Monday, March 30, 2020




'Essential' workers strike over safety, pay concerns

Workers at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods are striking for improved safety measures, medical coverage and hazard pay during the coronavirus crisis.'Sick out' planned for Tuesday, March 31, 2020Work strikes at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods show essential workers' safety concerns

Mike Snider,
USA TODAY•March 30, 2020

Instacart, Amazon employees to walk out for better coronavirus protection, pay



After a month of frenzied shopping, stay-at-home measures and the escalation of the coronavirus crisis, the pressure cooker of the workplace appears ready to boil over.

Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, New York, walked out during lunch Monday, over concerns about safety at the job site. "How many cases we got? Ten!" went a call-and-response chant outside the fulfillment center that afternoon, in reference to workers who had tested positive there with COVID-19.

Co-workers there feared for their own health because workers weren't always physically distanced and the site was not closed to be sanitized. "We are working long, crowded shifts in the epicenter of a global pandemic, and Amazon has failed to provide us with the most basic safeguards to protect us, our families, and the public's health,” said Rina Cummings, a worker at the center, in a statement released by Athena, a coalition of groups that represent Amazon workers and others concerned about the company's influence.

“We are walking out to protest the impossible choice of coming to work at a toxic workplace and possibly spreading the virus or going unpaid during an economic crisis," she said.

Fears of contamination and risk also led to as many as 150,000 workers for grocery delivery service Instacart to execute a nationwide strike on Monday. Their action got wide support on Twitter from notables such as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and concerned consumers such as Ifeanyi Ezeh, a computing engineer living near Columbia, Maryland.

"I support all workers who are risking their health to help save lives during this crisis," he tweeted with the hashtags #InstacartStrike and #AmazonStrike. "Thanks to these brave people, many families like mine are able to stay home safe with our families."

Amazon faces another potential workplace disruption Tuesday as some employees have planned a "sick out" over demands for better conditions including double pay because of the hazards of working during the pandemic.

Workers who would not give their names for fear of possibly being fired said they worried not only about getting the virus themselves from customers or co-workers as some staffers at stores had tested positive.

Christian Smalls, an organizer for the protest against Amazon, said he was fired Monday for violating "multiple safety issues." The company said it instructed Smalls to stay home with pay for 14 days due to being in close contact with an infected employee, but Smalls went to the warehouse Monday, CNET first reported.

"Amazon would rather fire workers than face up to its total failure to do what it should to keep us, our families, and our communities safe," Smalls said in an emailed statement to protest organizers.

"COVID-19 is a very real threat to the safety of our workforce and our customers. We cannot wait for politicians, institutions, or our own management to step in to protect us," read a petition being spread on social media about the Whole Foods #GlobalSickOut #March31st.

Anxiety about potentially contracting the COVID-19 virus has intensified as the number of cases and deaths rises. Workers say they often don't have enough cleaning supplies, disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizers, and may not have gloves or masks – or may be asked not to wear them.

At the same time, business managers may be scrambling to provide protective measures at a time when supplies aren't always available and cash flow may be down as customers monitor their spending amid layoffs and furloughs.

It's a dynamic intensifying across the nation. "The ongoing pandemic has made working in the kitchen uncomfortable. Does my co-worker have it?" posed Brian Baer, a food and beverage director at a country club within a northern Virginia community for residents 55 and older.

"We use gloves and sanitizer but sometimes we can’t stay 6 feet apart," Baer said. "Employees share their concerns with me, and I forward them to upper management. I support all the employees that stand up for their right to proper training and equipment."


The actions by workers at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods got support from The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union, which represents 1.3 million workers in grocery, retail and other industries.

“Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods workers are sending a powerful message that it’s time to stop putting corporate profits ahead of the health and safety of the men and women who are critical to our food supply, and are on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak," said UFCW International President Marc Perrone in a statement.

Each of the companies hit by worker actions has seen the need for more employees as demand has changed for each during the crisis. Instacart last week said it needed another 300,000 workers to meet demand.

The company said Monday's strike did not have a big effect on its business. It had 40% more shoppers working on the platform compared to a week ago and "over the last 72 hours, more groceries were sold on our platform than ever before," Instacart said in a statement sent to USA TODAY.

Two weeks ago, Amazon announced plans to hire 100,000 workers to assist with online deliveries during the pandemic. The company also said it is temporarily raising minimum pay to $17 an hour. Amazon is also seeking current warehouse workers who would want to work in its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now services, loading groceries at Whole Foods, Reuters has reported.

Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, has reportedly had coronavirus spread to at least 17 warehouses in the U.S., according to Reuters. The online retailer has 175 fulfillment centers globally and more than 150 fulfillment centers, sorting centers in the U.S., according to Amazon's website. Several workers tested positive at the Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island; workers are striking until the building is sanitized, Chris Smalls, a manager assistant who helped coordinate Monday's walkout, told USA TODAY.

Amazon had not responded to a request for comment at publication time. But CEO and founder Jeff Bezos praised the Amazon workforce in a statement March 21 and noted that "much of the essential work we do cannot be done from home. We’ve implemented a series of preventative health measures for employees and contractors at our sites around the world – everything from increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning to adjusting our practices in fulfillment centers to ensure the recommended social distancing guidelines. We are meeting every day, working to identify additional ways to improve on these measures."

Whole Foods has had several employees test positive for COVID-19 across the U.S., according to various news reports. "As we address unprecedented demand and fulfill a critical need in our communities, Whole Foods Market is committed to prioritizing our Team Members’ well-being, while recognizing their extraordinary dedication," Whole Foods said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The planned Whole Foods sick-out comes just days after 15 attorneys general sought improved protection for workers including paid sick leave in a letter to Bezos and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.

"By limiting paid sick leave only to those who have been definitely diagnosed with COVID-19 or who have been placed into quarantine, Whole Foods and Amazon are placing their employees, customers and the public at large in significant risk of exposure," wrote the AGs from states including California, New York and Washington.

Those organizing the Whole Foods sick-out said the grocery chain, which Amazon acquired in June 2017 for $13.7 billion, has temporarily relaxed its strict attendance policy, "which means that team members can participate in this act of protest without reprisal," said the event's promotional flyer.

Demands by the Whole Foods sick-out organizers:

Guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work

Reinstatement of health care coverage for part-time and seasonal workers.

Increased FSA funds to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for all team members, including part-time and seasonal.

Guaranteed hazard pay in the form of double pay during scheduled hours.

Implementation of new policies that can facilitate social distancing between workers and customers.

Commitment to ensuring that all locations have adequate sanitation equipment and procedures in place.

Immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19. In such an event, all workers should continue to receive full pay until the store can safely reopen.

Contributing: Dalvin Brown, Charisse Jones

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus safety drives strikes at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods

Amazon, Instacart workers protest over virus safety
AFP / Angela WeissAmazon workers at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse stage a walkout to demand that the facility be shut down and cleaned after one staffer tested positive for the coronavirus 

Amazon warehouse employees and Instacart delivery shoppers joined protests Monday to press safety demands, highlighting the risks for workers on the front lines of supplying Americans largely sheltering at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An estimated 50 to 60 employees joined a walkout at an Amazon worker warehouse in the New York borough of Staten Island, demanding that the facility be shut down and cleaned after a worker tested positive for the coronavirus. 


"There are positive cases working in these buildings infecting thousands," warehouse worker Christian Smalls wrote on Twitter.

Amazon, responding to an AFP query, said Smalls made "misleading" statements about conditions and that he was supposed to be on quarantine.

"Like all businesses grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are working hard to keep employees safe while serving communities and the most vulnerable," Amazon said in a statement.

"We have taken extreme measures to keep people safe."

Meanwhile a group calling itself the Gig Workers Collective said it was maintaining its call for Instacart's independent contractors to strike despite new safety measures announced late Sunday by the company.

"Workers aren't filling orders until our full demands are met," a spokesperson told AFP. "This isn't just about us, we want to also protect our customers."

It was not immediately clear how many of Instacart "shoppers" who are independent "gig" workers, were participating in the stoppage.

Instacart, which recently announced plans to hire some 300,000 people to help meet demand for grocery delivery, said in a statement it was "fully operational" and that the walkout caused "no impact."

AFP / Angela WeissAn estimated 50-60 Amazon workers walked out of a New York warehouse to demand that the facility be shut down and cleaned after one staffer tested positive for the coronavirus 

"We're continuing to see the highest customer demand in Instacart history and have more active shoppers on our platform today than ever before picking and delivering groceries for millions of consumers," said the San Francisco company, which operates in some 5,500 cities in the US and Canada.

- More safety gear -

The firm said Sunday it would provide additional health and safety supplies to full-service "shoppers" and would set a "default" tip based on customers' prior orders.

The labor group, whose numbers were not known, called the Instacart moves "a sick joke.

AFP/File / Angela Weiss
Food delivery personnel for Instacart were among those joining US job actions to press for improved health and safety measures for key employees during the coronavirus lockdown We had been asking for hand sanitizer for many, many weeks. But apparently the company is capable of sourcing some with two days of work? Where was this before," the group said in a Medium post.

A separate group of workers at the Amazon-owned grocery chain Whole Foods meanwhile called for a one-day stoppage or "sickout" on Tuesday to press demands for improved health measures.

The group calling itself "Whole Worker" said it was seeking guaranteed paid leave for quarantined workers, among other things.

With much of the US population locked down, Americans are increasingly relying on delivery of food and other supplies from firms like Amazon.

A report by NBC News said Amazon workers at two Southern California warehouses had presented demands to shut down the facilities for two weeks for sterilization while employees are tested for the virus.

Amazon has announced plans to hire an additional 100,000 people in the US, while rival Walmart is seeking to expand its workforce by 150,000.

Instacart shoppers to strike for better protection against coronavirus

Shoppers wait in long lines as they purchase supplies in a grocery store in preparation of the Coronavirus outbreak, in Medina, Ohio March 15. Employees who shop for Instacart, the grocery delivery service that allows customers to order groceries for delivery through a smart phone app, have announced they plan to strike Monday to demand better protections amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo

March 28 (UPI) -- Employees who shop for Instacart, which allows customers to order groceries for delivery through a smart phone app, are planning to strike nationwide Monday to demand the company provide better protections amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a blog post this week the Gig Workers Collective announced they would refuse to accept orders until the company provides hazard pay, safety gear including hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and soap -- and expands paid sick leave to include workers with pre-existing conditions who cannot currently work.

The strike announcement comes amid increasing demand for delivery services as restaurants close, local governments issue stay-at-home orders and public health officials ask individuals to decrease the number of visits they make to public places.

Instacart employs about 200,000 shoppers and plans to add 300,000 over the next three months, but it isn't clear how many plan to participate in the action.

"While Instacart's corporate employees are working from home, Instacart's [gig workers] are working on the frontlines in the capacity of first responders," Vanessa Bain, a lead organizer of the upcoming Instacart walkout, and an Instacart gig worker in Menlo Park, California, told Vice, which first reported on the strike.

Instacart's shoppers are independent contractors who set their own schedules and pick up groceries at retailers that partner with the app.

Shoppers' earnings can vary depending on how many batches they choose to shop. The company told the New York Times it was "committed to an earnings structure that offered upfront pay and guaranteed minimums, which can vary from $7 to $10 per batch, depending on the market."

RELATED Retail flour supplies run low as consumers turn to home baking

Shoppers are asking for hazard pay of an additional $5 per order, and they want the company to change the default tip amount in the app to at least 10% of the order total.

The company, along with Lyft, Uber, and a variety of other companies that hire independent contractors to provide services through an app, has offered up to two weeks of paid sick leave to its shoppers but only if they test positive for Covid-19, and the offer only lasts until April 8.

"The health and safety of our entire community - shoppers, customers and employees - is our first priority," a company spokeswoman said. "We want to underscore that we absolutely respect the rights of shoppers to provide us feedback and voice their concerns."

RELATED Retail meat sales up 77 percent amid coronavirus pandemic

Instacart workers seek strike as jobs get busier, riskier

By ALEXANDRA OLSON AND CURT ANDERSON March 29, 2020

FILE - In this June 15, 2017, file photo, bagged purchases from the Kroger grocery store in Flowood, Miss., sit inside this shopping cart. A group of Instacart workers are organizing a strike across the U.S. starting Monday, March 30, 2020, to demand more pay and protection as they struggle to meet a surge in demand for grocery deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic. It was unclear how many of Instacart's shoppers - most of whom work as independent contractors - would join the strike. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A possible strike by Instacart workers highlights the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the grocery delivery business, where workers are worried about their safety as they try to meet a surge in demand for online groceries.

A group called the Gig Workers Collective is calling for a nationwide walk-out Monday. They’ve been asking Instacart to provide workers with hazard pay and protective gear, among other demands. Instacart said Sunday it would soon provide workers with a new hand sanitizer upon request and outlined changes to its tip system. The group said the measures were too little too late.

While some workers say they intend to join the strike for at least a day — or have stopped filling orders already for fear of getting the virus — other, newer workers are content to have a paying job at a time of mass layoffs in other industries.

The San Francisco-based delivery app is trying to hire 300,000 more workers — more than doubling its workforce —to fulfill orders it says have surged by 150% year-over year in the past weeks. The company said 50,000 new shoppers joined its platform in just the past week. Some customers are waiting days to receive orders.]

Instacart currently has a workforce of more than 200,000 contracted workers who make multiple trips a day to various grocery stores to fulfill and deliver orders that customers make through the app. It also directly employs about 20,000 part-time workers who are assigned to a single store, collecting groceries that are subsequently delivered to clients by a contracted Instacart worker.

Chloe Grozdina, a part-time Instacart in-store shopper assigned to a Mariano’s grocery store in the Chicago area, says workers are seeing “a lot of apocalypse orders” from customers hunkered down in their homes. Panic shopping has cleared out the shelves, meaning she often has to replace a customer’s orders with a lesser item or notify them that it’s not available.

Grozdina, who makes $13 an hour and doesn’t get tips, said the crowds of fellow Instacart shoppers have made it tough to keep a safe distance while racing to fulfill orders. Grozdina said she wears a mask to work that she bought herself and immediately showers when she gets home.

Instacart gig worker Summer Cooper, 39, delivers groceries, Saturday, March 28, 2020, in Belleair Beach, Fla. Cooper, 39, started working as an Instacart shopper in the Tampa Bay area in Florida recently after losing her position as a server at a hotel restaurant. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson)


Among their demands, the strike organizers want hazard pay of $5 an order and supplies of hand sanitizer, wipes and cleaning supplies free of charge. On Sunday, the company said it had contracted with a third-party manufacturer to make a hand sanitizer spray that workers can request at no cost via a website starting Monday, with shipments starting in a few days.

Data show online grocery orders jumping even before some cities and states imposed “stay at home” orders. During the week of March 2, Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart grocery delivery services each saw at least a 65 percent sales increase compared to the same time last year, according to estimates from Earnest Research.

Instacart has started offering bonuses of between $25 and $200 for its hourly employees dependent on hours worked until April 15.

Instacart also announced a month-long extension of a temporary policy giving 14 days of paid leave to workers who are diagnosed with coronavirus, or have been ordered to isolate themselves. The strike organizers that policy extended to workers with a doctor’s note verifying a pre-existing condition that could make them more vulnerable to the virus.

They also demanded that Intacart raise the tip default in its app to 10% from the current 5%. Instead, Instacart announced Sunday it would change the default to the amount the customer last tipped, saying tips have increased considerably during the virus crisis.

Instacart said previously that it has added more “promotions” — or extra pay for contracted full-service shoppers to accept certain orders.

That was not enough to lure back Shanna Foster, a single mother who stopped working her Instacart gig two weeks ago out of fear of contracting the virus.

“They need to give us hazard pay right now and it should be guaranteed,” said Foster, of Simi Valley, California.

Other companies such as Amazon and Walmart have also announced hiring sprees to meet a surge for both deliveries and in-store essentials. Amazon has increased pay for its workers, including those at its Whole Foods Grocery stores.

While such low-wage jobs put people on the front lines of the pandemic, many people are applying as layoffs surge in retail, restaurant, hospitality and other industries.

Summer Cooper, 39, started working as an Instacart shopper in the Tampa Bay area recently after losing her position as a server at a hotel restaurant. She was unaware of the possible strike.

“I’m grateful to have some way to make money,” Cooper said.

Darrin Burdette, an Instacart shopper in Colorado Springs, said joining a strike would “not help me in any way.”

An Uber driver, Burdette said he relies entirely on his Instacart gig since demand for ride-hailing services plunged. He said he is earning about $30 an hour as Instacart orders rise. On his app, he can see that many orders have come from people using the service for the first time.

Michelle Ellwood, 43, began using the app shortly after her family returned from a trip abroad and decided to self-isolate for two weeks. She said Instacart shoppers have gone out of their way to fulfill orders. One, she said, returned with a chicken after previously being unable to find meat at local stores.

“It’s amazing that they are doing this. I’m grateful. I’m hopeful they are able to take care of their families through this,” said Ellwood of Canandaigua, New York.

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Tracking the spread of coronavirus in the US



For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

LOCATIONCONFIRMED CASES DEATHS
1New York
66,497
1,218
2New Jersey
16,636
198
3California
6,437
134
4Michigan
5,489
132
5Florida
5,473
63
6Massachusetts
4,955
48
7Washington
4,906
205
8Illinois
4,596
66
9Pennsylvania
4,090
50
10Louisiana
4,025
185
This chart updates twice daily.
_____
_______

Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida.
Hurricane Katrina was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for ‘our current nightmare of bad leadership’: Paul Krugman

 March 30, 2020 By Alex Henderson, AlterNet



Economist and veteran New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has been vehemently critical of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And Krugman was drawing an obvious parallel between Trump’s coronavirus response and the George W. Bush Administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina when, on March 29, he tweeted, “Katrina was a dress rehearsal for our current nightmare of bad leadership.”

With that tweet, Krugman linked to his September 2, 2005 column — which found him lambasting President George W. Bush’s administration and asserting, “Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago — and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you’d expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying.”

Remembering this. Katrina was a dress rehearsal for our current nightmare of bad leadership https://t.co/BOVyPaxn3E
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 29, 2020

In that column, Krugman went on to ask, “Did the Bush Administration destroy FEMA’s effectiveness? The Administration has, by all accounts, treated the emergency management agency like an unwanted stepchild, leading to a mass exodus of experienced professionals.”

Krugman denounced the Bush Administration as a “can’t-do government” 15 years ago, and similarly — in his March 28, 2020 column — he attacked the Trump Administration for being so slow to respond to the coronavirus crisis

“Let me summarize the Trump Administration/right-wing media view on the coronavirus: it’s a hoax or anyway, no big deal,” Krugman wrote in that March 28 column. “Besides, trying to do anything about it would destroy the economy. And it’s China’s fault, which is why we should call it the ‘Chinese virus.’”

Krugman added that “epidemiologists who have been modeling the virus’ future spread have come under sustained attack, accused of being part of a ‘Deep State’ plot against Donald Trump — or maybe free markets.”

The right wing simply doesn’t know how to govern, something they’ve proven time after time. And even if they did know how to govern, they’d have no interest in doing so.
— Roger Matile (@rmatile1) March 29, 2020

In recent columns, Krugman has stressed that the GOP’s dysfunction didn’t begin with Trump. And as Krugman sees it, Trump’s coronavirus response is an indictment of the Republican Party in general.

“The bottom line is that as with so many things Trump, the awfulness of the man in the White House isn’t the whole story behind terrible policy,” Krugman wrote in his March 28 column. “Yes, he’s ignorant, incompetent, vindictive and utterly lacking in empathy. But his failures on pandemic policy owe as much to the nature of the movement he serves as they do to his personal inadequacies.”



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New Mexico governor warns Trump coronavirus could ‘wipe out’ tribal nations
March 30, 2020 By Matthew Chapman


On Monday, ABC News reported that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) issued a dire warning to the Trump administration about Native American tribal nations’ vulnerability to the coronavirus pandemic during a conference call between the White House and state governors.

“We’re seeing incredible spikes in the Navajo Nation, and this is going to be an issue where we’re going to have to figure that out and think about maybe testing and surveillance opportunities,” said Grisham.

“The rate of infection, at least on the New Mexico side — although we’ve got several Arizona residents in our hospitals — we’re seeing a much higher hospital rate, a much younger hospital rate, a much quicker go-right-to-the-vent rate for this population,” said Grisham. “And we’re seeing doubling in every day-and-a-half. And it could wipe out those tribal nations.” she said.

Trump reportedly replied, “Wow, that’s something.”

Native American tribal governments often face unique challenges in delivering health care, as many are located in remote, rural areas.

The news comes just after the Trump administration moved to disestablish tribal lands of the Mashpee Wampanoag in Massachusetts — a centuries-old tribe who had been building a casino that would have competed with Rhode Island gaming operations with ties to Trump.

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How America’s underpaid EMTs are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic



 March 30, 2020 By Bob Hennelly, Salon


With more cases than any other country, the United States is now the epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic. Our death toll is rapidly rising, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top epidemiologist, has said that 100,000 to 200,000 could die by the time it ends.

The pandemic has suddenly shifted the public perception of which workers are essential for society to continue functioning. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs), who rush to rescue the gravely ill, stand on the edge of the front line, directly interacting with those stricken with the virus every day.

For years, the unions that represent EMTs have warned that the American Emergency Medicine System has long been the weakest link in our health care system, upon which COVID-19 is now placing an unprecedented strain.

While police and firefighting services are universally accepted as part of our social contract, the same is not true for emergency medical services. Americans in rural and suburban communities often rely on voluntary ambulance corps, which suffer from a chronic personnel shortage. Other regions are reliant on predatory for-profit companies that pay EMTs fast food wages, but charge exorbitant fees to patients.

As NBC reported last year in a story titled What if you call 911 and no one comes? Inside the Collapse of America’s Emergency Medical Service, just 11 of the nation’s fifty states require by statute the establishment of a local EMS department.

Decades of shortsighted, profitdriven health care policy has closed scores of hospitals, a trend also well documented in urban communities of color. That is, in part, why this pandemic is poised to be particularly devastating in the United States.

The EMS Meatgrinder

Burnout, injury and turnover rates are high among EMTs, even among the better-paid civil service EMS units who are more common in big cities. As a consequence, EMTs often end up leaving long before they hit the six-year tenure mark, which is when peer-reviewed medical studies indicate their patients have better outcomes.

"This is a serious issue throughout the entire country,” said Oren Barzilay, president the national EMS Labor Alliance and DC 37’s Local 2507, which represents the FDNY’s EMS and EMT paramedics. “We don’t have voluntary police departments across our country, and it’s a good thing, otherwise we would have chaos … EMS has been in crisis for a long time, and the COVID-19 epidemic exposes that,” Barzilay continued.

“There needs to be national guidelines demanding we have an organized EMS workforce like we do for police and fire. Just in New York State over the past year, we have seen EMS companies go out of businesses and so many of the voluntary EMS houses all shut down because they are no more volunteers,” Barzilay told Salon.

Perhaps no facet of our national for-profit health care system is more patchwork and dysfunctional than EMS. For whatever reason — perhaps because EMTS often wear blue collars or have lower social status and lower pay than fellow first responders like firefighters or police officers — their plight is largely ignored

No national focal point

In Washington D.C., the nation’s firefighters have the influential International Association of Firefighters. Police officers have a myriad of national professional organizations. Lobbyists for both of these branches of America’s first responder services ensure the needs of these professionals are on the radar of federal, state, county and municipal elected officials.

Michael MacNeil is president of the EMS/BPPBA, which represents the 400 members of the EMS union that serves Boston. That bargaining unit has the rare distinction of having pay parity with other first responders.

MacNeil said in an interview that Congress needs to pass federal legislation immediately to provide local community block grants across the country to help reinforce existing EMS units. In addition, he says there needs to be a lead EMS agency, akin to the U.S. Fire Administration, which conducts critical national data collection and best practices research and benchmarking for firefighting.

“These are things our national EMS Labor Alliance has been pushing for a long time,” MacNeil said.

Perverse incentive

MacNeil says the second urgent national action item in the face of COVID-19 is dismantling the reimbursement economics that force EMTs to take their patients to the emergency room in order for their agency to get paid, whether or not it’s the right health care call for the patient.

“There’s a money attachment to the way we deliver this essential service,” he said. “It all links back to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance reimburse[ments] and in places like New York City and Boston our services can generate money. But we need to see what we are doing in the community, whether it results in an ER visit or not, as part of protecting the public safety like we do with cops and firefighters.”

Healing communities
In Austin, Texas, where city officials on March 6 made the difficult decision to cancel the 34th annual South by Southwest Festival, the local EMS union is an integral part of the city’s efforts at a proactive COVID-19 response outside the hospital setting.

Selena Xie is president of the Austin EMS Association, which represents 550 members who enjoy the same civil service status as the city’s police and firefighters but provide a public safety net well outside the confines of the hospitals.

When the city decided to close its libraries and recreation centers as part of its social distancing strategy, it was the members of the EMS Association, who serve as Community Health Paramedics and who specifically serve the city’s 2,500 homeless people, that alerted officials to the unintended consequences for this vulnerable population. Suddenly, Austin’s homeless community had nowhere to go.

“The homeless had no access to cable news or iPhones, so for everything to close suddenly like that on them was really scary,” Xie said. “We lobbied the city to open the libraries and rec center and then we organized a community group that’s providing 500 meals a day while the city figures out how they are going to realign their pantries and [get] shelter in place worked out.”

As Austin’s example illustrates, it is at the granular, neighborhood level out in the community where the new battle lines for the COVID-19 war are being drawn. Mobile and engaged EMTs and paramedics can help quell the panic run to the hospitals, which are now gravely overtaxed in many hard-hit jurisdictions. As crucial as the Austin EMS is to the medical community and the public health response to coronavirus, Xie said that they were completely invisible in the eyes of the local news media.

“Our local news outlet talked about what police and fire were doing for COVID-19 and didn’t even think to include EMS,” she lamented.

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REVEALED: Jared Kushner firm built coronavirus website Trump promised Google was building

March 30, 2020 By Bob Brigham



More details about Donald Trump administration’s haphazard response to the COVID-19 pandemic were revealed in a bombshell new report published by The Atlantic on Monday evening.
“On March 13, President Donald Trump promised Americans they would soon be able to access a new website that would ask them about their symptoms and direct them to nearby coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was helping. That wasn’t true,” The Atlantic reported.

“But in the following days, Oscar Health—a health-insurance company closely connected to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—developed a government website with the features the president had described. A team of Oscar engineers, project managers, and executives spent about five days building a stand-alone website at the government’s request, an Oscar spokesperson told The Atlantic. The company even dispatched two employees from New York to meet in person with federal officials in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson said. Then the website was suddenly and mysteriously scrapped,” the magazine reported.

“The full extent of Oscar’s work on the project has not been previously reported. The partnership between the administration and the firm suggests that Kushner may have mingled his family’s business interests with his political interests and his role in the administration’s coronavirus response,” The Atlantic noted. “The ad hoc nature of Kushner’s task force has already collided with federal laws. Oscar’s involvement deepens Kushner’s ethics and conflict-of-interest problems.”

NEW: Oscar Health—a health-insurance firm closely connected to Jared Kushner—developed a website for the government’s coronavirus response. The site, which looked like a government product, was ultimately shelved. Oscar says it worked for free.
My story: https://t.co/YJtI5uIlIe
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) March 31, 2020
AP PHOTOS: Italy's front-line medical heroes, in portraits


Uganda’s Bobi Wine sings against virus, criticizes leaders

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and PATRICK ONEN March 29, 2020

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his compilation image made from video frames from the latest music video of Bobi Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, shows the singer recording an informational music video educating the public about the dangers of the new coronavirus and the precautionary measures they should take to fight its spread. Wine, who released a song in March 2020 urging Africa's people to wash their hands to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, is criticizing African governments for not maintaining better health care systems for the continent's 1.3 billion people while investing in weapons and "curtailing the voices of the people". (Bobi Wine via AP)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan pop star and opposition leader Bobi Wine, who released a song urging Africa’s people to wash their hands to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, is criticizing African governments for not maintaining better health care systems for the continent’s 1.3 billion people.

In his new song, “Corona Virus Alert,” Wine and collaborator Nubian Li highlight prevention measures against the virus, which now has been reported in at least 46 of Africa’s 54 countries.

Speaking to The Associated Press about the song, Wine — a popular musician, legislator and presidential aspirant whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu — said it is time for Africa’s leaders to channel more resources toward building functional health care systems that serve both the rich and the poor.

“For a long time we have been calling out the government of Uganda, like many governments on the African continent that have neglected the health care systems,” said Wine. “They have invested heavily in weapons and invested heavily in curtailing the voices of the people.”

As the coronavirus spreads across Africa, he said, “this is the time for them (the continent’s leaders) to remember that a functional health care system is not only a benefit for the poor but also the rich, because right now, as we stand, they cannot travel abroad for medical care. They have to face the same ailing medical care to deal with them. And this should be a message to them.”

Wine’s criticism of Uganda’s government has made him a leader of those opposing long-time president, Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country since 1986. Museveni is expected to seek reelection next year and Wine has said he will challenge the president.

Since becoming a potent government critic, Wine’s attempts to perform and hold rallies have been blocked by authorities. He has complained of harassment and beatings by security forces when they block his public appearances. Authorities accuse him of trying to lure young people into rioting and have charged him with multiple criminal offenses, including treason, which he denies.

Many Ugandans are angered by newspaper reports of high-ranking officials seeking medical treatment abroad at the expense of taxpayers while government-run health centers in remote areas routinely run out of basic supplies such as gloves and painkillers. The government spends less than 15% of its budget on health and local media frequently cite corruption in health-related procurement deals.

The World Health Organization also has urged African Union members to fulfill a 2001 pledge to allocate at least 15% of their annual budgets toward the health sector. The U.N. agency reported in 2011 that nearly all African countries failed to meet that target.

The WHO chief has warned Africa to “prepare for the worst” as the coronavirus begins to spread locally, amid worries that the continent’s fragile health systems are not prepared to handle the challenge. The new virus has been slow to reach Africa, but its spread across the continent is picking up pace. Africa has registered more than 3,500 cases, with South Africa registering the largest number at more than 1,000.

Uganda has reported 30 cases of COVID-19, mostly people who recently traveled through the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.

In recent days Museveni has led the government’s efforts to combat the virus, giving broadcasts in which he explains how the virus infects the human body as government health experts sitting nearby back him up. Museveni has closed schools and temporarily banned religious and cultural gatherings to curb the spread of the virus. Uganda’s only international airport has been shut down and public transport restricted.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Job cuts pile up, Ford to make ventilators at parts plant

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Phu Dang, left, the owner of i5 Pho restaurant, gets help from a contractor as he boards up his business, Monday, March 30, 2020, in Seattle's downtown Pioneer Square neighborhood. Dang closed his business to dine-in customers earlier in the month and had tried doing takeout only food in response to the new coronavirus pandemic, but he said his location did not attract enough customers for take out and he decided to fully close for the time being. He said his decision to board up came after a nearby business was broken into over the weekend. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments on Monday related to the global economy, the work place and the spread of the virus.

AIR CARE: Britain’s health service is asking airline cabin crew who have been laid off to go to work in temporary new hospitals being built to treat COVID-19 patients. The National Health Service says easyJet and Virgin Atlantic are writing to thousands of staff — especially those with first aid training — asking them to work at hospitals being built inside convention centers in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Those who sign up will perform support roles under the supervision of doctors and nurses.

Employees at 16 U.S. air traffic control facilities have now tested positive for coronavirus, including personnel at a center in Houston on Monday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA said the Houston facility continued running while being cleaned. The control tower at a small airport on Long Island, New York, remained closed nine days after an undisclosed number of personnel there tested positive for the virus.

American Airlines said it plans to seek $12 billion in government aid to cover payroll costs for the next six months while sweetening offers for voluntary leave and early retirement to reduce the work force.

The airline is now offering to pay a portion of salary for workers who accept voluntary leave or early retirement. American will seek part of a $50 billion kitty that Congress and the White House created for passenger airlines under a $2 trillion measure to help the economy withstand a sharp downturn caused by the new virus pandemic.

Air Canada will temporarily lay off more than 15,000 unionized workers beginning this week as the airline struggles with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

JOBS VANISH, PAY IS CUT: Macy’s will stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chain closed its stores in response to collapsing sales during the pandemic. The majority of its 130,000 employees, including stock people and sales clerks, will still collect health benefits, but the company said that it is transitioning to an “absolute minimum workforce” needed to maintain basic operations.

Rent the Runway confirmed that it laid off its entire retail staff and is not sure whether stores will reopen. The layoffs were announced via video conference on Friday, the company said. Workers will be getting severance and two months of health insurance. It’s unknown how many employees will be affected. The company’s online subscription service continues. The job cuts were first reported by online news website Verge.

Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper publisher, is cutting pay and hours of newsroom employees by 25% in April, May and June because of advertising declines. Executives are getting a pay cut of 25%.

RESTAURANT RESERVATIONS: U.S. restaurant sales dropped 36% in the week ending March 22, according to consulting firm The NPD Group, with about 94% of restaurants operating under some restrictions that week.

Dine-in restaurants like Olive Garden and Applebee’s reported sales declines of 71% compared to the same period last year. Fast food sales fell 34%.

To draw more customers, Restaurant Brands International — the parent company of Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons — said it’s expanding delivery in the U.S. and Canada and adding curbside pickup to its mobile app for truckers or walk-up customers who can’t use the drive-thru windows. The Toronto-based company also said it’s mailing 15,000 thermometers to its restaurants so employees can be checked before they begin their shifts.

Meanwhile, OpenTable — an app that normally lets diners make reservations at 60,000 restaurants worldwide — is getting into the grocery business. Starting this week, OpenTable will let people reserve a time to shop at several California groceries, including Belcampo Meat Co. OpenTable says it’s making the technology available for free to groceries and other retailers.





FORD VENTILATORS: Ford is repurposing an auto parts factory west of Detroit to start building simple ventilators to treat coronavirus patients.

The automaker says that starting the week of April 20, it expects to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days. The plant in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, would have the ability to build 30,000 per month after that.

Ford also is working with GE Healthcare to quickly double production of a more sophisticated ventilator at a factory in Madison, Wisconsin.

The ventilators to be built in Michigan are a designed by Airon Corp. Ford says they work on air pressure, not electricity, and can handle the needs of most COVID-19 patients.

GUESTS ARE GONE: Hotels are bracing for a colossal drop in revenue this year. STR and Tourism Economics — two data firms — forecast revenue declines of 51% per available hotel room.

Revenue per available room is a key industry statistic; it grew for 10 years straight before reaching a record of $86.76 in 2019.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association estimates that by Tuesday half of all U.S. hotels will have closed, affecting 1.6 million jobs.

Marriott International — the world’s biggest hotel chain — has furloughed about two-thirds of its 4,000 corporate employees. Hilton plans furloughs or reduced hours for much of its corporate staff starting next week.

Airbnb, which has also seen a sharp drop-off in business, pledged Monday to offer more financial help to the hosts of its 7 million listings. Airbnb will pay hosts 25% of what they would have earned if a guest cancels a reservation between March 14 and May 31. It estimated the program will cost $250 million. Hosts were angered earlier this month when Airbnb announced guests could cancel their stays without any penalty. Airbnb also said it is creating a $10 million fund for some of its best hosts and experience providers to help them pay rent or mortgages.

THE VIRUS : Johnson & Johnson expects to begin human clinical studies of its “lead vaccine candidate” no later than September. The company said the first batches of a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for emergency use in early 2021.

Shares of Abbott Laboratories jumped more than 6% Monday in the first day of trading since announcing that the Food and Drug Administration had approved its test for the detection of the novel coronavirus. Abbott’s portable ID NOW platform can produce positive test results in as little as five minutes, and negative results in 13 minutes. The tests are expected to be available next week and the company says it will ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 per day.

MARKETS: Stocks pushed higher on Wall Street, led by big gains for health care companies announcing developments that could aid in the coronavirus outbreak. Monday’s rally tacked more gains onto a recent upswing for the market, which is coming off the best week for the S&P 500 since hitting bottom after the financial crisis. It was a different story in energy markets, where a barrel of U.S. crude plunged below $20 per barrel.

EXTRA: Facebook is investing an additional $100 million in local journalism to support reporting on the pandemic. Emergency grant funding of $25 million will go to local news through the Facebook Journalism Project and another $75 million will be devoted to media marketing. Facebook, which has a rocky relationship with the media industry, has already committed $300 million to journalism organizations.

One of Florida’s largest newspapers, meanwhile, announced Monday that it would temporarily change it’s print frequency to two days a week. The Tampa Bay Times, which is based in St. Petersburg, said it will deliver newspapers to homes on Wednesdays and Sundays, the paper’s largest circulation days.







AP
Brazilian pews become trenches in fight against quarantine

RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE IS DANGEROUS TO HUMAN BEINGS AND THE PLANET

By DIANE JEANTET MARCH 30, 2020

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Pastor Silas Malafaia delivers a sermon during a service transmitted on live through social networks, at the empty Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church in reason to the restrictions for agglomerations due the new coronavirus, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, March 29, 2020. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, a conservative Catholic who married an evangelical in a service Malafaia administered, has zeroed in on the need to reopen the churches. “God is Brazilian,” he told people on Sunday, loal paper O Globo reported. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)RIO DE JANEIRO 


(AP) — Like every Sunday, Brazilian Pastor Silas Malafaia took the stage of his Pentecostal temple in a middle-class Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. But this week, he wore a T-shirt instead of a blazer and, behind the three caeras broadcasting to his legion of YouTube followers, were thousands of empty seats.

Brazil’s churches have landed on the front lines of a battle between state governors, who have introduced quarantine measures designed to contain spread of the new coronavirus, and President Jair Bolsonaro, who is actively undermining them and says a broad lockdown will ultimately destroy Brazil’s economy.

Brazil’s politically powerful evangelicals helped bring the far-right president to power in the 2018 election and Bolsonaro is letting them know they aren’t forgotten, political analysts said. The most influential pastors are backing the president’s radical coronavirus stance while begrudgingly respecting governors’ orders, and either canceling services or moving them online. There are signs some churches are disobeying.

“I’m asking, which is worse: coronavirus or social chaos?” Malafaia, one of Brazil’s most prominent pastors who leads the Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church, told The Associated Press. “I can guarantee you that social convulsion is worse.”

It mirrors the argument of Bolsonaro, who has urged governors to abandon lockdown and likened COVID-19 to a “little flu” that mainly threatens the elderly and those with preexisting health problems. On Sunday, he hit the streets wearing no gloves or mask and joined multiple gatherings, in defiance of recommendations from his own health ministry.

Bolsonaro, a conservative Catholic who married an evangelical in a service Malafaia administered, has zeroed in on the need to reopen the churches. “God is Brazilian,” he told people on Sunday, O Globo newspaper reported.

Some religious organizations, such as the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, have welcomed measures in Rio and Sao Paulo, where all non-essential businesses shut down. Their leader Pope Francis warned in a letter, parts of which were published Monday, of “viral genocide” if countries prioritize economies over people.

In contrast, Malafaia and other evangelical leaders across Brazil have voiced outrage at governors’ decisions, warning they would only cooperate under court order.

“The media say thousands and thousands of people are going to die,” Malafaia said in the interview. “All these catastrophic predictions, I want to reject them.”

Malafaia argued European-style confinement measures cannot be replicated in Brazil, where millions survive in the informal sector and a day without work can mean a day without food.

On social media, some pastors downplayed health risks posed by COVID-19, claiming one cannot catch the virus inside a house of God, but could be infected at home if failing to attend services.

From March 16 to 25, Rio state prosecutors received dozens of complaints from citizens who said they had seen churches welcome parishioners even after the state imposed quarantine measures. They are looking into the complaints and could file civil suits.

“My mother is 74 and has hypertension and goes almost every day to the church that encourages even at-risk people,” read one of the anonymous complaints reviewed by the AP.

The virus is real indeed, and not sparing religious communities. The leader of a South Korean church, which claims 200,000 members, bowed in apology after receiving blame for an outbreak of infections. In France, local media reported a large evangelical gathering in Mulhouse transformed the surrounding area into the country’s largest concentration of cases. In Washington state, a Presbyterian choir rehearsal attended by 60 people, all seemingly without symptoms, apparently produced 45 infections and two deaths, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially those in at-risk groups, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Brazil reported 4,579 confirmed cases and 159 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro passed a decree that added religious activities to the list of “essential services,” meaning temples could remain open even though citizens were asked to stay home. The decree was overruled by a federal court the following day. Sunday, on the streets, he again defended people getting back to work.

“Open the churches, please, we need them,” one woman begged repeatedly in one of the videos he posted to social media. He replied with reassuring words.

Analysts say Bolsonaro is addressing his electoral base. Brazil is home to the world’s largest number of Catholics — some 123 million, according to the latest census, in 2010. But evangelicals are a growing force, with 42 million believers, about 20 percent of the total population.

“No political party in Brazil manages to bring together as many people, in as many places, as many times a week as churches do,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “And people tend to follow the pastors’ directions.”

Growth is particularly fast among Pentecostals, and Brazil has outpaced the U.S. to become the world’s largest population, said Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Pastors “say that coronavirus is just a test sent by Satan and that we all just need to gather together and pray and we’ll be able to repel it,” said Chesnut. “It’s specifically evangelicals that are anti-science and it’s the same thing in the U.S. They always have been. It goes back to having a literal, fundamentalistic interpretation of the Bible.”

Rio’s governor has extended lockdown measures for another 15 days. As such, Malafaia ended his service by informing his congregation that his temple would remain closed the following Sunday.

“Lord, have mercy on our nation. Lord, illuminate our authorities, give them the direction to do the right thing,” he said. “That is what I’m praying and what I’m asking.”

He lifted his hand and shouted a blessing, as though his temple were packed as usual, but was met with no rapturous ‘hallelujahs.’ It was so silent one could hear his microphone thud lightly as he placed it upon his lectern.



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