04/13/23 04/13/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> [indiscernible]

amy: another dramatic day in tennessee as the shelby county board of commissioners voted to reappoint justice pearson to the tennessee house of representatives less than a week after he and justin jones were expelled for joining peaceful protests against gun violence after the national christian school massacre. we will hear highlights from wednesday's memphis rally and speak to emory university professor carol anderson, author of "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal america." >> that fraud has been that swaddling of the second amendment and the flag and patrtism in a sense of the litia was there to protect and defend democracy when in fact the militia was there to -- designed to control black people and deny black people their rights. so what we have in the bill of

rights is the right to destroy black people's rights. amy: them president biden signs legislation ending the coronavirus national emergency, that millions with long covid say that pandemic is not over. we will speak with the journalist living with long covid. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the medication abortion pill mifepristone will remain available for now, though with restrictions, after an appeals court partially blocked a ruling by a federal judge in texas last week that banned it nationwide. a three-judge panel on the fifth circuit court of appeals issued a decision late wednesday that upheld parts of the texas ruling targeting recent moves by the fda to increase access to the pill. that means that while challenges to the ban proceed, patients

will only be able to access the medication through a doctor's office or clinic and will not be able to receive the pill through the mail or directly from a pharmacy. patients will only be able to access it through seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the expanded 10 weeks. misses proof stone -- abortion medication is used in more than half of abortions in the u.s. the issue is likely to end up in front of the supreme crt. in tennessee, the shelby county board of commissioners voted unanimously wednesday to reappoint justin pearson to the tennessee house of representatives. his reappointment comes less than a week after the republican-led house voted to expel pearson and another young black lawmaker, justin jones, for leading peaceful protests against gun violence on the house floor after the school massacre in nashville. ahead of wednesday's vote, justin pearson spoke to hundreds of supporters who rallied outside the lorraine motel in

memphis, where martin luther king, jr. was assassinated this -- 55 years ago. >> we're going to keep fighting to end gun violence and for our community to lift up those who have been pushed to the periphery. nothing gun lobbyists, not the nra, not to bilonaires an the people funding other folks campaigns but rather the people. amy: after headlines, we will air extended excerpts from wednesday's memphis rally. the united nations is warning half of somalia's population, some 8.3 million people, will need humanitarian assistance this year amid somalia's worst drought in decades. speaking from mogadishu on wednesday, u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres said nations must now act to prevent a catastrophe. >> a devastating drought and the tragic loss of thousands of lives in 2022 alone. displacement of 1.4 million

somalis, with women and children making up 80%. driving food prices up. for invulnerable -- court communities are pushed to the brink of starvation. the situation can get worse. amy: ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy called wednesday for an international response after video surfaced online appearing to show a russian soldier beheading a ukrainian prisoner of war. >> there is something no one in the world can't ignore, how easily they kill. this video of the execution of a ukrainian pow, the world must see it. this is a video of russia. amy: a kremlin spokesperson called the video awful but questioned its authenticity. meanwhile, brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva has arrived in china for a state visit where he's planning to ask president xi jinping to have china join brazil as mediators

in peace talks to end to -- peace talks between russia and ukraine. this comes after the u.s. defense intelligence agency said it expects the war to continue into 2024 with neither side agreeing to peace talks. the revelation came as part of highly sensitive u.s. government materials leaked online and obtained by "the washington post." "the post" is also reporting the man behind the leak is a young, racist gun enthusiast who worked on a u.s. military base and was seeking to impress a small group of people, mostly men and teenage boys, in an invitation-only forum on discord, an online platform popular with gamers. tunisia's coast guard says at least 10 people drowned and up to 30 others remain missing after their boat sank off the coast of tunisia while they attempted to reach europe to apply for asylum. the deaths came as the united patients reported more than 441

migrants were lost at sea attempting to cross the central meterranean so far this year, the deadliest first quarter on record since 2017. antonio vitorino, who leads the international organization for migration, said -- "with more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, i fear that these deaths have been normalized. states must respond. delays and gaps in state-led search and rescue are costing human lives." federal prosecutors in mexico have filed criminal charges against the nation's top immigration official over a fire inhe border city of ciud juarez last nth that kled 40 people in an iigration dention ceer. francisco garduño, the head of mexico's national immigration institute, is accused of failing to prevent the disaster despite clear warning signs at his agency's detention centers. last week, vice world news reportedhe immigtion jail at the center of the tragedy was a

de facto extortion center where only migrants with the mns to pay a $200 bribe to security guards were released. president biden is wrapping up a three-day tour of ireland today with an address to the irish parliament and a banquet at dublin castle. biden's visit to the irish republic comes after he met u.k. prime minister rishi sunak wednesday in belfast, northern ireland, where biden marked the 25th anniversary of the u.s.-brokered peace deal known as the good friday agreement. the federal reserve believes the u.s. economy will slide into a recession later this year. that's according to minutes from the march meeting of the federal open market committee made public on wednesday, which reveal the fed is planning another interest rate hike during its next meeting, despite the likelihood of a recession. this comes as new data show u.s. inflation eased to 5% in march, its lowest level in nearly two years. a warning to our audience, this story contains graphic footage and descriptions of abuse. in indiana, a lawsuit alleges the jackson county jail let a

schizophrenic prisoner starve to death while in solitary confinement. shocking details and video footage of joshua mclemore's abuse in prison reveal the 29-year-old was locked up in solitary for three weeks in the summer of 2021 without access to enough food, a toilet or any mental health care despite clear signs of intense distress and his history of mental illness. while locked up, he allegedly lost 45 pounds in less than a month. he was arrested after grabbing a hospital nurse's hair and charged with battery. democratic california senator dianne feinstein has asked to temporarily step back from her seat on the powerful judiciary committee as calls mount including from within her own party, to resign. 89-year-old feinstein, who is recovering from shingles, has missed 60 of 82 senate votes taken so far this year as her absence stalls the approval of biden's judicial nominees. this follows widesead reports

that feinstein is suffering from short-term memory loss and mental decline. in february, she announced she will not seek reelection in 2024, setting up a heated race to replace her. california congressmember ro khanna tweeted -- "it's time for senator feinstein to resign. we need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people." a judge in delaware sanctioned fox news wednesday for withholding evidence in the $1.6 billion dominion voting systems defamation lawsuit. lawyers for fox repeatedly downplayed rupert murdoch's role at fox news -- where he was a corporate officer, in addition to being chair of fox corporation -- allowing them to turn over fewer materials as part of the discovery process, such as murdoch's internal communications. judge eric davis accused fox of having a credibility problem and said he is appointing someone to investigate the matter. on wednesday, msnbc obtained

audio recordings played in court that were made by former fox news producer abby grossberg of conversations with rudy giuliani and another trump campaign official that appear to show trump's team did not believe its own claims that dominion voting systems were faulty. this is a recording from december 5, 2020. >> i think they have looked at the machines. when the secretary of state did his audit, there was a lot -- looking at the machines, the audit came in close with what the machine cap was with the receipts so, you know, i don't know the outcome of those but our understanding, from the secretary of state's office, there were not any physical ises with the machines. amy: jury selection for the dominion trial starts today and it is scheduled to begin monday after a fox corporation shareholder sued murdoch and other members of the board for failing to prevent fox news from "reporting false and dangerous misinformation" around the 2020 presidential election.

more than 2000 residents of eastern indiana were oered to evacuate after a massive fire broke out at a recycling plant tuesday, releasing a huge plume of acrid smoke into the air. the fire in the city of richmond has been contained but is expected to keep smoldering for days, prompting fears among residents about long-term health impacts from hazardous particles caused by burning plastic. and juul labs has reached a $462 million settlement with new york, california, and other states over lawsuits that accused the e-cigarette company of aggressive marketing tactics, leading to a youth vaping crisis. it's the latest settlement in a litany of lawsuits against the company, which has yet to receive official regulatory approval for its highly addictive products. juul has withdrawn many of its flavored products from the shelves following criticism that

it targets young people. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in tennessee where the shelby county board of commissioners voted unanimously wednesday to reappoint justin pearson to the tennessee house of representatives less than a week after the republican-led house voted to expel him and justin jones from the body for joining peaceful protests against gun violence after the school -- nashville school massacre. pearson and jones were the two youngest black lawmakers in the tennessee house. the nashville metropolitan council unanimously voted on monday to restore justin jones to office as well. pearson is being sworn back in this morning. both and will hold a seat until a special election is held. on wednesday, pearson and jones took part in a rally in memphis with gloria johnson, a white lawmaker who narrowly survived the expulsion vote last week. together the lawmakers have become known as the tennessee

three. this is justin pearson addressing a massive crowd of supporters outside the lorraine motel in memphis where martin luther king, jr. was assassinated 55 years ago. >> show me what democracy looks like. show me what democracy looks like. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> show me what democracy looks like. >> this is a democracy -- a place that god calls for it to be. this is a democracy that will bring people from the back, that have been pushed to the periphery. transform our nation. lift up the victims of gun violence. this is a democracy that they are scared of. a democracy they are worried

about. this is a democracy that changes the status quo. we've got news. the status quote needs changing. today we march and we are to keep pushing because we believe this is what democracy looks like. amy: justin pearson speaking wednesday at a memphis rally where he was joined by tennessee representative gloria johnson. >> we need to lift up these amazing voices of these young people. we need a multiracial, multigenerational organization in the tennessee legislature, and these young voices are critical. we need to welcome these young voices and not keep them down because these young people are passionate, they are smart, they

understand the issues and how they affect every single person in their district. amy: the third member of the tennessee three, representative justin jones, also spoke at wednesday's memphis rally. >> movement rising up in tennessee from memphis to nashville to knoxville to send a message to these antidemocratic forces that you are in the -- you're in the find out portion. you shut off our microphones so we had to bring a megaphone. you pushed our people to the back so we had to walk up to the front of the well. with a clear message that -- i'm confident because i know after crucifixion comes resurrection. when we walk in that chamber tomorrow as representatives again, we must continue to demand that led us in the first

place. the mass shooting a national rather than has come since gun laws, they passed a resolution to expel the two youngest black members. when we walk in tomorrow the clear message that we have a demand cameron sexton to resign. speaker sexton represents an enemy to democracy. multiracial democracy. he is trying to bring us back to a tennessee in our past, the same tennessee where the klan was founded. we say no longer will we sit by and be silent. it is time to rise up not just -- we did not go up there as individuals. we represented the people of our district and our state, the young people came and vote, the people said we need a voice and that is why we walked up to the well. we hope what happens today, that

you, the brother pearson tomorrow to walk him into those chambers. we are walking into hostile territory. where young black voices are not welcome. we're not going to be able to survive that alone. we need to let them know that the world is watching and it does not stop this record tomorrow or next week something is changing in tennessee. something is changing in our state that will restore democracy and get rid of these forces that are trying to take us backward. amy: after justin jones justin pearson and well as gloria johnson spoke outside the lorraine motel in memphis, they led a march to the shelby county board of commissioners ahead of a vote on the reappointment of justin pearson to the tennessee house. this is pearson addressing the county commissioners. cooks the message for all of the people in nashville who decided

to expel us, you can't expel hope. you can't expel justice. you can't expel our voice. you sure can't expel our fight. justice rolls down like water. like in ever growing stream. amy: after the shelby county board of commissioners in memphis unanimously voted to reappoint justin pearson to the tennessee house, he spoke to supporters outside. >> shelby county commissioners have done their job. i'm so glad we can get back to doing our job. our job is to elevate the voices of the three children who were just nine years old, elevate the five folks in

louisville died from gun violence that was preventable. we know it is preventable because there are good laws that exist. we know it is preventable because there are organizations advocating for the change of the law and order to save people's lives. it is not enough the leader of the republican party said you can put a tank in front of every school. we go to banks, we go to businesses, we walked the streets, we go to church. they are advocating will not help or save anybody. the movement is rising. a movement is rising. they tried to kill democracy. they tried to expel the people's choice.

they awakened a sleeping giant. [cheers] they put gloria johnson and justin jones and me on trial. but they ended up putting themselves on trial. [cheers] [indiscernible] guilty of white supremacy! guilty of patriarchy! guilty of supporting the nra over people. guilty of not expanding health care. guilty of not giving educational resources. guilty! guilty! guilty! [indiscernible]

that people have got a message, we are going to build this movement. we are going to build this movement. we are going to build this movement. you and you and you and you and you, we are going to build this movement. we're convinced there is a different vision for shelby county, for tennessee, for the south, for the united states of america. i believe it is a vision of the people have been pushed to the periphery coming to the well. the people who have been marginalized, coming to the well. i believe [indiscernible]

[crowd noise] amy: justin pearson speaking wednesday in memphis after the shelby county board of commissioners voted to reinstate him to his seat in the tennessee house of representatives less than a week after he and justin jones were expelled for joining peaceful protests against gun violence after the nashville school massacre. his swearing in ceremony is taking place today in nashville. when we come back, we will be joined by amory professor carol anderson, author of "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal america." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. to talk more about gun control, we are joined by carol anderson, professor at emory university and the author of "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal america." the paperback edition has just been published. she's also the author of "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide." her new documentary named after a langston hughes poem is titled "i, too." welcome back to democracy now!, professor anderson. you have both justins, the

youngest black lawmakers in the tennessee house of representatives, being reinstated to the tennessee legislature after leading, with gloria johnson, a protest against guns on the floor of the house after the nashville school massacre. talk about the significance of what has taken place over the last week with the overwhelmingly white legislature expelling these two legislators. >> you are seeing a convergence of so many of the multiple streams and american society. on one hand what you are seeing is the power of gerrymandering to create a legislature that is not representative of the people, that is not one person/one vote but instead extreme partisan grymandering.

so you have the needs of the people not being able to be addressed by that legislature. what you are also seeing is the power of the youth were pushing forward for a different vision of america. it is a vision that is multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural, multireligious. and that vision scares those who are in those gerrymandered districts. it scares the bejeebers, a scholarly term, out of them because it is a way of being, a way of thinking, a way of recognizing people's humanity, a way of knowing there are resours, incredible resources, in this nation that should be available to all. but instead, have this hoarding happening, a hoarding of power, of a way of wanting to be able to control.

in that control, this is why we are also seeing the valorization of the second amendment. as i said or laid out in the book, the second amendment emerged fully out of a concern about black people come out of a fear of blac people. this is what the role of the militia was. yes, we hear about domestic tyranny, they really weren't good about it. we heard about the militia being able to fend off a foreign invasion. the really weren't good at that. buwhat they were good at was putting down slave revolts. when you're having the debates about the second amendment, the battles over the ratification of the constitution, the secon amendment was a bribe to the south to not scuttle the constitution of the united states. in order to have control of that

militia, to keep the enslaved in check. so this stream that comes through is what we are consistently saying is, and i think about charlie kerr who said last week that there are going to be gun deaths but that is the price y have to pay in order to have the second amendment. what it is saying is because of the and heard fundamental fear of black people in this nation, we are willing to be unsafe in our schools, in our churches, in our grocery stores, in our amusement parks, on our streets, in our parking lots. we are willing to be unsafe in order to be able to have the access to weaponry, where we can't even think through it in terms of what is logical. what is logical is weapons of war do not belong in the hands of civilians. what is logical is that you have background checks.

what is logical is that you have red flag laws. but all of those, because of the gerrymandering that has happened politically and the barriers that have been put up for access to the ballot box, have a political system that is not responsive to the needs of the people. that is what you saw in tennessee. amy: professor anderson, i wanted to go to who justin jones is, one of the two black legislators expelled and reinstated on monday, but there still needs to be a special election with untold amount of money having to be spent because of the overwhelmingly white legislature expelling them. but justin jones before he was elected in november was a well-known activist. one of the things he did in the last years, one of his targets was the blessed of the confederate lieutenant general nathan bedford forrest.

he wanted it removed from the state capitol. this is very interesting, going to who nathan bedford was, the first grand wizard of the ku klux klan muscled slaves in memphis, was in command at the fort pillow massacre. cameron sexton, the speaker of the house in tennessee, voted against the removal. of course, each time justin jones speaks, he is now calling for him to resign. talk about the significance of this push, delay, they did succeed,nd guns. >> part what you are al seeing here is come, the valorization of those who were steamed and anti-blackness. to put that in a public space saying these are our value

systemright here, that speaks volumes. it speaks volumes about how intricately woven the anti-black ness is in the operating code and now you have -- this has been a consistent push to open up this nation. so we hold these truths to be self-evident. the push you're saying, what we heard from justin jones and from justin pearson was to make those truths self-evident. and that is to break apart this notion that you have got -- that you embrace the confederacy. you embrace the treason of attacking the united states of america. you embrace slaveholding. so i think about tate reeves, the governor of mississippi, bringing this out in a confederate history month in

mississipp the same as the sippy that -- mississippi that is removing the control of the police and the judicial system from jackson. again, it is pt of parcel of the same pattern. part of parcel of the same drive to put black folks bac in their place. that is what nathan bedford force was about. black thought they were equal. black folks cannot be equal. when you think about that as the public facing signal, what it says to the rest of the community is a kind of violence, a violence on your own humanity. this other vision that the justins are talking about is a vision that recognizes and embraces our humanity. and that finds a way for us to

be able to live in that humidity, not to have this exclusion, the control. because part of what you're seeing in these legislatures is a drive for control to put all of the things back in their place. so black folks need to go back in their place. women need to go back in their place. immigrants need to go back in there place. the lgbtq community needs to go back in their place. that drive to put things back in their place, the push, the counterweight has been no. you heard it. no. guilty. guilty. guilty. amy: professor anderson, i want to ask about your new documentary "i, too." i want to play a clip of the trailer. >> when you talk to hamburg

massacre in schools? >> no. >> looked across the river and all he could see was the jungle. >> is african-americans, have to go find yourself. you have to research because you're going to miss it because they are not telling you. >> that is the original cross with the bullet hole. >> you have this church that is providing sanctuary and protection. those who are being chased out of their homes. that is biblical. >> you look underneath the car see people hitting the street. >> they would grab someone and take them over a hill and you would hear gunshots. >> we have no idea how many black people were murdered. some of these records were intentionally not aft and some things oddly enough have gone missing. amy: that is a clip of the

trailer for the new film about you "i, too." you're talking about the hamburg massacre. i wonder if you can elaborate on that and also the attack on african-american history -- on an american history -- and across this country where you have missouri, the hou voting to defund the libraries because if they can't have their books banned, they don't want the libraries opened. as in llano, texas, they're think if the judge forces them to put them back, close the levers. he recently wrote a piece in "the washington post." put it altogether for us, professor anderson. >> part of this pattern we are talking about. there is also the attack on history, on knowledge. people who know their history, oh, then they are thinking in very new, vibrant ways.

when you know where you come from, where you know the violence that has been rained down on community, it shatters the political narrative. one of the things we did in the film was to link the january 6 insurrection with the coup in wilmington, north carolina, where he had a multiracial government in the late 1890's that was overthrown by white supremacists, where you ha black folks slaughtered, where you had the newspaper -- the black newspaper burned down and trashed. where in hamburg, you had the black militia marching down market street and had two white men, behind them angry that black men were in uniform and demanded they disband and then disbanded -- demanded they had

over their guns to them. this is a state militia. when the black solers said no, they were massacred. . but when we don't know these histories, we are able to see americans as white and male, patriotism as white and male, as the folks were fighting for this country as white and male. but what we are really saying is you had black folks living in america even when america did not believe in them. you had black folks fighting for america when america would not fight for them. you have black folks pushing this nation to be stronger, better, to live up to its ideals most of that is what you saw in tennessee and in the legislature when the justins stood up and

spoke the truth. amy: and ron desantis? if you can talk about the significance -- he is not only governor of florida, but is probably running for president? >> and he is running on that platform i've basically anti-blackness, and to lgbtq, and anti-woman. so you have him pushing for the six week abortion ban, i think he signed off on that, and you have the scuttling of the african-american studies ap course because it lacked educational value. and you had the attack on disney because disney said lgbtq folk are folk and that is a radical idea. and so you see him attacking, attacking, attking because the marginalized, apparently, in his worldview, don't have the power to fight back.

and that platform is so racist, homophobic, and disgusting. and it is part of that narrative of trying to bring back control. i think about the old archie bunker song "the days when men were men and girls were girl and you knew who you were then." it is harkening back to a past that was not so great because it was violently exclusionary. because it undermined democracy. so what we're seeing is a full-blown assault on democracy. we are also seeing that full-blown assault on democracy by going after the rule of law, threatening judges, threatening prosecutors who are trying to bring justice to those who have

allegedly broken the law. so all of these are factoring in -- the assault on education, the assault on knowledge, the assault on access to reproductive care, t assault on the right to vote by raising ese barriers. and then opening up full-blown access to guns come to the violence that those guns bring ann to craft it in that language of crime, crime, crime which has that subtone of blackness, blackness, blackness. it is a formula, it is a recipe, it is an authoritarian recipe. it is an anti-democratic recipe. and it is a recipe that you have young folk pushing back, fighting back, and one of the

things that is consistent in american history is that that right-wing authoritarianism is always met with the larger, better vision of what america could be. and that is what we are seeing right now, a battle for that vision. there is the ron desantis vision and then there is the justin pearson and justin jones vision. amy: finally, going back to justin pearson and justin jones, i could not help continually this past week but think of the title of your book "one person, no vote." the issue of gerrymandering all over the country, these hyper, super majority states where the states are evenly divided but because of gerrymandering, these men, not only did they who were expelled, it was all the

people who voted for them. this wasn't like getting fired from your employment in a store, they were elected. >> right. oddly enough, or ironically ough, tennessee was the site of the massive supreme court decision that laid out one person, one vote because of the way that white rural conservative counties had disproportionate power under the state legislature, vis-à-vis nashville and memphis. and because of a series of supreme court decisions, bsequent supreme court decisions, particularly shelby county v holder in 2013, these states have enabled to hyper parts in gerrymander again and this is the result. we have something like 70% or so of americans wanting to have sensible gun safety legislation

but you have a legislature that is built on extreme partisan gerrymanderingwhere they appear to be immune from the will of the people, you are not getting that kind of legislative response. and that is why the bullhorn came up because you had young folk saying to the representatives, "we need gun safety legislation. we do not need to be in a space in our workplace where we are being gunned down." and the response from that legislature was, they were concerned about their decorum being disrupted because people were responding to the nee of those people, to the needs of those young folk who are out in the halls. so extreme partisan gerrymandering, it is so

antidemocratic, so anti- one-person/one vote. and the result is that you have got a society that believes in reproductive rights, society that believes in the right to vote come a society that believes i g safety legislation, and you have legislators who art responding to the wants of the needs and the desires of the people. amy: carol anderson, thank you for being with us. we will continue this discussion. carol anderson is professor at emory university and the author of "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal america." the paperback edition has just been published. also author of "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and the book "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide." coming up, president biden signed legislation ending the coronavirus national emergency

but millions with long covid say the pandemic is not over. we will speak with a journalist living with long covid. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. this week president biden signed legislation that declared an end to the covid-19 national emergency. t the pandemic is ongoing for millions living with long covid. the centers for disease control and prevention found nearly one in five people infected with covid-19 go on to experience symptoms of long covid. one of them is democratic senator and former vice presidential candidate tim kaine. >> i got covered in march 2020. my case was mild and my early april 2020i was fine except for one lingering symptom. when i first got covid, i noticed all my nerve endings were tingling 24/7. feels like they have been dipped in alka-seltzer, like they have all had five cups of coffee.

i did not talk about it for a while because i thought i would wake up one day and the symptom would be gone. but that did not happen. three years later, the symptoms have not gotten worse but it also has not gotten better. i have since learned my long covid symptom is significantly possible aftereffect of this viral infection. while it likely won't get worse, it may never go away. i wish i did not have long covid but having it connects me with people across the country who do. amy: virginia senator kaine reintroduced the care for long covid act with senators ed markey and tammy duckworth last month, but funding for research and resources remains limited. this is terry wilder, chair of the me action minnesota, testifying recently to the state house health finance and policy committee. >> it is estimated 10% to 20% of all minnesotans who got covid have experienced long covid

symptoms that suggests there potentially hundreds of thousands of minnesotans with long covid who are experiencing significant impact to their health, functionality, and quality of life. that includes children, adolescents, and young adults. it is also estimated around 50% of people with long covid the nickel criteria for the disease i have, and this is disabling and, let's disease that affects multiple body systems stop it is a neurological disease according to the world health organization. i also want to highlight that covid-19 has disproportionally impacted black, indigenous, as well as low income, elder populations. amy: for more we're joined in atlanta by ryan prior, journalist in residence at the century foundation and author of "the long haul" and his column

for psychology today is called "patient revolution." he is also on the me action board of directors. explain what me is, how it relates to long covid. you're not only writing about this, you are living this every day. talked about your life experience. >> thank you for having. me refers to the disease that terry was referring to. inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. it goes by the term chronic fatigue syndrome. it is a neuro-immune disease that has no approved treatments from the fda. many patients become disabled

and can't work. i am fortunate i am -- given the sum of the worst expenses of my life -- i'm now the situation where i have a more mild case and i am able to work and i use my voice as a journalist and advocate in working for a think tank now to pursue ideas and situations and telling stories of millions who can't tell their own stories and can't live out their dreams. the primary symptom of me, cfs, and really of long covid, it means people do minor insertions which could be taking a shower walking down the block whether street and that can leave them bedridden or sick for days if not weeks afterwards. it makes it impossible to participate in society if you

can't do basic functions. amy: talk about what it means for president biden to say the covid national emergency is over, what this means for millions of long covid sufferers. what do you think needs to be done? >> suffer people who have chronic illnesses for decades prior to the pandemic, many felt long covid was a moment where their needs were going to be met. there's been tremendous power from the chronic illness community that has helped embolden the long covid movement , this long covid revolution that we talk about in the peace that so many groups have come together in this moment of tremendous -- in ways they never had before. the message our chronic illness community would have to

president biden is to acknowledge the fact there are millions missing, millions of people missing from their lives and millions of dollars that are currently still missing from the research that needs to be done. and really, the drug repurchasing trials that need to be done to urgently find new treatments to help people with long covid. as a society, we came together with the private/partnership with operation warp speed grading vaccines at the fastest rate and distributed them -- creating vaccines at the fastest rate industry meeting them. we now have the opportunity to do similar things for long covid, to do in operation warp speed. there are dozens of drugs that could work for me/cfs and long covid and we need much greater urgency to get these treatments

tested. many of those will probably work for treatg the long disabling symptoms of long covid. in the moment, we can learn to characterize and research and treat a number of different diseases, not just long covid, but long covid is a way to understanding like i mentioned before me/cfs and other diseases . there so many other chronic illnesses that are post infection chronic illnesses. so long covid represents a time for all of us in society to understand the number of people living with disabilities, millions missing who are homebound or bedbound and this is their moment to sort of be

brought back into the mainstream medicine. america ryan prior, in your book , your columns, your articles, you draw on the history of hiv/aids activists with active who changed health care policy and disability activists who crawled up the steps of the u.s. capitol to demand passage of the american disabilities act. talk about this kind of action. what you call a patient revolution. >> my colleague fiona loewenstein and i wrote a piece for "the nation" and she is the author of a book called "the long covid survival guide" and i've also written a book that chronicles the rise of patient groups -- primarily online. rp's for "the nation" starts with millions protesting outside the white house went after the president said on 60 minutes the pandemic was over, this was last

september. our protest was indicative of a larger history of people with diseases that were not well organized by the medical establishment, who came together to rally for a cure, treatments. act up in the 1980's and 1990's are kind of the hallmark of what health advocacy in the wake of an epidemic or pandemic looks like. the same with the campaign for the americans with disabilities act passed in 1990. this degeneration has stepped up thinking about how to advocate for prime illnesses. this protest outside the white house was part of the noble tradition of patients speaking on behalf of those who can't speak for themselves. one note i will have here is because people with me/cfs are so disabled, it is hard to get

even a small protest -- which is a major, schmidt and our community because so much has to happen over social media because people are too sick to go out. but i think this step forward -- and bringing more media attention to this protest and relate to the larger movement is something that policymakers need to understand. senator kaine's long covid act is one of the solutions of operation warp speed for long covid treatments is another idea that i think these need to be acted on. patients will be gathering next week for the long covid advocacy week on capitol hill, telling their members of congress to move these bills forward and to greenlight millions if not billions of more dollars that could be used to treat this

disease stop if we don't act quickly to research it and cure it and treat it, or to provide disability or accommodations or disability benefits for those who are sick, the long-term impact of long covid is at the scale and scope hard to understand. harvard economist david cutler estimates there would be a $3.7 trillion impact on u.s. economy for years to come if we don't address long covid now. a major urgent approach to research for long covid is really important for helping people unlock their dreams who might not be able to live the life they intend to post of america ryan prior, thank you so much for coming in to the studio in atlanta, georgia, especially given the price you will pay for

this that you yourself are suffering from long covid. but how important it is to share this information and we will continue to cover this much understood, not often talked about issue of long covid. ryan prior is a journalist in residence at the century

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