01/15/21 01/15/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> what is concerned about the potential per violence at multiple rallies planned here and it is he and around the country, could bring armed individuals within close proximity to the government buildings and officials. amy: the head of the fbi speaks publicly for the first time more than a week after the attack on

the capitol. from washington, d.c., to state capitols across the country, authorities are bracing for more violence by armed right-wing extremists in the lead up to joe biden-kamala harris inauguration. we will speak to propublica's a.c. thompson about last week's deadly insurrection and what comes next. >> they have been out in the streets in the state houses for the past yeaand my concern looking forward is this may not be the e. we may see a real serious act of antigovernment terrorism in the months ahead. amy: then as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 approaches 400,000, we speak to dr. peter salk. his father jonas salk developed the first polio vaccine. >> polio was an extreme pblem in the last century, paralyzing many children and causing great fear and anxiety.

the vaccineame along and the second vaccine hadliminated that disease entirely and in this country. we have the potentialith these new vaccines to havthe same kind of experience of beginning to reduce and ultimately eliminate the threat of this pandemic we are experiencing. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quartine report. i'm amy goodman. president-elect joe biden has proposed a massive $1.9 trillion plan to battle the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis. the plan calls for sending out an additional $1400 per person in direct payments, $350 billion for hard-hit state and local governments, and another $400 billion in pandemic response funds to pay for vaccinations, testing, school reopenings, and emergency paid leave.

it also offers enhanced unemployment benefits, tax credits to working families, rental assistance, and eviction and foreclosure moratoriums through september. biden also called on congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. he outlined his plan in a national address thursday evening. mr. biden: sub 18 million americans are still relying on unemployment insurance. some 400,000 small businesses have permanently closed their doors. the crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there is no time to waste. we have to act and we have to act now. amy: parts of biden's plan rankled some progressive lawmakers like cori bush and alexandria ocasio-cortez, who pointed to biden's proposal for $1400 stimulus checks, rather than the $2000 checks many democrats called for in recent weeks. biden's transition team says the $1400 checks would build on $600

payments already approved by congress. bloomberg is reporting biden will seek a compromise deal that will mean a smaller initial package featuring some priorities favored by senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. meanwhile, new jobs data showed the u.s. workers filed 965,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, the highest level in five months and far above historical averages. this all comes as the u.s. reported its 10th day in a row of more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases thursday and over 3700 covid-19 deaths. the total confirmed number of deaths is set to top 400,000 before inauguration day, next wednesday. dozens of people on an fbi terrorist watch list were in washington, d.c., on january 6,

when president trump incited a violent mob of white supremacist insurrectionists to attack the capitol. that's according to "the washington post," which reports most of the rioters flagged by the national terrorist screening database are white supremacists. the fbi says more than 100 insurrectionists have been arrested so far, with more than 200 other suspects identified. among the latest arrests, kevin seefried, who was photographed carrying a confederate battle flag through the halls of congress, former u.s. olympic swimming medalist klete keller, who wore his olympic swim team jacket to the riots, and robert sanford, a retired firefighter who was filmed throwing a fire extinguisher at capitol police officers, striking three of them in the head. in arizona, the lawyer for rioter jacob anthony chansley

said he will seek a pardon from president trump. chansley faces charges of violent entry and disorderly conduct after he was filmed posing shirtless, wearing buffalo horns, and holding a spear on the senate dais. in a court filing unveiled thursday, federal prosecutors in phoenix wrote 11 of her vice president mike pence reading "it's only a matter of time. justice is coming." they added "strong evidence, including his own words and actions at the capitol, support the intent of the capital riotor s was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the united states government." video from january 6 posted to the now-defunct social media site parler shows chansley boasting about his role in the insurrection. >> how did you get out? >> the senate?

>> yeah. >> just walked out. >> they let you go? what is your message? >> donald trump asked everybody to go home. amy: "the washington post" reports the national park service will close the national mall on inauguration day amid fears of domestic terror attacks. michigan congressmember peter meijer said thursday he purchased a bulletproof vest -- and will have the expense reimbursed by congress -- after he joined nine other republicans and house democrats voting for trump's impeachment on wednesday. democratic new york member -- congressmember adriano espaillat announced he is isolating at home. espaillat received the second

dose of his covid-19 vaccine last week. it takes several weeks to build up immunity after the shots, which have proven efctive in preventing severe disease but not kwn to keep people from spreading the virus to others. over 93 million cases of covid-19 have now been reported around the world. with confirmed global deaths set to top 2 million, an anasis by "wall street journal" finds at least another 820,000 deaths on top of that number were caused by the coronavirus. in brazil, offials in amazonas, the country's largest state, have imposed a 7:00 p.m. curfew and health workers say they are desperate for oxygen supplies and other resources as they face a dramatic surge. hospitals in the state's capital manaus are resorting to performing manual ventilation to try to save people's lives. a local epidemiologist called the situation an unprecedented calamity. officials say a new variant could be partially to blame for

the explosion in cases. britain is banning travel from much of south america, as well as portugal, over fears of the variant. brazil has recorded over 207,000 deaths, the second highest tal after the united states. in climate news, 2020 edged out 2016 as the hottest year ever recorded, with global surfac temperatures averaging 2.25 degrees fahrenheit above historical averages, or 1.2 degrees celsius. the seven last years have been the warmest seven years ever observed. the worsening climate crisis brought record heat waves and fires, searing droughts and the busiest atlantic hurricane season on record. atmospheric carbon dioxide levels surpassed 410 parts per miion in 202 also a rerd, continui an inexorle rise. the dire climate report com even as the coronavirus pandemic

slowed the worldwide pace of emissions in 2020, with u.s. greenhouse gas emissions dropping by 10%. in yemen, aid groups are sounding the alarm following the u.s. move to designate houthi rebels as a terrorist group. the u.n. is warning of "famine not seen in 40 years." houthis control yemen's capital sana'a, running financial institutions and coordinating with international groups that supply food and other essentials to the area. yemenis also rely heavily on remittances, which have already volunteered the pandemic and which could now be further disrupted. >> my family and i depend on the patriots for our livelihood. i have relatives in other countries. i depend on them for my expenses. if the decision is ected, it will make my family decision deteriorate. the private sector is in danger.

amy: back in the united states, former michigan governor rick snyder and eight other former officials were charged thursday in a sweeping criminal investigion into the flint water crisis. snyder faces two charges of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor. his former health director nicholas lyon faces nine felony counts of invontary manslaughter. in 2014, flint's unelected emergency manager, appointed by then-governor snyder, switched flint's water supply to the flint river as a cost-saving measure. the move has been linked to at least 12 deaths from an outbreak of legionnaires' disease and widespread lead poisoning in residents, including children, in the majority-black city. michigan's solicitor general fadwa hammoud spoke thursday. >> at this very moment, the people of flint continue to suffer from the categorical failure of public officials at all levels of government.

who trampled upon their trust and evaded accountability for far too long. there are no velvet ropes in our criminal justice system. nobody, no matter how powerful or well-connected, is about accountability when they commit a crime. amy: to see our documentary "thirsty for democracy: the poisoning of an american city," go to democracynow.org. in immigration news, a new damning report published by the justice department directly implicates president trump in aggressively pushing for harsher, crueler immigration policies despite knowing this would lead to the separation of thousands of asylum-seeking families. according to the report, former attorney general jeff sessions said in an 2018 meeting, "we need to take the children away," and that there was tremendous pressure from trump to prosecute

more asylum seekers. the report also says trump and senior officials were woefully unprepared when the zero tolerance policy. in response, aclu attorney lee gelernt said -- "the barbaric family separation practice was immoral and illegal. this new report shows just how far the trump administration was willing to go to destroy these families." in related news, ice's newest acting director jonathan fahey has stepped down after only two weeks on the job. fahey is the latest homeland security official to resign just days before president trump leaves office. acting homeland security secretary chad wolf resigned earlier this week. a caravan of hundreds of asylum seekers from central america is expected to depart honduras today with the hopes of reaching the united states. the caravan is likely to face obstacles as they try to cross through the region and into mexico. reuters reports just one week

ago, guatemala, honduras, el salvador, and mexico issued a joint declaration demanding asylum seekers produce a negative covid-19 test at border checkpoints. tens of thousands of people were displaced after two back-to-back hurricanes, eta and iota, battered the region last november. the pandemic also worsened an already devastating economic crisis in central america. in more u.s. immigration news, a report by physicians for human rights and harvard medical school highlights how immigration and customs enforcement, ice, failed to implement even the most basic hygienic methods to prevent the spread of the coronavirus inside immigration jails. the report says prisoners didn't have access to soap to wash their hands and weren't able to social distance inside the squalid jails. if prisoners raised safety concerns, they would be retaliated against according to the report. researchers spoke to 50 formerly incarcerated immigrants. a 33-year-old man who was held

at otay mesa detention center in california said -- "i think i got covid because i had body pain and felt short of breath. but i never said anything to anybody because i was so scared that they were going to punish me." new york attorney general letitia james has sued the new york police department, accusing police officers of widespread abuses against peaceful racial justice protesters last summer. this is the first time in history a state attorney general has sued a police department. this is james speaking at a press conference yesterday. >> we found over the course of the protests from may to december of 2020, nypd officers engaged in blatant use of excessive force and offer misconduct, including the indiscriminate, unjustified repeated use of batons, pepper spray, bicycles, and a crowd control tactic known as kett

ling, also referred to as containment, which caused significant physical harm. we found nypd officers unlawfully detained and arrested legal observers, medics, and other essential workers performing services. amy: this comes as data shows police are three times more likely to use force against leftist and progressive protesters than right-wing rioters. the academy award winning filmmaker and pulitzer prize winning journalist laura poitras published an open letter thursday saying she had been fired in november from her job at first look media where she cofounded "the intercept" with glenn greenwald and jeremy scahill. she wrote -- "my termination came two months after i spoke to the press about the intercept's failure to protect whistleblower reality winner and the cover-up and lack of accountability that followed."

winter is a former national security agency linguist is now serving a five year prison sentence for leaking documents to "intercept" about russian meddling in the 2016 elections. first look disputed poitras' account saying her contract was not renewed because "she has not been active in any capacity with our company for more than two years." this comes as reality winner's mother is leading a campaign to push president trump or president-elect joe biden to pardon her. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. when we come back, from washington, d.c. come to state capitols across the country, authorities bracing for more violence by armed right-wing extremists. we will speak to a.c. thompson about last week's deadly insurrection at the capitol, who did it, what comes next. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. security is being ramped up in washington, d.c., and state capitols across the country as the fbi is warning of more potential armed protests in the lead up to joe biden's inauguration following last week's deadly insurrection at the capitol. by wednesday, 21,000 national guard troops are expected to be in washington, d.c. fbi director christopher wray spoke publicly for the first time more than a week after the insurrection thursday. >> we are concerned about the potential for violence at multiple protests and rallies planned here in d.c. and state capitol buildings around the country that could bring armed individuals within close proximity to government buildings and officials. amy: federal authorities have arrested over 100 people who took part in last week's deadly

insurrection at the capitol. 5 -- actually, six people were left dead. police and federal agents continue to round up rioters thursday. that is five people dead. among the latest arrests, kevin seefried, who was photographed carrying a confederate battle flag through the capitol, former u.s. olympic medalist klete keller, who wore his olympic swim team jacket to the riots, robert sanford, a retired firefighter who was filmed throwing a fire extinguisher at capitol police officers, striking three of them in the head, and peter stager, an arkansas filmed beating a police officer at the capitol with an american flag. in arizona, prosecutors say they have uncovered evidence that the intent of some of the rioters was to "capture and assassinate elected officials in the united states government." prosecutors revealed the qanon

conspiracy theorist jacob chansley -- who is also known as jake angeli -- left a note for mike pence in the senate warning, "it's only a matter of time, justice is coming." chansley faces charges of violent entry and disorderly conduct after he was filmed posing shirtless, wearing buffalo horns, and holding a spear on senate dais. and in texas, a federal prosecutor has revealed more details about its case against retired air force officer larry brock who was seen inside the capitol dressed in military gear holding zip ties. prosecutors claim that brock was prepared to take hostages and "perhaps execute members of the u.s. government." meanwhile, "the washington post" reports dozens of people on a terrorist watch list, including

-- mostly white supremacists, were in washington on the day of the insurrection. we go now to a.c. thompson, staff reporter with propublica who has covered the rise of right-wing extremist and white supremacist groups for years. his latest piece is titled "mbers of several well-known hate groups identified at capitol riot." he joins us from lansing . thank you so much for coming back to democracy now! can you start off them, two vira

officers. these are just people identified. can you talk about the -- a military psychological operations years is a lot of members of police departments, or at least some members, being radicalized and it is right-wing

direction. in part, they've seen the rise of the social justice movements, police. saying, i feel attacked and the person sticking up for us is donald trump so i'm going to get deep into the donald trump world. i think that is part of what has happened. what is happening now, though, is different. what is happening now is when i was in d.c. at the stop the steal protest and other protests in recent months, you would see the right-wing protesters did not want to fight with the police. there was a, we are the law and, the pro-police people. we want to fight with the police, but we will back off. that has changed. that has pivoted. now what you are seeing in the chatter amongst the right-wing groups is we are at war with the police. the police are in bed with the reds. police are a tool of this

socialist takeover, which we believe magically is happening. we believe the police are subverting democracy. and we are now going after the police. that is what you saw at the capitol. amy: so let's talk about the lack of preparation at the capitol. you see these police officers, the capitol police helped by the metropolitan police, fending for themselves. we got the reports this week of level of threat assessment reports that would come before each black lives matter protest. nothing like that was issued now and yet you have this coming together of all of these people from -- if you can explain what the terrorist watch list is. it is not a no-fly list. for many progressives who may be concerned about him except this list. but the fact is, scores of

people on the fbi's own list had gathered and yet the fbi issued no reports and there was a little preparation? we saw african-american capitol police essentially running for their lives, saying they did not have the support from the top and they were being chased by the mob. >> so there e a few things that i want to touch on here. a few years ago, you ani were talking about charlottesville. with seed in intelligence breakdown where the intelligence analysts in the law enforcement personnel should have been monitoring the online channels in the chatter, missed what was going on and what was going to develop. then you sell multiple law enforcement agencies who are supposed to be there coordinating, who did not really have a plan and cooperation totally broke down. when violence and rioting broke out, the people with the tactical gear, the shields, helmets -- with the riot, for

nowhere near the violence. we saw a lot of that happened at the capitol. a lot of the same things happening over again years later with basically some of the same people showing up at both events. this is what is baffling to me. the fbi has gotten very good in recent years at tracking and arresting and building cases against right-wing extremists. white supremacists and into government extremist. up to the election, they built a lot of complicated, important cases against people who were bent on violence against public officials, the kidnapping plot against gretchen whitmer, the governor in michigan. they were very committed very busy. what i don't understand is how that knowledge from the field agents out in the field does not seem to have translated as far as we can tell at this point,

into intelligence products that would have gone out and been disseminated or broadly to other law enforcement agencies. another thing is just simply the lack of personnel and the capitol police on the date of the event. i have been watching the d.c. metropolitan police for months now, and i think they have been very professional, sophisticated in allowing protesters at these right-wing events in d.c. to express themselves but not to harm people and not for violence to break out. that is clearly not the case with the capitol police. they did not advance that level of professionalism and sophistication. amy: "the washington post" reported earlier this week the fbi explicitly warned of violence and war at the u.s. capitol in an internal report issued one day before last wednesday's deadly invasion. the report cited online posts, including one which said --

"congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their blm and pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. get violent. stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. go there ready for war. we get our president or we die." so, a.c. thompson, i mean, how much more explicit can you get? we're not only talking about let's do a postmortem on last week's event -- and postmortem is the right word. you're talking about a number of people that. two police officers, capitol hill police officer, sicknick, who died, and one who took his own life. then you have three people who died in medical emergencies, apparently. we are not only talking about the past, we are talking about whether this is our prologue to this weekend. monday is dr. mark luther king's

federal birthday, which is -- his birthday was today. but for years, white supremacists marched on state capitols to prevent it from being recognized as a national holiday. of course, wednesday, the inauguration. >> yeah, i don't want to be an alarmist and i don't want to be the person who says the sky is falling, but i do think we have to be vigilant. i think we have to be looking forward. i think we have to be very, very careful in the months ahead. and this is why. we were on the campaign trail filming for frontline at trump rallies, trump speeches. when we would meet people, they would say the only way the president is going to lose the election is if there is massive fraud and it will probably be massive fraud orestrated by those nefarious globalists. there are millions of people who believe because of trump's incessant falls messaging that

the election was stolen from him. if you have a very small percentage of those millions of people who are inclined to take violent action because they believe we are on the cusp of a massively undemocratic transition of power built around fraud, of course, some of those people are likely to take very violent action. in their minds, to save this republic. that is the thing we must be concerned about. in america, does not take money or skill to create a mass casualty event with a bomb or gun, and that is something we're going to have to be very vigilant about. all of the same time, ensuring people have the right to protest and people have the right to express themselves. amy: i am wondering if you can talk about the alliances between all of these groups and current

sitting members of congress. you have utah compass member john curtis who showed reporters a death threat left on his door on thursday, poster with skulls and crossbones posted over his eyes and the caption -- here is a congressman who was voicing concern about the fact that republicans were not accepting the election of joe biden. but you have other ones who led the charge about doing this. can you talk about one of the congressmembers and what should happen to them now, even in a president trump's latest video he will not acknowledge this election of joe biden. and does it actually encourage the violence, the fact that he is not showing up for the inauguration?

many may be deeply relieved that trump won't be there, but does that send a message it is ok to target? >> i think there are couple of things going on here. the first thing, we have not acknowledged the scale of threads and intimidation and violence against public leaders that has occurred over the past ar. we have so many public health officials in thisountry and county and state levels who have been threatened -- federal levels as well, who have been threatened, terrorized, have had to get extra securit who have been doing their jobs and are in fear for their lives. as a society, we have not grappled with that. now we have elections officials, public and a democrat, or dealing with that. we have members of congress dealing with that. we have law enforcement leaders who are dealing with that. in california, we had two law enforcement officials who were shot by an extremist or group allegedly during the spring. some one is now facing federal

charges. amy: the boogaloo bois. >> exactly. there has been a level of violence and aggression toward public officls and government leaders that we have not seen in decades. i don't think we have reckoned with that at all. it is a scary time to be a public leader. now, when you're talking about congress, this is a thing we are going at understand deeply and we need serious investigations about what was the role of sympathetic members of congress and possibly fomenting or enabling this insurrection. i don't think we have got to the bottom of that. we have her names thrown out as potential members of congress from arizona and alabama who may have aided and abetted these groups, but we don't know yet. that is a concerning thing as well. amy: yet mike and shirl come the new jersey congressmember saying -- they called the sergeant of arms the day before saying, what are all of these tour groups? they now recognize were the people who are part of this

insurrection been taken around. covid times, they are not doing tours so they could only get in to congressmember or their staff. >> that is a big concern. from interviewing members of congress, republicans and democrats, they said to us, we had a democratic congress member say, i'm worried we have advertisers and sympathizers within the ranks of the capitol police. we had a gop congresswoman, nancy mase, who said, look, i could tell days before this happened that it was going to be ugly because i was getting relentless threats online and through all different channels, and i am a trump supporter but i had said i'm not going to try to overturn this election. so then i was the one targeted. it does not sound like she got a lot of help with that. she said her children home to south carolina because she was scared for their lives.

we have not even begun to grapple with how serious this problem is. amy: if you can very quickly, we only have a minute to go, but you detail in your pieces, and you just talked about the three presenters, the oath keepers, boogaloo bois, proud boys, tell us who some of these people are most of many people have not heard of these groups before. >> the boogaloo boys are in antigovernment group who joined the capitol insurrection who have been tied to murders, kidnapping plots, and the rest. the proud boys are an ultranationalist street game or street fighting group that had been at many of these events and seem to have been a key player here. the oath keepers and the three presenters are militia groups that are traditional, longtime antigovernment groups. and as the qanon -- believes

there is a basketball of globalists and satanists are trying to take over america. amy: you have ellie alexander from "the washington post" who said he hatched the plan for this insurrection with the support of the three republican lawmakers you alluded to, andy biggs of alabama, paul of alabama, hard trump line supporters. -- hard-line trump supporters. >> that is the thing. that will be a really key investigative point. honestly, looking at mr. alexander and how he raised money and what his role in all of this was as well is going to be a key thing to look at. amy: a.c. thompson, thank you for being with us. keep up your great investigation. staff reporter with propublica who has covered the rise of right-wing extremist and white

supremacist groups for years. we will link to your latest piece "members of several , well-known hate groups identified at capitol riot." next up, as the u.s. death toll for covid-19 approaches 400,000, we will speak with dr. peter salk. his father, dr. jonas salk, first developed the first polio vaccine. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: the great late nina simone. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. the united states reported its 10th day in a row of more than 200,000 new covid-19 cases and over 3700 deaths. thursday the total confirmed number of deaths is set to top 400,000 before inauguration day next wednesday. the u.s. rollout of the

coronavirus continues to like even as states fallen ecdc donations to offer the vaccine to anyone 65 and older. fewer than 10 million people in the u.s. have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine despite the federal government's aim to have 20 million people vaccinated by the end of 2020. as efforts to ramp up, we look at another epidemic that swept the globe and how vaccine changed everything. it was the 1950's when polio hit a fever pitch, disabling an average of 35,000 people a year until pioneering dr. jonas salk made history by developing an effective polio vaccine. the story of jonas salk is told at the documentary "the shot felt 'round the world: how the polio vaccine saved millions." this is the trailer. >> when we look back upon polio today, we look upon the summer plague that came every year.

it came like locusts. there was no prevention, no cure, no protection. >> i grab and family where there was a sense my dad was a scientist. he would talk about how he used to as a child prayed that he could do something good for humanity. he was the miracle worker in the white coat on the one hand but also incredibly hard-working devoted scientist for whom people were willing to sacrifice. folks challenging medical orthodoxy. folks all the people who mattered in the field, basically believed in a live virus x he adherence jonas salk someone younger, going in the opposite direction. >> he was well aware of the early vaccine failures.

first attempt with the police vaccine, killing. >> a testament to his courage and resolve and knock you like children with something he knew started out as life, dangerous polio. the stakes could not be higher. vaccines are always a matter of risk versus reward and nothing is perfect. >> we did not have to be stimulated very much because on the third floor was the polio award where they had t iron lungs. i remember the faces on some of these kids. picture a two-year-old. vaccination is 80% to 90% effective against polio. >> the guy gets off the elevator and never got into the room.

"it works, it works" they were yelling. newspapers ran to the telephones to get this as front-page news. factory whistles went off. church bells told. in a way, a war had ended. jonas salk became a national hero. he was on the cover of "time." "nusra" called him one of the greatest of all times. this is a sign of how great american medicine is at this time. extraordinarily wonderful, optimistic moment. and there is reason to be proud. jonas salk is the people's scientist most amy: that is the trailer for "the shot felt 'round the world," the remarkable story of dr. jonas salk. this is the famous journalist edward morrow asking dr. jonas salk in 1955, who owns the

patent to the lio vaccine? >> who owns the patent on this vaccine? >> well, the people, i would say. there is no patent. could you patent the sun? amy: for more on this history and why it's relevant today, we are joined by the son of dr. jonas salk, physician and professor dr. peter salk. was just nine years old in 1953 when his dad came home and injected him with the polio vaccine. he recently wrote an op-ed for "the globe and mail" is titled "polio vaccines brought an earlier epidemic under control. new vaccines can end this current plague." dr. salk is joining us from la jolla, california. welcome to democracy now!

an astounding story about how your father changed the world. but talk about you as a little boy -- i mean, we're talking two years before this was accepted. your dad comes home and you were, nine years old? >> indeed. he came home with the experiment a vaccine that have been tested in a small group of kids, starting out with kids who already had polio as a protective measure and was just at the point of wanting to expand the trials and in the pittsburgh area in lead up to what became this huge national field trial that started in 1954 with 1.8 million schoolchildren taking part. this was a transition moment. came home with the vaccine, came home with glass syringes -- which is what were you set the time -- and reasonable needles yet to boil -- reasonable needles yet to boil on the stove. line just three kids up to me

and my brothers come and administer the injections. none of us like needles. i might not even remember that occasion except for the fact some miracle that morning the injection did not hurt. that emblazoned the memory in my mind so i could see myself standing in the kitchen, the light coming in the window, something i won't forget. amy: lets -- >> let me add something. about that particular pivotal moment, what i think my father was doing in preparation for rolling out to a large number of kids and in the pittsburgh area, number one, demonstrating his confidence in this experimental vaccine preparation. the second thing was, ok, we have seen the results in these very small trials that have been done, the experimental vaccine is increasing antibody levels -- which should be enough to protec against paralysis, i want my kids protected.

amy: talk about -- i mean, he was upending the science of much more established scientists. talk about what he came up with, the idea of the live virus being injected versus other means. >> when he was in medical school , professor told the class you can use inactivated material to protect against bacterial diseases but when it comes t viral diseases, you need to have an actual infection with a live virus in order to produce protected immunity. my father just could not understand why should that be the case. he asked the professor why in the professor said, well, because. that is my father off on the trajectory that characterized this next phase of his career and he ended up doing some work with a person who had been one of his teachers in medical school, went to join him at the university of michigan in ann

arbor. he saw him in the trailer, thomas francis, who ended up being responsible for analyzing the results of this huge national field trial with the polio vaccine. before that, my father worked with dr. francis on the very first influenza vaccine, indeed, using inactivated virus, contrary to the way people think about the way things should b done. it worked. it was traduced into the armed forces at the end of world war ii. following that, my father for the family to the university of pittsburgh where he was going to continue that work and got tapped on the shoulder by the march of dimes to take part in some initial studies in preparation for vaccine work and quickly decided to get on this horse and run, so to speak, and move toward getting inactivated polio virus vaccine out and available.

amy: compare that, dr. salk, so interesting -- obviously, your name is dr. salk, but dr. peter salk. >> it's ok. amy: compare that to the vaccines of today, what the mrna is compared to the polio vaccine. >> this is so extraordinary because back in those days, there were only fundamentally two approaches to making them. it has all the materials of the virus that was similar the immune system to produce antibodies and so on. the other approach was a live virus, living, that have been weakened in the laboratory or passage through animals so it would cause an infection but not produce the serious effects. that is all that was available back then. since then, there has been so much that has been learned about

how viruses work, their makeup, their genetics, how they infect people, and so on. what we have today is an explosion of new techniques to make vaccines very quickly. these two mrna vaccines that have come out are making use of one of those techniques, which is to take the genetic material of the coronavirus and focus on just that part of the genome that codes for the so-called spike protein that many people live heard about on the surface of the virus, and that is what the virus uses to get inside of cells. it is because struck it in just the right way. what has been done with those vaccines, that pure dna, encapsulated, injected into the muscle, gets into the cells, and that rna instructs the cells that it gets into to manufacture

the spike protein. it does not manufacture anything else about the virus. there is no coronavirus that is produced, just as pure protein. in the immune system sees and recognizes, hate, that is something new and i don't like it was not the body makes antibodies against it. it is those antibodies that end up being protective against developing severe coronavirus. the actual virus those antibodies are tooled up to fight against it. that is one approach. another approach available now to make a vaccine, very quickly, is taking the genetic instructions and putting them into a different kind of virus that is harmless like a common cold virus, so-called adenovirus. that virus then can get into the body, transmit the genetic instructions, and the same thing happens. the body makes the right kind of antibody. you can put that even into a

measles vaccine virus that is -- another kind of approach. amy: i want to go to noam chomsky for a minute. we talked to him last year about your father jonas salk. >> old enough to remember the terror of polio that was ended by government-initiated funded project, the sk vaccine, which was free. the intellectual property rights. jonas salk said it should be as free as the sun. amy: i want to repeat that one more time. when journalist ed morrow asked your dad, dr. jonas salk, who owned the patent to the polio vaccine, he replied "well, the people. there is no patent. could you patent the sun?" >> who owns thpatent othis

vaccine? >> the people i would say there is no patent. could you patent the sun? amy: this is such a profound point is so different from the way medicine is practiced today. the significance of who profits from these vaccines, dr. salk. >> you know, we are living in a real world and the real world is made up -- includes businesses that need to be able to make investments in the research they are doing and to make profits on that basis. what i think is so important at this juncture is the world is needing vaccines. we have been focused on their own situation now, and that is appropriate, but the rest of the world and countries that are less able to afford vaccines need consideration as well. somehow there needs to be a creative cooperation among all of us, including the businesses,

in order to find ways to satisfy the needs of these other countries that can't afford the kinds of interventions that we have been able -- amy: the world health organization just had 46 countries are now vaccinating their populations. only one of those 46 is a low-income country. >> that is not good. amy: dr. salk, i want to ask about the studies. under tell me in -- under 10 million people have been vaccinated in the united states but the movement of those deeply concerned about a vaccine, are saying, ok, where is the evidence? where are the studies of these vaccines? the fact that the one, we don't have a national database so people can report on what they feel afterwards and what is happening them, but also just to has gotten this vaccine, who is getting two vaccines, how do you ensure that you get the second

vaccine now with president-elect biden saying and the trump administration and grain, just release all the vaccines so people will see if they get the second vaccine that makes you more fully immune? >> a bunchf different questions embedded in that. i am of mixed mind. i have to say, thinking for myself, i have not yet received the vaccine and looking forward to it and have been concerned initially about the prospect this was bei rushed to fast, but i am feeling very good about what i've seen from the studies that were done. around 95% effective, that is extraordinary. with the soreness of the arm , maybe feeling a bitpunk on occasion, some can develop a reaction have to be watched for 30 minutes to make sure anything can be treated.

we have not seen anything substantial so far with these two vaccines that would suggest more serious effects being exerted. yes, of course, we have to keep a careful eye as the numbers increase to be sure there's not something that comes along that is rare but unexpected and needs to be taken into account. amy: children have not been tested at this point, is that right? kids under 14? >> that is correct. amy: we have to leave it there but we are not going to let you off the hook. we are having you back on. do you think it is possible for people in this country, joe biden says, 100 million people to be vaccinated in the first 100 days of his administration? >> i think that is pushing it, frankly. it would be wonderful. if i get a first side, i would prefer to get a second shot because that is were 95% effectiveness lies.

at this point, i think anything is going to get this process accelerated will be a good thing. amy: dr. peter salk, his father dr. jonas salk, developed the first polio vaccine. we thank you so much for being with us. now professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at the universi>ú■og■?■?■;■■

>> the world has reached a heart-wrenching milestone. >> 2 million people dead worldwide from covid-19 as infections continue to rise and countries rushed to rollout vaccines. i'm rob beth is in. this is al jazeera live from delhi. also coming up, u.s. president-elect joe biden

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