truthout--2020-12-31--Months of Chaos and Systemic Failure Are Wearing Down Health Care Workers

Nurse Kristen Cline was working a 12-hour shift in October at the Royal C. Johnson Veterans Memorial Hospital in Sioux Falls , South Dakota , when a code blue rang through the halls .
A patient in an isolation room was dying of a coronavirus that had raged for eight months across the country before it made the state the brightest red dot in a nation of hot spots .
Cline knew she needed to protect herself before entering the room , where a second COVID-19 patient was trembling under the covers , sobbing .
She reached for the crinkled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for days .
In her post-death report , Cline described how the patient fell victim to a hospital in chaos .
The crash cart and breathing bag that should have been in the room were missing .
The patient wasn ’ t tethered to monitors that could have alerted nurses sooner .
He had cried out for help , but the duty nurse was busy with other patients , packed two to a room meant for one .
“ He died scared and alone .
It didn ’ t have to be that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the staff , we did everything we could , ” she said .
“ The system failed him.
” The system also failed her .
Since the pandemic ’ s early weeks , Cline had complained that the Department of Veterans Affairs , which runs the nation ’ s largest hospital system , wasn ’ t doing enough to protect its front-line health care workers .
She had filed complaints about inadequate personal protective equipment with the agency ’ s inspector general and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration , but they had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic , they were still having to ration masks and being asked to reuse them for as many as five shifts .
From Cline ’ s perspective and that of other health care workers I spoke with from the VA hospital in Sioux Falls , the lack of masks was a symptom of larger failures at the agency overseeing the medical care of 9 million veterans .
The hospitals lacked staff and scrounged to find gowns , medical supplies , ventilators — everything needed to battle COVID-19 .
While every American hospital was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s lack of an effective system for tracking and delivering supplies made it particularly vulnerable , according to a recent examination by the federal Government Accountability Office .
When the pandemic hit , the agency relied on a few big contractors to supply everything from N95 masks to needles to isolation gowns .
Those few big contractors fell victim to a global shortage of masks .
And the VA had no reliable tracking system to tell officials what hospitals have , what they need or what was expired .
At the Sioux @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the supply chain for masks relied on a guy named Steve who gave them out one at time from a nearby warehouse , employees said .
As COVID-19 overwhelmed the antiquated system , VA leadership asked employees at more than 170 hospitals to enter inventory by hand into spreadsheets every day and did “ not have insight ” into how resources were being deployed , the report said .
In other words , the local Best Buy or Walgreen ’ s had more efficient ways of managing inventory to get supplies to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which ProPublica has investigated over the past eight months , was a disorganized , poorly overseen effort to buy masks and other supplies from just about anyone who said they could deliver .
Hoping to compensate for a disastrous lack of preparation , the VA awarded more than 100 contracts worth over $ 120 million to vendors with whom it had never done business .
The COVID-19 pandemic came at a tough moment for the agency , which was more than a year into a massive reorganization by the administration of President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ empty and sent the VA scrambling to hire contract positions to help with , among other things , procurement of supplies .
Kevin Lyons , an associate professor and supply chain expert at Rutgers Business School , said nothing the VA did before or during the pandemic showed it had a handle on its own purchase and delivery of supplies , let alone prepare for a global shortage .
His research is exploring how the Trump administration ’ s purge of hundreds of VA staff members created a path to disaster .
VA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staff cutbacks in November 2019 , just weeks before the first confirmed U.S. COVID-19 case , noting that he had “ relieved people as high as network directors to people at the other end of our employee chain.
” Lyons , an Air Force veteran , told me top VA officials have been able to claim all ’ s well — even as nurses and doctors describe continued shortages and rationing — because bureaucrats who awarded contracts did little or nothing to track how they worked out .
He said the rapid-fire approval @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re doing something .
But there was no connection between the nurses and the doctors who actually need it.
” “ All they really care about is , you know , signing a contract , and then crossing your fingers and hoping that stuff comes , ” Lyons said .
“ And that ’ s just not the way that supply chain is supposed to happen.
” Wilkie had acknowledged at one point early in the pandemic that COVID-19 had dried up the agency ’ s supply chain and forced hospitals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has acknowledged the need for improvements to its procurement system .
But the VA , which has lost more than 90 staff members to COVID-19 , denies that it ever left nurses like Cline with inadequate personal protection .
“ All VA medical centers have adequate capacity , PPE and supplies to meet current demand , and at no point has a VA facility run out of PPE , ” said Jamie Maxymuik , a spokeswoman for the VA Sioux Falls health system , in an email .
Yet Cline and other hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raging virus revealed the government ’ s failure to adequately prepare or to fight back .
In late April and May , emails that Cline shared show the VA instructing nurses to stitch together their own fabric masks at home to get through the crisis .
The message coming from managers , Cline said , was to be patriotic and do more with less .
“ My first reaction was , ‘ Which desk jockey sitting at home came up with this nonsense ?
’ ” Cline remembered .
“ And then I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are openly acknowledging that they aren ’ t providing enough protection.
’ ” In May , Cline had reached out to me , describing the plight of hospital staff dealing with unresponsive VA management .
“ They have been rationing masks for weeks now , but sending emails daily saying we have plenty of PPE and that rumors of a shortage are completely false .
We have suspected for a few days now that they are lying about this , ” Cline , 38 , wrote .
Her outrage intensified when she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the VA awarded a $ 34.5 million contract to a random mask broker , who then rented a private jet to locate N95s that never existed from suppliers he didn ’ t know with money from investors he ’ d never met .
It was just a glimpse at the chaos disrupting the crucial supply chain on which Cline ’ s existence depended .
States , cities , hospitals and various federal agencies competed against one another for increasingly scarce masks , many held up in Chinese factories or customs .
Health care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ machinations transpiring overhead , unsure why they didn ’ t have the protection they needed .
In this frenzy , masks typically went to the highest bidder .
And out of the woodwork came opportunists , counterfeiters , fakes and well-intentioned but clueless mask brokers trying to make a quick buck .
“ The incompetence was just stunning to me , ” Cline remembers thinking .
“ If they had just told us what was going on I would have felt better .
But instead they just kept saying we have enough masks.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ as I followed a bizarre trail of mask profiteers , Cline kept me aware of the consequences of an unregulated mask market , a situation that might have been comical if it weren ’ t so crucial to fighting the spread of COVID-19 .
Cline did not end up contracting COVID-19 but said the months of chaos and collective failure had left its mark .
“ When this is over , ” Cline told me .
“ Those of us who don ’ t die are going to quit.
” How does one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the poor planning , and the judgment failures at the government ’ s highest levels that led us into the worst public health crisis in at least a century ?
Even if the Trump administration had empowered civil servants to wrangle supply chain logistics immediately — it didn ’ t .
Even if his administration had dusted off and heeded a pandemic response playbook left behind by the Obama administration — it didn ’ t .
Even if Trump had invoked the Defense Production Act to boost domestic mask manufacturing at the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t .
Even if everything had gone right , we were in deep trouble before the first American travelers brought back a mysterious respiratory virus from Wuhan , China , and Europe .
The nation had spent years building up emergency medical supplies in a Strategic National Stockpile that was supposed to help us weather a national crisis .
But after long stretches of inactivity and inadequate funding , it turns out it wasn ’ t all that strategic .
Jared Kushner , the president ’ s senior adviser and son-in-law , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not intended to serve the states , leaving them to fend for themselves in the quest for lifesaving supplies .
Retired Navy Rear Adm. John Polowczyk got plucked from the Defense Department in mid-March to lead the White House ’ s fledgling Coronavirus Task Force .
“ I walked in , ” he told me , “ and the National Stockpile had been given out .
I did not have a single — really — I didn ’ t have a single N95 mask , surgical mask , isolation gown , nitrile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Polowczyk had spent 30 years mastering the complex logistics of getting supplies from manufacturer to user .
But the Trump White House , he said , had “ no bench depth ” of experts to manage purchasing and distributing vital supplies .
It ’ s exactly as bad as it sounds , said Robert Handfield , a professor at North Carolina State University who interviewed officials who were working inside the federal effort to supply PPE .
He detailed his findings in the Harvard Business Review , but early this month , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a quick summary : “ It was a shit show .
They had no idea what was going on.
” The VA embarked on a haphazard buying spree through its procurement system , but by the spring , it had to turn for help from FEMA and draw supplies from the stockpile , a “ short-term stop-gap buffer ” when critical items are not available , according to the GAO .
Along with gloves , gowns , swabs and test kits , the VA received more than 8.2 million respirators , and 2.4 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lessons learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the H1N1 swine flu in 2009 , elected officials and administrations led by both parties simply didn ’ t prepare for what scientists warned was not just a probability but an eventuality .
A 2010 study commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following the swine flu outbreak warned that we needed to stock up on masks or face devastating consequences .
The study made sweeping observations about existing and potential breakdowns between the local , state and federal governments .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respiratory protection ( N95 ) led to confusion … ” scientists wrote more than a decade ago .
“ There should be a central repository of N95s which is replenished for future events .
Federal contracts with N95 and PPE manufacturers generally should be strengthened … ” By February 2020 , as the first U.S. outbreaks began , the stockpile housed just 12 million N95 masks , a fraction of what was needed .
That same month , Dr. Robert Kadlec , the emergency preparedness czar in the U.S. Department of Health and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country needed 3.5 billion N95 masks , itself probably an underestimate .
In other words , the country ’ s stockpile had less than one half of one percent of the masks we needed .
The stockpile was so depleted , that the moment the spread began , the country needed new production inputs , most of which were in China and would take 60 to 90 days to reach U.S. hospitals by traditional export .
If we measure the stockpile in time , the U.S. was several months behind before this even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration pressured domestic manufacturers to ramp up supply and unleashed $ 17 billion to source supplies in April , it was far too late .
What that eerily prophetic CDC-commissioned study didn ’ t predict was the beneficiaries of such chaos , of shortages and desperation , and of exceptionally weak government contracting oversight : mask brokers .
We ’ re so far into this pandemic now that it ’ s easy to forget just how absurd the notion of a mask broker truly is .
In normal times , masks aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should run about a dollar for anyone working on a dusty home improvement project .
They ’ re a cheap widget in a broad catalog of bigger widgets offered by medical supply giants like 3M , Honeywell and Cardinal Health .
Yet the federal government found itself desperate enough to shell out a fortune to unknown people and companies that hadn ’ t existed just days before .
The gang brought in to help with PPE and other medical equipment included the inexperienced federal contractor whose private jet ride and failed mask adventure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; a former NASCAR driver who allegedly tried to sell a trillion N95 masks that didn ’ t exist ; a wealthy tech investor who used the Task Rabbit contractor-for-hire app to pay people to repackage ineffective Chinese masks so they could pass muster with hospitals .
Just to name a few .
As of December , the federal government spent about $ 8.5 billion to outfit front-line workers with PPE , medical instruments and various other supplies , according to a ProPublica analysis of spending data .
It was not all bad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ product while making a nice profit .
And to be fair to the federal government , many states made the same mistakes .
As brokers made their bets , some making a fortune , some making fools of themselves , others making their criminal defense cases , Cline and millions of other health care workers just prayed there would be enough supplies tomorrow .
I flew out to meet Cline a few days before Thanksgiving , when South Dakota was reporting the nation ’ s worst COVID-19 infection numbers and nearing 1 in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only traveled to the Upper Midwest , it felt as though I ’ d beamed straight into one of Dr. Anthony Fauci ’ s nightmares .
“ If you want to tell the story of why COVID is so bad in America , I think South Dakota is the perfect microcosm of it all , ” Cline told me as we met outdoors for coffee .
Just around the corner from the VA hospital where Cline worked , families huddled maskless and gabbed over heaps of pasta at the local Olive Garden .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ from public health experts to issue a state mask mandate , and a local one , recently passed by the Sioux Falls City Council , was , in my observation , scarcely observed .
At my hotel , which was connected by a footbridge to the state ’ s largest hospital , the nonprofit Sanford Medical Center , young people mingled mask-free in the lobby , shouting gleefully over a case of Bud Lights .
Around the corner , the hot tub was bubbling , the first I ’ d seen since March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two families .
It looked … fun .
Like the sort of thing seen in photos coming in lately from Australia , which is averaging zero COVID-19 deaths a day compared with more than 2,000 a day in the U.S. Cline described a huge disconnect between the devil-may-care attitude of local residents and the reality she was seeing every day .
In this alternate universe , she said , there was a “ false sense of calm ” even as the city moved into the “ eye of the hurricane.
” “ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Cline said of the August biker rally in South Dakota that may have led to 266,000 new COVID-19 cases .
“ She said , ‘ Well , I drank so much alcohol it probably killed any virus.
’ This was a nurse !
” Cline had joined the VA in 2019 after 11 years at Sanford , where her friends kept her posted on their COVID-19 battle .
More than 150 COVID-19 patients were filling beds at Sanford , with 27 in the ICU and eight on ventilators , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sanford , the largest hospital system in the Dakotas , had just days before told thousands of health care workers he ’ d survived COVID-19 and would not wear a mask because he had “ no interest in using masks as a symbolic gesture.
” The hospital ’ s leadership team forced that CEO to retire and sent an email to employees rebutting his comments about masks .
As we sat in the still cold , the city was under silent siege .
Cline and three other VA health care workers I spoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ VA was saying publicly and conditions on the ground .
“ We just had like one surgical face mask for the whole shift , ” one VA nurse said , describing a stretch of weeks early in the pandemic when even three-ply blue paper masks were hard to find .
“ And we were even told to use it for the whole week , which these surgical masks are supposed to just be thrown after single use.
” She said the PPE situation has improved in recent months , but only after the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ VA summary of employee deaths shows no medical personnel at the Sioux Falls hospital have died of COVID .
N95 masks , the critical supplies that the CDC recommended for health care workers , were sitting unused in a Sioux Falls warehouse until Cline complained to the VA director .
After that , “ we magically got fitted for N95s , ” this nurse said .
“ We get it and we stick it in a paper bag , and we use it for five different ” shifts .
Such personal accounts were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to its employees that public comments about hospital conditions would not be tolerated .
“ In the Spring , Sioux Falls VA Health Care System maintained sufficient PPE for its employees , ” the Sioux Falls VA spokeswoman said , noting the agency followed loosened CDC guidelines that allowed for nurses to reuse their masks for several shifts .
The agency was sending mixed messages publicly .
Trump had claimed in January that everything was “ under control , ” but federal contract data showed erratic and desperate purchases with delivery dates for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Costly supplies sometimes never made it to hospitals , like an order for 5 million masks that in April was diverted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency .
Cline is an outspoken member of the Emergency Nurses Association , an Illinois-based advocacy group , which asked that I point out she ’ s not speaking on the group ’ s behalf and offered its own statement : “ When nurses fall ill because of inadequate PPE or other factors in their emergency department , patient care suffers — and that can not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stress and burnout … nurses are suffering because of their daily concern for their personal safety , ” ENA President Mike Hastings said .
I expressed amazement to Cline that after spending most of a year tracking mask brokers , watching billions in federal dollars spent to get supplies for hospitals like hers , that PPE was still scarce , rationed or nonexistent in many hospital settings .
I had traveled into various outbreaks in Chicago , Los Angeles , three cities in Texas , Pittsburgh , Cleveland , New York and New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ end of this most terrible year , the nation was facing its biggest spike in cases and deaths .
Back in Washington the next day , I opened a sobering email from Cline .
Her VA shift had stretched to 15 hours so she could watch over a COVID-19 patient in crisis .
No one was available to relieve her .
He was delirious , so she and another nurse sedated him and tied him down , which kept him alive .
“ It ’ s like this everywhere , ” she wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And the shameful thing is we had 8 months to prepare , and we have made a disaster of it.
” When Cline first said to me , “ The bottom line is it was too expensive to protect us , ” I thought she was referring specifically to the VA .
This didn ’ t seem right .
The VA alone shelled out at least $ 77.6 million to get PPE , according to our data analysis , so I asked what she meant .
She said she was making a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The depleted stockpile , the brokers and scams , the open bars and sports stadiums , the insistence on ignoring science , the resistance to wearing masks showed the limits of what Americans would sacrifice to protect themselves and each other .
Those of us lucky enough to be spared the sharp hurt of losing a loved one to this virus , or the palpable loss of a job and income , may still be feeling pressed ourselves under the dull weight of this year and what the virus has done to our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and many health care workers , that nebulous anxiety comes into high definition every time she puts on a used mask to treat someone who got sick because they or someone they cherish didn ’ t wear theirs .
It was too expensive to beef up the national stockpile .
Too expensive to keep mask manufacturing in the U.S. Too expensive to keep bars closed .
The personal cost was too high to stay home or sacrifice rugged individualism for an anonymizing face covering .
And yet as Christmas approached , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mandate showed that even the simplest effort could pay off .
Cases were trending down .
But Cline had been worn out for weeks , and she wanted to spend time with her boyfriend and her daughter .
When I relayed that the VA had categorically denied that nurses were being asked to ration PPE , or that there were shortages early on , she said she was done torturing herself .
The day before Christmas Eve , she told her bosses she was quitting and left her keycard with security .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said , “ has a way of making you feel inconsequential .
”

Nurse Kristen Cline was working a 12-hour shift in October at the Royal C. Johnson Veterans Memorial Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when a code blue rang through the halls. A patient in an isolation room was dying of a coronavirus that had raged for eight months across the country before it made the state the brightest red dot in a nation of hot spots.
Cline knew she needed to protect herself before entering the room, where a second COVID-19 patient was trembling under the covers, sobbing. She reached for the crinkled and dirty N95 mask she had reused for days.
In her post-death report, Cline described how the patient fell victim to a hospital in chaos. The crash cart and breathing bag that should have been in the room were missing. The patient wasn’t tethered to monitors that could have alerted nurses sooner. He had cried out for help, but the duty nurse was busy with other patients, packed two to a room meant for one.
“He died scared and alone. It didn’t have to be that way. We failed him — not the staff, we did everything we could,” she said. “The system failed him.”
The system also failed her. Since the pandemic’s early weeks, Cline had complained that the Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs the nation’s largest hospital system, wasn’t doing enough to protect its front-line health care workers. She had filed complaints about inadequate personal protective equipment with the agency’s inspector general and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but they had done nothing. Many months into a pandemic, they were still having to ration masks and being asked to reuse them for as many as five shifts.
From Cline’s perspective and that of other health care workers I spoke with from the VA hospital in Sioux Falls, the lack of masks was a symptom of larger failures at the agency overseeing the medical care of 9 million veterans. The hospitals lacked staff and scrounged to find gowns, medical supplies, ventilators — everything needed to battle COVID-19.
While every American hospital was stretched by the pandemic, the VA’s lack of an effective system for tracking and delivering supplies made it particularly vulnerable, according to a recent examination by the federal Government Accountability Office. When the pandemic hit, the agency relied on a few big contractors to supply everything from N95 masks to needles to isolation gowns. Those few big contractors fell victim to a global shortage of masks. And the VA had no reliable tracking system to tell officials what hospitals have, what they need or what was expired. At the Sioux Falls facility, things got so desperate, the supply chain for masks relied on a guy named Steve who gave them out one at time from a nearby warehouse, employees said.
As COVID-19 overwhelmed the antiquated system, VA leadership asked employees at more than 170 hospitals to enter inventory by hand into spreadsheets every day and did “not have insight” into how resources were being deployed, the report said. In other words, the local Best Buy or Walgreen’s had more efficient ways of managing inventory to get supplies to the right place.
The resulting scramble, which ProPublica has investigated over the past eight months, was a disorganized, poorly overseen effort to buy masks and other supplies from just about anyone who said they could deliver. Hoping to compensate for a disastrous lack of preparation, the VA awarded more than 100 contracts worth over $120 million to vendors with whom it had never done business.
The COVID-19 pandemic came at a tough moment for the agency, which was more than a year into a massive reorganization by the administration of President Donald Trump that left hundreds of jobs empty and sent the VA scrambling to hire contract positions to help with, among other things, procurement of supplies.
Kevin Lyons, an associate professor and supply chain expert at Rutgers Business School, said nothing the VA did before or during the pandemic showed it had a handle on its own purchase and delivery of supplies, let alone prepare for a global shortage. His research is exploring how the Trump administration’s purge of hundreds of VA staff members created a path to disaster.
VA Secretary Robert Wilkie had boasted about across-the-board staff cutbacks in November 2019, just weeks before the first confirmed U.S. COVID-19 case, noting that he had “relieved people as high as network directors to people at the other end of our employee chain.”
Lyons, an Air Force veteran, told me top VA officials have been able to claim all’s well — even as nurses and doctors describe continued shortages and rationing — because bureaucrats who awarded contracts did little or nothing to track how they worked out. He said the rapid-fire approval of contracts gave “the appearance that we’re doing something. But there was no connection between the nurses and the doctors who actually need it.”
“All they really care about is, you know, signing a contract, and then crossing your fingers and hoping that stuff comes,” Lyons said. “And that’s just not the way that supply chain is supposed to happen.”
Wilkie had acknowledged at one point early in the pandemic that COVID-19 had dried up the agency’s supply chain and forced hospitals to ration critical supplies. The agency has acknowledged the need for improvements to its procurement system. But the VA, which has lost more than 90 staff members to COVID-19, denies that it ever left nurses like Cline with inadequate personal protection. “All VA medical centers have adequate capacity, PPE and supplies to meet current demand, and at no point has a VA facility run out of PPE,” said Jamie Maxymuik, a spokeswoman for the VA Sioux Falls health system, in an email.
Yet Cline and other hospital workers had felt increasingly vulnerable as the raging virus revealed the government’s failure to adequately prepare or to fight back. In late April and May, emails that Cline shared show the VA instructing nurses to stitch together their own fabric masks at home to get through the crisis. The message coming from managers, Cline said, was to be patriotic and do more with less.
“My first reaction was, ‘Which desk jockey sitting at home came up with this nonsense?’” Cline remembered. “And then I thought, ‘Well, at least they are openly acknowledging that they aren’t providing enough protection.’”
In May, Cline had reached out to me, describing the plight of hospital staff dealing with unresponsive VA management. “They have been rationing masks for weeks now, but sending emails daily saying we have plenty of PPE and that rumors of a shortage are completely false. We have suspected for a few days now that they are lying about this,” Cline, 38, wrote.
Her outrage intensified when she read a story I wrote about how the VA awarded a $34.5 million contract to a random mask broker, who then rented a private jet to locate N95s that never existed from suppliers he didn’t know with money from investors he’d never met.
It was just a glimpse at the chaos disrupting the crucial supply chain on which Cline’s existence depended.
States, cities, hospitals and various federal agencies competed against one another for increasingly scarce masks, many held up in Chinese factories or customs. Health care workers like Cline were captive to the machinations transpiring overhead, unsure why they didn’t have the protection they needed.
In this frenzy, masks typically went to the highest bidder. And out of the woodwork came opportunists, counterfeiters, fakes and well-intentioned but clueless mask brokers trying to make a quick buck.
“The incompetence was just stunning to me,” Cline remembers thinking. “If they had just told us what was going on I would have felt better. But instead they just kept saying we have enough masks.”
Through the summer and fall, as I followed a bizarre trail of mask profiteers, Cline kept me aware of the consequences of an unregulated mask market, a situation that might have been comical if it weren’t so crucial to fighting the spread of COVID-19. Cline did not end up contracting COVID-19 but said the months of chaos and collective failure had left its mark.
“When this is over,” Cline told me. “Those of us who don’t die are going to quit.”
Anatomy of a Disaster
How does one account for the incompetence and greed, the poor planning, and the judgment failures at the government’s highest levels that led us into the worst public health crisis in at least a century?
Even if the Trump administration had empowered civil servants to wrangle supply chain logistics immediately — it didn’t. Even if his administration had dusted off and heeded a pandemic response playbook left behind by the Obama administration — it didn’t. Even if Trump had invoked the Defense Production Act to boost domestic mask manufacturing at the first sign of the crisis — it didn’t. Even if everything had gone right, we were in deep trouble before the first American travelers brought back a mysterious respiratory virus from Wuhan, China, and Europe.
The nation had spent years building up emergency medical supplies in a Strategic National Stockpile that was supposed to help us weather a national crisis. But after long stretches of inactivity and inadequate funding, it turns out it wasn’t all that strategic. Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, made it clear that the federal stockpile was not intended to serve the states, leaving them to fend for themselves in the quest for lifesaving supplies.
Retired Navy Rear Adm. John Polowczyk got plucked from the Defense Department in mid-March to lead the White House’s fledgling Coronavirus Task Force. “I walked in,” he told me, “and the National Stockpile had been given out. I did not have a single — really — I didn’t have a single N95 mask, surgical mask, isolation gown, nitrile glove. It had been issued.”
Polowczyk had spent 30 years mastering the complex logistics of getting supplies from manufacturer to user. But the Trump White House, he said, had “no bench depth” of experts to manage purchasing and distributing vital supplies.
It’s exactly as bad as it sounds, said Robert Handfield, a professor at North Carolina State University who interviewed officials who were working inside the federal effort to supply PPE. He detailed his findings in the Harvard Business Review, but early this month, he boiled it all down for me in a quick summary:
“It was a shit show. They had no idea what was going on.”
The VA embarked on a haphazard buying spree through its procurement system, but by the spring, it had to turn for help from FEMA and draw supplies from the stockpile, a “short-term stop-gap buffer” when critical items are not available, according to the GAO. Along with gloves, gowns, swabs and test kits, the VA received more than 8.2 million respirators, and 2.4 million masks.
Despite dire warnings and lessons learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the H1N1 swine flu in 2009, elected officials and administrations led by both parties simply didn’t prepare for what scientists warned was not just a probability but an eventuality.
A 2010 study commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following the swine flu outbreak warned that we needed to stock up on masks or face devastating consequences. The study made sweeping observations about existing and potential breakdowns between the local, state and federal governments.
Today, that report reads like prophecy:
“Delays and conflicts in federal guidance on respiratory protection (N95) led to confusion …” scientists wrote more than a decade ago.
“States experienced significant challenges with the N95 supply chain …”
“There should be a central repository of N95s which is replenished for future events. Federal contracts with N95 and PPE manufacturers generally should be strengthened …”
By February 2020, as the first U.S. outbreaks began, the stockpile housed just 12 million N95 masks, a fraction of what was needed. That same month, Dr. Robert Kadlec, the emergency preparedness czar in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress that the country needed 3.5 billion N95 masks, itself probably an underestimate. In other words, the country’s stockpile had less than one half of one percent of the masks we needed.
The stockpile was so depleted, that the moment the spread began, the country needed new production inputs, most of which were in China and would take 60 to 90 days to reach U.S. hospitals by traditional export. If we measure the stockpile in time, the U.S. was several months behind before this even started.
By the time the Trump administration pressured domestic manufacturers to ramp up supply and unleashed $17 billion to source supplies in April, it was far too late.
What that eerily prophetic CDC-commissioned study didn’t predict was the beneficiaries of such chaos, of shortages and desperation, and of exceptionally weak government contracting oversight: mask brokers.
We’re so far into this pandemic now that it’s easy to forget just how absurd the notion of a mask broker truly is. In normal times, masks aren’t all that profitable; an N95 should run about a dollar for anyone working on a dusty home improvement project. They’re a cheap widget in a broad catalog of bigger widgets offered by medical supply giants like 3M, Honeywell and Cardinal Health.
Yet the federal government found itself desperate enough to shell out a fortune to unknown people and companies that hadn’t existed just days before.
The gang brought in to help with PPE and other medical equipment included the inexperienced federal contractor whose private jet ride and failed mask adventure inspired Cline to reach out to me; a former NASCAR driver who allegedly tried to sell a trillion N95 masks that didn’t exist; a wealthy tech investor who used the Task Rabbit contractor-for-hire app to pay people to repackage ineffective Chinese masks so they could pass muster with hospitals.
Just to name a few.
As of December, the federal government spent about $8.5 billion to outfit front-line workers with PPE, medical instruments and various other supplies, according to a ProPublica analysis of spending data. It was not all bad. Some brokers delivered a sorely needed product while making a nice profit. And to be fair to the federal government, many states made the same mistakes.
As brokers made their bets, some making a fortune, some making fools of themselves, others making their criminal defense cases, Cline and millions of other health care workers just prayed there would be enough supplies tomorrow.
“Eye of the Hurricane”
I flew out to meet Cline a few days before Thanksgiving, when South Dakota was reporting the nation’s worst COVID-19 infection numbers and nearing 1 in 700 residents dead. While I had only traveled to the Upper Midwest, it felt as though I’d beamed straight into one of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s nightmares.
“If you want to tell the story of why COVID is so bad in America, I think South Dakota is the perfect microcosm of it all,” Cline told me as we met outdoors for coffee.
Just around the corner from the VA hospital where Cline worked, families huddled maskless and gabbed over heaps of pasta at the local Olive Garden. Gov. Kristi Noem had defied calls from public health experts to issue a state mask mandate, and a local one, recently passed by the Sioux Falls City Council, was, in my observation, scarcely observed.
At my hotel, which was connected by a footbridge to the state’s largest hospital, the nonprofit Sanford Medical Center, young people mingled mask-free in the lobby, shouting gleefully over a case of Bud Lights. Around the corner, the hot tub was bubbling, the first I’d seen since March, and was packed with members of two families. It looked … fun. Like the sort of thing seen in photos coming in lately from Australia, which is averaging zero COVID-19 deaths a day compared with more than 2,000 a day in the U.S.
Cline described a huge disconnect between the devil-may-care attitude of local residents and the reality she was seeing every day. In this alternate universe, she said, there was a “false sense of calm” even as the city moved into the “eye of the hurricane.”
“I had a colleague who went to Sturgis,” Cline said of the August biker rally in South Dakota that may have led to 266,000 new COVID-19 cases. “She said, ‘Well, I drank so much alcohol it probably killed any virus.’ This was a nurse!”
Cline had joined the VA in 2019 after 11 years at Sanford, where her friends kept her posted on their COVID-19 battle. More than 150 COVID-19 patients were filling beds at Sanford, with 27 in the ICU and eight on ventilators, according to state statistics.
Yet the CEO of Sanford, the largest hospital system in the Dakotas, had just days before told thousands of health care workers he’d survived COVID-19 and would not wear a mask because he had “no interest in using masks as a symbolic gesture.” The hospital’s leadership team forced that CEO to retire and sent an email to employees rebutting his comments about masks.
As we sat in the still cold, the city was under silent siege.
Cline and three other VA health care workers I spoke to saw another disconnect between what the VA was saying publicly and conditions on the ground.
“We just had like one surgical face mask for the whole shift,” one VA nurse said, describing a stretch of weeks early in the pandemic when even three-ply blue paper masks were hard to find. “And we were even told to use it for the whole week, which these surgical masks are supposed to just be thrown after single use.”
She said the PPE situation has improved in recent months, but only after the hospital logged 60 COVID-19 deaths. A VA summary of employee deaths shows no medical personnel at the Sioux Falls hospital have died of COVID.
N95 masks, the critical supplies that the CDC recommended for health care workers, were sitting unused in a Sioux Falls warehouse until Cline complained to the VA director. After that, “we magically got fitted for N95s,” this nurse said. “We get it and we stick it in a paper bag, and we use it for five different” shifts.
Such personal accounts were denied by the VA, which signaled to its employees that public comments about hospital conditions would not be tolerated. “In the Spring, Sioux Falls VA Health Care System maintained sufficient PPE for its employees,” the Sioux Falls VA spokeswoman said, noting the agency followed loosened CDC guidelines that allowed for nurses to reuse their masks for several shifts.
The agency was sending mixed messages publicly. Trump had claimed in January that everything was “under control,” but federal contract data showed erratic and desperate purchases with delivery dates for essential hospital purchases that spanned months. Costly supplies sometimes never made it to hospitals, like an order for 5 million masks that in April was diverted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Cline is an outspoken member of the Emergency Nurses Association, an Illinois-based advocacy group, which asked that I point out she’s not speaking on the group’s behalf and offered its own statement:
“When nurses fall ill because of inadequate PPE or other factors in their emergency department, patient care suffers — and that cannot be tolerated. Neither can the ongoing mental stress and burnout … nurses are suffering because of their daily concern for their personal safety,” ENA President Mike Hastings said.
I expressed amazement to Cline that after spending most of a year tracking mask brokers, watching billions in federal dollars spent to get supplies for hospitals like hers, that PPE was still scarce, rationed or nonexistent in many hospital settings. I had traveled into various outbreaks in Chicago, Los Angeles, three cities in Texas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, New York and New Haven, Connecticut. Yet nearing the end of this most terrible year, the nation was facing its biggest spike in cases and deaths.
Back in Washington the next day, I opened a sobering email from Cline. Her VA shift had stretched to 15 hours so she could watch over a COVID-19 patient in crisis. No one was available to relieve her. He was delirious, so she and another nurse sedated him and tied him down, which kept him alive.
“It’s like this everywhere,” she wrote. “It just got here later. And the shameful thing is we had 8 months to prepare, and we have made a disaster of it.”
“The Bottom Line”
When Cline first said to me, “The bottom line is it was too expensive to protect us,” I thought she was referring specifically to the VA. This didn’t seem right. The VA alone shelled out at least $77.6 million to get PPE, according to our data analysis, so I asked what she meant.
She said she was making a larger point about politics and economics. The depleted stockpile, the brokers and scams, the open bars and sports stadiums, the insistence on ignoring science, the resistance to wearing masks showed the limits of what Americans would sacrifice to protect themselves and each other.
Those of us lucky enough to be spared the sharp hurt of losing a loved one to this virus, or the palpable loss of a job and income, may still be feeling pressed ourselves under the dull weight of this year and what the virus has done to our way of life.
But for Cline, and many health care workers, that nebulous anxiety comes into high definition every time she puts on a used mask to treat someone who got sick because they or someone they cherish didn’t wear theirs.
It was too expensive to beef up the national stockpile. Too expensive to keep mask manufacturing in the U.S. Too expensive to keep bars closed. The personal cost was too high to stay home or sacrifice rugged individualism for an anonymizing face covering.
And yet as Christmas approached, the early results of Sioux Falls’ mask mandate showed that even the simplest effort could pay off. Cases were trending down.
But Cline had been worn out for weeks, and she wanted to spend time with her boyfriend and her daughter. When I relayed that the VA had categorically denied that nurses were being asked to ration PPE, or that there were shortages early on, she said she was done torturing herself.
The day before Christmas Eve, she told her bosses she was quitting and left her keycard with security.
“Being faceless under PPE for nine months,” she said, “has a way of making you feel inconsequential.”
Derek Willis contributed reporting.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-12-31--Only Six Senate Democrats Voted Against Advancing $740 Billion Pentagon Bill

After Senate Republicans repeatedly stymied a Sen. Bernie Sanders-led effort to force a clean up-or-down vote on $ 2,000 direct payments , dozens of Democrats late Wednesday joined Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in allowing the chamber to move ahead with the process of overriding President Donald Trump ’ s veto of the $ 740 billion National Defense Authorization Act .
The vote on the motion to proceed to the NDAA veto override came after Sanders , Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( D-N.Y. ) , and others denied McConnell unanimous consent this week to speedily advance the behemoth military spending @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a clean vote on House-passed legislation that would deliver $ 2,000 payments to most Americans .
But McConnell , joined by Sens .
Pat Toomey ( R-Pa. ) and John Cornyn ( R-Texas ) , rejected demands for a vote on the direct payments once again on Wednesday , declaring that the checks would benefit “ millionaires and billionaires ” — a complaint that was both false and shamelessly hypocritical , given that the same Republicans had no issue with passing President Donald Trump ’ s $ 1.5 trillion in tax cuts for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the delay tactics that Sanders spearheaded , McConnell was forced to hold a vote Wednesday on a formal motion to proceed to the NDAA .
But ultimately , Sanders was one of just six members of the Senate Democratic caucus to vote against the motion , which succeeded by an overwhelming margin of 80-12 .
Sens .
Ed Markey ( D-Mass . )
, Jeff Merkley ( D-Ore. ) , Chris Van Hollen ( D-Md . )
, Elizabeth Warren ( D-Mass . )
, and Ron Wyden ( D-Ore. ) joined the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Six Republicans also voted no .
In total , 41 Democrats — including Schumer and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris — voted for the motion , paving the way for an override of Trump ’ s NDAA veto and effectively killing the prospect of a vote on $ 2,000 direct payments before the next Congress .
View the full roll call here .
A final vote on the NDAA veto override is expected by January 2 .
Sanders made clear following the motion ’ s passage Wednesday that he plans to continue pushing for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ The sheer scale of Wednesday ’ s Democratic surrender was truly a sight to behold , ” wrote The Daily Poster ’ s David Sirota and Andrew Perez .
“ And it probably ended the chance for more immediate aid to millions of Americans facing eviction , starvation , and bankruptcy… Democratic senators in fact provided the majority of the votes for the measure that lets the defense bill proceed without a vote on the $ 2,000 checks.
” Ahead of Wednesday ’ s vote , Sanders took Republican senators to task @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direct relief for their constituents amid widespread hunger , surging poverty , and a looming eviction crisis .
McConnell , a Kentucky Republican , said during his floor remarks that the Senate is “ not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of the Democrats ’ rich friends who don ’ t need the help.
” “ Let me just make it clear for the Majority Leader that 10 out of the poorest 25 counties in the United States of America are located in Kentucky , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maybe my colleague , the Majority Leader , might want to get on the phone and start talking to working families in Kentucky and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $ 2,000 check per adult .
And I have the strong feeling that the people of Kentucky will respond no differently than the people of Vermont or New York.
” Sen. Ed Markey joined Sanders in demanding a vote on the $ 2,000 checks , declaring , “ He is right .
The Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every single part of this debate .
Senator Sanders is right .
The Republicans are wrong.
” “ We ’ re in the middle of an unprecedented crisis in our country , ” Markey said .
“ We have a healthcare crisis .
We have an unemployment crisis .
We have a hunger crisis .
We have a housing crisis .
We have an addiction crisis .
We have a moral crisis in this country .
The United States government should be responding to the needs , to the desperation , of families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ”

The vote effectively kills the prospect of a vote on $2,000 direct payments before the next Congress.
After Senate Republicans repeatedly stymied a Sen. Bernie Sanders-led effort to force a clean up-or-down vote on $2,000 direct payments, dozens of Democrats late Wednesday joined Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in allowing the chamber to move ahead with the process of overriding President Donald Trump’s veto of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act.
The vote on the motion to proceed to the NDAA veto override came after Sanders, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and others denied McConnell unanimous consent this week to speedily advance the behemoth military spending bill, a tactic aimed at securing a clean vote on House-passed legislation that would deliver $2,000 payments to most Americans.
But McConnell, joined by Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), rejected demands for a vote on the direct payments once again on Wednesday, declaring that the checks would benefit “millionaires and billionaires” — a complaint that was both false and shamelessly hypocritical, given that the same Republicans had no issue with passing President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy in 2017.
Thanks to the delay tactics that Sanders spearheaded, McConnell was forced to hold a vote Wednesday on a formal motion to proceed to the NDAA. But ultimately, Sanders was one of just six members of the Senate Democratic caucus to vote against the motion, which succeeded by an overwhelming margin of 80-12.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) joined the Vermont senator in opposing the motion. Six Republicans also voted no.
In total, 41 Democrats — including Schumer and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris — voted for the motion, paving the way for an override of Trump’s NDAA veto and effectively killing the prospect of a vote on $2,000 direct payments before the next Congress. View the full roll call here.
A final vote on the NDAA veto override is expected by January 2. Sanders made clear following the motion’s passage Wednesday that he plans to continue pushing for a vote on the direct payments.
“The sheer scale of Wednesday’s Democratic surrender was truly a sight to behold,” wrote The Daily Poster’s David Sirota and Andrew Perez. “And it probably ended the chance for more immediate aid to millions of Americans facing eviction, starvation, and bankruptcy… Democratic senators in fact provided the majority of the votes for the measure that lets the defense bill proceed without a vote on the $2,000 checks.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Sanders took Republican senators to task for standing in the way of robust direct relief for their constituents amid widespread hunger, surging poverty, and a looming eviction crisis. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said during his floor remarks that the Senate is “not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of the Democrats’ rich friends who don’t need the help.”
“Let me just make it clear for the Majority Leader that 10 out of the poorest 25 counties in the United States of America are located in Kentucky,” Sanders said in response. “So maybe my colleague, the Majority Leader, might want to get on the phone and start talking to working families in Kentucky and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $2,000 check per adult. And I have the strong feeling that the people of Kentucky will respond no differently than the people of Vermont or New York.”
This is how Democrats should do politics more often. pic.twitter.com/dnzZXnjiuj — Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) December 30, 2020
Sen. Ed Markey joined Sanders in demanding a vote on the $2,000 checks, declaring, “He is right. The Republicans are wrong on this issue, on every single part of this debate. Senator Sanders is right. The Republicans are wrong.”
“We’re in the middle of an unprecedented crisis in our country,” Markey said. “We have a healthcare crisis. We have an unemployment crisis. We have a hunger crisis. We have a housing crisis. We have an addiction crisis. We have a moral crisis in this country. The United States government should be responding to the needs, to the desperation, of families in our country at this time.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-12-31--US Has Entered Uncharted Territory in Uprising Against Racism

AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman .
As we continue to look at the uprisings against police brutality and racism , I want to turn to a conversation Democracy Now !
’ s Nermeen Shaikh and I had in early June with the scholars Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor of Princeton University and Cornel West of Harvard .
I began by asking professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to talk about the mass uprising and the police killing of George Floyd .
KEEANGA–YAMAHTTA TAYLOR : Part of what we are seeing is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Many people have referenced the 1960s , have referenced Ferguson in 2014 , but I think it ’ s important to say that these are not just repeats of past events .
These are the consequences of the failures of this government and the political establishment , the economic establishment of this country to resolve those crises , and so they build and accumulate over time .
And we are watching the boiling over of that .
Imagine how angry , desperate , rage-filled you would have to be to come out and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic that has already killed over 103,000 Americans , that has had a disproportionately horrendous impact in Black communities .
I believe 23,000 or 24,000 Black people have died .
To put it more bluntly , one in every 2,000 African Americans in the United States has died as the result of COVID .
So imagine how difficult things have to be for people to come out in those conditions .
So , I think that the buildup around police brutality , the continuation of police brutality , police abuse and violence and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ endure those conditions , because it is obvious that there is either nothing that our government can do about this or that the government is complicit and chooses not to do anything about this .
And I think that we have to add to that the crisis that is unfolding beyond police brutality in the country , as well , because we all know that the videotapes of police beatings , abuse , murder have never stopped .
So , the movement that grew out of the Ferguson uprising , that became Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to that never actually ended .
And I think that what has reignited that is obviously the public lynching of George Floyd one week ago in Minneapolis , but also the conditions , the wider context within which that is spilling over .
And because of that wider condition of mass unemployment , of the death that has been caused by the pandemic , that this is not just — I don ’ t believe these are just protests around or against police brutality .
But we see a lot of — hundreds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white people in these uprisings , making these multiracial rebellions , really .
And I think that that is important .
Some people have sort of described the participation of white people as outside agitators , or I know that there are reports of white supremacists infiltrating some of the demonstrations .
And I think that those are things that we have to pay attention to , keep track of and try to understand .
But I think we can not dismiss in a widespread way the participation of young white people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has happened over the last decade has gutted their lives , too .
And there has been some discussion about this with perhaps their parents ’ generation , with the description of deaths by despair .
So , we know that the life expectancy of ordinary white men and women has gone into reverse — something , by the way , that does not typically happen in the developed world .
And it is driven by opioid addiction , alcoholism and suicide .
And so , this generation , whose lives really — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ graduated from college , your life has been bracketed by war at the turn of the 21st century , by recession and now by a deadly pandemic .
And so , I think we ’ re seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it .
And in many ways , we are in uncharted territory in the United States .
NERMEEN SHAIKH : Dr. Cornel West , could you respond to what professor Yamahtta Taylor said ?
You agree that , of course , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lynching .
You ’ ve also said that his murder and the demonstrations that have followed show that America is a failed social experiment .
So could you respond to that and also the way that the state and police forces have responded to the protests , following George Floyd ’ s killing , with the National Guard called out in so many cities and states across the country ?
CORNEL WEST : Well , there ’ s no doubt that this is America ’ s moment of reckoning .
But we want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the global , because , you see , when you sow the seeds of greed — domestically , inequality ; globally , imperial tentacles , 800 military units abroad , violence and AFRICOM in Africa , supporting various regimes , dictatorial ones in Asia and so forth — there is a connection between the seeds that you sow of violence externally and internally .
Same is true in terms of the seed of hatred , of white supremacy , hating Black people , anti-Blackness hatred having its own dynamic within the context @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money , money , money , domination of workers , marginalization of those who don ’ t fit — gay brothers , lesbian sisters , trans and so forth .
So , it ’ s precisely this convergence that my dear sister Professor Taylor is talking about of the ways in which the American Empire , imploding , its foundations being shaken , with uprisings from below .
The catalyst was certainly Brother George Floyd ’ s public lynching , but the failures of the predatory capitalist economy to provide the satisfaction of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and quality education , jobs with a decent wage , at the same time the collapse of your political class , the collapse of your professional class .
Their legitimacy has been radically called into question , and that ’ s multiracial .
It ’ s the neofascist dimension in Trump .
It ’ s the neoliberal dimension in Biden and Obama and the Clintons and so forth .
And it includes much of the media .
It includes many of the professors in universities .
The young people are saying , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haven ’ t been concerned about our suffering , our misery .
And we no longer believe in your legitimacy.
” And it spills over into violent explosion .
And it ’ s here .
I won ’ t go on , but , I mean , it ’ s here , where I think Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer and Rabbi Heschel and Edward Said , and especially Brother Martin and Malcolm , their legacies , I think , become more central , because they provide the kind of truth telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and compassion in their example , in their organizing .
And that ’ s what is needed right now .
Rebellion is not the same thing in any way as revolution .
And what we need is a nonviolent revolutionary project of full-scale democratic sharing — power , wealth , resources , respect , organizing — and a fundamental transformation of this American Empire .
AMY GOODMAN : And your thoughts , Professor West , on the governor of Minnesota saying they ’ re looking into white supremacist connections to the looting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then President Trump tweeting that he ’ s going to try to put antifa , the anti-fascist activists , on the terror list — which he can not do — and William Barr emphasizing this , saying he ’ s going after the far left to investigate ?
CORNEL WEST : No , I mean , that ’ s ridiculous .
You know , you remember , Sister Amy — and I love and respect you so — that antifa saved my life in Charlottesville .
There ’ s no doubt about it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you see .
So the very notion that they become candidates for a terrorist organization , but the people who were trying to kill us — the Nazis , the Klan — they ’ re not candidates for terrorist organization status — but that ’ s what you ’ re going to get .
You ’ re going to get a Trump-led neofascist backlash and clampdown on what is going on .
We ought to be very clear about that .
The neofascism has that kind of obsession with militaristic imposition in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And so we ’ ve got to be fortified for that .
But most importantly , I think we ’ ve got to make sure that we preserve our own moral , spiritual , quality , fundamental focus on truth and justice , and keep track of legalized looting , Wall Street greed ; legalized murder , police ; legalized murder abroad in Yemen , in Pakistan , in Africa with AFRICOM , and so forth .
That ’ s where our focus has to be , because with all of this rebellious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be channeled through organizations rooted in a quest for truth and justice .

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
As we continue to look at the uprisings against police brutality and racism, I want to turn to a conversation Democracy Now!’s Nermeen Shaikh and I had in early June with the scholars Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor of Princeton University and Cornel West of Harvard. I began by asking professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor to talk about the mass uprising and the police killing of George Floyd.
KEEANGA–YAMAHTTA TAYLOR: Part of what we are seeing is years and years of pent-up rage. Many people have referenced the 1960s, have referenced Ferguson in 2014, but I think it’s important to say that these are not just repeats of past events. These are the consequences of the failures of this government and the political establishment, the economic establishment of this country to resolve those crises, and so they build and accumulate over time. And we are watching the boiling over of that.
Imagine how angry, desperate, rage-filled you would have to be to come out and protest in the conditions of a historical pandemic that has already killed over 103,000 Americans, that has had a disproportionately horrendous impact in Black communities. I believe 23,000 or 24,000 Black people have died. To put it more bluntly, one in every 2,000 African Americans in the United States has died as the result of COVID. So imagine how difficult things have to be for people to come out in those conditions. So, I think that the buildup around police brutality, the continuation of police brutality, police abuse and violence and murder has compelled people to have to endure those conditions, because it is obvious that there is either nothing that our government can do about this or that the government is complicit and chooses not to do anything about this.
And I think that we have to add to that the crisis that is unfolding beyond police brutality in the country, as well, because we all know that the videotapes of police beatings, abuse, murder have never stopped. So, the movement that grew out of the Ferguson uprising, that became Black Lives Matter, the conditions that led to that never actually ended. And I think that what has reignited that is obviously the public lynching of George Floyd one week ago in Minneapolis, but also the conditions, the wider context within which that is spilling over. And because of that wider condition of mass unemployment, of the death that has been caused by the pandemic, that this is not just — I don’t believe these are just protests around or against police brutality.
But we see a lot of — hundreds, if not thousands, of young white people in these uprisings, making these multiracial rebellions, really. And I think that that is important. Some people have sort of described the participation of white people as outside agitators, or I know that there are reports of white supremacists infiltrating some of the demonstrations. And I think that those are things that we have to pay attention to, keep track of and try to understand. But I think we cannot dismiss in a widespread way the participation of young white people, because we have to see that what has happened over the last decade has gutted their lives, too. And there has been some discussion about this with perhaps their parents’ generation, with the description of deaths by despair.
So, we know that the life expectancy of ordinary white men and women has gone into reverse — something, by the way, that does not typically happen in the developed world. And it is driven by opioid addiction, alcoholism and suicide. And so, this generation, whose lives really — you know, if you’ve graduated from college, your life has been bracketed by war at the turn of the 21st century, by recession and now by a deadly pandemic. And so, I think we’re seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it. And in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the United States.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr. Cornel West, could you respond to what professor Yamahtta Taylor said? You agree that, of course, the murder of George Floyd was a lynching. You’ve also said that his murder and the demonstrations that have followed show that America is a failed social experiment. So could you respond to that and also the way that the state and police forces have responded to the protests, following George Floyd’s killing, with the National Guard called out in so many cities and states across the country?
CORNEL WEST: Well, there’s no doubt that this is America’s moment of reckoning. But we want to make the connection between the local and the global, because, you see, when you sow the seeds of greed — domestically, inequality; globally, imperial tentacles, 800 military units abroad, violence and AFRICOM in Africa, supporting various regimes, dictatorial ones in Asia and so forth — there is a connection between the seeds that you sow of violence externally and internally. Same is true in terms of the seed of hatred, of white supremacy, hating Black people, anti-Blackness hatred having its own dynamic within the context of a predatory capitalist civilization obsessed with money, money, money, domination of workers, marginalization of those who don’t fit — gay brothers, lesbian sisters, trans and so forth. So, it’s precisely this convergence that my dear sister Professor Taylor is talking about of the ways in which the American Empire, imploding, its foundations being shaken, with uprisings from below.
The catalyst was certainly Brother George Floyd’s public lynching, but the failures of the predatory capitalist economy to provide the satisfaction of the basic needs of food and healthcare and quality education, jobs with a decent wage, at the same time the collapse of your political class, the collapse of your professional class. Their legitimacy has been radically called into question, and that’s multiracial. It’s the neofascist dimension in Trump. It’s the neoliberal dimension in Biden and Obama and the Clintons and so forth. And it includes much of the media. It includes many of the professors in universities. The young people are saying, “You all have been hypocritical. You haven’t been concerned about our suffering, our misery. And we no longer believe in your legitimacy.” And it spills over into violent explosion.
And it’s here. I won’t go on, but, I mean, it’s here, where I think Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer and Rabbi Heschel and Edward Said, and especially Brother Martin and Malcolm, their legacies, I think, become more central, because they provide the kind of truth telling. They provide the connection between justice and compassion in their example, in their organizing. And that’s what is needed right now. Rebellion is not the same thing in any way as revolution. And what we need is a nonviolent revolutionary project of full-scale democratic sharing — power, wealth, resources, respect, organizing — and a fundamental transformation of this American Empire.
AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts, Professor West, on the governor of Minnesota saying they’re looking into white supremacist connections to the looting and the burning of the city, and then President Trump tweeting that he’s going to try to put antifa, the anti-fascist activists, on the terror list — which he cannot do — and William Barr emphasizing this, saying he’s going after the far left to investigate?
CORNEL WEST: No, I mean, that’s ridiculous. You know, you remember, Sister Amy — and I love and respect you so — that antifa saved my life in Charlottesville. There’s no doubt about it, that they provided the security, you see. So the very notion that they become candidates for a terrorist organization, but the people who were trying to kill us — the Nazis, the Klan — they’re not candidates for terrorist organization status — but that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a Trump-led neofascist backlash and clampdown on what is going on. We ought to be very clear about that. The neofascism has that kind of obsession with militaristic imposition in the face of any kind of disorder. And so we’ve got to be fortified for that.
But most importantly, I think we’ve got to make sure that we preserve our own moral, spiritual, quality, fundamental focus on truth and justice, and keep track of legalized looting, Wall Street greed; legalized murder, police; legalized murder abroad in Yemen, in Pakistan, in Africa with AFRICOM, and so forth. That’s where our focus has to be, because with all of this rebellious energy, it’s got to be channeled through organizations rooted in a quest for truth and justice.