05/21/20 05/21/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york city, the epicenter of the pandemic, this is democracy now! have been very worried ever since hearing news of the coronavirus infection in the rohingya camps. there is no end to the worry. amy: i major cyclone hits india and bangladesh amidst the pandndemic, this listing 3 milln people and unleashing heavy rain on cox's bazar, home to one million rohingya refugees where

the first cases of covid19 have been confirmed. we'll go to bangladesh for an and we will look at the coronavirus threat to millions of refugees in camamps across te globe whwhere social distancings often impossible and healthcare is extremelyly limited. >> it is worse than war because during war, you know who your enemy is. but now you do not know where the disease is going to come from, from the air or from a person. amy: then a new report finds one million children under five could die the next six months from secondary impacts of the pandemic, like disruptions to health services anand access to food. mothers are also imperiled. we will speak with the lead author of the report from the johns hopkins scschoolf public health and with an infectious disease pediatrician. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democrcracyn.o.org, the ququarae report. i'm amy goodmaman. the worlrld health organizatat's director general warned wedndnesday ththe covid-d-19 pac has reacached a grim new mileste with worldwide cononfirmed cases of the novel coronavirus topping 5 million. >> in the last 24 hours, there have been 106,000 cases reported a singleo, the most in day since the outbreak began. almost two thirds of these cases were reported in just four countries. amy: the united states tops the list by far with over 93,000 deaths and over a million and a half confirmed cases. the u.s. has the ninth worst fatality rate in the world, right next to iran. russia has the second-highest infection rate with over 300,000 reported cases.

brazil, which recently surpassed the united kingdom to become the third-most affected nation, has emerged as the world's largest coronavirus hotspot. in brazil's amazon region, the mayor of the hard-hit city of manaus accused the government of far-right president jair bolsonaro of intentionally allowing indigenous communities to die of the disease. i want togenocide and denounce this to the whole world. we hear have a government that does not care about the lives of indigenousus people. it is a crime against humidity been practiced here e in my sta, in my region. amy: in the united states, columbia universitity disease modelers reported wednesday that if states had begun social distancing measures just one week earlier in march, 36,000 fewer people would have died of the coronavirus. the columbia report came as propublica r revealed how different responses to the growing outbreak in san francisco and new york city led

to a stark difference in death totolls between ththe two o cit. san francisco started to take action as early as january and was the first major city to issue a shelter in place order beginning march 17. mayor london breed shared the text of the order with new york city mayor bill de blasio. but new york governor andrew cuomo dismissed de blasio's initial idea of closing down the city and waited until march 22 to shut down the city and state. by then the virus was rapidly spreading across new york. the estimated death toll in new york city now stands at nearly 21,000. in san francisco, just 36 people have died from coronavirus. meanwhile, republican political operatives have begun recruiting pro-trump doctors to make tv and radio appearances to promote the case for r reopening statetes' econonomies, even where they'' failed to o meet safafety benchs set by the cdc. this is republican party

strategist nancy schulze speaking in leaked audio of a conference call obtained by the center for media and democracy. coalition who is extremely pro-trump that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health-care. and these doctors could be activated for this conversation now. amy: protesters left m mock body bags outside the white house wednesday as part of a national day of mourning to condemn the trump administration's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. some protesters held signs reading, "trump lieses, people die." cyclone amphan has battered east india and bangladesh killing at least 22 people, destroying thouousands of h homes and leavg millions without power. it's the strongest cyclone to hit the region in over two decades. the storm unleashed heavy winds and rain on cox's bazar, the

world's largest refugee camp that is home to one million rohingya refugees living in crowded and often unsanitary conditions who fled to bangladesh from burma. after headlines, we will go to dhaka to speak with the u.n. high commissioner for refugees. and in london, we'll be joined by the president of the burmese rohingya organizatioion u.k. michigan is cicing a pototential environmental disaster as floodwaters from two breached dams threaten the headquarters of dow chemical and nearby superfund toxic-cleanup sites. dow has used the midland michigan complex for decades to produce saran wrap, styrofoam, agent orange, mustard gas, and other products. on wednesday, dow acknowledged there were flood waters commingling with on-site toxic containment ponds s at its facility. dow's complex also houses a small nuclear reactor used for research. "the new york times" reports dow filed an unusual event report with the federal nuclear

regulatory commission overnight citing the heavy flooding. the crisis in michigan began on tuesday when a pair of dams breached after two days of heavy rain.. president trump is intensifying his attack on mail-in voting by threatening to cut funding to the swing states of michigan and nevada where officials are attempting to make it easier for residents to vote by absentee ballot due to the pandemic. in a series of tweets, trump accused the states of acting illegally and promoting voter fraud. trump's tweets came a day after michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson tweeted -- "no voter should have to choose between their health & their vote. and every michigan citizen has a right under our state constitution to vote by mail. with funding from the federal cares act, i am ensuring every registered voter has the tools to conveniently exercise that right." public support of mail-in voting is high across the u.s. one recent poll showed three quarters of americans support universal accessss to mail voti. the labobor department releases its latest unemployment figures

today, with economists estimating a another 2.5 milliln u.s. workers fil joboble clms ovevethe last week. the total mbmber onewlwly unemployedeople isapapidly apoaoachinnearly 4millllio a levenot seenince theeight of t great dression. ndreds omcdonal's woers went on rike arod the uned states wnesday danding t fast fd giant ke full responbility f the safy of rkers ancustomerduring t pandic. thiss ayeshaownsend, chago mcdold'employeen stke for psonal prective equient, paisick lea, alth insurance benefits, and hazardrd pay.. >> i am doing what i feel is best foror me and my family dueo the covid19 situtuation. i want to be up to protect my family, but i also want to be up to protect the coworkers. i just want mcdonald's to make sure that workers like me, you say we are essential workers, protect me and my beautiful boy and even my friends and family that are around me. amy: in new orleans, sanitation workers are in the third week of

a strike demanding $150 in weekly hazard pay, ppe, repairs to trucks, and a wage increase. the company contracting with new orleans to pick up garbage, metro service group, has brought in work-release prisoners as temporary replacements. the prisoners are being paid less than the minimum wage. this is one of the striking workers speaking at picket o on tuesday. >> i have seven kids. i am scared to play with my kids some days when i go home. i have to stop my daughter at say, dedicate and give you know kids. i am scared i'm going to get sick. amy: the united food and commercial workers reports at least 68 grocery store workers across the u.s. have died from covid-19 and more than 10,000 have fallen ill from the disease. the ford motor company temporarily shut down assembly plants in dearborn, michigan and chicago, illinois, after workers tested positive for coronavirus.

the shutdowns came jusust days after general motors, ford, and fiat chrysler began a phased reopening of their u.s. factories. president trump is traveling to ypsilanti, michigan, today to tour a ford auto plant that's been converted to produce ventilators during the pandemic. ahead of the trip, michigan's attorney general said the president has a legal responsibility under state law to w wear a mask during the vist after trump refused to commit to wearing onene. immigrant t rights activists are condemning the deportationonf hector garcia mendoza, a 30-year-old mexican immigrant who sued immigration a and custs enforcement, ice, just last week. garcia mendoza was part of a class action lawsuitit demanding the immediatate release of all immigrants held at t the elizabh contract detention facility in new jersey, where prisoners and staff have tested positive for coronavirus. he was transferred to texas on tuesday and then deported to an undisclosed location in mexico. his attorneys say they have not been able to find him. garcia mendoza's removal came

despite a federal judge's order blocking the deportation. advocates believe his expedited deportation is retaliation for the lawsuit against ice. in alvarado, texas, 11 immigrants imprisoned at the prairieland detention center have filed a class-action lawsuit against ice demanding their release after at least 45 people at the for-profit jail tested positive for coronavirus. the prisoners say ice is continuing to transfer immigrants to other facilities across the country, risking the spread of covid-19 from one ice jail to another. in arizona, 14 immigrants held at the florence detention center near phoenix have started a hunger strike to protest dire conditions inside the privately owned ice jailed. this is one of the florence hunger strikers. infectedple have been and are sent to the whole. we started a hunger strike today. the time to stop will be when they release us in boxes.

they will have to take us out in boxes because we no longer believe in them. amy: the united nations middle east envoy has called on i isral to abandndon its plan to annex parts s of the occupied west ba. >> the continuing threat of annexation by israel would constitute the most serious violation of international law, devastating blow to the two state solution, close the doors under group -- negotiations come and threaten efforts to advance regional peace and our broader effortrts to maintain internatational peace and securityty. amy: on tuesdaday, palestitinian authorority president t mahmoud abbas declarared an end to security cooperation with israel and the united states and said all agreements between palestine and the e two countries are nonw null and void. and the university of california announced tuesday it has completely divested its $126-billion investment portfolio from all fossil fuel companies. the move makes uc largest university system inin the unitd states to meet a core demand of

activists fighting the climate crisis. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am m amy goodman in new york cityty, the center of the pandemic, joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh, who is staying home to help stop counitity spread. hi, nermeen. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: i cannot wait until you are sitting right next to meme and e can do this so together. wait, either.'t amy: we are going to o turn to bangladesh. the most powerful storm to hit india and bangladesh in years 20 made landfall wednesday, displacing 3 million people and killing at least 20 as covid-19 cases in the region continue to rise. cyclone amphan flooded streets and destroyed homes with more than 10000 mile per hour windss

throughohout the night. the storm weakened as it traveled across the coast of bangladesh, but still unleashed heavy wind and rains on cox's bazar, the world's largest refugee camp that is home to one million rohingya refugees living in crowded and often unsanitary conditions. the climate change-fueled storm came just days after thehe first cases of covid-19 were confirmed in cox''s babazar. in a statement released last week, dr. shamim jahan, save the children's health director in bangladesh, said -- "now that the virus has entered the world's largest refugee settlement in cox's bazar we are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from covid-19. there are only an estimated 2000 ventilators in all of bangladesh, serving a population of 160 million people. in the rohingya refugee camps -- home to nearly a million people -- there are no intensive care beds at this moment." well, for more, we go to dhaka, the capital city of bangladesh, where we are joined by steven corliss, the unhcr's

representative in bangladesh. also with us, in london, is tun khin, president of the burmese rohingya organization u.k. and a member of the free rohingya coalition. born in burma but in 1982 was rendndered effectively stateless along with a million other ethnic rohingya under a new nationality law. we welcome you both to democracy now! let's bebegin in bangladesh. so you h have a million rohingya who fled from burma to bangladesh now being hit by these two catastrophes. one is the c cyclone and the otr is the p pandemic. steven corliss, can you talalk ababout whatat is happppening rt nonow? steve? steve? steve, can you hear me?

ok, we will try to go -- >> is it better now? amy: we you know. can you respspond to o what is happening right now in bangladesh? >> as you said very well, it is an emergency with another emergency layered on top p of i. i think we have been quite fortunate in the last 24 hours the impact of the cyclone was limited. it passed quite far toto the we. impacts for those living in the region, but only at the camp we experienced limited flooded with the destruction of maybe 100 shelters and displacement of 400 people. we were well able to respond but now we have to get back to the hard business of responding to the covid19 pandemic. nermeen: can you describe for those who don't know what thee condiditions in cox's bazar are, what are the conditionons d what are the concerns about how

covivid19 may spspread? it was only last week the first two cases confirmed cases weree reporteded. ofw we have a populatation 860,000 refugees living in just over 20 square kilometers. that is equivalent -- the other thing to understand, where their living as a forest reserve in august 2017 when i first came to the country. from that forest preseserve, and her city has emerged. the crowding is remarkable. the populalation density is twie what you would find in manhattan. meet all their needs. it is a fragile area. it will not withstand high winds. in addition to building houses, we have to provide everything for them. facilitieies, water sanitation facilities. and now demands with the covid19 pandemic, we are racing against time to establish specific,

dedicated centers. if f you could join us from where you are in london, president of the burmese rohingya organization u.k. and a -- what are your major concerns? for people to understand why this massive refugee camp, the largest in the world, is even .here to begin with >> we need to lookok at why thee peoplele are there. the first thing is, t these are survivors. the military and government systematically for decades destroyed our community. in 2017, there is more thanan 800,000 --- today, whatetever happeneded here, is quite responsisible by burmese gogovernment. we appreciate bangladesh government giving us shehelter.

i think there's much more that needs to be done. a about --y're crying they are trying. we appreciate that. living bangladesh, their in sququalid cononditions. covid19 is a big danger, and on top of that, the cyclone. muchn see that is not attatached to the bangladesh --ugee camps, much more our deep sympathies to families and to the victims also. after theheed now various there will be

-- there is no hygiene, no sanitation, a lot of where we're facing the pandemic c covid19 at the se time. nermeen: steven corliss, in additition to o what you have already described as the conditions in cox's bazar as well as what tun khin just said, the bangladeshi government has also reportedly cut off access to the internet in cox's bazar? and it is also reportedly very difficult to get sim cards to get cell phones for refugees? can you explain why the bangladeshi g government did tht and what the impact has been on letting people in the camps know about the risks of covid19 and what they should be doing to protect themselves? >> t thank you for the question.

the bangladeshi government explains the basis for the policy as s security concern relating to the cross-border drugs trafficking trade and other factors in the camamp, but itit does create a a difficultyr the humanitarian operation a and also for the rohingya refugees on the ground. during the cyclone, r r example, we need to be able to communicate with our teams in the field a and also the refuge, who arare the b backbone e of te humanitarian response.e. refugee volunteers do virtually everything, pararticularly in a crisis situation. they dig up people who are caught in landslides. they find children who are separated from their families. they put them in touch with the international actors on the ground. so the lack of telecommunications is a barrier and is a constraint press and would you u advocate for the restoration of t the internet fr them.. and the united nations outgoing humaman rights monitor for burua is calliling for an investstigan

into allegations, steven corliss , of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in burma's ron kind and chin states. can you talk about what is happening with the rohingya who arare left in b burma rightht n, what we'rere talking about, something like 60000,000? the first t thing to know abouout the situation on the other set of the border is there is already an ongoing conflict that does not directly involve the rohingya. the rohingya in the area tend do be caught a bit in the crcrossfire. there is an office where we work on both sides of the b border because our job is to protect refugees first of all, come to bangladesh and make sure they are able to remain here until it is safer them to go home, but also work on the other side of the e water toto create the conditions so they could go back to the ways ththey lived in the

papast. thingst important understand with every refugee, ultimately, they would want to be home and safe in their own rhakine red kind -- state. nermeen: you said it iss true cox's bazar has been sparedd the worst effects of this cyclone, but soon there will be the monsoon s season in n banglades. can yoyou explain whwhat the efs inthe mononon have b been cox's bazar and what you expect to happen if there have been any safety measures put in place since last summer? landslides have been -- the waway they c camps are built up, there is notot a proper structu.

it i is a big danger.. and also the landslidedes kill many people. as far as at wee k know, ofusandss people -- weekss landslides. that is one thing we have to keep in our mind. we appreciate bangladesh other aid and agencies, they're doing their best, but i want to bring up your that international community have to do much more and aidrt bangladesh agencies to improve the situation. bangladesh has -- bangladesh alone, we appreciate giving us shelter, but the thing up internet access and others, that would be very important and also

allowing them to get to hospital and others. that is very important. that international community to do more. the rohingya are one of the most vulnerable people. critical. storm going away just yesterday, and many things can happen in a very few days. this is very important that international community should do much more. we appreciate the concern, but have to act seriously, not only supporting bangladesh and supporting aid to bangladesh and therohingya, the same time, international community should focus on pressure the burmese

government to restore the rights of the rohingya to protect them. lives are still at risk in burma. we need to look at burma is one of the most brutal military regime in the gogovernment. there continuously doing it. that is what we need to look at the same time. amy: tun khin, thank you for being with us, rohingya activists, president of the burmese writing organization in u.k.k., member o of the free rorohingya coalition. born in n burma, b but in 1982 s rendered effectivevely statetels along withth a million other ethnic rohingya ununder a nenew nationality law. and we want to thank steve corliss, speaking to us from bangladesh, that you and high commissioner for refugees representativeve in bangladesh. when we come back, how the coronavirus is thrhreatening the safety and health of tens of millioions of refugegees in cams

and outsidide of camps acrcrosse globobe. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: : "holiday destinanation"y nadine shahah. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. now to the spread of the coronavirus across the globe and how it is threatening the health and safety of tens of millions of refugees, from bangladesh to syria to greece to the u.s.-mexico border. after weeks of warnings, covid-19 cases are emerging in refugee camps where social distancing is often impossible and healthcarere is extremelely limited. lastonth in lebanon, a woman at a palestinian refugee camp tested positive for the virus. in greece, hundreds of asylum seekers, many from africa, have contracted covid-19. for the titimate5.6 6 miion syri r refugs inin lanon,,

jord, , and rkeyey, e threre of coronavir a also s leled a cris o of huer, , wi the u u. estimating0%0% of fugegeesan't afford food. thiss s syri refefug abu abdallah speining alg wiwithis wife ummbdallah om a camin lebanon's bekavalley. >> in th lt few mons, conavirus s been wse than the wa >>t the beginni during e wa it was t like ts. >> it worse thawar becae dung work,ou k knowhoour emy is. but you d't kn with th disease is going to come from, from the airir were person. -- or a person. amy: well, for more, we go to oxford, england, where we're joined by dr. miriam o orcutt, senior research fellow in global public health and forced mimigration at the i institute r global health, university college london, and executive director of lancet migration. welcome to democracy now! can you start off by just giving

us the scope and scale of the refugee crisis in the wororld -a tall order? >> t thank you. yeyes, well,l, we know currentle levels of displaced publishers include refugees, ininternally dilalaced, and o others is that the highest levels ever recorded by the u.n. 70.8 million people around the world d have been forcibly didisplaced. the highest numbmber of thosesea internally dplplaced p people, those whoho might have been ford to flee e their homes s from conflictct, , from violence, o persececution who mayay be dispd multiple times witithin their on country, even before they flee across international borders. as we mentioned in n the introduction to the segment, 70% of syrians -- - syrians constite the largest numbeber of refugees

in the world -- 70%0% of syrian refugees i in lebabanon r report ththey can't afford food. if you could talk about that and also the fact that a large number of syrian refugees are not only in lelebanon, but alson tuturkey, which has s seen a lae outbreak -- a significant outbreak of covid19, even t thoh now caseses are repeportedly dedeclining. >> yes. for this siri didisplaced populationon in all the couny , the contact syria of covid19 has b been a h huge challenge and burden, not only do many of them still liveve in informal settlements, so a lot of them even a after seven or eight years are living in tents, don't have access often to livelihood opportutunities so ty can't provide income for their

families, so there often dependent already -- even pre-covivid -- on humanitarian d and food provision, and even running water provision, from outside -- they're not able to be self-sufficient. so you can imagine in both lebanon and in turkey that people who are living in tents beside each other in very crowded anand cramped conditions who often share one toilet or one running water tap between many families will have a real challenge to prevent the spread of covid, but also just to maintain their basic standard of living during this public health crisis. and one of the things we have seen across the world, but definitely within the couountry surrounding syria, is individuals who were already facing poverty now not being able to afford food as you

mentioned in your previous repoport and notot being able to provide for their children. i make a a let's go to a reportt from reza adib, an afghan journalist and refugee locked down in malakasa camp outside of athens, greece. hehe investigated coconditions n thcamp fororhe bbc. >> thehe camp is in quarantine r 14 days. no one is lolowed too ouout and no one is allowed to come in. >> together with hisamily and frnds, held in quarantine in taps.oolroom wi n they had to share wi their neighbor theare not hay. the risk of spreading the virus. the peoplwith coronarus, you s how clo they a?? r all of u includi thohose with c conavirusthere isnly e tap. amy: ione bubuding in e

camp23 famamies livetogether and d ven peop in the oup testedositive r covid-. adib spo to o grk mimigrion mister notis mitarachi about the findndings. >> these are reported to us by the e internationanal organizatn of migration.. amy: dr. miriam orcutt come if you cacan talk a about what is happening g in the refugee camps of greecece and whahat greeeeces doing. >> the intnteresting thingng wih ththe respsponse toovid19 in greece has been that theyey have hahad quite a an early lockdownr the whole of the country. however, althohough theyey havew cases among the general refugees andor the asylylum seekers who are both in camps on the mainland asas wells on the greek island, the condnditions within which they e

quarantined and happen quaranantined for a a longer ped ofof time than thehe local commununity, the cononditions ae very s substandard.. example, island, for lesbos ost island -- on island, there individuduals of over 1000 unanaccompanied minor. there are vulnerable people such as the elderly andnd those w wih underlying comb-ovover in duty - comorbidity who are notot able o self-isolate themselves in order toto prevent covid19, and if thy did bememe unwell, the real concern is that they would not be able to access health care facilities. theieir access to health servics is very much restricted and theieir limited capacity a anywy for hospitalal beds and for intensive care beds. many of these individuals who have fled d to greece might have

fled conict sittions from afghantan. therere are also individuauals o have fled from africanan countries. and what we are concerned about is that ultimately, if start there eveven if you cases in the camps that are very over out of, there could be at a rapid and devastatingg spread whicich could p potentially g go unnotid and ununknown at firirst because there really isn''t a big enough testining strategy going on underwayay in the camps in gree. whwhat we need to see at this stage e would be a massive scale up in testing f for all of ththe populatitions within t the camp, even when they're just one o or two cases because we know that covid spreads even among those who are asymptomatic. ,ermeen: dr. miriam orcutt along those lines, i would like to ask abobout one of the mostst critical factors that determrmie

the extent and speed of the spread of coronavirus, anand tht is of course popopulation densi. we know veryry well, we are broaoadcasting from new york ci, which was an hasas been the epicenter of the outbreak, but in thehese refugee camps -- neww york city has s a population density of about 10,0,000 people per square kilometer, but by comparison, according to the international rescue committee, cox's bazar in bangladesh, whwhh we werere speaking about in our eaearlier segment, in cox's baz, 40000 andndy is betweenen 70,000 people per squauare kikilometer. and in the greek islands thatt you're talking abobout earli, ,n some camps, populationon density is even higher, up to 200,0,000

people per square kilometer. so could you talk about that specifically and what camps present the most risk for r the spread of the virurus? >> of cocourse. as you mention, the population density is a real concern.. in greece, one of the camamps which is of most concern is the biggest rerefugee camp in eurure where there are 20,000 people en a space which h would only havea maximum capapacity for 2 2700. and why that is a concern,, paparticularly for the camps o r people might be liliving in ten, if m multiple families are livig within one tent a and sharing te same t toilet between hundndredf people, then they are not able -- even if there is a one pson who becomes infected with covid, they're not able to self-isolate

effectively. they cannonotrotect themselveves but also they are not able to protect others from including their r familyly in the broadedr commity. similarity with the hihigh tstsities and informal ten individuals are e living in n in bangngladesh and cox''s bazar, a lot of these protective measures which h we take in countrtries e we have the privivilege to be ae to isolate and p protect ourselves, they will not be able to take. beyond that, there arere more vuvulnerablele populations withn those camps, for example, the elderly, those who might have underlying conditions or children, who realllly would ned to at this stage be protected even more and have a way of being shielded so that they don't experience the e more seve complications, whihich we knowoo occur in those p populations.. so t the real concern n is that already ththe conditionss are

predisposing to a greateter impt and a more rapid spread of covid. but also, i do think that there are in the region, for example in bangladesh, there are many poor populations who also faced challenges and there is an argument for improvingng the health care system and the number of hospital beds and the intensive care capacity for all of the population during covid, which will ultimately improve and help the overall public health response for all of the populations as well. amy: very quickly as we begin to wrap up, dr. miriam orcutt, if you can also talk about deportations from the united states t to places like haiti ad guatemala. you have refugees who are being deported who are covid-19 positive, some calling the united states the wuhan of the americas. if you can talk about what this means for the americas and also

jailed migrants. what about the conditions of jailed migrants? we have migrants around the country who are on hunger strike. we have the former ice director and some in rights groups calling for ice to releasase the detatainees. >> yes.. there are calls at the uniteded nations level and havave been fr a number of f months aroundd detentionrelease from on the celt grounds dudue to the factct that a lot of the conditions withihin the detentin or facilities, likewise with jails, very overcrowded and often unhygienic.c. there's a great risisk that individuals who are deported during a public c health crisisn ththe current pdemic arere being deported to cocountries which he much weaeaker healalth systems d may nonot have an effective

response in placece most of aga, the e call from the public healh suspendtion is to deportations. there should notot be deportatis to other countriries. also the detention facilities, if they are being used, they should either be -- at least the basic overall conditions should be improved, but we are very much calling for release on public heaealth grgrounds. there are other community mechanisms that have been proposed by the u.n. that governments can use. amy: we want to thank you very much, miriamam orcutt, senior research fellow in global l pubc health and forced migration at the institute for global health, university college london, and executive director of lancet migration. when w we come back, a new repet is out finding o one million children u under five could d dn the next six months from m the secondary impacts of the pandemic. mperiled..ers ii

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amy: "country road" by paula fuga and jack johnson. live from home in hawaii. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as more than three-quarters of the world's s children live undr stay-at-home orders s during the pandemic, a shocking new reporot finds the child mortality rate could increase for the first time in more than 60 years. more than one million children under five could die over r the next six months according to researchers at the john hopkins bloomberg school of public health who studied the secondary impacts of the coronavirus disrsruptions to health servrvis outbreak, the disruptions to health services and access to

food. more than 60,000 mothers could also dive. the report was published in "the lancet global health," and looked at 118 countries in low and middle-income countries. for more, we're joined by its lead author, tim roberton, assistant scientist in the department of international health at the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health in baltimore. also with us, infectious diseases pediatrician, dr. beate kampmann, director of the vaccine centre at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine and lead vaccinology resesearcher at the mrc unit the gambia. wewe welcome you both to democry now! , t talk about the findings of the study. to say the least, deeply alarming. >> we know from past experience and research that in outbreak situations, people hahave health issues becausese of the virus bt also m more people h have health b because complications

of the secondaryry effects of te outbreak. in the currentnt pandemic, peoee are dying because of coronavirus itself. but if the pandemic and the response to the pandemic lead to the e destruction of health services, then or people are going toto die from otheher caus as well. in our study, we looked at the potentntial for additional deats among pregnant women and y young children andnd we modeled three different scenarios looking forward of different severity. in our least s severee scenario, over a perioiod o of just s six months, we could see aroundd 12,000 matatnal deaths ---- so women dydying childbirth -- and around 250,000 childld deaths. thesese are children undnder the of five. that would represent 39% increase in chihild mortality above what is currently

occurring. in our worst case scenario, we saw up to 60,000 maternal deaths and up to about 1.1 million children could also die. , c could youtim roberton explain what essssential servic, health services you think -- you suggest ought to be retained to diminishsh the p possible mortay rarates among women and infants, what are the procedures, what are the health services, the medicines t that shshould not be diverted to deal witith coronavirus -- were at least there should be sufficient amounts available for routine care of mothers and infants? our modelingdy, in efforts, we looked at what we call the continunuum of care. care for pregnanant

women, around childbirth, postnatal care. then looking at care for newborns, early children -- for example, vaccinations, preventative caree, if they have malaria or pneumonia or diarrhea. in general, i think we see two ways in which the s secondary effects of t the pandemic cocoud impact children. ththe rst way is come e as i sa, around health service disruptionons. ordinarily, if a family has a chchild that is sick, they may o and seek care from a health facility and get care. if that malaria, they mightht be given antimalarials or medicine for pneumonia. under ththe pandemic, perhaps people a are not able to travelo healalth facility or they mighte disinclined to -- they arere afraraid to go to health h serv. also, even if they were toto get

toto a health facility, perhapst the facilityty there is now maye fewer health w workers because some health woworkers have beenn diverteded to work on the covid response or maybe health workers themselves are sick or perhaps at the facility there is not the necessary treatment, drugs, medidicine becauause of issues o deal with the supply chain -- due to the supply chain not having the drugs they need. atat is the first general way we see this happening. another big general way that we sue particularly for child mortalality is an issue touched upon in your previous segment, which is the potential for increased m malnutrition because of broader macro economic effects. for r example, households now nt having the same income that they had, disruptions to food services, people not being able to access markets and get thehe necessary food for their children. what comes from that is we're

going to see more families living in food insecurity and potentially more children beinig wawasted. so being undernourished. whilile wasting itself does n n necessarily kill many kids, what it does do is it increases the likelihood that a child will die from other diseases, other infectious diseases. in our model, that second pathway of these broader effects , increasing food insecurity, increasing undernutrition, is also a big potential way in which more children are going to die because of the pandemic. amy: i i want to bring beate conversation.the eveven in the united states, the wealthiest country, the lowest vaccination level as parents are afraidid to bring their kids ino the doctor. but if you can talk about countries around the world, the stopping of their immunization programs. what is happening and what are the places?

whatever your specialties is the gambia. it from mexixico to nigeria? >> thank you very muchch for having me on the program. this is an important t topic and tim has always open aboutut a whole rarange of services for momother and chihild health. i willll try and focus on ththek thehe p prevention -- prprevention off deadly diseases for whichch we know we have vaccines. i saw the who announcing at the end of march that mess campapais should b be s suspended becausee know thiss wouould pototentially leave 100 million c children at risk of measles, which i is potentialllelethal infection. to me it is a question of what is being traded off a againststt when we are looking at covid two infection prevention and spread of the pandemic versus essential

services to all women and children. africa.rimarily in west theown group has mapped out consequences of vaccination services not being delivered, even without the presence of a papandemic. we a are already sure there is a plateau of about 80% of vaccinations, and that is not enough for h hd immmmunity for diseases, for example, like measles, that need to have a cover-upup to 95% to preventt outbreaks. a recent example during the ebebola outbreak in t the drc, t three times as many people died from measles as ended up p dying fromom ebobola. the consequencnces of not vaccinating and provididing the essential services in the immunization program a are real, really r rather devaststating. b beate kampmanann, i if you could talk about you said

the e effects of diminisishing r entirely preventing people f frm getting vavaccinations, the effes will onlnly be known in a yeyear or two, not immediately come and what you u think needso be d done or can be done to ense that vaccinations continue despite this pandemic? >> yes. so it depends likelyly on the level of vaccine covererage that the individual l countries have anand also depends o on the diss we are trying to p prevent. so measleses is a highghly infectious diseasese t that nees 95% of thehe communityty to be immune to prprotect the e indivl but alalso to stop transmissionn the community. there is meningitis, pneumonia, diarrhea.. all of ththose are vexingng-preveventable amomongse espececially in childrenn undeder the age of five. the solutions toto cononsider in situation where the health care woworkers might feel exposed if they r vaccinanation campaigns

or parents might f feel reluctat to go to immuninization clinini- and we are s saying this in the u.k.k. as well -- we n need to t and foremost have a commitment that the d delivery of vaccineso populatitions remains a high priorityty for h health service. did we can possibly break down the interventions that can be dodone -- some of them b being purely logistical,l, for exampl, flights are suspenended all acrs the globe and flights bring vaccine e supplies too countrie. maybe extra a flights need t toe charted to bring vaccines to countries, f for example, inin e gambia, , we have alreadydy runt of oral polio for one reason or ananother and that h has a alrey shown bobottleckck. whenen it comes to heaealth care workers in the publicic, obviouslsly, the p personal protective equipmement needs toe availablble to health care workers. people need to r respected hand hygienene and we need to o proby run the clinics in a slightly different way.

stacacker appointment so not everybody turns up at the same time. maybe more frequently mix in different smaller places. the third intervention i think is crucicial that we have basic collection tools that will allow us t to capture what is going on in immunization system -- who has received vacaccines and who hasn't. because it is not just now ththt the children and anyone in the community will suffer from preventable infectious diseases, it is in a little while when the herd immunity or the community has either dropped or there are o ofhildren who then because the suspension of the unionization programs will have never seen a vaccine. the health systems need to put in his records for t that to be fefeasible and the data cocollen sysystems need too be fit for purpose. we probably need to think about new models of delivering vaccines and have more platforos and d maybe not just restricting them to the usual clininics. forr example --

hey: dr. tim roberton, responsese of governmement to yr report? it was a deeply alarming report. the number of children who will die in the next six months around the wororld, not to m men mothers. sinince we published the report, we had a lot of u us,ies reachihing out to ngos working in differerent countries around the world, , en ministries of health themselvevs contactingng us and saying, we really appreciate the study becacause we are starting to see this play out in our country and we are worried about it. over the next few months, our goal is to do more of our own modeling and analysis, working with countries themselves to use ththeir own assumptitions around what they t think is happening n their country based o on availae and, as dr. kampmannnn said, model different popotential scenararios they could p put in place, different policy options they can s so they can m mitigae

the spread and transmimission of covid. amy: the me ask a quick question. the signifificance of president trump's in the u.s. is going to pull out of the world health organization and the overall stopping of funding to it, the role the who plays in childldren and maternal or tel a aviv anand health. >>bsolutely.y. the who plays a critical role. it is a vital mechaninism for coordinating worork in the globl health space. also, what people don'tt realize i think is s the technical assistance the who providedes to different government andd ministries of health a around te world. right noww countries are looking for guidance a about how theyy n do this, what sortrt of pololicy options they should be considering, was one of action they can take most of the who has been putting out guidance now, operatitional guidance onow countrtries can maintain these serviceses while also addressing

covivid. i think to undermine the who now or defunded i think would be highly counterprodoductive. tim, very quickly, bebefore we concnclude, can youk about some o of the concerns you have r raised about disruptions, both in food s supplies as wells the disruptions to pharmaceuticals and medicine supplies in the areas in which your w was concerned? amy: we have 20 seconds. perhahaps often overlookoked but is an absolutey vital to be considered. health sysystems are complex.. we are not really sure how the secondary effects -- i think governments can make sure they have social safety nets for people who are suffering food insecurity and bolster and peperhaps may need to expand soe of the social protection programs to make sure that chilildren aren't at risk. amy: thank you both for joining us, doctors tim roberton of the johns hopkins bloomberg school

of public health. we will link your report. and dr. beate kampmann director , of the vaccine centre at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. that does. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

narrator: on this episode of "earth h focus," the illegal lumber trade is a multi-million-dollar business spanning the globe. in the northwest united states, scientists are using innovative methods to stop lumber from enentering ththe country, w whin brazil, violent clashes have erupted at the source, where indigenous groups are trying to stop poachers from decimating their forest.