THIRD WORLD USA
Essential Worker Shoulders $1,840 Debt For Trying To Get A Coronavirus Test

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE, INSURANCE COMPANIES AND PRIVATE HOSPITAL CORPORATIONS HOW'S THAT WORKING FOR YA?!

June 30, 2020 5:05 AM ET
Heard on NPR Morning Edition
SARAH VARNEY
LISTEN·4:54
Download
Transcript

Carmen Quintero works as a supervisor at a distribution center for N95 masks. She owes $1,840 for other care she received when she tried to get a coronavirus test.Heidi de Marco/KHN

Carmen Quintero works an early shift as a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse that ships N95 masks to a nation under siege from the coronavirus. On March 23, she had developed a severe cough, and her voice, usually quick and enthusiastic, was barely a whisper.

A human resources staff member told Quintero she needed to go home.

"They told me I couldn't come back until I was tested," said Quintero, who was also told that she would need to document that she didn't have the virus.

Her primary care doctor directed her to the nearest emergency room for testing because the practice had no coronavirus tests.

The Corona Regional Medical Center is just around the corner from her house in Corona, Calif. They didn't have any tests either, but there a nurse tested her breathing and gave her a chest X-ray. For testing, the nurse told her to go to Riverside County's public health department. There, a public health worker gave her an 800 number to call to schedule a test. The earliest the county could test her was April 7, more than two weeks later.


At the hospital, Quintero got a doctor's note saying she should stay home from work for a week and she was told to behave as if she had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, isolating herself from vulnerable household members. That was difficult — Quintero lives with her grandmother and her girlfriend's parents — but she managed. No one else in her home got sick, and by the time April 7 came, she felt better and decided not to get the coronavirus test.

Then the bill for the ER visit came.

The patient: Carmen Quintero, 35, a supervisor at a 3M distribution warehouse who lives in Corona, Calif. She has an Anthem Blue Cross health insurance plan through her job with a $3,500 annual deductible.

Total bill: Corona Regional Medical Center billed Quintero $1,010, and Corona Regional Emergency Medical Associates billed an additional $830 for physician services — for her visit attempting to get a test. She also paid $50 at Walgreens to fill a prescription for an inhaler.

DOCUMENT













Service provider: Corona Regional Medical Center, a for-profit hospital owned by Universal Health Services, a company based in King of Prussia, Pa., which is one of the largest health care management companies in the nation. The hospital contracts with Corona Regional Emergency Medical Associates, part of Emergent Medical Associates.

Medical service: Quintero was evaluated in the emergency room for symptoms consistent with COVID-19: a wracking cough and difficulty breathing. She had a chest X-ray and a breathing treatment and was prescribed an inhaler.

What gives: Quintero knew she had a high-deductible plan yet felt she had no choice but to follow her doctor's advice and go to the nearest emergency room to get tested. She assumed she would get the test and not have to pay. Congress had passed the CARES Act just the week before, with its headlines saying coronavirus testing would be free.

That legislation turned out to be riddled with loopholes, especially for people like Quintero who needed and wanted a coronavirus test but couldn't get one early in the pandemic.

Insurers do have to cover tests, but when a patient goes to see a doctor to be checked out for COVID-19 symptoms, if no test is ordered or administered, insurers aren't required to cover the appointment without cost sharing.

So Quintero was on the hook for the copay.

"I just didn't think it was fair because I went in there to get tested," she said.

Some insurance companies are voluntarily reducing copayments for coronavirus-related emergency room visits. But Quintero said her insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, would not reduce her bill. Anthem would not discuss the case until Quintero signed its own privacy waiver; it would not accept a signed standard waiver KHN uses. The hospital would not discuss the bill with a reporter unless Quintero could also be on the phone, something that has yet to be arranged around Quintero's workday, which begins at 4 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m.

Three states have gone further than Congress to waive cost sharing for testing and diagnosis of pneumonia and influenza, given these illnesses are often mistaken for COVID-19. California is not one of them, and because Quintero's employer is self-insured — the company pays for health services directly from its own funds — it is exempt from state directives anyway. The U.S. Department of Labor regulates all self-funded insurance plans. In 2019, nearly 2 in 3 covered workers were in these types of plans.

Related health care hurdle: On that day in late March when her body shook from coughing, Quintero's immediate worry was infecting her family, especially her girlfriend's parents, both older than 65, and her 84-year-old grandmother.

"If something was to happen to them, I don't know if I would have been able to live with it," said Quintero.

Quintero wanted to isolate in a hotel, but she could hardly afford to for the week that she stayed home. She had only three paid sick days and was forced to take vacation time until her symptoms subsided and she was allowed back at work. At the time, few places provided publicly funded hotel rooms for sick people to isolate, and Quintero was not offered any help.

As lockdown restrictions ease and coronavirus cases rise around the country, public health officials say quickly isolating sick people before the virus spreads through families is essential.

But isolation efforts have gotten little attention in the U.S. Nearly all local health departments, including Riverside County where Quintero lives, now have these programs, according to the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Many were designed to shelter people experiencing homelessness but can be used to isolate others.

Raymond Niaura, interim chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at New York University, said these programs are used inconsistently and have been poorly promoted to the public.

"No one has done this before and a lot of what's happening is that people are making it up as they go along," said Niaura. "We've just never been in a circumstance like this."

Resolution:

The bills have been a constant worry. Quintero called the hospital and her insurance company and complained that she should not have to pay since she was seeking a test on her doctor's orders. Neither budged, and the bills labeled "payment reminders" soon became "final notices." She reluctantly agreed to pay $100 a month toward her balance — $50 to the hospital and $50 to the doctors.

"None of them wanted to work with me," Quintero said. "I just have to give the first payment on each bill so they wouldn't send me to collections."

On top of that, Quintero still worries about bringing the virus home to her family and fears being in the same room with her grandmother. Quintero returns from work every day now, puts her clothes in a separate hamper and diligently washes her hands before she interacts with anyone.

The takeaways:

At this point in the pandemic, tests are more widely available and federal law is very clearly on your side: You should not be charged any cost sharing for a coronavirus test.

Be wary, though, if your doctor directs you to the emergency room for a test, because any additional care you get there could come at a high price. Ask if there are any other testing sites available.

If you do find yourself with a big bill related to suspected coronavirus, push beyond a telephone call with your insurance company and file a formal appeal. If you feel comfortable, ask your employer's human resources staff to argue on your behalf. Then, call the help line for your state insurance commissioner and file a separate appeal. Press insurers — and big companies that offer self-insured plans — to follow the spirit of the law, even if the letter of the law seems to let them off the hook.

If you suspect you have COVID-19 and need to isolate to protect vulnerable members of your household, call your local public health department. Most counties have isolation and quarantine programs, but these resources are not well known. You may be placed in a hotel, recreational vehicle or other type of housing while you wait out the infection period. You do not need to have a positive coronavirus test to qualify for these programs and can use these programs while you await your test result. But this is an area in which public health officials repeatedly offer clear guidance — 14 days of isolation — which most people find impossible to follow.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by Kaiser Health News and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. 

'Going To Be Very Disturbing': Fauci Warns Coronavirus Cases Could Reach 100K A Day

NPR June 30, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other top government health officials, testifies before the Senate health and education committee on Tuesday.Kevin Dietsch/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Updated at 1:40 p.m. ET

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, told members of Congress on Tuesday that although he can't predict the ultimate number of infections and deaths related to the coronavirus, "it's going to be very disturbing."

"When you have an outbreak in one part of the country, even though in other parts of the country they're doing well, they are vulnerable," he said. "We can't just focus on those areas that are having the surge. It puts the entire country at risk. We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around," he told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which convened to discuss plans for reopening schools and work offices that have been shuttered by the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Drs. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Stephen Hahn, Food and Drug Administration commissioner; and Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, also testified.


Masks still front and center

Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., urged people to take CDC guidelines to wear a face covering seriously and lamented the politicization of mask-wearing.

"Unfortunately, this simple life-saving practice has become part of the political debate that says if you're for Trump, you don't wear a mask, if you're against Trump, you do," Alexander said. "That's why I've suggested that the president occasionally wear a mask, even though in most cases it's not necessary for him to do so. The president has plenty of admirers. They would follow his lead."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked the panelists whether they would support an effort to increase the production of masks in this country and distribute them free of charge.

"There's no doubt that wearing masks protects you," Fauci said. "Anything that furthers the use of masks, whether it's giving out free masks or any other mechanism, I am thoroughly in favor of."

Redfield concurred, calling universal mask-wearing "the most important thing we can do."

Surges of cases

Fauci said it is clear that some parts of the country skipped over checkpoints or guidelines for determining when to reopen. He added that even in states that followed the rules, it appears people are taking an "all-or-nothing approach" when it comes to social distancing and wearing face masks.

"Either be locked down or you see people in bars, not wearing masks, not avoiding crowds, not paying attention to physical distancing," Fauci described. "I think we need to emphasize the responsibility we have both as individuals and as part of a societal effort to ending the epidemic."

Giroir echoed that sentiment, saying he's concerned about the recent data from several states that indicate a rise in infections and an uptick in hospitalizations.

"We can reverse these concerning trends, if we work together," Giroir said. "We must take personal responsibility and be disciplined about our own behavior. Maintain physical distancing, wear a face covering whenever you can't physically distance, wash your hands, stay at home if you feel sick."

Vaccine

Regarding a potential vaccine, Fauci said that while health officials are hopeful, there's "no guarantee" the U.S. will develop a "safe and effective" vaccine for the coronavirus.

"But we are cautiously optimistic, looking at animal data and the early preliminary data, that we will at least know the extent of efficacy sometime in the winter and early part of next year ... Hopefully, there will be doses available by the beginning of next year," he said.

Fauci also said that questions remain about how long someone who received a vaccination would retain immunity and that the "durability" of immunity could influence how often someone would need to receive an updated vaccine.

The panel also addressed the skepticism that still remains within the country over the safety of a vaccine.

"Public confidence in vaccines is so important," Redfield said. "We have an obligation to use all of our scientific knowledge, our regulatory framework to ensure that any vaccine that comes before us, whether for authorization or approval, meets our stringent standards for safety and effectiveness.

Reopening schools

Fauci told Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that local officials should make the decision to reopen schools based on the prevalence of the virus in their district.

"I feel very strongly we need to do whatever we can to get the children back to school. So I think we are in locked agreement with that."

He suggested that there could be "creative" measures to modify a school's schedule and structure to allow for a reopening of some kind.

Treatment

Hahn said he was optimistic about possible treatments for coronavirus for adults by the fall.

He noted that remdesivir, an antiviral medication, has shown a reduction in hospitalization days among COVID-19 patients.

"Convalescent plasma, we have evaluated the safety through a large expanded access program at the Mayo Clinic and it's been found to be safe, and over 20,000 patients who administered it," Hahn said.

"That antibody data will help us in terms of the development of monoclonal antibodies," he described.

"Monoclonal antibodies are synthetic antibodies that the theory is will provide protection against the infection of the virus, and we're hopeful that those studies by the late summer, early fall will provide us information about their effectiveness and safety," Hahn explained.

Airlines

Redfield said there was "substantial disappointment" with the recent announcement that American Airlines plans to begin booking flights to full capacity. Redfield did not commit to any action when asked by Sanders whether the federal government plans to impose guidelines or requirements for social distancing on airlines or buses.

"I can say this is under critical review by us at CDC," Redfield said. "We don't think it's the right message ... Again, we think it's really important that individuals that are in whether it's a bus or a train or a plane are social distancing to the degree that it is feasible or at least have a reliable face covering."

The hearing comes as cases of the deadly respiratory virus have spiked across the United States, following calls from President Trump for states to reopen their economies and phase back into normal operations, despite health experts' guidance.


SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
Tracking The Pandemic: Are Coronavirus Cases Rising Or Falling In Your State?

The president himself has bucked conventional wisdom on slowing the spread of COVID-19, holding large in-person events as part of his reelection campaign.

So far, more than 125,000 people in the United States have died from coronavirus infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States has some 2.5 million confirmed cases.

WHO Chief On COVID-19 Pandemic: 'The Worst Is Yet To Come'

June 29, 2020
SCOTT NEUMAN NPR

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a news conference this week in Geneva.Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty ImagesThe head of the World Health Organization is warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is speeding up, and he criticized governments that have failed to establish reliable contact tracing to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Speaking at a briefing in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over."

"Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up," he said.

He said the solution is the same as it has been since the early days of the pandemic: "Test, trace, isolate and quarantine."

"If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse," he said.

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
Former NIH Director Calls Trump Administration's Pandemic Response 'Amateur Hour'

According to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 10 million confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide since the virus was first identified in China late last year, with more than a half-million deaths. The United States alone accounts for more than one-quarter of all confirmed cases with nearly 126,000 deaths.

"If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse," says @WHO Chief @DrTedros, pointing out that many public health professionals have risked their lives to do contact tracing in active conflict zones, including @DrMikeRyan when fighting #Ebola in DRC. pic.twitter.com/ka8vbLrAUL— Global Health Strategies (@GHS) June 29, 2020

"The lack of national unity and lack of global solidarity and the divided world ... is actually helping the virus to spread," Tedros said. "The worst is yet to come."

"I'm sorry to say that, but with this kind of environment and conditions we fear the worst," he said.

The head of WHO's emergencies program, Mike Ryan, said there had been "tremendous work" toward a coronavirus vaccine but said there's no guarantee of success.

In the U.S., a spike in coronavirus infections has been driven in part by people unwilling to heed public health guidelines to wear masks and continue social distancing.

Currently, the U.S. leads the world in both coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths. Brazil ranks second in the number of infections, followed by Russia, India and the United Kingdom.

President Trump has been highly critical of the WHO, accusing it of helping China cover up the extent of the pandemic within its borders. Earlier this month, the president announced that the U.S. was "terminating" its decades-long relationship with the WHO and would withdraw vital U.S. funding.

Congress Unites To Demand Answers From Trump On Russian Bounties In Afghanistan

June 29, 202011:40 AM ET


PHILIP EWING

U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers trained in Afghanistan in 2009. Members of Congress want answers about reported Russian bounties paid to target American troops.Maya Alleruzzo/AP

Members of Congress in both parties demanded answers on Monday about reported bounties paid by Russian operatives to Afghan insurgents for targeting American troops.

The stories appeared to have taken even the most senior lawmakers off guard, and they said they wanted briefings soon from the Defense Department and the intelligence community.

"I think it is absolutely essential that we get the information and be able to judge its credibility," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.


NATIONAL SECURITY
Trump Says He Was Not Briefed On Russian Bounties Because Intelligence 'Not Credible'

The story is unfolding along two parallel tracks in Washington, based on two key questions:

First, what actually has taken place — and have any American troops been killed as a result of Russian-sponsored targeted action? And second: Who knew what about the reporting on these allegations that has flowed up from the operational level in Afghanistan?


ANALYSIS
Trump Is Still Running Against The City And Idea Of Washington, D.C.

The White House tried to defend itself over the weekend on both counts, arguing that senior intelligence officials aren't convinced about the reliability of the reports and that they never reached President Trump or Vice President Pence personally.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who usually receives some of the most sensitive intelligence briefings as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight leaders in Congress, said she too hadn't been informed and sent a letter Monday requesting a briefing for all members of the House soon. She also said she relayed that request directly to Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and CIA Director Gina Haspel in calls Monday evening.

In statements Monday evening, Ratcliffe and Haspel said they will continue to look into the matter and will brief the president and congressional leaders at the appropriate time.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called for a briefing for all members of the Senate.

Pelosi cited reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post that suggested that Trump has been aware of the bounty practice since earlier this year but he and his deputies haven't acted in response.


"The administration's disturbing silence and inaction endanger the lives of our troops and our coalition partners," she wrote.

Another top House lawmaker demanding more information was Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Republicans' No. 3 leader in the chamber.



If reporting about Russian bounties on US forces is true, the White House must explain:
1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Was the info in the PDB?
2. Who did know and when?
3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) June 28, 2020

Limited briefings

White House officials briefed a limited number of House Republicans on Monday.

Cheney; Thornberry; Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah; Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana; Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas; Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York; Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois attended, a White House official said.

There was no immediate explanation for how and why this particular group of lawmakers was chosen and not others. A group of House Democrats was expected to travel to the White House on Tuesday with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

McCaul and Kinzinger said in a joint statement that they'd been told that "there is an ongoing review to determine the accuracy of [the bounty targeting] reports, and we believe it is important to let this review take place before any retaliatory actions are taken."

If U.S. officials ultimately are satisfied that they've proven what they suspect is happening, Trump must act, the lawmakers said.

"There are already those who are politicizing this issue. However we cannot let politics overshadow a truth that Republicans and Democrats alike can agree on: [Russian President Vladimir Putin's] regime cannot be trusted," McCaul and Kinzinger said. "If the intelligence review process verifies the reports, we strongly encourage the administration to take swift and serious action to hold the Putin regime accountable."

In an interview with NPR, McCaul said the president was not briefed because "they like the information to be verified across the intelligence community."

Banks used a Twitter thread after the briefing to attack the newspapers for reporting the bounty allegations because he said they'd revealed an ongoing intelligence investigation — one that he said now might never be resolved because it has become public.



I just left the White House where I was briefed by CoS @MarkMeadows and top intelligence officials. They discussed @nytimes' hit piece falsely accusing @realDonaldTrump of ignoring reports that Russia placed bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan.

A thread, 👇— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) June 29, 2020

"The real scandal: We'll likely never know the truth..." he wrote.

That characterization of the reality inside the secret intelligence world was different from the one offered earlier by McEnany, who suggested that American spies don't agree about what they've uncovered or what it means.

McEnany told reporters there was "no consensus" about the allegations within the intelligence community and that it also includes some "dissenting opinions."

McEnany also suggested that intelligence officials decided to keep the bounty payment allegations below Trump's level until they were "verified," as she put it, but those details were not clear.

Sen. Ben Sasse, who was not part of the briefing, said he heard concern from military families in his state, Nebraska, and the country. "What we're talking about here is putting a target of crosshairs on the backs of American servicemen and women in uniform. ... and they're livid. They're right to be livid. This isn't a time for politics," Sasse told Capitol Hill pool reporters. "This is a time to focus on the two things Congress should be asking and looking at: 1. Who knew what, when, and did the commander-in-chief know? And if not, how the hell not? What is going on in that process? And 2. What are we going to do to Impose proportional cost in response?"

Custody of the information

Although Trump and Ratcliffe both said the president hasn't been briefed about the alleged bounty practice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not address whether aspects of the reporting had been included in written briefings submitted to the president.

McEnany did not directly address a question about written briefing materials on Monday.

Past accounts have suggested that Trump doesn't read many of his President's Daily Briefs and prefers to hear from in-person intelligence presenters — but even then, according to the recent book by former national security adviser John Bolton, Trump does more talking than listening.

This has added to questions about practices within the administration for passing intelligence to the president that he might not like or wish to hear about.

For example, former officials have said they learned not to talk with Trump about Russian interference in U.S. elections, about which the president has been critical and skeptical.

Another example included reports that suggested Trump had received warnings about the coronavirus in his daily briefing but hadn't absorbed them; the White House has detailed two specific briefings Trump received about the virus early this year.

Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence who temporarily held the post before Ratcliffe's confirmation, said on Twitter that he wasn't aware of any reporting about the alleged bounty practices.



I never heard this. And it’s disgusting how you continue to politicize intelligence. You clearly don’t understand how raw intel gets verified. Leaks of partial information to reporters from anonymous sources is dangerous because people like you manipulate it for political gain. https://t.co/403X9AVGAC— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) June 27, 2020

Tension with intelligence services

The game of who knew what when is an old one in Washington but which is further complicated now by Trump's longstanding antipathy with the intelligence community.

The president has feuded with his aides and advisers over their assessments about Russia and other issues such as North Korea's nuclear program.

Meanwhile, there have been reports for years about Russian paramilitary or intelligence activity in Afghanistan with implications for American forces. A top general said Russian operatives were helping the Taliban with weapons or supplies. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis also said he worried about it.

The full picture never emerged, but as the situation on the ground in Afghanistan evolved, so did the practices in Washington to ingest, process and brief intelligence in a capital that has endured a number of tense episodes involving the spy agencies.

It isn't yet clear what practices the intelligence agencies may have adopted to process intelligence like that connected to the alleged bounty program and whether they were continuing to evaluate it — or different agencies might have reached different conclusions, as sometimes happens.

In other words, did the Defense Intelligence Agency or one of the military services find evidence about the bounty practice in Afghanistan, but there hasn't yet been confirmation about the intentions of Moscow from the eavesdropping National Security Agency or human spy-operating CIA?

Banks' Twitter thread on Monday suggested something along these lines — that The Times had, he wrote, "used unconfirmed intel in an ONGOING investigation into targeted killing of American soldiers."

At the same time, the story appears to be broader than that. Britain's Sky News reported that British military forces also may have been targeted in exchange for bounties paid by Russian forces and that members of Parliament want more information from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

What was clear Monday is that members of Congress want to resolve these questions fast. The House Armed Services Committee's Thornberry said that the safety of American and allied troops could depend on it.

"When you're dealing with the lives of our service members, especially in Afghanistan — especially these allegations that there were bounties put on Americans deaths, then it is incredibly serious," he said. "We in Congress need to see the information and the sources to judge that ourselves, and it needs to happen early this week. You know, it will not be acceptable to delay."

NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales contributed to this report.

GOTHIKA; SANTA MUERTE SINGS BAUDELAIRE FLEUR DE MAL

3D DRAGON

Animated Dragon by elly77ellison on Sketchfab

FLYING SNAKE NO PLANE

Flying Snake 95, Trial 618 by isaacyeaton on Sketchfab

Undulation enables gliding in flying snakes

Isaac J. Yeaton, Shane D. Ross, Grant A. Baumgardner, and John J. Socha

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-0935-4

doi: 10.1038/s41567-020-0935-4

Reconstructed wing-body of C. paradisi snake 95, (trial 618), from the indoor glide experiments. The snake’s mass is 37.3 g and snout-vent length is 64.4 cm. Snake 95 was the lightest individual tested. The visualization shows the time-varying body posture as the animal glides through the arena. From the analysis presented in the main text, this trial has the following average spatial and temporal wave characteristics: undulation frequency: 1.33 Hz, number of spatial periods of bending: 1.07, horizontal wave amplitude: 112°, vertical wave amplitude: 28°, dorsoventral bending angle: −20°.

The Uncounted Workforce

PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX 
IS POSTMODERN SLAVE LABOUR

June 29, 2020

CARDIFF GARCIA

DARIUS RAFIEYAN

AUDIO AT THE BOTTOM

Download

Transcript


MEGAN JELINGER/AFP via Getty Images

Prison labor has been a part of the U.S. economy since at least the late 19th century. Today it's a multi-billion dollar industry. Incarcerated people do everything from building office furniture and making military equipment, to staffing call centers and doing 3D modeling.

Companies like Walmart, AT&T, Whole Foods and Victoria's Secret have all relied on the labor of incarcerated people. And right now there are people in prisons all over the country working for little to no money making hand sanitizer and face masks to help fight COVID-19.

This industry is not well understood. Incarcerated workers are not included in official employment statistics and there's not a ton or economic research done on this topic, so it can be difficult to know just how substantial this sector of our economy actually is.

Today on the show, we bring you one person's story of working behind bars, and we look at what it can tell us about how America's prison labor system functions.

'Real Life Is More Tragic Than Fiction,' A Filmmaker Documents NYC Protests

June 29, 2020 ANNABEL EDWARDS

VIDEO AT THE END


"WE ARE GEORGE FLOYD," by Julian Marshall, is a film that captures New York City's protests in the days after George Floyd was killed by a police officer. It tells the story in two parts.

The first half of the film, shot entirely at night, is narrated with excerpts from a CNN interview with Harvard philosophy Professor Cornel West, who describes how, in his words, "We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment." We see fires and shattered windows and protestors under arrest, their hands zip tied together. West continues, "It looks as if the system cannot reform itself."

The second half: daylight breaks and now we're on the ground with protestors and they're organized, moving in unison. Killer Mike's speech at the Atlanta Mayor's press conference serves as the narration, where he asks, "After it burns, will we be left with char, or will we rise like a phoenix out of the ashes?"

If the first half paints a portrait of a country in deep trouble, the second half offers a way forward – first: despair; second: hope. First: desperation; second: opportunity.

NPR spoke to Marshall about his experience making this film.

Why did you decide to make this film?

I started to tune into the protests on Friday (May 29). I didn't sleep a wink Friday night. To be honest, I wanted to protest but was afraid because of coronavirus' virulence in NYC. Saturday morning, I watched Cornel West's interview and Killer Mike's press conference and was immediately struck. It was very clear that I had to create something productive in order to help people channel the collective outrage. Thematically, my focus was on Killer Mike's ultimate message: "Don't burn your own house down." That was the message that I wanted to hammer home. We need NYC in tip-top shape going into the November election in order to beat Trump. So we can't compound the damage done by coronavirus by burning the city to the ground in anger.


What was the process of making it like? What was the most challenging part about making it?

On the 30th, I shot all of the daytime footage first, which went very smoothly. I wore a P100 respirator to protect myself from coronavirus so that I could move in and out of crowds more comfortably. However, everything that I shot at night was a complete surprise. After nightfall, around 9 p.m., I decided to venture back out, instinctively thinking that something unusual was going to happen. To be honest, the chaos found me. I walked out of my apartment and immediately a swarm of 20 cop cars blasted past me up Third Avenue, going toward Union Square, so I chased them. When I arrived at 13th Street and Fourth Avenue it was very clear that this night was going to be unlike anything I had ever seen in my life, outside of a film set.

There was a cop car that had been bombed and was burning into the night sky. The NYPD and FDNY had just arrived on the scene. I had to maneuver my way around cops who were trying to block my shots, but I managed to get clean shots. Then the cruiser's gas tank exploded like a bomb! After I got the shot, I made my way around the block to try to find a different angle—and suddenly, another cop car exploded and went up in flames. I managed to get better shots of this one because the cops were starting to get spread thin between the two sites. But it was pretty sketchy having no clue how these cars were blown up. I feared that someone could have been throwing IEDs in the cop cars and trash cans, so I tried to hide behind parked cars for cover as I shot. Then, just like the first cop car, the second cop car's gas tank exploded!

As if this wasn't enough, I continued down the street and a third cop car went up in flames. I carefully made my way over and shot it while again trying to find some sort of cover for safety, knowing that the third car's tank would probably explode as well.

What has been inspiring you lately?

I've drawn immense inspiration from the continued energy of this movement. One month later, people are still out in the streets protesting. And this is how it needs to be. We cannot allow the powers that hope to maintain the status quo to change the narrative.

What do you hope audiences take away from this film?

There are only a few projects that I've made where I have been in tears in the edit room. This one hit me like a brick wall. We are living in a moment where real life is more tragic than fiction. Making this film was almost like therapy for me but the larger goal was to help people cope with, process and channel their emotions into something actionable, which in this case is mobilizing to vote. But not just vote for president—to vote at every level. Because this election is not just about Trump. It's about Congress, it's about the Senate, and it's about the soul of our judicial system, the impact of which, to be quite honest, will outlive Trump.

You can find filmmaker Julian Marshall @julianmarshall.

Minnesota Attorney General Sues Exxon Over Climate Change

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, pictured on June 3, is leading a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute.Scott Olson/Getty Images

AUDIO BELOW

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute over what he calls "a campaign of deception" about climate change that the companies "orchestrated and executed with disturbing success."

Ellison and his office say internal documents show the oil and gas companies knew the damage that fossil fuels would cause as far back as the 1970s and '80s, yet hid that science and instead launched public relations campaigns denying climate change.

"They directly contradicted what their research found," Ellison tells NPR. "We can prove that and we will."

The lawsuit claims that the oil and gas companies violated Minnesota laws against consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and false statements in advertising. Ellison said last week that the state is seeking "substantial" damages and for the companies to fund a public education campaign about climate change.

Exxon Mobil responded, calling the lawsuit part of an "ongoing coordinated, politically motivated campaign against energy companies."

"Legal proceedings like this waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and do nothing to advance meaningful actions that reduce the risks of climate change," the company added, calling the claims "baseless and without merit."


Other states and cities have sued Exxon Mobil and other oil companies over climate change. Most recently, Exxon Mobil won a suit last year brought by New York's attorney general accusing the company of misleading investors.

Ellison talked with NPR's All Things Considered about the case.

Interview Highlights

On his supporting evidence

We have documents, such as one stamped "proprietary information" from Exxon Engineering, which says, "the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has increased" and "the rate of CO2 release from anthropogenic sources appears to be doubling every 15 years. The most widely held theory is that the increase is due to fossil fuel combustion."

That document was from Oct. 16, 1979. So they knew in '79 and then they lied about it. They actually, they produced propaganda, which essentially said things like: "Who told you the Earth was warming? Chicken Little?" And then other ones: "The most serious problem with catastrophic global warming is that it may not be true." They directly contradicted what their research found. We can prove that and we will.

On why the lawsuit begins by saying global warming will "disproportionately impact people living in poverty and people of color"

Well, because it's true, which is always important, to make sure that we tell the story about what's really going on here. So many civil rights groups that work on issues of racial and economic justice don't always factor in the environmental realities that people of color and low-income people face. I mean, the fact is, is that environmental justice and environmental harms that disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income people is a civil rights issue and it should be treated as that. We've got to make sure that as people are working on criminal justice and things like that, that they factor in environmental justice, as urgent as it is.

On examples of how climate change is already impacting Minnesotans

If you're a farmer, you probably have seen much wetter fields than you've ever seen. Those wetter fields delay your growing season. You've seen infestation and pests that are impacting. There are a range of things that Minnesotans are seeing every day. We saw many of them join with us just last week.

One person who was with us was an environmentalist who is from the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe. And she was talking about how wild rice production has been dramatically impacted, which is a, she called it a sacred food of the Ojibwe people, and how that just climate change has so dramatically affected how they can harvest their crop.

NPR's Noah Caldwell and Dave Blanchard produced and edited the audio version of this interview.