01/07/22 01/07/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> those who stormed this capital and those who instigated and incited and those who called on them to do so held a dagger at the throat of america. and american democracy. amy: on the first anniversary of the january 6 capitol insurrection, president biden announced his predecessor donald

trump for spreading a web of lies about the 2020 election and inciting his supporters to attacked the capitol. we will hear part of biden's speech and speak to historian ruth ben-ghiat, a leading scholar on fascism. then to sedan -- sudan. three protesters were killed thursday, bringing the total to 60 since the military coup. we will go to khartoum for the latest. then we speak to emergency room doctor dr. craig spencer on the skyrocketing number of covid cases. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden marks the first anniversary of the january 6 capitol insurrection by denouncing donald trump for

inciting his supporters to attack the capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. in a speech from statuary hall on the was capitol, biden accused trump of spreading a web of lies and claimed the former president, whom he did not name, is placing a dagger at the throat of american democracy. pres. biden: for the first time in our history, a president, not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the capitol. but they failed. they failed. and on this day of rememance, we must make sure that such attack never, never happens again. amy: inside the house chambers, nancy pelosi led a moment of silence open congressional ceremony marking the capitol assault. just two republicans joined the proceeding. commerce member liz cheney and her father former vice president

dick cheney. after headlines, we will hear extended remarks from biden address and speak with an expert on the psychology of authoritarianism. u.s. coronavirus infections have set another record high, with the number of confirmed cases now averaging more than 610,000 a day. hospitalizations are rising sharply, while an average of more than 1400 u.s. residents are dying of covid-19 each day. "the washington post" reports the white house is finalizing plans with the u.s. postal service to deliver 500 million free coronavirus test kits to households that request them. this ces as usps is requesting a temporary waiver on vaccine requirements for its 650,000 employees, saying the rule threatens to delay mail deliveries. the white house said thursday it has no plans to grant the waiver. today the supreme court hears oral arguments in two challenges to president biden's vaccine mandates affecting nearly 100 million workers.

the world health organization says governments logged a record 9.5 million coronavirus cases around the globe last week, a 71% jump from the prior week. on thursday, who director-general tedros adhanom ghebreyesus confirmed reports that the fast-spreading omicron variant is less likely to produce severe disease but warned it should not be categorized as a mild virus. >> just like previous variants, omicron is hospitalizing people and is killing people. in fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge an quick, it is overwhelming health systems around the world. amy: mexico's official covid-19 death toll is set to pass 300,000. that's the fifth highest death toll of any nation, though disease experts believe the true toll is much higher due to

lapses in testing and reporting. india reported over 117,000 positive coronavirus tests friday, the most since early june, as omicron spreads rapidly in urban areas. the british government has deployed 200 military personnel to london hospitals amid staffing shortages due to covid-19. in france, lawmakers have approved a bill requiring everyone 16 and up to show a vaccine pass to access public places. in brazil, far-right president jair bolsonaro thursday asted his government's approval of pfizer covid shots for five to 11-year-olds and insisted he would not allow his 11-year-old daughter to be vaccinated. >> i ask you, are you aware of a child five to 11 who has died of covid? i'm not. amy: a study by the public health organization vital strategies found nearly 3000 children in brazil under the age of had died of covid-19 by

10 summer of 2021. meanwhile, chile on thursday announced it will begin rolling out fourth covid-19 vaccine shots, becoming the first country in latin america to offer a second booster dose. cause extends authoritarian -- kazakhstan authoritarian president said to shoot without warning, rejecting calls to hold talks with protesters whom he called criminals and murderers. according to the kazakh interior ministry, 44 people, including 18 security officers, have been killed in recent violence. president tokayev also thanked russian president vladimir putin for sending in troops. the deadly crackdown came in response to what started as demonstrations against rising fuel prices and widened to broader anti-government protests. on thursday, a u.n. spokesperson called on security forces to respect protesters' rights. >> the important thing is security forces, whether they are from kazakhstan or not, need

to uphold the same human rights standards, which is to show restraint and protect people's rights and demonstrate peacefully. amy: the united nations says three refugees were killed, including two children, when an air strike hit a refugee camp wednesday in ethiopia's northern tigray region. the u.n. did not say who was responsible for the assault, but ethiopia's military has the only air force in the area. ethiopia's government has repeatedly denied targeting civilians throughout its 14-month-old war in tigray. aid workers and witnesses say at least 146 people have been killed and over 200 injured in air strikes in tigray since mid-october. in the occupied west bank, israeli forces shot dead a palestinian man, 21-year-old bakeer mohammad hashash, during a raid on the balata refugee camp in nablus thursday. hours later, an israeli settler drove his car into a palestinian man, 25-year-old mustafa falaneh, near a checkpoint, killing him.

meanwhile, far-right israeli protesters attacked a palestinian photojournalist in front of a hospital near tel aviv. the attackers were protesting the release of hisham abu hawash, who recently ended his 141-day hunger strike after being granted release from administrative detention, where he was being held without trial or charge. in haiti, suspected gang members killed two journalists on the outskirts of port-au-prince thursday. the reporters were on site to interview the leader of a rival gang. a third journalist managed to escape the brutal attack. police identified the victims as local reporters wilguens louissaint and amady john wesley, who worked with canadian radio station ecoute fm. the killings come amid a worsening security situation in haiti six months after the assassination of president jovenel moise. earlier this week, the u.s. arrested and charged colombian national mario palacios in connection with moise's killing.

the director of the u.s. bureau of prisons is resigning. michael carvajal was appointed to the post in february 2020 by trump's attorney general bill barr. about one third of federal prisoners have tested positive for coronavirus and at least 275 have died of covid-19. carvajal's tenure was also marked by reports of serious abuse and misconduct involving correctional officers. an associated press investigation found more than 100 federal prison workers have been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for crimes since the start of 2019, including a warden indicted for sexual abuse and anotr charged with murder. in buffalo, new york, newly unionized starbucks workers walked off the job wednesday, citing safety concerns amid staff and other shortages during the ongoing covid surge. starbucks workers united said -- "the company has again shown that they continue to put profits above people." in other labor news, a group of

nurses' unions and the afl-cio are demanding the federal government enact permanent rules to ensure workplace safety some two years into the covid pandemic. the group says all frontline health workers should be guaranteed personal protective equipment, exposure notification, ventilation systems, and other lifesaving measures. national nurses united said -- "going to work should not mean putting your life and the lives of your loved ones in danger." in pennsylvania, two activists were arrested as they shut down construction on the mariner east pipeline in chester county. the fracked gas pipeline is being built by sunoco, which is owned by energy transfer partners, and threatens marsh creek lake, a drinking water source for 1.75 million people. the toxic gasses are exported to manufacture plastics overseas. the pipeline has already caused major spills in march creek, leading to dozens of criminal charges against energy transfer partners. in minnesota, three former minneapolis police officers charged with federal civil

rights violations in george floyd's murder will go on trial on january 20. officers thomas lane, j. kueng and tou thao stood by and watched as derek chauvin murder george floyd, pressing his knee into floyd's neck for over nine minutes. the three face charges of aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter in a separate trial set to begin in a hennepin county court in march. minneapolis civil rights journalist and activist mel reeves died thursday due to complications of covid-19. he was 64 years old. reeves was community editor at the minnesota spokesman-recorder, the oldest black-owned newspaper in the state. last april, democracy now! spoke with mel reeves as the murder trial of george floyd's killer, derek chauvin, got underway. >> i'm not just a journalist, i am an activist. i have been on the ground, organizedgainst police violence when the fight was just fight r racial jtice, a

fivefold justice -- a fight for justice and prevent prussic -- we have been trying to hold the police accountable. the police of minneapolis and simple have not change their behavior. amy: mel reeves was unvaccinated against coronavirus and died after a weeks-long struggle with covid-19. in december, he spoke out from his hospital bed urging people to get vaccinated. he's survived by his son and five grandchildren. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden marked the first anniversary of the january 6 capitol insurrection by denouncing donald trump for inciting his supporters to attack the capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. in a speech from statuary hall in the u.s. capitol, biden accused trump of spreading a web of lies and claimed the former president -- who he did not name -- is placing a "dagger at the throat of american democracy."

this is part of president biden's address. >> here is the god's truth about january 6, 2021. close your eyes. go back to that day. what do you see? rioters rampaging, waving for the first time inside this capitol, the confederate flag that symbolized the cause to destroy america, to rip us apart. even during the civil war, that never, ever happened. but it happened here in 2021. what else do you see? a mob breaking windows, kicking in doors, breaching the capitol, american flags on poles being used as weapons as spears, fire extinguishers being thrown at the heads of police officers. a crowd that professes their

love for law enforcement assaulted those police officers, dragged them, sprayed them, stomped on them. over 140 police officers were injured. we all heard the police officers who were there that day testify to what happened. one officer called it "a medieval battle" and that he was more afraid that day than he was fighting the war in iraq. they've repeatedly asked since that day, how dare anyone, and would, belittle, or deny the hell they were put through? we saw with our own eyes rioters menace these halls, threatening the life of the speaker of the house, literally erecting gallows to hang the vice president of the united states of america.

what do we not see? we didn't see a former president who had just rallied the mob to attack, sitting in the private dining room off the oval office in the white house, watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours as police were assaulted. lives at risk. the nation's capital under siege. this wasn't a group of tourists. this is an armed insurrection. they weren't looking to uphold the will of the people. they were looking to deny the will of the people. they were looking to uphold -- they weren't looking to hold a free and fair election. they were looking to overturn one. they weren't looking to save the cause of america. they were looking to subvert the constitution. this isn't about being bogged down in the past. this is about making sure the past isn't buried.

that's the only way forward. that's what great nations do. they don't bury the truth. they face up to it. it sounds like hyperbole, but that's the truth. they face up to it. we are a great nation. my fellow americans, in life there's truth. and tragically, there are lies. lies conceived and spread for profit and power. we must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. and here's thtruth -- the former president of the united states of america has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. he's done so because he values power over principle. because he sees his own interest

as more important than his country's interest and america's interest. and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our constitution. he can't accept he lost. even though that's what 93 united states senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials in every battleground state have all said he lost. that's what 81 million of you did as you voted for a new way forward. he has done what no president in american history, the history of this country, has ever, ever done. he refused to accept the results of an election and the will of the american people. while some courageous men and women in the republican party are standing against it, trying to uphold the principle of that party, too many others are

transforming that party into something else. they seem no longer to want to be the party, the party of lincoln, eisenhower, reagan, the bushes. but whatever my other disagreements are with republicans who support the rule of law and not the role of a single man, i will always seek to work together with them, to find shared solutions where it possible. because if we have a shared belief in democracy, that anything is possible. anything. and so at this moment, we must decide what kind of nation are we going to be. are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? are we going to be a nation that

lives not by the light of the truth but under the shadow of lies? we cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. those who storm this capitol and those who instigated and incited and those who call upon them to do so, help a dagger at the throat of america and american democracy. they didn't come here out of patriotism or principle. they came here in rage. not in service of america, but rather in service of one man. those who incited the mob, the real plotters who are desperate to deny the certification of this election and defy the will of the voters. amy: president biden speaking to mark the first anniversary of the deadly january 6 insurrection. delaware congressmember lisa

blunt spoke later as part of a day of commemoration on capitol hill. >> on the day as i was sworn into congress, as me and my colleagues know, i was the first african-american in the first woman from the state of delaware elected to congress. i carried this scarf with me. it marked an x i great, great, great grandfather used to sign this return of qualified voter of 1867 in georgia. i also carried it on the day of the insurrection because it is my proof of what we have overcome. it is my inspiration for what is yet to be done. as we work toward a more perfect union. i continue to have hope even when i feel hopeless because my ancestors would have it no other way. and because scripture tells us that we may draw for a night but

joy comes in the morning. all i remember great deal that day, what i remember most is walking into the chamber that morning to complete our work. the morning when democracy prevailed. remember, reflect, recommit. amy: delaware congressmember lisa blunt rochester speaking we thursday. are joined now by new york university professor ruth ben-ghiat. she is expert on the psychology of authoritarianism and the author of "strongmen: how they rise, why they succeed, how they fall." she also publishes lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy. can you put what happened yesterday in the context of your study of fascism, the anniversary of what happened a year ago, professor? >> yes.

trump was never going -- he was never a president who resembles either a republican or democrat head of state. he rolled as an autocrat. his priorities were autocratic ones, making money off presidency, spreading hatred, creating a personality cult. so when he lost the election, it was easy to protect, as i did in "strongmen" that he would not leave quietly. because they think about their legacy sofas, like trump -- [indiscernible] existence of threat. he tried everything. he tried martial law. tried electoral manipulation. then he went with his army of doug's.

-- thugs. what is so disturbing that the gop, which he remade into an authoritarian party, this personality cult one year later is stronger than ever. in the last year, the gop has come into its own as a far right authoritarian party, which has enshrined violence as part of the practice of power. that is part of its menu of how you do politics now. amy: during his speech, president biden addressed what he called the presidents three big lies. number one, election day itself was an insurrection. number two, the election results cannot be trusted. and number three, the mob were the true patriots. put that in the context of the strongmen you have studied. >> a third of my book as i military coups. which i thought would not be so

relevant for the american reader and i was wrong. every single coup or authoritarian takeover is always justified as a patriotic act against corruption, tierney. trump set this up well because these big lies only had traction with his followers because he told 30,000 lies before that. it many of those lies for years were trying to take away the legitimacy of the electoral system in people's minds. he started this in 2016, but he won so he did not have to use this. we have to think about what we saw and what has been going on after january 6 for the last year is the product of this very successful propaganda strategy. and so turning what you also -- i call it authoritarianism as

the upside down world. so biden's victory becomes the insurrection and then january 6 becomes the writing of the wrong. trump knows how to tell the story. the reality tv president. he was very compelling, this idea that he was a hero of the savior who had something taken away from him. that way january 6 becomes a kind of morally righteous action . amy: just days before the january 6 anniversary, trump endorsed hungary's victor orbán. he released a statement saying he has sent a powerful and wonderful job. talk about the significance of president trump in the world and what 2024 could mean if you were

to run again. >> i have -- of course we focus on how trump came to power to destroy america democracy. that was his goal. but his other agenda was detaching america from the democratic world order and inserting it into what i've been calling 2017 axis 2.0. a lot of it is funded by putin. orbán has made budapest a kind of hub of these far right networks which remind me of what i initially studied, fascist network, fascist internationalism in the 1930's. now, trump early identifies with orbán. orbán was a centrist then voted out and he's been some years getting back to power. then he arranged things. he has this electoral topper seat where you hold elections and then you fix them so he does

not have to leave, in his mind. the gop has embraced hungary and they really seek hungary's presence as america's future. so tucker carlsen had whole week of broadcasting there. even mike pence trotted over to budapest and talked about how he hoped abortion rights would be taken away soon. hungary is this model of white christian supremacy, anti-trans, homophobic -- it checks all the boxes of what the gop is actually today. amy: finally, we talked about him as a model and him modeling himself on autocrats around the world. what about him as a model at home for people like ron desantis, the florida governor? you lay out in a very chilling piece this image of dissent is surrounded by the people he wants to basically deputize as

what his opponent in running for governor has talked about as his secret police. >> ron desantis is an example -- when you have somebody like trump who opposes this kind of authoritarian party discipline, the system populates with mini trumps. what we see in places like texas and florida, states are becoming laboratories of photography. ron desantis is particularly disturbing because he was to have his own civilian national guard, and many states have those, but i discovered during research that he is also establishing an office for " election integrity," which is coded speak for election fraud where it will have its own and investigators. if theres anlection result

in a state that ron desantis does not like come he can have his goons go after them and accuse them of violating election laws. what used to be misdemeanors would not be felonies, so these people could be put in jail. this is the kind of example authoritarian system at the state level that desantis has planned. amy: ruth ben-ghiat, expert on the psychology of authoritarianism and fosters them. -- fascism. she is the author of "strongmen: how they rise, why they succeed, how they fall" and a professor of history and italian studies at new york university. she publishes lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy. coming up, the cdc is predicting 84,000 people will die in the united states of covid over the next four weeks. we will speak with emergency room doctor craig spencer. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "through the woods" by yasmin williams. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we look now at the skyrocketing number of covid infections, the world health organization says global coronavirus cases reached a record 9.5 million last week, up 70% from the prior week. on monday, the u.s. reported a single day record of one million new infections. the cdc predicts in the next month, more than 84,000 people in the u.s. could die of covid-19. who director-general tedros adhanom ghebreyesus warned thursday the fast-spreading omicron vaant should not be categorized as a mild virus. >> like previous variants, omicron is hospitalizing people and it is killing people. in fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, it is

overwhelming health systems around the world. amy: this comes as health experts on biden's advisory team during his campaign published several critical op-eds thursday in "their journal of the american medical association" urging him to adopt a totally -- to adopt more aggressive use of vaccine mandates, and a verification system for vaccination. today the supreme court hears arguments in cases challenging federal efforts to enforce a vaccine-or-testing requirement for large employers, as well as a vaccine mandate for most health care workers. the cases could determine vaccine requirements for some 80 million people. meanwhile, the surge in covid-19 infections is filling up emergency rooms nationwide. e national guard being called in to help in a member of states -- number of space. for more, we are joined by new york emergency room physician dr. craig spencer, whose tweet

monday night went viral. it began -- "just leaving the er. it was a long day. and a stunning amount of covid. today i worked in an area that was temporarily converted into a makeshift icu during the first covid wave. here's what different from then and also what challenges we're facing with this surge in nyc." dr. craig spencer, welcome back. can you lay out what you're seeing? >> as i pointed out a couple of days ago, in some ways things are relatively better. we are not seeing the same number of patients that need immediate stabilization with a breathing tube, that need to be put on life support. a lot of that is due to the fact we are much better at treating this disease now. we have tools. we have high flow oxygen. we have other things we can go to because we have learned so much over the past few years. but the problem is that the amount of volume we are seeing threatens to really wash away any at benefit from either a

milder variant or even all that experience we have learned and those tools we built up over the past few years. what we're seeing is a lot of people, especially in new york city where it feels like nearly everyone has covid, coming in -- many primarily the unvaccinated -- with classic symptoms. short of breath, needing oxygen. but many other patients for him being put in the hospital and making them worse. amy: you describe diabetics commissaries life-threatening ndition, older folks sick with covid just to ask get out of bed, can't walk so canceling the hospital. relatively few needed oxygen but somebody needed hospitalization and the covid patients next to the noncovered patients. people who spent so much time protecting themselves from covid. >> a big concern now, coming

into the omicron surge, we already had hospital that were filled to capacity from delta and fromoncovered illness from people who had put off some of their elective care or put off going to the hospital because of fear of the virus, issues around insurance or many of the problems we have seen an health care system that quite frankly even before the pandemic was not up to the task. what we're sick past few weeks with more and more patients being brought in, we're having to put patients anywhere we can. we do not have the space. we do not have the providers. we have so many of my colleagues even though the majority of us are vaccinated, not going to get really sick, a lot of people being around covid every day are getting exposed, getting a milder breakthrough infections, forcing them to be sidelines five to 10 days, putting in even greater staffing prices on top.

any cooking you talk about both the psychology and the health of the care workers and what this means? we are moving into the third year of this pandemic and how people are keeping up their strength and how many health care workers are leaving? close good question. i remember in march 2020, i said that this was going to scar the generation of health-care workers, and that was before this impacted the rest of the country the way it had here in the northeast. imagine if you're not health care worker listening to this, imagine how sick you are of this pandemic come the cancellation of her they parties or family meet ups. for us it is the same except we have to go to work every single day sing our colleagues get sick , seeing patients that are really unwell continuing to do this year after year at this point. it is incredibly exhausting.

a lot of people have left the profession. a lot of people just cannot deal with the physical, or more importantly, the mental toll of seeing this day in and day out. they are leaving the profession. it is causing a crisis. on top of that crisis, we are seeing staffing levels now at record lows and it is challenging our ability to provide a high-quality care we want to -- not just for covid patients, but noncovered patients as well that are coming to emergency rooms and hospitals in ever-increasing numbers. amy: can you talk about the confusing cdc guidance, sane people can go back to work after five days without a test if they mask up? and people saying, wait a second. are you just sign that because there are not enough tests to go around? then the whole issue of masking, that cloth masks do not make it

right now, that we're talking about having to have kn or n95 or n94 masks and what that means for people who cannot afford or do not have access to this kind of mask that everyone should be wearing? >> well, i think both of those are related and i will address them separately. collectively what is important is it is shameful that two years into this, we don't have a system whereby every person in this country and even more so around the world should have access to those hike masks that we have needed not just the past few weeks, but longer. or that it is so difficult for people to get a test. the fact that it costs 10 to $15 per test is absolutely incredulous and except at this point. we should have been doing more before omicron arrived and even once we knew that omicron was having at the end of november to get tests out to every single

person in this country. because right now what we are seeing is people with means that resources are able to go out and find them and buy them online, stock pile, and they're using that to keep their family safe. as we have seen throughout this pandemic, this is disproportionately impacting people who do not have the means and resources to spend the time online getting -- in by getting a test or spend a bunch of time online at night finding out where they can get tests from or different types of masks and research what is may be best for them. the fact is we should have collectively done more as opposed to folks -- i did the cdc guidance around testing is probably for the majority of people quite true. after five days come the likelihood you will infect other people is probably pretty low. but collectively, as we have omicron spreading everywhere, this been the most transmissible

virus perhaps we have ever seen as humankind, we need guidance that helps us collectively make the right decisions because every one of these infections has a collective impact. america dr. craig spencer, are not only a new york city emergency room doctor, but director of global health in emergency medicine at columbia university. you had be bolo working with people in africa years ago and had to be jetted back to the united states to be treated. you certainly know about deadly epidemics. i wanted to ask about this issue of vaccine equity. next week we will be speaking with a man who is part of the moderna trial. now he is not going to continue to be a part of the trial for boosters as each vaccine has to be changed because he says moderna and pfizer and these corporations are making billions

yet not making these vaccines available to the world. can you talk about the significance of this? >> absolutely. global vaccine and equity i think has been one of the most profound and disappointing aspects of this pandemic over the past year. it is great that everyone here has the ability to walk into a pharmacy now and get a vaccine or get a booster that can keep us and our family safe, but people around the world should have the same access. there has been a very intentional campaign by pharmaceutical companies to do whatever they can to reap the most profit at the expense of people all around the world that continue to lack access. over 150,000 of my colleagues have died around the world and so many of them, the majority of them in places like sub-saharan africa, still have not been able to receive access to vaccine.

i spoke with a good friend of mine who lives and works in east africa and he said is going to try to take a trip to the capital see if there is a vaccine but he is not sure if there is. this is unacceptable. the response we've seen leading to the conditions where mark potentially immuno invasive variants can arrived and potentially undermine the efficacy of our vaccines here. we should have not as a country but i globe done incredibly more since day one to scale up the production of these highly effective vaccines. not just here in the u.s. where they have long been made and they can make profits, but all around the world, including in sub-saharan africa, for over 99% of all vaccines before the pandemic had to be brought in from other countries because the capacity had never been built up. and we're going to end this pandemic at a not much better

position than when we started it. amy: and these variants that are rapidly changing, that if we do not vaccinate the world this will continue, the new discussion of a variant that has come out of cameroon and now in france was of course omicron, you had south africa and then you had delta in india -- although, we don't know where they start. i may have gone to south africa from europe -- omicron may have gone to south africa from europe. what it means if you do not take a global approach, no one is safe. >> i have been saying this for years. after our response to ebola and any other infectious pathogens, look, the united states has more resources than anyone el in the world but there is no wall that we could build high enough to keep infectious disease threats that may originate in other places away from attacking and impacting our population here unless we think about how

to manage not just covid, but all other infectious threads globally -- not just with the domestic locus. we will find ourselves hit time and time again and there is no vaccine strong enough and no wall big enough or moat large enough to keep these infectious diseases from coming to our shores. we need to be more proactive and doing more for the world and less focus on what we can just for our own population at home. that is a losing strategy time and time again. amy: the idea the u.s. is the most powerful, richest country in the world has the worst record when it comes to covid. yet the global picture where there has to be a global health system and have thpicture at home. what does it say to you about having public health care in the united states come the idea of medicare for all? how do you see it as intimately linked to dealing with pandemics like these, what we have lost by not having it? >> i think so many people that

maybe did not buy into this idea a few years ago, if it has not become obvious over the last two years, i don't know what will make it so. we had issues around vaccine hesitancy. we know one of the best ways to get people vaccinated who may have questions at first is to not shame them into doing so, but have a conversation with them. the people who need to be having those conversations are health-care providers that people trust. we have underfunded primary health care in this country for so long. a lot of people don't have access to a primary health care provider. or if they do, it is many months out. you can see a specialist. sure, -- we have not focused on the right things, which is preventative care. stopping people from getting out of the hospital. stopping people from getting sicker. all of these things that we need to do our things we have need to do from before the pandemic started and have been exacerbated by it, by making sure everyone has access to a primary care provider that is

affordable, accessible in real time, don't have to wait months for. and having a public health system that is not subservient to the pharmaceutical system here in the u.s. public health where we can focus on preventative health, social determinants of health, on recognizing it is not just about whether you have good insurance or no insurance at all so that people are coming to the health care system with everything else they bring. access to employment. their understanding of their illness. there access and previous history of education. we, unfortunately, have not been able to meld those things over the past few years, the past few decades in this country because we have a model where you in the u.s., medicine is a business and it is incredibly strong and powerful one. amy: children, dr. spencer. you are an emergency room doctor in new york city. what about children and omicron? the whole debate around the

country around schools being such a major factor of covid? >> it is really hard to say. until now, we have no schools can and should be safe and that we should be doing everything we can to keep schools open. we know the mental health aspect of keeping them open is profound. by all means, schools should be open and bars should be closed if we need to take any type of intervention. it is the exact opposite here at many places in new york city and around the country where you have bars open and schools closed. we need to do every thing we can to make sure our students are safe. we can do that with ventilation, masking. we need to make sure all of our providers, teachers, everyone else working in those places is safe as well and we have access to vaccines, but other people have underlined these medical issues. we know, thankfully, for the most part, omicron and other

covid variant strains have impacted children the same severe way as it has older adults, for example. that does not mean it has not been impactful and that kids can't potentially get infected at school and bring that home to loved ones, to parents come to grandparents who may be living with them. the point is this needs to be the safest way we can keep kids in school is to take those measures, to get them vaccinated if they're eligible. if not, nature all the people around them are vaccinated as well. amy: dr. craig spencer, thank you for being with us, director of global health and emergency medicine at columbia university medical center an emergency room doctor in new york city, treating coronavirus patients since the pandemic began. coming, three protesters are killed in sudan, bringing the total to around 60 killed since october's military coup. we will go to khartoum for the latest.

♪♪ [music break]

amy: "limaza" by abdel-karim el-kabli. the sudanese singer, composer, and humanitarian passed away last month at the age of 89. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to sudan, where at least three people were killed thursday during protests against military rule. the demonstration came four days after abdalla hamdok resigned as sudan's prime minister. he was deposed in a military coup on october 25 and then restored to power in november by the military because of public outcry. protesters have been demanding civilian rule in sudan for years. in 2019, mass mobilizations led to the toppling of sudan's longtime strongman omar al-bashir. a joint military-civilian governincouncil wathen formed but the military coup in october ended what was supposed to be a trsition to civilian rule. according to the central

committee of sudanese doctors, at least 60 people have been killed by security forces since the coup in october. we go now to khartoum, where we are joined by the sudanese activist marine alneel. ♪♪ [music break] marine, looking back. can you talk about what is happening in the streets, the latest killing by security forces? close thank you [discernibl closwe have we have -- protests scheduled by the month. we had every december and on january. these have bee -- military forces, police forces, and other armed forces.

protesrs are fangeargas, ruer bullets, like ammition. had a martyr that died -- what we see from the night before, the bridges of khartoum are allocated with shipping containers to not allow the protesters to join each other in the capital city. however, that protesteanage to overcome these containers peacefully. after the protest, we usuay see the armed forces attacking doctors another medical staff at the hospitals. ev arresting some of the injured and sometimes chasing the vehicles that try to transport the injured from the protest to hospitals. one of the martyrs at

yesterday's protest was chased by armed forces. when the officers try to rescue him and transferred him to a nearby hospital. amy: can you lay out what has taken place, with the prime minister hamdok resigning? give us a history of who is running -- who are the people leading the uprising, first knocking out al-bashir, and in this silly military partnership that ended the -- and then this military parts of that ended and march amazedor there to be civilian rule. folks in >> in 2019, the protests were freedom, peace, and justice. that ended with the ousting of al-basr and then a

power-aring deal between th force of freedom and change, which [indiscernle] into but the military coup on october 20 6, 2020. now with the people are calling for is no negotiation, no partnership. people are no longer interested in any sort of partnership with the military. in 2019, many people were displeased witthe partnership and now people are outright rejecting any form of partnersp with the military. currently, although we are seeing a lot of national media outlets, these protests are being called for by the freedom of change -- that is far from the reality. in reality, the entities leading

this movement are the neighborhoods which have developed to help organize the protest in neighborhoods, different neighborhoods, and another leading entity announcing the protests in are the voice of the people that are still saying no negotiation, no legitimacy. as for hamdok's resignation, it has mostly been insignificant for the protest on the ground. on november 21, he signed a deal with the head of the military council posted people have considered him secretary. no longer relevant to the people. more like a work contract with the ecoute rather than any agreement. the resignation has been irrelevant.

basically the schedule keeps going. amy: what are e demands right now? how are other african countries responding? what are you calling on, what are activis calling on t west to do, particularly, the united states role? >> currently, the main demand is r the milityo get out of the political scene. we are demanding civilian government, noa power-sharing deal o -- that is the main demand. what we're seeing from international entities is there some condemnation but the violent repression. however, with that comes in you urging of the current authority

to go back to the 2019 deal or to go back to apre-coup state, and that is not what people are asking for. that is not what will lead to stability. let's say for example, managed to find some lights to take over the role of the prime minister, that is still not what people are calling for. and definitely that will not be civility. our protests will continue on happening until we reach our demand to be genuinely -- the military to be out of power. amy: and the role of the world bank and the imf? >> in essence, these protests and the demands of the people, it is about livelihood. we have seen the transitional government was not prioritizing the likelood -- the military is not prioritizing

the livelihood of peop. we want civilian leadership that will prioritize our livelihood and not the international interest of the world bank and also we don't with the military there will alsprioritizeheir own financial interest and their own clinging to power. amy: the role of covid, mean, the bravery of everyone going out, facing the military, also dealing with this pandemic stop we have 20 seconds. >> yes. the protesters are trying to take measures of wearing masks. what has been helpingis wearing the masks for tear gas. most protesters are trying to take some measure. however, considering the situation and the help -- e state of the health care system here in sudan, we are facing a lot of risk that is a combination of both military

attacking us and the risk we put ourselves in and our loved ones with covid. america we want to thank you for being with us. marine alneel is a sudanese activist joinio o @8@8@8