We're honoring May Day by talking to health care workers about working conditions, and how they've changed since the start of the pandemic.

Danielle Ofri, physician at Bellevue hospital, clinical professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine, New York Times contributor and the author of the newly published, When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error (Beacon Press, 2020),  and Carlina Rivera, City Council member (D-2, East Village, Gramercy Park, Kips Bay, Lower East Side, Murray Hill, Rose Hill) take calls and talk about whether doctors and nurses deserve stronger whistle blower protections.

Workers at companies like Amazon, Shipt, Instacart and Walmart are walking out Friday to protest working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Jane McAlevey, organizer, senior policy fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center, The Nation's strike correspondent and the author of, A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing & the Fight for Democracy (Ecco, 2020) talks about how they are organizing, how the companies are responding and what may come next for these essential workers plus, Chris Smalls, whistleblower and former Amazon employee, talks about the planned strike.

Three of our favorite segments from the week, in case you missed them.

When to Expect a Vaccine (First) | Is Contact Tracing the Answer? (Starts at 26:24) | Poetry for the Pandemic (Starts at 48:22)

If you don't subscribe to the Brian Lehrer Show on iTunes, you can do that here.

On the final day of National Poetry Month, Shumita Basu, WNYC host and reporter, joins us to share some listener-submitted poems from the WNYC Poetry Challenge.

Week 1 Challenge:  The Difference a Month Makes 

Week 2 Challenge:  The Question You Want to Be Asked 

Week 3 Challenge:  Lessons Learned

Some poems that listeners are turning to now:

For the last day of National Poetry Month, my favorite poem for troubled times - "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski: https://t.co/dt8NTS2UFj @brianlehrer @shubasu

@BrianLehrer Happy #poeminyourpocketday, Brian! Sharing my #PocketPoem:A Word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it justBegins to live That day.- Emily Dickenson

I live in Rutherford, NJ home of doctor poet William Carlos Williams this poem of his seems fitting @BrianLehrer Spring and All pic.twitter.com/gq6oNdDfnp

As you celebrate this final day of #NationalPoetryMonth, please remember to mention our current Poet Laureate of the US, the iconic Joy Harjo! pic.twitter.com/lef5JDl3mI

from Louis MacNeice, "Snow:" "World is suddener than we fancy it.World is crazier and more of it than we think,Incorrigibly plural."

@BrianLehrer #poetryforpandemicStill I Rise by @DrMayaAngelou You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I’ll rise

Martine Hackett, associate professor in the department of health professions and director of public health programs at Hofstra University, shares how Black communities in Nassau County have been hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19, and what public officials should be doing to try to improve health outcomes.

Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian host of the new podcast Hope, Through History and author of The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels (Random House, 2018), explores the history of the Great Depression, the influenza pandemic of 1918, WWII and other calamities in consideration of the current pandemic.

Presumed Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, has promised to pick a woman to be his vice president. Rebecca Traister, writer-at-large for New York Magazine and the author of, most recently, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger (Simon & Schuster, 2018) , talks about what that would mean in the light of recent allegations of sexual assault against Biden.

Congress is hammering out the details of COVID Relief/Stimulus 4.0. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D NY-8th, Brooklyn and Queens) updates us on those talks, the meatpackers who could strike over a Trump order to keep working, and the latest national political news.

Jessica Gould, education reporter for WNYC, talks about the New York City Department of Education’s new grading policy, which would ensure no student fails during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matthew Herper, senior writer covering medicine at STAT News, discusses the latest developments in the race for a COVID-19 vaccine.

https://www.statnews.com/events/stat-digital-series-part-2-antiviral-treatments-what-are-the-odds/