María Teresa Kumar Trump suspends immigration amid coronavirus, proving nothing can stop xenophobia

Clearly, the president will never cease his efforts to scapegoat immigrants — even during our nation’s darkest hour.

An undocumented Honduran immigrant, 4, sick and isolated with his family for the last two weeks, stands inside his bedroom window on March 30, 2020 in Mineola, New York. The nine immigrants who share a Long Island rental house self-quarantined after one became ill with fever, and the rest quickly followed. Most are largely recovered but never received tests for COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic has been especially difficult for undocumented communities, who lack unemployment protections, health insurance and fear deportation if authorities know their whereabouts.John Moore / Getty Images

April 24, 2020 By María Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino

America’s pandemic president continues his reign of ineptitude and cruelty. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending the issuing of new green cards for people immigrating to the United States. After initially implying on Twitter that the order would broadly ban all immigration, he clarified that the order would not stop temporary work visas from being granted to foreign laborers.

In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020

At the same time, Trump's administration has given Americans a series of mixed messages about when the country should reopen. At least some in the White House have called out public health as a reason for the new immigration policy. National security adviser Robert O’Brien, for example, told Fox News that “We’re trying to do everything, the president’s trying to do everything he can to put the health of the American people first during this crisis,” adding that the executive order was "one step."

In reality, this latest executive order should be tossed on the garbage heap with all of Trump’s other travel bans. Either the virus is not serious enough to continue mass nationwide social distancing or it is so serious that there is an immediate need to stop people from entering the country. It cannot be both. Despite the specter of the coronavirus, this is just another attempt to stop black, brown and Muslim immigrants from entering the country — all while feeding his xenophobic base.


Trump’s softening of the ban's stance on temporary workers is further proof that the president does not actually believe his own statements about immigration and jobs. It is more evidence that he views immigrants as disposable, cheap labor — but not as people who could or should become part of our nation. "This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump's failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda,” noted Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump’s failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda. We must come together to reject his division. https://t.co/wYEai4rYVY— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) April 21, 2020

The distinction lies in the path of opportunity for temporary workers and green card holders. A person with a green card can sponsor family members for their own green cards, work in a field and occupation of their choosing, leave and re-enter the United States much more easily, contribute to political campaigns, and, of course, apply for citizenship after five years. In other words, a green card provides a real opportunity to become a productive part of this country.

Temporary work visas, on the other hand, only allow people to come into the country to work in a specific occupation, for a fixed amount of time, without the ability to exit and re-enter the country or take part in civic life.

But there’s more at stake than green cards. Trump's executive order is merely the latest example of how this administration is ignoring the needs of Latinx Americans and immigrants at a time when the community's collective health and wealth has perhaps never been more at risk.

Undocumented immigrants pay well over $27 billion dollars in state and federal taxes, but they are not eligible for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act stimulus money; 49 percent of all Latinx households have either lost jobs or have had to take a pay cut. Yet, about a fifth of Latinx workers are excluded from the CARES Act due to their immigration status. Similarly, the 16.7 million people living in mixed-status households, half of whom are U.S.-born or naturalized, received exactly zero relief money from the CARES Act. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has created a $125 million relief fund for undocumented residents. That’s definitely a start, but it’s only enough money to cover a small fraction of those who need it.

Clearly, the president will not stop trying to scapegoat immigrants — even during our nation’s darkest hour. This is despite needing their specialized labor, and happily using it in his own businesses. Indeed, Trump has resurrected his immigrant-bashing each time he is backed into a corner and will likely continue to do so until he is voted out of office. After all, it’s easy red meat for his base and a way to deflect attention away from his incompetence.

Trump began his campaign in 2015 by calling Latinx people rapists, drug dealers and criminals. He uses anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric carelessly for political expediency. It’s why he has only proposed building a wall along one of our borders. And, it is why he continues to call the coronavirus, “the Chinese virus.”

The president has never been shy about how he feels about immigrants from “shithole” countries, and his rhetoric now only reinforces the callousness and hypocrisy that has defined his presidency. He fails to understand that America’s essence and greatness is because of the very immigrants he dehumanizes. According to analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, immigrants make up 25 percent of health care professionals, 22 percent of food service workers, 34 percent of public transportation workers, and, in California alone, 69 percent of agricultural workers.

This year, for the first time, 1 in 10 eligible voters are naturalized citizens. Come January 2021, we can only hope that the economy has fully recovered from this pandemic. But, by that time, Donald Trump should be out of a job.

---30---

THIS IS THE MAN ERDOGAN WISHES TO KIDNAP AND KILL

Fethullah Gülen The coronavirus changed how Ramadan looks. But it will not change our faith in God.
Many yearly rituals of Ramadan will continue even as some change in deference to our social responsibility to respect God’s laws in the universe.
 

Fethullah Gülen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pa., on July 29, 2016.Charles Mostoller / Reuters file

April 24, 2020, By Fethullah Gülen

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan will be different this year. Around the world, mosques will be closed, when they would normally have worshipers spilling out onto the street. Extended families will remain apart, when they would typically gather for Iftar to break the fast and share homemade treats. And shopping malls, cafes and streets will be eerily quiet, when they would normally come alive after dark.

Ramadan still began on Thursday evening, though, and in the early hours on Friday morning, households gathered, as they have for centuries, to share a sleepy suhur — the pre-dawn meal.

Even as the world grapples with COVID-19, the yearly rituals of Ramadan will continue. Throughout the holy month, most of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will fast between dawn and sunset, spend time in Quranic recitation, self-reflection and prayer in an effort to become closer to God, and give thanks for our blessings. But this year, the prescribed exceptions from fasting for young children, travelers, pregnant mothers and anyone who is sick will now be extended to those feeling symptoms of COVID-19.

And this year, our prayers will include special emphasis on the health care workers, emergency workers and other essential employees who are on the front lines of the fight to protect our communities. In the eyes of God, saving human lives and benefitting humanity are most noble endeavors: The Quran likens saving a life to saving the whole of humanity, and the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be God’s peace and blessings) says that the best of humans are those who benefit other humans.

Our obligation to help and support those in need also takes on added meaning this year as our neighbors and communities face sickness, grief, economic hardship and the loneliness of self-isolation.

Perhaps the most difficult obligation for many, though, will be forgoing the long-planned gatherings of the season, in order to comply with precautions issued by authorities. But following these measures is a duty of our citizenship and a necessity of our social responsibility to respect God’s laws in the universe. For instance, the Prophet Muhammad — whose belief and trust in God was beyond description — even advised quarantining a town in the event of an infectious disease.

VIDEO Curious About Ramadan? Here Are the Basics JUNE 17, 2015 01:03

Each of us should take the extra time and space afforded by the pandemic's social distancing measures as an opportunity for further examination of our connection with God, our families and our core values. This time offers a mandatory retreat from the busy nature of our daily lives and a chance to turn toward God, deepening our faith, knowledge and practice. I hope that imams will offer reminders about these opportunities to their congregations.

This period also forces us to rely on the internet and the technologies built upon it. Our young generations have been well-versed in these technologies ahead of their parents. Throughout history, messengers of God and those who strive for the enlightenment of humanity always used the available cultural tools and practices to spread their messages. We also must take this time to connect with our communities in new ways, including making our spiritual resources accessible to younger generations using their language and their familiar technologies.

The challenges of responding to the pandemic and altering our lives might push some of us to seek people to blame or to criticize. As we enter Ramadan, it is paramount that we devote ourselves to helping those in need, rather than finding others to blame. Even as people, groups or nations with whom we have had past differences may be suffering, each of us must reject as inhumane the thought that anyone deserved a calamity.

In a globalized world, nobody is isolated from a potent problem, be it environmental, medical or economic. This is a time to share data, and to collaborate to find solutions. This is a time to realize our interdependence as nations, as communities and as inhabitants of a global ecosystem — a time to recognize that we all are members of the human family and each have the opportunity to show the true potential of humanity.

As we enter this holy month, it is crucial that we look forward with hope and not despair, which stifles people and progress. Humanity has overcome great challenges in the past, and we will find ways to overcome this challenge, too. If we focus on the opportunities this pandemic presents, we will be able to keep our spirits high and reach the end of this tunnel much quicker.

Our observance of Ramadan will necessarily be different this year. But in many ways it will be like any other year: We will fast, we will pray, we will recite our holy book and we will take time for reflection and charity throughout the holy month. May God enable us to benefit fully from the feast of bounty in Ramadan.

Translated by Alp Aslandogan, the executive director of the Alliance for Shared Values.
Fethullah Gülen

Fethullah Gülen is an Islamic scholar, preacher and social advocate. HE IS A SUFI

Earth Day amid coronavirus reveals what happens when leaders fail to act on science
We now need to turn these COVID-19 truths of heeding experts, protecting the most vulnerable and prioritizing public health into action on climate change.

Women wear face masks to protect against COVID-19 on a polluted day in Beijing on Feb. 20, 2020.Greg Baker / AFP - Getty Images

April 22, 2020 By Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

I never imagined we’d mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day amid a global pandemic and facing our biggest challenge yet: climate change. Yet, here we are.

A half-century ago, our country faced another grave crisis. Oil spills were smothering our coastlines and beaches. Pollution from smokestacks was destroying our forests. Car emissions inflamed our lungs. Toxic chemicals choked our rivers.

We faced a choice. Watch this crisis fester and deepen — or learn from it and change our ways.

Great leaders don’t wish away a virus or bluster their way out of a problem. They don’t pile on media briefings that misinform and confuse.

Twenty million Americans from all walks of life joined the first Earth Day and demanded we fix this problem together. And that’s just what we did.

Our leaders put aside politics and passed bedrock environmental safeguards to protect clean water and air. They created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and empowered the Department of the Interior to defend public waters, lands and all they support.

Great leaders don’t wish away a virus or bluster their way out of a problem. They don’t pile on media briefings that misinform and confuse. Rather, they learn from a crisis, roll up their sleeves and get to work applying those lessons to reduce other threats — just as we did 50 years ago when we marched in the streets for the first Earth Day.

VIDEO How the global lockdown is affecting our environment APRIL 22, 2020 03:47

People have stood up and beaten the unbeatable battles before. Thanks to the public health and environmental protections born out of the first Earth Day, we saved the ozone layer. We solved the acid rain crisis. We got lead out of gasoline. We brought endangered species back from the brink. Our health, our communities, our wild places are better off because of it.

We can do it again. As we look to the future, it is critical we rely on science, respond to threats as they gather; and act early to protect the most vulnerable. We need to demand this of our government.

That’s how our democracies work — from the bottom up. Every big leap forward started this way. It’s happening again right now — with millions of young people across the world standing up and demanding a better future.

Because the planet doesn’t give a damn if people survive. We do.

The COVID-19 and climate crises underscore a similar reality — we’re all vulnerable, we’re all connected and we must all work as one to solve them. If we want to hand our kids a better world, we better acknowledge three hard truths and change our ways:

First of all, COVID-19 is forcing us to confront the terrifying example of what goes wrong when our leaders fail to act on science. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was out early on pandemic response, setting up a COVID-19 Incident Management System on Jan. 7. Yet, President Donald Trump spent two months playing down the threat of the virus, predicting “like a miracle, it will disappear,” and urging Americans to “just stay calm, it will go away.”

Whether it’s a coronavirus, lead in drinking water or the growing damage inflicted by climate change, responding to public health challenges starts with our leaders listening to the science and following where it leads. We cannot be misled or forced to accept willful ignorance at our own expense or our children’s future.

Inexcusable and unsustainable inequities are having life-and-death consequences for too many people. People of color and low-income workers most often live in communities threatened by air pollution. This aggravates problems for people with lung disease and heart trouble, which can weaken their ability to survive COVID-19. Early research suggest death rates from this pandemic are 15 percent higher for those living in areas with even slightly more air pollution.

Data also shows that African Americans are being hit especially hard. Though many work “essential’ jobs that require high degrees of personal contact with the public, this is also in part due to racially biased systems that result in poorer access to health care and pre-existing conditions that weaken their ability to survive the virus. This fact demonstrates why protecting vulnerable people from pollution is what we need to do now more than ever.
Related

We need to put public health first. The Trump administration could have — and should have — done more to reduce the spread of the coronavirus early on. Quickly spooling up production of COVID-19 test kits, ordering emergency production of hospital ventilators and protective masks and urging common sense precautions could have saved lives. Instead our president falsely asserted “anybody that wants a (COVID-19) test can get a test.” This is still not true.

Even as thousands of Americans are sick and dying from a pandemic worsened by air pollution, the Trump administration has recently taken multiple steps that will make our air even dirtier, including:Issuing a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for industry to pollute our communities without fear of repercussion during the pandemicRolling back fuel efficiency standards that reduce health-harming emissions from carsPassing on a chance to reduce soot pollution in our airDoubling down on attempts to censor scienceUndermining federal standards for mercury, lead and other toxic air pollution from power plants that will increase the risk of more kids with asthma and brain damage.

We now need to turn these COVID-19 truths of heeding science, protecting the most vulnerable and prioritizing public health into action on climate change.

That means cutting carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels. It means cleaning the air through smarter ways to power our future, so our kids don’t inherit climate catastrophe tomorrow. It means protecting people on the frontlines from health and environmental damages of extreme weather events.

This Earth Day, let’s use the lessons of COVID-19 to start building the future we want.
Gina McCarthy

Gina McCarthy, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, served in President Barack Obama's administration as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation.

SOCIAL ECOLOGY

First pollution, now coronavirus: Black parish in Louisiana deals with 'a double whammy' of death
“Air pollution and pollution in general is segregated, and so is America,” one expert said.

A healthcare worker leaves her shift at the University Medical Center 

as the spread of coronavirus continues, in New Orleans on April 14, 2020. 

Barria / Reuters


April 23, 2020, By Trymaine Lee
When Sharon Lavigne was a little girl in rural Louisiana, she remembers the air being as fresh and sweet as the sugarcane her daddy grew on the family’s farm. They lived off the land, fished and raised cows, hogs and chickens. The kids would play outside for hours. And Lavigne remembers feeling a deep connection to the soil beneath her naked toes and the air that would swell in her lungs on days she’d chase softballs into the long-setting sun.

“It was the American dream,” she said. “It was so wonderful. Everything was nice. The air was clean, the water was clean. We could drink water from the hydrant.”

Lavigne’s family has lived in St. James Parish, Louisiana, for four generations. Now 67, she still lives on 22-acres of her family’s land. But these days she said the air she breathes sometimes burns her lungs. The ground is often covered in a mysterious soot or ash.

St. James Parish is a nearly majority black parish of about 21,000 people. It sits halfway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge — along an 85-mile stretch that is home to more than 200 chemical plants and refineries. Even before the coronavirus arrived, there was so much sickness and death in that corridor of southeastern Louisiana that it's been given the nickname Cancer Alley. And more recently, Death Alley.

If Lavigne’s grandchildren spend too much time playing outside they develop a rash, she said. Over the years, many of her neighbors, family and friends have moved or faded away. Too many to count. Cancer mostly. The landscape has changed, too.

Many of the old family farms have been replaced with petrochemical plants and refineries and other behemoths of industry — DuPont, Mosaic Fertilizer, Nucor, NuStar, OxyChem, Plains Pipeline, Shell and others. Look out along the horizon and you see smoke stacks where trees once stood tall. The factories have pushed so far into residential communities that chemical storage tanks have sprouted behind churches, many neighbors share fence lines with facilities, not families, and some homeowners have found themselves jammed between chemical plants on nearly all sides.

A cemetery stands in contrast to the chemical plants that surround

 it in "Cancer Alley" in Baton Rouge,La., on Oct. 15, 2013.Giles Clarke / Getty Images
Lavigne, who was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis in 2016 and lives next to chemical companies, eventually saw what she believed to be the cause of all the sickness and death — the air and water.

“I have to go outside and breathe this air. It hurts. I'm telling you, it hurts so bad,” Lavigne told NBC News for the “Into America” podcast. “I pray every day, every night.”

And now the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has exacerbated the dire state of health in St. James and nearby St. John the Baptist parishes, which are among the 20 U.S. counties with the highest per-capita death rates from the coronavirus. Lavigne said that friends and neighbors, many already suffering with health issues, have fallen gravely ill or died from the virus.

That’s been the case in other environmentally compromised black communities across the country, where the virus appears to have seized upon America’s deeply ingrained social and racial inequities to infect black people with greater frequency and lethality than whites. Health and science experts say layers of pre-existing conditions — like hypertension, and heart and respiratory diseases — often brought on by negative environmental factors like air pollution, have made black people more susceptible to catching and dying from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area

 known as "Cancer Alley" in Baton Rouge, La., on Oct. 15, 2013.

Giles Clarke / Getty Images

This month, Harvard released a preliminary study that suggests long-term exposure to air pollution is connected to the most severe COVID-19 symptoms and higher mortality rates from the disease. A long history of segregation and mistreatment has made African Americans more likely than whites to live in unhealthy neighborhoods, where air and soil quality are worse. Even middle-class blacks are more likely than poor whites to live in these kinds of more toxic environments.

“When you talk about having communities that are similarly situated with all the chemicals being pumped out, not having access to good quality health care, high concentration of people who are uninsured, then you have lots of underlying conditions that make it ripe for a heat-seeking missile like COVID-19,” said Dr. Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University. Bullard, widely considered “the father of environmental justice,” has spent decades researching the links between the environment and race.

“So when we talk about who's most likely to be the most vulnerable, you can actually predict where the deaths are going to be,” Bullard said

City by city and state by state, the disparities are glaring. In New York City, blacks are dying from COVID-19 at twice the rate of their white counterparts. In Chicago, African Americans make up just 30 percent of the population but 70 percent of the deaths from the disease. In Wisconsin, they represent 6 percent of the population, but nearly 40 percent of those fatalities. In nearby Michigan, it’s 14 percent of the population and 40 percent of known coronavirus deaths.

Black Louisianans in Lavigne’s region have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. African Americans represent 56 percent of the state’s COVID-19 deaths — much more than the 32 percent of the population they represent.

“It's not random. It's not isolated. It's not coincidental. The singular root is racism and the continued operation of disparities based on race and based on place,” Bullard said. “Air pollution and pollution in general is segregated, and so is America.”

Chemicals emitted from nearby plants — things like ethylene oxide and benzene — are known carcinogens. And seven of the 10 census tracts with the highest cancer risk in the nation are found in Cancer Alley, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.

SCHOOL PLAYGROUND IN FRONT OF CHEMICAL REFINERY

In St. James Parish alone, there are over 30 petrochemical plants. While the population is pretty evenly split — 49 percent black, 49 percent white — the plants are largely concentrated in the Fifth District of the parish, where Lavigne lives. The Fifth District is more than 80 percent black.

When the first petrochemical plants started popping up in St. James Parish in the 1960s, Lavigne said people were excited about the prospect of good jobs. But as more plants started moving in, the prospects of black folks getting lots of those jobs seemed to vanish. White landowners began selling off their land to big corporations. In the decades that followed, sickness started to set in.

Lavigne and her neighbors have decided to fight back. In 2018 she formed a group called RISE St. James to push back against the expansion of big industry in their community. They do research, stage protests and have sued to stop construction of yet another petrochemical company facility in the parish.

“The industry is killing us now. On top of that, coronavirus keeps killing us. So we have a double whammy,” Lavigne said. “This is heartbreaking, and I don't want to leave, I want to stay right here. This is my home.”
Trymaine Lee is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covers guns, poverty and education for msnbc.com. Prior to joining msnbc Lee was a senior reporter with the Huffington Post, where he covered national stories that impacted the black community.

Claire Tighe, Preeti Varathan and Aisha Turner contributed.

Amazon workers stage 'sick out' rally to push for warehouse changes
The rally was organized through an all-day livestream broadcast on YouTube and Facebook Live.

An Amazon worker delivers packages amid the coronavirus outbreak

in Denver on April 22, 2020.Kevin Mohatt / Reuters

April 24, 2020, By April Glaser
Hundreds of Amazon tech and fulfillment center employees called out sick Friday, rallying together — virtually — to protest what they say are unsafe and unethical working conditions for the more than 800,000 people the company employs in its network of fulfillment centers around the world,as the highly contagious coronavirus continues to spread.

The "sick out" was organized through an all-day livestream broadcast on YouTube and Facebook Live. The event kicked off with speeches from recently fired Amazon workers, followed by two Amazon warehouse workers in Poland who said their working conditions have also been unsafe during the global pandemic. The writers and activists Bill McKibbon and Naomi Klein joined the event.


Friday’s protest was spearheaded by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, a group of Amazon tech workers formed in 2018 to pressure their employer to commit to reducing its fossil fuel emissions. For the “sick-out,” Amazon Employees for Climate Justice asked tech workers at the company to take a day off to signal their support for warehouse workers.

The protest adds to growing unrest among some of the company's front-line workers as well as scrutiny from labor activists and Democratic politicians who have called on Amazon to change its policies.

VIDEO Amazon workers plan to protest lack of coronavirus protections APRIL 21, 2020

“There are departments and spots where you can’t keep the two meters social distance,” one of the Amazon warehouse workers from Poland said during the online rally. She stressed that it’s taking Amazon days to inform workers if there was a positive case in their facility and employees are afraid to come into the work because they’re unsure if it’s safe.

As part of the action, warehouse and tech workers at Amazon issued a list of demands, including reinstating workers who were fired based on selective enforcement policies; providing more information on infections at warehouses; and making the increase in hourly rates for warehouse workers and paid sick days permanent after the pandemic is over.

A spokesperson for Amazon said that the company does not inform workers of the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in fulfillment centers. But it says it does alert workers immediately by word of mouth, calls and texts if an employee has tested positive.

“The fact is that today all but a handful of our 800,000+ employees around the world came to work as usual to continue delivering on behalf of customers,” Amazon said in a statement, calling employees “heroes” for continuing to pack and ship orders during the pandemic.

Scores of Amazon warehouse workers have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The company has continued to keep warehouses open after employees tested positive. Two warehouse workers told NBC News last month that when positive cases have been confirmed at their jobsite, they were only alerted upon showing up to work.

Two leaders from Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, were fired from Amazon this month after publicly criticizing the company for not keeping warehouse employees safe during the pandemic.
Recommended

“We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email.

Two warehouse workers — Bashir Mohamed in Minnesota and Christopher Smalls in New York — were also fired this month after raising alarms among fellow employees about unsafe working conditions during the global health crisis.

Amazon said Smalls and Mohamed were fired for violating social distancing guidelines. Mohamed was also cited for using inappropriate language.

Smalls organized a work stoppage outside the facility where he worked in Staten Island, New York, after learning there was a positive case of the coronavirus there. Amazon failed to alert workers at the fulfillment center, Smalls wrote in an op-ed in The Guardian, and he says that moved him to organize co-workers to demand for hazard pay and better protective gear.

Since the pandemic, Amazon’s fulfillment center workers have been going to work as the majority of Americans have stayed at home under statewide shelter-in-place orders, with many relying on internet shopping for basic goods. But employees have still been contracting the infectious disease, despite measures by the company to keep them safe, like maintaining social distancing, wearing masks and raising pay by $2 an hour.

The company is also providing unlimited unpaid time off for employees who want to keep their job but who fear coming to work during the pandemic. The company is providing two weeks of paid time off for people who test positive for COVID-19.

The company will eliminate its option for unlimited unpaid time off at the end of April, but will remain flexible to accommodate workers in case of COVID-19-related needs, an Amazon spokesperson said in an email.

April Glaser is a reporter on the tech investigations team for NBC News in San Francisco.
Ezra Kaplan contributed.

JAIR JAIR THE BOZO BOLSONARO

Brazilian President Bolsonaro sides with anti-democracy protesters

At a recent rally, President Jair Bolsonaro joined radical protesters calling for Brazilian democracy to be abolished. Other institutions, including the country's military, are speaking out against his rhetoric


Speaking at a rally with hundreds of supporters in the Brazilian capital Brasilia on April 19, President Jair Bolsonaro told his backers: "I am here because I believe in you — and you are here, because you believe in Brazil." They had gathered to protest coronavirus lockdown measures imposed by the country's governors and mayors.

The protesters also called for Brazil's Congress and Supreme Court to be shut down, and for decree AI-5 – issued by the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1968 — to be reinstated. It had allowed the junta, which governed the country from 1964 to 1985, to shut down parliament and scrap civil liberties. Protesters also carried signs demanding a military intervention with Bolsonaro at the helm.

Such a move would constitute a clear violation of the constitution. "It irritated the military, in particular because Bolsonaro held his speech in front of the armed forces headquarters," says Carlos Fico, a professor of history at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The next morning, Bolsonaro somewhat reversed his position, arguing he is in favor of Brazilian democracy and the constitution after all. Press reports indicate military figures close to him had urged Bolsonaro to row back. This flip-flopping is nothing unusual for the former army captain, Fico explains. "Bolsonaro has made such criminal statements several times before, and then taken them back again. But this time, the military figures advising him have seemingly become involved."


Bolsonaro supporters have demanded a return to military rule

Military vows to honor constitution

The same day, Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva, himself a high-ranking general, announced that Brazil's armed forces would "always honor the constitution." Fico says such general statements show a vague support for democracy. "But this is more of an impression than a certainty," he adds.

According to the historian, it remains unclear how Brazil's army now views the military junta that once ruled the country. "They never asked for forgiveness or recognized the serious human rights violations [of this period] — on the contrary, the military defends the dictatorship to this very day," he explains.

Read more: Opinion: Jair Bolsonaro celebrates Brazil's dictatorship

Indeed, the country in general has never really processed and reflected on its military dictatorship, argues Annette von Schönfeld, who runs the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Rio de Janeiro office. "However, I doubt if the protesters would be open to confronting the past and potentially revising their position," she says.

Bolsonaro testing his strength

She believes since coming into power, Bolsonaro has been systematically pushing boundaries. "Bolsonaro says unspeakable things, which he then takes back a day later — but this establishes a certain discourse and that is highly dangerous," she says.

She is deeply concerned about the military's half-hearted response to Bolsonaro's position. "It is not quite certain how clear the rejection of authoritarian structures is in some parts of society, and what side the military would take. Clearly distancing itself [from the president's stance] would have been better."

The fact that Bolsonaro can test moral boundaries without suffering any serious consequences is a clear demonstration of his power, according to von Schönfeld. Some politicians and civil society actors have lambasted the president's authoritarian tendencies on social media, yet this has not diminished his political clout. "In other countries there would be demands for his resignation, but not here," she adds.

Other institutions working for democracy

Anja Czymmeck, who heads the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Brazil branch, says she has great confidence in the stability of the country's democratic system. The reasons for her confidence, she says, are that individual governors and mayors have the power to enact their own measures to tackle to pandemic, and that Congress is entirely independent.

"The defense minister's reaction shows that the military wants peace and stability as enshrined in the constitution," she claims. "And the military in the cabinet have been working as such. The institutions are working."

Indeed, on April 21, the Supreme Court launched an investigation into the anti-democracy protests. Justice Alexandre de Moraes said that "the democratic state of Brazilian law and its republican institutions" had been violated, in a note released by the court.

Statements a sign of Bolsonaro's weakness

Historian Fico believes only a small minority of Bolsonaro's supporters are genuine radicals. "Even so it has a certain symbolic dimension when the president repeatedly meets with protesters who hold up such [anti-democratic] banners," he adds.

Fico is convinced that Bolsonaro's radicalization shows how fragile his grip on power actually is. "I think the president is very concerned that he could be impeached, which is a very real possibility today."

This prospect could become even more likely if his approval ratings continue to fall. Currently Fico puts them around the 30% mark. A deep economic recession, which looks probable with the COVID-19 crisis persisting, would harm him too. Experts believe the economy could shrink by up to 5% and lead to several million more unemployed this year alone.

"Military figures would not intervene to stop such [an impeachment] process," Fico says. If Bolsonaro were removed from office, Vice President Hamilton Mourao — incidentally a high-ranking general — would succeed him.


DW RECOMMENDS

Brazil's Justice Minister Sergio Moro quits, says Bolsonaro was meddling

Former anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro has quit, accusing the president of meddling with law enforcement. He said the president tried to force him to sack his chief of police, adding he needed "autonomy" to operate. (24.04.2020)

Bolsonaro polarizes Brazil with lax coronavirus response

The president's calls for Brazilians to ignore isolation measures are pushing moderate fans to the other side. But further division may be what he needs to mobilize his most loyal supporters. (30.03.2020)

Coronavirus studies: Chloroquine is ineffective and dangerous

Too high a dose of the anti-malarial agent chloroquine can cause severe cardiac arrhythmia in certain patients. Tests on COVID-19 patients in the United States and Brazil have shown increased fatalities. (22.04.2020)

Date 24.04.2020 Author Thomas Milz (Rio de Janeiro)

KAPITALISM IS KRISIS

The global economy was shattered before the coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the existing cracks in the global economy: rampant consumption, a race to the bottom and growing inequality. Now is the time for radical change, says Kate Ferguson.


For some, it will be the moment the call ended. The white blur of the nurse's glove across the screen. The last thing to come between them and their loved one. Others will recall the long wait in the nursing home car park. The closest they could get.

The lucky ones will say: Remember when people wore masks to go grocery shopping? What year was that again? 2020? Yeah. Wow. Everything closed for months. I got so good at baking! Learned to play the piano, too. They were crazy times!

But we are not there yet. We are not yet reminiscing. There is still time to learn from this mess. We must seize the opportunity with all the strength we've got.

Economy in focus

Like most crises, this one too is about the economy. About the haves and the have-nots. The should-haves and the should-not-haves.

This week, the oil industry gifted us with a metaphor to illustrate the worthless abundance that characterizes the global economy. As producers of West Texas Intermediate ran out of storage space, they were left with no option but to pay others to take it off their hands. As a result, the price of the US benchmark plunged to below zero for the first time in history.

The barrels may have been overflowing but the people were getting poorer.

Meanwhile the grounded planes, shuttered factories and closed offices have enabled a far more precious commodity to emerge: time. Time at home. Time spent in nature. Time with your family. Time to cook. Time for art. Time to think.

More time for yourself?

In 1930, the British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technological advancement would lead to a dramatic reduction in labor time. He envisioned a 15-hour work week, with the surplus time devoted to intellectual advancement, leisure and the arts.

He could not have predicted that the trend would go toward fetishized productivity and obsessive consumption. That time would become the scarcest commodity of them all.

More and more superproductive industrial robots should actually enable us to reduce our working hours step by step. But it's just not happening

Search Results

Web results

[PDF]

The Fragment on Machines

thenewobjectivity.com › pdf › marx

The Fragment on Machines. Karl Marx – from The Grundrisse (pp. 690-712). [690]. 

The labour process. -- Fixed capital. Means of labour. Machine.

A population with little time and next-to-no job security is a gift to populists and a threat to democracy. It leads to mindlessness and fatigue and mobilization in all the wrong directions. It is what we have today.

Just look at the United States, where the president — as usual — has twisted and commodified the crisis for his own gain. Many lives have been lost as a result. Despite this, protesters gather in the streets to oppose measures that more sage governors have implemented to protect them.

In China, where the virus originated, doctor Li Wenliang who spoke out about it, was brutally silenced. Once the wind changed, he was exonerated but by then it was too late. He was already dead.

In Britain, Brazil and the Philippines, the arrogance and ignorance displayed by leaders has cost lives. In New Zealand, Germany and Taiwan, in contrast, humility has proven to be a life-saving force.

Something was rotten before
In much of the world, the labor market is now divided between those who are essential and those who are not. Many of those upon whom our survival depends are not paid accordingly. Care workers, cleaners, nurses, truck drivers, supermarket cashiers and fruit pickers continue their work as advertising executives, marketers, stockbrokers and football players stay at home.

All of this is indication that the global economy was sick long before the coronavirus struck. Thankfully, there are remedies available. Many of them begin at home. We can buy less and buy local so that the race toward the cheapest labor in the poorest conditions can finally come to an end.

We can enact laws that require essential workers to be paid no less than a country's median salary and ideally, considerably more.

We can refuse to accept leaders who sew hatred and spite and instead celebrate those who display compassion and sagaciousness. We can reclaim our time by demanding flexibility from our employers and by abandoning ladders that aren't worth climbing. We can stop worshipping wealth and start cherishing the arts instead.

We must acknowledge that the only bailout for the moral bankruptcy this crisis has exposed is a functioning democracy. We must be mindful that this requires informed, engaged citizens who have the time and the means to act locally on the basis of what they want to see globally. This is the only way to restore health to an economy whose ailments far predate the coronavirus.


Date 24.04.2020

FDA warns against using hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus outside of hospitals
Clinical trials can continue, but the drug's heart risks are too great to be used outside of controlled settings.

Tablets on a blister pack of hydroxychloroquine on April 10, 2020,

in Rio de Janeiro.Buda Mendes / Getty Images

April 24, 2020 By Erika Edwards

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday cautioned against prescribing hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients outside of hospital settings or clinical trials. The drug, an antimalarial, was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump as a possible treatment for the coronavirus.

"The FDA is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin," the FDA wrote on its website.


"We are also aware of increased use of these medicines through outpatient prescriptions. Therefore, we would like to remind health care professionals and patients of the known risks associated with both hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine," the FDA said.

The agency said hydroxychloroquine can still be used in hospital settings or in clinical trials, but it was not immediately clear whether some planned trials would be stopped.

Cardiologists have been sounding the alarm about hydroxychloroquine's heart risks for weeks, saying the drug could be deadly in a small number of patients who are susceptible to heart conditions.

Study finds no benefit to Trump-touted drug for COVID-19 patients

APRIL 21, 202001:1

Hydroxychloroquine, and a related compound called chloroquine, is a medication that's been around for decades. It's used to treat malaria, as well as certain autoimmune diseases, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Enthusiasm for its potential as a treatment for the coronavirus began to build in March, when a French study suggested hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin (the antibiotic known as a Z-Pak) might benefit COVID-19 patients. The journal that published the French study, however, later said that the article did not meet its expected standard.
Recommended

A week later, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine, allowing health care providers to use the medicine for COVID-19 in hospitalized patients with severe disease, even though the drug had not been approved as a specific treatment for the illness, and was known to increase the risk for irregular heartbeat.

But the previous fervor for hydroxychloroquine has diminished. In one case, a New York woman with coronavirus symptoms died after her family said a doctor prescribed her a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin without confirming she had COVID-19 or testing her for heart problems ahead of time. The exact cause of death for the woman has not yet been determined

'No miraculous recovery': Some ICU doctors say malaria drug not helping

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also pulled back on its guidance for using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 and no longer offers recommendations for dosage. And earlier this week, a National Institutes of Health panel of experts said doctors should not use hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat the illness, citing lack of evidence.

Erika Edwards is a health and medical news writer and reporter for NBC News and "TODAY."

Smithfield Foods sued over working conditions in Missouri, closes Illinois plant

Faced with a lawsuit and numerous coronavirus infections, the company says it is "proactively" 

suspending operations at one plant after being sued over working conditions at a different facility
The closed Smithfield Foods pork plant is seen as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 16, 2020.Shannon Stapleton / REUTERS

April 24, 2020, By Alicia Victoria Lozano and Reuters

Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's largest pork processor, announced Friday it is indefinitely closing an Illinois plant next week after a "small portion" of its 1,700 employees tested positive for COVID-19.

Employees will be paid during the closure, the company said in a statement.

The Monmouth plant represents approximately 3 percent of U.S. fresh pork supplies, according to Smithfield, and also produces bacon.

The news comes one day after Smithfield was accused in a lawsuit of failing to adequately protect workers at a Missouri plant who have been forced to work "shoulder to shoulder" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Virginia-based Smithfield, owned by China's WH Group, would not say how many Illinois employees were infected with coronavirus.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Missouri federal court claims Smithfield has created a "public nuisance" by providing inadequate protective equipment to workers at the plant in the town of Milan, refusing to give them time to wash their hands and discouraging workers who are ill from taking sick leave.

Workers have also been disciplined for covering their mouths while coughing or sneezing, because it could cause them to miss pieces of meat coming down the processing line, according to the complaint.

"Put simply, workers, their family members, and many others who live in Milan and in the broader community may die — all because Smithfield refused to change its practices in the face of this pandemic," the Rural Community Workers Alliance, a Missouri-based worker advocacy group, said in the complaint.

VIDEO Some workers sounding alarm over coronavirus concerns at meat facilities

APRIL 10, 2020 01:49

The group in the complaint said that conditions at the Milan plant have worsened since Smithfield shuttered other pork-processing plants in Missouri, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Keira Lombardo, executive vice president of corporate affairs and compliance at Smithfield, denied the allegations and said "the health and safety of our employees is our top priority at all times."

"The allegations contained in the complaint are without factual or legal merit and include claims previously made against the company that have been investigated and determined to be unfounded," Lombardo said. "We look forward to aggressively defending the company in court.”

More than 200 employees became infected with the coronavirus at the South Dakota slaughterhouse, which produces 4 percent to 5 percent of the nation's pork.

The group, which was joined in the lawsuit by an anonymous employee at the Milan plant, is seeking a court order requiring Smithfield to change its practices to comply with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and orders from state public health officials.

Tyson Foods Inc last week extended the closure of a pork slaughterhouse in Columbus Junction, Iowa, that it had shuttered due to coronavirus cases among employees. Companies like Cargill Inc, JBS USA and National Beef Packing Co have also shut U.S. meat plants.

The complaint against Smithfield says that rather than taking additional steps to protect workers at the Milan plant, the company actually sped up the processing lines and forced employees to work in cramped conditions.

Language barriers helped turn Smithfield Foods meat plant into COVID-19 hotspot

The CDC found 40 languages are spoken at the South Dakota plant where 783 workers tested positive and two died but workers were only given informational packets in English.

 Workers walk out of Smithfield Foods pork plant as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Sioux Falls, S.D., on April 16, 2020.Shannon Stapleton / Reuters file

April 23, 2020, By Corky Siemaszko

Forty different languages are spoken at the South Dakota pork processing plant that has become a coronavirus hot spot, but workers who showed symptoms were sent home with informational packets that were written only in English, federal investigators revealed Thursday.

That failure to communicate may be part of the reason why 783 workers at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls have tested positive and two have died from COVID-19, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a 15-page memo.

“We understand that if an employee was found to have a fever or symptoms consistent with COVID-19, they were given an informational packet (in English) and instructed to return home,” the CDC report stated.

But “plant management reported that there were approximately 40 different languages spoken by employees at the plant.”



Inside meat processing plant linked to nearly 900 coronavirus cases APRIL 20, 2020

While English is one of “the top 10 languages,” so too are “Spanish, Kunama, Swahili, Nepali, Tigrinya, Amharic, French, Oromo and Vietnamese.”

The language barrier also stymied the CDC team of veterinary epidemiologists, industrial hygienists and others who toured the plant on April 16 and 17.

“Our team was unable to identify important demographic information about this workforce, limiting our ability to understand the diversity of the employees,” the CDC report said.

“We were also unable to obtain information about the workstations of confirmed positive cases. This type of information could provide a better understanding of what workplace factors contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among employees.”

The first plant worker tested positive on March 24, but the plant was not shut down until April 14. But before that happened, the CDC reported that workers were promised extra money if they showed up for work during the pandemic.

“Additionally we learned of a ‘responsibility bonus’ of $500 being offered to employees who did not miss time (e.g. were not late or sick) during the time period of April 1, 2020 through May 1, 2020," the report stated.

There was no immediate response from Smithfield’s CEO, Kenneth Sullivan, to the findings. The company's chief spokesperson, Keira Lombardo, said in a statement: "We will thoroughly and carefully examine the report point by point and respond in full once our assessment is complete."

VIDEO Are meat workers facing choice between health and livelihood?

 APRIL 18, 2020 07:37

Smithfield Foods is one of the biggest clusters of coronavirus cases in the country and has put an unwanted spotlight on Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican who has been criticized for not issuing a shelter-at-home order in a state where as of Thursday nine deaths and 1,956 cases have been reported.

Noem has, however, urged residents to practice social distancing and avoid large gatherings.

“I want to thank Vice President Pence, Secretary of Agriculture Perdue, and the CDC for prioritizing the situation at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls,” Noem said in a statement. “Their partnership has been critical to the work that we’ve done to get this cluster under control and safeguard the health of this workforce.”

Noem also pledged that the South Dakota health department “will continue to work with Smithfield and offer any assistance we can to help them implement these CDC recommendations, so they can safely reopen this plant as soon as possible.”

Later, at a press conference, Noem said she is "anticipating" Smithfield will act on the CDC's recommendations.

Meanwhile, Tyson Foods Inc. announced it was closing a meat processing plant in Pasco, Washington that produces enough beef in one day to feed four million people.

“We’re working with local health officials to bring the plant back to full operation as soon as we believe it to be safe,” Steve Stouffer, head of Tyson Fresh Meats, said in a statement.

Tyson has already closed two pork processing plants and a chicken processing plant in Tennessee because of the coronavirus.

Experts warned that all these closures could result in meat shortages.

“Meat shortages will be occurring two weeks from now in the retail outlets,” Dennis Smith, a senior account executive at Archer Financial Services, told Bloomberg News.

More than 5,000 meat and food processing workers have been infected of exposed to COVID-19 and 13 have died since the pandemic struck, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union reported Thursday.

At Smithfield Foods in South Dakota, the CDC report suggested 11 recommendations for the Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, including speeding up the installation of plexiglass barriers on production lines, adding 100 more time clocks to prevent bottlenecks, boosting the number of hand sanitizer stations to 3,500 so there is at least one per worker, and designating staffers to roam the floor and provide hand sanitizer to workers on the line every 30 minutes.

“A combination of control measures with ongoing education and training will be useful in reducing or eliminating transmission in the workplace,” the report said. “These recommendations are intended for this specific Smithfield plant, but broader interim recommendations for meat and poultry processing industries are in development.”

The South Dakota Department of Health is requiring the company to submit a plan of action before it reopens and expects it to follow the CDC recommendations.

“For each recommendation, please indicate a timeframe for implementation,” Health Department secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon and state epidemiologist Dr. Joshua Clayton wrote in a letter dated Thursday to Sullivan.

”If a recommendation cannot be implemented or a different solution is proposed, please provide the justification,” it said.

They also asked for a date when the plant, which processes fresh pork, bacon, hot dogs, deli and smoked meats, will re-open.

Smithfield is owned by Hong Kong-based WH Group, which is the largest pork processor in the world and which also operates plants in Wisconsin, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Two of the U.S. plants were closed after workers there tested positive for the coronavirus.

Trump skips questions at coronavirus briefing after disinfectant debacle

Friday's coronavirus task force briefing, which have sometimes gone as long as two hours, lasted just over 20 minutes.


April 24, 2020, By Dareh Gregorian

A day after he floated the idea of using disinfectants and light to treat COVID-19, President Donald Trump declined to take any questions at his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.

The briefing — which can sometimes last about two hours — was over in just over 20 minutes, following remarks from Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and FDA head Stephen Hahn. The two top government doctors charged with combating the coronavirus crisis, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, were not in attendance.


On Thursday, Trump drew widespread criticism for suggesting light, heat and injecting disinfectants could be used to treat coronavirus patients.

"So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting," Trump said then, addressing a Homeland Security official who'd said tests show the virus dies on surfaces more quickly in the heat.

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds, it sounds interesting to me.”

Doctors called the idea dangerous and irresponsible, while state and local government agencies and disinfectant manufacturers warned the products should not be ingested or injected.

Trump tried walking back the comments earlier Friday, claiming his suggestions had been "sarcastic."

"I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters just like you, just to see what would happen," Trump said during a bill signing for the coronavirus aid package.

But asked some more about the comments, he again suggested light could be used to kill the virus in the body.

"I'd like them now to look as it pertains to the human body, not just sitting on a railing or sitting on a wall. I'd like them to look as it pertains — because maybe there's something there. They have to work with the doc — I’m not a doctor. They have to work with the doctors. But maybe there is something to light and the human body and helping people that are dying," Trump said.

Asked if he was encouraging people to ingest disinfectant, he said, "No, of course — no."

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News

Facebook ads, conspiracy theorists pushed bleach consumption and UV ray cures

UV rays or disinfectants as treatments have been rejected by health and science communities — and embraced by conspiracy theorists and extreme alternative medicine communities.

DISINFECTANTS ARE SURFACE CLEANERS NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

President Trump suggested Thursday that beaming ultraviolet light “inside the body” should be tested as a coronavirus treatment. Health experts says UV radiation can cause skin irritation.Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

April 24, 2020,  By Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny


Unfounded and harmful coronavirus treatments — including those that were floated by President Donald Trump — continue to spread online, evading efforts to crack down on misinformation.

Trump suggested at a White House news briefing Thursday that scientists should test beaming ultraviolet light “inside the body” and injecting disinfectants in an effort to find new coronavirus remedies.

“Supposing you hit the body with ultraviolet or just very powerful light," Trump said. "And I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it? Then I said supposing that you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way. And I think you said, you’re going to test that, too."

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

A recent Homeland Security study found that the coronavirus on surfaces may be killed by humidity and high exposure to UV rays through sunlight, indicating that the outbreak may subside in the coming summer months. The study was featured during Thursday's news briefing.

But the use of UV rays or disinfectants for human treatment has been roundly rejected by the health and science communities — and embraced by conspiracy theorists and extreme alternative medicine communities. Bleach and most household disinfectants are highly toxic, and exposure to UV light has been linked to skin cancer.



Trump suggests disinfectant to kill virus inside the body APRIL 24, 2020

Advocating for the consumption of disinfectants like bleach and the use of ultraviolet beams as medical treatments has been commonplace for years on fringe parts of the internet, and false viral rumors about curing COVID-19 by drinking industrial alcohol have proven deadly across the world in recent weeks.

Trump's comments come as health policy experts continue to warn about the spread of coronavirus misinformation — an "infodemic," as the World Health Organization has warned.

Around that misinformation, a cottage industry of fake coronavirus treatments has emerged.

Facebook pages created in late March sold UV “sanitizer” lights, promising “a proven impact on COVID-19” and to be the “most effective way to kill viruses.” The companies, which had names like “Beam Sanitizer,” ran ads on Instagram and Facebook in March, according to Facebook's ad library. Some ads, including ones from companies including UV Sanitizers, and Uvlizer, were still active as of Friday morning. The products apparently evaded the company’s ban of ads for coronavirus miracle cures instituted last month.

In an effort to quell the impact of viral social media posts, the World Health Organization released a warning in March stating that “UV lamps should not be used to sterilize hands or other areas of skin as UV radiation can cause skin irritation.”

Conspiracy theorists, including those that center around the QAnon conspiracy, have also advocated for drinking a diluted form of bleach called Medical Mineral Solution, or MMS.

QAnon adherents falsely believe Donald Trump is secretly running a military operation to rid the government of satanic, child-eating cannibals, and many QAnon followers believe those same people are responsible for the virus. Prominent QAnon accounts celebrated Trump’s apparent nod to bleach consumption or injection, with one prominent QAnon YouTuber and MMS reseller calling it “a good ‘lung cleaner’” on Thursday night.
Recommended


CORONAVIRUSTrump suggests 'injection' of disinfectant to beat coronavirus and 'clean' the lungs


VIDEOWatch: Dr. Birx reacts as Trump suggests ‘injection’ of disinfectant to beat coronavirus

Last week, the Department of Justice announced a crackdown on the online sale of MMS, which it said “is a chemical product which, when combined with the included activator, creates a powerful bleach product that the defendants market for oral ingestion.”

“The Department of Justice will take swift action to protect consumers from illegal and potentially harmful products being offered to treat COVID-19,” Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said in a press release for the DOJ’s injunction against Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, which was selling the product online.

Viral misinformation claiming isopropyl alcohol cures coronavirus led to the deaths of hundreds and sickened thousands of Iranians in March alone. Text messages, forwarded on messaging services like WhatsApp, pushed an urban legend that some people had cured themselves of the virus with whiskey or industrial-strength alcohol.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

In the U.S., some pro-Trump media sources began noting a section about isopropyl alcohol in a Department of Homeland Security memo that was leaked to Yahoo News last week. One day after the memo was leaked, The Epoch Times, a pro-Trump media outlet, highlighted a section of the PDF about isopropyl alcohol and bleach’s effect on the virus in saliva.

The leaked document does not recommend ingesting or injecting bleach at any point.

Five days later, Trump referred to disinfectants and ultraviolet light in his news briefing, citing “the way it kills it in one minute.”

Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and global health policy expert who is an NBC News and MSNBC contributor, told NBC News on Thursday that “injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible, and it's dangerous.”

"It's a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves," Gupta said.

Ben Collins covers disinformation, extremism and the internet for NBC News.

Brandy Zadrozny is an investigative reporter for NBC News.

Lysol maker warns against internal use of disinfectants after Trump comments

A spokesperson for the cleaning product company said it had a responsibility to give accurate information to the public.
Lysol makers warns it's not safe to treat coronavirus with disinfectant APRIL 24, 2020
By Lauren Egan

WASHINGTON — The manufacturer of Lysol, a disinfectant spray and cleaning product, issued a statement warning against any internal use after President Donald Trump suggested that people could get an "injection" of "the disinfectant that knocks (coronavirus) out in a minute."

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)," a spokesperson for Reckitt Benckiser, the United Kingdom-based owner of Lysol, said in a statement to NBC News.


"As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information," the statement continued, adding that the company believes it has a "responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts."

Watch: Dr. Birx reacts as Trump suggests ‘injection’ of disinfectant to beat coronavirus APRIL 24, 2020 

MORE CORRECTLY WATCH HOW SHE DOES NOT

ACT, BY CORRECTLY DENOUNCING THE STUPIDITY OF TRUMPS COMMENTS
SHE IS ENABLING HIM TO KILL AMERICANS

The Environmental Protection Agency also is reminding people to only use disinfectant on surfaces.

In a statement issued several hours before Trump spoke, the EPA said, "Never apply the product to yourself or others. Do not ingest disinfectant products."

The Trump administration's Surgeon General, Jerome Adams, also warned Americans, urging people to "always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one.

A reminder to all Americans- PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one.

Your safety is paramount, and doctors and nurses are have years of training to recommend what’s safe and effective.— U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) April 24, 2020

William Bryan of the Department of Homeland Security said at a White House briefing Thursday that "emerging results" from new research suggest solar light has a powerful effect in killing the virus on surfaces and in the air.

But, he said, there was no consideration of internal use of disinfectants.

Top Democrats slammed Trump for the comment.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the president and other Republicans "reject science" and said Trump must be disregarding the advice of his medical experts.

And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a member of House Democratic leadership, tweeted Friday morning that "something is very wrong" with the president.

Please don’t poison yourself because Donald Trump thinks it could be a good idea.— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 24, 2020

The President suggested injecting Lysol into the human body to treat #COVID19.

Something is very wrong with this guy.

No really.

We should be very concerned.

Intervention? pic.twitter.com/hOyy8S0wSi— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) April 24, 2020

At the briefing, Trump also suggested that people could be treated with "ultraviolet or just a very powerful light" to kill the virus after Bryan's presentation showed that the virus might not live as long in warmer and more humid temperatures.

Trump then also mentioned an "injection" of "disinfectant" to deter the virus.
Recommended

"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute," the president said. "And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

Trump did not specify the kind of disinfectant.

Medical professionals were quick to dispute Trump's claims as "irresponsible" and "dangerous."

“This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous," said Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist, global health policy expert and an NBC News and MSNBC contributor.

"It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves," he added.

Maryland's Emergency Management Agency tweeted a warning Friday not to administer disinfectants into the body, saying it had received several calls about use of the products and COVID-19.

ALERT🚨: We have received several calls regarding questions about disinfectant use and #COVID19.

This is a reminder that under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route.— Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MDMEMA) (@MDMEMA) April 24, 2020

The White House claimed Friday morning that the media was mischaracterizing Trump's comments regarding coronavirus treatment.

"President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. "Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines."

Lauren Egan is a reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

The EPA is reminding people to use disinfectant only on surfaces

The agency issued the update shortly before the president suggested Thursday that it might be helpful to inject disinfectant to combat the coronavirus.

Disinfectant products on a store shelf. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

April 24, 2020, By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is reminding people to only use disinfectant on surfaces.

The agency issued the update shortly before President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that it might be helpful to inject disinfectant to combat the coronavirus.


The EPA says, “Never apply the product to yourself or others. Do not ingest disinfectant products.”

William Bryan of the Department of Homeland Security said at a White House briefing on Thursday that “emerging results” from new research suggest solar light has a powerful effect in killing the virus on surfaces and in the air.

But he said there was no consideration of internal use of disinfectants

VIDEO Trump suggests light and disinfectant treatments for coronavirus 

APRIL 24, 2020 02:34



Without specifying the kind of disinfectant, Trump said after Bryan's presentation, "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

Medical professionals, including Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist, global health policy expert and an NBC News and MSNBC contributor. were quick to challenge the president's "improper health messaging."
Recommended


VIDEOU.K. announces human trials of potential coronavirus vaccine


VIDEOGermany starts easing coronavirus restrictions as infection rate slows

“This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous," said Gupta. "It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves."

The maker of Lysol also issued a statement warning against any internal use of the cleaning product.

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)," said a spokesperson for Reckitt Benckiser, the United Kingdom-based owner of Lysol, in a statement to NBC News.

The president has repeatedly touted unproven treatments during the daily briefings on COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. For instance, he has touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential "game changer," but health officials have strongly cautioned against it.
Associated Press