The United States reported a new grim tally this week of 3,100 deaths related to the coronavirus on Wednesday—the largest 24-hour death toll since the pandemic began. There were more than 200,000 new cases of infection reported in the same time period as well and hospitalizations for the disease hit a high of 100,000 for the first time. The American Ambulance Association wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services saying that the nation’s emergency response systems have hit a “breaking point.” According to the letter, “Without additional relief, it seems likely to break, even as we enter the third surge of the virus in the Mid-West and West.” Still, government officials in Washington DC appear to be ignoring safety guidelines by holding large indoor parties. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the latest official to be caught inviting hundreds of people to an indoor party after State Department employees were warned against doing the same. 

Meanwhile, government officials are starting to offer guidelines about vaccine distribution to the public as an FDA advisory committee plans to meet on December 10th. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the data from two pharmaceutical companies’ trials, Pfizer and Moderna. HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday said that there would be 20 million doses of a vaccine available by the end of the month. Meanwhile Moderna announced that it would begin to test its vaccine on children aged 12-17 within the month. The trial will include 3,000 children. Responding to growing vaccine denialism, doctors are attempting to assuage fears about the purported side effects of a Covid-19 vaccine. Like a flu vaccine, a Covid-19 vaccine may cause soreness and aching at the site of the injection or even mild flu-like symptoms for a day or more. Doctors say that such reactions are utterly normal. Three former U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have said they plan to get vaccinated on camera to encourage Americans to do the same. Still, misinformation and propaganda against vaccine abounds online and particularly on social media. Facebook has now announced it will take down “misinformation about the virus that could lead to imminent physical harm,” including, “false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccines.”

The Labor Department released its figures on unemployment claims from last week showing that 75,000 fewer people applied for jobless benefits compared to the week before. Economists estimate that the holiday season is the reason for the change in numbers. Meanwhile House Speaker

FEATURING RICHARD ‘RJ’ ESKOW – The uneasy alliance between progressives and liberals to elect Joe Biden in order to defeat Donald Trump is already fraying. Barely has Biden been declared president elect when he appears ready to push progressives out the door with his announcements of numerous problematic figures for key cabinet positions. 

 Rahm Emanuel, former Obama White House chief of staff and Chicago Mayor, is a strong contender for Transportation Secretary. But Emanuel is notorious for pushing a center-right agenda on issues of criminal justice, climate, public education, healthcare, and more. 

Richard “RJ” Eskow, host of The Zero Hour, a weekly TV and radio program, and a Senior Advisor for Health and Economic Justice at Social Security Works. 

FEATURING NANDINI ARCHER – If you thought that President Donald Trump’s appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett was a threat to reproductive rights in the U.S., a new investigation reveals that Barrett’s positioning on the U.S. Supreme Court is part of a larger, and extremely insidious global agenda. That agenda is aimed at women, LGBTW people, and more. OpenDemocracy.net has just published and analyzed the first-ever dataset revealing the global scale of US Christian right groups, and how they are funding anti-abortion movements all over the world. These groups are intimately linked to people in Trump’s orbit. 

Nandini Archer is global commissioning editor at OpenDemocracy.net. She covers stories relating to gender, sexuality, feminism and social justice. She is also an active member of the feminist direct action group Sisters Uncut and previously worked with the International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion. 

** This segment was originally broadcast on October 29, 2020.

The United Kingdom has just approved a Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first Western nation to formally do so. The vaccine, produced by Pfizer in collaboration with the German company BioNTech, will need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, kicking off a demand for special refrigeration units. While the U.S. government is behind the UK on a vaccine approval—sparking remonstrations against the FDA by the Trump administration—the European Union criticized the speed of the British approval process, calling it “hasty.” According to Al Jazeera, the EU said its, “longer approval procedure was more appropriate as it was based on more evidence and required more checks than the emergency procedure chosen by the UK.” British authorities shot back saying they had not cut any corners. Also, part of the story on vaccines is the fact that wealthy nations in the West have been able to pre-order vaccines from companies like Pfizer, pushing poorer nations to the back of the line. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened an advisory panel that announced vaccine priorities on Tuesday. CDC Director Robert Redfield is expected to approve the recommendations by Wednesday after which states will be sent the guidance. The panel voted overwhelmingly to prioritize nursing home and long-term care residents and employees first, given that nearly 40% of all Covid-related deaths have taken place in those facilities. Next will be healthcare workers who are daily exposed to the virus as they care for Covid patients. After that the next phase will likely be essential workers such as grocery workers, teachers, public transit operators, etc. The CDC on Wednesday also changed its recommendations for a 14-day quarantine period to 7 or 10 days. The agency did not cite a scientific basis for the change, rather the fact that it was difficult for workers to comply with a 2-week quarantine period if they thought they had been exposed to the virus. Meanwhile employers are tackling legal questions of how to ensure workers get vaccinated considering widespread vaccine skepticism in the nation as a result of conspiracy-laden misinformation. 

Although news on the vaccine front is encouraging, health experts are warning that the next several weeks will be the darkest in the nation as hospitals and morgues are already overflowing. There are currently 98,691 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the nation – the highest number ever. On Tuesday, 2,

A bi-partisan group of centrist Senators is attempting to break through the gridlock on a new Covid-relief bill this week with a new $908 billion financial package to stimulate the sluggish economy and provide aid to millions of struggling Americans. The proposal includes $300 a week for unemployed Americans — half the amount they were receiving earlier this year — as well as $160 billion in aid to state and local governments. It also protects corporations from worker-lawsuits over health and safety issues. The Senators, including Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) held a press conference on Tuesday. Senate Democrat Dick Durbin, who was involved in shaping the bill, did not appear on Tuesday alongside his colleagues citing that he would have excluded a corporate liability shield from the bill. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were scheduled to speak on Tuesday afternoon about Covid-relief. There is no certainty that even if Congress were to pass a relief bill that President Donald Trump would sign it. Mr. Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jeremy Powell testified in front of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. The two disagreed with one another about the most serious risks facing the U.S. economy. This is Mnuchin attempting to explain why his department did not spend all the CARES Act funds. Mr. Powell differed. Underscoring the need for relief, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a study showing a 70% increase in people paying their rent on a credit card. And, several families are suing the state of California over growing gaps in how children of color are able to access remote learning during the pandemic. The lawsuit filed Monday contends that, “The change in the delivery of education left many already underserved students functionally unable to attend school.” Nationwide poor and non-white students were found to be falling behind in math instruction as per a new study.

There were 4 million new cases of infection and 37,000 deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. in November alone. As pharmaceutical companies seek approval from the FDA for their Covid-19 vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened an advisory panel tasked with making recommendations about who should be vaccinated first. According to the New York Times, “it is expected to advise that healthcare workers be first in line, along with residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.” Once approved by CDC Director Robert Redfield, the recommendations will then be shared with states. California Gov.

FEATURING MEDEA BENJAMIN – Iranians are mourning the death of Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the top nuclear scientist in the nation who was just assassinated. The Monday burial was accompanied by angry denunciations from Iran’s top leadership. Reports confirm that Israel, at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was responsible for the scientist’s killing. 

Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of human rights group Global Exchange and the peace organization CODEPINK. She is a long-time political activist who has also written a number of books including Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of the Unjust, Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

FEATURING JANIL HERNANDEZ – Dozens of people were arrested over the Thanksgiving holiday in East Los Angeles after protesting the eviction of people who had been occupying empty homes owned by Caltrans. California Highway Patrol officers forcibly entered the homes as protesters demanded they stand down. The actions came just as California issued new shelter-in-place restrictions as Covid-19 related hospitalizations hit an all-time high in the state.

Reclaim and Rebuild Our Community GoFundMe page, HERE and HERE for its Instagram account. 

Janil Hernandez, member of Reclaim and Rebuild Our Community. 

The Wisconsin election recount ordered and paid for by President Donald Trump’s campaign has confirmed Joe Biden’s win. In Milwaukee County, Biden’s final count was a net gain of 132 votes over Trump, while in neighboring Dane County Trump’s total increased by 45 votes over Biden. In other words, there was a negligible change to the final vote tally. One of Trump’s campaign spokespeople, Jenna Ellis said the recount, “revealed serious issues” with the election but mysteriously refused to elaborate on her dramatic claim. This is Scott McDonald, Dane County Clerk. Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the state supreme court rejected Republican efforts to invalidate 2.5 million mail-in votes. Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the suit’s dismissal, “another win for democracy.” Former Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs, who Trump fired for calling the election fair, gave an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes where he reiterated his claims. On Sunday Trump himself gave his first interview since losing the election. He spoke with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in a conversation filled with lies. 

As president elect Biden begins the transition process, he will finally begin receiving intelligence briefings. Biden has also convened a committee to plan his January 20th inauguration –an extraordinary undertaking considering that the festivities will take place in the midst of an on-going pandemic. He also revealed all 7 members of his communications team, significant for being all women, something that has never before happened. Among them is Symone Sanders, a former staffer for Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid. Biden also confirmed that Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair, will lead the Treasury Department, becoming the first woman in that role. And, his White House team of economic advisers includes Cecelia Rouse, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. Bernstein and Boushey in particular have a strong background on progressive economic policy-making. To lead the Office of Management and Budget Biden picked Neera Tanden, who will become the first woman of color in that position. Tanden headed the Center for American Progress and went on to work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, often criticizing progressive activists and efforts. But Tanden faces opposition from Republicans too, some of whom have vowed to not confirm her in the Senate. Biden’s pick of Michele Flournoy to head the Defense Department continues his history-making streak of appointing women to powerful positions but Flourney faces stiff opposition from a

FEATURING CHUCK COLLINS – As the coronavirus surges across the nation in record breaking numbers with more than a quarter of a million Americans dead and upwards of 200,000 new infections a day, workers on the frontlines of the economy remain more vulnerable than ever. Those employees of mega corporations deemed “essential” are routinely exposed not only to the virus but to the ravages of an economy rigged against them. As hazard pay has dried up and wages remain low, the profits of companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Target are more bloated than ever. Explaining how pandemic profiteers impact community health is a new report by Inequality.org. 

Read the report ‘Millionaire Wealth vs. Community Health,’ HERE and download the GAO report ‘Federal Social Safety Net: Millions of Full-Time Workers Rely on Federal Health Care and Food Assistance Program,”  HERE. 

Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has written a number of books including 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It, and Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good. He is the co-author of a new report, “Billionaire Wealth vs. Community Health.”

FEATURING SONIA SHAH – It is no coincidence that during a time of changing climates, wealth inequality, and a global pandemic, that large masses of humans would leave their homes to escape danger and death looking for a better life. Indeed, it is only natural to migrate—as non-human species do, who do not have to contend with artificial borders, xenophobic leaders, and racist scapegoating. 

Throughout history animals, plants, and humans have migrated to avoid danger to their species and telling that story in a new book is acclaimed science journalist Sonia Shah.

Sonia Shah, science journalist and the author of PANDEMIC: Tracking Contagion from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. Her latest book is The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move.

** This segment was originally broadcast on August 4, 2020.