01/13/22 01/13/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: we are here to stand up against the forces of america that value power over principle, forces that attempted a coup against illegally expressed -- by sowing doubt, charges of fraud, seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people. amy: as president biden pushes senate democrats to pass major

voting rights legislation by changing the filibuster rules, we will speak with ari berman of mother jones about what he calls "the coming coup: how republicans are laying the groundwork to steal future elections." then "confessions of a human guinea pig." we will talk to a boston university professor who has resigned as a subject in moderna's vaccine trials. >> i enrolled in the vaccine trials because i wanted to play a small part in helping the world get out of this pandemic nightmare that we are in. over the past few months, i have learned more about moderna's terrible public health policies, and that is why i resigned from the trial because i think they need to prioritize notust the advancement of science, but public health rather than just advancing corporate profit. amy: then john nichols on his new book "coronavirus criminals and pandemic profiteers: accountability for those who

cause the crisis." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the world health organization says the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide soared to 15 million last week, by far the highest weekly toll since the beginning of the pandemic. countries across the globe, from mexico to argentina to the philippines, have shattered previous records for new infections. hospitalizations are rising rapidly in many places. in canada, quebec's premier said tuesday he will begin levying fines on adults who refuse to be vaccinated for non-medical reasons. german chancellor olaf scholz told parliament wednesday he'd like to make vaccinations mandatory for all adults. in france, tens of thousands of unionized teachers have walked off the job to demand a coherent

policy for covid-19 in schools and to demand greater protections for teachers and students. >> wave ached a level of exasperation tiredness, and anger. we had nchoice but to send a strong message to the government. amy: in britain, some senior members of prime minister's boris johnson's conservative party are calling on the prime minister to step down after johnson admitted he attended a cocktail party at his official residence in may 2020 at a time when he'd ordered the u.k. into a strict coronavirus lockdown. opposition parties also demanded johnson resign. this is labour party leader keir starmer. >> after months of deceit and deception, the pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road, his defense that he didn't realize he was at a party. [laughter]

it is so ridiculous that it is actually offensive to the british public. he has finally been forced to admit what everyone knew, what the whole country was locked, he was hosting boozy parties on downing street. is he going to do the decent thing and resign? amy: here in the united states, president biden is announcing the deployment of 1000 military medical personnel to six states where hospitals are ovwhelmed with covid-19 patients. the u.s. is averaging nearly 800,000 cases per day, a record level, and more than 145,000 u.s. hospital beds are filled by covid patients, also a record amount. top infections disease expert dr. anthony fauci said wednesday that most u.s. residents will be exposed to coronavirus at some point. >> virtually everyone is going to wind up getting exposed and

likely get infected. but if you are vaccinated and boosted come the likelihood of you getting sick are very, very low. amy: california governor callum -- gavin newsom has approved asymptomatic health care workers who tested positive for coronavirus to return to work immediately. the president of the california nurses association blasted the decision, writing -- "we need more infectious disease controls, not more casualties. surging pandemic numbers are a warning to strengthen safety measures, not weaken them." in west virginia, governor jim justice has called off plans to deliver his state of the state address after he tested positive for a coronavirus infection. justice's chief of staff said the 70-year-old governor, who was vaccinated and boosted, is very ill with covid-19 and suffering elevated blood pressure and severe congestion. republican minority house leader kevin mccarthy said wednesday he

will not cooperate wh the house committee investigating the january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol. the panel had asd mccarthy to voluntarily testify about trump's state of mind in the run-up to the riot and in the week after the attack on congress. mccarthy slammed the committee as illegitimate and said his private conversations with trump were "not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the capitol." president trump cut short a telephone interview with national public radio on tuesday after he was repeatedly called out over his lies about the 2020 election. trump hung up less than nine minutes into what was supposed to have been a 15-minute interview with host steve inskeep after repeating conspiracy theories about joe biden's electoral college win. npr aired the exchange on wednesday. pres. biden: y have to solve the problem of the presidential rigged election of 2020. >> one more question, i want to ask out a court hearing on january 6.

he's gone, ok. amy: during the interview, trump branded republican senate leader mitch mcconnell a loser for failing to back trump's unsupported claims about the election. on capitol hill, president biden is holding a lunchtime meeting today with the senate democratic caucus. the white house is pressuring senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema to support a change to senate rules that would allow democrats to pass a pair of major voting rights bills with a simple majority, circumventing a republican-led filibuster. on wednesday, senate majority leader chuck schumer outlined a plan to bring the voting bills to a debate using a parliamentary maneuver. the move would still leave room for republicans to filibuster final passage of the john lewis voting rights advancement act and the freedom to vote act. on wednesday, senate republican minority leader mitch mcconnell blasted president biden over his voting rights speech in georgia earlier this week, when biden accused republicans of siding with jefferson davis over abraham lincoln. >> 12 months ago, this president

said this agreement must not lead to this union. but yesterday, he invoked the civil war -- the civil war to demonize americans who disagree with him. amy: in 2015, an old photo emerged showing mcconnell posing in front of a large confederate flag at a sons of confederate veterans event in the early 1990's. ohio's supreme court has struck down a state house and senate redistricting plan that's heavily gerrymandered by republicans to preserve their supermajority in ohio's statehouse. the court gave the republican-dominated ohio redistricting commission 10 days to submit a new plan after it determined the previous maps violated an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the ohio constitution. after headlines, we will speak with ari berman about the coming

coup, republicans are lame the groundwork to steal future elections. in the occupied west bank, israeli forces killed an 80-year-old palestinian-american man wednesday. witnesses say he was stopped by forces while driving home then dragged out of the car, gagged and handcuffed, and left to die. the u.s. state department says he holds u.s. citizenship. in other news from the region, israel's supreme court ruled tuesday the interior ministry cannot deny palestinians who marry israeli citizens the right of residency in israel. a court in germany has found a former syrian intelligence officer guilty of crimes against humanity, wrapping up the first-ever torture trial against a member of president bashar al-assad's regime. anwar raslan, a syrian army colonel, was sentenced to life in prison after the court linked him to at least 4000 instances

of torture, dozens of murders, and five cases of sexual violence in syria. police arrested raslan in germany in019, with prosecutors citing the principle of universal jurisdiction for serious crimes. five more guantanamo bay prisoners have been approved for release. three of the men are from yemen, one is kenyan, and one is from somalia. none have been charged with a crime. the biden administration made the announcement earlier this week on the 20th anniversary of the prison's opening. nearly half of the remaining 39 guantánamo prisoners have now been approved for transfer, but that does not guarantee they will be freed soon as the u.s. still needs to secure host countries to transfer them to. to see our hour-long discussion with a muslim chaplain and two former guantánamo is nurse, yo can go to democracynow.org. -- two former guantánamo prisoners, you can go to democracynow.org.

in somalia, a car bomb explosion in the capital mogadishu killed eight people and injured nine others wednesday in an attack claimed by al shabab. the blast struck a road leading to mogadishu's main international airport. it appeared to target a multi-vehicle private security convoy escorting foreigners. in new mexico, archbishop john wester of santa fe has called for the abolition of nuclear weapons arsenals around the globe. in a pastoral letter released tuesday, wester says "to love our enemies means we have to begin the process of ending our preparations to kill them and doing everything we can not to harm them, but to actively love them, including the people of russia, china, iran, north korea, and others." wester spoke to reporters in santa fe on tuesday. >> the catholic church has a long history of speaking out against nuclear weapons. indeed, the vatican was the first nationstate to sign and ratify the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. the archdiocese of santa fe has a special role to play in advocating for nuclear disarmament, given the los

alamos and sandia nuclear weapons laboratories and the nation's largest repository of nuclear weapons at the kirtland air force base in albuquerque. amy: the archbishop's letter came as a coalition of 60 groups issued a joint statement calling for the elimination of the hundreds of u.s. intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles now armed and on hair-trigger alert. a texas sheriff is being investigated over reports he regularly ordered his deputies to seize cash and vehicles from undocumented motorists during traffic stops before transferring the individuals to u.s. border patrol. real county sheriff nathan johnson could face 2-to-10 years in prison and a fine if charged. in colorado, around 8400 workers across 77 kroger's king soopers in denver and other areas went on strike wednesday as they demand better wages and benefits and safe working conditions. duri the panmic, kror ceo

dney mcmlen'pay incrsed by ove45%, while theedian pafor woers drped by 8 despite oming sas. workers so say sres are understaed. a new rert fundeby the ited fooand commcial woers unioreveals er 75% ofger' eloye surved face food inserity and4% ha been unused ovethe past year. and in california, governor gavin newsom unveiled a plan that would extend its state-sponsored healthcare program to all though income undocumented residents. currently, only undocumented californians under the age of 26 can benefit from medi-cal, and later this year, undocumented people 50 and over will also be able to apply. nearly two-thirds of undocumented californians under the age of 65 currently do not have health insurance. meanwhile, a new bill sponsored by the california nurses association that would guarantee

single-payer universal healthcare cleared itsirst major hurdle tuesday by overwhelmingly passing an assembly health committee vote. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden is meeting with senate democrats on capitol hill today for a lunchtime meeting to push for rewriting senate rules to prevent republicans from filibustering a pair of major voting rights bills, the john lewis voting rights advancement act and the freedom to vote act. on wednesday, senate majority leader chuck schumer outlined a plan to bring the voting bills to a debate using a parliamentary maneuver, but the move would still leave room for republicans to block final passage of the bills using the filibuster. two senate democrats have so far refuseto support changing the filibuster rules, joe manchin of west virginia and kyrsten sinema of arizona. biden heads to capitol hill two days after he gave a major speech on voting rights in atlanta, georgia. on wednesday, senate republican

minority leader mitch mcconnell blasted biden's remarks. >> 12 months ago, this president said this -- disagreement must not lead to disunion. but yesterday, he invoked the bloodiest union of the civil war -- the civil war to demonize americans who disagree with him. he compared -- listen to this, a bipartisan majority of senators to literal traitors. how profoundly on presidential. amy: democrats are increasingly concerned that republicans will be able to successfully steal future elections, both on the national and state level, if major voting rights legislation is not immediately passed. during his speech in atlanta, president biden made reference to efforts by donald trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 election. pres. biden: we are here today

to stand against the forces in america that value power over principal, forces that attempted a coup against illegally expressed will of the mac and people die sewing doubt and printing charges of fraud seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people. amy: we are joined now by ari berman, a senior reporter at mother jones covering voting rights. he's the author of "give us the ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." his new piece out today is "the coming coup: how republicans are laying the groundwork to steal future elections." i would start off talking about what this move is, how the democrats try to plan to get these bills on the floor and voted on in the senate. >> good morning, amy. well, the plan is that the house is taking a bill can they are putting the two voting rights bills, the freedom to vote act

and john lewis voting rights advancement act and what is essentially a shellill. they will pass that today and ended to the senate. that will allow the senate to immediately debate the bill without needing 60 votes to get it to the floor. they will still need 60 votes to pass the bill if they don't reform the filibuster this will allow at least to begin debating the bill, probably friday or saturday, and set up a vote on these bills and also potentially changing the senate rules on martin luther king, junior day. amy: which is monday. this is unusual. it is a bill completely unrelated, something to do with nafta that has passed and then they will remove the text of that and put the two bills into it and called a message that will be sent to the senate as they do this? what has to happen next and why are manchin and sinema key at the point in the senate? >> it is important to remember,

these bills have already passed the house. it is not like the house has not taken up the freedom to vote act or the john lewis voting rights advancement act, they just have to do this bill to get to the senate essentially avoid 60 votes on debate. that is the only way chuck schumer will be able to have a debate on the bills themselves and on the roles changes. manchin and sinema are key because there is essentially 48 votes for changing the senate rules to pass voting rights legislation, but there are two votes short and those are manchin and sinema. they have been working feverishly to get them to support the roles changes, but they are not there yet. this voting rights bill come the freedom to vote act, this is joe manchin's bill. he supports these bills, the question is, is he willing to change the rules to pass them? as of now, the answer is no. amy: during his speech on

tuesday, president biden made reference to strom thurmond, the longtime segregationist senator who served in the senate for nearly half a century. pres. biden: in 2006, the voting rights act passed 390-33 in house of representatives and 98-0 in the senate. with 16 current sitting republicans in this united states senate. 16 of them voted to extend it. some of my friends sitting down here will tell you, strom thurmond voted to extend the voting rights act. strom thurmond. think about that. the man who led the longest -- one of the longest filibusters in history in the united states senate, 1957, against the voting rights act stop the man who led and sided th all sthern bowls the united states senate

to perpetuate segregationist nation, even strom thurmond came to support voting rights. republicans today can't and won't, not a single republican has displayed the courage to stand up to a defeated president to protect america's right to vote. not one. not one. amy: ari berman, it looks i president biden was trying to cut through the bureaucracy as i talked about filibusters and everything else and just say, which side are you on? strom thurmond or john lewis? the site of jefferson days and or -- government eggs were abraham lincoln? >> he was trying to frame it in moral terms, much like lyndon johnson d in 1965, say this is a defining moment in american history and you have to pick a side. you cannot just -- you have to

live the values that martin luther king fought for, namely the values of the right to vote, which martin luther king called civil rights number one. i thought it was interesting what the president said about republicans previously supporting voting rights. the voting rights act was authorized four times and every reauthorization was signed by a republican president and supported by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in congress. that did not mean every republican like the voting rights a, lots of gop presidents like nixon and reagan did not want to sign a reauthorization of the voting rights act but thereas such a strong consensus bipartisan for these bills that republicans had no choice but to support them. so much of the attention has been on the manchin and sinema to pass these bills that republicans have sort of gotten a free pass in terms of people really saying how come you reauthorize the voting rights act overwhelmingly in 2006.

mitch mcconnell led the effort and just two decades later, you completely opposing a bill that you basically supported not too long ago. amy: let's go broader with your piece that was just released as we went to air, "the coming coup: how republicans are laying the groundwork to steal future elections." you go beyond the issue of actually casting the ballot and how difficult that is, and you can lay that out around the country as well come increasingly, 19 states passing more than 30 laws to restrict voting. within the issue, for example, gerrymandering and others. >> that's right. i think the big trend over the last year has been republican party's single-minded focus on interactions or other means.

they failed to overturn the 2020 election, so they're doing every thing they can to rig and future elections to a toxic combination of voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering, and election subversion. they try to take over every aspect of the voting process. they had passed 34 new laws in 19 states making it harder to vote, harder to cast a ballot. has these extreme gerrymandering maps in places like texas and georgia that entrench the power of antidemocratic politicians. they have added new election subversion laws that give stop the unprecedented power in states like georgia over how elections are run and how votes are counted. they're trying to take over every aspect of the election process to essentially try to succeed in 2022 and 2024 where they failed in 2020. amy: talk about lucy mcbath, a congress member who for years beforehand after her son was murdered by white man. >> this is really telling.

losing that is a black member of congress. she ran for the house and you georgia. -- lucy mcbath is a black member of congress. she ran for the house in georgia. what republicans did is they gerrymandered her out of her congressional district. she represents the metro atlanta area that has become a lot more diverse, a lot more democratic, and they drew this district to go all out to the appellation mountains and basically took out the most diverse democratic parts of her district -- appalachian mountains and basically took out the most diverse democratic parts of her district. in georgia, all of the demographic change was from communities of color come increasingly democratic. without maps reduced representation for communities of color, free democrats, and targeted black members of congress like lucy mcbath. that is a form of election

rigging because if you can choose who your electorate is, the elections themselves become essentially meaningless. geymandering is one of the many tactics republicans are using to consolidate power going into the midterm elections. amy: talk about the victory against gerrymandering in ohio that just happened. >> this was really significant because ohio republicans drew these undemocratic maps where there is a bipartisan constitutional a minute passed byoters in 2018 to rain and partisan gerrymandering and the republicans essentially hijacked this commission to draw these extreme gerrymandered maps they go exactly against what the voters wanted. the ohio supreme or struck it down -- court struck it down with one of the republican judges siding with democrats basically saying the legislature needs to not just redraw the maps but in the future, voters might want to consider taking away the power of politicians to

be able to draw their districts in the first place. this was a significant victory, but it will be hard to uphold these maps in most states. ohio has a moderate state supreme court. in texas, georgia, florida, and other key states, the state supreme court's have moved far to the right and the federal courts, because the supreme court has said "we can't even review partisan gerrymandering," so it is going to be difficult to fight it through the courts. amy: can you talk about something that did not get a lot of the tension, the cyber ninjas closing down following a scathing report by election officials and the threat of $50,000 fines a day? the report providing almost every claim this company made -- rebutting on most every claim this company made? close the entire audit in arizona -- amy: it cost millions.

>> millions of dollars in taxpayer money. at the end of the day, they were not able tfight any of the evidence of fraud. i think they accomplish their job in the sense after this review, republicans were even more skeptical of the validity of the 2020 election compared to less skeptical. just by airing these conspiracy theories, they made the republican party more conspiratorial anything "audits" are happening in other states like wisconsin where a radically conservative state supreme court justice is threatening to jail election officials, starting to subpoena the mayors of the largest cities, starting to disband the states election commission. it is scary what is happening. what is new here is all of the efforts to subvert fair elections. we have seen voter suppression before, seen gerrymandering before. it is gotten worse but we have seen it before. what is new is the efforts to take over how votes are counted. that is the ultimate voter

suppression method. if you're not able to read the election on the front and, you can throw out votes on the backend. that is very scary prospect for democracy. amy: like in arizona, republican strip the democratic secretary of state of the power to defend state election laws and transferred that authority to the republican attorney general but only through the 2022 election -- just in case the partisan composition of the offices change. it is truly astounding. if you could comment on that and another key point of your piece that trump and his allies are aggressively recruiting stop the steal inspired candidates to take over other key election positions like secretary of state. also, fiercely intimidating, going after election workers all over the country. >> that is absolutely right, amy. what we have seen both democrats and republicans who defended

integrity of the 2020 have been purged from their positions -- whether it is taking with the power of the arizona secretary of state to defend election lawsuit or removing the republican secretary of state in georgia who stood up to donald trump, removing him as chair and voting member of the state election board. of what the washington post closed what had recent article finding 100 63 republicans who amplify the big lie are ready for statewide positions with authority over elections. positions like gubernatorial races, attorney general races, secretary of state races, and the colorado secretary of state jenna griswold told me this was a kid a robber acute in the bank. you're having people who said election was stolen running to oversee how elections are run. this is both a legal mechanism and also a political dynamic in that people who are election

deniers are running to take over election operations in these key states. when they get this power, who knows what they will do with it? i believe if you're willing to overturn the 2020 election for trump, are likely going to be willing to overturn the 2022 and 2024 election for republican candidates if it does not go in your favor. amy: finally, if the bills are passed, the voting legislation in the senate, could u.s. supreme court overrule them? this is the roberts court. john roberts has been opposed to voting rights legislation throughout his career. >> absolutely it is possible the supreme court could strike down these laws. i think it is important to remember that congress has authority under both the 15th amendment and these of the constitution to write the rules of federal election. so congress has the power to pass these bills.

could the supreme court strike them down? absolutely. the supreme work can clearly do whatever it wants at this point. but i have to say it is ironic mitch mcconnell once there to the 60 votes to protect voting rights in the u.s. senate was able to put three justices on the supreme court for donald trump to take away voting rights with just 51 votes. there's a fundamental asymmetry that republicans have be able to take away voting rights the state and federal level with 51 votes, but they want democrats to have 60 votes to be able to protect voting rights in the u.s. senate. that is the fundamental asymmetry that has to change your. amy: ari berman, senior reporter for mother jones. we will link to your new cover story "the coming coup: how republicans are laying the groundwork to steal future elections." ari is author of "give us the ballot: the moderntruggle for voting rights in america." coming up, confessions of human

guinea pig. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "on your way down" by allen toussaint. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. "confessions of a 'human guinea pig': why i'm resigning from moderna vaccine trials." that's the headline of an essay our next guest wrote in state -- the medical website is stat, which has gotten worldwide attention. he writes -- "in july 2020, i volunteered to be in moderna's covid-19 vaccine trial. if i knew then what i know now about the company's quest for profits, i wouldn't have done that." he's now heard from dozens of other trial volunteers who share his concerns. they're launching a website today for other trial participants who want to get involved. jeremy menchik is an associate professor at boston university's pardee school of global studies and joins us now for his first interview about his decision. welcome to democracy now!

can you talk about why you first went in, how the study worked, and why you decided to resign? close in morning, amy. thank you for having me. i volunteered because, as you remember, march 2020 was a scary time. it was disorienting. i thought anything that i could do toelp get us out of this pandemic nightmare was ethical and imperative. my wife is a nurse practitioner. she was working and the hardest hit part of boston in terms of covid-19. we faced imminent pressure from the virus. but on my way to work, i would drive by longwood medical center. living in boston, are vermuch aware of the power and the importance of these enormous hospitals and companies that are

doing groundbreaking research on vaccines and other technologies. so i thought, as professor of international relations, i don't have much to contribute to public health but i can't donate my body, use my blood as a volunteer in the trials. i thought it would do good. amy: i would ask you to take her microphone that you put behind her head and put it in front of you. this is what it is like to broadcast in a pandemic where people are not in studios but we are all makeshift and our guests are at home. where talking to jeremy menchik, who wrote the piece in step news "confessions of a guinea pig." can you give your response to the moderna ceo who said the company expects to record sales of about $18.5 billion in contracts risk of 19 vaccine and $3.5 billion from potential

additional purchases, including booster shots updated for variants. >> if i could talk to the moderna ceo, i would say two things. first, i would say, thank you. the technology that mrna technology -- th is world changing, lifesaving technology and am personally very grateful i have been vaccinated, that i had been boosted, that one of my two kids has been vaccinated. i am really looking forward to my two-year-old being vaccinated. i am incredibly grateful for that technology. the second thing i would say, however, is use that enormous profits, right, the estimated profit revenues that moderna is going to bring in 2022 is between $15 million and $18 billion. use that amazing profit to change the world.

so this vaccine isn't just a privilege for people in rich countries, but is truly part the global effort to get as out of the pandemic nightmare. because at current rates of production, moderna' current rates of production which they're keeping deliberately low, we're going to be in this pandemic nightmare for many years to come. but they have the ability to partner with other manufacturers to license our technology to other manufacturers, to work with the who in order to dramatically scale up production. and that is really our only way out of this pandemic. the estimates by researchers is that we're are going to need somewhere around 20 billion doses of mrna vaccines because they are so much more efficacious than the other vaccines. we are going to need 20 billion

doses in order to get out this current state of affairs. so it is incumbent upon moderna and pfizer to work with other manufacturers to scale up production because the current rates just are not going to get us there. this lifesaving technology is going to be just a providence of rich people and rich countries. amy: after your essay was published in stat news, forms ran response piece headlined "volunteer for moderna's covid-19 vaccine trial regrets his participation. that's a problem." it was written by john lamattina, who is a former president of pfizer global research and development. i want to get your response to his argument that -- "unfortunately, dr. menchik's public repudiation of his participation in the moderna covid-19 vaccine clinical trial could serve to deter others from participation in future trials. such behaviors could slow the

development of the next generation of vaccines should a new viral outbreak occur. that would be a real tragedy -- one that is avoidable." professor, respond. >> thank you. to be honest, i am astounded got the reaction to my essay. it is a pretty personal essay. it is a little uncomfortable as an academic to write something like that, but the response has been really kind of shocking. i heard from guinea pigs around the boston area and around the country. to then be, you know, have an article written up and critiqued in forbes, honestly, kind of at misleading way, was pretty shocking. i read the response in forbes and i read it pretty carefully and the conclusion i came to was what makes pfizer uncomfortl

-- and i think what makes moderna uncomfortable -- is the idea tt their data has a voice, that there guinea pigs have a voice and we deserve to be represented. i think pfizer and moderna would like to because will only to their shareholders can only two markets, but they have to be accountable to the guinea pigs and they have todvance policies for publi health not just private profits. i think that is scary. i think that must be unnerving to them. i think that is why the piece -- i have to say, was misrepresented, in forbes. in response, we decided to scale up. i think we found mobilizing guinea pigs h tremendous potential for advancing positive social and political change. that is why we areaunching a website today mrna4all.org.

other guinea pigs can learn about really the problematic public health policies of moderna and get involved. because i think with mass mobilization andolitical participation, we can put pressure on pfizer, we can put pressure on moderna in a w they never expected. in an think we could do a lot of good. amy: last thursday, group of investors representing 3.5 trillion dollars in assets under management, sent a letter to the executives of pharmaceutical companies like moderna, calling on tm to link their pay to making covid-19 vaccines available around the globe. one of the backers, frank wagemans of achmea investment management, told reuters -- "it should make business sense for a vaccine manufacturer to aim vaccinate the whole world." your response?

>> you know, we should have learned after 9/11 that political unrest that the actions of the u.s. military -- any military around the globe could come back and could have blowback here in the u.s. i'm not sure we learn the lesson after 9/11, but we are learning it again now. if there is a new variant that pops up in bangladesh or botswana, it is goi to affect me in boston, right? and we have to treat this pandemic as a global public health emergency and not to something where as americans who have access to the best vaccines in the world, we can be happy with that while -- i worked for many years in indonesia. my colleagues in indonesia are still using a vaccine that you're not going to hear publicly, but much less acacias

in preventing -- efficacious in preventing hospitalizations and death. and tell my friends and lleagues in indonesia he access to the mrna vaccines, we are going to continue to see variants pop up around the world, whether it is in bangladesh, it will affect me in boston. we have to treat this pandemic is a global crisis, as a global public health emergency. and that means moderna needs to think about not just selling vaccines to rich countries -- i not just donating, you know, a few million vaccines come a few hundred lead vaccines through the covax program, but seriously's up the technology -- scaling of the technologies so the world can be vaccinated and boosted post of it will take millions of morbid dose for that to happen. -- it will take millions of more doses for that to happen.

amy: jeremy menchik thank you for being with us. we will link to your piece in stat news "confessions of a 'human guinea pig': why i'm resigning from moderna vaccine trials." he has just launched a trial for other participants who want to get involved. next up, we speak to john nichols. his new book, "coronavirus criminals and pandemic profiteers: accountability for those who caused the crisis." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "it's a wonder" by curtis harding. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today show looking at about detailing how hundreds of

thousands of people died from covid due to decisions of politicians like mitch mcconnell, pharmaceutical conglomerates, and a cabal of billionaires who exploited the pandemic for political advantage and personal enrichment. the book is titled "coronavirus criminals and pandemic profiteers: accountability for those who cause the crisis." it is by the nation's john nichols and he joins us now for more. welcome back to democracy now! congratulations on the new book that is coming out this month. you just listen to professor menchik talking about how he is gathering together others he called them guinea pigs, human guinea pigs, who deeply believe that we had to come up with vaccines, so put their own bodies on the line, but are now seeing they feel that their bodies were on the line for the prophets of the pharmaceutical companies. can you put this into a larger ntext? >> i'm afraid can. first off, thank you for having

me in part of this segment and particular because i think the professor highlighted some of much of what is at stake and also whahas been hapning. what i try to il in the book and he written a lot about the last few years is a painful reality. at the start of the pandemic, ba in january and february of 2020, we knew about the shock doctrine. we knew about disaster capitalism will stop we learned all of this from naomi klein and otrs. we had a clear picture of it and yet as this pandemic played out, we saw all othe worst aspects disaster citalism come into play. we saw first and foremost corporations and individuals who sought to advance themselves economically and in their share of markets by cashing in on the fear, th concern, the crisis itself. we also saw politicians who

aided and abetted his process at virtually every turn. the end result is ere is simply no qstion that hundreds of thousands of people who died in the united states did not have to die. the lancet study around year ago suggests roughly 40% of deaths the first year of the pandemic were unecessary. dr. deborah birx, t white hoe lead on this issue, has suggested after the first 100,000 deaths, the deaths that came later in 2020, 2021, and beyond were exponentially larger or higher than needed. so weave this core reality that in e united states alone, hundreds of thousands of deaths occurred that did not have to occur. globally, it is in the millions. the u.s. could have played a huge role in addressing that. amy: if you could name names.

again, we're speaking with john nichols of the nation and his book is coming out now that is called "coronavirus criminals and pandemic profiteers." in 2021, pfizer announced, right in your book, the company announced it expected to take in $15 million from vaccine sales during the course of the year. the coven 19 vaccine now accounting for nearly a quarter of pfizer's profits. >> that's right. at the end of the year, it turned out to be much more with pfizer and moderna and other companies. the vaccine project is estimated pfizer and moderna and are taking in $1000 a second. $65,000 a minute in profits from these vaccines. it is almost draw dropping --

jaw-dropping the amount of money they're taking in. this ia huge benefit to these companies. these vcines, whi were developed with tremendous amounts of assistance from the s. government and multinational, multilateral grouping have turned out to be there leaders in their profits. they are making overwhelming amounts of money as a result o this and yet at the same time, there refusing to make- they are refusing to make a vaccine strategies and approaches available to other countri. they are also seeng at every turn to maximize their profits in the united states. the painful reality here is that there is very little accountability, very little effort by congress and by watchdogs outside -- there are watchdog groups that have done tremendous work, but by federal and state watchdogs that should be involved here, to ho these companies to account and t force them to, eight, make their vaccines were available, and, b,

recogne these excess profits go way beyond. amy: you have, for example, oxfam saying in 2021, may 2021, the covid vaccines create 90 billionaires with combined with greater than the cost of vaccinating the world's poorest countries. president biden could force this with moderna because u.s. taxpayer money was used to develop the vaccine. >> that is exactly right. in fact, president biden has certainly done a better job than donald tru no qution, but he has not begun to to the lels he should, nor has congress. on forcing these companies which took tremendous advantage of the moment and got tremendous amounts of support from the u.s. government. literally, numbering in the tens

of billions of dollars in support and contracts to show some sort of responsibility. this is not a new concept. in the past, we've had pharmaceutical companies that vent to the reality either by pressure from government or some sort of moral instinct that they cannot take these excess profits in a moment like this. you did mention also a moment ago billionaires. it is important to understand thanks to the work of the instute for policy studies fan at americans for tax fairness and others, we now know during the course of is pandemic, billionaires have exponentially increase their wealth. some of these are folks associated with pharmaceutical industries, but across all industries, to the point the number of billionaires increased from -- this is the study from last year -- from 614 in the united states to 745. d there increase in wealth during the course of the year took them literally into the

trillions of dollars of advanced wealth of these individuals. again, we have not had an accountability moment. amy: we were just showing images of jeff bezos. how does he profit? >> jeff bezos, who gets a chapter in t book --he book features 18 chapters, sht essays on examples of where people took advantage of or play politics with this crisis and have not been held to account for that -- although, refs who can say donald trump was by his defeat in 2020. look at these individuals and bezos is one. you have highlighted some of the ways in which a zoster advantage of this. early on, there were individuals who work in amazon warehouses who said, look, this is a problem. you people are getting sick, people whose lives are being put at risk and their needs to be

greater protections. as you know, some of those individuals were fired for simply raising the alarm. at the same time, unions have sought to increase protections in amazon warehouses, amazon has fought at every turn to prevent those unions from coming into and organizing at those warehouses at the same time, jeff bezos' wealth has extended to such an extent there is to open speculation he may be the first trillionaire in the world. beyo that, sotinhimsel intopace on rsonal venturest a time when ont-li worke are sll getting sick, dying, and suffering as a result of the challenges posed by this pandemic. amy: can you tell us the story of michael jackson? it is where you begin your book. in your home state of wisconsin. >> and each of the chapters in the book, i try to look at

individuals who got sick or died and to try and explore the politics and the profiteering that went on that might have prevented those dths -- or at least made things better. mike jackson was a worker at a plant in the milwaukee area where they made lawn care products. he was deemed an essential worker because i guess lawn care was essential. he went to his plant on a regular basis. yet a large family, which he was working hard to support. he got sick. instead of having the protections that were needed -- he and others had raise the alarm before he got sick and in so many cases there are front line workers and workers in vulnerable situations who raise their alarms through their unions or individually. he was not paid attention to. when he did get sick, he was escorted out of the plant at one point but was back in a couple

of days working again. he finally collapsed at his maine. he ended up dying a few days later. his death was one of many in that kind of initial stages of the pandemic. what happened in milwaukee, though, and what was encouraging, grassroots groups took the example of that tent and really highlighted it and made it part of a movement, a call for workplaces to do much work to protect workers. and frankly, for governments to intervene. if i could emphasize at this point, there were a lot of protections that went in, emergency protections that went in for front-line workers and workers at manufacturing and other settings. many of those protections now have fallen away. so in many cases, we have workers today who don't have to protections that they had in early stages of the pandemic. what we need desperately is an accountability moment where we recognize people like mike

jackson who probably did not have to die and their deaths should not be in vain. we should have permanent protections. amy: very quickly, why did you devote a whole chapter to jared kushner? >> because he did an incredibly lousy job on running the supply chn. there was a critical moment in which it waslear we did not havehe supplies we needed and there were ways in which we could get those supplies through domestic manufacturing, to do good deals with imports. instead, jared kushner was put in charge of it. it was such a disaster, even back in 2020, just months into his oversight of the supply chain issues, he was under investigation by congress. they finally folded the program he wasnvolved in because i just about everything else jared kushner touched june the trump administration, this thing fell apart. amy: we just have a minute to arguments, no, you're just an anti-vaxxer, the same with

professor menchik. attacking him as that. how you can be pro-vaccine but anti-profiteering. >> i thank god for vaccines. i am double vaccinated and boosted. if there's another booster coming, i'm going to be first in line to get it. i think these are incredibly vital to saving people's lives. at this point going forward -- e ct of the matter is, i want these vaccines to be available to everyone, not -- i want them available to everyone in the united states and around the world. i know from doing this book that that is possible. amy: john nichols, thank you for being with us, the nation's national affairs correspondent. his new book coming out later this month "coronavirus , criminals and pandemic profiteers: accountability for those who caused the crisis." democracy now! is currently accepting applications for a human resources manager.

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