Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20240713

Amy europe is the epicenter of the coronavirus. Spain has now thehe second most cases in europe following italy. Spspain had more than 2000 new cases in the last 24 hours and hasnumber of deaths doubled. We will go to madrid for an update. In San Francisco takes the most severe measures in the United States in response to covid19, telling its 7 million residents to shelter inn place. We will go inside the bay area same quinton state prison where two prison blacks are under partial quarantine. We will speak with incarcerated journalist juauan moreno haines. We are well awarere of whas happening outside the walls abstain quinton, so now when wee house,is coronavirus and worldwide, there is a natural anxiety that exists over here about what is going to happen to us when the public brings this illness to us. Amy with 2. 3 Million People locked in u. S. Prisons and jails, the u. S. Has the largest proportional prison population in the world. Then to seattle to meet a 17yearold boy behind a website trackingng corononavirus cases t is now a vital global resource. Out w were sarsme or Something Like that, thehere wasnt juju a website you could gogo to easily on n a phone juse these stats updatated every minute. I think it is s interesting howi can help combat misinformation and provide the straight facts. Amy and like President Trump, 17yearold avi schiffffman has been tracking corona cases daily since december. His website has nonow reacachedr momore than 40 million views around the world and growing. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. There are now over confirmed 183,000 cases of the coronavirus worldwide, with over 7100 reported deaths. S. The European Union is preparing to vote on a proposal to shut all external borders and impose a 30day continentwide foreign travel ban. In france, president emanuel macron warned that french people are not heeding governmement directives and continuing to gather in public spaces. I know these efforts im asking our novel, but the circumstances require us to do so. Were at war. A health were commercially. Were fighting neither an army nor our nation, but the enemy is here invisible, untouchable, which is advancing. S requires amy france is planning to deploy 100,000 police to enforce the coronavirus lockdown and impose penalties for those who dont respect the new rules. The ongoing antigovernment yellow vest protests have continued in the face of new restrictions. Thousands of f French Security forces confronted hundreds of demonstrators saturday in paris. Macron did allow municipal elections to go ahead sunday despite concerns over crowds. Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to grip spain now the fourth most infected country worldwide with over 9000 cases and 300 dedeaths. 2000 new cases were confirmed over the past day. The Spanish Government announced it was nationalizing hospitals and private healththcare c comps to better manage the pandemic. We will go to madrid for the latest after headlines. In italy, reports emerged that overrun hospitals may have to start refusing intensive care treatment to patients over 80 years of age, this according to a draft of plans on how toto coe with t the crisis. Several are closing 35 manufacturing facilities across europe. The video circulated on social media of mercedesbenz workers in spain striking after they were asked to keep working during theheandemic. Canada has announcedt t is shutting its borders t to forein nationals,s, though the order hs some exceptions, i including for now, u. S. Citizens. Cuba has given permission for cruise ships to dock on the island if they are carrying covid19 patients, saying this is a time for solidarity and that health is a human right. A british cruise ship carrying five people who tested positive for coronavirus is set to dock in cuba after days stranded in the oceaean, being turned away y other cocountries. Filipipino president nt Rodrigo Duterte has put the enti island of luzon which inclcludes the capapital manila on lockdown,n, affecting 5 57 million peopople. There are 2 confirmemed cases and d 12 deaths inin the phipippines. Critics sasay the arananti presents a a nearimpossssible dilemmmma for the islands s may hourly workekers who must t choe between survival and their healalth. This is a manila resident. Workers hard for the because they will get hungry. Their children will get hungry. What about the people who cant work because they are quarantined . They cant go out. They have no o money for food. Amy south africa has declared a imposingdisaster,r, massive travel bans. Sudan has sealed off all sea ports, land crossings and airports. Egypt, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases in rica announced it will suspend flights starting thursday. Nearly 350 cases have b been confirmed as covid cases mount in the middle east, going concern syria might face a major outbreak that could be catastrophic to civilians already dedealing wiwith the ong war and masassive displacement. According to i iranian officiai, the country has temporarily released 85,000 prisoners, including g political prisonersn response to the pandemic. The death toll in iran has topped 850. Nearly 15,000 people have been infected. Inin latin america, chile is closing its bordrders wednesday and imposing isolation as the nation has the highehest numberf coronavirus cases in south americica. Venezuela and peru have also ordered all citizens to stay home. Colombia and costa rica are also closing their borders in imposing curfews. Meanwhile, chinana marked a m mr milestonone tuesday as it annound itit had just one new case over the past day. Here in the United States, here thehere have been more than 4000 confirmed cases and 71 deaths, but testing remains extremely limited. The numbers of those infected are expected to be thousands more if they had access to those tests. President trump released National Guidelines monday designed to help control the spread of covid19, including avoiding gatherings of 10 or more people, stopping discretionary travel, avoiding restaurants, bars, gyms, and other Public Places for the next two weeks. Trump appeared to acknowledge the severity of the pandemic for the first time, saying, this is a bad one. This is a very bad one. Its just so contagious. Trump responded to a reporter asking him to rate his administrationons response to e pandemic. Pres. Trump i would rate it at 10. I think we have done a great job. It started with the fact we kept very highly infected country, despite even the professionals saying, no, it is too early to do that, we were very, very early with respect to china. In we would have a whole different situation in this country if we did not do that. I would rate ourselves and the professionals i think the professionals have done a fantastic job. Amy the reporter asked him to write the u. S. Response on a dell of one to 10. President trump said 10. Medical and Public Health experts say trumps early dismissal and delayed response to the outbreak contributed to coronavirus spreading undetected for weeks. Trump again attacked new York Governor Andrew Cuomo monday, tweeting just had a vevery goodd teteleconference withth natios governors. Went very well. Cuomo of new york has to do more. New york recently closed all its schools, restaurants Entertainment Venues in an , effort to curb the spread of coronavirus. Residents across six counties in the San Francisco bay area have been ordered to shelter in place until april 7. The directive affects around 7 Million People. As of monday, 37 states and the diststrictf columbiaia have movd to close Public Schools in some way. Y. Over 37 Million Students and their families are being affected. Many districts are implementing alternative plans so that students who need it can still receive free meals. Ththe u. S. Supreme court is delaying oral arguments. Its the first time the court has taken such measures since the 1918 spanish flu epidemic. The court was scheduled to hear arguments later this month around trumps attempts to shield his tax returns and financial documements from lawmakers and a new york prosecutor. The u. S. Airline industry is seeking a 50 billion bailout package to cope with the fallout of the outbreak. Trump tweeted monday the United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, Like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the chinese virus. We will be stronger than ever before the centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization have explicitly warned that referring to covid19 as a a chinese viruss not accurate and further fuels racism against Chinese People and other people of asian descent. Trump did not offer similar assistance to homeless people, the uninsured or unemployed , and workers affected by the pandemic. In election news, kentucky became the latest state to postpone its primary over the outbreak. Meanwhile, in ohio, which was set to vote today, the fate of the primary is uncertain after Governor Mike Dewine ordered officials to not open polling places, despite a judge denying a last minute bid to delay the election. In the end, the election primaries have been postponed in ohio. Elecection officials in ararizo, florida, and illinois said their primaries will proceed as scheduled d today. In ohio, the aclu welcomed the release of vulnerablble prisoner inin Cuyahoga County during g te pandemic. The prisoners either had their cases settled or were released on house arrest. The aclu and other Rights Groups are calling on prisons around the United States to release highrisk and elderly prisons. Meanwhile, in new york, an investigator with the department of correction died after cocontracting covid19. The e investigator has limiteded contact with prisoners according to officials, but his death further fueled concerns over how to protect prisons during the outbreak. The new York City Department of correction said monday i it was suspending inperson visits starting this s week. In new york city and other locations around the country, st. Patricks Day Celebrations have been canceled or postponed. Its the first time the event has been called off in new york city in over 250 years. Other major annual events, including the kentucky derby, have also been called off. Major League Baseball became the latest sporting orgaganization o suspend its season after recent. Amazon said monday it would hire an additional 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers to handle a surge in online shopping. A Government Official said monday the first Clinical Trial of a Coronavirus Vaccine had begun. It could take from one year up to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. The white house said more coronavirus drivethrough and walkthrough t test locations wl open this week. This comes as German Biotech Firm curevac has denied reports trump attempted to get exclusive rights to a Coronavirus Vaccine it is developing. Reports emerged over the weekend that trump offered the curevac ceo around 1 billion for the rights, which would make the vaccine available only in the unitited states. Curevacs majority owner, cofounder of German Software giant sap, reportedly confirmed the conversation took place despite the recent denial. German officials also confirmed the story and rejected the idea, saying if a vaccine is developed in germany, then it is for germany and the world. The white house has also denied the reports. The dow dropped nearly 3000 points and the s p 500 fell about 12 monday, the largest drop since 1987s black monday, despite the fed cutting Interest Rates to near zero. Over the weekend, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin said the stock market turmoil is a great Investment Opportunity for longterm investment. A reporter asked trump monday if the economy was headed toward a recession. Pres. Trump well, it may be. Were not thinking in terms of recession, we are thinking in terms of the virus. I think there is a pentup demand both in terms of the stock market and the economy. Once this goes away, once it goes through and we are done with it, i think youre going to see a tremendous surge. Amy in grgreece, a chilild was kikilled by a fifire at an overcrowded migrant camp on th island olelesbos monday. Y. The e girl was belelieved to bex or sevenears old. The cause e of the fire hahas nt beenen confirmed. The moriria camp, whicich has a cacapacity of leless than 300000 people, is n now housi o over 19,000 refugees. Doctors withthout borders s urgd greece on susunday to immemediay evacuate r refugees living in overcrowdeded camps becacause of fears the e coronavirus s would quickly spiral out of control if it reached the camps. In israel, president Reuven Rivlin has asked former army chief and head of the blue and white party, benny gantz, to form a new government in the latest blow to Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. Netanyahus likud party received more votes than gantz in this months election, but gantz received endorsements from enough lawmakers to narrowly hold a majority support. The United States is pulling out of several key bases in iraq amid heightened tensions in the region. Two americans and one briton wewere killed and over a dozen others injured in a rocket attack on the Taji Military base near baghdad last week. The u. S. Responded b by launchig retaliatory airstrikes against iraniannbacked militia sites. On saturday, rockets struck a base h housing u. S. Troops. Secretary of state mike pompeo warned monday the u. S. Wouould take selfdefensive action if attacked. The New York Times is reporting Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and other republican senators have been privately contacting conservative federal judges to urge them to retire, so they can be replaced while republicans still control the senate and trump is in the white house. Over 90 republicannominated judges would be eligible for senior status, which opens up their spots on the bench while allowing them to keep hearing cases and receive full pay. Trump has appointed over 180 federal judges since coming into office, including around 50 Appeals Court judges, which amounts to nearly one quarter of all federal Appeals Court judges. In missouri, a gunman opened fire at a gas station convenience store, killing five people, including himself. A Police Officer was also among the dead. The identity and the motive of the shooter have not yet been revealed. In maryland, the senate voted unanimously to pass a bill providing 580 million to the states four historically black colleges and universities over 10 years. The legislation was already approved in the maryland house. It is part of f a settlement ina lawsuit that alleges maryland consistently discriminated against and underfrfunded hbcu. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show in spain, which is now the Second European country to impose a nationwide lockdown after 2000 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in 24hours and the number of reported deaths doubled. Spain now has the second most cases in europe after italy,and the highest number worldwide, fourth with nearly 10,000 infections a and nearly deathsh. 500 spains interior minister fernando grandemarlaska announunced the e countrwawas shutting down toto slow the sprd of coronavirus. Quote from 01 00 gmt this evening and until the declaration of the state of emergency is concluded, only spanish citizens, residents in spain, crossborder workers, and , ase who prove force measure situation of extreme poverty, will be allowed to International Territory by land. Amy is the European Union prepares to vote on a proposal to shut all external borders and impose the 30 day continent wide foreign travel ban, portugal has already suspended all Passenger Air and rail traffic with neighboring spain until april 15. At the border checkpoints, spain is now allowing only spaniards, residents of spain, crossborder workers, and diplomats to enter the country. There are only asking for identification. Nothing else. They should test as for fever because at the end, it is a checkpoint, but just for identification. Amy this comes as the spanish p private announced health care compapanies to bettr manage the pandemic. The spanish people came outside future medical workers in the street as the country prepared to shut down. In the Spanish Government has Just Announced a moratorium on mortgage payments and guaranteed that basic services water, gas, electricity will not be shut off or nonpayment during the crisis. For more, we go to madrid, spain, where we are joined by maria carrion, a freelance journalist and former democracy now producer who is also executive director of fisahara and cofounder nomads hrc, which focuses on human rights in western sahara. Maria, it is great to have you with us. I talked to you just after the shut down of your country. Why dont you take us through it . We only have a few minutes. Afterappened this weekend you had last week in, International Womens day, tens of thousands of women marching in the streets and then this past sunday tell us w what te governrnment did. [no o audio] a temporarary n nationalizatn of a private health care secect. We are now confined to our homes. There are jujust a few exceptio. What is happenining basically in every country that is shutting down, so we e are allowed to go get basicic things like food, to wetake care o of dependents, cacan go to our jobsbs if our jb cannot be containined inside h s and we cannot t work remotely. You can obviously go to the drugstore, the pharmacacy, and u can also go to the doctor if it is very important. People have actually clearared e streetets. Country inw a ghost a sense. You hardly see anyone on the street unless theyre going to their r jobs. The week and espspecially t e weekend especially is illustrativeve of this because most people were home anyway. Yeyesterday,y, you saw a few moe people outut in th street and dn the traiains commutiting to wor. The streets have definitely cleared out. Four ministries are now in charge of managing the crisis, the health ministryry, which is basisically appropriating privae facilities as well to manage the crisis. The inteterior ministrtry, whics kikind of like homeland secucury and d the fbi in the united stas coming out conontrolling a all pocece forces, including autonomous r Regional Police forces. Is defense minisistry, which basically the mimilitary installations and personnel at the disposal of the Central Government for this. In the transportation ministry, which handles pubublic transportatation and d decides w much o of it is s shut down ando highways and roaoads that i was they have to be managed as well because mostst of us cannot go anywhehere. Amy maria, talk about the leadership of the country. I mean, the partners of the Prime Minister have has tested positive, Prime Ministers sanchez. The deputy Prime Minister. Go through it, the partners of both h have tested positive, h women. Basicically one of the threree vice preside of thte to antry, he belongsgs coalitioion government thee socialist t and thee party t ths born out of the movement after the financial crisis. Iglesiaspartnerr has tested posititive and alsoo people in two regional leaders, quim tora and the presesident of madrid he tested positive and are inin quararantine as well. A lot of these women werere at e feminist march almost two weeks agago on march 8. We dont know if that was related. Yes, there are a a lot of people inin leadership who are in quarantitine. Right now there is an ongoioing cabinet m meeting, energegetic Cabinet Meeting to determine the ececonomic the fisiscal meass that will be takenen. The e way that financially thee goining to b be suortingng famis and businesses and so on iss taking place remotely to protect all of the cabinet ministers from getting infected. Amy and the head of thehe conserervative pararty, the vox party . Yes. Both the head and his deputyy were at this huge gatathering, paparty gatathering, the vox stm Rightwing Party that won about 50 seats in parliament in spain in the lasast elections. Theyre very antiimmigrant they are on record saying we have to keep immigrants out becaususe they b bng epipidemicn to the country. Now they are both infected. Amy isnt it true that one of them was at seatac ththe united ststates, ththe conservative in washington. Amy , it was in washington. And came back and was tested positive. Yes, a lot of peoplele in leadershipip in these parties wo claim it is immigrarants bringig anand viruses arare now having o selfquarantine. And really today, the most important thing thahat is happenening because the first round of measures this decree happppened over the weekenend, t today is wherere everybody is waitining to hear exactly what e governmement is going to d do help people whose lives haveve shut down, h have been t tempory laidid off or fired from t their jobs, who dont know how theyre going to be paying their mortgages, dont know how they will be paying the rental their rent was tough basically, what you Just Announced, the moratorium on mortgages is s jut like five minuteses ago it t was announced,d, but theres a whole round of measures that they need to basically agree upon this is a Coalition Government and it is their first enormous test of unity. Because putting mosys to the left and there really pressing for a more genenerous package fr working people, especially were are all remembering the 2008 National Crisis and how banks were bailed out, but people were not. We were just recovering from that in terms of especially the most Vulnerable People john amy maria carrion, we have to leave it there, most import lead to talk about the most vulnerable. In spain and throughout the world, which will bring us to our next segment where we are going to go into the san quentin prison. The u. S. Has the largest prison population proportionately in the world. Maria carrion, former democracy now producer, now living in adrid, spain, where she is freelance journalist. We will l be back. [music break] amy spaniards from their balconies and homes on lockdown. This is democracy now , im amy goodman. As confirmed coronavirus cases in the u. S. Past 4500 and i have to emphasize the devastating lack of tests in this country mean that number is probably exponentially higher. But at this point what we know deathse are at least 87 was up resident across six counties in San Francisco bay area are under some of the strictest measures in the United States. They have been ordered to shelter in place as of midnight last night until april 7. The bay area order affects 7 Million People, but what about the people in the areas jails and prisons . San franciscos new district arerney and public defender calling on staff to keep as many people out of jail as much as possible. Locked up ineople u. S. And just, the u. S. Has the largest proportional prison system in the world. On friday, we reached Avi Schiffman on the phones at Juan Moreno Haines on the phone in san quentin. At this time, no cases of covid19 had been reported in the prison. s recentno haines article is in san quentin prison, getting the flu can land you in solitary confinement. I began by asking juan to describe the scene at san quentin. The northow i am in block, the mainline of San Quentin State Prison and i am at a pay phone. It looks like a pay phone. Pastwatching people going back and forth in the units, irregular morning and what a regular morning in the north block. Amy we are talking to you on march 13. Ththis is very relevant to givea marker for this moment because we are in the midst of the coronavirurus panandemic. I am wondering if you can talk about how you are experiencing that at san quentin where you are imprisoned . , weo here at san quentin get most of our news from the television. Some from the radio. So we are well aware of what is happening outside the walls of san quentin. Now when we hear this coronavirus and how deadly that has been worldwide, theres a natural zaidi that exists anxiety that exists o over heref what is going to happen to us when the public brings the illness to us because the one thing that we know for sure is that it is going to be brought in from the outside. In the way prisons operate, particularly san quentin because of its unique style, there are more than 3000 volunteers that come in and out of this prison on an annual basis. So whether prison has done to prepare itself from this right now is some of the volunteers that come in for the really big collectively decided not to come in so they dont bring this illness to us. What the administration has done at this point and i dont have any official documentation to show this, this is only what i have been told is that visitations over the weekend have been canceled. What the administration is also done is posted dozens and dozens of signs around on proper handwashing technique and information on how the illness is spread, but that does not list the anxiety level that the men have. When i walked the yard, the guys that know me ask me, juan, what is going to happen . That itnal opinion is is not a matter of if it is going to happen, it is when it is going to happen. Right now were in the state of unknowing, and were just anticipating how this illness is going to affect our lives. Amy let me read you an article from cvs San Francisco. The San Francisco Public Defenders Office is calling for the Immediate Release of pretrial jail inmates who are at heightened risk of contracting the coronavirus. In a statement, public defendant said his office would begin filing motions to seek the release of all client and San Francisco county jails at heightened risk such as people over 60, those with heart or lung disease, diabetes, cancer, hiv, or autoimmune diseases. And i want to ask, now, that is not san quentin, of course, but what about especially the older population at san quentin, people who are over 60, people who are over 80 . What are you calling for now . Is there any discussion of Early Release because they are threatened in this pandemic . Is bythe situation at ccr court order they are allowed to 137. 5 ofopulation at desired capacity. What that means is san quentin is over design capacity. I cannot tell you the exact number specifically for san quentin. The other thing about the san quentin population is if you look at the median age of the population at san quentin, it is higher than the median age of cdcr. What does that mean to me . That means we are particularly vulnerable population. But the mechanism for release are complicated and cumbersome. In anally cant ideal world, how do you deal with that . Call for anyt suggestions for cdcr other than to know that san quentin is particularly vulnerable. Amy i am wondering if you can describe san quentin on lockdown. Among the issues for example, how much access do you have to clean water and soap, which is absolutely critical to stopping the spread of the coronavirus . The way supplies are passed out, cleaning supplies are passed out in north block, is that once a week the reporters who clean the brters who clean passout two ars per cell. Theres disinfectant you can bring a six ounce to eight ounce porters wille passout various types of disinfectant. If we are on lockdown, what happens is that they will still end up passing out the soap, but they will send the porters around with bleach and cleaning supplies and they will be wiping peoplesy area where hands are touching. ,s far as showers are concerned unalike or modified program, prisoners are allowed to shower once every three days. Amy if you run out of soap because simple hands of and water are by far the most effective in breaking down inviting the coronavirus before you get it, do people have to pay for more soap from the commissary or will they provide more . And then what happens to those who cant afford it . Good question. While we are on lockdown, we dont have the capability of going to the canteen to purchase soap. We are completely dependent on the unit to supply us with soap. If they run out of soap or fall short of soap, typically, we and a from each other kind of works like that. Right now what people are doing is theyre making sure they go into the canteen and buying supplies, particularly cleaning supplies and food. The experienced prisoner knows isstock up when there potential for a lockdown because once you are on lockdown, you dont know how long that is going to last and things like food and cleaning supplies are essential. Because if you are relying on the state to give you these supplies, you are it is just not going to be adequate. Amy juan, you wrote a prophetic piece called in san quentin prison, getting the flu can land you in solitary confinement. When we broadcast this, san quentin may be on lockdown and maybe we wont be able to reach you, but can you talk about what happens when you get sick at san quentin . In such close in the 13 years i have been in san quentin, if i see somebody with the flu or sick, i am going to get it. I already know this. There is no avoiding it. Wheno what happens getsple people when he epidemic, pandemic, when it really starts to spread, what the administration would do is take the people who had those flulike symptoms and place them. N administrative segregation amy and what is administrative segregation . Most people know it as the whole. Amy solitary confinement. Yes. Thatroblem with that is when these sick people are put in solitary confinement, they dont feel like they are getting medical treatment. Hey feel totally isolated in my mind, if i were sick and put in a situation where i just felt horrible just because of my living conditions, that is not something i would want to do. And that is the prevailing feeling of the people that i have interviewed that have gotten sick and were sent to carson unit. Because the conditions there are equipped to handle medications. Amy in your apiece for the appeal, you write about a 52yearold man named michael adams. You quoted him saying is scary to be as man of a certain age after your health is compromised and being in a place you dont care if youre dying. I was pretty upset about that. It highlighted the warehousing effect of prison and that poor protocols that are in place in the event of a real health crisis. Tell us the story of michael adams. Michael has been at san quentin for about as long as i have. He got sick. Ended up going what is called the trio section of the medical department here and his temperature was up. To carson. Going i interviewed him about his whole experience. Itsulting, you know was kind of like the backbone of the story of the price for being sick. That is one of the things he did. He felt like he was going to a whole new prison just for being sick when i sent him over to carson. For him, it was debilitating to be sick and then we subjected to this type of treatment. I wantan moreno haines, to read from your article that you wrote there in prison at san quentin for the appeal. According to the american journal of psychiatry, several u. S. And European Studies on solitary confinement have found people can suffer lasting psychiatric i iuries evenen aftr short periods of isolation. If you can talk further about that, and then you had this combination of both sickness and psychiatric effects of solitary. Guys that if the interviewed that were subjected to that, you know, they are still here at san quentin. Im sayingg there remember that. Those are lasting memories like. Hen i interviewed duane brooks i interviewed him probably a couple of years after he had been sent to carson for having a temperature. He remembered that. That is when he told me, you w, if they come by to again, he is going to do whatever he can to prevent his temperature from showing high, put cold water in his mouth or whatever. To me, it just seems kind of strange for a person to be sick and not want to be treated for their illness because that treatment is going to involve something that they feel is worse. Amy i want to ask you about your awardwinning journalism at san quentin. You write for the appeal. You are a member of the society of professional journalists. This is a a timthat journalism isis so i imptant for m many reasons, to let people on the outside know what is happenining on thehe insnside in this time f ththe cororonavirus pandemic,c,t also t to provide information fr people on the inside critical information about how they can protect themselves. And also, what is happening inside, telling people stories as you do so well. If you can tell us about prpracticing journalism behind bars and what this means now in the compounded time of f the pandemic . I work with other guys here tell just theo possibleaccurately as because i dont have to tell you prison is a bad place to live. I dont have to tell you that inhumane. Ent is i dont have to tell you anything. Journaliststhe behind bars, but those who read what you write their own judgment about what youre reporting. And that is really all we have to do in order to give the accurated readers an portrayal of what is happening here at san quentin. Juan,. Quickly, your over 60. That is the risk group, the highest risk group i guess the people over adr, but 60 is there, for people to get the coronavirus, to suffer from it. Your thoughts . Are you worried . Close of course im worried. I keep my hands cleaned. The porter just came by with a spray bottle of bleach. He is at the phone booth. I live here. When coronavirus comes inside this prison, i just hope i can survive it. Amy that is Juan Moreno Haines, incarcerated journalist, one of the people we interviewed two years ago when the democracy now team visited sananuentin. Backck in 10 seconds. [ [music break]k] amy y staying alive by the bee gees. This is democracy now , im amy goodman. During mondays Coronavirus Press conference, President Trump said we have a problem that a month ago nobody thought about. Well, 117yearold seattle resident did. This is 17yearold a avi schihiffman who has been trackig coronavirus cases since december. His website, ncov2019. Live. This website around christmas of last year. The main goal of it was to provide just an easy way y to se the ststraight facts and the da, you know, without having to make a website that was biased or, you know, full of ads or anything like that. So, i mean, you can, like, go on a phone and just instantly see like the quick facts. You can see the total amount of cases, the total deaths anan you knknow, all that kinind of infoformatn. And you can geget that for individual countries, and now u. S. States, too, and all kinds of things. So i did not want to make it hard. You know, you shouldnt have to go through government websites and download l like a daily pdff thats probably y out of date by the ti youou read it, and, y you know, have to go through all kinds of complicatedhings justst to see the straight facts. Amy how did you know what the Trump Administration didnt know . Were talking about last december. I mean, no one was talking about this yeah. Amy in the United States. Yes, this was a terrible crisis in china. What first sparked your interest to do this . Yeah, so, i mean, when i started this website, there was less than like 1000 total cases and they were all just in like the wuhan area of china. So i saw this on the news kind of a long time ago, and i noticed that it was really hard just to find the information. And there was a lot of just misinformation spreading. So i decided it woululd be kindf cool to create a website and just kind of make it like a central hub of information. Amamy and how did you do o it . How did you code this . How do you know how to do this . Yeah, i mean, ive been programming for about a decade now. But ive only been doing Web Development for a couple months. So a lot of it was just kindnd f learning as i i went along. I memean, you can learn like anything online. I just kind of you knknow, ii had a question, i didnt know how to do a certain thing, i just went on google and searched it up, figured outut how to do t and eventually got it to work. Amy so talk about how this website works. I mean, were using it every single day at dedemocracy now , because right before we go on the air, we want to give people the latest figures. How often are you updating this . How does this automatically update for each country in the world . Sure. So the entire website updates every minute or so. And the way it works is with something called web scraping. I am able to input websites, such as you know, lets say korea. Theyey have a local Government Health dartment kindnd of website that updates those information, those numbers all the time. So im able to web scrape those tables and stuff and g get the latest information. And then theres also plenty of news sources as well. L. So theres plenty of reputable news sources. In k korea, theres one called yonhap, i believe, thats pretty reputable. And sosometimes theyre ablele o get the information faster than those local korean government sites. So it goeses around, you knonowr all those kind of places. China,a, for example, every provovince has their own health dertment kinind of website, andd they h have all kinds of information and d all the numbe. And im able i basically just wrote a script that every minute or so just goeoes to those websites and downloads the latest information. Amy so talk about the way youve broken it down at the top. When you hit the website, we see it starts out with explain each of the set of numbers, before you go into the countries, and then you break down the countries. Yeah. So right now, as soon as you go to the website, especially on a mobile device, you just see the quick facts. You know, you see the totals of the deceased and infected and recovered. And then youre able to see individual tables that you can sort and search. So lets say i want to sort spececifically europe e just b w many deceased there were. Then im able to sort it that way, and i can see all that kind of information for individual countries. And ive been working to break it down. For example, the United States, you can see the individual states. You can see the same thing for australia. And later tonight, ill probably have something for other places, too, like india, where you can see the individual kind of provinces, state, region, areas. Amy so you have the number of people affected overall in the globe and then by country and then by region. You have the number of people who have died. And you have the number of people who have recovered. Talk about how that came into being. Yeah, so that was kind of interesting. So that wasnt there for quite a while. And i started to get a lot of emails saying that the site was kind of overly negative. Anand i decided that it would be really cool if i could show how many people were recovering to give peoeople a more positive outlook and maybe more hope. So i added that to the quick facts. In every single country, you can see how many people have recovered, which i think gives people a lot of hope because you can see in places lilike kor, i think, they reported m more people that recocovered todadayn people that had been infected, whwhich is really y big. D d im also w working on n this like a vaccine tracker too contininue making it more positive because it shouldnt have t to be, you know, super negative and you only see the amount of people that have died. Amy what does a vaccine tracker mean, avi . Yeah. So around the world, theres, you know, plenty of governments and private health kind d of companies that are working on antiviral medications and there are vaccine trials going on. So right now, there is no cure, but plenty of people are working on some kind of preventative measures. So i thought it would be kind of interesting for people to kind of track that, i guess, you know, tracack their progogress d how far they are into these Clinical Trials, you know, what stage they are in and all that kind of cool stuff. Amy so talk about who is watching this. I mean, were talking about are you at 12 million now . Looks right now im at about 35 million. Amy youre at 35 Million Viewers yeah, yeah. Amy users of your website. The past 24 hours yeah, the past 24 hours has been about 6. 5 million visitors. So its a lot of pressure. Amy i mean, this is astounding. How many people outside the United States . Inside . Where are most of the people viewing your website from . So whats really interesting is that only about 60 of my traffic is from the United States, which means that im able to see it breaking down per country. And actually, i get a lot of visitors from places like taiwan and United Kingdom and france. And a lot of places in europe and asia visit my website, too. So thats why iim also working on translations, because, you know, ifif youre in taiwan, you might like to see the website in chinese more than english. So im working on things like that, too. Amy and what have you been able to learn about the transmission of the disease, of covid19, as a result of your tracking . Yeah. So one thing thats been really interesting to see is that you can see countries like iran and south korea. They used to have, you know, pretty s similar kind of case counts, but youd see thatat irn would have five times more deaths, which is just insane. So i think its really interesting that yououre able o see ththe kind of didifference n fatality rates depending on the countrys Healthcare System and how theyre dealing with it, you knowow, transparencywise. Amy w who taught you to code . I just i learned myself, just watching youtube videos and just reading online kind of articles and things. I mean, you can learn anything online. You can learn underwater basket weaving, for all you want. I mean, theres just so much great resources out there. And i think thats whats really cool about the internet. I mean, i can justst go on yoyoutube and i can find a 14hourlong tutorial on how to code websites. You know, theres anything out there. Amy so you are 17 years old. You are a High School Junior. School is nonow out. You code hours a day anyway, even with school. What are your plans now that Mercer Island high school, like the Seattle School system or many of the schools within it are, well, have ended . Now that t its closed, i im able to work on the websbsite a lot more and stay up, you know, later without having to worry about going to school in the morning. And then its also pretty helpful, you know, just because there are like for example, theres a student thats helping me with media things and going through my emails and stuff. So now that schools out, you know, more people are able to help me that i know personally. Yeah, it has been really cool. Amy and finally, if you can talk about your this is not just sort of an academic project. This is you are documenting a lifeanddeath moment, not only in the United States, but all over the world. If you can talk about message you have for other youth, and also the conversations youre having with people off and online about how to protect the most vulnerable, and just what this has meant for you . Has it shifted your view of the world and what young people can do . Yeah. So i thihink a really interestsg thing about this is that were at the point where we can use technology and all kinds of great online kind of things with big things like world events, for example, this global pandemic. Yoyou know when ebola a came ou, you know sarars or something lie , that, there wasnt just like a website you could go to easily on a phone andnd jt see these stats updated every minute. Soso i thinknk its really interesting hohow i n n help combat misinformation and just provide the straigight facts. And also that, you know, this is just so cool how you can combine technologygy and Global Health together to just make something really n neat. And i hope it inspires a a lot f people to, y you know, maybe len programming and make their own trtracker in the fututure. Because ththe more information thats easily accessible, the better. You knowow, you shouldnnt havo read korean n government websits to jusust know how many people e infected in korea. So, yeah. Amy well, i finally want to ask you about another 1717yearold, the swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, known for her fridays for Future School strikes. She just called for digital strikes during the coronavirus outbreak instead of the mass Public Events that happen in many communities. She tweeted we cant solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis and we must unite behind experts and science. This of course goes for all crises. Now the experts urge us to avoid big public gatherings for a better chance to flattenthecurve and slow the spreading of the coronavirus. We young people are the least affected by this virus but its essential that we act in solidarity with the most vulnerable and that we act in the best interest of our common society. Had you heard about Greta Thunberg . And whatat are your finall thououghts, avi . Yeah, of coursese. Yeah, i mean, i agree. Its definitely a big thing that were able to use all these resources. You know, as myself, im just 17, but its really cool that im able to provide you know, fofor example, theres a wiki pe on the site that has all kinds of i information, whwhat to do f youre infected or, you know, the symptoms and kind of things. And i think its really cool that im able to put that information out there for the rest of the world and all kinds of adult, that way they can just easily access it. Amy well, Avi Schiffmann, i want to thank k you for beiningh us. Avi is 17 years old, High School Junior at Mercer Island high school, which has closed. Its right outside seattle, washington. He developed this most remarkable coronavirus tracker. And finally, avi, when i was asking you how you pronounce the name of your website, you said you might be changing it. Tell us the website again and what youre thinking of changing it to. Why you came up with that name. Sure. So right now the website domain is ncov2019. Live, which is pretty hard to even say or remember. So, i mean, that used to be the unofficial name of thehe virus, but now that its changed,d, id like to rename the website. I bought a domain called germtracker. Com. That way it is so much easier to remember. And that way, i can also use it in the future for more global pandemics. I i mean, because theres only going to be another big thing a couple years from now. And, you know, ill be the first one to make a tracker for it. Amy well, i want to t thank you so much, avi. Again, all the very, very best to you, to your family, to the community. And thank you for helping the entire community, not only in this country, but around the world. Avi schiffffmann, 17yearold hh school junior, speaking to us from seattle, washington. Amy that does it for our show. Democracy now is produced by Remarkable Group of people. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. Happy birthday, julia thomas hello and welcome to nhk newsline. Im raja pradhan with the news from tokyo. The International Olympic Committee Says preparations will continue for tokyo 2020 as scheduled although the new coronavirus pandemic is forcing qualifiers to be cancelled or postponed. The ico issued a statement after its Board Members held an emergency meeting on tuesday via telephone. The statement says with four months to go before the games, theres no need for drastic decisions at this stage. The sten