FEATURING DR. SRIRAM SHAMASUNDER – While New York City is the nation’s coronavirus epicenter, not far behind is a region that has received little news attention: the Navajo Nation in Arizona has the third highest infection rate in the US. So far there have been nearly 3,000 infections and more than 70 deaths including that of 28-year old Valentina Blackhorse, a prominent figure in the community who had political aspirations. 

The Navajo Nation is currently suing the federal government over the dispersal of financial relief to tribes. Just as African Americans are hardest hit by the pandemic due to the prevalence of long-term pre-existing health conditions, the native American community is struggling with the rapid spread of the disease.  

Dr. Sriram Shamasunder, Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, and co-founder and faculty director of the HEAL Initiative, a health workforce strengthening fellowship working in Navajo Nation and 7 countries around the world.

FEATURING JOSH FOX – A new climate change documentary by Jeff Gibbs, executive produced by Michael Moore has been making all kinds of waves – but for all the wrong reasons. The film, The Planet of the Humans, is a convincing indictment of the green renewable energy industry and takes aim at large environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and 350.org, arguing that solar and wind energy have a greater carbon footprint than fossil fuels and echoing President Donald Trump’s frequent claims that green energy sources are too dependent on the whims of weather. 

Coming to the film’s rescue has been the far-right website Breitbart. Meanwhile figures like Michael Mann, Naomi Klein, and my guest Josh Fox, have publicly denounced it. 

Read his article in The Nation called “Meet the New Flack for Oil and Gas: Michael Moore,” HERE.

Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of Gasland. His latest film is How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change. He wrote a scathing review of The Planet of the Humans in The Nation called “Meet the New Flack for Oil and Gas: Michael Moore.” 

The New York Times has obtained an internal document produced just days ago by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that they expect a rise in the US’s daily death toll from the coronavirus to roughly double than the current average. Specifically Donald Trump’s CDC expects an average of 3,000 deaths a day by June 1st compared to the current daily average of 1,750 a day. The Times explained, “The projections confirm the primary fear of public health experts: that a reopening of the economy will put the nation right back where it was in mid-March.” In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, Trump former Food and Drug Administration commission Scott Gottlieb, said frankly, “While mitigation didn’t fail, I think it’s fair to say that it didn’t work as well as we expected…We expected that we would start seeing more significant declines in new cases and deaths around the nation at this point. And we’re just not seeing that.” In an interview with Fox News on Sunday President Trump said both, that it is safe for states to continue to reopen in the midst of the dangerous pandemic, and that the overall US death toll could be as high as 100,000 – a revision from his earlier estimate of 65,000. 

The World Health Organization just reported that the US death toll from Covid-19 on a single day over this past weekend hit a high of 2,909 people – which is already close to the projected CDC daily death toll. But the deadly impact of the virus does not seem to motivate President Trump to direct the nation to continue its lockdown. Instead Trump appears to be attempting to square the grim projections of his own government with the discontent of his base over economic collapse. Last week he claimed that the rightwing protesters who entered the Michigan State capitol fully armed with rifles were “very good people.” But when Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force was asked about the protesters ignoring social distancing guidelines on Fox News, she said this: “It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a comorbid condition and they have a serious or an unfortunate outcome, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives. So we need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.” That’s Dr. Deborah Birx on Fox News on Sunday. 

President Trump’s Justice Department seems to be pursuing a political agenda to target states led by Democratic governors. The DOJ has just sided with a Virginia church that argued Gov. Ralph Northam’s Covid restrictions violated their religious freedoms. Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has remained firm on continuing his state’s lockdown saying that while he sympathized with proteste...

FEATURING NORMAN SOLOMON – As former Vice President Joe Biden remains the only Democratic candidate left standing after an extraordinarily large field that crowded debate stages just a few months ago, the question arises: can Biden truly beat Donald Trump this November? 

In spite of recent polling showing Trump losing to Biden, my guest Norman Solomon worries that, “Biden is idling in the cockpit of a political aircraft with one wing.”

Read Norman Solomon’s latest article HERE.

Norman Solomon, co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He was a pledged delegate for Bernie Sanders at the 2016 DNC. His latest article is entitled, “Joe Biden Needs an Intervention: An Open Letter to DNC Chair Tom Perez.”

Friday May 1st marks the day that thousands of Americans are taking part in the biggest rent strike in decades. As per The Guardian, renters in New York, Pennsylvania and California are collectively withholding rent to protest the on-going lack of financial help going to the poorest Americans. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained, “People aren’t striking because they don’t feel like paying rent, they’re striking because they can’t.” May Day is also when workers from Amazon, Whole Foods, and Instacart are striking for their labor rights. Workers across a number of companies and industries walked off their jobs demanding hazard pay, protective equipment, paid sick leave, and more. The actions are part of an international trend with Associated Press reporting that, “Millions of workers worldwide marked international labor day on Friday trapped between hunger and fear — struggling without jobs or worried they don’t have enough protections against the coronavirus as more countries and states reopen for business.” Workers in Greece, Turkey, China, Spain, Indonesia, and the Czech Republic joined in. In contrast to the news, the world’s largest retailer, Amazon, announced it raked in $75 billion in revenues in the first quarter of this year. The company is claiming it will spend a small portion of that on protection for workers. 

Nearly a dozen US states reopened businesses on May 1st, in line with President Donald Trump’s desire for the economy to return to normal in spite of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the US leading the world in infections and deaths, states like Texas allowed the reopening of some types of businesses, following from states like Georgia last week. In fact Texas reported its highest single-day death toll from the virus a day before easing restrictions. However, Michigan, California, and others extended their stay-at-home orders. The World Health Organization on Friday extended its declaration of a global health emergency. Meanwhile a new report by the University of Minnesota, written by infectious disease experts, has concluded that, “we must be prepared for at least another 18 to 24 months of significant COVID-19 activity, with hot spots popping up periodically in diverse geographic areas.”

A large crowd of heavily armed white protesters toting rifles and wearing pro-Trump memorabilia forced their way into the Michigan capitol building on Thursday. The protesters compared Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to Hitler, and echoed President Trump’s frequent belligerent criticisms of the Democratic female leader. Some state lawmakers felt nervous enough to wear bullet proof vests as the protesters crowded into the capitol building unencumbered and ignoring social distancing rules as they waved their weapons. One protester carried a sign saying “Tyrants get the rope.” After screaming “Let Us In,” police allowed the protesters to enter. The incident has prompted critics to wonder how police would have reacted to non-wh...

FEATURING MARIA ARMOUDIAN – The small island nation of New Zealand this week announced victory in the fight against the coronavirus saying it had effectively “eliminated” it. A harsh 4-week lockdown of the entire nation appears to have borne fruit as only one new case was reported this week. 

New Zealand’s popular Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the lockdown as, “the strictest constraints placed on New Zealanders in modern history.” By taking swift and strong action early on New Zealand is now set to reopen its economy cautiously with hundreds of thousands of people returning to work. But some restrictions will remain in place. 

Overall the nation of 5 million reported 1,472 infections and 19 deaths related to the coronavirus. 

Maria Armoudian, Senior lecturer at The University of Auckland, author of two books, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and, Reporting from the Danger Zone.

FEATURING E.J. DIONNE JR. – There is so much at stake in the November 2020 election, not just for the US, but the world. The Presidency of Donald J. Trump has been a massive blow to democracy, human rights, the judiciary and the Supreme Court, journalism, and even basic decency. 

But the opposition Democratic Party is itself in turmoil with centrist establishment factions holding fast to the idea that a pre-Trump status quo is best, versus a growing faction of younger progressives who want the party to live up to its stated ideals. 

E.J. Dionne Jr. writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He is also a government professor at Georgetown University, a visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio and MSNBC. His new book is called “Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country.”

FEATURING STEPHANIE WOOLHANDLER – Heartwarming stories of healthcare workers battling the Covid-19 pandemic are increasingly popular. Hailed as “heroes” the doctors, nurses, interns, paramedics, and other hospital staff are seen as the most important frontline workers in the crisis we face. Yet healthcare workers – like so many Americans – are themselves vulnerable to the virus with high-risk conditions like diabetes and heart disease. And, many struggle to access health care even though they are in the field of health care.

A new study of health care workers found that, “28.6% of all patient-contact personnel lack paid sick leave, including 1.12 million of those with underlying health problems. About 275,000 health care workers with high-risk conditions are also uninsured, including 11.4% of those with diabetes, and 20.8% of those with chronic lung disease.”

Read the study HERE.

Stephanie Woolhandler, distinguished professor at Hunter College, and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, co-author of a new study on health coverage of health workers.

FEATURING CHRISTINE AHN – While the novel coronavirus has infected millions of people worldwide and is seen as a great equalizer, a few nations have succeeded far better than most at controlling the virus. New Zealand and South Korea are the two most prominent examples of the Covid-19 success stories. On tomorrow’s show we’ll go to New Zealand to see what they did right. Today we examine South Korea and President Moon Jae In’s approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Read Christine Ahn’s article HERE.

Christine Ahn, founder and International Coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War. She recently wrote an article entitled, “South Korea Is a Model for Combatting COVID-19, It Should Now Take the Lead in Diplomacy With North Korea.”

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the US’s death toll from the coronavirus is far higher than previously thought. Already the US leads the world by a large margin on the number of infections and deaths. Now, according to the CDC, there are at least 9,000 more Covid-19 related deaths than documented – as of April 11th. The New York Times explained that, “the virus has brought a pattern of deaths unlike anything seen in recent years.” Tuesday marked a grim milestone of the US’s official coronavirus death toll surpassing that of the Vietnam war at 58,220 fatalities. Nursing homes have been epicenters of the disease and now a facility catering to war veterans in Massachusetts is under investigation after nearly 70 people died from the virus. The virus’ death toll also reflects class differences. Los Angeles county authorities released neighborhood data showing that low-income areas like East Hollywood, Pico-Union and Westlake have four times the rate of the county as a whole. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned Americans in a CNN interview that if states began reopening businesses too soon, it would, “get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago.” He said a second wave of infections was “inevitable.” He also hoped that the US’s testing capability would finally match federal rhetoric and public expectations by the end of May or the beginning of June – much later than President Donald Trump has been claiming. After weeks of repeating the same lie over and over that anyone in the US who needed a test had access to one, Trump is now putting the burden of testing goals onto states. Ashish K Jha, faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told the Guardian, “They know that the federal response has been a disaster, and so now their strategy is [to] blame 50 states.”

News headlines on Wednesday were briefly dominated by the Commerce Department’s announcement that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product or GDP had fallen by 4.8%. According to the New York Times the numbers represented, “the first decline since 2014, and the worst quarterly contraction since the country was in a deep recession more than a decade ago.” What is remarkable is that, “most of the quarter came before the coronavirus pandemic forced widespread shutdowns and layoffs.” In spite of the news, the stock market rallied and the pro-business indicators of economic success rose. The Federal Reserve is expected to take strong action but has nearly run out of tools given that interest rates have already been slashed to nearly zero.

Just before the Commerce Department released its assessment,