democracynow--2020-02-28--“We Want Democracy!” Mass Protests Continue in Dominican Republic After Local Elections Suspended

Thousands in the Dominican Republic took to the streets of the capital Santo Domingo Thursday to protest the abrupt suspension @ @ @ @ @ month and to commemorate the country ’ s Independence Day .
Protests have been ongoing @ @ @ @ @ the government suspended the municipal elections four hours after voting began , alleging there were @ @ @ @ @ the electronic ballot machines used .
The machines were previously used in October 2019 , @ @ @ @ @ government $ 19 million .
The Dominican people believe the alleged technical glitch is just @ @ @ @ @ party , the Dominican Liberation Party , to hold onto power as they ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ now demanding an independent investigation into what happened in the local elections , as well @ @ @ @ @ Dominican election board officials .
Dozens of solidarity protests have emerged around the world , @ @ @ @ @ New Jersey and here in New York City .
We get an update from Amanda @ @ @ @ @ digital media editor at “ Latino USA .
”

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.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, we turn now to the Dominican Republic, where thousands of people took to the streets of the capital Santo Domingo Thursday to protest the abrupt suspension of local elections earlier this month and to commemorate the country’s Independence Day. Demonstrators wore black and held signs that read “democracy” and “punishment for the corrupt.” Massive protests have been ongoing since February 16th, after the government suspended the municipal elections four hours after voting began, alleging there were “technical glitches” in the electronic ballot machines that were used. Reuters reports the machines cost the Dominican government $19 million. But many Dominicans believe the alleged technical glitch is just an attempt by the ruling Dominican Liberation Party, the PLD, to hold onto power as they’ve lost support. This is one of the protesters in Santo Domingo Thursday.
NICOLLE COASCU: [translated] We want to know what happened with the suspension of the municipal elections. We want answers. Young people are 40% of voters this year, and we deserve justice, as we have demanded in recent days.
AMY GOODMAN: Protesters are now demanding an independent investigation into what happened in the local elections, as well as for the resignation of the Dominican election board officials. This is Eduardo Frei, president of the observer commission with the Organization of American States.
EDUARDO FREI: [translated] The Organization of American States calls on the electoral authorities in the Dominican Republic and the political actors of the country to maintain an honest and constructive dialogue to face the next steps that should be undertaken, faced with this complex reality.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Eduardo Frei. Municipal elections have now been rescheduled for March 15th. Meanwhile, dozens of solidarity protests have sparked Dominican communities all over the world, from Spain and France to New Jersey and right here in New York City, where thousands of people demonstrated last weekend in Washington Heights, a predominantly Dominican neighborhood. Nationwide, there are at least 1.87 million Dominicans living in the United States. Some 40% of them live here in New York City alone.
For more, we’re joined by Amanda Alcántara. She is digital media editor at Latino USA and also Futuro Media. She is a Dominican-American journalist and author of Chula, a bilingual collection of poems and short stories about the life of a Dominican woman before and after moving to the United States.
It’s great to have you with us, Amanda. If you can start off by talking about what all these protests are about? What happened with the elections in the Dominican Republic?
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: Yeah. So, these protests are basically people taking to the streets and saying our right to democracy and our right to exercise self-determination has been taken away from us. We’re talking about a country where people have been disenfranchised in many different ways. We’re talking about a country that is predominantly populated by people living in poverty. And this is the one thing that they have to be able to claim any right to whatever happens to the future of their country. So, imagine people standing in line for three to four hours, because that’s when the elections were canceled, and being told, “You now have to go home, because the elections are no longer happening.” So, people were angry. They were confused. And starting on that very Sunday afternoon, mostly youth started taking to the streets and going directly to la Junta Central Electoral — that’s the Central Electoral Board — in Santo Domingo to protest and to demand answers.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, of course, the ruling party in the Dominican Republic has been in power, more or less, for what? About 20 years now?
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: So, over 18 years. So, I like to talk about sort of like my own age, right? So, I’m 29 years old, and they have been in power almost my entire life. You know, so, like, ever since I’ve had any sort of political understanding, I’ve only known the PLD. And that, to me, is insane.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s go to thousands of people who were in the streets right here in New York City in the Dominican community in Washington Heights to protest the suspension of the municipal elections in the Dominican Republic. This is one of the protesters, Yolis Pérez.
YOLIS PÉREZ: [translated] I’m a professional who had to migrate from my country in search of a better future for my daughter. My daughter’s generation needs us to truly wake up and that we clean up our country for them.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the passion of the people here, as passionate, of Dominicans here, as they are in the Dominican Republic. Talk about the diaspora of the Dominican Republic. And also, can people vote here for the Dominican Republic elections?
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: So, yes, people can vote here for the Dominican Republic elections. Sometimes there’s this sort of nickname that we have, specifically for the community in New York, and that’s Provincia 33. Right? So it’s sort of like the 33rd province of the Dominican Republic. And, you know, I think, even for me, being part of the diaspora, we care so much about what’s happening in the country, because a lot of the issues that happen in the Dominican Republic and a lot of the conditions of the people there actually lead to there being such a widespread diaspora. I mean, we’re talking about Dominicans being not only in New York City, not only in different parts of the United States, but there’s a large population of Dominicans in Spain, and there’s Dominicans all across the globe. And I think these protests are actually — have become an opportunity for people to almost come out and say, “Hey, you know, we’re Dominicans, and we’re also living in the exterior. And we would love to live in our country, but it’s difficult to live there, because of these very issues that are happening.” You know?
And earlier you asked me about the PLD, right? So, people are saying that there was attempts at fraud. You know, so whenever people went to the ballot and they tried to vote for their candidate of preference, some of the candidates were not showing up on the ballot. And this is very, very questionable. It’s very shady, to say the least. And people see this as an attempt at sabotage. You know, this is the first time in 18 years, or the first time at least in a decade, when the PLD is no longer ahead in the polls, you know, when, instead, it’s the opposition party — which is also questionable — is ahead in the polls. Right? So, this is the first time when the PLD might not win the elections. And they found themselves in a situation of fear, and instead of allowing for the democratic process to happen, people see this as an attempt at sabotaging that democratic process.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about the attempt to redo the election. This time they’re going to paper ballots, because the problem, apparently, they claim, was that this was an electronic voting system that somehow malfunctioned, as if we haven’t heard this story before.
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Didn’t we just hear about Iowa? Haven’t we heard about all these other problems with electronic voting? So now they’re going back to the old-fashioned paper ballot. And then they have a presidential election in May, isn’t there?
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: Yeah. That’s correct, yeah. So, these elections were not only meant for people to choose their local leaders — and we know how important it is to choose the mayor that represents you, to choose the regional leader that represents you — but these ballots were also going to create momentum, or were an opportunity to create momentum, for the opposition come the presidential elections. Now that momentum has been lost, you know, because there is no credibility in the election process. And we have no idea what’s going to happen on March 15. Also, they spent $19 million on these voting machines. And people are angry about that. A lot of the signs that I have seen in protests, you know, they say, “These dollars, they went to the trash.” How can you spend $19 million and all of that, and the machines don’t work? Like, you can’t do that.
AMY GOODMAN: There’s been no connection between Dominican Republic and Iowa that’s been uncovered, has there?
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: Not that we know of, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
AMY GOODMAN: But also, Amanda, you talk about this, and, Juan, you write about this in Harvest of Empire. Talk about the history of the Dominican Republic and U.S. relations there, with U.S. soldiers moving into the Dominican Republic, invading the Dominican Republic in 1965, and then how that shapes modern-day Dominican Republic.
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: Yeah. So, you know, there were memes popping up during the — on Sunday of the face of Joaquín Balaguer. And the meme was basically him laughing and saying, “Wow! You don’t even know how to properly steal an election.” You know, so, Joaquín Balaguer was the man that the United States helped put in power once there was a U.S.-backed coup in 1965. And he was president — you know, I like to talk about this a lot, because I feel that Dominican Republic doesn’t get — I feel that people normally look at Trujillo, right? The Trujillo dictatorship that lasted 30 years, that was like a very, very tough, stronghold regime where a lot of people were killed, a lot of people were disappeared. And they think, “OK, after Trujillo happened, we had democracy. That’s it.” And that wasn’t the case.
Balaguer was president starting from the — like the late 1960s up until the early 1990s. We’re talking about like two to three generations of Dominicans who saw Balaguer on and off in power. And his was also a right-wing sort of strong regime and a repressive regime. And people are already seeing the connection, you know, between his time in presidency and also how long the PLD has been in power and how they have crushed the opposition.
And talking about U.S. interventions, there was an article in The Washington Post that came out where Giuliani — we’re talking about President Donald Trump’s attorney — was in the Dominican Republic consulting for Luis Abinader, who is the opposition leader. You know, so already the other opposition parties are saying, “Well, this guy is trying to get U.S. backing,” because, in the end of the day, it is the U.S. that has a stronghold in Dominican Republic, and foreign American investments that have a stronghold in the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Final words, as we move into March 15th — of course, this is something we will cover — and whether you feel the government will hold fair elections?
AMANDA ALCÁNTARA: I think the government has no other choice but to hold fair elections. I think that if they don’t, there’s — the people will no longer accept, you know, not having fair elections, right? So, I’ve been thinking about, you know, what does it mean for people to be taking the streets to today, for people to be taking the streets in historic numbers, and whether this can cause change or not. And I don’t think that institutional change is going to happen from one day to the next, but I do think that the people now know that these elected officials are accountable to you. You know, so, if, on March 15 — we don’t really know what’s going to happen, but if the elections are not fair and if they’re not transparent, which is what the people are demanding, I think the protests are just going to continue.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’ll continue to cover those, as well. Amanda Alcántara, digital media editor at Latino USA. Dominican-American journalist, author of Chula, a bilingual collection of poems and short stories about the life of a Dominican woman before and after moving to the United States.
When we come back, we look at the fight to save a New Jersey elementary school that serves a large Latino community in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from the forces of a healthcare industry and gentrification. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-02-28--No Way Out: Report Finds Central American Asylum Seekers Trapped in Mexico in Dangerous Conditions

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : I wanted to ask you about one last question .
A new report by MSF , or Doctors Without Borders , shows how migration policies imposed by the United States and Mexico have trapped thousands of Central American migrants in dangerous conditions .
The report is called “ No Way Out.
” Could you talk about it ?
It ’ s based on interviews with about 500 migrants ?
AVRIL BENOÎT : Yes .
What we found in the work that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offering mental healthcare in many of the areas that are along the migration route from the different Central American countries , but also working at the border , the northern border of Mexico , as people who are trying to reach the United States and/or have been sent back to the United States .
What we find is that almost half of them have experienced some form of extreme violence — watching somebody from their family be killed , being kidnapped themselves , having to deal with the violent situations of their communities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have fled that .
They have legitimate reasons to try to find safety .
Where that safety is is not really for us to say , but we can say that sending them back or making them wait in that northern area of Mexico , where cartels are dominating , where cartels are exploiting them , where you ’ ve got criminal gangs that are kidnapping them and finding any which way to make money off of their presence , it ’ s almost like the United States policy of the Migrant Protection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Remain in Mexico , ” are almost like funding these cartels in a way , in indirect form , by sending these people back to be subjected to the kind of exploitation that ’ s happening .
So the suffering is real .
It ’ s a huge concern of ours .
We don ’ t have all the policy solutions .
All we can say — and , you know , again , we ’ re not taking a political stance insofar as this party or this platform .
What we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expect people to be safe in an area that ’ s controlled by criminal gangs with a long history of killing people .
This is not the place that people who are awaiting their asylum claims should have to stay , in shelters , in fragile situations , where they don ’ t even dare go out during the day , let alone at night .
AMY GOODMAN : And then there ’ s the great fear that President Trump , who ’ s — to allay jitters because of the stock market @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything ’ s OK , and this is going to end in the middle of April , as if he knows , would use this , though , still as a pretext to crack down even further on desperate refugees , asylum seekers .
AMY GOODMAN : And what would happen if , for example , coronavirus , as you were saying , in the camps and other places along the border ?
AVRIL BENOÎT : It ’ s extremely concerning to us to have colleagues arrive on flights to support the efforts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find that the local authorities have made a decision to quarantine them for 14 days .
Fair enough that you have to quarantine people who are at high risk , who have symptoms , and the science around this , the understanding of the risks , is increasing over time .
We appreciate that we all have to do our part to avoid the spread .
But it ’ s going to be very difficult , even for us .
Think about it .
There ’ s a run on surgical masks right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get access to masks when everyone is gobbling them up and , you know , are buying them off the shelves in every warehouse imaginable ?
We have patients coming in for other ailments , even into hospitals here in the U.S. , but because they might have coronavirus , they ’ re not getting the treatment they need to stay alive — dialysis or whatever else .
You know , there ’ s a delay in the quick response , the normal quick response , of medical people , who are fearful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that with infection control and all the measures that we ’ ve acquired , you know , all that we ’ ve learned from outbreaks like the Ebola outbreak of West Africa and what we ’ re dealing with in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo now , is that even medical teams , hospitals , that you would think would know how to protect themselves , don ’ t .
So there ’ s a huge effort that must be taken seriously in terms of protection .
But if the borders start @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war , if people can not seek healthcare , even if the wall in front of them is the hospital that ’ s closed to them because they ’ re a suspected case , you can just imagine that this coronavirus will spread even more .
AMY GOODMAN : And just to be clear , it ’ s not just criminal gangs .
I mean , the Mexican military , the police also brutalize Central American , Caribbean and African refugees who are coming up through the border .
AVRIL BENOÎT : There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And you will find this also in war zones .
You can imagine in Syria , you know , you have a lot of exploitation that happens .
Yes , the Syrian government and their coalition forces , including the Russian airplanes , have been a factor .
You have other armed groups that have been a factor in their suffering .
And then you have those who will exploit their vulnerability .
I mean , these people in Idlib province who are trying to flee , they have sold everything .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little cash they had on them , they had to give to the truck driver that maybe piled them in to get them to safety .
They have nothing left .
So , you know , any situation where we have an outbreak in a crowded area , as I said before , is going to be deeply problematic to deal with , and it will only compound the suffering that they ’ re experiencing .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , I want to thank you so much for being with us , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ official who has tested positive for coronavirus is Masoumeh Ebtekar .
She is Iran ’ s vice president for women and family affairs .
Avril Benoît , our guest .
Avril Benoît is executive director of MSF USA .
That ’ s Doctors Without Borders USA .
When we come back , we look at the Dominican Republic , where thousands have taken to the streets over the last weeks and yesterday on Independence Day in the Dominican Republic to protest the abrupt suspension of local elections .
Stay with us .
AMY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mazzy Star .
Founding member David Roback passed away Monday at the age of 61 .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about one last question. A new report by MSF, or Doctors Without Borders, shows how migration policies imposed by the United States and Mexico have trapped thousands of Central American migrants in dangerous conditions. The report is called “No Way Out.” Could you talk about it? It’s based on interviews with about 500 migrants?
AVRIL BENOÎT: Yes. What we found in the work that we’ve done — and we are offering mental healthcare in many of the areas that are along the migration route from the different Central American countries, but also working at the border, the northern border of Mexico, as people who are trying to reach the United States and/or have been sent back to the United States. What we find is that almost half of them have experienced some form of extreme violence — watching somebody from their family be killed, being kidnapped themselves, having to deal with the violent situations of their communities, of their neighborhoods — and they have fled that. They have legitimate reasons to try to find safety.
Where that safety is is not really for us to say, but we can say that sending them back or making them wait in that northern area of Mexico, where cartels are dominating, where cartels are exploiting them, where you’ve got criminal gangs that are kidnapping them and finding any which way to make money off of their presence, it’s almost like the United States policy of the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, or “Remain in Mexico,” are almost like funding these cartels in a way, in indirect form, by sending these people back to be subjected to the kind of exploitation that’s happening.
So the suffering is real. It’s a huge concern of ours. We don’t have all the policy solutions. All we can say — and, you know, again, we’re not taking a political stance insofar as this party or this platform. What we’re saying is, you cannot expect people to be safe in an area that’s controlled by criminal gangs with a long history of killing people. This is not the place that people who are awaiting their asylum claims should have to stay, in shelters, in fragile situations, where they don’t even dare go out during the day, let alone at night.
AMY GOODMAN: And then there’s the great fear that President Trump, who’s — to allay jitters because of the stock market, who’s trying to say everything’s OK, and this is going to end in the middle of April, as if he knows, would use this, though, still as a pretext to crack down even further on desperate refugees, asylum seekers.
AVRIL BENOÎT: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And what would happen if, for example, coronavirus, as you were saying, in the camps and other places along the border?
AVRIL BENOÎT: It’s extremely concerning to us to have colleagues arrive on flights to support the efforts on the ground in a country and find that the local authorities have made a decision to quarantine them for 14 days. Fair enough that you have to quarantine people who are at high risk, who have symptoms, and the science around this, the understanding of the risks, is increasing over time. We appreciate that we all have to do our part to avoid the spread. But it’s going to be very difficult, even for us.
Think about it. There’s a run on surgical masks right now. How are surgeons supposed to get access to masks when everyone is gobbling them up and, you know, are buying them off the shelves in every warehouse imaginable? We have patients coming in for other ailments, even into hospitals here in the U.S., but because they might have coronavirus, they’re not getting the treatment they need to stay alive — dialysis or whatever else. You know, there’s a delay in the quick response, the normal quick response, of medical people, who are fearful of coronavirus. And we also know that with infection control and all the measures that we’ve acquired, you know, all that we’ve learned from outbreaks like the Ebola outbreak of West Africa and what we’re dealing with in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo now, is that even medical teams, hospitals, that you would think would know how to protect themselves, don’t.
So there’s a huge effort that must be taken seriously in terms of protection. But if the borders start closing, if people cannot flee war, if people cannot seek healthcare, even if the wall in front of them is the hospital that’s closed to them because they’re a suspected case, you can just imagine that this coronavirus will spread even more.
AMY GOODMAN: And just to be clear, it’s not just criminal gangs. I mean, the Mexican military, the police also brutalize Central American, Caribbean and African refugees who are coming up through the border.
AVRIL BENOÎT: There’s all kinds of suffering. And you will find this also in war zones. You can imagine in Syria, you know, you have a lot of exploitation that happens. Yes, the Syrian government and their coalition forces, including the Russian airplanes, have been a factor. You have other armed groups that have been a factor in their suffering. And then you have those who will exploit their vulnerability. I mean, these people in Idlib province who are trying to flee, they have sold everything. They had to leave everything behind. What little cash they had on them, they had to give to the truck driver that maybe piled them in to get them to safety. They have nothing left. So, you know, any situation where we have an outbreak in a crowded area, as I said before, is going to be deeply problematic to deal with, and it will only compound the suffering that they’re experiencing.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for being with us, also wanted to say that the Iranian official who has tested positive for coronavirus is Masoumeh Ebtekar. She is Iran’s vice president for women and family affairs. Avril Benoît, our guest. Avril Benoît is executive director of MSF USA. That’s Doctors Without Borders USA.
When we come back, we look at the Dominican Republic, where thousands have taken to the streets over the last weeks and yesterday on Independence Day in the Dominican Republic to protest the abrupt suspension of local elections. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Into Dust” by Mazzy Star. Founding member David Roback passed away Monday at the age of 61.


democracynow--2020-02-28--Doctors Without Borders: Cheap Coronavirus Diagnostic Kits Needed in War-Torn Areas & Refugee Camps

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : And I want to move to the coronavirus .
And there are links here .
I mean , you have these crises not only in Syria , but around the world , where people need to flee .
And then you have countries closing their border for all sorts of reasons .
But , of course , coronavirus is going to contribute to that .
I wanted to turn to the issue of the coronavirus and ask you about what ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York officials say they ’ re preparing their own test kits , after kits distributed by the Centers for Disease Control failed validation tests .
New cases of coronavirus continue to spring up worldwide .
Nigeria is now reporting its first case .
Iran ’ s vice president testing positive , and he was next to the president .
And I believe Iran has canceled prayer for the first time in like 40 years .
And at the Vatican , Pope Francis canceled a planned mass after he became ill from an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where 17 people have died of coronavirus .
He had been speaking about it and , you know , offering comfort to those who are suffering .
How is your organization , MSF , Médecins Sans Frontières , Doctors Without Borders , dealing with this ?
AVRIL BENOÎT : We work in 70 countries — operations , medical operations , projects .
Those are the ones that we ’ re focused on right now , to get them ready .
We have the case in Nigeria .
You can imagine , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capacity in the U.S. , let alone in a low-income country or a fragile state , is extremely limiting .
So we don ’ t know where coronavirus really is .
And that ’ s one of the things that ’ s really concerning us , because we know that those countries , their health systems are already fragile , already underresourced .
And so , what we ’ re trying to do is reinforce their capacity .
We do have a team that ’ s doing public health information , infection control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , focusing also on those marginalized , vulnerable minority groups .
There are little areas that you will always find who are forgotten in these outbreaks , where they ’ re not part of the dominant group .
The messages go out in the main language of the country , and they forget about everyone else who speaks other languages .
So that ’ s our focus .
The prevention is going to be big .
We also have a lot of concerns , though , about the development of these testing kits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quick — you know , these rapid diagnostic kits to be available in the places where we work , because you can imagine if coronavirus starts to infiltrate maybe one of these refugee camps or an area with a lot of internally displaced people living in crowded conditions in a stadium or in a school .
We work in those kind of places providing healthcare .
We ’ re looking for the vaccination also .
This vaccination , this vaccine should be affordable .
There ’ s a lot of public money going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global health experts are contributing to this effort .
The profit motive of the R & D in the big pharmaceutical sector has to take into consideration that this is public money going into the development of a vaccine for coronavirus .
And we would like to see the price be affordable , so that those low-income countries , those countries at war , countries that don ’ t have the means can afford to get access to it .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: And I want to move to the coronavirus. And there are links here. I mean, you have these crises not only in Syria, but around the world, where people need to flee. And then you have countries closing their border for all sorts of reasons. But, of course, coronavirus is going to contribute to that. I wanted to turn to the issue of the coronavirus and ask you about what’s happening here in the United States. New York officials say they’re preparing their own test kits, after kits distributed by the Centers for Disease Control failed validation tests. New cases of coronavirus continue to spring up worldwide. Nigeria is now reporting its first case. Iran’s vice president testing positive, and he was next to the president. And I believe Iran has canceled prayer for the first time in like 40 years. And at the Vatican, Pope Francis canceled a planned mass after he became ill from an unknown ailment, raising jitters in Italy, where 17 people have died of coronavirus. He had been speaking about it and, you know, offering comfort to those who are suffering. How is your organization, MSF, Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders, dealing with this?
AVRIL BENOÎT: We work in 70 countries — operations, medical operations, projects. Those are the ones that we’re focused on right now, to get them ready. We have the case in Nigeria. You can imagine, there are many more cases. The testing capacity in the U.S., let alone in a low-income country or a fragile state, is extremely limiting. So we don’t know where coronavirus really is. And that’s one of the things that’s really concerning us, because we know that those countries, their health systems are already fragile, already underresourced. And so, what we’re trying to do is reinforce their capacity.
We do have a team that’s doing public health information, infection control education, working out of Hong Kong, focusing also on those marginalized, vulnerable minority groups. There are little areas that you will always find who are forgotten in these outbreaks, where they’re not part of the dominant group. The messages go out in the main language of the country, and they forget about everyone else who speaks other languages. So that’s our focus. The prevention is going to be big.
We also have a lot of concerns, though, about the development of these testing kits. We need cheap, available, quick — you know, these rapid diagnostic kits to be available in the places where we work, because you can imagine if coronavirus starts to infiltrate maybe one of these refugee camps or an area with a lot of internally displaced people living in crowded conditions in a stadium or in a school. We work in those kind of places providing healthcare.
We’re looking for the vaccination also. This vaccination, this vaccine should be affordable. There’s a lot of public money going into this effort. A lot of global health experts are contributing to this effort. The profit motive of the R&D in the big pharmaceutical sector has to take into consideration that this is public money going into the development of a vaccine for coronavirus. And we would like to see the price be affordable, so that those low-income countries, those countries at war, countries that don’t have the means can afford to get access to it.


democracynow--2020-02-28--Catastrophic Humanitarian Crisis in Idlib as Syrian Troops Advance & Children Freeze to Death

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : We begin today in Syria , where 33 Turkish soldiers stationed in the rebel-held Idlib province were killed in an airstrike by Russian-backed Syrian forces on Thursday .
It ’ s a major escalation in the all-out offensive by Bashar al-Assad ’ s regime and its Russian allies , that has displaced some 900,000 people from northwestern Syria since December .
Turkey , which has long backed rebel forces in Syria , has vowed to respond in kind , as U.N. Secretary-General @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , saying , quote , “ the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.
” Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly spoke by phone on Friday to discuss the crisis as NATO urged rapid deescalation .
This comes as Turkey has temporarily opened its border for fleeing Syrian refugees to cross through the country to Europe .
AMY GOODMAN : Of the nearly 1 million people displaced from Syria since December alone , at least half of them are children .
It ’ s the single @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s forced 13 million to flee , left hundreds of thousands dead .
As the humanitarian catastrophe deepens , aid workers are describing scenes of chaos and devastation on the ground , with hundreds of thousands of families scrambling for shelter as temperatures fall below freezing .
Children have frozen to death in the dire conditions .
All the while , bombs continue to fall .
On Tuesday , the Syrian regime bombed eight school facilities , killing 21 people , according to aid workers .
This is UNICEF ’ s Executive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more , we ’ re joined here in New York by our guest Avril Benoît .
She ’ s executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières USA .
That ’ s MSF , or Doctors Without Borders USA .
Welcome to Democracy Now !
Talk about the crisis in Syria .
Nine hundred thousand people .
Talk about the scope of this .
AVRIL BENOÎT : The scope is unprecedented , certainly for Idlib .
That whole area was considered a kind of safe zone .
People who had been relocated because of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people , many of them had ended up in this Idlib area .
So , it was , yes , controlled by opposition armed groups .
We were trying to support hospitals there .
What we found in the last couple of days , of course , is that they ’ ve been subjected to aerial bombardment , to shelling , to ground forces .
It has been catastrophic from a humanitarian perspective .
You know , you ’ ve got the displacement of people , which you heard about .
In our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are run by very brave , very courageous Syrian medical teams , they were dealing with an influx , a mass casualty group of people with very severe injuries , conducting 30 operations , surgical operations , in a day , 185 patients coming in — 18 of them arrived and were declared dead upon arrival — a lot of children .
And these surgeries , even just to focus on the medical piece , these are complex surgeries .
You know , you ’ ve got people whose limbs have been amputated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And the stocks , the supplies of anesthesia for those surgeons has been desperately low , and so you can imagine the horror of being a medical physician , of being a medical personnel , trying to alleviate the suffering of people , that you ’ re trying to heal them and repair their wounds , and their excruciating pain .
Meanwhile , you ’ re working , and you hear the shelling , you hear the bombing , you hear the screaming , you hear people experiencing panic attacks all around you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s absolutely frightening .
So then you ’ ve got what ’ s happening on the outside of these hospital facilities , where people are fleeing en masse .
And so , this is where we see that for this Idlib region it ’ s an unprecedented catastrophe .
And even when you look at the history , nine years of war in Syria , we have seen horrific things go on .
And , you know , no one can say that this is the end , the endgame , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anytime soon .
But certainly it ’ s absolutely shocking , even to those who have been used to it , if you will .
The humanitarian organizations , the Syrian doctors , all these people that have been focused on it , even the journalists who have been watching this space , are absolutely shocked by the suffering going on right now .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , I wanted to ask you about all of the groups that are involved in fighting , because , obviously , Turkey has moved into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the Russians .
There are still guerrilla groups that have been in opposition for a while .
What about the issue of all of these outside groups coming in and using this territory to conduct these wars ?
Because it ’ s the civilian population that suffers .
AVRIL BENOÎT : They do suffer .
And you can imagine that when we ’ re talking about maybe 3 million people living in a zone , they ’ re not all part of these combatants , you know , these various groups .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ humanitarian law .
It ’ s mostly civilians living there .
So , yes , there ’ s all kinds of proxy war activities , different splinter groups , different factions and allegiances .
There ’ s no question , though , that under international humanitarian law , indiscriminate bombing is not allowed .
We ’ re talking about bombings of schools , schools which had maybe been turned into shelters for families .
Most of the people that are on the run , as is often the case when there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ context of war , are women and children .
You can not say that they were active combatants .
And you can not say that it ’ s legitimate at all to raze or try to raze the places where they were trying to survive .
AMY GOODMAN : Of the nearly 1 million people displaced from Syria just since December , at least half are children .
I want to turn to Jennah , a 10-year-old Syrian child who was displaced by the Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against Idlib .
JENNAH : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I lived in Ma ’ arat and had friends there who were targeted by a plane and died .
I cried as I left , when the regime took over .
I hope its people will be able to return one day and that we will be able to go back to Ghouta .
This is injustice .
AMY GOODMAN : So , Avril Benoît , talk about the devastation of the children — I mean , The New York Times had this major piece on children freezing to death — and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for an immediate ceasefire , saying “ the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.
” AVRIL BENOÎT : Yeah .
So , specifically for the children , you ’ ve seen maybe , or you ’ ve heard , the reports of some families having trained their children to react with giggles to the sound of bombs .
I mean , these are coping mechanisms , that the parents are trying to create this bubble of safety , a sense of reassurance to children , who , of course , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learn .
They want to be in school .
We are absolutely devastated to see the condition they ’ re in , because not only are they suffering the consequences of the direct violence — so , shrapnel wounds , being trapped under collapsed buildings and so forth — there ’ s also the problem of heating .
So , when you are sleeping even in a tent , for the lucky ones that actually have had access to a camp and a tent — you know , there are a thousand camps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ province — many of the people are trying to heat those tents in the ways that they can , suffering asphyxiation .
So we ’ ve had an entire family die of asphyxiation .
They ’ re using whatever fuels that they can scrounge around .
And so , what we ’ ve managed to do as a life-saving activity , and you wouldn ’ t necessarily think of this as an essential thing for life , but to give them some warmth , we ’ re transferring 300 tons of this compressed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can warm themselves .
For the kids , it ’ s not only that , because there ’ s also malnutrition that can be a consequence of all of this .
The families don ’ t have access to the kind of food sources that a child needs to grow , to thrive , even for their brain development .
And so this is another consequence of the war , in addition to probably what you ’ re going to see — and I ’ m speculating here — but the consequences over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know , this can be a marker that will affect those kids in the years ahead .
And for nine years , many kids who have been displaced within Syria , not to mention the ones that managed to go to the surrounding countries , countries like Lebanon and Turkey , is that they ’ ve — not all of them have had access to school .
So you ’ ve got a whole generation now that will be that much further handicapped , in a way , from that lack of educational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to ask you about the potential impact of Turkey opening its borders again to refugees .
Admittedly , Turkey has already suffered a huge refugee crisis as a result of this .
But how that could potentially alleviate the current situation somewhat ?
AVRIL BENOÎT : Yeah , Turkey has three-and-a-half million , if not more , Syrian asylum seekers , refugees .
And , of course , you know that many of them are trying to even leave Turkey .
It ’ s a very sensitive situation .
And I know that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the various political levels .
We ’ d like things to move faster .
Certainly , you know , we don ’ t have the answer to whether Turkey should let them all in , under what circumstances .
We ’ re apolitical in this .
We ’ re a humanitarian responder .
But something has to change .
I mean , you can ’ t just have an area at the border where people are trapped as there ’ s an encroaching military incursion that considers them a target for indiscriminate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s an absolutely untenable situation .
And you can imagine that anyone would want to flee that area .
And when all the options are closed around them , what are these people supposed to do ?
We ’ re talking about millions of people .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin today in Syria, where 33 Turkish soldiers stationed in the rebel-held Idlib province were killed in an airstrike by Russian-backed Syrian forces on Thursday. It’s a major escalation in the all-out offensive by Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its Russian allies, that has displaced some 900,000 people from northwestern Syria since December. Turkey, which has long backed rebel forces in Syria, has vowed to respond in kind, as U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying, quote, “the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.” Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly spoke by phone on Friday to discuss the crisis as NATO urged rapid deescalation. This comes as Turkey has temporarily opened its border for fleeing Syrian refugees to cross through the country to Europe.
AMY GOODMAN: Of the nearly 1 million people displaced from Syria since December alone, at least half of them are children. It’s the single largest displacement in the nine-year war that’s forced 13 million to flee, left hundreds of thousands dead. As the humanitarian catastrophe deepens, aid workers are describing scenes of chaos and devastation on the ground, with hundreds of thousands of families scrambling for shelter as temperatures fall below freezing. Children have frozen to death in the dire conditions. All the while, bombs continue to fall. On Tuesday, the Syrian regime bombed eight school facilities, killing 21 people, according to aid workers. This is UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
HENRIETTA FORE: Tens of thousands are now living in makeshift tents, in public buildings, in open air, huddled under trees, exposed to rain and snow in sub-zero cold of the harsh Syrian winter. The recent strikes on these makeshift camps in Idlib — and on the children and teachers horrifically killed just two days ago as 10 schools were attacked — are both reprehensible and morally repugnant. Also these acts clearly demonstrate the terrifying daily conditions of those living through this nightmare. And we’ve heard and read reports of children freezing to death. When wood runs out, families burn whatever they can find — plastic bags, garbage, discarded furniture — just to provide a flicker of heat against the cold or a simple fire to cook whatever food they can find.
In these informal settlements, children and women are at particular risk of violence and exploitation. Makeshift toilets offer no safety or privacy. Land mines and improvised explosive devices dot the landscape. Every step people take is a risk. In the northwest, 280,000 children have had their education cruelly snatched away. An estimated 180 schools are out of operation, destroyed, damaged or being used for shelters — another blow to children’s hopes and futures. Access to healthcare is almost nonexistent or financially out of reach. Hospitals continue to be targeted. Seventy-two have suspended services because of the fighting.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore addressing the U.N. Security Council yesterday.
Well, for more, we’re joined here in New York by our guest Avril Benoît. She’s executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières USA. That’s MSF, or Doctors Without Borders USA.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about the crisis in Syria. Nine hundred thousand people. Talk about the scope of this.
AVRIL BENOÎT: The scope is unprecedented, certainly for Idlib. That whole area was considered a kind of safe zone. People who had been relocated because of the retaking of territory and different movements of people, many of them had ended up in this Idlib area. So, it was, yes, controlled by opposition armed groups.
We were trying to support hospitals there. What we found in the last couple of days, of course, is that they’ve been subjected to aerial bombardment, to shelling, to ground forces. It has been catastrophic from a humanitarian perspective. You know, you’ve got the displacement of people, which you heard about. In our own hospitals that we support, which are run by very brave, very courageous Syrian medical teams, they were dealing with an influx, a mass casualty group of people with very severe injuries, conducting 30 operations, surgical operations, in a day, 185 patients coming in — 18 of them arrived and were declared dead upon arrival — a lot of children. And these surgeries, even just to focus on the medical piece, these are complex surgeries. You know, you’ve got people whose limbs have been amputated as buildings have collapsed on them. And the stocks, the supplies of anesthesia for those surgeons has been desperately low, and so you can imagine the horror of being a medical physician, of being a medical personnel, trying to alleviate the suffering of people, that you’re trying to heal them and repair their wounds, and their excruciating pain. Meanwhile, you’re working, and you hear the shelling, you hear the bombing, you hear the screaming, you hear people experiencing panic attacks all around you, because, I mean, it’s absolutely frightening. So then you’ve got what’s happening on the outside of these hospital facilities, where people are fleeing en masse.
And so, this is where we see that for this Idlib region it’s an unprecedented catastrophe. And even when you look at the history, nine years of war in Syria, we have seen horrific things go on. And, you know, no one can say that this is the end, the endgame, or that it’s going to end anytime soon. But certainly it’s absolutely shocking, even to those who have been used to it, if you will. The humanitarian organizations, the Syrian doctors, all these people that have been focused on it, even the journalists who have been watching this space, are absolutely shocked by the suffering going on right now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I wanted to ask you about all of the groups that are involved in fighting, because, obviously, Turkey has moved into the Idlib province, the Syrians backed by the Russians. There are still guerrilla groups that have been in opposition for a while. What about the issue of all of these outside groups coming in and using this territory to conduct these wars? Because it’s the civilian population that suffers.
AVRIL BENOÎT: They do suffer. And you can imagine that when we’re talking about maybe 3 million people living in a zone, they’re not all part of these combatants, you know, these various groups. They are not legitimate targets under international humanitarian law. It’s mostly civilians living there. So, yes, there’s all kinds of proxy war activities, different splinter groups, different factions and allegiances. There’s no question, though, that under international humanitarian law, indiscriminate bombing is not allowed. We’re talking about bombings of schools, schools which had maybe been turned into shelters for families. Most of the people that are on the run, as is often the case when there’s a mass displacement of people in the context of war, are women and children. You cannot say that they were active combatants. And you cannot say that it’s legitimate at all to raze or try to raze the places where they were trying to survive.
AMY GOODMAN: Of the nearly 1 million people displaced from Syria just since December, at least half are children. I want to turn to Jennah, a 10-year-old Syrian child who was displaced by the Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against Idlib.
JENNAH: [translated] I felt sadness. I lived in Ma’arat and had friends there who were targeted by a plane and died. I cried as I left, when the regime took over. I hope its people will be able to return one day and that we will be able to go back to Ghouta. This is injustice.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Avril Benoît, talk about the devastation of the children — I mean, The New York Times had this major piece on children freezing to death — and then about the U.N. secretary-general’s call for an immediate ceasefire, saying “the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.”
AVRIL BENOÎT: Yeah. So, specifically for the children, you’ve seen maybe, or you’ve heard, the reports of some families having trained their children to react with giggles to the sound of bombs. I mean, these are coping mechanisms, that the parents are trying to create this bubble of safety, a sense of reassurance to children, who, of course, just want to grow and play and learn. They want to be in school.
We are absolutely devastated to see the condition they’re in, because not only are they suffering the consequences of the direct violence — so, shrapnel wounds, being trapped under collapsed buildings and so forth — there’s also the problem of heating. So, when you are sleeping even in a tent, for the lucky ones that actually have had access to a camp and a tent — you know, there are a thousand camps, if not more, in Idlib province — many of the people are trying to heat those tents in the ways that they can, suffering asphyxiation. So we’ve had an entire family die of asphyxiation. They’re using whatever fuels that they can scrounge around. And so, what we’ve managed to do as a life-saving activity, and you wouldn’t necessarily think of this as an essential thing for life, but to give them some warmth, we’re transferring 300 tons of this compressed fuel for burning, so that they can warm themselves.
For the kids, it’s not only that, because there’s also malnutrition that can be a consequence of all of this. The families don’t have access to the kind of food sources that a child needs to grow, to thrive, even for their brain development. And so this is another consequence of the war, in addition to probably what you’re going to see — and I’m speculating here — but the consequences over generations of the emotional trauma. You know, this can be a marker that will affect those kids in the years ahead. And for nine years, many kids who have been displaced within Syria, not to mention the ones that managed to go to the surrounding countries, countries like Lebanon and Turkey, is that they’ve — not all of them have had access to school. So you’ve got a whole generation now that will be that much further handicapped, in a way, from that lack of educational opportunity.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about the potential impact of Turkey opening its borders again to refugees. Admittedly, Turkey has already suffered a huge refugee crisis as a result of this. But how that could potentially alleviate the current situation somewhat?
AVRIL BENOÎT: Yeah, Turkey has three-and-a-half million, if not more, Syrian asylum seekers, refugees. And, of course, you know that many of them are trying to even leave Turkey. It’s a very sensitive situation. And I know that the diplomatic corps is working on this at the various political levels. We’d like things to move faster. Certainly, you know, we don’t have the answer to whether Turkey should let them all in, under what circumstances. We’re apolitical in this. We’re a humanitarian responder. But something has to change. I mean, you can’t just have an area at the border where people are trapped as there’s an encroaching military incursion that considers them a target for indiscriminate bombing. I mean, it’s an absolutely untenable situation. And you can imagine that anyone would want to flee that area. And when all the options are closed around them, what are these people supposed to do? We’re talking about millions of people.


democracynow--2020-02-28--Headlines for February 28, 2020

Headlines for February 28, 2020

California Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 33 people in his state have tested positive for coronavirus and that officials are monitoring 8,400 other people for possible exposure .
Newsom ’ s warning came after health officials in Northern California identified the first U.S. case of coronavirus found in a person who had not had known contact with anyone else with coronavirus — raising fears the pathogen is spreading among the general public for the first time in the U.S. California ’ s warning came as a whistleblower complained the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evacuated from Wuhan , China , without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear .
Those workers were then reportedly not tested for the virus .
Across the U.S. , officials are reporting a severe shortage of test kits for the virus .
New York officials say they ’ re preparing their own kits , after kits distributed by the Centers for Disease Control failed validation tests .
Meanwhile , new cases of coronavirus continue to spring up worldwide , with Nigeria reporting its first case and one of Iran ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Vatican , Pope Francis canceled a planned mass after he became ill from an unknown ailment , raising jitters in Italy , where 17 people have died of coronavirus .
Fears over the virus have hammered stock markets worldwide , with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping nearly 1,200 points Thursday — the single largest point drop in its history .

California Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 33 people in his state have tested positive for coronavirus and that officials are monitoring 8,400 other people for possible exposure. Newsom’s warning came after health officials in Northern California identified the first U.S. case of coronavirus found in a person who had not had known contact with anyone else with coronavirus — raising fears the pathogen is spreading among the general public for the first time in the U.S.
Gov. Gavin Newsom: “We knew this was inevitable as it relates to the nature, the epidemiology, the nature of these viruses, that that incident would occur.”
California’s warning came as a whistleblower complained the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear. Those workers were then reportedly not tested for the virus.
Across the U.S., officials are reporting a severe shortage of test kits for the virus. New York officials say they’re preparing their own kits, after kits distributed by the Centers for Disease Control failed validation tests.
Meanwhile, new cases of coronavirus continue to spring up worldwide, with Nigeria reporting its first case and one of Iran’s vice presidents testing positive. At the Vatican, Pope Francis canceled a planned mass after he became ill from an unknown ailment, raising jitters in Italy, where 17 people have died of coronavirus.
Fears over the virus have hammered stock markets worldwide, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping nearly 1,200 points Thursday — the single largest point drop in its history.


democracynow--2020-02-27--"Dead Bodies Everywhere": Hindu Nationalist Violence Rocks Delhi as Trump Visits Modi in India

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
I ’ m Amy Goodman , as we go now to India , where the death toll from anti-Muslim violence in Delhi has risen to at least 34 , with police accused of standing by as Hindu nationalist mobs assault Muslims .
The violence began Sunday when groups of Hindus attacked peaceful sit-ins of Muslims protesting against Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’ s new citizenship law , which widely restricts Muslim immigration to India .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was on his way home from a local mosque in northeast New Delhi when he was attacked by a mob .
AMY GOODMAN : Prime Minister Modi said nothing as the violence continued for days , instead hosting President Donald Trump on a two-day state visit in which Trump heaped praise on the Indian prime minister .
This is Trump speaking about Modi at a news conference back in Washington Wednesday .
AMY GOODMAN : On Sunday , human rights lawyer Arjun Sethi called Modi and Trump the “ worst kind of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ B ] oth Modi & Trump have criminalized minority communities , championed fake news & persecuted dissent , promoted supremacist ideologies , and played on the racism & anxiety of dominant communities , ” unquote .
Modi broke his silence Wednesday , calling for peace on Twitter .
But many critics have noted the Indian prime minister served as the chief minister of Gujarat when one of India ’ s worst anti-Muslim riots took place in 2002 that left at least a thousand people dead .
After the bloodshed , the U.S. State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying it could not grant a visa to any foreign government official who was , quote , “ responsible for or directly carried out , at any time , particularly severe violations of religious freedom , ” unquote .
Modi has never apologized for or explained his actions at the time .
Well , for more , we ’ re joined by two guests .
From Democracy Now !
video stream in New Delhi , Neha Dixit is with us , independent journalist based there .
Her investigative reporting focuses on politics , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2019 International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists .
And in Ithaca , New York , speaking to us from Cornell University , Priya Gopal , who ’ s on the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge in Britain , author of Insurgent Empire : Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent .
We welcome you both to Democracy Now !
Let ’ s begin with Neha Dixit in New Delhi .
Tell us what has happened there .
In the wake of President Trump ’ s trip , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NEHA DIXIT : Thank you , Amy .
In the last three days , we ’ ve seen a spell of violence in various parts of New Delhi , especially in the northeastern district .
As of now , the death toll has gone up to 34 , but people are still in the process of finding dead bodies everywhere and finding — raising the official count .
What happened on Sunday was that a lot — since December 2019 , several people across the national capital have been protesting against the Citizenship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of these protests had been led by Muslim women and with the participation of various other communities against this law that excludes Muslims .
So , on Sunday night , a pro-CAA group , pro-Citizenship Amendment Act group , which was led by a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party , the BJP , which is also Narendra Modi ’ s party , they came there .
This BJP member called Kapil Mishra , who is also a former MLA of the area , member of Legislative Assembly in Delhi , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of that , saying that the protesters should move and go back .
And it is from Sunday night ’ til yesterday evening , the violence continues .
Lots of schools , offices [ inaudible ] .
Most of these are working-class Muslim areas .
A large mob has been reported in various parts , stone pelting , using tear gas , using petrol bombs .
And all this happened in the presence of police .
There have been several videos that show that the police is standing while this kind of violence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the people in these neighborhoods .
The other thing also happened was that this is the first time — yesterday I ’ ve seen , I met several people who were injured .
Apart from petrol bombs and guns and tortures , acid was used on several people , so which is why lots of people have lost their eyes , have had damaged faces .
Again , each time somebody tried to stop the mob from attacks , the police did not help them , instead stood as bystanders .
Also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ places to raise Hindu slogans , such as “ Jai Shri Ram.
” So , this has been the situation the last three days .
Thirty-four people who have been killed , the bodies are still at the hospitals .
The postmortems are still conducted .
But lack of government support , lack of administrative support has led to no timely treatment for the people who have been injured .
And this has been growing for the last two-and-a-half months , since the government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act , because it exclusively @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community in the country .
And while these protests were resorting to nonviolence and constitutionalism clearly , this kind of violence was used .
And not just the — various kinds of hate speeches have been used in the recent Delhi elections also .
And it has created an atmosphere by the silence of the prime minister , under whose jurisdiction , under the central government , under whose — the police , the Delhi police , is under , that anybody who raises right-wing Hindu nationalist slogans or takes their agenda forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ encouraged by this kind of silence from Modi and the other ministers .
AMY GOODMAN : And can you tell me , Neha , is this in any way — what just happened in New Delhi , is it related to President Trump being there and then being in Gujarat and 100,000 people for this “ Namaste Trump ” rally , in answer to Trump going to Houston and welcoming Modi at that “ Howdy Modi ” rally ?
NEHA DIXIT : I would definitely say that the kind of Islamophobia that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the last few years , in India is also kind of encouraged by President Trump in the way he has treated the minorities everywhere else .
This kind of Islamophobia is encouraged by this kind of silence also from President Trump , because he was asked a question during the press conference , and he did not respond to it .
So there is a clear connection .
Also the fact that these elements are emboldened by the visits of somebody like Trump , and recently we also had Bolsonaro , President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shares similar principles when it comes to minorities , when it comes to climate , when it comes to various other policies that leads to displacement .
And when there is no reaction from them , and in fact they ’ re seen as endorsing Prime Minister Modi in India , there is a kind of encouragement for such things here .
I would also like to say that this is the first time — not the first time , but I would say we have not heard in the recent past where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually attacked by mobs in the presence of police , and they were asked for their religions .
So , several non-Hindu journalists were threatened .
They were forced to delete their videos , forced to delete photos .
They were brutally attacked .
Some of the Hindu journalists had to identify and say Hindu prayers so that they ’ re let off by the mob .
And this is unprecedented .
And in this kind of a situation now , even reporting what is happening with a certain community has become such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened was that lots of people who were injured and were in small nursing homes and needed better facilities and needed to be transferred to bigger hospitals , ambulances were not allowed by the police to enter , so which is why on Tuesday midnight some of the members of the civil society tried to contact the High Court .
And the High Court , at midnight , [ inaudible ] they passed an order saying that ambulances should be immediately allowed by the Delhi police , including several other things .
Also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said that Delhi should not become like a 1984 situation .
In 1984 , several — Delhi witnessed a genocide of the Sikh community .
And today , we hear that that judge has been also transferred .
So I also want to point out that the institutions , the police , the judiciary and the other people in the administration who are supposed to protect the constitutional rights of people in India , in a secular India , are also under grave threat , under the political pressure right now .
AMY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Priya Gopal to this discussion .
You ’ re now in Ithaca at Cornell University .
Your Twitter thread has been extremely significant in saying we have to reshape the framework that this is being seen in around the world and the language that ’ s being used .
Please explain , Professor Gopal .
PRIYA GOPAL : Well , I think that we have to drop the language of clashes and even riots and communal violence .
A lot of the language , certainly in the British press , and I think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has been presenting this as a conflict between equal and opposite sides , as a kind of religious fight .
It is not a religious fight .
We are witnessing a situation of very deep structural violence .
There is a majoritarian supremacist party in power in India .
And mobs , directly incited by senior Indian politicians , are roaming around in Muslim-majority areas , identifying Muslim shops , businesses , homes , setting them on fire , identifying Muslims , beating them up .
There is some pushback , certainly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is not a situation of equality .
And I ’ ve said that any press outfit which refers to this as “ clashes , ” clashes between Hindus and Muslims , or even as kind of riots , is actually culpable of a dereliction of duty , and certainly of critical analysis .
This is not a situation where equal and opposite forces are in conflict .
It ’ s not even a civil war .
What we have is a very dangerous supremacist ideology that is now out on the streets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the parallels with 1930s Germany are extremely clear .
What has taken place in Delhi in the last couple of days is comparable to the Reichskristallnacht , when Jewish businesses were attacked and set on fire .
And I think that the world really needs to wake up to the gravity of the situation in India , because we are in a situation not unlike what was happening in Germany in the 1930s , in its 21st century variation .
But I think that to just play this out as conflicts and clashes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is deeply irresponsible .
AMY GOODMAN : And President Trump paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi and at the same time hailing his $ 3 billion military helicopter deal with Modi , the significance of Trump ’ s relationship with Modi ?
We just have 30 seconds .
PRIYA GOPAL : Well , I ’ m afraid that , you know , Modi has to be set in the context of the global rise of ethnonationalism .
Trump is a kind of apprentice to Modi , rather than the other way around .
Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in India and probably sees this as really a fantasy come true .
The using of Gandhi to sanitize what is happening in India is now an old story , and Trump is simply picking up the narrative that has already been peddled by the Indian state .
But this is not Gandhi ’ s India by a longshot .
What we have here is violent supremacism out on the streets of India .
And if the world doesn ’ t take notice , then , like the coronavirus , this is also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all pay the price .
AMY GOODMAN : Priya Gopal , I want to thank you for being with us , lecturer at the University of Cambridge , and Neha Dixit , an independent journalist based in New Delhi , India .
And of course we ’ ll continue to follow this study .
Tune in next Tuesday night for Democracy Now !
’ s Super Tuesday live special broadcast with The Intercept , starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time until midnight , right here at democracynow.org and on many stations around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democracy Now !
, from producer to producing fellow to communications director and more .
Go to democracynow.org .
I ’ m Amy Goodman .
Thanks for joining us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we go now to India, where the death toll from anti-Muslim violence in Delhi has risen to at least 34, with police accused of standing by as Hindu nationalist mobs assault Muslims. The violence began Sunday when groups of Hindus attacked peaceful sit-ins of Muslims protesting against Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new citizenship law, which widely restricts Muslim immigration to India. This is Mohammad Zubair, who said he was on his way home from a local mosque in northeast New Delhi when he was attacked by a mob.
MOHAMMAD ZUBAIR: [translated] Twenty to 25 people started beating me. The rest were standing by as if they were watching a show. There were thousands behind them. They kept hitting me. Nobody came forward to save me. Somehow, some people came from the other side. I was like unconscious. I didn’t have much consciousness. My clothes were drenched in blood.
AMY GOODMAN: Prime Minister Modi said nothing as the violence continued for days, instead hosting President Donald Trump on a two-day state visit in which Trump heaped praise on the Indian prime minister. This is Trump speaking about Modi at a news conference back in Washington Wednesday.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He’s a great gentleman, a great leader. It’s an incredible country. We were treated very, very well. And we really enjoyed it. A lot of tremendous progress was made in terms of relationship. Our relationship with India is extraordinary right now. And we’re going to be doing a lot of business with India. They’re sending billions and billions of dollars now to the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, human rights lawyer Arjun Sethi called Modi and Trump the “worst kind of fascists.” He tweeted, “[B]oth Modi & Trump have criminalized minority communities, championed fake news & persecuted dissent, promoted supremacist ideologies, and played on the racism & anxiety of dominant communities,” unquote.
Modi broke his silence Wednesday, calling for peace on Twitter. But many critics have noted the Indian prime minister served as the chief minister of Gujarat when one of India’s worst anti-Muslim riots took place in 2002 that left at least a thousand people dead. After the bloodshed, the U.S. State Department revoked Modi’s visa, saying it could not grant a visa to any foreign government official who was, quote, “responsible for or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” unquote. Modi has never apologized for or explained his actions at the time.
Well, for more, we’re joined by two guests. From Democracy Now! video stream in New Delhi, Neha Dixit is with us, independent journalist based there. Her investigative reporting focuses on politics, gender and social justice; recipient of the 2019 International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. And in Ithaca, New York, speaking to us from Cornell University, Priya Gopal, who’s on the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge in Britain, author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Neha Dixit in New Delhi. Tell us what has happened there. In the wake of President Trump’s trip, what took place in New Delhi?
NEHA DIXIT: Thank you, Amy. In the last three days, we’ve seen a spell of violence in various parts of New Delhi, especially in the northeastern district. As of now, the death toll has gone up to 34, but people are still in the process of finding dead bodies everywhere and finding — raising the official count.
What happened on Sunday was that a lot — since December 2019, several people across the national capital have been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed. A lot of these protests had been led by Muslim women and with the participation of various other communities against this law that excludes Muslims. So, on Sunday night, a pro-CAA group, pro-Citizenship Amendment Act group, which was led by a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP, which is also Narendra Modi’s party, they came there. This BJP member called Kapil Mishra, who is also a former MLA of the area, member of Legislative Assembly in Delhi, he incited violence. There’s evidence of that, saying that the protesters should move and go back. And it is from Sunday night ’til yesterday evening, the violence continues. Lots of schools, offices [inaudible]. Most of these are working-class Muslim areas. A large mob has been reported in various parts, stone pelting, using tear gas, using petrol bombs. And all this happened in the presence of police. There have been several videos that show that the police is standing while this kind of violence is being meted out by the mob on the people in these neighborhoods.
The other thing also happened was that this is the first time — yesterday I’ve seen, I met several people who were injured. Apart from petrol bombs and guns and tortures, acid was used on several people, so which is why lots of people have lost their eyes, have had damaged faces. Again, each time somebody tried to stop the mob from attacks, the police did not help them, instead stood as bystanders. Also, the police also joined at several places to raise Hindu slogans, such as “Jai Shri Ram.”
So, this has been the situation the last three days. Thirty-four people who have been killed, the bodies are still at the hospitals. The postmortems are still conducted. But lack of government support, lack of administrative support has led to no timely treatment for the people who have been injured. And this has been growing for the last two-and-a-half months, since the government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, because it exclusively is meant to keep out the Muslim community in the country. And while these protests were resorting to nonviolence and constitutionalism clearly, this kind of violence was used. And not just the — various kinds of hate speeches have been used in the recent Delhi elections also. And it has created an atmosphere by the silence of the prime minister, under whose jurisdiction, under the central government, under whose — the police, the Delhi police, is under, that anybody who raises right-wing Hindu nationalist slogans or takes their agenda forward on the road enjoy impunity and are encouraged by this kind of silence from Modi and the other ministers.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you tell me, Neha, is this in any way — what just happened in New Delhi, is it related to President Trump being there and then being in Gujarat and 100,000 people for this “Namaste Trump” rally, in answer to Trump going to Houston and welcoming Modi at that “Howdy Modi” rally?
NEHA DIXIT: I would definitely say that the kind of Islamophobia that we have seen in the recent past, in the last few years, in India is also kind of encouraged by President Trump in the way he has treated the minorities everywhere else. This kind of Islamophobia is encouraged by this kind of silence also from President Trump, because he was asked a question during the press conference, and he did not respond to it. So there is a clear connection. Also the fact that these elements are emboldened by the visits of somebody like Trump, and recently we also had Bolsonaro, President Bolsonaro from Brazil, who kind of shares similar principles when it comes to minorities, when it comes to climate, when it comes to various other policies that leads to displacement. And when there is no reaction from them, and in fact they’re seen as endorsing Prime Minister Modi in India, there is a kind of encouragement for such things here.
I would also like to say that this is the first time — not the first time, but I would say we have not heard in the recent past where journalists in the last three days were actually attacked by mobs in the presence of police, and they were asked for their religions. So, several non-Hindu journalists were threatened. They were forced to delete their videos, forced to delete photos. They were brutally attacked. Some of the Hindu journalists had to identify and say Hindu prayers so that they’re let off by the mob. And this is unprecedented. And in this kind of a situation now, even reporting what is happening with a certain community has become such a problem.
The other thing that happened was that lots of people who were injured and were in small nursing homes and needed better facilities and needed to be transferred to bigger hospitals, ambulances were not allowed by the police to enter, so which is why on Tuesday midnight some of the members of the civil society tried to contact the High Court. And the High Court, at midnight, [inaudible] they passed an order saying that ambulances should be immediately allowed by the Delhi police, including several other things. Also, one of the judges, who said that Delhi should not become like a 1984 situation. In 1984, several — Delhi witnessed a genocide of the Sikh community. And today, we hear that that judge has been also transferred. So I also want to point out that the institutions, the police, the judiciary and the other people in the administration who are supposed to protect the constitutional rights of people in India, in a secular India, are also under grave threat, under the political pressure right now.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to bring in Priya Gopal to this discussion. You’re now in Ithaca at Cornell University. Your Twitter thread has been extremely significant in saying we have to reshape the framework that this is being seen in around the world and the language that’s being used. Please explain, Professor Gopal.
PRIYA GOPAL: Well, I think that we have to drop the language of clashes and even riots and communal violence. A lot of the language, certainly in the British press, and I think in the American press, as well, has been presenting this as a conflict between equal and opposite sides, as a kind of religious fight. It is not a religious fight. We are witnessing a situation of very deep structural violence. There is a majoritarian supremacist party in power in India. And mobs, directly incited by senior Indian politicians, are roaming around in Muslim-majority areas, identifying Muslim shops, businesses, homes, setting them on fire, identifying Muslims, beating them up. There is some pushback, certainly, as you might expect, but this is not a situation of equality. And I’ve said that any press outfit which refers to this as “clashes,” clashes between Hindus and Muslims, or even as kind of riots, is actually culpable of a dereliction of duty, and certainly of critical analysis.
This is not a situation where equal and opposite forces are in conflict. It’s not even a civil war. What we have is a very dangerous supremacist ideology that is now out on the streets. And I’m afraid that the parallels with 1930s Germany are extremely clear. What has taken place in Delhi in the last couple of days is comparable to the Reichskristallnacht, when Jewish businesses were attacked and set on fire. And I think that the world really needs to wake up to the gravity of the situation in India, because we are in a situation not unlike what was happening in Germany in the 1930s, in its 21st century variation. But I think that to just play this out as conflicts and clashes and religious fights, I think, is deeply irresponsible.
AMY GOODMAN: And President Trump paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi and at the same time hailing his $3 billion military helicopter deal with Modi, the significance of Trump’s relationship with Modi? We just have 30 seconds.
PRIYA GOPAL: Well, I’m afraid that, you know, Modi has to be set in the context of the global rise of ethnonationalism. Trump is a kind of apprentice to Modi, rather than the other way around. Trump, I think, watches the situation in India and probably sees this as really a fantasy come true. The using of Gandhi to sanitize what is happening in India is now an old story, and Trump is simply picking up the narrative that has already been peddled by the Indian state. But this is not Gandhi’s India by a longshot. What we have here is violent supremacism out on the streets of India. And if the world doesn’t take notice, then, like the coronavirus, this is also going to spread, and we will all pay the price.
AMY GOODMAN: Priya Gopal, I want to thank you for being with us, lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and Neha Dixit, an independent journalist based in New Delhi, India. And of course we’ll continue to follow this study.
Tune in next Tuesday night for Democracy Now!’s Super Tuesday live special broadcast with The Intercept, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time until midnight, right here at democracynow.org and on many stations around the country.
We have job openings at Democracy Now!, from producer to producing fellow to communications director and more. Go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.


democracynow--2020-02-27--How the Climate Crisis Is Making the Spread of Infectious Diseases Like Coronavirus More Common

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
I ’ m Amy Goodman , as we continue to look at the spread of the coronavirus , with cases now diagnosed in at least 47 countries and on every continent , save Antarctica .
Nearly 3,000 people have died so far .
The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international health emergency .
For more , we ’ re joined from Cleveland , Ohio , by Sonia Shah , science investigative journalist and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond .
Her new book is titled The Next Great Migration : The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move .
Her latest article , published in The Nation , “ Think Exotic Animals Are to Blame for the Coronavirus ?
Think Again.
” Explain , Sonia Shah .
And thanks so much for joining us .
SONIA SHAH : Thanks for having me .
So , what I was trying to get at in that article was this fact that over the past 50 years we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ either kind of newly emerge , that never have been seen before , or come into new places , where they ’ ve never been before .
This novel coronavirus is just one of a whole spate of other pathogens we ’ ve seen — Ebola in West Africa , where it had never been seen before , Zika in the Americas , where it had never been seen before , new kinds of tick-borne diseases , new kinds of mosquito-borne diseases , new kinds of highly drug-resistant bacterial pathogens .
And we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new pathogens originate in the bodies of animals .
About 70 % of those are in wild animals .
But it ’ s not because wild animals are particularly infested .
It ’ s because of the way humans and wildlife are coming into novel intimate contact , and that is because of human activities .
AMY GOODMAN : So , talk about this connection between climate crisis and the coronavirus .
We ’ re not hearing very much about this .
SONIA SHAH : Well , we know , in a general @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resulting in tens of thousands of wild species moving into new places .
It ’ s scrambling our migration patterns .
And so that ’ s going to contribute to this broader phenomenon of people and wildlife coming into new kinds of contact .
We can see with , for example , deforestation , that when you cut down the trees where bats roost , for example , they don ’ t just go away .
They come and roost in your back gardens and your farms and your yards instead .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into new kinds of contact .
And the microbes that live in their bodies , which don ’ t cause them any kind of disease , can spill over into human bodies .
And that ’ s how we turn animal microbes into these epidemic- and pandemic-causing pathogens .
AMY GOODMAN : So , how should this be dealt with ?
How should people understand the coronavirus ?
Diseases always exist , but how are epidemics and pandemics preventable ?
SONIA SHAH : I mean , infectious disease is always going to exist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , so that ’ s part of the human condition .
We ’ re not going to get rid of all of the microbes , nor would we ever want to .
But pandemics are something that we can do a lot to prevent .
There ’ s a lot we can do to protect wildlife habitat , for example , so that the microbes in animals ’ bodies stay in their bodies and don ’ t cross over into our bodies .
We can do a lot to do active surveillance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be turning into human pathogens , and try to contain them before they start to cause epidemics .
And that is scientific work that has been really successful the past 10 years .
So if we have the political will to continue funding that kind of research , there is a lot that we can do to kind of reduce the risk of pandemics .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Congressmember Jan Schakowsky questioning Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar Wednesday about whether the coronavirus will be affordable to all .
AMY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hearing , she gave Azar three chances to assure us that any coronavirus vaccines or treatments developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars will be affordable and accessible to everyone , and he flat-out refused to do so .
Sonia Shah ?
SONIA SHAH : I mean , it ’ s just reprehensible .
I think there ’ s a well-understood principle in the global health community that these are commodities that we need to make public .
So , you know , this is like a real failure of leadership , and it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ travesty .
AMY GOODMAN : Finally , what do you feel the corporate media , the mainstream media , is missing here , that you feel is essential for people to understand ?
SONIA SHAH : I think there ’ s a sense in which we kind of frame narrative around disease outbreaks as something foreign , like an encroachment from outside that invades us , and kind of posits us as sort of these passive victims .
But , actually — and I think that really obscures the larger story , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of human agency involved in how we ’ re turning microbes into pathogenic and pandemic-causing pathogens .
So , I think we need to recast the whole way we talk about disease as not a problem of foreign invasion , you know , this — you know , we talk a lot about places when we talk about where diseases come from .
We talk about the “ Wuhan flu ” or the “ Spanish influenza , ” even though that influenza did not originate in Spain .
So , there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ try to make it seem like these are foreign things that are coming to get us and encroach upon us .
And that ’ s a habit of mind that we have around a lot of other subjects , as well .
But I think that obscures what our own role is .
And there ’ s a lot we can do and that we are doing .
We are turning a lot of these microbes into these pathogenic microbes instead .
AMY GOODMAN : And finally , with the Trump administration gutting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deal with something like this , the CDC cut 80 % of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks because it was , quote , “ running out of money.
” The department went from working in 49 countries to just 10 , with President Trump with his isolationist tendencies — you know , why give money to other countries ?
Explain why , Sonia Shah .
SONIA SHAH : Well , I think the — and the other program that ’ s been cut , that probably protected us from unknown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know how much we ’ ve been protected , is the Predict program , which funded — was through the USAID and funded scientists to actually look for microbes that might be turning into pathogens .
And over 10 years , they found about 900 different microbes that might be doing that , and were able to contain them at their source .
And that ’ s the kind of program that the Trump administration also cut .
And I think the reason they gave was that they were uncomfortable funding cutting-edge science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shah , I want to thank you for being with us , science investigative journalist , author of Pandemic : Tracking Contagions , from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond .
This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The War and Peace Report .
We will link to her piece in The Nation magazine that she just wrote , called “ Think Exotic Animals Are to Blame for the Coronavirus ?
Think Again.
” When we come back , as Trump leaves India , the death toll from anti-Muslim violence in New Delhi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ ll go to Delhi .
Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue to look at the spread of the coronavirus, with cases now diagnosed in at least 47 countries and on every continent, save Antarctica. Nearly 3,000 people have died so far. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international health emergency.
For more, we’re joined from Cleveland, Ohio, by Sonia Shah, science investigative journalist and the author of Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. Her new book is titled The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move. Her latest article, published in The Nation, “Think Exotic Animals Are to Blame for the Coronavirus? Think Again.”
Explain, Sonia Shah. And thanks so much for joining us.
SONIA SHAH: Thanks for having me. So, what I was trying to get at in that article was this fact that over the past 50 years we’ve had over 300 new pathogens either kind of newly emerge, that never have been seen before, or come into new places, where they’ve never been before. This novel coronavirus is just one of a whole spate of other pathogens we’ve seen — Ebola in West Africa, where it had never been seen before, Zika in the Americas, where it had never been seen before, new kinds of tick-borne diseases, new kinds of mosquito-borne diseases, new kinds of highly drug-resistant bacterial pathogens. And we know that about 60% of these new pathogens originate in the bodies of animals. About 70% of those are in wild animals. But it’s not because wild animals are particularly infested. It’s because of the way humans and wildlife are coming into novel intimate contact, and that is because of human activities.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about this connection between climate crisis and the coronavirus. We’re not hearing very much about this.
SONIA SHAH: Well, we know, in a general sense, that the climate crisis is resulting in tens of thousands of wild species moving into new places. It’s scrambling our migration patterns. And so that’s going to contribute to this broader phenomenon of people and wildlife coming into new kinds of contact. We can see with, for example, deforestation, that when you cut down the trees where bats roost, for example, they don’t just go away. They come and roost in your back gardens and your farms and your yards instead. And that allows people and bats to come into new kinds of contact. And the microbes that live in their bodies, which don’t cause them any kind of disease, can spill over into human bodies. And that’s how we turn animal microbes into these epidemic- and pandemic-causing pathogens.
AMY GOODMAN: So, how should this be dealt with? How should people understand the coronavirus? Diseases always exist, but how are epidemics and pandemics preventable?
SONIA SHAH: I mean, infectious disease is always going to exist. We live on a microbial planet, so that’s part of the human condition. We’re not going to get rid of all of the microbes, nor would we ever want to. But pandemics are something that we can do a lot to prevent. There’s a lot we can do to protect wildlife habitat, for example, so that the microbes in animals’ bodies stay in their bodies and don’t cross over into our bodies. We can do a lot to do active surveillance, to actually look for microbes that might be turning into human pathogens, and try to contain them before they start to cause epidemics. And that is scientific work that has been really successful the past 10 years. So if we have the political will to continue funding that kind of research, there is a lot that we can do to kind of reduce the risk of pandemics.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Congressmember Jan Schakowsky questioning Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar Wednesday about whether the coronavirus will be affordable to all.
REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY: You’re saying it will for sure be affordable for anyone who needs it?
HHS SECRETARY ALEX AZAR: I’m saying we would — we would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price, because we need the private sector to invest. The priority is to get vaccines and therapeutics. Price controls won’t get us there.
AMY GOODMAN: Schakowsky tweeted, following the hearing, she gave Azar three chances to assure us that any coronavirus vaccines or treatments developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars will be affordable and accessible to everyone, and he flat-out refused to do so. Sonia Shah?
SONIA SHAH: I mean, it’s just reprehensible. I think there’s a well-understood principle in the global health community that these are commodities that we need to make public. So, you know, this is like a real failure of leadership, and it’s actually — it’s a travesty.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, what do you feel the corporate media, the mainstream media, is missing here, that you feel is essential for people to understand?
SONIA SHAH: I think there’s a sense in which we kind of frame narrative around disease outbreaks as something foreign, like an encroachment from outside that invades us, and kind of posits us as sort of these passive victims. But, actually — and I think that really obscures the larger story, which is that there’s a lot of human agency involved in how we’re turning microbes into pathogenic and pandemic-causing pathogens. So, I think we need to recast the whole way we talk about disease as not a problem of foreign invasion, you know, this — you know, we talk a lot about places when we talk about where diseases come from. We talk about the “Wuhan flu” or the “Spanish influenza,” even though that influenza did not originate in Spain. So, there’s a sense in which we want to try to make it seem like these are foreign things that are coming to get us and encroach upon us. And that’s a habit of mind that we have around a lot of other subjects, as well. But I think that obscures what our own role is. And there’s a lot we can do and that we are doing. We are turning a lot of these microbes into these pathogenic microbes instead.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, with the Trump administration gutting the very government programs that were tasked to deal with something like this, the CDC cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks because it was, quote, “running out of money.” The department went from working in 49 countries to just 10, with President Trump with his isolationist tendencies — you know, why give money to other countries? Explain why, Sonia Shah.
SONIA SHAH: Well, I think the — and the other program that’s been cut, that probably protected us from unknown pathogens, that we don’t know how much we’ve been protected, is the Predict program, which funded — was through the USAID and funded scientists to actually look for microbes that might be turning into pathogens. And over 10 years, they found about 900 different microbes that might be doing that, and were able to contain them at their source. And that’s the kind of program that the Trump administration also cut. And I think the reason they gave was that they were uncomfortable funding cutting-edge science.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Sonia Shah, I want to thank you for being with us, science investigative journalist, author of Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. We will link to her piece in The Nation magazine that she just wrote, called “Think Exotic Animals Are to Blame for the Coronavirus? Think Again.”
When we come back, as Trump leaves India, the death toll from anti-Muslim violence in New Delhi has risen to at least 34. We’ll go to Delhi. Stay with us.