democracynow--2020-03-24--Economist Jeffrey Sachs: Trump "Understands Nothing, Listens to Nothing" as Pandemic Surges in U.S.

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : After four days of negotiations on Monday , Senate Democrats stopped Republicans from advancing a nearly $ 2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that critics say is a massive bailout for corporate America , that does little to aid hard-hit workers amidst the coronavirus pandemic .
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted in response that , quote , “ Senate Dems were right to reject this corporate bailout , ” and noted it , quote , “ Creates a $ 500B slush fund @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] Mnuchin has complete control over , ” and “ Provides only a one-time $ 1200 check and just $ 600 for those who need it most.
” This is Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy speaking on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on the stimulus package .
AMY GOODMAN : When asked who would provide oversight for the corporate bailouts at Monday night ’ s press briefing , President Trump responded , “ I ’ ll be the oversight.
” This comes as the hashtag # NotDying4WallStreet is trending on Twitter .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ States exceeded 100 for the first time Monday , Trump said America will be “ open for business very soon.
” He suggested the U.S. could dramatically change its approach to handling the pandemic .
AMY GOODMAN : Meanwhile , calls are mounting to allow remote voting for lawmakers in Washington so they can avoid gathering and potentially spreading the coronavirus .
You know , Senator Rand Paul , for example , has already tested positive for COVID-19 and was seen , just a few hours before the announcement came , swimming in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pressley and Ilhan Omar have unveiled a bill to cancel $ 30,000 for all student debts during the coronavirus crisis .
The Labor Department is expected to report a record-breaking 3 million Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment next week .
The U.S. unemployment rate could hit 30 % in the coming weeks and months .
For more , we ’ re joined by Jeffrey Sachs , leading economist , director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University .
Interestingly , he also led the World Health Organization ’ s Commission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2001 , playing a key role in conceiving and establishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS , Tuberculosis and Malaria , which helped distribute new medicines to fight infectious diseases .
He ’ s the author of a number of books , including A New Foreign Policy : Beyond American Exceptionalism .
His forthcoming book , The Ages of Globalization , joining us by Democracy Now !
stream .
And , of course , Juan González co-hosting from his home in New Brunswick , New Jersey .
Jeffrey Sachs , thanks so much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You work in New York , the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States .
Talk about what ’ s happening in Washington and then around the world , and President Trump switching once again yesterday , reversing course , his top scientific adviser not standing at his side noticeably , Dr. Fauci , saying the U.S. is going to be open for business soon , as the pandemic rates soar in this country .
JEFFREY SACHS : Amy , thank you for your comprehensive coverage .
Thanks , Juan .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is spreading all over the world , as you ’ ve so comprehensively reported .
And it ’ s doubly terrifying that we have a complete nitwit as president , who understands nothing , listens to nothing , judges nothing , except by the stock market , and is endangering the American people .
So , it ’ s just hard to believe what a colossal mess our country is in , not only a virus to which the world population is immunologically naive — in other words , one that can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isn ’ t acquired immunity , there isn ’ t experience with this virus — but a president who is certainly the most incompetent president in the history of our country , who not only has personal incompetence but is completely unable to bring together and listen to qualified people , like Dr. Fauci and others , who should be helping to control this pandemic .
Instead , we have one ignoramus after another , without guidance , without strategy , so every mayor and governor in this country is on the frontlines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s just bewildering .
There should have been money available immediately to the states and cities for every emergency step to actually fight the pandemic .
Instead , they ’ re talking about the airline industry .
They ’ re talking about which bailouts of which sectors , instead of fighting the spread of the virus .
You noted at the top of the show a remarkable fact , which is probably the most pertinent fact for all of us to focus on .
In China , at the very epicenter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hubei province , China battled this virus under control and is now lifting the lockdown measures after about two months .
That is the result of rigorous containment policies , tough but also comprehensive testing , contact tracing , isolation of people with symptoms , and they ’ ve tracked hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cases .
They have been able to stop the spread of the pandemic .
And China is not alone in that .
It is a kind of East Asian model .
Singapore , Taiwan , Hong Kong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large extent , have all used public health means to bring the spread of the virus under control .
This is what our focus should be in the United States right now — stop the spread of the virus , protect the frontline health workers , contain the pandemic , help people who are in a desperate situation to get by .
There ’ s not a lot of consumption to do right now other than our food and our basic provisioning .
And , of course , nobody being evicted or losing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their survival right now .
We ’ re not out partying .
We don ’ t need large money for entertainment .
We don ’ t need large money for travel , to say the least .
We need survival mode .
But what the East Asian experience shows is that if you are aggressive in the public health response , the lockdown isn ’ t for months and years ; the lockdown is 60 or 90 days , depending on how well things are done .
And then it ’ s possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of normalcy , with care , but then with a greatly expanded public health effort in place , which the U.S. didn ’ t have at the start of this epidemic , which Trump , in his idiocy , disdained .
The man knows nothing .
We should understand this .
We need expertise right now .
We lost the vital weeks .
Now we need to build that capacity , so that after 60 or 90 days , we can start to lift the siege .
And there ’ s plenty of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , if we would only look , learn and act .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Jeffrey Sachs , I wanted to ask you — in terms of the actions in Congress right now , you mentioned you were critical of the failure of Congress to act .
But isn ’ t part of the problem here that rather than , as you say , deal with appropriations that would help people stay in place and not fall further and further behind financially , the Senate has tried this huge package , which obviously involves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Democrats and the House and the Senate , that it makes it far more difficult than , for instance , just to pass 90 days of full-pay unemployment benefits for workers right now , while they figure out the other aspects of what to do with businesses ?
This attempt to create the largest spending bill ever conceived in Congress all in one fell swoop like this , is this going to just bog things down further ?
JEFFREY SACHS : Juan , you ’ re completely right .
The focus should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the disease , keeping people protected , helping the health workers , and especially helping the mayors and the governors around this country who are on the frontline .
There should have been immediately an emergency $ 100 billion , $ 200 billion for the governors and the mayors to quickly be able to get financial flows so that they can hire emergency social support , they can take whatever measures are available given the supply constraints for the hospitals , for requisitioning safe space , for enabling there to be a viable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are in isolation can survive this period .
That ’ s the first order of priority .
It should have been one day to recognize this .
It should be supervised , if we had a functioning CDC , the Centers for Disease Control , by CDC , by NIH , by the National Academies of Science , National Academy of Medicine .
We could have improvised a kind of supervision , not the dolt of a president who says , “ I am the one responsible.
” My god , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this country .
But Congress went off on some kind of a mind-boggling economic excursion of $ 2 trillion rather than focusing on the epidemic .
They just don ’ t understand what ’ s actually happening .
They should be listening to the mayors and the governors , because those are the political leaders truly dealing on the frontlines .
And they should be helping those on the frontlines to keep the health workers alive , to get the social support and to help people to stay home , to shelter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transmission and to stay safe personally .
Those are the points of the shelter in place — stay safe individually and end this transmission — because this transmission , if everybody that now has symptoms and is infected could be kept sheltered in place in some kind of isolation , given , of course , hospitalization as needed , the epidemic then goes away .
Most people recover normally .
Some are hospitalized .
Tragically , some will die .
But the epidemic does not spread then .
This should be the order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is a bit abstract , all one has to look to , the countries that are actually succeeding in doing this , to get some lessons , because there are several , as I ’ ve mentioned .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , I wanted to ask you a broader question , a more systemic question , about the U.S. response compared to other countries .
We ’ re in a time when capitalism really has devolved into this question of constant — the bean counters constantly modeling economic projections for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in terms of just-in-time production , so that there are never any goods piled up in warehouses .
And what they never model are precisely these periods of complete qualitative change in society , when something completely unexpected happens .
And the system is not prepared to deal with it , so now you have all of these companies going to the White House demanding help , because they never planned for possible crises of this type in their modelings and in their plans for the future .
I ’ m wondering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system is more concentrated on curing disease rather than preventing or public health portions of the health system .
So I ’ m wondering if there aren ’ t systemic issues that this crisis has now unbared .
JEFFREY SACHS : Juan , absolutely right .
Our health system is focused not even first and foremost on curing disease ; it ’ s focused first and foremost on making money .
We have drugs that could stop many other epidemics now , like hepatitis C , that don ’ t do so , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than their production costs because of the unbelievably broken system we have to give monopoly power to powerful companies , who then use their unbelievable profits , in part , to buy the Congress .
So , the corruption of our political system has driven so much attention to the wrong things , away from our well-being and now even away from our survival .
And it is amazing to listen — maybe it ’ s not — it shouldn ’ t be amazing to me , but it is amazing to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yeah , we should go back to work quickly.
” The president , of course , said this inanity yesterday , but others in the conservative movement saying , “ We need to save the economy .
Of course some people will die , but why are we wasting so much money on lives ?
” This is a corruption of the most basic human spirit .
It ’ s a kind of sickness that has infiltrated our public life , of now literally money before lives , money before survival .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because it ’ s not only cruelty that we ’ re seeing .
We ’ re seeing profound ignorance .
Of course , the president is the ignoramus-in-chief .
He knows nothing , understands nothing .
He ’ s a vulgar narcissist .
But we have so many people in this country that know something , but where are they when Congress is spending $ 2 trillion ?
Where are the experts being listen to ?
Our system is broken because the greed has supplanted the basic values , and the greed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do .
JEFFREY SACHS : We ’ re not — yes , sorry .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick , who rejects the idea of social distancing , urging a swift return to work , saying older people , who are much more vulnerable to the virus , should “ sacrifice ” for the country ’ s economy .
Patrick spoke Monday on Fox News with Tucker Carlson .
AMY GOODMAN : Death panels right now that the Republicans are suggesting ?
As goes Texas , so goes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Of course , we know what Trump watches and gets his advice from .
You look at the panel yesterday at the news conference .
As others are calling for only scientists to speak and doctors to speak to the country , Trump is increasingly just surrounded by — yesterday it was William Barr , it was Vice President Pence .
Dr. Fauci wasn ’ t there .
And Trump , like Texas , has said he ’ s questioning all of this scientific advice .
If the doctors had it their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ d be closed for years .
Can you respond to what the lieutenant [ governor ] of Texas has just suggested ?
JEFFREY SACHS : I am speechless .
The ignorance and the cruelty displayed by that is beyond almost anything that I can recall in American life by elected officials .
Of course , we have a lot of sickness in this country of venomous type , but the expressions of this sort , that it ’ s time for the older people to sacrifice for the economy , is not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s so ignorant .
It is so completely bereft of the most basic ideas of public health .
If people would understand , this is a controllable epidemic .
Many countries are controlling it .
The United States is not .
The United States is not , because it is not implementing , because of our broken system , because of our incredibly incompetent and psychopathic president — we ’ re not implementing basic public health measures .
But countries that are , are not sacrificing their old for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ epidemic .
And so , we need some education in this country quickly .
We need to hear Dr. Fauci .
We need to hear other experts .
It ’ s not hard to find them .
Our country is filled with knowledgeable people .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , Jeffrey Sachs , we want to thank you for joining us .
We ’ re going to be calling on you again .
AMY GOODMAN : This is going to go on for a long time .
Leading economist , director of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , led the World Health Organization ’ s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health years ago .
When we come back , we look at Cuba .
It is sending doctors out around the world to help fight the pandemic .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : Neil Diamond singing “ Hands… Washing Hands , ” in his 2020 update of his classic “ Sweet Caroline , ” singing from his home , where everyone needs to be .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: After four days of negotiations on Monday, Senate Democrats stopped Republicans from advancing a nearly $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that critics say is a massive bailout for corporate America, that does little to aid hard-hit workers amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted in response that, quote, “Senate Dems were right to reject this corporate bailout,” and noted it, quote, “Creates a $500B slush fund for corporations that [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin has complete control over,” and “Provides only a one-time $1200 check and just $600 for those who need it most.” This is Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy speaking on the Senate floor ahead of the vote on the stimulus package.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: It may make a lot of people rich, but it doesn’t have the resources in it today to take care of the most vulnerable in this country, and it’s not going to do their primary job at hand, which is to stop the virus.
AMY GOODMAN: When asked who would provide oversight for the corporate bailouts at Monday night’s press briefing, President Trump responded, “I’ll be the oversight.” This comes as the hashtag #NotDying4WallStreet is trending on Twitter. As recorded COVID-19 fatalities in the United States exceeded 100 for the first time Monday, Trump said America will be “open for business very soon.” He suggested the U.S. could dramatically change its approach to handling the pandemic.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. We’re not going to let the cure be worse than the problem. At the end of the 15-day period, we’ll make a decision as to which way we want to go, where we want to go, the timing. And essentially, we’re referring to the timing of the opening, essentially the opening of our country.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, calls are mounting to allow remote voting for lawmakers in Washington so they can avoid gathering and potentially spreading the coronavirus. You know, Senator Rand Paul, for example, has already tested positive for COVID-19 and was seen, just a few hours before the announcement came, swimming in the Senate pool. House Democrats Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar have unveiled a bill to cancel $30,000 for all student debts during the coronavirus crisis. The Labor Department is expected to report a record-breaking 3 million Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment next week. The U.S. unemployment rate could hit 30% in the coming weeks and months.
For more, we’re joined by Jeffrey Sachs, leading economist, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Interestingly, he also led the World Health Organization’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health from 2000 to 2001, playing a key role in conceiving and establishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which helped distribute new medicines to fight infectious diseases. He’s the author of a number of books, including A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism. His forthcoming book, The Ages of Globalization, joining us by Democracy Now! stream. And, of course, Juan González co-hosting from his home in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Jeffrey Sachs, thanks so much for joining us.
JEFFREY SACHS: Good morning, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: You work in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. Talk about what’s happening in Washington and then around the world, and President Trump switching once again yesterday, reversing course, his top scientific adviser not standing at his side noticeably, Dr. Fauci, saying the U.S. is going to be open for business soon, as the pandemic rates soar in this country.
JEFFREY SACHS: Amy, thank you for your comprehensive coverage. Thanks, Juan. It’s terrifying, this pandemic, which is spreading all over the world, as you’ve so comprehensively reported. And it’s doubly terrifying that we have a complete nitwit as president, who understands nothing, listens to nothing, judges nothing, except by the stock market, and is endangering the American people. So, it’s just hard to believe what a colossal mess our country is in, not only a virus to which the world population is immunologically naive — in other words, one that can spread wild and rapidly everywhere because there isn’t acquired immunity, there isn’t experience with this virus — but a president who is certainly the most incompetent president in the history of our country, who not only has personal incompetence but is completely unable to bring together and listen to qualified people, like Dr. Fauci and others, who should be helping to control this pandemic. Instead, we have one ignoramus after another, without guidance, without strategy, so every mayor and governor in this country is on the frontlines without federal support. And Congress, it’s just bewildering. There should have been money available immediately to the states and cities for every emergency step to actually fight the pandemic. Instead, they’re talking about the airline industry. They’re talking about which bailouts of which sectors, instead of fighting the spread of the virus.
You noted at the top of the show a remarkable fact, which is probably the most pertinent fact for all of us to focus on. In China, at the very epicenter of this crisis at the start, Hubei province, China battled this virus under control and is now lifting the lockdown measures after about two months. That is the result of rigorous containment policies, tough but also comprehensive testing, contact tracing, isolation of people with symptoms, and they’ve tracked hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cases. They have been able to stop the spread of the pandemic. And China is not alone in that. It is a kind of East Asian model. Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, to a large extent, have all used public health means to bring the spread of the virus under control.
This is what our focus should be in the United States right now — stop the spread of the virus, protect the frontline health workers, contain the pandemic, help people who are in a desperate situation to get by. There’s not a lot of consumption to do right now other than our food and our basic provisioning. And, of course, nobody being evicted or losing shelter or otherwise losing the means for their survival right now. We’re not out partying. We don’t need large money for entertainment. We don’t need large money for travel, to say the least. We need survival mode.
But what the East Asian experience shows is that if you are aggressive in the public health response, the lockdown isn’t for months and years; the lockdown is 60 or 90 days, depending on how well things are done. And then it’s possible to start going back to some kind of normalcy, with care, but then with a greatly expanded public health effort in place, which the U.S. didn’t have at the start of this epidemic, which Trump, in his idiocy, disdained. The man knows nothing. We should understand this. We need expertise right now. We lost the vital weeks. Now we need to build that capacity, so that after 60 or 90 days, we can start to lift the siege. And there’s plenty of experience now of how to do this, if we would only look, learn and act.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Jeffrey Sachs, I wanted to ask you — in terms of the actions in Congress right now, you mentioned you were critical of the failure of Congress to act. But isn’t part of the problem here that rather than, as you say, deal with appropriations that would help people stay in place and not fall further and further behind financially, the Senate has tried this huge package, which obviously involves so much negotiations back and forth between the Democrats and the House and the Senate, that it makes it far more difficult than, for instance, just to pass 90 days of full-pay unemployment benefits for workers right now, while they figure out the other aspects of what to do with businesses? This attempt to create the largest spending bill ever conceived in Congress all in one fell swoop like this, is this going to just bog things down further?
JEFFREY SACHS: Juan, you’re completely right. The focus should be seriously on stopping the spread of the disease, keeping people protected, helping the health workers, and especially helping the mayors and the governors around this country who are on the frontline. There should have been immediately an emergency $100 billion, $200 billion for the governors and the mayors to quickly be able to get financial flows so that they can hire emergency social support, they can take whatever measures are available given the supply constraints for the hospitals, for requisitioning safe space, for enabling there to be a viable and civilized shutdown so that people who are in isolation can survive this period. That’s the first order of priority. It should have been one day to recognize this. It should be supervised, if we had a functioning CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, by CDC, by NIH, by the National Academies of Science, National Academy of Medicine. We could have improvised a kind of supervision, not the dolt of a president who says, “I am the one responsible.” My god, it’s shocking, with all the expertise in this country. But Congress went off on some kind of a mind-boggling economic excursion of $2 trillion rather than focusing on the epidemic. They just don’t understand what’s actually happening.
They should be listening to the mayors and the governors, because those are the political leaders truly dealing on the frontlines. And they should be helping those on the frontlines to keep the health workers alive, to get the social support and to help people to stay home, to shelter in place, and to break the transmission and to stay safe personally. Those are the points of the shelter in place — stay safe individually and end this transmission — because this transmission, if everybody that now has symptoms and is infected could be kept sheltered in place in some kind of isolation, given, of course, hospitalization as needed, the epidemic then goes away. Most people recover normally. Some are hospitalized. Tragically, some will die. But the epidemic does not spread then. This should be the order of business for the U.S. And if it is a bit abstract, all one has to look to, the countries that are actually succeeding in doing this, to get some lessons, because there are several, as I’ve mentioned.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I wanted to ask you a broader question, a more systemic question, about the U.S. response compared to other countries. We’re in a time when capitalism really has devolved into this question of constant — the bean counters constantly modeling economic projections for the future in terms of profit and loss, in terms of just-in-time production, so that there are never any goods piled up in warehouses. And what they never model are precisely these periods of complete qualitative change in society, when something completely unexpected happens. And the system is not prepared to deal with it, so now you have all of these companies going to the White House demanding help, because they never planned for possible crises of this type in their modelings and in their plans for the future. I’m wondering if this — similarly, the health system is more concentrated on curing disease rather than preventing or public health portions of the health system. So I’m wondering if there aren’t systemic issues that this crisis has now unbared.
JEFFREY SACHS: Juan, absolutely right. Our health system is focused not even first and foremost on curing disease; it’s focused first and foremost on making money. We have drugs that could stop many other epidemics now, like hepatitis C, that don’t do so, because they are priced hundreds of times more than their production costs because of the unbelievably broken system we have to give monopoly power to powerful companies, who then use their unbelievable profits, in part, to buy the Congress. So, the corruption of our political system has driven so much attention to the wrong things, away from our well-being and now even away from our survival.
And it is amazing to listen — maybe it’s not — it shouldn’t be amazing to me, but it is amazing to listen to conservative commentators say, “Yeah, we should go back to work quickly.” The president, of course, said this inanity yesterday, but others in the conservative movement saying, “We need to save the economy. Of course some people will die, but why are we wasting so much money on lives?”
This is a corruption of the most basic human spirit. It’s a kind of sickness that has infiltrated our public life, of now literally money before lives, money before survival. And it leads to a kind of blindness, because it’s not only cruelty that we’re seeing. We’re seeing profound ignorance. Of course, the president is the ignoramus-in-chief. He knows nothing, understands nothing. He’s a vulgar narcissist. But we have so many people in this country that know something, but where are they when Congress is spending $2 trillion? Where are the experts being listen to? Our system is broken because the greed has supplanted the basic values, and the greed has supplanted people who know what to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Jeffrey, this is—
JEFFREY SACHS: We’re not — yes, sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who rejects the idea of social distancing, urging a swift return to work, saying older people, who are much more vulnerable to the virus, should “sacrifice” for the country’s economy. Patrick spoke Monday on Fox News with Tucker Carlson.
LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK: No one reached out to me and said, “As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?” And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in. And that doesn’t make me noble or brave or anything like that. I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me.
AMY GOODMAN: Death panels right now that the Republicans are suggesting? As goes Texas, so goes the nation. This is on Fox. Of course, we know what Trump watches and gets his advice from. You look at the panel yesterday at the news conference. As others are calling for only scientists to speak and doctors to speak to the country, Trump is increasingly just surrounded by — yesterday it was William Barr, it was Vice President Pence. Dr. Fauci wasn’t there. And Trump, like Texas, has said he’s questioning all of this scientific advice. If the doctors had it their way, he said, we’d be closed for years. Can you respond to what the lieutenant [governor] of Texas has just suggested?
JEFFREY SACHS: I am speechless. The ignorance and the cruelty displayed by that is beyond almost anything that I can recall in American life by elected officials. Of course, we have a lot of sickness in this country of venomous type, but the expressions of this sort, that it’s time for the older people to sacrifice for the economy, is not only despicable, it’s so stupid. It’s so ignorant. It is so completely bereft of the most basic ideas of public health.
If people would understand, this is a controllable epidemic. Many countries are controlling it. The United States is not. The United States is not, because it is not implementing, because of our broken system, because of our incredibly incompetent and psychopathic president — we’re not implementing basic public health measures. But countries that are, are not sacrificing their old for the economy. They’re controlling the epidemic. And so, we need some education in this country quickly. We need to hear Dr. Fauci. We need to hear other experts. It’s not hard to find them. Our country is filled with knowledgeable people.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jeffrey Sachs, we want to thank you for joining us. We’re going to be calling on you again.
JEFFREY SACHS: Please.
AMY GOODMAN: This is going to go on for a long time. Leading economist, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, led the World Health Organization’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health years ago.
When we come back, we look at Cuba. It is sending doctors out around the world to help fight the pandemic. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Neil Diamond singing “Hands… Washing Hands,” in his 2020 update of his classic “Sweet Caroline,” singing from his home, where everyone needs to be.


democracynow--2020-03-24--Headlines for March 24, 2020

Headlines for March 24, 2020

New York remains the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. and now accounts for around 5 % of all cases around the world .
The total number of confirmed cases stands at over 23,000 this morning .
The “ attack rate , ” or the percentage of the population infected with the virus , was nearly one in 1,000 in New York — five times higher than in other parts of the country .
Over 180 New Yorkers have died , and the pace of deaths is expected to accelerate .
On Monday , the Brooklyn Democracy Academy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s principal , Dezann Romain , due to complications from COVID-19 .
Romain was just 36 years old .
She ’ s the first public school employee in New York known to have died from coronavirus .
Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York is now able to test 16,000 people a day .
At a daily press briefing , Cuomo ordered New York hospitals to increase their capacity by 50 % .
The Javits Convention Center is expected to be converted into an additional hospital this week to start handling the overflow of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal government to take decisive action to send emergency funding to the state , as well as to produce and distribute much-needed medical supplies .
Gov .
Andrew Cuomo : “ Let the federal government put in place the federal Defense Production Act .
It does not nationalize any industry .
All it does is say to a factory , 'You must produce this quantity . '
That ’ s all it does.
” In other parts of the country , governors and local officials are also clamoring for much-needed supplies .
Michigan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shipping of personal protective equipment , or PPE , from the national stockpile was barely enough to cover one shift at a hospital .
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said 400 ventilators from the federal stockpile were sent to New York City to help treat the growing number of patients .
Governor Cuomo also announced Monday New York will be the first state to test a coronavirus treatment that involves injecting blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients into individuals fighting off the disease .

New York remains the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. and now accounts for around 5% of all cases around the world. The total number of confirmed cases stands at over 23,000 this morning. The “attack rate,” or the percentage of the population infected with the virus, was nearly one in 1,000 in New York — five times higher than in other parts of the country.
Over 180 New Yorkers have died, and the pace of deaths is expected to accelerate. On Monday, the Brooklyn Democracy Academy announced the passing of the school’s principal, Dezann Romain, due to complications from COVID-19. Romain was just 36 years old. She’s the first public school employee in New York known to have died from coronavirus.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York is now able to test 16,000 people a day. At a daily press briefing, Cuomo ordered New York hospitals to increase their capacity by 50%. The Javits Convention Center is expected to be converted into an additional hospital this week to start handling the overflow of coronavirus patients. Cuomo again urged the federal government to take decisive action to send emergency funding to the state, as well as to produce and distribute much-needed medical supplies.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “Let the federal government put in place the federal Defense Production Act. It does not nationalize any industry. All it does is say to a factory, 'You must produce this quantity.' That’s all it does.”
In other parts of the country, governors and local officials are also clamoring for much-needed supplies. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Monday a recent shipping of personal protective equipment, or PPE, from the national stockpile was barely enough to cover one shift at a hospital. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said 400 ventilators from the federal stockpile were sent to New York City to help treat the growing number of patients.
Governor Cuomo also announced Monday New York will be the first state to test a coronavirus treatment that involves injecting blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients into individuals fighting off the disease.


democracynow--2020-03-25--Calls Grow for Sen. Burr to Resign After He Sold $1.7 Million in Stocks & Downplayed COVID-19 Risks

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The War and Peace Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
Calls are growing for Republican Senator Richard Burr to resign , after he reportedly sold up to $ 1.7 million worth of stock after receiving privileged briefings about the coronavirus threat to the global community months ago .
ProPublica reports Burr , the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee , unloaded his holdings on February 13th in 33 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he had access to classified information about the coronavirus and was receiving daily intelligence briefings .
The stock market began plummeting a week later .
The news came after NPR published a secretly recorded audiotape of Senator Burr addressing business leaders and members of the elite Tar Heel Circle at a luncheon in Washington on February 27th , when the U.S. had just 15 confirmed coronavirus cases .
AMY GOODMAN : Senator Burr said , quote , “ It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more akin to the 1918 pandemic.
” Burr ’ s actions sparked condemnation across the political spectrum , from Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to Fox News host Tucker Carlson .
Well , for more , we ’ re joined by one of the reporters who broke this story , Derek Willis of ProPublica .
Welcome to Democracy Now !
, Derek , again , joining us on Democracy Now !
video stream from his home , as so many of our guests are , to protect themselves and the community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his home in New Brunswick , New Jersey .
Derek , talk about what you found .
And it ’ s not only Senator Burr , but talk about what he did .
DEREK WILLIS : Sure .
Well , Senator Burr , as you said , traded , made 33 separate sales transactions on February 13th of stock holdings .
Now , because of the way that these stock trades are reported , we don ’ t know the exact amounts .
We have a range of amounts .
And so , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total between $ 628,000 to up to $ 1.7 million of value .
And the thing about this is , Senator Burr is not the only senator or member of Congress to trade in stocks .
He ’ s not the only person to sell stocks this year .
But the volume of his trades and the timing of it , and in addition to what NPR reported about his public and private comments , they really set him apart compared to a lot of his colleagues in terms of sort of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chair of the Intelligence Committee , Senator Burr was getting , as you said , classified briefings about threats to the nation , including from coronavirus , in the weeks before he made these trades .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Derek , I wanted to ask you specifically about that .
Were there particular hearings that he was privy to just before these trades occurred ?
DEREK WILLIS : We don ’ t know exactly what was said in these briefings .
There was a Senate-wide briefing late in January about coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was available to all senators .
Senator Burr did attend that briefing .
Not every senator did .
But that wasn ’ t a classified briefing in the same way that Intelligence Committee briefings are .
And so , the part of this that we don ’ t know is we don ’ t know what he learned in some of those classified briefings .
He has said that his trades were based on public information , what he simply saw on CNBC or other networks that talked about sort of the financial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus .
AMY GOODMAN : And can you talk about the other senators ?
You did say , you know , people do sell , whether or not they have privileged information , but Republicans James Inhofe of Oklahoma ; Kelly Loeffler , the new senator from Georgia ; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — Loeffler married to the chair and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange .
DEREK WILLIS : That ’ s right .
And I think , like I said , I want to make clear that , like , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a class by themselves .
But with Senator Loeffler , obviously , sort of one of the interesting aspects there is the fact , her connection to the New York Stock Exchange and through her husband .
Her investments , I think , are different in some respects , in that they are — they appear to be , at least , from everything that we know and what she has said — they are traded by someone else , and she is informed of the trade after the fact .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Congress , particularly those with significant wealth , to have sort of a third party do the trades for them .
Of course , you know , we ’ re relying on their say-so .
AMY GOODMAN : Derek , we only have a minute , but Burr has called for an ethics investigation to exonerate him .
But also if you can say — I mean , so he had this information .
I guess the question is also : What was he telling his constituents or the entire country at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking action at this point , certainly when it came to tests and availability of protective gear , etc.
?
DEREK WILLIS : Right .
The message he was putting out was essentially that the United States is in a good position to act against or to mitigate the effects of this virus , while at the same time he was selling these stocks .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , we want to thank you so much , Derek Willis , reporter from ProPublica .
Just to end with , The Wall Street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over $ 9 billion worth of stocks between the beginning of February and the end of last week .
Jeff Bezos sold the most , of the executives , 3 % of his Amazon shares , worth $ 3.4 billion .
And that does it for our show .
Democracy Now !
is produced by an amazing team , most of whom who are working from home to protect themselves and the community .
Democracy Now !
has an amazing team of committed producers and staff .
Thanks so much to Mike Burke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nermeen Shaikh , Carla Wills , Tami Woronoff , Libby Rainey , Sam Alcoff , John Hamilton , Robby Karran , Hany Massoud , Charina Nadura , Tey-Marie Astudillo , Adriano Contreras , María Taracena , Julie Crosby , Denis Moynihan , Miriam Barnard , Mike DiFilippo , Miguel Nogueira .
Special thanks to Becca Staley .
Juan González , joining us from New Brunswick .
I ’ m Amy Goodman in New York .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Calls are growing for Republican Senator Richard Burr to resign, after he reportedly sold up to $1.7 million worth of stock after receiving privileged briefings about the coronavirus threat to the global community months ago. ProPublica reports Burr, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, unloaded his holdings on February 13th in 33 separate transactions. At the time, he had access to classified information about the coronavirus and was receiving daily intelligence briefings. The stock market began plummeting a week later.
The news came after NPR published a secretly recorded audiotape of Senator Burr addressing business leaders and members of the elite Tar Heel Circle at a luncheon in Washington on February 27th, when the U.S. had just 15 confirmed coronavirus cases.
SEN. RICHARD BURR: It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history. It’s probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Burr said, quote, “It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history. It’s probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.” Burr’s actions sparked condemnation across the political spectrum, from Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Well, for more, we’re joined by one of the reporters who broke this story, Derek Willis of ProPublica.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Derek, again, joining us on Democracy Now! video stream from his home, as so many of our guests are, to protect themselves and the community from COVID-19. Juan with us from his home in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Derek, talk about what you found. And it’s not only Senator Burr, but talk about what he did.
DEREK WILLIS: Sure. Well, Senator Burr, as you said, traded, made 33 separate sales transactions on February 13th of stock holdings. Now, because of the way that these stock trades are reported, we don’t know the exact amounts. We have a range of amounts. And so, the amounts here, they range in total between $628,000 to up to $1.7 million of value. And the thing about this is, Senator Burr is not the only senator or member of Congress to trade in stocks. He’s not the only person to sell stocks this year. But the volume of his trades and the timing of it, and in addition to what NPR reported about his public and private comments, they really set him apart compared to a lot of his colleagues in terms of sort of the uniqueness of his situation. As the chair of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Burr was getting, as you said, classified briefings about threats to the nation, including from coronavirus, in the weeks before he made these trades.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Derek, I wanted to ask you specifically about that. Were there particular hearings that he was privy to just before these trades occurred?
DEREK WILLIS: We don’t know exactly what was said in these briefings. There was a Senate-wide briefing late in January about coronavirus and what it could mean, that was available to all senators. Senator Burr did attend that briefing. Not every senator did. But that wasn’t a classified briefing in the same way that Intelligence Committee briefings are. And so, the part of this that we don’t know is we don’t know what he learned in some of those classified briefings. He has said that his trades were based on public information, what he simply saw on CNBC or other networks that talked about sort of the financial aspects of — the financial impacts of coronavirus.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the other senators? You did say, you know, people do sell, whether or not they have privileged information, but Republicans James Inhofe of Oklahoma; Kelly Loeffler, the new senator from Georgia; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin — Loeffler married to the chair and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.
DEREK WILLIS: That’s right. And I think, like I said, I want to make clear that, like, Senator Burr’s were sort of in a class by themselves. But with Senator Loeffler, obviously, sort of one of the interesting aspects there is the fact, her connection to the New York Stock Exchange and through her husband. Her investments, I think, are different in some respects, in that they are — they appear to be, at least, from everything that we know and what she has said — they are traded by someone else, and she is informed of the trade after the fact. That’s actually not uncommon for members of Congress, particularly those with significant wealth, to have sort of a third party do the trades for them. Of course, you know, we’re relying on their say-so.
AMY GOODMAN: Derek, we only have a minute, but Burr has called for an ethics investigation to exonerate him. But also if you can say — I mean, so he had this information. I guess the question is also: What was he telling his constituents or the entire country at the time that President Trump was hardly taking action at this point, certainly when it came to tests and availability of protective gear, etc.?
DEREK WILLIS: Right. The message he was putting out was essentially that the United States is in a good position to act against or to mitigate the effects of this virus, while at the same time he was selling these stocks.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you so much, Derek Willis, reporter from ProPublica. Just to end with, The Wall Street Journal reporting Tuesday, corporate executives sold over $9 billion worth of stocks between the beginning of February and the end of last week. Jeff Bezos sold the most, of the executives, 3% of his Amazon shares, worth $3.4 billion.
And that does it for our show. Democracy Now! is produced by an amazing team, most of whom who are working from home to protect themselves and the community. Democracy Now! has an amazing team of committed producers and staff. Thanks so much to Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Nermeen Shaikh, Carla Wills, Tami Woronoff, Libby Rainey, Sam Alcoff, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Charina Nadura, Tey-Marie Astudillo, Adriano Contreras, María Taracena, Julie Crosby, Denis Moynihan, Miriam Barnard, Mike DiFilippo, Miguel Nogueira. Special thanks to Becca Staley. Juan González, joining us from New Brunswick. I’m Amy Goodman in New York.


democracynow--2020-03-25--"People Go Before Money. This Is About Saving Lives," Says San Juan Mayor on Pandemic in Puerto Rico

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The War and Peace Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González , as we head to Puerto Rico , which just announced a record $ 787 million financial package to fight the economic impact of the pandemic .
It ’ s a bigger package than any U.S. state so far , comes as the island ’ s death toll hits two , with 51 cases reported .
Measures include a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loans ; bonuses for essential service providers such as medical staff and police ; new tablets and educational tools to improve remote education .
Governor Wanda Vázquez said Puerto Rico ’ s public sector employees will keep getting paid , and small businesses and self-employed workers will receive cash to cope with the crisis .
She ordered an island-wide curfew and the closing of nonessential businesses .
The pandemic follows a series of devastating earthquakes in Puerto Rico earlier this year and comes as the island continues to deal with the fallout from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s infrastructure and killed at least 3,000 people .
For more , we ’ re joined on the telephone by San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz .
And co-hosting with us from his home in New Brunswick , New Jersey , is Juan González .
Mayor Cruz , welcome back to Democracy Now !
Can you talk about what ’ s happening now in Puerto Rico ?
I understand you ’ ve just opened a drive-by testing center .
MAYOR CARMEN YULÍN CRUZ : Yes , that is correct .
First of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safe and staying home as much as you can .
It is important to break the cycle down and ensure that those that are most vulnerable are less in the line of fire , so to speak .
One of the things that we have been doing since January at the municipality is ensuring that we kept abreast of what was happening .
So it gave us a little leeway to purchase masks for our first responders and for anyone that we knew — doctors and nurses — were going to be on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very important that they have the equipment so that they don ’ t get sick , and reduce the amount of doctors with coronavirus , because , you know , if you lose your doctors and you lose your nurses and your lab technicians , who ’ s going to take care of everybody ?
So we started working on that .
As you know and you mentioned , we started a curfew in Puerto Rico .
The 9th of March , we started taking measures in San Juan .
On March 13th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laboratories , that provided us with an amount of tests , the PCR .
Those are the testing that it ’ s a swab that goes in your nostrils , in both nostrils , and it has a 95 % effectiveness ratio .
So , we needed to have a way that would be fast and quick for people that have symptoms .
That ’ s very important .
Amy , people have to have symptoms .
Now , there are , of course , vulnerable populations , like people on dialysis or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we are monitoring on a daily basis , from what we called clínica vida , which is — we call it our life clinic , where our HIV adult and pediatrician patients , we are calling them on a daily basis to see if they have any symptoms .
So we have established , let ’ s say , a priority , because we don ’ t have — as anybody else in the world , we don ’ t have as many testing kits as we would like them to have .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ It takes about four days after they get there , which they get during one day .
And we are already starting to receive results .
In the case of San Juan , only one person has been positive from our testing at the municipality .
And , of course , we are sending those numbers to the state and to the CDC .
It ’ s been very effective .
We thought we were going to have 25 patients a day , Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday .
Monday of this week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the — AMY GOODMAN : Yulín , we have a bad connection , but I want Juan to get one more question in before we move on .
Juan ?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Yes , Mayor , I wanted to ask you about the federal package that ’ s being crafted , voted on hopefully today , in Congress .
Often the congressional bills either exempt Puerto Rico or reduce payments to Puerto Rico compared to other states .
Do you have any sense yet of whether the proposals in the Senate and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instance , the $ 1,200 payments to every American , $ 500 for every dependent , and also extended unemployment benefits , whether those will apply to Puerto Rico , as well ?
MAYOR CARMEN YULÍN CRUZ : We have been told that they would , and we are currently checking on that .
As you know , the bill was approved yesterday .
But one of the things that I think is evident is that with the Trump administration and FEMA , we have to continue to remind them , time and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that we deserve to be treated with the same sense of justice , urgency and dignity as anybody else is .
This past weekend , FEMA exempted everybody from the Buy America First , and they did not exempt Puerto Rico , they did not exempt Washington , D.C. , and they did not exempt any of the other territories .
And frankly , we had to raise hell .
And I want to thank Nydia Velázquez for being a very clear voice in that area , and Bennie Thompson , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for being strong voices for the people of Puerto Rico .
I just don ’ t know why one has to continue , here in Puerto Rico and in the states , to tell the Trump administration that people go before money and that this is about saving lives .
It is not about politics .
AMY GOODMAN : Carmen Yulín Cruz , we thank you so much for being with us , mayor of San Juan , Puerto Rico .
We hope to touch base with you soon with a clearer @ @ @

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we head to Puerto Rico, which just announced a record $787 million financial package to fight the economic impact of the pandemic. It’s a bigger package than any U.S. state so far, comes as the island’s death toll hits two, with 51 cases reported. Measures include a three-month moratorium on mortgage payments and other loans; bonuses for essential service providers such as medical staff and police; new tablets and educational tools to improve remote education. Governor Wanda Vázquez said Puerto Rico’s public sector employees will keep getting paid, and small businesses and self-employed workers will receive cash to cope with the crisis. She ordered an island-wide curfew and the closing of nonessential businesses. The pandemic follows a series of devastating earthquakes in Puerto Rico earlier this year and comes as the island continues to deal with the fallout from Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico’s infrastructure and killed at least 3,000 people.
For more, we’re joined on the telephone by San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. And co-hosting with us from his home in New Brunswick, New Jersey, is Juan González.
Mayor Cruz, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about what’s happening now in Puerto Rico? I understand you’ve just opened a drive-by testing center.
MAYOR CARMEN YULÍN CRUZ: Yes, that is correct. First of all, I hope everybody’s safe and staying home as much as you can. It is important to break the cycle down and ensure that those that are most vulnerable are less in the line of fire, so to speak. One of the things that we have been doing since January at the municipality is ensuring that we kept abreast of what was happening. So it gave us a little leeway to purchase masks for our first responders and for anyone that we knew — doctors and nurses — were going to be on the line of fire. It is very important that they have the equipment so that they don’t get sick, and reduce the amount of doctors with coronavirus, because, you know, if you lose your doctors and you lose your nurses and your lab technicians, who’s going to take care of everybody? So we started working on that. As you know and you mentioned, we started a curfew in Puerto Rico. The 9th of March, we started taking measures in San Juan.
On March 13th, we signed a contract with Quest laboratories, that provided us with an amount of tests, the PCR. Those are the testing that it’s a swab that goes in your nostrils, in both nostrils, and it has a 95% effectiveness ratio. So, we needed to have a way that would be fast and quick for people that have symptoms. That’s very important. Amy, people have to have symptoms. Now, there are, of course, vulnerable populations, like people on dialysis or cancer patients or HIV patients, which we are monitoring on a daily basis, from what we called clínica vida, which is — we call it our life clinic, where our HIV adult and pediatrician patients, we are calling them on a daily basis to see if they have any symptoms. So we have established, let’s say, a priority, because we don’t have — as anybody else in the world, we don’t have as many testing kits as we would like them to have. These tests are sent to California. It takes about four days after they get there, which they get during one day. And we are already starting to receive results. In the case of San Juan, only one person has been positive from our testing at the municipality. And, of course, we are sending those numbers to the state and to the CDC. It’s been very effective. We thought we were going to have 25 patients a day, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday of this week was our first official day. On the —
AMY GOODMAN: Yulín, we have a bad connection, but I want Juan to get one more question in before we move on. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, Mayor, I wanted to ask you about the federal package that’s being crafted, voted on hopefully today, in Congress. Often the congressional bills either exempt Puerto Rico or reduce payments to Puerto Rico compared to other states. Do you have any sense yet of whether the proposals in the Senate and in this package will include, for instance, the $1,200 payments to every American, $500 for every dependent, and also extended unemployment benefits, whether those will apply to Puerto Rico, as well?
MAYOR CARMEN YULÍN CRUZ: We have been told that they would, and we are currently checking on that. As you know, the bill was approved yesterday. But one of the things that I think is evident is that with the Trump administration and FEMA, we have to continue to remind them, time and time again, that we are people and that we deserve to be treated with the same sense of justice, urgency and dignity as anybody else is. This past weekend, FEMA exempted everybody from the Buy America First, and they did not exempt Puerto Rico, they did not exempt Washington, D.C., and they did not exempt any of the other territories. And frankly, we had to raise hell. And I want to thank Nydia Velázquez for being a very clear voice in that area, and Bennie Thompson, the congressman that chairs the Homeland Security Committee, for being strong voices for the people of Puerto Rico. I just don’t know why one has to continue, here in Puerto Rico and in the states, to tell the Trump administration that people go before money and that this is about saving lives. It is not about politics.
AMY GOODMAN: Carmen Yulín Cruz, we thank you so much for being with us, mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We hope to touch base with you soon with a clearer phone line.


democracynow--2020-03-25--Madrid's Ice Rink Turned to Morgue as Spain Exceeds China in Coronavirus Deaths

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : We turn now to Spain , one of the epicenters of the pandemic in Europe , with over 47,000 confirmed cases and nearly 3,500 deaths — the second-highest number in the world after Italy .
The number of new infections in Spain has multiplied at a rate of 20 % in the last 24 hours .
Health workers account for nearly 14 % of Spain ’ s infections .
Many face limited availability of protective equipment .
So many people have died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has stopped collecting bodies .
A large ice skating rink is now being used as a makeshift morgue .
Not far from the rink , the venue for last year ’ s U.N. climate summit , the IFEMA , has been converted into a hospital ward with thousands of beds .
Spain ’ s government has opened an investigation after soldiers found unattended bodies in some of the nursing homes the military has been disinfecting .
As Spain faces its second week of lockdown , the government plans to extend the state of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to stop the spread of the coronavirus .
For more , we go to Madrid for an update from María Carrión , former Democracy Now !
producer , journalist in Spain , head of FiSahara , a film festival that airs in the Sahrawi refugee camps of Algeria .
It ’ s great to have you back , María .
You ’ ve been now on lockdown for two weeks with your family in the heart of Madrid , which is the epicenter of the epicenter , Spain , as it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infection .
Talk about what ’ s happening now and what the president is about to announce .
MARÍA CARRIÓN : Well , as you mentioned , this is ground zero in Spain for number of deaths and infections .
We have over 1,500 deaths in Madrid .
So , if Madrid was a country , it would actually be fifth in terms of death rate in the entire world , between Iran and France .
So , this is day 12 of the lockdown .
Everybody seems to be following it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beginning to be overrun with cases of coronavirus .
The ICU units are at capacity .
And we have a scarcity of every kind of material that you can possibly imagine .
So this is a repeat of what happened both in China and in Italy .
Catalonia , the region of Catalonia , is also hard hit .
It now has the highest infection rate , new infection rate , in the country .
And as you mentioned , 14 % of healthcare workers , at least , have been infected , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from giving care .
They do not have the protective gear , as I was hearing Sean and Kelley speak .
The same thing is happening here , as well .
People are having to either recycle their gear or simply just make their own with whatever is lying around at home .
So , today , Parliament is — an empty , almost empty Parliament will be convening , so via online , telematic vote .
They will be debating the extension of the state of exception .
The president of Spain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and explaining why this needs to be extended .
And we ’ re expecting , of course , for everybody to vote for this measure and keep everyone at home , except for certain workers that can still leave their home .
AMY GOODMAN : And both he and the vice president , Pablo Iglesias of Podemos , both of their partners are COVID-19-positive ?
MARÍA CARRIÓN : Their partners are COVID-19-positive , and they have gone in and out of isolation .
They have broken their quarantine a few times to attend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a distance .
There are a lot of politicians infected .
We talked about this a few days ago .
And , of course , the list is just increasing of politicians in Spain who are either in quarantine , because they ’ ve been very close to virus infections , or actually have tested positive and either at home or in hospital .
Garzón , we still don ’ t know — Baltasar Garzón , the very renowned judge , we still don ’ t know if he is positive , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he has all the symptoms and was hospitalized for respiratory distress .
The most vulnerable people here , Amy , are the ones that are really of concern .
You mentioned the nursing homes where these bodies were found .
In the news yesterday , they were interviewing health workers , caregivers in these and other nursing homes .
And the director of one of these homes , the Maravillas center in Madrid , was running a fever , sick , but still at work and crying , because she said that she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspected all of her staff was infected , but they could not stop working and caring for the elderly patients , most of which , they feared , were also infected , and some of which had already died .
So , this , you know , hearing Sean and Kelley talk about how these are preexisting problems , here , too , nursing homes have been a problem for a long time , understaffed , underfunded .
These are publicly financed but privately run facilities where oversight is not very good .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ result of this : Our elders are dying .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : María , I wanted to ask you about other vulnerable populations , those in the prisons of Spain , as well as the migrants .
There ’ s a huge migrant population , especially from Northern Africa , in Spain .
What ’ s the situation with migrants who are perhaps in detention or in precarious living situations ?
MARÍA CARRIÓN : Some centers are letting some people go , but it ’ s still a pending issue .
There ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these migrant centers , where people are being held , and also in prisons , jails and prisons in Spain .
This is something that has not yet been dealt with .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And I wanted to ask you , The New York Times had a very — an amazing article today talking about medical doctors in the United States apparently hoarding potential treatments , especially these drugs chloroquine and [ hydroxychloroquine ] that President Trump has been touting , that these doctors have been prescribing them all around the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in essence , hoarding them .
And now pharmacists are complaining that actually doctors are involved in this .
Do you have any examples of health professionals there sort of looking out for themselves rather than their patients ?
MARÍA CARRIÓN : Very few , actually .
I don ’ t think people are paying much attention to Trump from here , so those drugs have not been hoarded , that I know of .
At the very beginning of the crisis , we did hear about certain doctors hoarding face masks and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctor who took all of the face masks in the hospital and took them to his village and gave them to his neighbors .
But that ’ s not generally the case , or at least it ’ s not being reported on .
AMY GOODMAN : And , María , if you could talk about the IFEMA ?
We were just with you , working at the convention center , which has now been turned into a massive hospital — ironically , the place where the U.N. climate summit was , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue of the connection of climate crisis to these viruses that we ’ re seeing increasingly .
And also the skating rink , which is very personal for you , being used as a morgue ?
MARÍA CARRIÓN : Yes , indeed .
IFEMA was converted into what is now Spain ’ s largest hospital .
It has over a thousand beds , including also intensive care units .
And it doesn ’ t just bring in patients , coronavirus patients , who , for the most part , are not the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opened a section for the unhoused .
So there ’ s about 150 beds for people who do not have shelter or are being kicked out of shelters when — in the morning , and they need a place to be and healthcare .
So , IFEMA has transformed itself and is now just full of beds , and hundreds of people sleep in one same wing .
That ’ s one thing .
The ice rink is actually a big mall .
It ’ s located close to IFEMA , as you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , very close to my daughters ’ school .
It is a place where they ’ ve gone ice skating , where they regularly meet with their friends and have lunch .
There ’ s movie theaters .
They have celebrated birthdays .
And we , all of a sudden , saw all these hearses enter this place .
And so , my older daughter Gabriela said , “ I don ’ t think I could go there again with my friends.
” AMY GOODMAN : María , we ’ re going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carrión , former Democracy Now !
producer living in Madrid , Spain , where she ’ s a freelance journalist .
She has been holed up with her two daughters and her partner for the last two weeks .
María runs three kilometers a day in her apartment , and it ’ s not large .
That doesn ’ t even compare to the man in France who just ran a marathon on his balcony .
This is Democracy Now !
When we come back , we go to Puerto Rico to speak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carmen Yulín Cruz .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ The Awakening ” by Mike Longo , legendary jazz pianist known for playing with Dizzy Gillespie .
He has died at the age of 83 .
The cause ?
The coronavirus .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Spain, one of the epicenters of the pandemic in Europe, with over 47,000 confirmed cases and nearly 3,500 deaths — the second-highest number in the world after Italy. The number of new infections in Spain has multiplied at a rate of 20% in the last 24 hours. Health workers account for nearly 14% of Spain’s infections. Many face limited availability of protective equipment. So many people have died that Madrid’s municipal funeral home has stopped collecting bodies. A large ice skating rink is now being used as a makeshift morgue. Not far from the rink, the venue for last year’s U.N. climate summit, the IFEMA, has been converted into a hospital ward with thousands of beds. Spain’s government has opened an investigation after soldiers found unattended bodies in some of the nursing homes the military has been disinfecting. As Spain faces its second week of lockdown, the government plans to extend the state of emergency by another 15 days in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
For more, we go to Madrid for an update from María Carrión, former Democracy Now! producer, journalist in Spain, head of FiSahara, a film festival that airs in the Sahrawi refugee camps of Algeria.
It’s great to have you back, María. You’ve been now on lockdown for two weeks with your family in the heart of Madrid, which is the epicenter of the epicenter, Spain, as it’s fast surpassing Italy in its rate of infection. Talk about what’s happening now and what the president is about to announce.
MARÍA CARRIÓN: Well, as you mentioned, this is ground zero in Spain for number of deaths and infections. We have over 1,500 deaths in Madrid. So, if Madrid was a country, it would actually be fifth in terms of death rate in the entire world, between Iran and France.
So, this is day 12 of the lockdown. Everybody seems to be following it, with very few exceptions. Hospitals are beginning to be overrun with cases of coronavirus. The ICU units are at capacity. And we have a scarcity of every kind of material that you can possibly imagine. So this is a repeat of what happened both in China and in Italy. Catalonia, the region of Catalonia, is also hard hit. It now has the highest infection rate, new infection rate, in the country. And as you mentioned, 14% of healthcare workers, at least, have been infected, which has taken out over 5,000 people from giving care. They do not have the protective gear, as I was hearing Sean and Kelley speak. The same thing is happening here, as well. People are having to either recycle their gear or simply just make their own with whatever is lying around at home.
So, today, Parliament is — an empty, almost empty Parliament will be convening, so via online, telematic vote. They will be debating the extension of the state of exception. The president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, will be speaking and explaining why this needs to be extended. And we’re expecting, of course, for everybody to vote for this measure and keep everyone at home, except for certain workers that can still leave their home.
AMY GOODMAN: And both he and the vice president, Pablo Iglesias of Podemos, both of their partners are COVID-19-positive?
MARÍA CARRIÓN: Their partners are COVID-19-positive, and they have gone in and out of isolation. They have broken their quarantine a few times to attend meetings, but now meetings are all at a distance. There are a lot of politicians infected. We talked about this a few days ago. And, of course, the list is just increasing of politicians in Spain who are either in quarantine, because they’ve been very close to virus infections, or actually have tested positive and either at home or in hospital. Garzón, we still don’t know — Baltasar Garzón, the very renowned judge, we still don’t know if he is positive, but it is a suspected case because he has all the symptoms and was hospitalized for respiratory distress.
The most vulnerable people here, Amy, are the ones that are really of concern. You mentioned the nursing homes where these bodies were found. In the news yesterday, they were interviewing health workers, caregivers in these and other nursing homes. And the director of one of these homes, the Maravillas center in Madrid, was running a fever, sick, but still at work and crying, because she said that she didn’t have backups. She suspected all of her staff was infected, but they could not stop working and caring for the elderly patients, most of which, they feared, were also infected, and some of which had already died. So, this, you know, hearing Sean and Kelley talk about how these are preexisting problems, here, too, nursing homes have been a problem for a long time, understaffed, underfunded. These are publicly financed but privately run facilities where oversight is not very good. And so we’re seeing a result of this: Our elders are dying.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: María, I wanted to ask you about other vulnerable populations, those in the prisons of Spain, as well as the migrants. There’s a huge migrant population, especially from Northern Africa, in Spain. What’s the situation with migrants who are perhaps in detention or in precarious living situations?
MARÍA CARRIÓN: Some centers are letting some people go, but it’s still a pending issue. There’s not enough being done both in these migrant centers, where people are being held, and also in prisons, jails and prisons in Spain. This is something that has not yet been dealt with.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you, The New York Times had a very — an amazing article today talking about medical doctors in the United States apparently hoarding potential treatments, especially these drugs chloroquine and [hydroxychloroquine] that President Trump has been touting, that these doctors have been prescribing them all around the country for themselves and their family members, in essence, hoarding them. And now pharmacists are complaining that actually doctors are involved in this. Do you have any examples of health professionals there sort of looking out for themselves rather than their patients?
MARÍA CARRIÓN: Very few, actually. I don’t think people are paying much attention to Trump from here, so those drugs have not been hoarded, that I know of. At the very beginning of the crisis, we did hear about certain doctors hoarding face masks and taking them out. There was one doctor who took all of the face masks in the hospital and took them to his village and gave them to his neighbors. But that’s not generally the case, or at least it’s not being reported on.
AMY GOODMAN: And, María, if you could talk about the IFEMA? We were just with you, working at the convention center, which has now been turned into a massive hospital — ironically, the place where the U.N. climate summit was, and we’ve been dealing with this issue of the connection of climate crisis to these viruses that we’re seeing increasingly. And also the skating rink, which is very personal for you, being used as a morgue?
MARÍA CARRIÓN: Yes, indeed. IFEMA was converted into what is now Spain’s largest hospital. It has over a thousand beds, including also intensive care units. And it doesn’t just bring in patients, coronavirus patients, who, for the most part, are not the most serious of cases; it also has opened a section for the unhoused. So there’s about 150 beds for people who do not have shelter or are being kicked out of shelters when — in the morning, and they need a place to be and healthcare. So, IFEMA has transformed itself and is now just full of beds, and hundreds of people sleep in one same wing. That’s one thing.
The ice rink is actually a big mall. It’s located close to IFEMA, as you say, but, not only that, very close to my daughters’ school. It is a place where they’ve gone ice skating, where they regularly meet with their friends and have lunch. There’s movie theaters. They have celebrated birthdays. And we, all of a sudden, saw all these hearses enter this place. And so, my older daughter Gabriela said, “I don’t think I could go there again with my friends.”
AMY GOODMAN: María, we’re going to be touching back with you. María Carrión, former Democracy Now! producer living in Madrid, Spain, where she’s a freelance journalist. She has been holed up with her two daughters and her partner for the last two weeks. María runs three kilometers a day in her apartment, and it’s not large. That doesn’t even compare to the man in France who just ran a marathon on his balcony.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we go to Puerto Rico to speak with the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “The Awakening” by Mike Longo, legendary jazz pianist known for playing with Dizzy Gillespie. He has died at the age of 83. The cause? The coronavirus.