Coronavirus update, USA

This 15 April 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

Amazon Workers Strike, Power & The Battle For Safety Against the Virus With Worker Chris Smalls

Amazon workers are fighting for health and safety protection against the coronavirus Covid-19. Amazon worker Chris Smalls from New York talks about his work and why he became an organizer of a strike. He also discusses the failure of OSHA, the CDC and Health Department to protect workers and how he was retaliated against by Amazon and Jeff Bezos including a slander campaign calling him “not smart or articulate”.

He was terminated on March 30, 2020 after his effort to force Amazon to protect the workers from infection from Covid-19.

Amazon reportedly tried to shut down a virtual event for workers to speak out about the company’s coronavirus response by deleting employees’ calendar in Google: here.

More than two-thirds of US Amazon facilities may have had coronavirus cases. By Erik Schreiber, 27 April 2020. As Amazon’s stock price reaches a record high, the company’s belated provision of inadequate protective measures is putting workers’ lives at risk.

This video from the USA says about itself:

UAW 167 Bargaining Chair Travis Watkins Fired For Defending Members Against Coronavirus Pandemic

UAW 167 Bargaining Chair Travis Watkins was interviewed by WorkWeek’s Steve Zeltzer about his struggle to defend himself and fellow auto parts plant workers who were being walked out of the GMAC plant in Wyoming, Michigan because they had been contaminated by Covid-19.

He talks about why he took up this fight and how he was illegally framed up with the use of comments on a private Facebook page.

He also talks about the labor-management partnership that has led some union officials to refuse to defend workers from being contaminated at the plant. He also reached out to UAW president Rory Gamble and other officials only to receive silence.

This interview took place on 4/12/20.

Reinstate UAW member Travis Watkins at once – Protect workers from COVID-19. Petition here.

“Would any worker want to put his or her child back in the plant?” General Motors contract worker victimized over COVID warning speaks about his case. By Sheila Brehm, 27 April 2020. Travis Watkins, a contract worker and local United Auto Workers bargaining chairman was fired March 18 after he made a Facebook post alerting workers to possible infections at his plant in western Michigan.

Confirmed coronavirus cases in the US surpass one million. By Bryan Dyne, 27 April 2020. Whatever the claims of the various governors, there is no medical or scientific basis for lifting social distancing and isolation measures.

This video from the USA says about itself:

NNU-CNA SF CPMC Nurses Demand PPE Equipment & More Staffing While CPMC Gets Millions From Government

San Francisco Sutter CPMC Van Ness campus nurses on April 24, 2020 protested the demands that management are forcing them to re-use masks and is also laying off nurses. and other staff workers who do critical work at the hospital.

They also were angry that while the hospital has gotten millions it is not going to the frontline workers who need more N95 respirators and other protective gear required to safely treat COVID-19 patients and also protect themselves, other patients, workers and their families.

Former Sutter CEO & President Patrick Fry was paid $13,161,450 in salary. $279,177 in additional “other” pay in 2016.

“Veritable volcanoes for the spread of the virus”. ACLU study predicts an additional 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in US prisons. By Alex Findijs, 27 April 2020. America’s 2.3 million inmates and 420,000 guards and staff are at high risk of infection, threatening tens of thousands of lives.

Columbia University graduate workers strike against university’s COVID-19 response. By Josh Varlin, 27 April 2020

The deadly return to work begins. 27 April 2020. From Georgia to Minnesota, US states are beginning to ease social distancing measures and reopen businesses this week, despite the growing death toll from COVID-19: here.

US billionaires increase wealth by $280 billion since March, as millions unable to get unemployment benefits. By Gabriel Black, 27 April 2020. The wealth of the ultra-rich has surged since the March stock market slump, as the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic further concentrates the wealth of society.

As mass layoffs intensify, tens of millions in US stand to lose health insurance. By Alex Johnson, 27 April 2020. An Economic Policy Institute blog reveals that some 9.2 million Americans lost their health insurance coverage over the previous four weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

US nursing homes: A goldmine for real estate and private equity firms. By Isaac Finn, 27 April 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has jeopardized large sections of the nursing home industry, which have become controlled by corporate operators at the expense of residents’ quality of care.

After Coronavirus, Nearly Half Of The Day Care Centers In The U.S. Could Be Gone.

Detroit bus drivers and riders exposed to COVID-19. By Stephen Fuller, 27 April 2020. One-quarter of the residents of the Motor City cannot afford a car and many are forced to ride public buses, which have become a conduit for the spread of deadly disease.

Behind the clinical test of hydroxychloroquine in Detroit. By Kevin Reed, 27 April 2020. Democratic politicians in Detroit and Michigan are collaborating with the Trump administration and the pharmaceutical industry in the rush to find a pandemic “wonder drug”.

This 25 April 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

‘This is America’ — This TikTok user nailed the blatant double standard in how conservative and Indigenous protesters are treated.

In US news and current events today, TikTok user Cante Zephier (@DakotaWinyan) has gone viral after highlighting the difference in how anti-lockdown protesters and Indigenous protesters at Standing Rock were treated. She points out how Trump supporter protesters were left alone while Native American protesters were hit with rubber bullets and pepper spray.

While the Standing Rock protesters protected the environment and health. While Trump’s ‘Flu Klux Klan‘ endangers health and lives.