Dear readers, many of the events and actions scheduled have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus. Please check websites listed to check on cancellations.
Stay Healthy!
—Bonnie Weinstein
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I tried to circulate this post on Facebook but it was determined to "Go against our Community Standards on spam"
—Bonnie Weinstein
How Cuba is Leading the World in the Fight Against Coronavirus
As Cuba sends doctors around the world to fight coronavirus, a Cuban antiviral drug is helping stem the tide of the outbreak.
As Cuba sends doctors around the world to fight coronavirus, a Cuban antiviral drug is helping stem the tide of the outbreak.
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New 48 Hours tv show on Kevin Cooper,
this Saturday, March 21, 10pm
Begin forwarded message:
this Saturday, March 21, 10pm
Dear friends,
Here is a short sneak peek video about the 48 Hours program this Saturday with photos of producers Marcelena Spencer, Erin Moriarty, and Kevin. Both the video and photos are included in an article by Marcelena about the visit they had in preparation for the program. I just had a phone call with Kevin and he’s in good spirits.
☮️ Carole
Begin forwarded message:
"48 HOURS" VISITS DEATH ROW INMATE KEVIN COOPER IN SAN QUENTIN
By Marcelana Spencer, March 18, 2020
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kevin-cooper-san-quentin-state-prison-48-hours/
"48 Hours" has the latest on Kevin Cooper's battle for his freedom in "The Troubling Case of Kevin Cooper" airing Saturday, March 21 on CBS.
As a "48 Hours" producer, I have met and interviewed convicted felons. I had never met a death row inmate — until I visited Kevin Cooper at San Quentin Prison.
Correspondent Erin Moriarty and I completed the required paperwork in preparation for our visit. The California Department of Corrections has strict rules for visitors which includes a dress code: flat shoes, no jewelry, no skirts or dresses, no khaki-, blue- or green-colored clothing.
Erin and I decided to wear black — easy and uncomplicated.
I told a defense attorney friend I was going to visit death row inmate Kevin Cooper. He asked me to call him after the visit. I agreed.
It was a Thursday. May 9, 2019. Erin, Cooper's attorney, Norman Hile, and I arrived at San Quentin prison at 7 a.m. We stashed our personal belongings in lockers at the visitor center and then proceeded to the security checkpoint. We we were given nametags and escorted to the visitor area. "48 Hours" has been covering the Kevin Cooper case for more than 20 years and this visit would be the first time our team would meet him face to face.
When the door opened, I walked in, turned to my right, and saw Kevin Cooper standing in a plexiglass room with bars. This is where we would visit Cooper. When we entered the room, a corrections officer removed his handcuffs and Cooper greeted us with a smile and a handshake.
There were no corrections officers in the room during our visit. We sat in plastic chairs with a small table between us. The furniture reminded me of a late 1970s elementary school library.
We talked for several hours. Cooper did not mince words. He wanted Erin and me to understand why he has been fighting so hard to clear his name. In 1985, Cooper was convicted of the murders of four people in Chino Hills, California. I had read the letters he had sent Erin over the years but to see and hear Cooper's story in person was even more compelling. San Quentin prison does not allow the media to record inmate visits. I wish we could have recorded it to share with our viewers.
During our visit I couldn't help but take in the surroundings. It was stark and surreal. There were more visitors' rooms. The men were enclosed in small boxes with bars and the overwhelming majority looked like Kevin Cooper: black and brown with salt-and-pepper hair. Books like "Just Mercy" and "The New Jim Crow" examine the justice system and mass incarceration, but now I was seeing it up close: men of color growing old behind bars.
I wasn't afraid. I wasn't having an internal debate about guilt or innocence. I knew nothing about these men or the circumstances of their crimes, yet I began to feel anxious. The visit was a reality check because I am a journalist and I'm African American.
Cooper, who has always claimed he is innocent, looked me in the eye and said, "I have been here for a long time." I responded, ''More than half your life." I sensed Cooper knew I was taking in the demographics of the prison population. We never talked about it. We didn't need to.
At the end of our visit we took Polaroid photos and said goodbye. The corrections officer that had removed the handcuffs put them back on Cooper.
Erin, attorney Norm Hile and l left San Quentin. Later that day, I phoned a friend of mine who is a defense attorney and is also African American. He didn't ask me about the details of the visit; he wanted to know if I was OK. I said I wasn't sure and that I needed to wrap my brain around it. Nearly a year later, I am still processing.
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https://myemail.constantcontact.com/3-16-2020---anniversary-of-betrayal-of-Al-Amin.html?soid=1109359583686&aid=pWjZtJNlqg8
Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org
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Chelsea Manning Ordered Free From Prison
Natasha Lennard - March 12, 2020
On Thursday afternoon,a District Court judge in Virginia ordered that Chelsea Manning be released from jail, where she has been held since last May for refusing to testify before a grand jury.
The ruling itself is striking in what it fails to recognize. “The court finds Ms. Manning’s appearance before the Grand Jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose,” the judge noted. The fact that the coercive purpose of Manning’s detention had long been shown to be absent — Manning has proven herself incoercible beyond any doubt — was not mentioned. Nor was the fact that on Wednesday, Manning attempted suicide. It was the most absolute evidence that she could not be coerced: She would sooner die.
The ruling itself is striking in what it fails to recognize. “The court finds Ms. Manning’s appearance before the Grand Jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose,” the judge noted. The fact that the coercive purpose of Manning’s detention had long been shown to be absent — Manning has proven herself incoercible beyond any doubt — was not mentioned. Nor was the fact that on Wednesday, Manning attempted suicide. It was the most absolute evidence that she could not be coerced: She would sooner die.
She endured months of extreme suffering, driving her to near death, but never wavered on her principled refusal to speak.
While Manning’s release is vastly long overdue and most welcome, the framing and timing of the decision are galling. On Friday, Manning was scheduled to appear at a court hearing on a motion to end her continued imprisonment, predicated on her unshakeable resistance proving coercion to be impossible, and her incarceration therefore illegal. She endured months of extreme suffering, driving her to near death, but never wavered on her principled refusal to speak.
The day before this hearing — and the day after she made an attempt on her own life — the judge ruled that Manning is “no longer needed” by the grand jury. The court did not recognize that she is incoercible, nor that her detainment had become punitive. Indeed, a profoundly punitive element of her treatment will remain, even after her release: The judge denied a motion to vacate the exorbitant fines Manning faces. She owes the state $256,000, which she is expected to pay, even though the fines were only accrued on the condition that they might coerce her to speak.
The day before this hearing — and the day after she made an attempt on her own life — the judge ruled that Manning is “no longer needed” by the grand jury. The court did not recognize that she is incoercible, nor that her detainment had become punitive. Indeed, a profoundly punitive element of her treatment will remain, even after her release: The judge denied a motion to vacate the exorbitant fines Manning faces. She owes the state $256,000, which she is expected to pay, even though the fines were only accrued on the condition that they might coerce her to speak.
Again and again, Manning and her legal team showed that her imprisonment was nothing but punitive, and thus unjustifiable under the legal statutes governing federal grand juries. Yet for nearly a year, Manning has been caged and fined $1,000 per day. Ever since she was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, which is investigating WikiLeaks, Manning has also insisted that there was never any justifiable purpose to asking her to testify.
As her support committee noted in a statement last May, “Chelsea gave voluminous testimony during her court martial. She has stood by the truth of her prior statements, and there is no legitimate purpose to having her rehash them before a hostile grand jury.”
For the court to admit, after nearly a year of torturous treatment, that further testimony from her is unnecessary adds insult to very real injury.
The government’s treatment of Manning has been putrid and continues to be — especially as she remains under the yoke of state-enforced financial ruin. For her unwavering resistance to government oppression, in the name of social justice struggle and press freedom, Manning is owed our deepest admiration and all the support we can muster.
As her support committee noted in a statement last May, “Chelsea gave voluminous testimony during her court martial. She has stood by the truth of her prior statements, and there is no legitimate purpose to having her rehash them before a hostile grand jury.”
For the court to admit, after nearly a year of torturous treatment, that further testimony from her is unnecessary adds insult to very real injury.
The government’s treatment of Manning has been putrid and continues to be — especially as she remains under the yoke of state-enforced financial ruin. For her unwavering resistance to government oppression, in the name of social justice struggle and press freedom, Manning is owed our deepest admiration and all the support we can muster.
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The American way of life was designed by white supremacists in favor patriarchal white supremacy, who have had at least a 400 year head start accumulating wealth, out of generations filled with blood sweat and tears of oppressed people. The same people who are still on the front lines and in the crosshairs of patriarchal white-supremacist capitalism today. There's no such thing as equality without a united revolutionary front to dismantle capitalism and design a worldwide socialist society.
—Johnny Gould
(Follow @tandino415 on Instagram)
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20-City PFAS Contamination Tour
The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water
Military Fire-fighting Foam that is poisoning us all!
What in the world are they thinking?
March 17, Tuesday - Fairfield/Marysville
8:00 am Press Conference
Press Contact: militarypoisons@wilpfus.org
3:00 – 5:00 pm Beale AFB - Marysville, Doolittle and Wheatland Gates.
5:30 Peace Encampment, Informal Presentation following potluck.
Schneider Gate, (“Main Gate”) East end of North Beale Rd.
Press Contact: militarypoisons@wilpfus.org
3:00 – 5:00 pm Beale AFB - Marysville, Doolittle and Wheatland Gates.
5:30 Peace Encampment, Informal Presentation following potluck.
Schneider Gate, (“Main Gate”) East end of North Beale Rd.
March 18, Wednesday - Marysville
South Beale Rd. & Ostrom Rd.
8:00 am Press Conference
8:00 am Press Conference
Press Contact: militarypoisons@wilpfus.org
8:30 am Potluck Breakfast and Presentation at Linda/Marysville residence
Mid-day - TBD -
Mid-day - TBD -
6:30 – 9:00 pm - Sacramento
WILPF Branch Potluck Supper and Talk
Southside Park Cohousing, 434 T St,
WILPF Branch Potluck Supper and Talk
Southside Park Cohousing, 434 T St,
March 19, Thursday - Fresno
7:00 pm Fresno City College
Old Administration Building (OAB), Room 251
Campus map
March 20, Friday - Berkeley - various meetings, organizing, etc.
March 21, Saturday - Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists 6:30 doors open, 7:00 - 9:00pm
March 22, Sunday - San Francisco - The Women's Building World Water Day 12:30 doors open, 1:00- 4:00pm
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Cancelled:
San Francisco Bay Area Anti-War Coalition
rally and a march to oppose the impending
war on Iran, demand an end to U..S.
occupation in Iraq
San Francisco Federal Building
(90 7th Street, SF, CA 94103)
Thursday, March 19th @ 5PM
Oppose U.S. Imperialism and imperialism in all its forms
Join us as we rally and march to demand an end to the U.S. occupation in Iraq and all other countries and oppose an impending war with Iran on the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, as well as the tragic commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. For decades, the United States has sought to dominate the Middle East through economic and military means. Now is the time for us to come together to start a new anti war movement within the United States that is able to put an end to the U.S. war machine once and for all! We demand:
No War on Iran
No Sanctions on Iran
U.S. Out of Iraq
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Please forward widely
The Prosecution of Julian Assange and the Fight for Free Speech
Sunday, April 19, 2:00 - 5:00 pm Humanist Hall 390 27th Street, Oakland
Donation: $20 -$10 sliding scale; Student $5, No one turned away for lack of funds
Benefit for the Courage Foundation, for Julian Assange's defense
Join us for a panel discussion of leading attorneys, human rights defenders and social justice activists as the London trial of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is underway. If Assange is extradicted to the United States, he faces the first-ever charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 for the publication of truthful information in the public interest. Speakers will present the ctitical legal and policy issues involved as well as rebut government efforts to undermine the reputation and credibility of Assange. In these difficult times for civil liberties and democratic rights we demand: Free Julian Assange! Defend Free Speech and the First Amendment!
Panel Speakers: Jim Lafferty, Executive Director for three decades, National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles
Representative, Bay Area National Lawyers Guild
Jennifer Robinson, Julian Assange's London attorney (message)
Joe Lombardo, National Coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition
Nathan Fuller, Executive Director, Courage Foundation*
Nozomi Hayase, author, contributor to the new book, In Defense of Julian Assange
Margaret Kunstler, editor, In Defense of Julian Assange (tentative)
Moderator: Jeff Mackler, author, Obama's National Security State: The Meaning of the Edward Snowden Revelations
*Courage Foundation www.couragefound.org, an international whistleblower support network, campaigning for the public and legal defense of Julian Assange and for the protection of truthtellers and the public's right to know, internationally.
Sponsors: Bay Area Julian Assange Defense Committee • National Lawyers Guild Bay Area • Courage Foundation • United National Antiwar Coalition
Initial co-sponsors: CodePink Bay Area • Social Justice Center of Marin • Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section • Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance, advisory board, Courage Foundation, past Steering Committee member Chelsea Manning Support Committee, Venezuelan Embassy defender • Marin Peace and Justice Center • Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Contact information and to co-sponsor: Event coordinator, Jeff Mackler, jmackler@lmi.net
With video messages from Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky and Alice Walker
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
National Solidarity Events to Amplify Prisoners Human Rights
AUGUST 21 - SEPTEMBER 9th
To all in solidarity with the Prisoners Human Rights Movement:
We are reaching out to those that have been amplifying our voices in these state, federal, or immigration jails and prisons, and to allies that uplifted the national prison strike demands in 2018. We call on you again to organize the communities from August 21st - September 9th, 2020, by hosting actions, events, and demonstrations that call for prisoner human rights and the end to prison slavery.
We must remind the people and legal powers in this nation that prisoners' human rights are a priority. If we aren't moving forward, we're moving backward. For those of us in chains, backward is not an option. We have nothing to lose but our chains.
Some people claim that prisoners' human rights have advanced since the last national prison strike in 2018. We strongly disagree. But due to prisoners organizing inside and allies organizing beyond the walls, solidarity with our movement has increased. The only reason we hear conversations referencing prison reforms in every political campaign today is because of the work of prison organizers and our allies! But as organizers in prisons, we understand this is not enough. Just as quickly as we've gained ground, others are already funding projects and talking points to set back those advances. Our only way to hold our ground while moving forward is to remind people where we are and where we are headed.
On August 21 - September 9, we call on everyone in solidarity with us to organize an action, a panel discussion, a rally, an art event, a film screening, or another kind of demonstration to promote prisoners' human rights. Whatever is within your ability, we ask that you shake the nation out of any fog they may be in about prisoners' human rights and the criminal legal system (legalized enslavement).
During these solidarity events, we request that organizers amplify immediate issues prisoners in your state face, the demands from the National Prison Strike of 2018, and uplift Jailhouse Lawyers Speak new International Law Project.
We've started the International Law Project to engage the international community with a formal complaint about human rights abuses in U.S. prisons. This project will seek prisoners' testimonials from across the country to establish a case against the United States Prison Industrial Slave Complex on international human rights grounds.
Presently working on this legally is the National Lawyers Guild's Prisoners Rights Committee, and another attorney, Anne Labarbera. Members of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP), and I am We Prisoners Advocacy Network/Millions For Prisoners are also working to support these efforts. The National Lawyers Guild Prisoners' Rights Committee (Jenipher R. Jones, Esq. and Audrey Bomse) will be taking the lead on this project.
The National Prison Strike Demands of 2018 have not changed.. As reflected publicly by the recent deaths of Mississippi prisoners, the crisis in this nation's prisons persist. Mississippi prisons are on national display at the moment of this writing, and we know shortly afterward there will be another Parchman in another state with the same issues. The U.S. has demonstrated a reckless disregard for human lives in cages.
The prison strike demands were drafted as a path to alleviate the dehumanizing process and conditions people are subjected to while going through this nation's judicial system. Following up on these demands communicates to the world that prisoners are heard and that prisoners' human rights are a priority.
In the spirit of Attica, will you be in the fight to dismantle the prison industrial slave complex by pushing agendas that will shut down jails and prisons like Rikers Island or Attica? Read the Attica Rebellion demands and read the National Prison Strike 2018 demands. Ask yourself what can you do to see the 2018 National Prison Strike demands through.
SHARE THIS RELEASE FAR AND WIDE WITH ALL YOUR CONTACTS!
We rage with George Jackson's "Blood in my eyes" and move in the spirit of the Attica Rebellion!
August 21st - September 9th, 2020
AGITATE, EDUCATE, ORGANIZE
Dare to struggle, Dare to win!
We are--
"Jailhouse Lawyers Speak"
NLG EMAIL CONTACT FOR LAWYERS AND LAW STUDENTS INTERESTED IN JOINING THE INTERNATIONAL LAW PROJECT: micjlsnlg@gmail.com
PRISON STRIKE DEMANDS: https://jailhouselawyerspeak.wordpress.com/2020/02/11/prisoners-national-demands-for-human-rights/
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COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist
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Stop Kevin Cooper's Abuse by San Quentin Prison Guards!
https://www.change.org/p/san-quentin-warden-ronald-davis-stop-kevin-cooper-s-abuse-by-san-quentin-prison-guards-2ace89a7-a13e-44ab-b70c-c18acbbfeb59?recruiter=747387046&recruited_by_id=3ea6ecd0-69ba-11e7-b7ef-51d8e2da53ef&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&use_react=false On Wednesday, September 25, Kevin Cooper's cell at San Quentin Prison was thrown into disarray and his personal food dumped into the toilet by a prison guard, A. Young. The cells on East Block Bayside, where Kevin's cell is, were all searched on September 25 during Mandatory Yard. Kevin spent the day out in the yard with other inmates.. In a letter, Kevin described what he found when he returned: "This cage was hit hard, like a hurricane was in here .. .... . little by little I started to clean up and put my personal items back inside the boxes that were not taken .... .. .. I go over to the toilet, lift up the seatcover and to my surprise and shock the toilet was completely filled up with my refried beans, and my brown rice. Both were in two separate cereal bags and both cereal bags were full. The raisin bran cereal bags were gone, and my food was in the toilet!" A bucket was eventually brought over and: "I had to get down on my knees and dig my food out of the toilet with my hands so that I could flush the toilet. The food, which was dried refried beans and dried brown rice had absorbed the water in the toilet and had become cement hard. It took me about 45 minutes to get enough of my food out of the toilet before it would flush." Even the guard working the tier at the time told Kevin, "K.C.., that is f_cked up!" A receipt was left in Kevin's cell identifying the guard who did this as A... Young. Kevin has never met Officer A...... Young, and has had no contact with him besides Officer Young's unprovoked act of harassment and psychological abuse... Kevin Cooper has served over 34 years at San Quentin, fighting for exoneration from the conviction for murders he did not commit. It is unconscionable for him to be treated so disrespectfully by prison staff on top of the years of his incarceration. No guard should work at San Quentin if they cannot treat prisoners and their personal belongings with basic courtesy and respect................. Kevin has filed a grievance against A. Young.. Please: 1) Sign this petition calling on San Quentin Warden Ronald Davis to grant Kevin's grievance and discipline "Officer" A. Young.. 2) Call Warden Ronald Davis at: (415) 454-1460 Ext. 5000. Tell him that Officer Young's behaviour was inexcusable, and should not be tolerated........ 3) Call Yasir Samar, Associate Warden of Specialized Housing, at (415) 455-5037 4) Write Warden Davis and Lt. Sam Robinson (separately) at: Main Street San Quentin, CA 94964 5) Email Lt. Sam Robinson at: samuel.robinson2@cdcr.......................ca.gov
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Eddie Conway's Update on Forgotten Political Prisoners
November 19, 2019
https://therealnews........com/stories/eddie-conway-update-forgotten-political-prisoners
EDDIE CONWAY: I'm Eddie Conway, host of Rattling the Bars. As many well-known political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal continue to suffer in prison…
MUMIA ABU JAMAL: In an area where there is corporate downsizing and there are no jobs and there is only a service economy and education is being cut, which is the only rung by which people can climb, the only growth industry in this part of Pennsylvania, in the Eastern United States, in the Southern United States, in the Western United States is "corrections," for want of a better word. The corrections industry is booming. I mean, this joint here ain't five years old.
EDDIE CONWAY: …The media brings their stories to the masses.. But there are many lesser-known activists that have dropped out of the spotlight, grown old in prison, or just been forgotten.............. For Rattling the Bars, we are spotlighting a few of their stories........ There was a thriving Black Panther party in Omaha, Nebraska, headed by David Rice and Ed Poindexter...... By 1968, the FBI had began plans to eliminate the Omaha Black Panthers by making an example of Rice and Poindexter. It would take a couple of years, but the FBI would frame them for murder..
KIETRYN ZYCHAL: In the 90s, Ed and Mondo both applied to the parole board. There are two different things you do in Nebraska, the parole board would grant you parole, but because they have life sentences, they were told that they have to apply to the pardons board, which is the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state, and ask that their life sentences be commuted to a specific number of years before they would be eligible for parole.
And so there was a movement in the 90s to try to get them out on parole...... The parole board would recommend them for parole because they were exemplary prisoners, and then the pardons board would not give them a hearing. They wouldn't even meet to determine whether they would commute their sentence..
EDDIE CONWAY: They served 45 years before Rice died in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. After several appeals, earning a master's degree, writing several books and helping other inmates, Poindexter is still serving time at the age of 75.
KEITRYN ZYCHAL: Ed Poindexter has been in jail or prison since August of 1970. He was accused of making a suitcase bomb and giving it to a 16-year-old boy named Duane Peak, and Duane Peak was supposed to take the bomb to a vacant house and call 911, and report that a woman was dragged screaming into a vacant house, and when police officers showed up, one of those police officers was killed when the suitcase bomb exploded............
Ed and his late co-defendant, Mondo we Langa, who was David Rice at the time of the trial, they have always insisted that they had absolutely nothing to do with this murderous plot, and they tried to get back into court for 50 years, and they have never been able to get back into court to prove their innocence. Mondo died in March of 2016 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Ed is going to turn 75 this year, I think............. And he has spent the majority of his life in prison... It will be 50 years in 2020 that he will be in prison..
EDDIE CONWAY: There are at least 20 Black Panthers still in prison across the United States.. One is one of the most revered is H. Rap Brown, known by his Islamic name, Jamil Al-Amin.
KAIRI AL-AMIN: My father has been a target for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years of the federal government, and I think him being housed these last 10 years in federal penitentiaries without federal charges show that the vendetta is still strong. The federal government has not forgotten who he was as H.. Rap Brown, or who he is as Imam Jamil Al-Amin...
JAMIL AL-AMIN: See, it's no in between.. You are either free or you're a slave. There's no such thing as second-class citizenship.
EDDIE CONWAY: Most people don't realize he's still in prison. He's serving a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson...
KAIRI AL-AMIN: Our campaign is twofold.. One, how can egregious constitutional rights violations not warrant a new trial, especially when they were done by the prosecution........ And two, my father is innocent. The facts point to him being innocent, which is why we're pushing for a new trial.. We know that they can't win this trial twice... The reason they won the first time was because of the gag order that was placed on my father which didn't allow us to fight in the court of public opinion as well as the court of law... And so when you don't have anyone watching, anything can be done without any repercussion..
EDDIE CONWAY: Another well-known political prisoner that has been forgotten in the media and in the public arena is Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement and has been in prison for over 40 years and is now 75 years old..
SPEAKER: Leonard Peltier represents, in a very real sense, the effort, the struggle by indigenous peoples within the United States to exercise their rights as sovereign nations, recognized as such in treaties with the United States.. For the government of the United States, which has colonized all indigenous peoples to claim boundaries, keeping Leonard in prison demonstrates the costs and consequences of asserting those rights.
EDDIE CONWAY: Leonard Peltier suffers from a host of medical issues including suffering from a stroke... And if he is not released, he will die in prison...
LEONARD PELTIER: I'll be an old man when I get out, if I get out.
PAULETTE D'AUTEUIL: His wellbeing is that he rarely gets a family visit. His children live in California and North Dakota. Both places are a good 2000 miles from where he's at in Florida, so it makes it time consuming as well as expensive to come and see him. He is, health-wise, we are still working on trying to get some help for his prostate, and there has been some development of some spots on his lungs, which we are trying to get resolved....... There's an incredible mold issue in the prison, especially because in Florida it's so humid and it builds up. So we're also dealing with that...
EDDIE CONWAY: These are just a few of the almost 20 political prisoners that has remained in American prisons for 30 and 40 years, some even longer. Mutulu Shakur has been in jail for long, long decades.... Assata Shakur has been hiding and forced into exile in Cuba......... Sundiata has been in prison for decades; Veronza Bower, The Move Nine........... And there's just a number of political prisoners that's done 30 or 40 years.
They need to be released and they need to have an opportunity to be back with their family, their children, their grandchildren, whoever is still alive. Any other prisoners in the United States that have the same sort of charges as those people that are being held has been released up to 15 or 20 years ago. That same justice system should work for the political prisoners also.
Thank you for joining me for this episode of Rattling the Bars. I'm Eddie Conway.....
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Letters of support for clemency needed for Reality Winner
Reality Winner, a whistleblower who helped expose foreign hacking of US election systems leading up to the 2016 presidential election, has been behind bars since June 2017. Supporters are preparing to file a petition of clemency in hopes of an early release... Reality's five year prison sentence is by far the longest ever given for leaking information to the media about a matter of public interest.............. Stand with Reality shirts, stickers, and more available. Please take a moment to sign the letter SIGN THE LETTER Support Reality Podcast: "Veterans need to tell their stories" – Dan Shea Vietnam War combat veteran Daniel Shea on his time in Vietnam and the impact that Agent Orange and post traumatic stress had on him and his family since... Listen now This Courage to Resist podcast was produced in collaboration with the Vietnam Full Disclosure effort of Veterans For Peace — "Towards an honest commemoration of the American war in Vietnam." This year marks 50 years of GI resistance, in and out of uniform, for many of the courageous individuals featured.. If you believe this history is important, please ... DONATE NOW to support these podcasts |
COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT! 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559 www.....................couragetoresist..org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist
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Mobilization4Mumia215-724-1618 Mobilizatio4Mumia.com mobilization4mumia@gmail.com PRESS RELEASE Contact Sophia Williams 917-806-0521, Ted Kelly 610-715-6924 or Joe Piette 610-931-2615
Philadelphia, Jan. 30 - Mumia Abu-Jamal has always insisted on his innocence in the death of police officer Daniel Faulkner, blaming police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct for his politically-tainted conviction. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is expected to announce his response this week to the legal briefs for Post Conviction Relief Act hearings and the request to remand Abu-Jamal's case back to Common Pleas court, filed by his attorneys in early September 2019. Abu-Jamal's supporters will rally outside DA Krasner's office at 4:30 on Friday, January 31, whether or not he challenges Mumia's appeals. We call for Mumia's release...
Recent exonerations of 10 Philadelphia residents unfairly convicted for crimes they did not commit reveal a simple truth - the Philadelphia police, courts and prosecutors convicted innocent Black men based on gross violations of their constitutional rights. The same patterns of constitutional violations plague the case of Abu-Jamal. Since Jan. 2018, Sherman McCoy, James Frazier, Dwayne Thorpe, Terrance Lewis, Jamaal Simmons, Dontia Patterson, John Miller, Willie Veasey, Johnny Berry and Chester Holmann III have all been exonerated by DA Larry Krasner's Conviction Integrity Unit. Philadelphia is not alone. The National Registry of Exonerations counted 165 exonerations last year. The registry has tallied 2,500 wrongful convictions since 1989, costing defendants more than 22,000 years of incarceration. Seven of the ten men released in Philadelphia were convicted by longtime district attorney Lynne Abraham, a "tough-on-crime" prosecutor who regularly sought maximum punishments and death spentences. Abraham as Common Pleas Court Judge arraigned Abu-Jamal in 1981and years later as District Attorney fought his post conviction relief hearings... Ineffective counsel, false witness testimony, witness coercion and intimidation, phony ballistics evidence, prosecution failure to turn over evidence to the defense as required by law, racist jury selections -- these and other legal errors led to the exoneration of these innocent defendants after decades in prison.. These are the same police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct practices Abu-Jamal's attorneys and supporters have been citing since 1982. In the late 1970s and early 80s, Abu-Jamal was a daily radio reporter for WHYY and NPR who earned acclaim for his award-winning reporting. As a journalist who reported fairly on the MOVE organization's resistance against state repression, he drew the ire of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police and the notoriously racist Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo. On Dec. 9, 1981, while driving a cab to supplement his income, Abu-Jamal happened upon his brother in an altercation with Faulkner. Faulkner was killed. Abu-Jamal, who was shot and severely beaten by police, was charged in Faulkner's death, even though witnesses reported seeing another man, most probably the passenger in Abu-Jamal's brother's car, running from the scene. Imprisoned for nearly four decades, Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence. He successfully won his release from Pennsylvania's death row in 2011.. In December 2018 he won the right to appeal his 1982 conviction because of biased judicial oversight by PA Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille In early January 2019, DA Krasner reported finding six boxes of previously undisclosed evidence held by prosecutors in the case and allowed Abu-Jamal's attorneys to review the files. In September 2019 Abu-Jamal's lawyers filed new appellate briefs, including a request that the case be returned for a hearing before the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court based on finding of concrete evidence of prosecutorial misconduct by the DA's office in his 1982 trial. A Sept.. 9, 2019 Abu-Jamal's attorneys Judith Ritter and Sam Spital filed a brief in PA Superior Court to support his claim that his 1982 trial was fundamentally unfair and violated the Constitution. They argue the prosecution failed to disclose evidence as required and discriminated against African Americans when selecting the jury. And, his 1982 lawyer did not adequately challenge the State's witnesses. The attorneys also filed a motion revealing new evidence of constitutional violations such as promises by the prosecutor to pay or give leniency to two witnesses. There is also new evidence of racial discrimination in jury selection. Attorney Ritter contends that the new evidence shows Abu-Jamal's trial was "fundamentally unfair and tainted by serious constitutional violations." https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZgI0jvcWY5soAh_DXKdNnJJZSY0HEftuRwthQMurgd8/edit?usp=sharing
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Mumia Abu-Jamal: New Chance for Freedom
Police and State Frame-Up Must Be Fully Exposed!
Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent. Courts have ignored and suppressed evidence of his innocence for decades.... But now, one court has thrown out all the decisions of the PA Supreme Court that denied Mumia's appeals against his unjust conviction during the years of 1998 to 2012!
This ruling, by Judge Leon Tucker, was made because one judge on the PA Supreme Court during those years, Ronald Castille, was lacking the "appearance of impartiality." In plain English, he was clearly biased against Mumia. Before sitting on the PA Supreme Court, Castille had been District Attorney (or assistant DA) during the time of Mumia's frame-up and conviction, and had used his office to express a special interest in pursuing the death penalty for "cop-killers." Mumia was in the cross-hairs. Soon he was wrongly convicted and sent to death row for killing a police officer.....
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning and intrepid journalist, a former Black Panther, MOVE supporter, and a critic of police brutality and murder. Mumia was framed by police, prosecutors, and leading elements of both Democratic and Republican parties, for the shooting of a police officer.. The US Justice Department targeted him as well... A racist judge helped convict him, and corrupt courts have kept him locked up despite much evidence that should have freed him. He continues his commentary and journalism from behind bars. As of 2019, he has been imprisoned for 37 years for a crime he did not commit.
Time is up! FREE MUMIA NOW!
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DA's Hidden Files Show Frame-Up of Mumia
In the midst of Mumia's fight for his right to challenge the state Supreme Court's negative rulings, a new twist was revealed: six boxes of files on Mumia's case--with many more still hidden--were surreptitiously concealed for decades in a back room at the District Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The very fact that these files on Mumia's case were hidden away for decades is damning in the extreme, and their revelations confirm what we have known for decades: Mumia was framed for a crime he did not commit!
So far, the newly revealed evidence confirms that, at the time of Mumia's 1982 trial, chief prosecutor Joe McGill illegally removed black jurors from the jury, violating the Batson decision. Also revealed: The prosecution bribed witnesses into testifying that they saw Mumia shoot the slain police officer when they hadn't seen any such thing.... Taxi driver Robert Chobert, who was on probation for fire-bombing a school yard at the time, had sent a letter demanding his money for lying on the stand....... Very important, but the newly revealed evidence is just the tip of the iceberg!
All Evidence of Mumia's Innocence Must Be Brought Forward Now!
Mumia Abu-Jamal's trial for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was rigged against him from beginning to end........ All of the evidence of Mumia's innocence--which was earlier suppressed or rejected--must now be heard:
• Mumia was framed - The judge at Mumia's trial, Albert Sabo, was overheard to say, "I'm gonna help 'em fry the n____r." And he proceeded to do just that.... Mumia was thrown out of his own trial for defending himself! Prosecution "witnesses" were coerced or bribed at trial to lie against Mumia.. In addition to Chobert, this included key witness Cynthia White, a prostitute who testified that she saw Mumia shoot Faulkner... White's statements had to be rewritten under intense pressure from the cops, because she was around the corner and out of sight of the shooting at the time! Police bribed her with promises of being allowed to work her corner, and not sent to state prison for her many prostitution charges.
• Mumia only arrived on the scene after Officer Faulkner was shot - William Singletary, a tow-truck business owner who had no reason to lie against the police, said he had been on the scene the whole time, that Mumia was not the shooter, and that Mumia had arrived only after the shooting of Faulkner. Singletary's statements were torn up, his business was wrecked, and he was threatened by police to be out of town for the trial (which, unfortunately, he was)...
• There is no evidence that Mumia fired a gun - Mumia was shot on the scene by an arriving police officer and arrested. But the cops did not test his hands for gun-powder residue--a standard procedure in shootings! They also did not test Faulkner's hands. The prosecution nevertheless claimed Mumia was the shooter, and that he was shot by Faulkner as the officer fell to the ground. Ballistics evidence was corrupted to falsely show that Mumia's gun was the murder weapon, when his gun was reportedly still in his taxi cab, which was in police custody days after the shooting!
• The real shooter fled the scene and was never charged - Veronica Jones was a witness who said that after hearing the shots from a block away, she had seen two people fleeing the scene of the shooting.... This could not have included Mumia, who had been shot and almost killed at the scene. Jones was threatened by the police with arrest and loss of custody of her children. She then lied on the stand at trial to say she had seen no one running away.
• Abu-Jamal never made a confession - Mumia has always maintained his innocence. But police twice concocted confessions that Mumia never made. Inspector Alfonso Giordano, the senior officer at the crime scene, made up a confession for Mumia. But Giordano was not allowed to testify at trial, because he was top on the FBI's list of corrupt cops in the Philadelphia police force... At the DA's request, another cop handily provided a second "confession," allegedly heard by a security guard in the hospital......... But at neither time was Mumia--almost fatally shot--able to speak.. And an earlier police report by cops in the hospital said that, referring to Mumia: "the negro male made no comment"!
• The crime scene was tampered with by police - Police officers at the scene rearranged some evidence, and handled what was alleged to be Mumia's gun with their bare hands... A journalist's photos revealed this misconduct. The cops then left the scene unattended for hours.. All of this indicates a frame-up in progress....
• The real shooter confessed, and revealed the reason for the crime - Arnold Beverly came forward in the 1990s. He said in a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, that he, not Mumia, had been the actual shooter. He said that he, along with "another guy," had been hired to do the hit, because Faulkner was "a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area"! (affidavit of Arnold Beverly).
• The corruption of Philadelphia police is documented and well known - This includes that of Giordano, who was the first cop to manufacture a "confession" by Mumia... Meanwhile, Faulkner's cooperation with the federal anti-corruption investigations of Philadelphia police is strongly suggested by his lengthy and heavily redacted FBI file......
• Do cops kill other cops? There are other cases in Philadelphia that look that way. Frank Serpico, an NYC cop who investigated and reported on police corruption, was abandoned by fellow cops after being shot in a drug bust. Mumia was clearly made a scape-goat for the crimes of corrupt Philadelphia cops who were protecting their ill-gotten gains.
• Politicians and US DOJ helped the frame-up - Ed Rendell, former DA, PA governor, and head of the Democratic National Committee--and now a senior advisor to crime-bill author Joe Biden--is complicit in the frame-up of Mumia. The US Justice Department targeted Mumia for his anti-racist activities when he was a teenager, and later secretly warned then-prosecutor Rendell not to use Giordano as a witness against Mumia because he was an FBI target for corruption..
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All this should lead to an immediate freeing of Mumia! But we are still a ways away from that, and we have no confidence in the capitalist courts to finish the job. We must act! This victory in local court allowing new appeals must now lead to a full-court press on all the rejected and suppressed evidence of Mumia's innocence!
Mass Movement Needed To Free Mumia!
Mumia's persecution by local, state and federal authorities of both political parties has been on-going, and has generated a world-wide movement in his defense... This movement has seen that Mumia, as a radio journalist who exposed the brutal attacks on the black community by the police in Philadelphia, has spoken out as a defender of working people of all colors and all nationalities in his ongoing commentaries (now on KPFA/Pacifica radio), despite being on death row, and now while serving life without the possibility of parole (LWOP)...
In 1999, Oakland Teachers for Mumia held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland schools on Mumia and the death penalty, despite the rabid hysteria in the bourgeois media. Teachers in Rio de Janeiro held similar actions. Letters of support came in from maritime workers and trade unions around the world.. Later in 1999, longshore workers shut down all the ports on the West Coast to free Mumia, and led a mass march of 25,000 Mumia supporters in San Francisco................
A year later, a federal court lifted Mumia's death sentence, based on improper instructions to the jury by trial judge Albert Sabo.. The federal court ordered the local court to hold a new sentencing hearing... Fearing their frame-up of Mumia could be revealed in any new hearing, even if only on sentencing, state officials passed. Much to the chagrin of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)--which still seeks Mumia's death--this left Mumia with LWOP, death by life in prison..
Mumia supporters waged a struggle to get him the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, which he had likely contracted through a blood transfusion in hospital after he was shot by a cop at the 1981 crime scene. The Labor Action Committee conducted demonstrations against Gilead Sciences, the Foster City CA corporation that owns the cure, and charged $1,000 per pill! The Metalworkers Union of South Africa wrote a letter excoriating Governor Wolf for allowing untreated sick freedom fighters to die in prison as the apartheid government had done. Finally, Mumia did get the cure.. Now, more than ever, struggle is needed to free Mumia!
Now is the Time: Mobilize Again for Mumia's Freedom!
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumia...........org
Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal | Mumia Abu-Jamal is an I.....
November 2019
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Board Game
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/race-for-solidarity
Solidarity against racism has existed from the 1600's and continues until today
An exciting board game of chance, empathy and wisdom, that entertains and educates as it builds solidarity through learning about the destructive history of American racism and those who always fought back. Appreciate the anti-racist solidarity of working people, who built and are still building, the great progressive movements of history.. There are over 200 questions, with answers and references.
Spread the word!!
By Dr.... Nayvin Gordon
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50 years in prison: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! FREE Chip Fitzgerald Grandfather, Father, Elder, Friend former Black Panther
Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald has been in prison since he was locked up 50 years ago...... A former member of the Black Panther Party, Chip is now 70 years old, and suffering the consequences of a serious stroke. He depends on a wheelchair for his mobility. He has appeared before the parole board 17 times, but they refuse to release him.. NOW is the time for Chip to come home! In September 1969, Chip and two other Panthers were stopped by a highway patrolman..... During the traffic stop, a shooting broke out, leaving Chip and a police officer both wounded. Chip was arrested a month later and charged with attempted murder of the police and an unrelated murder of a security guard. Though the evidence against him was weak and Chip denied any involvement, he was convicted and sentenced to death. In 1972, the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty.......... Chip and others on Death Row had their sentences commuted to Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. All of them became eligible for parole after serving 7 more years...... But Chip was rejected for parole, as he has been ever since. Parole for Lifers basically stopped under Governors Deukmajian, Wilson, and Davis (1983-2003), resulting in increasing numbers of people in prison and 23 new prisons. People in prison filed lawsuits in federal courts: people were dying as a result of the overcrowding.. To rapidly reduce the number of people in prison, the court mandated new parole hearings: · for anyone 60 years or older who had served 25 years or more; · for anyone convicted before they were 23 years old; · for anyone with disabilities Chip qualified for a new parole hearing by meeting all three criteria. But the California Board of Parole Hearings has used other methods to keep Chip locked up. Although the courts ordered that prison rule infractions should not be used in parole considerations, Chip has been denied parole because he had a cellphone.......... Throughout his 50 years in prison, Chip has been denied his right to due process – a new parole hearing as ordered by Federal courts. He is now 70, and addressing the challenges of a stroke victim. His recent rules violation of cellphone possession were non-violent and posed no threat to anyone. He has never been found likely to commit any crimes if released to the community – a community of his children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues who are ready to support him and welcome him home. The California Board of Parole Hearings is holding Chip hostage..... We call on Governor Newsom to release Chip immediately. What YOU can do to support this campaign to FREE CHIP: 1) Sign and circulate the petition to FREE Chip. Download it at https://www.change.org/p/california-free-chip-fitzgerald Print out the petition and get signatures at your workplace, community meeting, or next social gathering. 2) Write an email to Governor Newsom's office (sample message at:https://docs..google.com/document/d/1iwbP_eQEg2J1T2h-tLKE-Dn2ZfpuLx9MuNv2z605DMc/edit?usp=sharing 3) Write to Chip: Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald #B27527, CSP-LAC P.O. Box 4490 B-4-150 Lancaster, CA 93539 -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863...................9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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On Abortion: From Facebook
Best explanation I've heard so far......., Copied from a friend who copied from a friend who copied..................., "Last night, I was in a debate about these new abortion laws being passed in red states. My son stepped in with this comment which was a show stopper. One of the best explanations I have read:, , 'Reasonable people can disagree about when a zygote becomes a "human life" - that's a philosophical question.... However, regardless of whether or not one believes a fetus is ethically equivalent to an adult, it doesn't obligate a mother to sacrifice her body autonomy for another, innocent or not..., , Body autonomy is a critical component of the right to privacy protected by the Constitution, as decided in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), McFall v.. Shimp (1978), and of course Roe v. Wade (1973).. Consider a scenario where you are a perfect bone marrow match for a child with severe aplastic anemia; no other person on earth is a close enough match to save the child's life, and the child will certainly die without a bone marrow transplant from you.. If you decided that you did not want to donate your marrow to save the child, for whatever reason, the state cannot demand the use of any part of your body for something to which you do not consent..... It doesn't matter if the procedure required to complete the donation is trivial, or if the rationale for refusing is flimsy and arbitrary, or if the procedure is the only hope the child has to survive, or if the child is a genius or a saint or anything else - the decision to donate must be voluntary to be constitutional.... This right is even extended to a person's body after they die; if they did not voluntarily commit to donate their organs while alive, their organs cannot be harvested after death, regardless of how useless those organs are to the deceased or how many lives they would save...., , That's the law.., , Use of a woman's uterus to save a life is no different from use of her bone marrow to save a life - it must be offered voluntarily.............. By all means, profess your belief that providing one's uterus to save the child is morally just, and refusing is morally wrong............ That is a defensible philosophical position, regardless of who agrees and who disagrees....... But legally, it must be the woman's choice to carry out the pregnancy..., , She may choose to carry the baby to term..... She may choose not to. Either decision could be made for all the right reasons, all the wrong reasons, or anything in between... But it must be her choice, and protecting the right of body autonomy means the law is on her side... Supporting that precedent is what being pro-choice means....", , Feel free to copy/paste and re-post., y Sent from my iPhone
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Take action now to support Jalil A. Muntaqim's release
Jalil A...... Muntaqim was a member of the Black Panther Party and has been a political prisoner for 48 years since he was arrested at the age of 19 in 1971. He has been denied parole 11 times since he was first eligible in 2002, and is now scheduled for his 12th parole hearing... Additionally, Jalil has filed to have his sentence commuted to time served by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Visit Jalil's support page, check out his writing and poetry, and Join Critical Resistance in supporting a vibrant intergenerational movement of freedom fighters in demanding his release. 48 years is enough. Write, email, call, and tweet at Governor Cuomo in support of Jalil's commutation and sign this petition demanding his release.
http://freedomarchives.org/Support...Jalil/Campaign.html
http://freedomarchives.org/Support...Jalil/Campaign.html
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Funds for Kevin Cooper
https://www.gofundme.....com/funds-for-kevin-cooper?member=1994108 For 34 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California.. Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here ..... In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov..... Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison.. The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings ......... Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, paper, toiletries, supplementary food, and/or phone calls........ Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!
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Don't extradite Assange!
To the government of the UK Julian Assange, through Wikileaks, has done the world a great service in documenting American war crimes, its spying on allies and other dirty secrets of the world's most powerful regimes, organisations and corporations. This has not endeared him to the American deep state.......... Both Obama, Clinton and Trump have declared that arresting Julian Assange should be a priority... We have recently received confirmation [1] that he has been charged in secret so as to have him extradited to the USA as soon as he can be arrested. Assange's persecution, the persecution of a publisher for publishing information [2] that was truthful and clearly in the interest of the public - and which has been republished in major newspapers around the world - is a danger to freedom of the press everywhere, especially as the USA is asserting a right to arrest and try a non-American who neither is nor was then on American soil. The sentence is already clear: if not the death penalty then life in a supermax prison and ill treatment like Chelsea Manning... The very extradition of Julian Assange to the United States would at the same time mean the final death of freedom of the press in the West..... Sign now! The courageous nation of Ecuador has offered Assange political asylum within its London embassy for several years until now. However, under pressure by the USA, the new government has made it clear that they want to drive Assange out of the embassy and into the arms of the waiting police as soon as possible... They have already curtailed his internet and his visitors and turned the heating off, leaving him freezing in a desolate state for the past few months and leading to the rapid decline of his health, breaching UK obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights. Therefore, our demand both to the government of Ecuador and the government of the UK is: don't extradite Assange to the US! Guarantee his human rights, make his stay at the embassy as bearable as possible and enable him to leave the embassy towards a secure country as soon as there are guarantees not to arrest and extradite him........... Furthermore, we, as EU voters, encourage European nations to take proactive steps to protect a journalist in danger... The world is still watching. Sign now! [1] https://www..nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks.....html [2] https://theintercept.com/2018/11/16/as-the-obama-doj-concluded-prosecution-of-julian-assange-for-publishing-documents-poses-grave-threats-to-press-freedom/ Sign this petition: https://internal.diem25.....org/en/petitions/1
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Louis Robinson Jr., 77 Recording secretary for Local 1714 of the United Auto Workers from 1999 to 2018, with the minutes from a meeting of his union's retirees' chapter.
"One mistake the international unions in the United States made was when Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. When he did that, the unions could have brought this country to a standstill...... All they had to do was shut down the truck drivers for a month, because then people would not have been able to get the goods they needed. So that was one of the mistakes they made. They didn't come together as organized labor and say: "No.... We aren't going for this......... Shut the country down." That's what made them weak. They let Reagan get away with what he did. A little while after that, I read an article that said labor is losing its clout, and I noticed over the years that it did.. It happened... It doesn't feel good..." [On the occasion of the shut-down of the Lordstown, Ohio GM plant March 6, 2019.........] https://www.......nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/01/magazine/lordstown-general-motors-plant...html
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By Helen Yaffe, March 17, 2020
Photograph Source: NatalieMaynor – CC BY 2.0
COVID-19 surged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019 and by January 2020 it had hit Hubei province like a tidal wave, swirling over China and rippling out overseas. The Chinese state rolled into action to combat the spread and care for those infected. Among the 30 medicines the Chinese National Health Commission selected to fight the virus was a Cuban anti-viral drug Interferon Alpha 2b. This drug has been produced in China since 2003, by the enterprise ChangHeber, a Cuban-Chinese joint venture.
Cuban Interferon Alpha 2b has proven effective for viruses with characteristics similar to those of COVID-19. Cuban biotech specialist, Dr Luis Herrera Martinez explained that ‘its use prevents aggravation and complications in patients, reaching that stage that ultimately can result in death.’ Cuba first developed and used interferons to arrest a deadly outbreak of the dengue virus in 1981, and the experience catalysed the development of the island’s now world-leading biotech industry.
The world’s first biotechnology enterprise, Genetech, was founded in San Francisco in 1976, followed by AMGen in Los Angeles in 1980. One year later, the Biological Front, a professional interdisciplinary forum, was set up to develop the industry in Cuba. While most developing countries had little access to the new technologies (recombinant DNA, human gene therapy, biosafety), Cuban biotechnology expanded and took on an increasingly strategic role in both the public health sector and the national economic development plan. It did so despite the US blockade obstructing access to technologies, equipment, materials, finance and even knowledge exchange. Driven by public health demand, it has been characterized by the fast track from research and innovation to trials and application, as the story of Cuban interferon shows.
Interferons are ‘signalling’ proteins produced and released by cells in response to infections which alert nearby cells to heighten their anti-viral defences. They were first identified in 1957 by Jean Lindenmann and Aleck Isaacs in London. In the 1960s Ion Gresser, a US-researcher in Paris, showed that interferons stimulate lymphocytes that attack tumours in mice. In 1970s, US oncologist Randolph Clark Lee, took up this research.
Catching the tail end of US President Carter’s improved relations with Cuba, Dr Clark Lee visited Cuba, met with Fidel Castro and convinced him that interferon was the wonder drug. Shortly afterwards, a Cuban doctor and a haematologist spent time in Dr Clark Lee’s laboratory, returning with the latest research about interferon and more contacts. In March 1981, six Cubans spent 12 days in Finland with the Finnish doctor Kari Cantell, who in the 1970s had isolated interferon from human cells, and had shared the breakthrough by declining to patent the procedure. The Cubans learned to produce large quantities of interferon.
Within 45 days of returning to the island, they had produced their first Cuban batch of interferon, the quality of which was confirmed by Cantell’s laboratory in Finland. Just in time, it turned out. Weeks later Cuba was struck by an epidemic of dengue, a disease transmitted by mosquitos. It was the first time this particularly virulent strand, which can trigger life-threatening dengue haemorrhagic fever, had appeared in the Americas. The epidemic affected 340,000 Cubans with 11,000 new cases diagnosed every day at its peak. 180 people died, including 101 children. The Cubans suspected the CIA of releasing the virus. The US State Department denied it, although a recent Cuban investigation claims to provide evidence that the epidemic was introduced from the US.
Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health authorised the use of Cuban interferon to halt the dengue outbreak. It was done at great speed. Mortality declined. In their historical account, Cuban medical scientists Caballero Torres and Lopez Matilla wrote: ‘It was the most extensive prevention and therapy event with interferon carried out in the world. Cuba began to hold regular symposia, which quickly drew international attention’. The first international event in 1983 was prestigious; Cantell gave the keynote speech and Clark attended with Albert Bruce Sabin, the Polish American scientist who developed the oral polio vaccine.
Convinced about the contribution and strategic importance of innovative medical science, the Cuban government set up the Biological Front in 1981 to develop the sector. Cuban scientists went abroad to study, many in western countries. Their research took on more innovative paths, as they experimented with cloning interferon. By the time Cantell returned to Cuba in 1986, the Cubans had developed the recombinant human Interferon Alfa 2b which has benefited thousands of Cubans since then. With significant state investment, Cuba’s showpiece Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) was opened in 1986. By then Cuba was submerged in another health crisis, a serious outbreak of Meningitis B, which further spurred Cuba’s biotechnology sector.
Cuba’s Meningitis Miracle
In 1976, Cuba was struck by meningitis B and C outbreaks. Since 1916 only a few isolated cases had been seen on the island. Internationally, vaccines existed for Meningitis A and C, but not for B. Cuban health authorities secured a vaccine from a French pharmaceutical company to immunise the population against type C Meningitis. However, in the following years, cases of type B Meningitis began to rise. A team of specialists from different medical science centres was established, led by a woman biochemist, Concepción Campa, to work intensively on finding a vaccine.
By 1984 Meningitis B had become the main health problem in Cuba. After six years of intense work, Campa’s team produced the world’s first successful Meningitis B vaccine in 1988. A member of Campa’s team, Dr Gustavo Sierra recalled their joy: ‘this was the moment when we could say it works, and it works in the worst conditions, under pressure of an epidemic and among people of the most vulnerable age.’ During 1989 and 1990, three million Cubans, those most at risk, were vaccinated. Subsequently, 250,000 young people were vaccinated with the VA-MENGOC-BC vaccine, a combined Meningitis B and C vaccination. It recorded 95% efficacy overall, with 97% in the high-risk three months to six years age group. Cuba’s Meningitis B vaccine was awarded a UN Gold Medal for global innovation. This was Cuba’s meningitis miracle.
‘I tell colleagues that one can work 30 years, 14 hours a day just to enjoy that graph for 10 minutes,’ Agustin Lage, Director of the Centro for Molecular Immunology (CIM) told me, referring to an illustration of the rise and sudden fall of Meningitis B cases in Cuba. ‘Biotechnology started for this. But then the possibilities of developing an export industry opened up, and today, Cuban biotechnology exports to 50 countries.’
Since its first application to combat dengue fever, Cuba’s interferon has shown its efficacy and safety in the therapy of viral diseases including Hepatitis B and C, shingles, HIV-AIDS and dengue. Because it interferes with viral multiplication within cells, it has also been used in the treatment of different types of carcinomas. Time will tell if Interferon Alfa 2b proves to be the wonder drug as far as COVID-19 goes.
This article draws on material in my new book, We Are Cuba! How a revolutionary people have survived in a post-Soviet world. Chapter 5 deals with ‘The curious case of Cuba’s biotech revolutionary’. Available here.
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2) Need a Coronavirus Test? Being Rich and Famous May Help
A shortage in testing has left sick people and health care workers around the U.S. without answers. Yet the list of celebrity patients grows every day, raising questions about privileged access.
By Megan Twohey, Steve Eder and Marc Stein, March 18. 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/coronavirus-testing-elite.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
Politicians, celebrities, social media influencers and even N.B.A. teams have been tested for the new coronavirus. But as that list of rich, famous and powerful people grows by the day, so do questions about whether they are getting access to testing that is denied to other Americans.
Some of these high-profile people say they are feeling ill and had good reason to be tested. Others argue that those who were found to be infected and then isolated themselves provided a good example to the public.
But with testing still in short supply in areas of the country, leaving health care workers and many sick people unable to get diagnoses, some prominent personalities have obtained tests without exhibiting symptoms or having known contact with someone who has the virus, as required by some testing guidelines. Others have refused to specify how they were tested.
Such cases have provoked accusations of elitism and preferential treatment about a testing system that has already been plagued with delays and confusion, and now stirred a new national debate that has reached the White House — with President Trump being asked at a Wednesday news conference whether “the well-connected go to the front of the line.”
“You’d have to ask them that question,” he replied, suggesting that should not be the case. “Perhaps that’s been the story of life. That does happen on occasion, and I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.”
Inside the N.B.A., where eight entire teams have been tested, there are differing views. Bob Myers, the president of basketball operations for the Golden State Warriors, said his team thought it would be unfair for its players to seek special access.
“We’ve been told that the testing is in short supply,” Mr. Myers said in a conference call on Tuesday, explaining that no Warriors coach, player or staff member would test until symptomatic — and only then in accord with government guidelines. “We’re not better than anybody, not worse. Just a basketball team.”
The same day, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, in a post on Twitter, chided the Brooklyn Nets, which managed to arrange tests for its entire roster. Four were positive, with one exhibiting symptoms.
“We wish them a speedy recovery,” Mr. de Blasio wrote. “But, with all due respect, an entire NBA team should NOT get tested for COVID-19 while there are critically ill patients waiting to be tested. Tests should not be for the wealthy, but for the sick.”
Access has proved uneven across the country, even as guidelines for who qualifies have broadened and the laboratories conducting tests have expanded, from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state health departments and then to hospitals and private labs.
In areas of the country where the virus has been slow to appear, people have been able to obtain tests easily. But in New York, California, Washington State and Massachusetts, where the virus has spread rapidly and demand for tests is most high, it is very difficult.
The New York City Health Department has directed doctors only to order tests for patients in need of hospitalization. People with mild symptoms are being told to quarantine themselves at home. Even health care workers, at high risk of contracting the virus and transmitting it, have struggled to get tested.
In New Rochelle, a community north of Manhattan where the virus has spread, a sick mother was told she could not get tested because she hadn’t been to a global “hot spot.” In Boston, an employee at Biogen, a tech company where many dozens tested positive after a conference, was turned away because he didn’t have symptoms. On Twitter, the hashtag #CDCWontTestMe has been circulating for weeks.
In the eyes of some doctors, prominent figures appeared to be moving to the front of the line.
“As predicted, #COVID19 is exposing all of the societal inequities,” Dr. Uché Blackstock, an urgent care doctor in Brooklyn, wrote on Twitter. “It’s upsetting for me to 1) have to ration out #COVID19testing to my patients, then 2) have to wait 5-7 days for the results, when celebrities are getting tested with ease and quick turnaround times.”
Police chiefs across the country are growing concerned that they cannot get their hands on tests.
“What’s frustrating is to continue to hear that there aren’t testing kits available, and my rank and file have to continue to answer calls for service while professional athletes and movie stars are getting tested without even showing any symptoms,” said Eddie Garcia, the police chief of San Jose, Calif., on a conference call with law enforcement officials across the country.
The Hollywood elite — stars, agents, studio and network executives — have concierge doctors on speed dial during the best of times and are used to receiving preferential treatment at Los Angeles medical centers like Cedars-Sinai and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Many A-listers use LifeSpan, a private practice.
Over the past few days, however, some celebrities — even ones with symptoms — have expressed frustration about an inability to get tested because of a shortage of kits. Heidi Klum, the TV personality and model, posted a video on Instagram on Friday from Los Angeles in which she claimed to have tried two doctors without luck. “I just can’t get one,” she said.
The video may have helped her gain access. A day later, she returned to Instagram to say she was “finally” able to get tested. The result was negative. Representatives for Ms. Klum did not respond to queries.
But generally, celebrities of all kinds appear to have had a far easier time getting diagnoses. On Monday, Arielle Charnas, a social media influencer in Manhattan with more than 1.3 million Instagram followers, posted that she’d had a sore throat and a fever for the “past two days.” She was told that she did not meet the criteria for testing and that she should treat her symptoms at home.
But after posting to Instagram, she said she was flooded with fan messages asking her to get screened for Covid-19. She tagged a friend, Dr. Jake Deutsch, founder of Cure Urgent Care, who agreed to test her.
She was swabbed from her car, documenting the procedure online. She tagged both Dr. Deutsch’s Instagram account and that of his practice, thanking them. On Wednesday morning, she posted a statement letting her followers know the results were positive. “I realize that there are many individuals, both in New York City, and nationwide, who do not have the ability to receive immediate medical care at the first sign of sickness, and access to care is #1 priority in a time like this,” she wrote.
Dr. Deutsch said he was partnering with two private labs, BioReference and Lenco, to offer testing. In the past three days, he said, his clinic screened nearly 100 patients, half of whom came back positive.
On Capitol Hill, where four senators and nearly a dozen House members have chosen to self-quarantine after possible exposure to the virus, patterns seemed to emerge.
Those who consulted their own doctors or the attending physician of Congress were by and large advised against testing if they were asymptomatic.
“Each of the physicians that I consulted with advised me that since I have no symptoms, since I’m not sick, they said testing was medically ineffective,” Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, said on Saturday in an interview with ABC News.
Some who obtained tests were close allies of the president — Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a frequent golfing partner of Mr. Trump; Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and the incoming White House chief of staff; and Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, who learned he had been exposed to the virus as he boarded Air Force One last week to fly back to Washington with Mr. Trump. Their tests came back negative.
Spokesmen for both Mr. Meadows and Mr. Graham declined to answer emailed questions about the circumstances of their testing, including who ordered it and where it was done.
Mr. Gaetz said on Twitter that White House medical officials had told him he was being tested not “because I am in Congress — but because I had been in close contact with President Trump over several days.”
On Wednesday, it was announced that two congressman had tested positive: Representatives Ben McAdams, Democrat of Utah, and Mario Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida. (Another Florida politician, Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami, has also tested positive.)
The N.B.A. has been at the center of the debate since two players on the Utah Jazz tested positive. The number of known positive results leaguewide has now grown to seven, including Kevin Durant of the Nets. But dozens more have been tested.
Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, acknowledged the criticism in an interview on Wednesday with ESPN. But he insisted the league sought tests at the direction of public health officials.
“Let me begin with the situation in Oklahoma City last Wednesday night,” Mr. Silver said. “The Utah Jazz did not ask to be tested. The Oklahoma public health official there on the spot not only required that they be tested, but they weren’t allowed to leave their locker room, which was for at least four hours after the game, where they had to stay, masks on.”
The league has disclosed few details on how it gained access to the tests.
Wendy Bost, a spokeswoman for Quest Diagnostics, one of the country’s largest commercial laboratories, said a variety of organizations had asked for help testing their employees, noting that Quest provided “an exceedingly small percentage of our overall collection kits to a small number of sports teams.” She said the company agreed to do so only for teams with at least one diagnosed case.
Quest, as well as LabCorp, another major diagnostic company, said tests were processed in the order they were received.
The N.B.A. on March 7 instructed all teams to identify a nearby facility they could enlist to conduct testing, according to a private memorandum obtained by The New York Times. But approaches by teams have varied, and some say they have not screened their players.
A spokeswoman for the Nets said the tests were obtained through a private company, to avoid using public resources. The testing took place after the team “noticed that several of our players and staff had symptoms,” she said.
The team pushed back on criticism that it had received unfair access, saying, “If we had waited for players to exhibit symptoms, they might have continued to pose a risk to their family, friends and the public.”
Other sports leagues have faced questions about testing practices.
According to a statement from Major League Baseball, “players are only being tested under certain circumstances if they exhibit symptoms, and the tests are being administered by the same doctors treating the general public.”
The Yankees were the first baseball team with a known positive test: a minor league pitcher. An estimated 150 to 200 Yankees minor leaguers and staff members have been in self-quarantine, and the minor league complex, which underwent a deep cleaning, is closed until March 25.
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3) A New York Doctor’s Coronavirus Warning: The Sky Is Falling
Alarmist is not a word anyone has ever used to describe me before. But this is different.
By Cornelia Griggs, March 19, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-doctor-new-york.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
I’ve had hard conversations this week. “Look me in the eye,” I said to my neighbor Karen, who was spiraling to a dark place in her mind. “I make this personal promise to you — I will not let your children die from this disease.” I swallowed back a lump in my throat. Just the image of one of our kids attached to a tube was jarring. Two weeks ago our kids were having a pizza party and watching cartoons together, running back and forth between our apartments. This was before #socialdistancing was trending. Statistically, I still feel good about my promise to Karen because children do not seem to be dying from Covid-19. There are others to whom I cannot make similar promises.
A few days later, I got a text from another friend. She has asthma. “I’m just saying this because I need to say it to someone,” she wrote. She asked that if she gets sick and has a poor prognosis, to play recordings of the voice of Josie, her daughter. “I think it would bring me back,” she said. Josie is my 4-year-old’s best friend.
Today, at the hospital where I work, one of the largest in New York City, Covid-19 cases continue to climb, and there’s movement to redeploy as many health care workers as possible to the E.R.s, new “fever clinics” and I.C.U.s. It’s becoming an all-healthy-hands-on-deck scenario.
The sky is falling. I’m not afraid to say it. A few weeks from now you may call me an alarmist; and I can live with that. Actually, I will keel over with happiness if I’m proven wrong.
Alarmist is not a word anyone has ever used to describe me before. I’m a board-certified surgeon and critical care specialist who spent much of my training attending to traumas in the emergency room and doing the rounds at Harvard hospitals’ intensive care units. I’m now in my last four months of training as a pediatric surgeon in New York City. Part of my job entails waking in the middle of the night to rush to the children’s hospital to put babies on a form of life support called ECMO, a service required when a child’s lungs are failing even with maximum ventilator support. Scenarios that mimic end-stage Covid-19 are part of my job. Panic is not in my vocabulary; the emotion has been drilled out of me in nine years of training. This is different.
We are living in a global public health crisis moving at a speed and scale never witnessed by living generations. The cracks in our medical and financial systems are being splayed open like a gashing wound. No matter how this plays out, life will forever look a little different for all of us.
On the front lines, patients are lining up outside of our emergency rooms and clinics looking to us for answers — but we have few. Only on Friday did coronavirus testing become more readily available in New York, and the tests are still extremely limited. Right next to my office in the hospital, a lab is being repurposed with hopes of a capability to run 1,000 tests a day. But today, and likely tomorrow, even M.D.s do not have straightforward access to testing across the country. Furthermore, the guidelines and criteria for testing are changing almost daily. Our health care system is mired in situational uncertainty. The leadership of our hospital is working tirelessly — but doctors on the ground are pessimistic about our surge capacity.
Making my rounds at the children’s hospital earlier this week, I saw that the boxes of gloves and other personal protective equipment were dwindling. This is a crisis for our vulnerable patients and health care workers alike. Protective equipment is only one of the places where supplies are falling short. At our large, 4,000-bed New York City hospital, we have 500 ventilators and 250 on backup reserve. If we are on track to match the scale of Covid-19 infections in Italy, then we are likely to run out of ventilators in New York. The anti-viral “treatments” we have for Covid-19 are experimental and many of them are hard to even get approved. Let me repeat. The sky is falling.
I say this not to panic anyone but to mobilize you. We need more equipment and we need it now. Specifically gloves, masks, eye protection and more ventilators. We need our technology friends to be making and testing prototypes to rig the ventilators that we do have to support more than one patient at a time. We need our labs channeling all of their efforts into combating this bug — that means vaccine research and antiviral treatment research, quickly.
We need hospitals to figure out how to nimbly and flexibly modify our existing practices to adapt to this virus and do it fast. Doctors across the globe are sharing information, protocols and strategies through social media, because our common publishing channels are too slow. Physician and surgeon mothers are coming together on Facebook groups to publish advice to parents and the public, to amplify our outrage, and to underscore the fear we feel for our most vulnerable patient populations, as well as ourselves and our families.
Please flatten the curve and stay at home, but please do not go into couch mode. Like everyone, I have moments where imagining the worst possible Covid-19 scenario steals my breath. But cowering in the dark places of our minds doesn’t help. Rather than private panic, we need public-spirited action. Those of us walking into the rooms of Covid-19-positive patients every day need you and your minds, your networks, your creative solutions, and your voices to be fighting for us. We might be the exhausted masked face trying to resuscitate you when you show up on the doorstep of our hospital. And when you do, I promise not to panic. I’ll use every ounce of my expertise to keep you alive. Please, do the same for us.
Cornelia Griggs is a mother, writer and pediatric surgery fellow in New York.
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4) My Life Is More ‘Disposable’ During This Pandemic
The ableism and ageism being unleashed is its own sort of pestilence.
By Elliot Kukla, March 19, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-disabled-health-care.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Katherine Lam
Like many people all over the world, I am not leaving the house now. For me, though, staying home is nothing new. I am in bed as I write this, propped up by my usual heap of cushions, talking to other sick and disabled people all day on my laptop about how the hell we’re going to care for one another in the coming weeks with a gnawing feeling of dread in my belly.
The news doesn’t look good: There are more people sick; less relief is coming. The “reassuring” public service announcements are no better. Countless messages from my dentist, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and from my child’s playgroups tell me not to worry because it’s “only” chronically ill people and elders that are at risk of severe illness or death. More than one chronically ill friend has quipped: “Don’t they know sick and old people can read?”
The pestilence of ableism and ageism being unleashed is its own kind of pandemic. In Italy, they’re already deciding not to save the lives of chronically ill and disabled people, or elders with Covid-19. The rationale is twofold: We are less likely to survive, and caring for us may take more resources. This is not an unusual triage decision to make in wartime or pandemics; our lives are considered, quite literally, more disposable.
I am a chronically ill rabbi who offers spiritual care to those with illness, and elders coming to the end of life. Almost no one in my personal or professional world would “earn” care if the United States were to come to a scenario like Italy. Not my 102-year-old client with brilliant blue eyes and ferocious curiosity who survived Auschwitz; not my friend who is a wickedly smart writer, activist, and wheelchair user currently recovering from major surgery; nor me, with my immune system that doesn’t work well, or works too hard, attacking my own tissues.
In the United States, most of my disabled and sick friends believe we are racing to a similar situation as Italy. We have a perfect storm brewing of a large population without health insurance, many people without paid sick leave, and an already overburdened health care system. This virus is merciless. It travels through the young to attack the old; through the healthy to assault the chronically ill.
The way to save our lives is clear, according to public health experts: If you possibly can, stay home. Especially since we are surrounded by people who don’t have that option, including migrant workers; unhoused, incarcerated and institutionalized people; and health care workers. And yet young, healthy, affluent people are still taking advantage of cheap airplane tickets and using their “time off” to go to restaurants while they remain open. Taken together, the stark message to chronically sick, disabled people and elders is that we are “acceptable losses.”
The feeling of being disposable is not new to me. It is knitted into my bones and sinews. It lives in my cells and the parasites in my gut. I already knew that for many of the doctors and policymakers that my health depends on, that my transgender, fat, disabled body is simply worth less than others’ bodies. This is even more true for my black, brown, poor, disabled and ill friends.
Each message of disposability in this pandemic, rings like a bell in the hollows of my body, surfacing memories. In 1990, when I was 15 years old, I came out as queer into a pandemic, as AIDS was ravaging communities across the globe. My first Pride parades were not joyful celebrations, but rageful protests as we demanded health care, medicine, witnessing. My queer uncles died before I was 20, but taught me on the way out not to trust governments or doctors, and that marginalized people must take care of one another. My first lesson in adulthood was that love is our only source of security.
The Nazis called chronically ill and disabled people “useless eaters,” and killed us first. This used to seem like ancient history to me, but as I age, the scope of time shrinks. My father hid from Nazis as a child in Belgium, and I was born just 33 years later. His history was as recent to my early childhood, as George Michael at the top of the charts, is to today. Scientists now believe that there are cellular changes in the DNA of the children of Holocaust survivors that most likely impact our health. My father’s story lives in my overactive immune system, and thus my body’s response to this pandemic right now.
Today my father has Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and lives in a skilled nursing facility. Even before Covid-19, it was a struggle for people to act as if his life was still worth protecting. They speak about him in the past tense, using language like “no quality of life.” The term “useless eater” hangs just beyond what’s said aloud. I am terrified of how Covid-19 will hit him, and everyone I care for with dementia in my hospice program.
As a disabled, Jewish, second-generation Holocaust survivor, the words “useless eater” are practically in my DNA. I can taste the tang of them in my mouth as I read the news, in the bitterness of Italy’s policies, in this country’s callous health care, in affluent people refusing to listen to sick and disabled voices and stay home when they can afford to, in the dismissive internet comments that only the sick and old need to worry, so who cares?
My cells remember other things, too. That to survive illness and trauma, whether individual or communal, we need one another, including strangers. When my father was two years old, hiding from Nazis in a Christian foster home, he developed a loud case of whooping cough. He was dropped unceremoniously at the doors of a Belgian nunnery. These women nursed him back to health, and returned him a few months later, fully recovered. I wish I knew their names. These faceless women to whom I owe my existence, who cared for him, bathed him, changed him, powdered him.
In this moment, one of the best ways you can show up and save the lives of fellow human beings is by withdrawing physically. Staying away from other people contradicts our image of what saving lives looks like. We are used to heroes rushing in. But disabled and sick people already know that stillness can be caring. We know that immune systems are fragile things, and homes can’t always be left. Rest is disability justice, and right now it is one of our most powerful tools to keep one another alive.
I have spent years of my life rarely leaving home. Being stuck at home due to illness often sucks, but sometimes it is other things, too. Calm. The kinds of connection that can only come from profound slowness, from borrowing down instead of stretching out. Even as we withdraw physically, our emotional and spiritual need for others has never been more visible. I already knew that we needed one another in intimate ways that go beyond the capacity of our bodies to connect. Disabled people are experts in deep, luscious intimacy without touch. We are used to being creative. As the Disability Justice performance project Sins Invalid says, “We love like barnacles,” sticking to one another wherever, and however we can.
Jewish mysticism holds that the letters of a Torah scroll are black fire on the white fire of the parchment. In this moment, we must find a way to make the spaces between us holy. In this pandemic it is the white fire that will hold our abundant love, our exquisite care, and our unwavering belief that each of our lives is worth saving.
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5) We Must Help One Another or Die
Let this crisis motivate us to see through the fog of fake individualism.
"But things change when your — or your grandparents’ — life really does depend directly on the experts, and when you realize that no gated community can keep a virus out. As Jonathan D. Quick, former chair of the Global Health Council, has argued, one is only ever as safe as the least safe place. That sounds like a version of the motto of the Wobblies, the radical trade union, that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” Nobody can buy immunity, let alone immortality; nobody can wash his hands of conditions that make the United States look more like a failed state than a functioning democracy."
By Jan-Werner Muller, March 19, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-politics.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
John Moore/Getty Images
It’s a commonplace that emergencies can bring people together. But the imperative issued right now by experts, governments and businesses seems to suggest the very opposite: The sign that you care is that you engage in “social distancing.”
Rather than looking after others — and possibly infecting them — the best you can do for society is to look after yourself in digitally connected isolation. And yet it would be wrong to think that the coronavirus outbreak will only reinforce the selfishness from which Western societies already suffer. Like the Spanish flu of 1918 and other previous shared experiences of vulnerability, this pandemic can pave the way for the collective insight that we absolutely need a public infrastructure — and not just in health care.
The feeling that there is less and less social cohesion in today’s democracies is justified. A recent survey in France showed that 35 percent of people think they have absolutely nothing in common with their fellow citizens. Today, the wealthiest are seceding into gated communities; some are even contemplating escapes into outer space or to remote locations (think about the fantasies spun out by Silicon Valley billionaires like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk). Meanwhile, the poorest hardly participate in society at large — and certainly not in elections, a trend that has long been clear in the United States, but is now affecting other democracies, too.
There are larger reasons behind such trends. After the end of the Cold War, it became ever less obvious for what exactly we need our fellow citizens: with the globalization of supply chains, it seemed that we could do without them as workers; with free trade, we have no need of them as consumers; and, with the shift away from mass conscript armies, we also don’t really need them as soldiers.
Institutions that used to unite citizens for a collective purpose declined: Churches, trade unions, political parties have all hemorrhaged members. Why feel solidarity, or care about inequality in the absence of any sense of interdependence — the notion that, ultimately, we need one another and are all in this together?
There is nothing sentimental about solidarity. It means mutual help in cases of calamity, and it is not quite the same as equality. The depressing argument from historians is that only large-scale violence or other catastrophes — including pandemics — have ever brought about comprehensive leveling.
One reason that these calamities brought about more equality was that they wiped out wealth, an effect also emphasized by the French economist Thomas Piketty. But apart from sheer destruction, crises could lead to something more constructive: a commitment to mutual aid, a sense, to paraphrase W.H. Auden, that we must assist one another or die.
A common affliction demonstrates that our feeling of individualism is illusory. Digitally connected isolation is predicated on fellow citizens producing and delivering food, and anyone along the delivery chain, forced to work because they live paycheck to paycheck, could be contagious. What the legal scholar Jed Purdy has called the “power to withdraw” depends on the pressure workers feel to deliver.
World War II played a crucial role in motivating the push for the National Health Service in Britain. After aristocrats and workers fought together, it was much harder to deny the latter basic shared benefits.
It is less well known that the Spanish flu had already created a sense in the interwar period that proper disease surveillance and free effective treatments were desperately needed. Eugenicists had claimed that the irresponsible poor and immigrants were to blame for succumbing to disease, but it became clear that unhealthy environments and underdeveloped states were the problem.
In Sweden, the pandemic revealed the squalor in which the poor lived. Sick children were found on the floor in homes without beds. The welfare state — called “folkhemmet,” or people’s home — was to end such conditions once and for all; it not so much leveled citizens (Swedish capitalists lived very comfortably in the folkhemmet) as enabled a people to protect themselves from collective risks.
Of course, not all crises bring people together. Some divide us, with climate change an obvious example. But the current experience of shared vulnerability is so visceral that political entrepreneurs who usually profit from polarization might have a hard time convincing citizens that this is all hoax, or partisan warfare.
True, competence can always be recoded as just one side in the culture wars, and experts are suspected of being condescending “liberal elites”; anti-vaxxers and populists have managed to reduce citizens’ trust in government health advice to dangerously low levels in Italy and the United States.
But things change when your — or your grandparents’ — life really does depend directly on the experts, and when you realize that no gated community can keep a virus out. As Jonathan D. Quick, former chair of the Global Health Council, has argued, one is only ever as safe as the least safe place. That sounds like a version of the motto of the Wobblies, the radical trade union, that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” Nobody can buy immunity, let alone immortality; nobody can wash his hands of conditions that make the United States look more like a failed state than a functioning democracy.
A decade ago, the historian Tony Judt wrote, “If social democracy has a future, it will be a social democracy of fear.” To be sure, fear can always be turned against foreigners — something right-wing populists are busy trying to do now. But it can also motivate us to see through the fog of fake individualism and realize that interdependence requires proper infrastructure: from a public health system to an informational infrastructure where platforms like Facebook are forced to remove falsehoods that cost lives.
A large economic stimulus, as the White House is proposing, is all well and good, but structural change is what’s desperately needed; charity is appreciated, but will never make up for a dysfunctional government; and business, which by definition, is in it for profit (and now bailouts), cannot be relied on to take care of us.
Jan-Werner Müller teaches at Princeton and is the author of the forthcoming “Democracy Rules.”
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6) Coronavirus Halts Street Protests, but Climate Activists Have a Plan
By Shola Lawal, March 19, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/climate/coronavirus-online-climate-protests.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
Johanna Geron/Reuters
The coronavirus outbreak has prompted climate activists to abandon public demonstrations, one of their most powerful tools for raising public awareness, and shift to online protests.
This week, for example, organizers of the Fridays for Future protests are advising people to stay off the streets and post photos and messages on social media in a wave of digital strikes.
“We are people who listen to the scientists and it would be hypocritical of us to not treat this as a crisis,” said Saoi O’Connor, a 17-year-old Fridays for Future organizer from Cork, Ireland.
Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish activist who inspired the Friday youth protest group, last week stayed at home and tweeted a photo of herself and her two dogs, with a message calling on protesters to “take it online.”
Similarly, a coalition of climate movements had planned huge protests around commemorations for the 50th annual Earth Day in April. Those have now been canceled or moved online. One group, Earth Initiative and March for Science New York City, plans to live-stream speakers and performers at an online event.
Dominique Palmer, 20, a Fridays for Future organizer in Britain, acknowledged the challenges of protesting online. Hashtags and snappy videos are good, she said, but really making an impact will require more work. Twitter protests in which activists send out messages aimed directly at selected officials, and phone-banking, in which they telephone them en masse, are two of the ideas under consideration.
The new strategy marks a sharp turnaround for climate activists. A year ago this month, more than a million youth activists took to the streets worldwide in a global day of climate action.
It also comes at a crucial time. With a presidential election in the United States this year, activists had hoped to raise the profile of climate change on the public agenda. And, just days after the election, world leaders are scheduled to gather in Glasgow for United Nations-led climate talks where presidents and prime ministers will face pressure to get more ambitious about reining in greenhouse gas emissions.
Fridays for Future called preliminary online protests last week a success. Activists posted from bedrooms, gardens and balconies overlooking empty streets. Families joined in. In one video posted on TikTok, a father tucked his daughter into bed, leaving her alone with a climate monster in her closet.
Some experts, however, said reaching world leaders and the general public would be more difficult now as the pandemic shuts down large parts of public life.
“What you’re going to end up doing is amplifying within an echo chamber, which is really different from what the movement wants,” said Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland whose research focuses on activism. Twitter hashtags, like #ClimateStrikeOnline and #DigitalClimateStrike, are far less visible than huge crowds in the streets, she said.
Still, Dr. Fisher noted, the young people leading climate protests are highly effective at using social media to build their movement.
That was echoed by Ms. O’Connor, the Irish activist, who said she had noticed new faces in online protests messages that she hadn’t seen at her group’s weekly gatherings in Cork. She said Fridays for Future organizers were adaptable and prepared to adjust strategy as necessary. “Intersecting crises will be a feature of our times,” Ms. O’Connor said. “We can’t let one stop action on the other.”
Ms. Palmer said she hoped public demonstrations would resume before the United Nations conference in November. If not, she said, respecting advice to stay off the streets for the sake of older people, for whom coronavirus exposure is especially dangerous, would still come first.
“And that’s also how we want the older generation to feel toward young people,” Ms. Palmer said. “We want them to make the effort to save the planet for us in that same way.”
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7) ‘We’re Petrified’: Immigrants Afraid to Seek Medical Care for Coronavirus
Trump administration policies that discourage immigrants from coming forward could hamper efforts to contain the epidemic.
By Miriam Jordan, March 18, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/coronavirus-immigrants.html
Jason Redmond/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — The coronavirus was not on the agenda when a legal-aid group two months ago invited farmworkers who toil in the date groves, lemon orchards and vineyards of California’s Coachella Valley to an information session about immigration issues.
But when Luz Gallegos and her team showed up over the weekend, they were cornered by people who peppered them with questions about the virus. On Monday, public health authorities announced the first two deaths from the virus in this part of Southern California, both in the Coachella Valley.
“There’s a new layer of fear in the immigrant community right now created by Covid-19,” said Ms. Gallegos, a director of TODEC Legal Center, who stood with immigrants in the parking lot of the Hemet town library, which had abruptly closed as a result of the pandemic. “We believe that some members will be afraid to seek the care they need,” she said.
Among the questions the farmworkers had: If I go to the hospital, is it going to hurt my chances of becoming a legal permanent resident? If I’m undocumented, could seeking treatment make me vulnerable to deportation? If I miss work as more people are forced to stay home, how will I feed my family and make the rent?
As the coronavirus sweeps across the United States, immigrants may be among the least able to self-isolate and seek the medical care that is essential to protecting their health and slowing the spread of the disease.
The Trump administration on Wednesday closed the border with Canada to all but essential traffic and was also considering shutting the southern border to those without legal authorization, hoping to check the spread of the virus. But many of the unauthorized immigrants already in the United States face the same threat from the virus as everyone else — and are less equipped to protect themselves.
Some of those without health insurance fear that going to a public hospital or clinic will ruin their chances of getting a green card under the Trump administration’s tough new public assistance regulations for immigrants. Other immigrants fear putting themselves in the cross-hairs of Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they step forward for help.
ICE agents over the past week have continued to make arrests in some of the regions hardest hit by the virus, including California and New York.
“The fear that this administration has fueled in immigrant communities is thwarting efforts to protect the public health of everybody,” said Tanya Broder, an attorney who specializes in health care access for immigrants at the National Immigration Law Center.
Immigrants who are just scraping by often live cheek-by-jowl, making them vulnerable to the spread of illness, especially in cities where housing costs are high. In East Los Angeles, Latino immigrants often crowd an entire family into a single bedroom in a house. In the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles, thousands of Asian workers live in overcrowded apartments called “boarding houses.”
They work at jobs that often do not offer paid sick leave, nor the luxury of being able to self-quarantine in the event that they are exposed to the virus.
“Unfortunately, these immigrants face a very tough choice during this crisis: risk exposure or risk homelessness,” said Louise McCarthy, president of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles. “A low-income worker can’t just take a day off — losing a day’s pay can mean losing your housing.”
Felix Aguilar, chief medical officer at Chinatown Service Center, which has four clinics in greater Los Angeles, said that it has stepped up screening for the coronavirus, in person and over the phone. “It’s a matter of time. We are getting ready. We know the onslaught is coming,” he said.
Among all immigrants, 23 percent of those who are lawfully in the country and 45 percent of those who are undocumented lack health insurance, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In most states, community clinics serve people who require medical care, regardless of their status and ability to pay. And some states, such as California, Massachusetts, New York and Illinois, among others, cover medical care costs for undocumented children.
But because of the Trump administration’s so-called public charge rule, Ms. Broder said, “Even when services are available, immigrants may be afraid to seek the care that they need.”
The People’s Community Clinic in Austin, Texas, a city with a handful of confirmed coronavirus cases, had already been struggling to manage spikes in no-shows among undocumented patients intimidated by recent ICE arrest activity, as well as by the public charge rule, when the first cases began to appear.
“I know there are people reticent but what we’ve tried to do is reassure them,” said Regina Rogoff, the clinic’s chief executive officer, “We’re here to serve patients regardless of what their paperwork says. I’m hoping that’s how our patients continue to see us.”
Even before the coronavirus arrived in the United States, having a large population that feels disenfranchised from the mainstream medical community heightened the risk for transmission of infectious diseases, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University and adviser to the World Health Organization.
“The first rule of public health is to gain people’s trust to come forward: People who don’t seek care cannot be tested or treated, and their contacts won’t be traced,” he said.
“The last thing immigrants want to do in this political environment is tell health officials about their friends who are also unlawfully here,” Mr. Gostin said.
More than 450 public health and legal experts signed an open letter early this month to Vice President Mike Pence and other federal, state and local leaders demanding a “fair and effective” response to the virus, which would include a declaration that medical facilities are immigration enforcement-free zones, as occurred after recent hurricanes and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
ICE classifies medical facilities as “sensitive locations” where enforcement is avoided, though exceptions can be made.
On Friday, after President Trump announced a national health emergency, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which screens green-card applications, appeared to signal that it was suspending enforcement of the public charge rule. A statement posted on its website said that seeking treatment or preventive services for the virus would not adversely affect applicants applying for permanent residence.
“If the alien is prevented from working or attending school, and must rely on public benefits for the duration of the Covid-19 outbreak and recovery phase, the alien can provide an explanation and relevant supporting documentation,” the agency said.
The administration has not publicized the change, and absent a clear shift in enforcement, many immigrants are likely to remain reluctant to seek government-subsidized medical care.
“People who are fearful are not going to be reading the fine print of policy, and if in doubt they will stay away from being tested and treated,” said Mr. Gostin of Georgetown University.
For more than 25 years, the better part of their lives, Maria and Francisco Garcia have worked as undocumented field workers, picking and packing cauliflower, peppers and dates in the low desert of the Coachella Valley.
They recently became eligible to apply for a green card through an American-born child who turned 21. But with coronavirus cases on the rise in the area where they live, the couple have grown increasingly anxious about falling ill and jeopardizing their chance of become lawful residents.
It was the reason their daughter, Mariana, attended the event in the parking lot in the Coachella Valley. “My mom is panicked about getting the Covid-19. If she goes to the hospital, she thinks that will make her a public charge,” said Ms. Garcia.
Ms. Garcia was relieved to learn about the exception but doubted it would assuage her mother’s concerns.
Her parents, who live paycheck to paycheck, also worry about not making the $500-monthly rent on their mobile home if they get sick.
Sandy Cobarrubias, 46, another undocumented immigrant, said in an interview that, “We’re petrified.” Even after learning that seeking medical help for the virus would not jeopardize her chances of qualifying for a green card, she did not feel reassured. “This president says one thing one day and does another the next,” she said.
Caitlin Dickerson and Annie Correal contributed reporting from New York.
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8) Automakers to Close Factories in North America
G.M., Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler were under pressure from the autoworkers union to shut down plants in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
By Neal E. Boudette, March 18, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/business/economy/gm-ford-fiatchrysler-factories-virus.html
Jeff Kowalsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
With fear of infection rising among factory workers, and few customers shopping for cars, several automakers on Wednesday decided to idle their plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico for at least a week. The decisions will put tens of thousands of people out of work and add to the coronavirus outbreak’s growing economic toll.
The country’s largest automakers — General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler — decided to close plants after the United Auto Workers union pressured them to do so to protect workers. That pressure intensified after it was revealed on Wednesday that a worker at a Ford truck plant in Dearborn, Mich., had tested positive for the virus.
In addition to G.M., Ford and Fiat Chrysler, Honda, Toyota and Nissan also said they would idle their North American factories. The shutdown of car plants will force hundreds of companies that produce parts and components to follow suit over the coming days.
“This is another big blow to the economy,” said Patrick Anderson, president of Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, Mich.
Although some autoworkers will be eligible for sick pay, many will get only a portion of their income and others will have to rely on unemployment insurance.
“This is going to mean a significant loss in income,” Mr. Anderson said. “Workers are really going to be hurt if there’s not some kind of sustained program to help them.”
Ford, which has 55,000 U.A.W. employees, said those with at least one year of service would receive 75 percent of their regular pay through a combination of unemployment benefits and supplements paid by the company. G.M. is discussing a similar plan with the U.A.W., a company spokesman said.
Ford said in a statement that it would shut down factories after the end of Thursday evening shifts. G.M. said it would stagger plant closings to “ensure that production stops in a safe and orderly fashion.” Fiat Chrysler said it would begin shutting down production on Wednesday. All three companies said they would idle their plants until at least March 30. G.M. employs 47,000 U.A.W. members and Fiat Chrysler 49,000.
Earlier on Wednesday, Honda said it would close its plants for six days beginning March 23, with plans to restart production on March 31. It said it would provide full pay for the 27,000 employees in North America affected by the decision. Nissan told its dealers it will shut down its North America plants Friday and keep them idle until at least early April.
More than one million people are employed in automobile and auto parts manufacturing in the United States, and 1.3 million work for auto dealerships, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We have been taking extraordinary precautions around the world to keep our plant environments safe and recent developments in North America make it clear this is the right thing to do now,” G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said in a statement.
The company also said sales had been slowing, a trend it expects to continue as more people confine themselves to their homes to avoid contracting or spreading the virus.
Some auto dealers said their showroom traffic fell sharply starting on Tuesday. “We had four customers cancel deliveries because of the virus,” said Wes Lutz, owner of Extreme Dodge in Jackson, Mich., about 80 miles west of Detroit. “They are afraid they will lose their jobs.”
Mr. Lutz and other dealers said customers were still bringing cars in for maintenance and repairs, but the dealers are worried that service visits could drop off soon as social distancing sharply reduces the number of miles people normally drive.
“If you don’t leave the house, your car isn’t going to need an oil change for a while,” said Adam Silverleib, owner of Silko Honda in Raynham, Mass.
Automakers went into the week hoping to keep their plants running and employees safe by altering shift schedules to leave more time for sanitizing plants and reducing contact between workers. On Monday, G.M.’s Chevrolet division began offering zero-percent loans to lure consumers into dealerships. Hyundai offered to let customers return recently purchased cars if had they lost their jobs.
At the same time the U.A.W. was pressing the three companies based in and around Detroit to halt production for two weeks. On Tuesday G.M., Ford and Fiat Chrysler agreed to take steps short of shutting down production.
Then on Wednesday morning Honda announced its plans to stop production, and the news about the Ford worker in Dearborn was made public. In response, Ford halted work at the final assembly section of the plant while continuing production in the stamping and body shop areas.
Just hours later, all three of the large U.S. automakers reversed course and said they would idle their factories.
In Europe, auto manufacturing has been at a virtual standstill after Daimler, Ford Motor and Nissan joined Volkswagen and most other major carmakers in shutting down.
In California, Tesla, the luxury electric carmaker, has cut staffing at its Fremont factory from 10,000 to about 2,500 after local officials issued a shelter-in-place order, according to Ray Kelly, a spokesman for Alameda County.
Under the order, nonessential businesses like Tesla are permitted to continue “minimum basic operations” as long as employees do their best to stay at least six feet away from one another, according to the county.
“Spirit of the law goes a long way,” Mr. Kelly said. “We’re doing things that we would never do before.” Tesla may very well reduce its work force further, he said, based on a conversation Wednesday with a senior Tesla executive. The automaker did not respond to a request for comment and its chief executive, Elon Musk, has criticized the public reaction to the outbreak on Twitter.
Niraj Chokshi contributed reporting.
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9) Under COVID-19 Lockdown in Coleman Prison
By Leonard Peltier
—Orinoco Tribune, March 18, 2020
https://orinocotribune.com/under-covid-19-lockdown-in-coleman-prison-leonard-peltier/?fbclid=IwAR1Kgo76jrChmUzOj8Dmk3vKTalnfnRmwSljP2L9Os0cetUjPPsZA-8csg
We were notified this afternoon, that we are going on a lockdown, the whole institution, and the lockdown will be for at least 30 days. We were told we would be given 500 minutes for the phone, which is 200 minutes more than usual, so it doesn’t sound like we will be in our cells. I don’t know if we will be able to write letters or receive mail. I will not be visiting anyone if I survive that is for at least 30 days and the virus doesn’t get into Coleman I.
As far as I know no one has the virus in USP Coleman complex.
I keep getting conflicting information, but we were allowed to go outside for the evening, and we are now on the inside flats. Maybe it is just visiting that has been cancelled and there is no contact with outside peoples. We, or most of us anyway, agree this needs to be done, because no one it seems knows if they have contacted the virus or not.
So, I will send you updates as long as I can, I want to tell all of you to be safe out there as this virus is not racist and anyone can get it. If at all possible please look out for the people in the Native Nations, if you know our history in these sorts of pandemics, Native people are the last to get help and I have babies (grandchildren) out there.
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10) Coronavirus Has Arrived at Rikers Island: Inside New York City Jails, Where the Pandemic Is Set to Explode
Nick Pinto, March 18, 2020
Rikers Island emergency services personnel walk through one of many gates inside the jail complex in New York on July 31, 2014.
As New York City, like the rest of the United States, plunges into a public health crisis expected to be worse than anything in living memory, city residents have finally begun to heed the advice of medical professionals on how to limit exposure: Wash your hands often, disinfect surfaces, practice social distancing.
For the New Yorkers held in city jails on Rikers Island, though, these basic prescriptions — if they’ve even been made aware of them — are not within their power to follow.
They are locked in filthy intake rooms with dozens of other people for days on end, confined to housing units or dorm-style sleeping areas with scores of other people, dependent on staff for soap and on correction officers for permission and an escort to visit a medical clinic. The roughly 5,400 men and women detained in city jails on Rikers Island don’t have the agency to protect themselves from the disease, even as they are constantly exposed to the contagions of the outside world through the constant churn of three daily shifts of corrections officers and staff.
A New York City Department of Corrections employee died on Tuesday after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. A departmental press release cautioned that the dead man had only “limited contact” with people in custody. Officials said that, as of Tuesday, there had been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 inside city jails. On Wednesday, a news report said the first cases of coronavirus at the jail had been confirmed: one incarcerated person and a prison guard who worked at the jail complex’s gate.
For the New Yorkers held in city jails on Rikers Island, though, these basic prescriptions — if they’ve even been made aware of them — are not within their power to follow.
They are locked in filthy intake rooms with dozens of other people for days on end, confined to housing units or dorm-style sleeping areas with scores of other people, dependent on staff for soap and on correction officers for permission and an escort to visit a medical clinic. The roughly 5,400 men and women detained in city jails on Rikers Island don’t have the agency to protect themselves from the disease, even as they are constantly exposed to the contagions of the outside world through the constant churn of three daily shifts of corrections officers and staff.
A New York City Department of Corrections employee died on Tuesday after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. A departmental press release cautioned that the dead man had only “limited contact” with people in custody. Officials said that, as of Tuesday, there had been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 inside city jails. On Wednesday, a news report said the first cases of coronavirus at the jail had been confirmed: one incarcerated person and a prison guard who worked at the jail complex’s gate.
“You have a situation where all the protocols that are coming out of the Centers for Disease Control cannot be enacted.”
The restricted ability of people locked on Rikers to protect themselves is a problem because many of them, due to age or underlying health conditions, are at higher risk of getting very sick or dying from the disease. It’s also a problem because the officials tasked with making sure incarcerated people are safe have so far refused to release any comprehensive plan for handling an outbreak. Despite growing calls to release vulnerable people from the Petri dish of Rikers, officials have taken no steps to do so.
“We know that there literally is no way to ensure the health and well-being of people incarcerated on Rikers in this type of crisis,” said Justine Olderman, executive director of Bronx Defenders, a public defender organization. “It is an incubator for the spread of disease and viruses, and this virus is unlike anything that anyone has ever seen. You have a situation where all the protocols that are coming out of the Centers for Disease Control cannot be enacted: There are broken sinks, there’s no hand sanitizer, people don’t have access to soap, and at a time we’re all being asked to do social distancing, you have an environment where people are sleeping 100 to a room. In a situation like that, the only moral thing to do is release them.”
The accounts that are trickling out from Rikers are not encouraging. Last week, a man with a medical history that makes him especially vulnerable to contracting coronavirus, housed in a special-housing unit in one Rikers jail, called a social worker twice in one day to report that he was exhibiting symptoms of disease. Others in his special housing unit were coughing and exhibiting flu-like symptoms, the man told the social worker, who relayed the account to a lawyer who asked that they all remain anonymous to avoid reprisals. The men in the unit were told that there were not enough correction officers to transport them to the health clinic.
Kelsey de Avila, director of jail services for Brooklyn Defender Services, another public defender organization, said she spoke with two incarcerated people on Monday who described both a lack of information and the absence of basic sanitation. “Of the two men I spoke to, one said no one had come to talk to him about what’s happening at all, and he hadn’t seen any posters in his housing area or the halls he’s walking in,” de Avila said. “The other man said someone had come in and told people they should wash their hands and cover their mouth when they cough.”
“We know that there literally is no way to ensure the health and well-being of people incarcerated on Rikers in this type of crisis,” said Justine Olderman, executive director of Bronx Defenders, a public defender organization. “It is an incubator for the spread of disease and viruses, and this virus is unlike anything that anyone has ever seen. You have a situation where all the protocols that are coming out of the Centers for Disease Control cannot be enacted: There are broken sinks, there’s no hand sanitizer, people don’t have access to soap, and at a time we’re all being asked to do social distancing, you have an environment where people are sleeping 100 to a room. In a situation like that, the only moral thing to do is release them.”
The accounts that are trickling out from Rikers are not encouraging. Last week, a man with a medical history that makes him especially vulnerable to contracting coronavirus, housed in a special-housing unit in one Rikers jail, called a social worker twice in one day to report that he was exhibiting symptoms of disease. Others in his special housing unit were coughing and exhibiting flu-like symptoms, the man told the social worker, who relayed the account to a lawyer who asked that they all remain anonymous to avoid reprisals. The men in the unit were told that there were not enough correction officers to transport them to the health clinic.
Kelsey de Avila, director of jail services for Brooklyn Defender Services, another public defender organization, said she spoke with two incarcerated people on Monday who described both a lack of information and the absence of basic sanitation. “Of the two men I spoke to, one said no one had come to talk to him about what’s happening at all, and he hadn’t seen any posters in his housing area or the halls he’s walking in,” de Avila said. “The other man said someone had come in and told people they should wash their hands and cover their mouth when they cough.”
One of the people de Avila spoke to said someone on his unit had been coughing all day. “We don’t know what it is, if he just has a cough, if he’s seen medical staff or not,” she said. “But that’s part of the point: Our client doesn’t have any information, and he’s nervous.” The man asked a correction officer if they could move their beds, he told de Avila. “The CO said, ‘Yeah, do whatever you want.’ It’s not really the level of response we need in this situation.”
Especially concerning is incarcerated people’s limited access to sanitation. Those in jail can buy soap from the commissary, if they can afford it. Otherwise, they’re dependent on the general-issue soap. The man de Avila spoke with in dorm housing said his unit had about 30 to 40 people in it, with an attached bathroom with eight to 10 sinks. “Each sink has its own bar of soap, which you’re sharing with 30 or 40 people,” she said. “He went to the bathroom this morning, and every bar of soap was missing. Did someone throw them out? Was someone hoarding them? We don’t know. But, as of noon that day, no one had replaced them.”
Especially concerning is incarcerated people’s limited access to sanitation. Those in jail can buy soap from the commissary, if they can afford it. Otherwise, they’re dependent on the general-issue soap. The man de Avila spoke with in dorm housing said his unit had about 30 to 40 people in it, with an attached bathroom with eight to 10 sinks. “Each sink has its own bar of soap, which you’re sharing with 30 or 40 people,” she said. “He went to the bathroom this morning, and every bar of soap was missing. Did someone throw them out? Was someone hoarding them? We don’t know. But, as of noon that day, no one had replaced them.”
“This is how it spreads. This is why it’s going to spread.”
The Legal Aid Society of New York City, another public defender organization, spoke on March 12 with five people held on Rikers who described a similar disregard for sanitation and public health there. One person with underlying medical conditions told Legal Aid that his housing unit had no soap. When he asked a captain whether there were plans to get some, he got no answer. Another said he was issued industrial laundry soap but told that he’d have to buy bar soap to wash himself. A third person, housed on a unit for people requiring intensive medical care, said his unit didn’t have adequate cleaning supplies. A fourth man, who is immunocompromised, said his unit has no soap and that the common areas and showers are not being cleaned daily.
A fifth person described spending several days in a dirty intake room, in close quarters with dozens of people, some of whom had been coughing, only to be moved into a housing unit with no cleaning supplies, where correction officers told him that if he wanted disinfectant, he could buy it from the commissary.
At a time when public health officials are urging frequent hand-washing as one of the top ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, denying people access to soap is especially dangerous, de Avila said. “This is how it spreads,” she said. “This is why it’s going to spread.”
A fifth person described spending several days in a dirty intake room, in close quarters with dozens of people, some of whom had been coughing, only to be moved into a housing unit with no cleaning supplies, where correction officers told him that if he wanted disinfectant, he could buy it from the commissary.
At a time when public health officials are urging frequent hand-washing as one of the top ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, denying people access to soap is especially dangerous, de Avila said. “This is how it spreads,” she said. “This is why it’s going to spread.”
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11) Search for Coronavirus Vaccine Becomes a Global Competition
The United States, China and Europe are battling to be the first to find a cure, bringing a nationalist element to a worldwide crisis.
By David E. Sanger, David D. Kirkpatrick, Sui-Lee Wee and Katrin Bennhold
Bing Guan/Reuters
WASHINGTON—A global arms race for a coronavirus vaccine is underway.
In the three months since the virus began its deadly spread, China, Europe and the United States have all set off at a sprint to become the first to produce a vaccine. But while there is cooperation on many levels—including among companies that are ordinarily fierce competitors—hanging over the effort is the shadow of a nationalistic approach that could give the winner the chance to favor its own population and potentially gain the upper hand in dealing with the economic and geostrategic fallout from the crisis.
What began as a question of who would get the scientific accolades, the patents and ultimately the revenues from a successful vaccine is suddenly a broader issue of urgent national security. And behind the scramble is a harsh reality: Any new vaccine that proves potent against the coronavirus—clinical trials are underway in the United States, China and Europe already—is sure to be in short supply as governments try to ensure that their own people are the first in line.
In China, 1,000 scientists are at work on a vaccine, and the issue has already been militarized: Researchers affiliated with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences have developed what is considered the nation’s front-runner candidate for success and is recruiting volunteers for clinical trials.
China “will not be slower than other countries,” Wang Junzhi, a biological products quality control expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said Tuesday at a news conference in Beijing.
The effort has taken on propaganda qualities. Already, a widely circulated photograph of Chen Wei, a virologist in the People’s Liberation Army, receiving an injection of what was advertised to be the first vaccine, has been exposed as a fake, taken before a trip she made to Wuhan, where the virus began.
President Trump has talked in meetings with pharmaceutical executives about making sure a vaccine is produced on American soil, to assure the United States controls its supplies. German government officials said they believed he tried to lure a German company, CureVac, to do its research and production, if it comes to that, in the United States.
The company has denied it received a takeover offer, but its lead investor made clear there was some kind of approach.
Asked by the German magazine Sport 1 about how the contact with Mr. Trump had unfolded, Dietmar Hopp, whose Dievini Hopp BioTech Holding owns 80 percent of the company, said: “I personally didn’t speak to Mr. Trump. He spoke to the company and they immediately told me about it and asked what I thought of it, and I knew immediately that it was out of the question.”
The report of the approach was enough to prompt the European Commission to pledge another $85 million to the firm, which has already had support from a European vaccine consortium.
The same day, a Chinese company offered $133.3 million for an equity stake and other consideration from another German firm in the vaccine race, BioNTech.
“There has been a global wake-up call that biotechnology is a strategic industry for our societies,” Friedrich von Bohlen, the managing director of the holding company that owns 82 percent of CureVac.
And just as nations have insisted on building their own drones, their own stealth fighters and their own cyberweapons, they do not want to be beholden to a foreign power for access to the drugs that are needed in a crisis.
After two decades of farming out drug production to China and India, “you want the whole production process close to home,” Mr. von Bohlen said.
Some experts view the geopolitical competition as healthy, as long as any successes are shared with the world—which government officials routinely assure they will be.
But they do not say how, or more important, when. And many analysts recall what happened during the swine flu epidemic in 2009, when a company in Australia that was among the first to develop a single-dose vaccine was required to satisfy demand in Australia before fulfilling export orders to the United States and elsewhere.
That spurred outrage, conspiracy theories and congressional hearings into the reasons for the shortfall.
“You want everybody to cooperate, everybody to race as quickly as they can to a vaccine and the best candidates to move forward,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University.
But if those showing signs of success are wondering if their companies will be nationalized, he said, it creates a complication that “you don’t want to have when you are trying to get a vaccine made as quickly as possible.”
Executives of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies said on Thursday that they were working together and with governments to assure that a vaccine is developed as quickly as possible and distributed equitably. But they implored governments not to hoard a vaccine once it is developed, saying that to do so would be devastating for the broader goal of stamping out the coronavirus pandemic.
“I would encourage everyone not to get into this trap of saying we have to get everything into our countries now and close the borders,” said Severin Schwan, the chief executive of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche. “It would be completely wrong to fall into nationalist behavior that would actually disrupt supply chains and be detrimental to people around the world.”
Adding to the pressure is Mr. Trump’s near-daily assurance that breakthroughs are on the way. While antiviral drugs to treat the effects of the coronavirus may be tested under “compassionate use” guidelines that allow experimentation on desperately ill patients, a vaccine remains at least 12 to 18 months away, both American officials and the leaders of major pharmaceutical companies say.
“Vaccines are injected into healthy people, so we need to ensure safety,” a process that takes time, David Loew, an executive vice president of Sanofi Pasteur of France, said on Thursday. His firm is working with Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson in the United States, Roche and Takeda in Japan.
In normal times, there is always an element of national competition to the development of drugs. In the months before the coronavirus began breaking out in Wuhan, the F.B.I. began an effort to root out scientists they believed were stealing biomedical research from the United States, mostly focused on scientists of Chinese descent, including naturalized American citizens, on behalf of China. There were 180 cases under investigation last year.
But the fear is that the urgency to come up with a usable vaccine will inflame nationalistic tendencies.
China has made clear it is looking for a national champion—an equivalent to the role that Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, plays in the race to build 5G networks around the world. If the Huawei pattern holds, China could make deals to increase its influence over poorer or less developed countries, which might otherwise might not get affordable access to a vaccine.
There are already signs that China is using the moment for geopolitical advantage, delivering help to countries that once would have looked to Europe or the United States. Its decision to ship diagnostic kits to the Philippines, an ally of the United States, and to help Serbia was a leading indicator of what may come with drugs and vaccines, when they are available.
Speaking in a teleconference on Thursday, executives from the five biggest pharmaceutical companies said they were working to increase the industry’s manufacturing abilities by sharing available capacity to ramp up production once a successful vaccine or antiviral is identified. They argued for multiple testing programs to increase the chances of success, and then for immediate licensing to allow a quick scaling up of production.
Once a vaccine is approved, “we’ll need to vaccinate billions of people around the world, so we are looking at alternatives to where and how we produce,” Mr. Loew said.
But it is governments that get to decide how a vaccine is approved, and where it can be sold.
“If countries say, ‘Gee, let’s try to lock up a supply so we can protect our populations,’ then it can be a challenge to get the vaccine to the places where it can make the most difference epidemiologically,” said Seth Berkley, the chief executive of GAVI, a nonprofit organization that supplies vaccines to developing countries.
Mindful of those dangers, though, several European governments and nonprofit groups have already taken steps to prevent either the United States or China from capturing a monopoly on a potential vaccine against the coronavirus.
In the aftermath of the Ebola plague that flared across West Africa from 2014 to 2016, Norway, Britain and other mostly European countries as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began contributing millions of dollars to a multinational organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiatives, to fund vaccine research.
All of its funding agreements included provisions for equal access to assure that “appropriate vaccines are first available to populations when and where they are needed to end an outbreak or curtail an epidemic, regardless of ability to pay,” the organization said in a statement.
In the past two months, the coalition has funded research into eight of the most promising candidates to block the coronavirus—including CureVac, the Germany company.
All of which left unclear exactly what Mr. Trump sought from CureVac, if anything, and why the company ousted its American chief executive, Daniel Menichella, days after he met with the White House coronavirus task force, in a session where Mr. Trump dropped by. The White House declined to comment.
The company itself has issued carefully drafted denials of a takeover offer. “Maybe someone said something,” Mr. Von Bohlen said. “But there is no written offer from the United States.”
There did not need to be. The mere hint of it was enough to get European officials to offer more funding.
“The fact that other countries tried to buy that company shows that they are the front-runner in the research,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “It is a European company—we wanted to keep it in Europe, it wanted to stay in Europe. It was very important to give it the necessary funding, and that has happened.”
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12) Gov. Gavin Newsom of California Orders Californians to Stay at Home
In making the announcement, Mr. Newsom has taken the most drastic step of any state leader to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
By Tim Arango and Jill Cowan, March 19, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/California-stay-at-home-order-virus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
Rich Pedroncelli, via Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — America’s most populous state is ordering its residents to stay indoors.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Thursday ordered Californians — all 40 million of them — to stay in their houses as much as possible in the coming weeks as the state confronts the escalating coronavirus outbreak. The order represents the most drastic measure any governor has taken to control the virus, and a decision that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, which has far more cases than California, has resisted taking.
Mr. Newsom made the announcement from the state’s emergency operations center in Sacramento, normally a place where emergency workers coordinate responses to wildfires and earthquakes, and spoke in stark terms of the risk that the coronavirus posed to the population.
Citing a model that state planners have been using, suggesting that 56 percent of Californians, or more than 25 million people, could be infected over eight weeks, Mr. Newsom said, “I think it’s time I tell you what I tell my family.”
“This is not a permanent state, this is a moment in time,” he said. “We will look back at these decisions as pivotal.”
Mr. Newsom said that most retail shops, including indoor malls, are being ordered shut across the state. Also closed are most corporate offices. Banks, grocery stores, pharmacies, laundromats and some other businesses are exempted.
Officials emphasized that the orders did not bar residents from leaving their homes, and they encouraged people to take walks, as long as they stay six feet apart, and visit grocery stores.
Health care workers, essential municipal workers such as bus drivers and others will still be working.
Earlier in the week several counties in the Bay Area, along with Sacramento, issued orders that residents essentially shelter in place, although there are several exceptions — which also apply to the state order.
The new rules were the most drastic ones so far in the country for the population size covered, and follow similar crackdowns in Europe, most notably in Italy, where the death toll from the relentless virus on Thursday surpassed that of China.
Just before Mr. Newsom spoke, officials in Los Angeles County held a news conference to announce their own stay at home order, which they are calling “safer at home.”
How the orders will be enforced is unclear, but officials said that they expected residents to follow them and that there would enormous social pressure to do so on those who disobey them.
“People will self-regulate their behavior,” he said. “We’ll have social pressure to encourage people to do the right thing.”
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s official said on Twitter that the department did not plan on making arrests to enforce the order.
Mr. Newsom did, however, say that the state would be “more aggressively” policing xenophobic attacks against Asians. “We are better than that,” Mr. Newsom said.
Thursday’s directives in Los Angeles and from the governor come after several days in which California leaders, both at the state and local level, gradually tightened public life, closing bars, wineries, gyms and movie theaters and ordering restaurants to halt in-housing dining and shift to takeout and delivery. On Sunday night, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles announced that all bars would close and restaurants would be allowed only to do takeout or delivery. In recent days he has also been urging people to stay home from work.
Officials have described the stay at home orders as an aggressive way to reduce infections and buy time to stock up on medical supplies like ventilators and masks to confront what they expect to be a surge in need for hospital beds.
Also on Thursday, Mr. Newsom released a letter he had sent to President Trump asking him to deploy a hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles to be on standby for an expected surge in hospitalizations because of the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak. In making his plea, the governor cited the alarming statistic that roughly 56 percent of the state’s population, or 25.5 million people — in line with some national projections about how severe the outbreak could become — will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period.
“In some parts of our state, our case rate is doubling every four days,” he wrote.
But on Thursday night, he said he hoped that the extraordinary measures would stop those projections from becoming real.
“The point of the stay at home order is to make those numbers moot,” Mr. Newsom said.
California’s Department of Public Health on Thursday reported that the state had 675 confirmed cases and 16 deaths, up from 598 cases and 13 deaths the day before. One of the new deaths came in Los Angeles County, where officials said the region had 231 cases — they reported 40 new cases on Thursday. The most recent death, the county’s public health department said, was a 30-something who had underlying conditions and lived near Pasadena.
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13) Coronavirus and Poverty: A Mother Skips Meals So Her Children Can Eat
Americans with tight financial resources have fewer options as they navigate coronavirus closures and layoffs.
By Manny Fernandez, March 20, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/us/coronavirus-poverty-school-lunch.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
BRENHAM, Texas — With her six hungry children in the car, Summer Mossbarger was one of the first in line for lunch at the drive-through. Not at a fast-food restaurant, but outside Alton Elementary School.
Alton was closed — all the public schools in Brenham, a rural Texas town of 17,000 about 90 miles east of Austin, have shut for the coronavirus — but one vital piece of the school day lived on: free lunch. Ms. Mossbarger rolled down the window of her used, 15-year-old S.U.V. as school employees handed her six Styrofoam containers.
Even as the carnival aroma of mini corn dogs filled the vehicle on the drive back home, and even as the children sat on the porch and ate from their flipped-open containers with the family dogs running around, Ms. Mossbarger ate nothing.
She skipped breakfast and lunch, taking her first bite of food — food-pantry fried chicken — at about 5:30 p.m. All she consumed from the time she awoke that morning until she ate dinner were sips from a cherry Dr Pepper.
Money was tight. Ms. Mossbarger, 33, a disabled Army veteran, does not work. Her husband’s job as a carpenter has slowed in recent days and gotten more unpredictable as people cancel or delay residential construction jobs. She had plenty of worries — paying the $1,000 rent was at the top of the list — but lunch for her children was not one of them.
“If we didn’t have this, I probably would have a mental breakdown with stress,” she said of the free meals at Alton. “I’m not going to let my kids go hungry. If I have to just eat once a day, that’s what I have to do.”
The power of the coronavirus to produce upheaval in people’s lives depends in part on income. Americans with fewer financial resources have fewer options as they navigate the new normal of school closings, shuttered businesses and shelter-in-place orders.
Poverty experts said that in times of natural disasters and large-scale emergencies, low-income families who are already living on tight budgets with overdue bills, unstable housing, poor health care and unsteady employment often bear the brunt of the pain.
“They tend to be the first hit when things go wrong and then also to take the longest time to recover,” said H. Luke Shaefer, a professor of social work and public policy at the University of Michigan and the faculty director of its Poverty Solutions initiative.
Ms. Mossbarger’s self-imposed starvation was one quiet, anonymous moment amid a national crisis, and one sign of the depth of the virus’s impact on the working poor.
The Brenham Independent School District’s free-lunch drive-through was one of many underway this week in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Oregon and other states attempting to ensure that schoolchildren continue to receive free meals Monday through Friday during weekslong virus-related closures. Educators and school nutritionists said that for some impoverished children, the free breakfast and free lunch at school are the only substantial meals they will eat in a day.
Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico’s largest district, where about 69 percent of students receive free or reduced-price meals, began passing out free breakfasts and lunches at dozens of its schools starting Monday. In California, the Elk Grove school system in Sacramento has since last week provided nearly 11,000 students with two daily meals, lunch and tomorrow’s breakfast.
In Brenham, where 60 percent of the 5,000 public-school students qualify for free or low-cost meals, the school district handed out more than 1,000 lunches and more than 800 breakfasts to children over the program’s first three days this week.
Brenham is a working-class town, known in Texas as the home of Blue Bell ice cream. Cattle and horses graze in the pastures that line the roads and highways, and the cowboys don’t bother to take off their hats when they climb into their trucks. The town is the uncredited backdrop of countless postcards, posters and Instagram accounts — the bluebonnets are bright and ubiquitous, and even color the grassy medians. But beneath its rustic beauty and ice-cream-company charm lies financial hardship. Brenham has a median household income of roughly $44,000, and a poverty rate of 18.6 percent.
On Tuesday, the long, tranquil driveway outside Alton Elementary was the coronavirus equivalent of an old-fashioned soup line, roughly 10 cars deep. District employees who volunteered to pass out meals recognized some of the drivers — they worked for the district, too, and had brought their children to get a free lunch.
The nation’s free or reduced-price lunch program has long been used as an indicator of a community’s poverty level, but there was no sign of embarrassment, resentment or shame in the drive-through line. Some drivers hollered a loud thank you to the volunteers as they pulled away, and most didn’t even bother to ask what was inside the lunch containers: mini corn dogs, baked beans, baby carrots, an orange. People seemed more concerned with social distancing than any social stigma. One woman kept her driver-side window rolled up as she interacted with the volunteers, to avoid having them get too close to her.
They pulled up in beat-up cars with rattling engines, newly washed trucks, sleek Cadillacs, old minivans. They were white, black, Hispanic. Mothers were behind the wheel of most of the vehicles, but there were a few fathers, too, and high-school students with their younger siblings inside. The only requirement was that children under 18 had to be inside the vehicle to receive the meal, but no one was asked to prove the children attended a district school.
For many of the families, the free meals were not the difference between their children eating or not eating. Instead, they said they viewed it as a way to stretch their budgets a little longer, so that the money they would have spent on that day’s lunch could instead go to tomorrow’s dinner or next week’s bill. Word had spread while families idled in line that the Texas governor was activating the National Guard, that some of the shelves at a local grocery store were still barren. The drive-through at Alton was one small bright spot at an anxious time, even though their county had no confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Gabbie Salazar, 28, made two trips to the drive-through, each time with different sets of nieces, nephews and cousins in her car. She knows Alton well: She manages the school cafeteria. She is a single mother who works two jobs, at the school and at a day care, and makes a total of about $2,000 a month, with a rent of about $800 monthly.
“Save a little money, you know?” Ms. Salazar said of the free meals. “I’m a single mom. I only have to do one meal at night, so that helps a lot.”
Before Ms. Mossbarger pulled up in the drive-through line on Tuesday, she took her six children to the H-E-B grocery store. She went to the aisle for paper towels and toilet paper, but there was nothing left — the shelves were empty, and customers were crowding around to grab whatever they could. She gathered the children, left the cart in the middle of the aisle and walked out, frustrated that she had wasted gas in her Chevrolet Suburban.
“I couldn’t deal with it,” she said of the grocery store. “It stresses me out. Because me as a mother, it makes me feel like I’m not going to be able to provide for my kids.”
Her husband, Jordan Spahn, 47, said they do not have the luxury of stockpiling. When he found out he didn’t have any carpentry jobs on Tuesday — usually, he makes about $180 daily — he worked on a friend’s patio-furniture set to make a few extra dollars.
“We live check to check,” Mr. Spahn said. “We’ve seen those that have more than others be the first ones to get everything they could get their hands on. It shows a little bit of the state of society these days. What if it gets 20 times worse next week, and now we don’t have nothing to get?”
The family moved into a rental home a few weeks ago. Empty fields sprinkled with bluebonnets gave the children space to run around, ride their bicycles and swing from the tire hooked to a tree branch and from the hammock on the porch. Ms. Mossbarger thinks of her military training when she thinks about mealtime for her four boys and two girls — Tristan Spahn, 5; Layla Ray, 6; Stasy Spahn, 7; Hayden Brown, 9; Gavin Brown, 9; and Joseph Brown, 10. “I was a cook in the military, so I’m used to feeding the masses,” she said.
Ms. Mossbarger was raised in Brenham. Years ago, her father was one of her husband’s high school teachers. They laugh about it now and said that’s just how things work in a small town. She wears her devotion to her children on her skin. The tattoo of the Teddy bear on her arm was for 10-year-old Joseph, the initials on her chest for 6-year-old Layla, who is named for the Eric Clapton song.
The spread of the virus, for Ms. Mossbarger and Mr. Spahn, was one struggle in a lifetime of them. Ms. Mossbarger said that years ago, there was a time when she was homeless. Two of Mr. Spahn’s older sons — Matthew, 21, and Jonah, 24 — were both struck by vehicles in separate accidents and killed in the past year and a half. Their pictures and track jerseys cover the walls of the living room.
“We’ve been through some hard times in these past 16, 17 months,” Mr. Spahn said. “We’ve had heartache, heartbreak and now with this coming on, it’s kind of like, all right, bring it.”
Dinner, like lunch, was served on Styrofoam.
The entire meal was provided by Ms. Mossbarger’s sister-in-law and by a food-distribution nonprofit, Bread Partners of Washington County. The children ate leftover spaghetti, canned vegetables, microwave biscuits and Goldfish crackers. Ms. Mossbarger and her husband ate fried chicken with rice and the canned vegetables. The children said grace before their parents even sat down.
Ms. Mossbarger hardly mentioned it, but she was starving. “I honestly wasn’t going to eat, but Jordan was like, ‘You got to eat something,’” she said.
The next morning, she again skipped breakfast and was sipping a Monster Energy drink. She was tired and her head hurt.
“I feel it,” she said.
Her husband’s job was called off yet again, heightening her financial concerns about the coming days and weeks. “I’m constantly thinking what’s the next move going to be,” Ms. Mossbarger said. “Basically, if he’s not working, I’m going to eat as little as possible because I know that’s less food in my kids’ mouths.”
Soon, it was almost 11 a.m. She packed the children into the Suburban. She was headed again to the drive-through at Alton.
Simon Romero contributed reporting from Albuquerque, N.M.
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14) Coronavirus Tests Are Now Free, but Treatment Could Still Cost You
Congress passed legislation covering people’s costs for getting tested for the virus, but you could still face high bills for everything else.
By Reed Abelson, March 19, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/health/coronavirus-tests-bills.html
Johnny Milano for The New York Times
Even if they shouldn’t, people may think twice about seeking testing or treatment for the coronavirus if they are worried about getting large medical bills, even when they have health insurance.
“The problem is we have reams and reams of evidence that if people know they face hundreds or thousands of dollars in bills, they’ll hesitate, they’ll wait and see,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University.
Policies regarding your out-of-pocket costs for testing and treatment are changing rapidly. State insurance regulators are taking steps to limit how much you might eventually owe, and Congress just passed legislation that would cover the cost of the test. Insurance companies and employers also changed the rules for most plans to eliminate deductibles or co-payments for testing.
“Almost every relevant person or entity has said something about holding consumers harmless,” said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
With the caveat that things are shifting, here’s what you should know:
Is the test for coronavirus free? I have health insurance, but my plan has a high deductible.
Under the legislation just passed by Congress, testing for coronavirus is free, including the cost of a doctor’s visit or trip to the emergency room to get the test.
Worried that residents might hesitate because of the potential bills, many states, including California, New York and Washington, had already required the insurance companies they regulate to cover the cost of a test, according to a recent analysis from Georgetown University.
Private insurance companies had also generally volunteered to waive any costs their members might face for the actual test. Employers who offer plans and are self-insured followed suit.
Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid are also covering the test, which isn’t that expensive — Medicare is paying anywhere from $36 to $51 for the actual test.
People without insurance, or those enrolled in so-called junk plans that don’t meet the standards for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, should also be able to get tested at no cost, said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which recently released an issue brief on private insurance coverage of coronavirus.
But could I still end up with bills to pay?
It’s possible, especially if you go somewhere that isn’t in your health plan’s network or undergo an array of unrelated tests. “There are still questions about the battery of testing people may receive and out-of-network testing,” said Cheryl Fish-Parcham, the director of access initiatives at Families USA, a consumer advocacy group.
You could also face sizable out-of-pocket costs if you have something that looks like coronavirus, like the garden-variety flu, but isn’t. While New Mexico is requiring insurers to cover the testing for flu and pneumonia, so far it’s an exception.
What if I need hospital care?
President Trump told the nation earlier this month that health insurers had “agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billings,” but he misspoke. Your health plan is generally going to view treatment for Covid-19 like the treatment for any other illness, just as if you developed a bad pneumonia or have a chronic condition like diabetes.
“Treatment is still a gigantic problem,” said Ms. Fish-Parcham, who said federal lawmakers were talking about another wave of legislation that could potentially address the cost-sharing.
The federal government has made it easier for people in certain high deductible plans. The Internal Revenue Service recently allowed people in those plans to have coronavirus testing and treatment covered by the plan before they meet their deductibles.
It’s hard to estimate how much you could owe, but the Kaiser Family Foundation provided some ballpark estimates for a pneumonia hospitalization and concluded the total cost could be over $20,000 — with an individual’s out-of-pocket costs running around $1,300. All of those figures depend on what plan you have, where you get care and how serious a case you have.
No one knows whether employers, insurers or the federal government will move to completely cover these costs, although Joseph R. Biden Jr., the leading Democratic contender for president, has suggested providing emergency funds to cover treatment.
Some plans are taking steps to limit their members’ exposure to high medical bills. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program, which covers nearly six million federal employees, retirees and their families, said it would waive any co-pays or deductibles regarding medically necessary treatment.
And some hospital systems are putting a pause on collections. CommonSpirit Health, a Catholic chain of hospitals and clinics, says it is suspending patient billing for coronavirus testing and treatment as it sorts out how the various parties will handle patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
What about surprise medical bills?
You may be at risk if you get care from someone, like an emergency room doctor or anesthesiologist, who is out of network, even if the hospital is in your plan’s network. When Kaiser did its analysis, it found that nearly one in five patients admitted to the hospital with a serious case of pneumonia faced out-of-network bills.
Should I worry about my health insurer being able to pay for the costs?
Probably not. Even if they don’t like them, “insurers are used to surprises,” said Gregory Fann, an actuary in Temecula, Calif. “That’s what they are there for.”
Most insurers have plenty of capital, and state regulators also keep an eye on them to make sure the companies can pay their medical claims.
And your premiums won’t go up during the current year — insurers set their prices for a whole year so you don’t have to worry about any immediate jumps in costs. It’s impossible to predict what may happen to prices for the following year, although insurers could seek higher rates — and consumers might face higher premiums — depending on the costs of caring for the seriously ill and the length of the epidemic.
Should I worry about my employer coverage?
It’s difficult to predict what will happen to businesses, which are under a lot of strain right now, and their ability to cover your medical claims. Individual companies that experience a surge in health care costs just as sales plummet could face a financial crisis in which they can’t pay medical claims.
What if I don’t have insurance?
You should be able to get covered. If you lose your job, you may qualify for Medicaid or be able to sign up for a health plan under the Affordable Care Act.
A growing number of states are also creating a special enrollment period for residents if they want to sign up, and there is even some talk of the federal government making a similar decision for the marketplaces they operate. There’s also talk of using the Medicaid program much more broadly to cover the uninsured.
What if I end up with a big bill?
“Don’t whip out your checkbook,” said Ms. Fish-Parcham, who also warned that you shouldn’t ignore any medical bills. Contact your insurer as well as the hospital or doctor to find out if you really owe what they say you owe. Be sure to check with your state insurance department as well. You may have been billed in error.
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