05/27/21 05/27/21 [captioning made possiblby democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> getting to the bottom of the origin of this pandemic will help us understand how to prepare for the next pandemic and the next one. amy: president biden has ordered u.s. intelligence agencies to investigations into the origins of the covid-19 pandemic to determine if the virus was accidentally leaked from a chinese lab. we will look at this and other issues with dr. monica ghandi.

but first, we go to japan where calls are growing to cancel next the summer olympics. >> we need to stop preparing for the games and that is what we're calling for the tokyo games to be canceled. amy: as the japanese doctors union and many others call for the olympics to be canceled as kobe spikes in japan, we will speak to a leading japanese critic of the games, and jules boycoff, a scholar and former member of the u.s. olympic soccer team, about the clashing dynamics in tokyo. the conavirus-driven state of emergency. >> right now as tokyo prepares host the olympic games, we e witnessing a cascade of calamities. we have the mecal officials in e country jumping up and down demandin cancellations.

we have more than 80% of the pulationhat does not want the games to happen ts summer. the athletes are amang to hold, no question abt that. but there is no reason to hold an optional sporting spectacle in the middle of a global health pandemic. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. in san jose, california, a public transit worker shot and killed ne people at a rail yard wednesday morning before fatally shooting himself. authorities identified the gunman as 57-year-old samuel cassidy, a white man. at least one explosive device was found near the scene of the massacre. the shooter's home, around 10 miles away, was found ablaze by firefighters. the victims are believed to be all or mostly coworkers at the -- coworkers.

their names are paul delacruz megia, taptejdeep singh, adrian balleza, jose dejesus hernandez iii, timothy michael romo, michael joseph rudometkin, abdolvahab alaghmandan, lars kepler lane, and alex ward fritch. california governor gavin newsom spoke wednesday from san jose. >> it begs the damn question, what the hel is goingl on in mecca? when are we going to put down their arms, literally, and figuratively? amy: the gun violence archive reported san jose was the 232nd mass shooting in the u.s. this year. that's 100 more mass shootings than were recorded by this time in 2020. will over a mass shooting a day. president biden urged congress to take immediate action to pass stricter gun control laws. he said in a statement --

"i have the solemn duty yet again of ordering the flag to be lowered at half- staff, just weeks after doing so following the mass shootings at spas in and around atlanta, in a grocery store in boulder, colorado, at a home in rock hill, south carolina, and at a fedex facility in indianapolis, indiana." on capitol hill, senators held a hearing for david chipman, president biden's nominee to head the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. chipman served as the atf or two decades and has advised gun control groups. he faces intense opposition from republican lawmakers for his pro-gun control stance. this is iowa senator chuck grassley. >> the many see putting in command, let mr. chipman, in charge of atf is like putting a tobacco executive in charge of the department of health and human services or empty for in

charge of the portland police department. amy: blasted chipman for supporting a ban on the ar-15 assault rifle, the most popular firearm in the united states. chipman defended his defense gun control even as he pledged to enforce existing gun laws. >> the ar-15 is a gun i was issued on atf's swat team and it is a particularly lethal weapon and regulating it as other particularly legal weapons -- lethal weapons, advocated for. if i am confirmed, i would simply enforce the laws in the books and right now there is no such ban on those guns. amy: in texas, governor greg abbott is expected to sign a recently-passed bill which would allow texans to carry handguns openly in public without a permit. it also allows people without a felony criminal conviction to carry a handgun without a background check.

in an historic rolling, a report and in the netherlands has ordered the royal dutch shell oil company to cut its greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by the end of the decade in order to align its policies with the goals of the parents climate agreement. the ruling only affects shell's dutch operations, but sets a precedent that could rein in fossil fuel companies r beyond the netherlands. the case was brought by friends of the earth, which celebrated its victory outside a courthouse in the hague. lawyer roger cox argued the case. >>y this is a groundbreaking verdict as far as i'm concerned. it is the first time in the world at large multinational tier two polluter like royal dutch shell is ordered by the court to do its share and avoiding dangerous climate change. we expect this will have a ripple effect against other multinational ln gas companies

and coal companies in the world. amy: meanwhile, shareholders of exxon mobil voted unexpectedly wednesday to send at least two activist candidates to the company's board of directors. it was a surprise victory for a small hedge fund that's pushing exxonmobil to take the climate crisis seriously and to accelerate the transition to clean energy. also on wednesday, 61% of chevron's shareholders voted to slash greenhouse gas emissions. australia's second most populous state of victoria has been ordered on coronavirus lockdown, affecting about 7 million people. contact tracers say they've identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts who will need to be quarantined. australia has recorded just 30,000 coronavirus cases and fewer than deaths after taking 1000 an aggressive approach against outbreaks. taiwan is battling its worst outbreak of the pandemic with hundreds of new infections

reported each day. taiwan has had one of the world's most successful campaigns against covid-19 and it went more than 250 days without reporting any mmunity spread. meanwhile, a new report finds at least 19 countries where covid is rampant are at risk of running out of oxygen supplies for patients. a review by the bureau of investigative journalism found critical oxygen shortages in argentina, colombia, iran, india, nepal, pakistan, south africa, and elsewhere. the white house says president biden has ordered u.s. intelligence agencies to determine whether the novel coronavirus escaped from a research laboratory in wuhan, china. this comes amid mounting calls on the world health organization to further investigate the origins of covid-19. cases continue to fall around the united states, with an average of fewer than 25,000

infections per day. vaccinations keep falling, too, with an average of 1.7 million doses administered daily. that's about half of the peak vaccination rate seen in april. states are increasingly offering prizes to entice people to get shots. on wednesday, ohio gave away the first of five weekly $1 million "vax-a-million" prizes to abbigail bugenske, a recent college graduate and engineer, while 14-year-old dayton student joseph costello won a full-ride scholarship to ohio public colleges. colorado, oregon, new york, and new jersey are offering similar prizes. meanwhile, the baltimore city school board said this week it will not hold back students who are failing classes due to the pandemic. students who struggled during unprecedented online classes will be given additional time

and customized instruction and makeup gaps in their education. they will be given incompletes. in austria, talks continue this week on relaunching the iran nuclear deal, which the u.s. unilaterally withdrew from in 2018 under trump's presidency. officials expressed cautious optimism at the talks' progress as one diplomat called a renewal of the deal feasible. the head of the u.n.'s international atomic energy agency expssed concern this week with the continued push by tehran to enrich uranium at weapons grade levels. iran has said the u.s. would need to lift all sanctions before it comes back into compliance with thdeal's terms. in mexico, a mayoral candidate in the city of moroleon was assassinated tuesday ahead of june 6 legislative elections, when thousands of local candidates will be chosen. witnesses say two armed men arrived at a campaign event for

alma barragán and shot her dead, injuring two other people. on the same day, armed men kidnapped omar plancarte, a green party mayoral candidate in the state of michoacán. at least 34 political candidates were murdered in mexico this year. this is mexican security analyst alejandro hope. >> the attacks against the candidates are only the surface of the violence been exercise. there are threats, intimidation, many of which are kept quite by the candidates. they can be very insidious under the process which can determine the election outcome in some places. amy: the american civil liberties union has filed suit to block arkansas' first-in-the-nation bill criminalizing gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth. in april, arkansas state

lawmakers voted to override republican governor asa hutchinson's veto of the highly contested bill. in a statement, the aclu of arkansas wrote -- "no child should be cut off from the medical care they need or denied their fundamental right to be themselves -- but this law would do both." samaria rice, the mother of tamir rice, has asked the ohio supreme court to prevent the officer who killed her son in 2014 from being reinstated. tamir rice was just 12 years old when timothy loehmann fatally shot him, claiming he thought rice's toy gun was real. he was never charged but was eventually fired after it was revealed he lied on his job application. a police union is now seeking to reinstate him. and lee evans, an african american sprinter who helped found the olympic project for human rights after leading protest against racism in the united states, has died of a

stroke in nigeria at the age of 74. lee evans won two medals in the 1968 summer olympics in mexico city. his victories came just days after don cars and tommsmith raised their fists in the black power salute at that was national anthem played during an oak's -- awards or money. they were suspended from the u.s. team and would later be banned for life from the olympics for their protest in support of black lives. just two days later, lee evans were a black beret and raised his fist in a similar protest after winning a gold medal in the 400 meter dash. harry edwards said, "lee evans was one of the greatest athletes in social justice advocates in an era that produced a generation of such courageous committed and contributing athlete activists." and those are some of the

headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. when we come back, we go to japan where calls are growing to cancel the summer olympics. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show in japan, where covid 19 this biden admits mounting opposition to the tokyo olympic games, which were delayed by a year because of the pandemic and are still scheduled to open on july 23. this week, japanese leaders extended state of emergency in tokyo and other major cities for

several weeks into june because of the pandemic. on tuesday, leading newspaper asahi shimbun -- one the olympic sponsors -- called for cancellation of the games in an explosive editorial, writing it is "simply beyond reason to hold the tokyo olympics and paralympics this summer." meanwhile, the head of a japanese doctors union warned against bringing tens of thousands of people from more than 200 countries and territories to japan were less than 3% of the population is fully vaccinated. >> i know order to win the battle against the coronavirus, we need to stop repairing for the games and that is what we're calling for the tokyo games to be canceled. there's a possibility the south african and indian variants could spread around the world through the olympics, and we also cannot deny the possibility of a new variant being generated after the games.

if that were to happen, it would be called the tokyo olympic games variant and holding the games will be condemned in the next 100 years as a foolish act of mankind. amy: an open letter of over 6000 doctors also called for the cancellation of the olympics. despite these concerns and ongoing protests, japanese officials, olympics organizers, and the international olympic committee have all vowed the games will go ahead as a televised event with no foreign spectators. the ioc depends on selling broadcast rights for 75% of its income. meanwhile, an online petition with more than 350,000 signatures calling for the tokyo games to be canceled has been submitted to the international olympic committee and others. this is misako ichimura, one of the founding members of the anti-olympics group, hangorin no

kai, in tokyo. >> the olympic organizers -- after a temporary pause in the vicinity of the stadiums that began setting up an exclusive zone, pushing out the houseless people who have been living there. construction for the venues contributed to serious deforestation of the local park, also pushing the users of the park into a small area, making it difficult for people to keep social distance. on the road where many ambulances are driving tirelessly, where the olympics are being built. with 80% of the public opposed to the games and the growing try to cancel the olympics come the torch relay has faced protesters everywhere in japan. it is not welcome at all. the organizers repeat the slogan, "safe and secure,"

but the fact our lives and health are being taken lightly further angers people. amy: that's misako ichimura with the tokyo anti-olympics group, and for more we are joined by two guests. in nishinomiya, japan, satoko itani is an associate professor of sports, gender, and sexuality at kansai university. a leading japanese critic of the games. also with this from portland, oregon, is jules boycoff, author and former olympic athlete who played for the u.s. olympic soccer team from 1989-1991. he has published several pieces. his latest this morning in "the washington post" is "tokyo is learning that the only force stronger than a pandemic is the olympics." his guest essay in "the new york times" is headlined "a sports event shouldn't be a superspreader. cancel the olympics." he's written four books about the olympics.

his latest is titled "nolympians: inside the fight against capitalist mega-sports in los angeles, tokyo and beyond." welcome you both to democracy now! jules boycoff, for people to understand, who decides if the olympics in japan are canceled? this woodchuck people. wooded the country of japan decide -- wouldn't the country of japan decide? >> each time and makes olympic host city gets ready to start the games, they need to cite a host city contract with the international olympic committee. those contracts are extremely lopsided in favor of the international olympic committee and gives them and only them the power to cancel the olympics in a case like this. so when the prime minister of japan states in public under pressure from people in japan and around the world to cancel the olympics, when he states in public he does not have the power to cancel the olympics, he is absolutely correct. that is part of th larger state

of exception that comes into the ympic city when they arrive on your doorstep. all sorts of special laws put into place. all sorts of special rules are put into place. new technologies are secured for the olympics. for example in tokyo, easy facial recognition systems put in place. security forces use the olympics to get all of the special weapons and funding they normally would be able to get in normal political times. that is what we are seeing transpire. the all-powerful ioc, really a privilege of the global 1%, exerting itself and forcing the games ahead against the will of the population. more than 80% of the people in japan host hosting the olympics this summer and yet the ioc insists on pressing ahead. nermeen:. you could explain what the significance is of one of the

key sponsorsf the olympics and a major newspaper asahi shimbun coming up against assange the olympics should not be held -- was that a surprise in japan and are you expecting other sponsors to also come out in opposition? >> hi. first of all, thank you for having me on your show. in terms of the dividends of asahi shimbun speaking against the all olympics, well, i have to say first, it came too late. to me, now they are taking the side against the olympics because it is becoming clear the public will not support this olympics and they will continue to face harsh criticism after the olympics are over. nermeen: what about the fact there is such widespread opposition as jules just

mentioned, over 80% of the public in japan are opposed to the olympics taking place? how are they expressing opposition and what kind of response as the government in japan given to the opposition? >> so there have been many protests. ever since the beginning, ever since the games were awarded to tokyo -- which was 2013 -- there were small groups of activists speaking tirelessly against the olympics and pointing at many issues way before the pandemic it japan. after the torcrelay began, not just these main groups that have been working for years, there are smaller groups of people helping out. many parts of japan are against the torch relay and the olympics itself. amy: satoko itani, can you talk about the level of protest? you have 6000 doctors calling for the cancellation.

you have the torch group, the ones running to ultimately like the torch in@@ tokyo -- a number of them are now covid-positive. you have thousands of athletes coming from around the world, many from countries that have not gotten vaccines. the countries themselves, let alonthe athletes. and vaccines are not being required at the olympics. >> obviously, there is a great public health risk -- not just to japan, but around the world. again, and she pointed out,,, there are less than 3% of the population in japan has currently been vaccinated. going back to your earlier question, the government of japan has repeated they don't have the power to decide -- the

ioc has. the only response ioc has had to the protests are that no matter what, even if japan or the host city is und state of emergency, the games will go on. recently said the olympics will affect -- will be held unless there is an unprecedented -- this is the voice we have been hearing. reasonably, people in japan are increasingly angry and feeling the great sense of unfairness and the wrong priorities on the part of the ioc and the japanese government. they feel the people are not protected. but i have to emphasize, amy, this did not just start in the beginning of the pandemic. when the games were awarded in 2013, it was only two years after japan experienced disaster a massive earthquake,

tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. the public we would require a huge amount of resources to recover but all of the money and resources have been put toward the olympics and the recovery itself has been delayed. nermeen: jules boycoff, coul yorespond the fac -- i mean, number of people have expressed dissatisfaction with the measures that the olympic organizers in tokyo have put in place. what are some of the measures? "the new journal glenna medicine" had those measures are insufficient, but the aicles the article suggests appropriate and safe measures could be put in place in the games could go ahead. she did not state was necessary to cancel the olympics. >> the international olympic committee along with tokyo organizers have issued what they call the books for different groups of people that will be

attending the olympics, whether they are athletes, journalists, whether they are volunteers. these playbooks lay out in clear terms what is going to be in place in terms of these measures. the new journal the new england journal of medicine basically pointed out a lot of light are in these playbooks is essentially hygiene theater, talking about cleaning up surfaces and things everybody knows at this point like wearing a mask and social distancing and so on. the fact of the matter is, it is incredibly difficult to pull that off with such a huge mega event like the olympics. we're talking about 11,000 athletes, 80,000 people or so will be coming into the country from all around the world -- as you mentioned, none of whom will be required to be vaccinated, none of whom will be quarantined. and many of whom who cannot get a vaccination because they are too young. many olympic sports have people in them who are not 15 years old. it depends on the sport that determines the age. there all sorts of complicated factors. that is not even the paralympics

we have many athletes who will be especially susceptible to coronavirus and the variants. the international olympic committee has come under all sorts of pressure about these playbooks. one other thing about this, ough, an athlete who is tokyo-bound recently shared with me a waiver, basically, they are beg asked to sign in order to participate in the old epics. when i read this, i found it reason. it said explicitly end the waiver that if this individual were to contract coronavirus and die, they would not hold liable the sponsible parties for the olympics. this is something the individual is being asked to sign just to participate in the olympics. i signed plenty of waivers in my life as an athlete but seeing it spelled out in such terms, i found quite ghastly. that is what we're looking at. we are looking at the international olympic committee that seems to be perfectly willing to have people in tokyo and japan dying so they can make

a killing. amy: i want to go to the ioc to play a clip of the ioc officials who held a news conference in tokyo talking about -- well, the president tried to reassure reporters about the effectiveness of the organization's protocols. >> from february to mid may, about 1000 people have been given a special grant to enter japan were tokyo 2020 took the responsibility for their entry. there was one person that tested positive at the airport, but zero cases during the 14 day period where activities were restricted. this proved the coronavirus measures from the second version of the playbook actually worked. amy: jules boycoff, if you can talk about this remarkable situation where you have a

country that is spiking with covid and you have this enormous pressure of the ioc -- it could be country ioc's will go bankrupt if again the olympics are not held? if you could talk more about the big business of the ioc and also about the athletes. what happens to athletes who have been preparing for these years. >> listening to the officials in tokyo as well as the international olympic committee, it sounds a bit like repetition contest on groundhog's day. they say the same thing over and over and over again about how we are going to have a safe olympics. you're right. many machinations are happening behind the scenes and that animates while we are seeing the olympics present head under pandemic conditions. as you mentioned, the international olympic committee gets around 75% of its revenues

from broadcasters in the u.s. like nbc -- almost 75%. add to that another 18% from corporate sponsors like coca-cola, ali baba, is etc., you're looking at more than nine out of every $10 that lands in the international olympic committee's conference coming from those two sources. that in my makes a lot of sense international olympic committee would be willing to hold, per tbe that with no people in the stands of necessary because if you can put the event on television, can have that money flowing into your coffers. they make the argument they spread the money out to the world and that is true to a certain degree. they do share quite a bit of the revenues to sporting groups, national olympic committees around the world, international federations of sport. but whether that really means we should go ahead with an olympics under pandemic conditions is another matter. i am a little more willing to listen to the medical experts than i am people who have a vested economic interest in

pulling off these olympics. nermeen: satoko itani, quickly, before we colude, could you explain what you think some of the reasons are that japan has such a low rate of vaccination -- in fact, the lowest of all oecd countries? >> i think the first is during 2020, [indiscernible] japan does not make us on vaccination. the government failed to acquire them. the distribution has been very poor. because of the poor distribution plan come the cities around the country are scrambling to figure out where to vaccinate, in what order, and how to transport. so the government has majorly failed to create this distribution plan. this is partly because of their failure to predict this pandemic.

china work korea have previous experience of stars and they have prepared. since then -- japan's government hasn't. they reduce the number of hospital beds and funding for the public hospitals. once again talking about politics and banning expression of politics. the olympics banning black lives matter apparel and the recent vote to uphold the rule that prohibits any kind of demonstration or political religious or racial propaganda. today in our headlines, we just reported on the death of lee evans, who a few days after the world renowned protests in mexico city olympics of tommy smith and john carlos when they

put up their hands in the black power salute, he did that very thing as the u.s. national anthem played, protesting for black power in the united states against poverty and for human rights will stop -- human rights. can you talk about that power of the ioc to say no to those kinds of expressions and what that means for japan? >> well, the ioc has used this policy to really suppress and silence the opposing voices. and this is going to be a major issue in japan because if you look at what the pandemic has shown, this is a very political event. the decisions to protect the people in japan have been compromised because the ioc has such huge power and money interest. and to say the people in japan and the athletes cannot voice is

only to protect the ioc and it shows they do not care what happens to the people in the hosting countries and to the athletes. amy: -- well -- >> this speaks to the fallacy of thelympic brand. amy: i want to thank you so much for being with us most of just a comment, this is not the olympics. at the last u.s. open, during the tournament, you'll be osaka, japanese mother and haitian-american father, donned seven masks, each bearing the name of a black person who is killed by police. satoko itani, they get for being with us, associate professor of sports, gender, and sexuality at kansai university. and jules boycoff, former

athlete, author of four books on the olympics. we will link to your pieces as you speak to us from portland, oregon. next up, president biden has ordered u.s. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the covid-19 pandemic to determine if the virus was accidentally leaked from a chinese lab. we will look at this and other covid issues with dr. monica gandhi stay th us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: to a is an bob dylan. -- joan baez and bob dylan.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. president biden has ordered u.s. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the covid-19 pandemic and report back to him within 90 days. biden said the u.s. intelligence community has coalesced around two likely scenarios - that the virus emerged from human contact with an infected animal or that it started spreading after an accidental leak from a chinese lab. the first covid cases were reported in wuhan, china, which is also the home of the wuhan institute of virology. "the wall street journal" recently reported three employees of the institute fell ill with covid-like symptoms in the autumn of 2019 and were hospitalized in november of that year -- before the first recorded case of covid-19. on wednesday, white house deputy press secretary karine jean-pierre said the

administration would press china for more information. >> we will continue to press china to participate in a full, transparent combat evidence-based international investigation with the needed access to get to the bottom of the virus that is taken more than 3 million lives across the globe. and critically to share information and lessons that will help us all prevent future pandemics. amy: china has criticized the biden administration's call for a new probe saying the lab leak hypothesis is "a conspiracy created by u.s. intelligence agencies." in march, the world health organization said its investigation into the origins of the covid-19 pandemic found it was extremely unlikely that the novel coronavirus emerged from a laboratory. but many scientists are calling on the who to further investigate the possibility.

toalk about this and other issues around the pandemic, we are joined by dr. monica gandhi, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at ucsf/san francisco general hospital. dr. gandhi, welcome back to democracy now! first off, if you can address this issue, why it is significant to know about the origins of covid-19, whether it was -- you know, the virus going from animal to human or whether it was an accidental leak from this parole achieve lab -- virology lab? >> i think it could still be both. if you think about sars-cov-2, which causes covid-19, this is now the third coronavirus in recent history that is called severe respiratory symptoms in humans.

the first one was called source. the second one was mers and this is the third and far worse, which is now -- we knew about it as of december 31, 2019. all three of these viruses likely originated in bats, went through some sort of animal host and came to humans. it could still be bass with sars-cov-2. what i think is at stake is the question of was this virus known deabout, something being studied in the laborator prior to the worlknowing about it, and then proportionally, during the study of it, havthis labccident where there were some people and the laboratory impacted. it is not an either/or. i think it is difficult to design a virus -- this has been constantly thought about with hiv and other viruses. it is difficult for humans to create what nature creates.

there is a nice explanation of it about your treatment of anals, funnel mentally led to -- fundamentally let you fections coming to the human population. lythings like vaccine developmet could have been accelerated. people would have known to start with the isolation procedures. there could have been things that happened faster. i personally do not think you can create these type of viruses in a lab stop only nature can do it. nermeen: dr. gandhi, i would ask about another issue which is the cdc lifting restrictions here in the u.s. with respect to the pandemic. could you explain what some of those -- these new guidelines from the cdc are and what some of the opposition to those -- the lifting of restrictions is? many have suggested lifting restrictions without requiring proof of vaccination is a

mistake >> >>. yes. as you indicated, may 13, kind of -- very sprising day. surprising day for many of us, including me, who were talking about metrics of when you want to ease restrictis based on our vaccination rates. to put it cleanly, it was may 13. the white house task force and cdc messaged a point in quite surprising announcement those vaccinated do not need to wear masks those who are unvaccinated should stay wearing masks. what they cited in their press conferen was very important, which was the true science behind which is what we have seen since the clinical trials is how incredibly effective these vaccines are. and to explain efficacy versus -- efficacy is the word we use new clinical trial. we had all of e clinical

trials come out in december. vaccines we have in this country, so-called pfizer, moderna, johnson & johnson. fda reports. they were efficacious. 95% with moderna and pfizer. what ended up happening is these real-world studies came out. how do they look like in the real world where things are messier? people are not always wearing masks. people are doing variety of behaviors. still ongoing circulating virus. some of the studies being cited for example march 29 that looked at vaccine effectiveness and a first-time responders come health care workers across the nation and vaccine effectiveness was 90%. they cited a study from israel on may 6 that showed effectiveness is 97%. i knew in good journal study fromqatar and as they were out

vaccines, the variants were emerging there and by the time they got to march in this campaign, there were about almost all of the virus was the so-called south africa variant and u.k. variant and still 97.4% effective in that study. those were the three studies cited in are many more so the real world effectiveness even in older patients is very high, 95% prevention of hospitalizations across u.s. over 65 or so. they cited a series of studies, including some of which i mentioned, that vaccines blocked transmissions. it prevents us if we are vaccinated from even having infection in our nose that could lead to even when you feel well, asymptomatic transmission. that has been an achilles' heel

of covid-19 that we could spread it when we feel well. these vaccines block or even having asymptomatic nasal carriage so you cannot pass it on to others. again, a series of studies showing a blockage of asymptomatic infection and transmission by 86% to 98%. finally, side of the breakthrough data in the u.s., even with circulating virus, very, very low rates of people actually getting sick. thankfully, with covid-19, after vaccination, really hard to estimate to tell you but it is multiple zeros before 9% -- .0009% getting severe illness after you've had the vaccine. if you put all of the studies together, what they said was found vaccinated people don't have to wear a mask unless unvaccinated people attending -- continue to wear masks.

i agree with the confusion and i would never have done it this way, it leads to this question of equity and question of how do you figure out exactly who is vaccinated and unvaccinated. what i and many others were advocating or get a date in the united states, probably somewhere in mid-june, navy even july 4 -- maybe even july 4, check the case rates are low and then lift masking for everyone. it would have eliminated a lot of confusion. i want to stress the science is out and i don't think transmission rates are going to go up because of unmasking of unvaccinated people who are deliberately unmasking but not yevaccinated. amy: i want to play for you the head of the nation's largest nurses union, national nurses united, criticizing the cdc rollback on covid protection

guidance. this is nnu president jean ross . >> we believe that the cnge in guidelines the cdc gaven wearing masks is unwarranted and very, very premature. for one thing, we don't know yet how many mutants out there and we don't know how the vaccines are reacting with those tatian's. -- mutations. we know the cdc did recognize finally the rus is airborne. it floats through the air. but they did not fully recognize it or we would have guidelines on ventition and other respiratory precautions -- which we don't have. the national nurses united ntinues to believe that vaccines are only 1% of a good comprehensive plan to make sure this epidemic, this pandemic

does not get any worse. amy: that is the national nurses united president jean ross. dr. monica gandhi, if you can respond? also, how practically, if you're lking on the street or if you're walking into a store -- i mean, you're talking about a worker at a store saying, "are you vaccinated?" to figure out if they should be wearing a mask, how this gets enforced? but start by responding to jean ross. >> sympathize with the position. there are biological inaccuracies in the statement that we just hea. number one, we do knowow these vaccines work against the variants. a key point that many of us have been making. when i cited the qatar campaign, that was real-world data beyond a lot of work we have all been talking about that t cells,

another symptom, never thought would work against the variants and now have a just from this week that the cls and your immune system can evolve and produce antibodies to variants. the real-world story on how these vaccines work against variants is very, very heartening. an absolutely the vaccines work against the variants was up there is confusion around aerosol versus droplets. many of us want to get away from the discussion of the size of the particle and talk about the mitigation strategies that are most effective. it is true masking, distancing, ventilation have different roles to play depending on the type of infection agent. it is not as clear-cut as something as an aerosol, a 95

mask up and something with the droplet and distance matters. it is a nonpharmaceutical intervention triangle and altering matter. the other thing i need to say about the statement is vaccines are not one more tool in the toolkit. if they were just a tool, and yet would be doing much better than they are now. the five tools for sars-cov-2 prior to vaccines are masking come distancing, ventilation, contact tracing, and testing. it is all we had before vaccines. vaccines are the solution. when you an immunity to a virus, it is the only thing that ends the viral pandemic. with the 1918 pandemic, the only way to in the viral pandemic was 50 million does was terrible because there was no vaccine. it was natural immunity and people finally natural immunity into the pandemic.

that is not how we want to go. we were lucky and very grateful to get highly effective vaccines for this virus. this is what is ending the pandemic in countries that are wealthy enough to have the vaccine, including u.k., including the u.s. it will end the pandemic if we can work on global vaccine equity for everywhere else. those are tools. this is the solution. that is how i respond to the statements. i also want to mention one thing, actually, the cdc says we must all universally mask and continue to mask for the unvaccinated or not in health care settings. nermeen: dr. gandhi, you mentioned the question of global vaccine equity. he recently co-authored a piece in "the washington post" titled "american kids can wait." can you explain the argument you put forward and why you think it is essential and possible to give tens of millions of doses to countries that are suffering

massively devastating effects of the virus in india, especially, as you mentioned, and in particular, giving this vaccine to healtcare worrs around the world -- tens of millions of whom have not received the vaccine atll, not even one dose? >> correct. that peace is the atlantic. what that piece was about -- maybe -- we are likely not to delay any vaccinations for american children in wealthy nations prior to port coronation. of the argument to this is children are much lower risk for severe symptomatic covid-19 than adults. health care workers in hard-hit countries, even when they had one dose of the vaccine because of limited i've sn supply,

there is so many cases that they're still getting sick prior to the second dose. it is imperative to understand that we will never get to the end of this pandemic until what i just said -- the solution at the pandemic is immunity. the only way to get to immunity is to vaccinate the world. we are seeing thailand, taiwan, certainly seen in india that no matter what, even if you apply beautifully those five tools, the fundamental way to get through the pandemic as we watch cases, hospitalizations, deaths in the united states for those looking up in the u.s. to have vaccines is the application of vaccines. we cannot wait for 2020 32 and the pandemic when we have the tools at our disposal. what we're arguing for under the article is we have surplus doses in the united states -- actually, all richmo countries f

you look at the vaccine supply, surplus doses of vaccine, even if they fully vaccinated their own population, including 12 to 15 euros in this country. we were arguing 50 million doses could be freed up for other countries even by the 12 to 15-year-olds. but going back to the surplus, even beyond and -- above and beyond, could have 300 billion surplus doses in this country of vaccine. the bite administration has pledged 20 million -- the biden administration has pledged 20 million. that is not enough. we have more. how can we think about even global security, if we want to talk abo global security, while a pandemic is raging elsewhere. the solution has been known and present since december.

yes, there are many ways to think about global vaccine equity and many other was which we can talk about, but i can't imagine we can ever feel at ease in this country what we're talking about masking versus unmasking -- what a paradox when so many places are massively suffering without the vaccine. amy: what about the issue of the wto waiver? clearly, the mass pressure from around the world and people here in this country led to president biden saying he would support a waiver for patent rights at the wto, but you have to have consensus at the wto and countries like germany said they would not -- which very much supports the billionaire pharmaceutical companies. can you talk about the significance of this waiver and what it would mean if it were

accomplish? >> yes. i can't stress enough how significant i think this waiver would be an that we need to do it. going back to 1995, the wto had a position in place that in the setting of a medical emergency, patents can be waived, giving essentially medicine or vaccine. that was 1995. i am an hiv doctor. in 1996, a time when u.s. and europe had access of geing antiretrovirals that change the face of that hiepidemic. people were literally rising from the dead. it was a time where people were so sick and could live well and long, normal, healthy lives with anti-retro viral therapy. only the u.s. and europe had access to these medications than

while millions of people in sub-saharan africa were dying of aids. this was where the problem was most acute. year after year, there was a discussion of let's wait temporarily the patents on these therapies and year after year the answer was no what we watched people die another places of the world. finally in 2001 -- pfizer made $47 billion in 2001. that was the year we could not get a very simple anfungal medication that needed for aids patients. the point is, could not be anymore imrtant and we need to waive patents. we do need to get international consensus and i hope the u.s. can persuade with an emergency meeting the european union and germany to do this. amy: dr. monica gandhi, thank you for being with us, infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at ucsf/san francisco general hospital.

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narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," two cities-- freetown, sierra leone, and san francisco, california-- continents apart, vastly different culturally and economically, yet facing the same struggle to adapt to rapid urbanization, all set against the backdrop of a dramatically changing climate. [film advance clicking]