotspot because of the herd immunity approach, president trump has taken, putting pressure on him to speed up the approval process -- it will be going to the fda but then it has to be approved by the cdc. this has been done at unbelievable speed, which is both the excellent news but also a concern for people.

thehis being approved with kind of scientific review that something like this distributed on a mass basis needs? ?re you concerned about that overall, the speed with which this is being dynamic out and the fact that even before january 20, as everyone looks at that next inauguration day, you have tens of thousands of americans who will die and what president trump needs to be doing right now outside the virus from outside the vaccine, to ensure that people have access to masks and test, something that continues to be a massive problem in this country. >> so much you just said right there. where to start.

i guess the easy answer is thinking about the current administration. given that trump has been in office for four years and we have seen what he can and cannot do and we ve seen how he has handled and approached the covid pandemic, i don't have high hopes that his behavior will change between now and january 20. the best i can hope for is that he will step out of the way, enough way to make room for the incoming biden administration and the transition team to be able to make some headway. biden -- the first thing he did was pull together his covid-19 task force, which is chock-full of scientists, health policy analyst, public health

professionals, people are very experienced in vaccine policy and know what they are doing. so getting these people together who have already been thinking about covid for years -- not years, but infectious diseases for years, thinking about the covid pandemic since it started, that is where we need to be able to let these people flourish in this space, have access to some resources. that talkingk about just the rapidity with which these vaccines have moved forward, you are right in that it is a good thing and then there is some ambivalence. we want -- we want things to move as quickly as possible as long as it is safe. we want things to move with the speed of light as long as the sciences they there.

be for them not to politically approved but for them to be -- to have been scientifically approved. that is the fine line that we want to walk. haveall the scientists come together behind the idea of project work speed, that has a scientific endeavor. ofwant that kind collaboration to continue. but what we don't want is politicians getting in the mix and saying, "i really need this to happen to ensure my things that or worry the public. and we know these things have worried the public. undermine --not well, we have already undermined. we cannot continue to undermine and erode the public trust in this process. we need to have the public trust

that this vaccine will be safe. and we cannot cut corners. because once the vaccine is here, if no one is willing to take it, all of this effort will have been for not. up justn't speed things to get here and no one is willing to use it. so we have to cut as dr. purcell was saying, do the hard work. we have to do it right. we have to think right now in advance about how we're going to make this vaccine acceptable to communities that are thinking this is something i'm not engaging --n and be right now in campaign truth telling, we have to be engaging with organizations that we know are trustworthy rather than tearing down the cdc, but building of the public health infrastructure, reinvesting in the cdc, giving them back the leadership and the ability to

tell truth to the public, and giving them back their right to run the ship. amy: dr. monica peek, thank you so much for being with us, physician, associate professor of medicine and health disparities researcher at the university of chicago. there is so much to talk about and we will get back to you soon. again, next up, it is world aids day. we will speak with professor steven thrasher in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break] amy: "o corpo e que paga" by antonio variacoes.

in 1984. hiv-aids this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. today is world aids day. as the world waits on an effective vaccine for covid-19 and the u.s. sees skyrocketing cases that shatter every world record, we turn now to look at the ongoing aids epidemic and how the coronavirus has threatened treatment for those living with hiv. around 33 million lives have been lost to aids in the past four decades. this is the head of the world health organization speaking monday. >> people living with hiv may have an increased risk of severe desis and deaths from covid-19. this increased risk has been compounded by disruptions to treatment for people living with hiv. 127 countries earlier this year, more than a

quarter reported partial disruption to anti-retro viral treatment for people with hiv. amy: well, for more, we go to chicago to speak with steven thrasher, professor at the medill school of journalism at northwestern university and author of the forthcoming book "the viral underclass: how racism, ableism and capitalism plague humans on the margins." his new piece is out in scientific american headlined "world aids day is a grim reminder that we have more than one pandemic going on." welcome back to democracy now! talk about that more than one pandemic and what today means. >> according to the world health organization, there are about 20 pandemics going on including covid-19, zika, and hiv/aids. hiv/aids has continued to kill which many people, almost 700,000 people died last year as i write about in my peace. the sort of good news, as good

as it can be, it declined a great deal. but the real risk, as the clip was saying a moment ago, the possibility is a could go back up. what is concerning to me as the previous two doctors were speaking about vaccination coming out is a pharmacological intervention alone is not going to get us out of the death and instruction we are saying. there have been various sets of medications for hiv the past quarter-century and yet tense and of people have died since that time most of the problem is not just the drugs, it is the conditions around people's lives that lead them to become affected by viruses. juan: could you explain that, why in despite the anti-retro viral drugs that have come on the scene over these 25 years or so that rates of aids continue to increase? >> yes. in a word, the problem is

capitalism. the drugs work. we have to get them to people. it is not just a matter of getting the drugs to people, it is the whole conditions of their lives have to be life-sustaining and valuable. there's a fantastic paper i am siding in my peace by a number of co-authors the journal of urban health that writes about the connection -- they write about the connection between eviction and covid-19 that evicting people from their homes is creating an increased amount of covid-19 transmission. something similar has happened with hiv/aids. the virus is transmitted differently but they affect similar populations because people are subjected to the same overall terrible conditions. if somebody does not have a home, if somebody is homeless and doesn't have employment, don't have health insurance, they're not going to be able to get hiv medication. hiv meds work. for the populations that got them, they not lycée but the life of the person, they keep them from transmitting the virus

onward and therefore act like a virus -- vaccination. data in 2015,dc the rate of aids for black america was actually slightly higher than it had ever been for white america before there were any drugs at all. that was after there had been drugs around for about 20 years. if we are only depending upon drugs to address the crisis, it is not going to help the people o are most at risk. juan: i am wondering if you could extrapolate the issue of racial disparities hereof hiv/aids and how they have emerged for continue to develop in terms of the coronavirus? i've usually, the coronavirus from the vy beginning was afflicting african-americans, latinos, native americans at much higher rates than white americans. >> certainly. to look at only one variable, that is an easy one to look at what is happening, the issue of

who is unhoused in america. white people are the majority of people in the united states and the arm and the -- they're the minority of those who are house. everything that comes along with not having the home, not having health access, jobs, ending up in the informal economy where you are more likely to b arrested and sexually assaulted, all of that is the root reason -- one of the reasons why hiv is more prevalent among african-americans. if you don't get the drugs, the virus will concentrate in a certain, -- population. something similar happening with covid-19. people who don't have the structural support for healthy life, not able to work from home, not ablto live with space -- mathematics. if you look at how influenza moved before and how much square stated, latinx and

african-americans have less living space. when they are less likely to be distanced, when people are evicted, sometimes they end up the street but usually the first stop is they and up doubling up with other people and so the households get even more dense and there's more covid transmission likely to happen. that is what we are really black, and latinx, native american communities. as they're more likely to be evicted, as they are more likely to lose work in the covid-19 pandemic, their living in denser populations and denser homes with other people who are more likely to be front-line workers and more likely to be exposed the service industry and not have jobs where they can work from home. amy: i want to ask you quick before we and about a nomination biden that is nominated to a woman of color ink economic positions crisis so and routes -- cecilia rouse

neera tanden. she would be the first woman of color and first south asian woman in the role. citing her to her cozy relationship with corporate funders, her record of antagonizing and undermining progressive democrats and her hawkish foreign policy position. also has come under criticism for her slashing social security. tanden?comment on neera >> understand why progressives are upset. she represents what a lot of us -- the people they're responding to are not the majority of americans, responding to wall street, pharmacological producers and those are the kind of people that want to keep drugs high in think the profit on drugs for hiv, potential for covid-19, is more important than

actually saving people's lives. i think when we are looking at other people of color, i'm honored to be on the show with dr. pernell and dr. peek. we have to look at people who have an active commitment to racial justice and ending health care disparities. that does not apply to everyone coming into the cabinet. we don't -- i don't want someone like neera tanden not taking into account that we must keep people from being unhoused. they have to have heth care access most of other was, how are they going to get access to a vaccination that has to be given over two or three doses over weeks? amy: 10 seconds. do you see medicare for all as a racial justice solution? absolutely. amy: steven thrasher, thank you for being with us, professor at the medill school of journalism at northwestern university. faculty member of northwestern's institute of sexual and gender minority health and wellbeing. we will link to his peace in scientific american just out today "world aids day is a grim reminder that we have more than one pandemic going on."

that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

>> that's it for bank's trip. here are the place s he visited.