 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. Today, we are joined by Chris Caruso, the Education Director of the People's Forum in New York to talk about the developing coronavirus situation in the United States, as well as the efforts by various grassroots organizations and their perspective on this issue. Thank you so much, Chris, for joining us. Thanks for having me, Prashant. Chris, to begin with, the most recent news that's been going around is the $2.2 trillion package that has been passed by the Senate, maybe by the House of Representatives today, that's Thursday. So this comes after a long delay because the federal government, Congress, they've been showing a lot of, for lack of a better word, they've been very slow to say the least to be very charitable to them. So how do you see this kind of a package? Is it enough to kind of address the issue, considering that the cases are still expanding at a huge rate? The number of deaths has crossed 1000, and people are generally confused and worried about the line-ups. Yeah, well, this package that the Senate has passed is terrible for working people, for poor people in the United States. It's essentially a multi-trillion-dollar giveaway to the lobbying class, to the biggest businesses in Wall Street who could afford to buy their own politicians in Washington DC. And the provisions for ordinary working people in the United States are very, very scant. Their headline for us is that they're giving us a single one-time $1,200 benefit. Given the scale of what's happening, both the pandemic that has not yet peaked and is spreading in the United States at a very, very alarming rate because of an absolute breakdown in testing, as well as the economic consequences, which we're just learning. Just this morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the number of people that applied for unemployment just last week alone in the United States, is 3.28 million people just last week applied for unemployment benefits. That's compared to the worst month of the Great Recession in 2008, when only 800,000 people lost their jobs. This is four times higher than any other week of unemployment claims in US history. Unemployment claims increased in all 50 states. This is just the first week. Economists are expecting between 10 to 15 million people to become employed in the next month or two. They're talking as if a single one-time $1,200 benefit, which won't cover rent for almost anybody, is somehow a great boon from DC when, on the other hand, they have literally done everything possible to ensure that CEOs' bonuses are not hurt, that corporate profits are not hurt, but for the vast majority of people living in this country, virtually nothing. So to go back to the point you mentioned, the testing fiasco with the impact of which is still being felt. And there was a phase when I think you pointed out before in some of your earlier talks, the fact that testing kits were released late. There was a general disinterest from the establishment itself in pushing the message of testing. And now we see that the cases are ballooning. But right now, is the situation still the same? Is there still a shortage of testing kits or has there some effort been done to solve that problem? Yes. So we're horribly behind the curve and being able to test because of an incompetent and mismanaged response from the federal government. As of this morning, we have over 68,000 people who've tested positive and 990 people who have died in the U.S. due to the coronavirus. Last week, private industry, private lab testing companies have been able to produce their own testing kits. They have their own reagents or their own assays, and they are beginning to produce these at scale. We still do not have enough testing kits. And we are still not able to identify the hotspots, provide treatment and isolate in order to stop the spread of this. And the Trump administration is saying they want people to go back to work next week. That on the Christian holiday of Easter, they want people to be back at work, which would greatly, greatly, greatly amplify the spread of this virus. And we're now having quite possibly some kind of battle between state governors of both parties who understand that social distancing is absolutely necessary to save lives. And the federal government that just wants to put people back to work as soon as possible. And so we don't know how will people handle the conflicting messages from state government versus federal government. We have a situation where we need clear, coherent, competent leadership. We have a situation of chaos in the United States. Our great people have been, especially when it comes to our public health experts and officials have been helping other countries, dealing with other countries, constant touch with other countries, helping them out, because many of them have never seen anything like what's happening. But our decision will be based on hard facts and data as to the opening. I'm also hopeful to have Americans working again by that Easter, that beautiful Easter day. And have the issues with the health care system in the United States itself actually contributed further to this crisis? Could you talk a bit about that? Absolutely. You know, we already had over 30 million people in the United States who are uninsured. Many, many of the people that are insured can't afford the help to get health care because the co-pays, deductibles, and the other things that you have to pay out of pocket are so expensive. And so we've all been trained in the United States not to go to the doctor until we're on death's door, because even people with supposedly good health insurance can barely afford it. That will also help increase the spread of the disease. And so this is revealing, you know, deep, deep, deep inequalities in the U.S. health system. You know, Martin Luther, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King talked about, you know, of all the forms of inequalities, inequality in health care is the most inhumane. And we're seeing this now, the fact that, you know, the United States people's access to health care is tied to their employment. And now, you know, millions of people at a time are being thrown out of work. All of those people or almost all of those people are also losing their health care during a pandemic. Right. So the other key issue is, like you already pointed out, there's the aspect of unemployment. And there are the weaker sections, the marginalized sections who are obviously suffering the worst, the migrants, people of color. So as far as grassroots organizations are concerned, what are the key demands they're putting forward to the government, both the federal government and the state governments right now, regarding the immediate steps that have to be taken? Yes. And so unemployment insurance is very high on that list to get people some kind of income as they suffer in employment. Because as you mentioned, you know, whole categories of employment, you know, entertainment, retail, I mean, just whole sections of the economy are shut down. And people, you know, I've been told to stay home from work. And so, you know, unemployment insurance is a big demand. Medicare for all. So Medicare is like the very partial health, public health system we have for senior citizens of the United States. One of the key demands is to extend eligibility to Medicare to all people, or at least people who have been newly unemployed and don't otherwise have health care in this situation. You know, there's been calls for more direct, you know, just straight financial relief more than the single $1,200 payment. There is, you know, not yet a sort of single program from the grassroots, but many, many, many grassroots organizations are articulating programs, you know, based on the needs of their constituencies right now. So far falling on the deaf ears in Washington, D.C. Right. And a very key issue is also those of refugees of migrants who, especially those who are in the detention centers of ICE, we've had protests so far by some of these facilities, but again, ICE and the federal administration have been, almost have refused to almost respond. That's right. You know, the situation of, you know, marginalized people in the United States, many people who, you know, don't apply, you know, don't qualify to apply for unemployed insurance. So like, you know, temporary workers, day laborers, farm workers, you know, undocumented people aren't even eligible for unemployment insurance. So those numbers are much higher than the federal government statistics allow. But yes, you know, we have ICE detention facilities. We, of course, are the largest imprisoner of people in the world. And, you know, we find situations in our jails and prisons where there's not only no hand sanitizer, there's no soap, there's terrible overcrowding. And there's, you know, very, very substandard medical care, you know, both in these ICE facilities as well as federal and state jails and prisons. We have a very, very difficult situation there. And again, no solutions, no leadership coming from the top. Right. And finally, a question regarding the perception of the pandemic itself. So the Republican leadership, especially Trump, and like you mentioned, there are some exceptions among the governors, but especially Trump has been pushing a narrative of this not being such a serious issue, something, for instance, Bolsonaro is doing in Brazil in a much more direct and obvious way. So especially among the segments that did support him, that continue to support him, how much of a difficulty is there in actually getting this message across? So what is the sense you get regarding the overall urgency of, urgency with which people are seized to this issue? Yes. You know, we live in a society in the United States that's so politically polarized and folks get their news from such siloed news sources. And so, you know, we have the base of the Republican Party being, you know, older white people who primarily get their news from right-wing news sources like Fox News, like AM Talk Radio, who have been consistently downplaying the severity of this crisis, literally putting their own core audience. You know, the average age of a viewer on Fox News is 68 years old. So they're literally sacrificing their core audience on this altar of Trump worship in order to, you know, maintain his popularity in order, you know, in a foolhardy attempt to keep the stock market numbers up. They have been downplaying the severity of this at every turn. And, you know, there's also just a crisis of public confidence in our institutions in the United States, which is long-standing. And, you know, we have these whole anti-vaccine movements before this started of people that, you know, deny basic science because of conspiracy theories on the Internet. And so we're seeing, you know, tens of millions of people that simply don't believe this is a serious issue, that are refusing to change their behavior. We have some right-wing evangelical churches that are refusing to shut down. They're having services of a thousand at a time, right-wing theological schools like Falwell's Liberty University is starting classes back up in defiance of, you know, the advice to have social distancing. And so this, you know, level of ignorance and mistrust in society is also greatly increasing the spread of this disease. I think the United States is on track for the worst rates of an infection, the worst public health response in the world to this crisis right now. Right. Thank you so much Chris for talking to us.