12/17/20 12/17/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> it is incredibly important the people in india get it, can you comment united states, china get it. that is going to require some global coordination. certain amount of global solidarity. amy: as the united states shatters world records for daily coronavirus cases and deaths

with more than 3600 americans dying on wednesday, we look at how it could take years to fully vaccinate the world's population -- this is in part because the wealthy countries are hoarding covid vaccines and a world health organization vaccine effort faces the potential of failing. then we look at how lawmakers appear close to passing a second $900 billion covid-19 stimulus package after months of deadlock. clock to reachhe a final accord before the end of the year, we are close to an agreement. it is not a done deal yet, but we are very close. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amgoodman. the united states has once again shattered world records for daily coronavirus cases and

deaths with nearly a quarter-million infections reported on wednesday alone. more than 3600 americans died of covid-19 wednesday, by far the worst one-day death toll for any nation since the start of the pandemic. california broke records for hospitalizations for an 18th consecutive day and reported 52,000 new cases and nearly 400 deaths. the surge has forced hospitals to turn to desperate measures -- canceling surgeries, forcing icu patients out of intensive care early, and training nurses from other departments to work in intensive care. governor gavin newsom has granted waivers allowing hospitals to force icu nurses to treat three patients at a time versus the two patients allowed under state law. the world health organization's global plan for delivering covid-19 vaccines to 91 poor and middle-income countries faces a

very high risk of failure and could leave billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024. that's according to internal who documents seen by reuters, which reports the countries most at risk are mainly in africa, asia and latin america. we will have more on global vaccination equity after headlines. back in the united states, an advisory panel to the food and drug administration is scheduled to vote today on whether to recommend emergency use authorization of moderna's covid-19 vaccine. if approved, moderna expects to ship enough doses for out 3 million americans in the coming days. this comes as the fda says it will allow healthcare workers to squeeze extra doses of pfizer's new coronavirus vaccine out of vials after shipments contained more vaccine than pharmacists were expecting.

the unexpected windfall could boost the number of available doses by up to 40%. vice president mike pence and second lady karen pence say they will publicly receive a shot of pfizer's covid-19 vaccine on friday. president-elect biden says he plans to get a shot, too, as early as next week. the white house said president trump would not get vaccinated until it's recommended by his medical team. a former trump appointee repeatedly urged officials at the department of health and human services to deliberately allow tens of millions of americans to become infected with the coronavirus. that's according to politico, which reports then-science adviser paul alexander was promoting a widely discredited approach of herd immunity through natural infection. in one email to top health officials last july, alexander wrote -- "infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle

aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk, so we use them to develop herd -- we want them infected." the approach has been condemned by the world health organization as highly unethical, with disease experts saying it could result in the deaths of millions of people. the interior department said wednesday secretary david bernhardt has covid-19, making him the third top official at the agency to test positive since november. also testing positive wednesday was south carolina republican congressman virgil wilson, who announced his infection just hours after speaking from the house floor. secretary of state mike pompeo has canceled his last major holiday party at the state department. he will enter quarantine following close contact with a person who tested positive for covid-19. pompeo and his wife have been hosting indoor gatherings for hundreds of people at the state department, flouting cdc

guidelines. this comes as trump adviser chris christie urged americans to wear masks, citing his hospitalization with covid-19 in october after a superspreader event at the white house. four former new jerseyovernor christie posted thito h twter cap. lng incuor sev days, i thought abt how wrong was remove masat the wte hoe. todai feel how wrongt iso t mask weang divids. we knoyou' twice a lely to get cov-19 if y d't wear aask. cause you d'do the ght tng, weould allnd up on the wrong side of history. amy: french president emmanuel macron has tested positive for coronavirus after reporting unspecified symptoms of covid-19. macron met in recent days with the prime ministers of spain and portugal, as well as the european council in brussels and

members of the french cabinet. france reported its biggest one-day spike in covid-19 cases in nearly a month on wednesday, just days after relaxing a nationwide lockdown. brazil recorded over 70,000 new coronavirus cases wednesday, a new daily record. this brings brazil's confirmed cases to over 7 million with an official death toll of 184,000, the second-worst toll in the world after the united states. on capitol hill, lawmakers appear close to passing a second $900 billion covid-19 stimulus package after months of deadlock. the bill is likely to include additional unemployment assistance of $300 a week and one-off payments of between $600 and $700 -- the amount from the half first stimulus package. the measure will not include the democrats' desired $160 billion for state and local aid as a compromise for excluding the financial liability protections for corporations that republicans have been pushing for for months.

this comes as new data shows the u.s. poverty rate has surged in recent months, with close to 8 million people pushed into poverty since the summer. it's by far the largest jump since the government began tracking poverty data 60 years ago. in related news, oxfam is warning poverty will increase sharply in almost every country for the first time in cades unless immediate actn is taken. 2.7 billion people have not received any public financial assistance during the pandemic according to the oxfam report. the global number of confirmed covid-19 cases has topped 74 million, with 1.6 million deaths. the united nations is warning a new wave of locust invasions is threatening food security for millions across the horn of africa and yemen. despite an international effort to counter the infestations, locust populations are still growing, fueled by last month's devastating cyclone gati and other climate crisis-fueled weather conditions.

general mark milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, met with taliban negotiators for unannounced talks this week. he also met separately with afghan president ashraf ghani to discuss the peace process. the meetings came amid a new drawdown of u.s. troops and as violence continues to claim lives and hamper the ongoing negotiations. in france, 14 people were found guilty wednesday for aiding a series of attacks in and around paris over three days in january 2015. the attacks began when two french algerian brothers stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper "charlie hebdo," killing 12 people. on the following day, another gunman killed four jewish men at a kosher supermarket. all three of the main suspects were killed. the accused accomplices were sentenced to between four years and life in prison.

hungarian lawmakers have effectively barred same sex couples from adopting children in the pme minister's latest crackdown on lgbt rights in hungary. on tuesday, politicians passed a bill redining marriage as between a man and a woman. lydia gall at human rights watch criticized hungary's ongoing efforts targeting its lgbtq community. close this latest attack shows the importance of the emergency linkedeu funds should be in respect to rule of law and our common european values. that is plainly not happening now. the government has chose another path that is intolerant, rejects diversity and inclusivity. this has no business in the european union. amy: in related news, nearly 400 religious leaders are calling for a global ban on so-called conversion therapy which aims to

change a person's sexuality through counseling and other interventions. the campaign is being by the global interfaith commission on lgbt+ lives. in a statement, the commission said -- "we recognize that certain religious teachings have, throughout the ages, been misused to cause deep pain and offense to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex. this must change." in academic news, hundreds of professors have signed an open letter criticizing the university of mississippi for firing historian and anti-racist scholar garrett felber after he spoke out against the school's relationship with what he described as racist donors. in october, the school refused to allow felber to receive a grant for a prison education program called "study and struggle." felber then criticized the university of mississippi's relationship with powerful donors saying -- "this antiracist program threatens racist donor money. and racism is the brand. it's in the name."

felber is the author of the new book "those who know don't say: the nation of islam, the black freedom movement and the carceral state." in sports news, major league baseball has formally recognized the negro leagues as a major league. over 3400 players from the negro -- and their stats will now be part of the mlb official record. some of baseball's greatest stars, including jackie robinson, willie josh gibson, ernie banks, and roy campanella, played for the negro national league -- which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year -- before the mlb allowed the first black players to join in 1947. mlb commissioner rob manfred said -- "the negro leagues produced many of our game's best players, innovations and triumph against a backdrop of injustice. we are now grateful to count the players of the negro leagues where they belong."

meat producer tyson foods has fired managers at an iowa pork slaughterhouse who allegedly held a cash-buy-in, winner-take-all betting pool on how many workers would become infected at their plant. the allegations emerged as part of a lawsuit filed by the family of a former meatpacker who died from covid-19 in april, during an outbreak that killed six workers and sickened over 1000. a major coalition of climate activists have sent president-elect joe biden a draft executive order providing a road map to tackle the climate crisis as soon as he takes office. over 380 groups signed on to the order, which compels him to declare a national climate emergency, ban new fossil fuel infrastructure, charge the environmental protection agency with enacting clean air act, among many other actions. kassie siegel from the center for biological diversity said -- "our house is ablaze with a fire fanned by trump for four years. there's no time to lose. biden must take bold action the moment he steps into the oval

office, without punting to a dysfunctional congress." and in minnesota, the indigenous-led resistance against the construction of enbridge's line 3 pipeline continues. on monday, 22 protesters were arrested after they blocked equipment and refused to leave. this is winona laduke, ojibwe, environmental leader and director of honor the earth speaking the day after the arrests. esterday, 22 people were arrested. the oldest, 65. the youngest, 18. with the exception of one, i believe all women. i want to be cle that water protectors are not criminal goal we are patriots. we are protecting our water from a canadian national corporation. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report.

i am amy goodman in new york city, blanketed in snow from this nor'easter, joined remotely by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: good morning amy. ,welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from arod the country and around the world. amy: as coronavirus infections and deaths continue to shatter world records in the united states, vaccines are rolling out across the country with health care providers first in line, like respiratory therapist chestina schubert at uw health in madison, wisconsin. because soportant many people have died from this. i wanted to have an impact on my community about this and show them that i am playing my part and getting vaccinated.

want to inspire people, especially the patients that look like me and i take care of every day, that it is ok to get vaccinated. it is say. i want to put a name and face, especially here in madison, wisconsin, get vaccinated. amy: meanwhile, in the u.k., 84-year-old retired secretary maureen hughes received one of the country's first pfizer/biontech covid-19 vaccines and said she now hoped to be able to see family members at christmas. enoughn't thank people that made this vexing possible -- vaccine possible. when you have been isolated for four or five months, you know this is a product of the end -- or could be the beginning.

we are just really excited. amy: this comes as health experts are raising concerns that wealthy countries have reserved enough vaccine doses to immunize their populations multiple times over, while poorer countries may only have enough to vaccinate about 20% of their populations. on wednesday, reuters reported the world health organization's global planned for delivering covid-19 vaccines to 91 poor and middle-income countries -- mostly in africa, asia, and latin america -- faces a "very high" risk of failure, and could leave billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024. for more, we begin today's show with dr. krishna udayakumar, founding director of the duke global health innovation center and the principal researcher for their project that is tracking covid-19 vaccine purchases around the world. he is also a practicing phician at duke university. their latest report shows the

total worldwide confirmed purchases of covid-19 vaccines have reached at least 7.25 billion doses, with 3.9 billion of those doses -- more than half -- in high-income countries, although these countries comprise just 14% of the world's population. dr. krishna udayakumar, welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. why don't you start off by explaining this disparity and what does it mean that countries hoard vaccines that they have not even got yet to the tune of three times, four times, six times the actualopulation? >> good to be with you today. thank you for taking on this important topic. what we started to see was the where countries are trying to do what is best for their own populations and at the same time trying to be good citizens of the world.

and very quickly as we saw the pandemic were sent in the spring, we had the development of the covax platform that brought together the world health organization the vexing alliance and the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovation each with areas of exrtise aimed together to create a mechanism or the world could come together, figure out how to purchase and equitably distribute vaccines around the world, must 190 countries and participants that have signed on to that model. what we see is something like 90% of all the vaccine doses that have been purchased have actually been directed by countries, mostly middle income and high income countries, as opposed to low-income countries. and so while on the one hand we want to come together into this multilateral platform, what you're seeing is a lot of side deals where people are trying to

also ensure they are hedging their bets to make this work. what that means in high income countries, i don't think anybody is interested in trying to hoard vaccines beyond what they need, but much of these purchases were made before we had any idea which of these vaccines might work. so countries like the u.s., canada, regions like the e.u. went out and made a portfolio to buy advanced purchases of multiple types of vaccines, not knowing if one or more would actually make it through the very rigorous science to be available. ,ermeen: dr. krishna udayakumar can you talk about what has been said about these countries, what they will do with these excess doses and whatne countries in the world are being left behind? in other words, what countries are entirely blank on the covax facility to

geany vaccine? >> we are starting to see positive language from many high income countries and a public statement in canada and the e.u., for example, have come out and made clear if and when they have excess doses available they envision making those available for low-income countries. what is less clear is whether those are going to go to the covax mechanism -- in the case of europe, it seems like they may bypass covax and make those donations directly to low-income countries. if the current trend line plays out, what we're going to see is most populations in locum countries are going to be left behind and wait a number of years -- 2, 3, four years -- before this populations are really vaccinated at any significant level to achieve herd immunity. nermeen: dr. krishna udayakumar, the other vaccines that have not

yet been approved from outside the euro-american world include are ins from china that late stage clinical trials, one of which has been approved and in use in the uae and bahrain, as well as the russia vaccine. have you been tracking countries that have pre-purchased these vaccines? >> we have, to the extent there publicly available in terms of the information. we do kn there are several countries that he made chineses of various vaccines. several are under development stuff we do know they have been used extensively in china. more than a million people in china have been vaccinated with one of the domestically manufactured vaccines. we do not have clarity as to which ones they may be. what we also don't have clarity on are the real data and evidence behind the particular

vaccines from china and from russ. what we have seen from the pfizer-biontech vaccine, for example, and today the fda advisory comttee will see from the moderna vaccine, is a very transparent and rigorous process to review and look at all of the primary data to ensure safety and efficacy. our hope is we will set high regulatory standards for all vaccines that comehrough, and that is what we envision happening over the coming weeks and months. in addition to the vcine to being developed in china and russia, we know there are others in the late stage of pipeline development that are also very promising. when developed by oxford university and astrazeneca, for example, is in late stage testing and when it becomes available, can be scaled up pretty rapidly. we are hopeful that is the type of vaccine that does not require ultracold transportation and

storage that will make it much easier to distribute and vaccinate in low resource settings. amy: doctor, can you explain the whole philosophy behind the covax facility, what that means? and also talk about the people's vaccine alliance that is challenging trade secrets and patents in this time of pandemic, in this time were so many people are dying around the world. sure. first, i think covax really developing aose in truly multilateral approach -- which is what need. we have to recognize this .aemic is global the coronavirus does not recognize borders. we can't really function as an eight baton, without borders for an extended period of time.

there is aery strong health and economic argument in addition to the ethical a humanitarian argument that high income countries are better off if we can equitably distribute vaccines around the world. for that purpose, covax brings together complementary capabilities, strong, global participation -- yet it has challenges, as you noted earlier in the show, it is at high risk of failing from their own internal reports. it needs to be financed much more aggressively. it needs a very strong ability tourchase and distribute vaccines in the market. in the midst of not having that in the short term, what we're around,re mechanisms including through some development banks -- the world bank outside of covax has already pledged 12 million dollars. what we have seen in t last few days as the asian development bank has put another $9 billion on the table in the inter-american development bank has put $1 billion. thoseis great to see

funds becoming available, largely directly to countries so they cannot only purchase but to recognize just getting the vaccine is t first step. you have to have the distribution and supply chain, that health workforce, have all of the supplies that go along with vaccines to make them available for vaccinations. and yet at the data and information technology systems to track all this. so actually getting from vacne in aial ta jab in a arm is a hugely complex and expensive task, especially in the resource settings. th is what we also need funding for. to the second question about intellectual property. it is a major issue and we have seen the major issue any prior hiv.h -- in epidemics like i will preface my comments by thing i'm not an expert in i.t. and have many colleagues that are much more expert at this, but what we have seen is a strong recognition of the need for appropriate, equitable

distribution. on the positive side, some of the indications we a seeing is a ramping up of manufacturing capacity in low and middle income countries. part of the reason india is at a place where they have more than a billion doses potentially coming to their domestic market is because they have the rum institute of india that is a very strong domestic -- also has become the engine for vaccine manufacturing for the world. they have licensing agreements with the oxford astrazeneca vaccine, for example. we have seen manufacturing become available in ramped up places like brazil, thailand, south africa. we think that is important to make sure when a vaccine is context,red in l imt low and middle income countries, becomes much more likely that local and regional populations will get access to those. that is one trend. without telling particularly with the i.t. challenge perhaps,

but a mechanism -- manufacturing capacity that we are starting to see an uptick in availability over time. , youen: dr. udayakumar mentioned the astrazeneca oxford vaccine, which is more suitable for developing countries because it is easier to transport and also the serum institute will be manufacturing it. do you expect the astrazeneca oxford vaccine to be more readily available in the developing countries also because they have committed a certain percentage of their vaccines to developing countries -- which i don't believe either moderna or moderna have, though perhaps at this point they have? >> you are exactly right. both india because of the production of the serum institute of india and covax, because of a purchase agreement, will have acce to the oxford astrazeneca vaccine. because is is a different

technology based on relative to the pfizer and moderna vaccines, it also is able to be scaled much more effectively. the estimates we have is the manufacturing capacity by the end of 2021 may be as high as 3 billion doses of that particular vaccine. we are seeing 2.6 billion doses have already been purchased around the world, including by covax and directly by some middle income countrs like india. so we do see overall the fantastic news we're going to have multiple vaccines available , which would have bee unthinkable a year ago or even six months ago. so we should celebrate science has gotten us this far but not lucite that we have to also think about access and equity dimension the science is paying off for human health. amy: you tweeted -- "you know the two awesome vaccines that will tame the

pandemic? pfizer's vaccine developed by two turkish byigrants, moderna developed a woman virologist, another reason for diversity in stem. it makes science better." >> without a doubt. >> ask a, that is our next guest suite. but you can comment on what that means. >> without a doubt. we have to celebrate also the diversity that allows us to brg the best minds in the most diverse perspectives together that allow us to do the best team science. you, dr.uld to thank krishna udayakumar, the founding director of the duke global health innation center. principal researcher in project tracking covid-19 vaccine purchases around the world. practicing physician at duke university. next up, we will be joined by

the man who issued that tweet, dr. ashish jha, dean of the public uversity school of health. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: birdi jay, wamp: wear a ask please, featuring thee mental notes. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. the united states has once again shattered records for daily coronavirus cases and deaths, with nearly a quarter-million infections reported on wednesday alone. more than 3600 americans died of covid-19 wednesday, by far the worst one-day death toll for any nation sincehe start othe pandemic. this comes as politico reports that former trump appointee paul alexander repeatedly urged ficials athe deparent of health and human services to deliberately allow tens of millions of americans to become

infected with coronavirus, promoting a widely discreded approach of herd immunity through natural infection. in one email to top health officials, alexander wrote -- "infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk so we use them to develop herd -- we want them infected." the approach has been condemned by the world healtorganition asighly unetcal, wit disee experts ying it could result in the deaths of millions of people. this comes as trump's ally chris christie is urging americans to wear masks, citing his hospitalization with covid-19 in october after a superspreader event at the white house. christie spoke in a video posted to his twitter account. lyi in isation icu foreven day thought about howrong i s to remove

myask at t white hse. day i thk about w wrong is t l mask wein dide us, peciallys we now kno u'rewice as ke that get covid- if u do't ar a mask. because if you don't do the right thing,ould a end up on the wrong side of history. amy: while he was hospitalized with covid-19 in new jersey, the former governor chris christie was treated with a monoclonal antibody therapy produced by eli lilly -- a promising drug that's in extremely short supply. christie's vip treatment came after he reportedly turned down a chance to participate in a clinical trial for a separate antibody drug, produced by regeneron, because he was unwilling to accept the chance that he would receive a placebo. to discuss all of this and more, we are joined by dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health, and former director of harvard university's global health institute. welcome back to democracy now! all over this country, i mean all of the corporate media you

see the celebrations of people getting the vaccine in the arm. the idea that the pandemic is over but at the same time in that split screen, the numbers are going back astronomically. not only for this country come the wealthiest country in the world -- we have the worst numbers in the world. can you talk about why it does matter that people still wear masks and will probably have to for a very long time? your sense asn you're going on television because you keep saying the same thing? >> thank you for having me on. i am a little boring on television because i have a certain set of messages based on public health of where we are. but let's talk about where we are as a country all, the vaccine news is very exciting. it is worth celebrating. it is terrific. but it does come at the same time we are seeing just astronomical numbers of

infections and deaths. we crossed 300,000 deaths. we are going across 400,000 deaths probably around the time of the inauguration. the question is, when does this stop? there are two reasons that have goen us here. first and foremost, we just had the feral government that has given up on any efforts to try to control the pandemic. we have not heard from the president about it. scott atlas, a very big believer inetting the infection spread widely, was running the show out of the white house until very recently. so we have had that failure. the second is the political division this has created that has undermined mask wearing. viewing wearing a mask as a political statement is absurd. what we have to do is get through the next few mths with basipublic health measures until vaccines become widely available and widely adopted.

until that time, there is no reason to let up whatsoever. , could you. jha explain what we know so far about asymptomatic spread from people who have been vaccinated and when you expect to hear more? there hasn't been very much released because there is enough known about how much people can spread the virus even if they have been vaccinated. >> this is a critical issue because if people can still spread after vaccination, then we don't get the sort of population immunity befits of the vaccine. had no few days ago, we data whatsoever. but a few days ago in the release of data that came from the fda -- sorry, from the moderna vaccine, after one does come a spread of asymptomatic virus drops by about two thirds. i suspect it is even more after the second dose. but we don't have that data.

we are still sorting it out. i am becoming more optimistic we will see a substantial decline in asymptomatic spread. nermeen: you mentioned a significant number, the vast majority of americans, we need to be vaccinat before reach anything like herd immunity. of course, vaccine presidency remains our -- hesitancy remains a problem according to the kaiser family foundation, which just conducted a poll in late november, early december, the number of americans willing to take the vaccine is higher but it may still not be sufficient remainsine hesitancy highest among republicans according to this poll. could you talk about your concern regarding people not taking the vaccine even once it is available to them? >> absolutely. vaccines only work, and the main benefits come when a large majority of us take the vaccine.

again, there are some individual protections but it is really about population protection, community protection that matters most. it is true depending on the survey let's say between 30% and 40% of americans remain hesitant. i think some of that i understand completely. this vaccine has been developed quickly and americans have questions about the safety and efficacy. i think some of that will melt away as people see more more people getting vaccinated, people doing well after the vaccination. i think some of that will get better. i think the issue around republicans is concerning because there has been this campaign of misinformation that has tended to stick more to the right wing media from hydroxychloroquine to how masks are dangerous to how the election was stolen to now there is a shift toward vaccines somehow being an adequate or dangerous. it is really troubling. this is why i have been calling

a president trump to get vaccinated on national television. i think that will help a lot. we also need republican leaders, conservative leaders to speak up and get vaccinated and talk about the fruits of science that are available to the american pele. i think only through them speaking up will we make progress on this. it is true we need to get to a large majority of americans getting vaccinated if our goal is to return to any semblance of a new normal. if that do not happen, we will continue dive type meares that will make life difficult and not where we want to be. amy: what is amazing about trump, he wanted to call it getting trumped for the trump vaccine, very proud of operation warp speed and how fast this happened and yet he is the one pushing the idea it is a covid conspiracy and so clearly he is conflicted. the truck vaccine would be solving what problem, calling it a hoax. but i want to ask you about last

secretary housing and urban development dr. ben carson saying he had been desperately ill with covid-19 but was recovering. carson said his condition improved at walter reed medical center after president trump intervened on his behalf. carson wrote on facebook -- "president trump was following my condition and cleared me for the monoclonal antibody therapy that he had previously received, which i am convinced saved my life." carson is just one of a handful of people able to access regeneron's therapeutic before the fda granted the drug emergency use authorization last month. trump attorney rudy giuliani also received the treatment during his battle with the coronavirus this month, leading to concerns that those with connections to the white house are getting access to special treatments largely unattainable to the rest of the population. then you have who did not participate in the study because he was concerned -- it was very effective, the treatment, and did not want to end up with the

placebo. can you talk about these therapeutics and who gets access to them? >> absolutely. and all of those examples you product are incredibly frustrating and the following way. so i have been watching the data on monoclonal antibodies. and for the optimistic they will end up being a really important part of how we treat people who do get infected. what has happened is these leaders have not followed public health measures, have gotten infected, and then they get access to these therapies that most americans don't have -- part of the reason is because we did not do any operation warp speed for therapeutics the way we should have most of these people get access to relatively limited supply. they get better and then go basically make their case that covid is not a big deal. it is incredibly destructive in some ways because basically it creates this impression that covid is not a big deal. it may not be as big of a deal

of yet access to request their piece -- therapy. cycle would stop. i wish we would have more of these available for everybody. i wish these individuals would talk about how they're getting something that most americans don't have access to. , i want to aska about what the fda reported yestday, namely the pfizer vials appear to include as much as -- as many as two additional doses per vial. could you talk about that and thefact it could increase vaccine doses available to americans by 40%? >> yes. this is a surprise and a pleasant one at that. each of these files is supposedly filled with fibrosis. there's a pretty long history of filling them a little extra to

deal with things like spillage or just the withdrawing of the vaccine may not be perfect by the pharmacist so people fill up a little extra on these things. what we are finding is at least some promises have reported up to two extra doses and a five five-does vial. it is great. pharmacista -- should feel comfortable using those two vaccine extra people. the urgent need to vaccinate as many people as possible. i think this is terrific and we just have to pay close attention but i don't see any downside to it. amy: adequate double question and that is the issue of kids and teenagers. the majority vaccine is for people aged 18 and above. the pfizer is 816 and above. how are kids from infants to

children to teenagers tested? how does a parent say, i'm willing to give up my kid to be tested, number one, and what do you see happening with these age groups? the other goes to the issue of what happens to the tests that are taking place right now they're so invaluable -- when everyone gets injected, you don't actually follow them in a systematic, scientific way where you can get information just anecdotal 70 got bell's palsy and someone got a rash. how do these studies continue because people aren't gointo want to rest, let chris christie, not want to risk getting a placebo? >> are several issues. let's talk about kids in general and then follow-ups. was tested incine 16-year-olds and 17 euros, not in large numbers. that is why a few people voted

no because they said there wasn't enough data on that age group. but most people voted yes even for that age group. the moderna vaccine has not yet been tested in 16-year-old and 17-year-olds. teenagers,bout older even 15-year-olds, let's wait for the data and we should follow the fda guidance but i don't expect big biological differences between older teenagers and young adults. where it gets more complicated is in younger children. we just need the studies to be done. trials. in clinical this is a perfectly reasonable time to be testing them. there always ethical issues. you need parental consent. you need as much kid consent as possible. these vaccines appear to be safe overall so i'm not as worried about it. i do think over the next couple of months, we are going to see data coming out about younger children. th will be helpful and guide

in the decision-making. post market of surveillance, this idea, what do we do now that we're starting to vaccinate people? there's a whole mechanism set up so that it people have adverse effects, they will reported to the doctor and the doctor will reported to the fda. there are active surveillance programs that exist for people are getting vaccinated. and there are people conducting studies of tracking people who how been vaccinated to see they'reoing. i am hopeful there are other events -- adverse events this are happening, we will catch them pretty quickly. i doubt they will, but we should be absolutely tracking this. there's a whole set of steps happening now to make sure we do not lose out on that information about what happens to people after they get vaccinated. , image and. jha earlier the importance of the vast majority of americans getting the vaccine in order to

reach anything like herd immunity. could you talk about that and in the global context? we spoke earlier in the program out a large number of people and in the world, the majority, potentially not getting access to the vaccine until 2024 in developing countries. >> i am more optimistic in terms of timeline than that. but i do agree we are going to see in much of 2021 a set of countries where most people have been vaccinated and a set of countries where most people have not been vaccinated. i think that is a real problem, certainly an ethical and moral problem, but also epidemiological and infectious disease problem because what we know from this pandemic and other -- every other disease, diseases don't respect borders. i am worried about that. i think we need global leadership here misses a place for the trumpet administration has largely been absent. another previous guest discussed

covax. i think mechanisms like that, i think china and india as two major producers being able to get billions of doses out -- i remain optimistic much of the world will get vaccinated by sometime in 2022. i realize i may be or of the optimistic side than the majority. but we have to make the investment to do it. one of the key things will be to see what happens with the astrazeneca oxford vaccine because that is the one that has the best possibility for vaccinating billions of people. we have not seen the data get on that, not fully. i hope it in zapping really good data and one -- ends up being really good data. dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. he was previously the director of harvard university's global health institute. th is such a critical time right now. when we come back, we're going to look at the stimulus package. where is it?

stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: sam jane who reportedly have been missing prompting a wide search, former bandmate convert to say that sam jane has died at the age of 46. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. after months of inaction and facing record shattering covid-19 cases and deaths,

congress may finally be close to signing a second $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package. the agreement is likely to include additional unemployment assistance of $300 a week and one time direct cash payments of between $600 and $700 -- a sharp reduction from the first covid check of $1200. the covid relief checks were put back in the bill after a major push from the progressive wing of the democratic party. a new study reports that 8 million americans have been pushed into poverty since summer, in part due to a lack of federal assistance. congressmember-elect cori bush, who will be representing missouri's 1st district, tweeted -- "republicans are going to act like the difference between $600 and $1200 is no big deal. this is infuriating. i've been unhoused. i've lived paycheck-to-paycheck. the difference of $600 is having a hotel room or sleeping in the car. $1200 was already the compromise." the stimulus package will not

include the democrats' desired $160 billion for state and local aid as a compromise for not including the financial liability protections for corporations that republicans have been pushing for for months. to tease this all out to explain what is in the stimulus package, we go to los angeles, where we're joined by david dayen, executive editor of the american prospect where he writes a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic called "unsanitized." his latest book is titled "monopolized: life in the age of corporate power." david, welcome back to democracy now! lay out for us what is on the table right now. >> as you described, the two main pieces that you just talked about where the unemployment boost and also extension of two programs that are going to expire next week -- one that helps gig workers get on employment and the other is it

extends unemployment benefits. then there is this check, this stimulus check of $600, $700. i should say because they wanted to make room for this check and republicans have said they don't want to go about $900 billion, they curtailed the boost to unemployment, the $300 a week by four weeks. it is now a 12 week program rather than a 16 week extension. that is $1200 out of the pockets of the unemployed, $600 check beyonde to individuals the unemployed. aid to states and cities in this package was submitted and what the impact of that will be? >> it terrible. i mean, 160 billion dollars was

probably one third of what was needed to build budget shortfalls across the country. what you're you are going to see is if there is nothing, cuts to public safety, cuts teachers, cuts to public employees, cuts to firefighters, things like that. offsetting the benefit of economic stimulus that can be done at the federal levels, state and local austerity. there is this mindset that you can't go above a certain dollar figure, even though it is republicans coming to the table and saying "hey, we're going to lose our majority in the senate if we give no relief to people before these elections in georgia. democrats might think, well, that puts us -- gives us some of the upper hand here, the ability to say, "well, we need state and local relief. we need more money from these

one-time stingless checks. we need more money or an extension of these unemployment benefits." that is not what is happening. there is a line being drawn at $900 billion and they're kicking out the state and local spending, which is going to austeritylly bad throughout the country. amy: the u.s. postal service. can you talk about what role it has in this bill? we have been singing a rollout of the vaccine, the celebration of fedex and ups. what is happening? >> in this bill, there was a $10 billion loan the treasury department previously gave to the u.s. postal service. according to the bipartisan bill being used as the framework here, that would be forgiven. fortunes boost to the of the postal service, which is

actually straining right now because fedex and you yes are pushing off the less profitable packages and telling -- moving them over to the postal service, which is clogging the package to deliver here in the holiday season. that is one thing that is going on. nermeen: could you talk about some of the concerns around the paycheck protection program that have been reinstated with this package? what are the issues with that program? >> well, yes. one of the major parts of this bill is the extension of ppp and allowing individuals to get the second draw from ppp loans. however, there is a provision in here that subtly changes the tax treatment of these give a bow loans. these are reimbursements given by the federal government, grants, essentially, and they are tax-free. they were made tax-free originally. under this bill, they can be

taken as to duction's as well, which would reduce the tax liability for a host of businesses. we know not only small businesses got these ppp loans. a lot of larger businesses did as well. this could potentially be up to $100 billion in benefit, tax toefits, including benefits s corporations -- these corporate structure set up by very rich individuals -- it could be used to reduce the tax liability. that is an egregious part of this bill. it is not really getting as much attention as some of the other pieces. amy: the majority of congress, the house and the senate, they are millionaires at least. talk about the millionaires deciding the pittance the people who are suffering so deeply now may or may not get.

in this time of the pandemic, this is news just breaking. in the next three weeks, while donald trump mr. president, 83,000 americans will die of covid. staggering that it takes the threat of loss of a senate majority to get republicans for the first time in nine months to come back and say, "yes, we will deliver a little bit of relief to the american people" have not seen much since the cares act expired in july. what we know if you look at the economic numbers is that unemployment for high wage people has barely budged. pretty much at the same level it was before the pandemic. all of the losses, or practically all of them, are the low-wage sector. also congressng can't come together to help

people in the time of need. amy: we will continue to follow this. david dayen is executive editor of "the american prospect" where he writes a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic called "unsanitized." 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 democrac>úog

♪ thank you for joining us. from our studio in tokyo, this is nhk "newsline." european leaders who have been in recent contact with emmanuel macron are self-isolating after he tested positive for the coronavirus. france's presidential office said the president has started a seven-day period of self-isolation and will continue to perform his duties remotely. macron took part