RSN: David Sirota | We've Always Had the Money for Medicare for All - We've Just Given It to Corporations Instead

18 June 20

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18 June 20

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MANDATORY PAYMENT VS VOLUNTARY SUPPORT - Today, mandatory payment is the currency of empire. “We have this that you need, you must pay for it, we get wealthy.” Voluntary support is quite a bit less reliable. We are not Verizon or Time Warner, but we are a powerful voice for the community. We understand that there are mandatory payment services that you cannot avoid but the money you contribute here will do more for your world than all the money you are required to pay for mandatory things. Volunteer something. You know what we’ll do with it. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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David Sirota | We've Always Had the Money for Medicare for All - We've Just Given It to Corporations Instead

David Sirota, Jacobin
Sirota writes: "In recent weeks, we've seen health care industry CEOs report paying themselves $2.4 billion as twenty-seven million people were thrown off their health care coverage."
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This screen grab taken from body camera video provided by the Atlanta Police Department shows Rayshard Brooks speaking with Officer Garrett Rolfe. (photo: Atlanta PD)

ALSO SEE: Atlanta Police Call in Sick to Protest Murder Charge Against
Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks

Former Atlanta Police Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Charged With Felony Murder
Brakkton Booker, NPR
Booker writes: "The white Atlanta police officer who shot a 27-year-old black man in the back last week in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant will face a charge of felony murder and 10 other charges, a Georgia county prosecutor announced Wednesday."

EXCERPT:
There is also reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Guardian indicating that Rolfe, the officer who killed Brooks, was previously reprimanded for his use of force.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Rolfe received a written reprimand in 2017 for using his firearm. His file, according to the paper, included a dozen other incidents ranging from vehicular accidents to complaints from citizens.

"He was exonerated in nine of those internal investigations," the newspaper reported.

The Guardian reported on a 2015 incident in which Rolfe and two other officers shot at Jackie Jermaine Harris, who was caught driving a stolen vehicle. Harris rammed a law enforcement vehicle, the paper reported, and the officers shot at him multiple times.

"However, the shooting was not reported by the police involved," The Guardian added. "Harris, like Brooks, is African American."

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Jamaal Bowman is a progressive primary challenger taking on 16-term congressman Rep. Eliot Engel. (photo: Bowman Campaign)

Top Democrats Are Trying to Stop This Man From Becoming the Next AOC
Jesse McKinley, The New York Times
McKinley writes: "The primary result was a visceral warning to Democratic leadership that it had better quickly reckon with the push for progressive change, and not underestimate the candidates behind it. The Democratic establishment has apparently heeded that lesson."

Representative Eliot Engel’s primary contest against Jamaal Bowman in New York is a test of the Democratic establishment’s ability to withstand its emboldened left wing.

wo years ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then a young, untested democratic socialist, pulled off a shocking upset by defeating the No. 4 House Democrat, Representative Joseph Crowley. The primary result was a visceral warning to Democratic leadership that it had better quickly reckon with the push for progressive change, and not underestimate the candidates behind it.

The Democratic establishment has apparently heeded that lesson.

As the June 23 primary nears in New York, another long-tenured Democrat, Eliot L. Engel, is being threatened by a young progressive challenger, Jamaal Bowman. The race has become a focal point for the party’s directional battle, with money and marquee endorsements flying around in recent days.

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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters spaced apart in the White House briefing room during a daily coronavirus news conference. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)

Mattis Speechwriter 'Confirms' Bolton's Claim Trump Wanted Journalists Imprisoned and Executed
Blake Montgomery, The Daily Beast
Montgomery writes: "A speechwriter for former Defense Secretary James Mattis took to Twitter late Wednesday to say he 'can confirm' a controversial claim in John Bolton's bombshell book The Room Where It Happened."
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'Police departments systemically fail to make arrests in sexual assault cases.' (photo: Ragan Clark/AP)

'Who Will Protect You From Rape Without Police?' Here's My Answer to That Question
Moira Donegan, Guardian UK
Donegan writes: "As uprisings have spread through American cities in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a once fringe leftwing position has become rapidly mainstream: abolishing the police."
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Children in a displaced persons camp in Yemen's western province of Hodeida on May 6 2020. (photo: Khaled Zaid/AFP)

Human Rights Orgs Condemn UN for Pulling Saudi Arabia From Blacklist of Groups Killing Children
Agence France Presse
Excerpt: "Campaigners reacted angrily on Monday to removal of the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen from a list of groups violating children's rights, in a report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres."
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View from Albert Mountain on the Appalachian Trail at Nantahala National Forest. (photo: Getty)

US Supreme Court Clears Way for Pipeline to Cross Appalachian Trail
Lawrence Hurley, Reuters
Hurley writes: "Ruling against environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday decided that the federal government has the authority to allow a proposed $7.5 billion natural gas pipeline to cross under the popular Appalachian Trail in rural Virginia."

The 7-2 ruling was a victory for Dominion Energy Inc and President Donald Trump’s administration, both of which appealed a lower court ruling that halted construction of the 600-mile (965-km) Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would run from West Virginia to North Carolina. 

The decision, written by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, removes one of several obstacles facing the project. Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, dissented. 

“Today’s decision is an affirmation for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and communities across our region that are depending on it for jobs, economic growth and clean energy. We look forward to resolving the remaining project permits,” Dominion said in a statement. 

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Southern Environmental Law Center had sued to stop the pipeline after the U.S. Forest Service gave the green light for the project to run through the George Washington National Forest. Dominion Energy leads a consortium of companies in the project that also includes Duke Energy Corp. 

After a protracted application process involving multiple federal agencies, the Forest Service granted the consortium a right of way under the trail in 2018. 

The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in 2018 that the Forest Service lacked the authority to grant a right of way for the pipeline where it crosses the Appalachian Trail in the national forest land because the trail was overseen by the National Park Service. 

In Monday’s ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with the Trump administration that the Forest Service retained the authority to approve rights of way across the trail. 

The park service’s authority over the trail “did not transform the land over which the trail passes into land within the National Park System,” Thomas wrote. 

Kelly Martin, who heads the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign, vowed to contest the remaining permit applications. 

“Nothing in today’s ruling changes the fact that the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a dirty, dangerous threat to our health, climate and communities, and nothing about the ruling changes our intention to fight it,” Martin added. 

The proposed pipeline would be 600 feet (180 meters) below a section of the 2,200-mile (3,500 km) trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia. 

The Supreme Court’s ruling will also affect the proposed 300-mile (480-km) Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would run from West Virginia to southern Virginia and crosses the trail in the Jefferson National Forest. The pipeline is almost finished but construction was halted as a result of the ruling in the Atlantic Coast pipeline case before the crossing under the trail was completed. 

[For a graphic on major cases before the Supreme Court, click tmsnrt.rs/2mZn6MJ] 

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RSN: Cornel West on US Protests: The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost

18 June 20

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We’re Not Going Away

We have no intention of backing down on this organization’s mission. As long as the problems are still here we will be here.

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We will meet that challenge too.

Marc Ash
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17 June 20

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BREAK YOUR CORPORATE DEPENDENCY: This world created by the corporate overlords that they are building in the field a few miles from your home, that doesn’t have to be your world. Build your world. Neighbor to neighbor - local. That’s the core of the RSN philosophy. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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Cornel West on US Protests: The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost

Azad Essa, Middle East Eye
Excerpt: "Can we separate America's treatment of Black people internally from its racist foreign policy abroad? And why are so many people from so many countries enamored by the Black struggle in the US?"

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This screengrab taken from body camera video shows Garrett Rolfe with Rayshard Brooks in the moments before Brooks's killing. (photo: Atlanta PD)

Revealed: Officer Who Killed Rayshard Brooks Accused of Covering Up 2015 Shooting
Justin Miller and Justin Glawe, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "The Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks was accused of covering up an earlier shooting he and other officers participated in, according to a judge who reviewed the case."

Garrett Rolfe was fired by the Atlanta police department following what officials called the “unjustified” killing of Brooks on Friday. Rolfe shot Brooks twice in the back as Brooks ran away after a scuffle with officers when they attempted to arrest him. It was among a recent spate of killings of black men by white police officers, which have ignited a national uprising against police brutality and racism.

In August 2015, Rolfe and two other officers opened fire on Jackie Jermaine Harris, who they chased after he was caught driving a stolen truck, the Guardian can reveal after reviewing court documents on the incident.

However, the shooting was not reported by the police involved. Harris, like Brooks, is African American.

Harris rammed a police vehicle and officers shot at him several times inside the truck, striking Harris once and collapsing his lung. Harris survived and later pleaded guilty to charges including theft, property damage, fleeing arrest and damaging a police vehicle.

Judge Doris L Downs, during a 2016 court hearing, called the case a “disaster” and said “it’s the wildest case I’ve seen in my 34 years here.”

Downs said she was so troubled by officers failing to report the shooting that she wanted the matter investigated.

“None of the police put in the report that they shot the man – none of them. And they sent him to Grady [Memorial Hospital] with collapsed lungs and everything, and the report doesn’t mention it,” Downs said.

“I am ethically going to be required to turn all of them in.”

Downs even suggested state and federal authorities get involved.

She said: “What the police did was wrong, and they will have to answer for what they did.”

It is unclear if any action was taken. Downs could not be reached for comment.

The Atlanta police department and Fulton county district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it did not investigate the shooting, according to a spokesperson.

Harris echoed the judge’s concern about the officers’ conduct at his court hearing.

“I just don’t want them to get away with what they did to me,” said Harris, who was sentenced to time served and one year’s probation.

Rolfe was apparently not disciplined, according to a personnel file released by Atlanta police on Tuesday, which listed the 2015 incident only as a “firearm discharge” but did not say how the department addressed the incident. Rolfe could not be reached for comment.

Harris’s attorney Serena Nunn said police admitted in their report that Harris had been injured during the incident – but not that police shot him.

She said: “Being shot in the back and ultimately having your lung collapse is something more than an injury that was caused during the incident.”

“We do expect officers to uphold the law. I cannot think of a plausible reason as to why they would have omitted that information [about the shooting],” Nunn told the judge.

The prosecutor could not say why the shooting was not in the report.

Han Chung, who was then a Fulton county assistant district attorney, said: “I’ve heard some plausible reasons why this may have occurred. Now, I don’t know how credible those plausible reasons may be, and I haven’t heard it from those officers first-hand.”

Rolfe was the subject of four citizen’s complaints during his six years on the force, none of which were sustained by police. The department disciplined him for three other incidents, including once for “use of force” involving a firearm, a year after the Harris shooting.

In a letter to Downs sent from an Atlanta jail, Harris said the public would not be safe as long as Rolfe and the other officers who shot him continued to patrol the city.

“Not only have I been wronged, but society as well [has been wronged] by allowing this officer to continue to patrol our streets of Metro Atlanta,” Harris wrote.

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Demonstrators Kneel in a moment of silence outside the Long Beach Police department. (photo: Ashley Landis/AP)

Frances Fox Piven on Why Protesters Must "Defend Their Ability to Exercise Disruptive Power"
Mie Inouye, Jacobin
Inouye writes: "In a mid-May interview, Frances Fox Piven predicted 'waves of mass protest' in the United States' near future. Since then, the country has erupted into an unprecedented multiracial mass movement against police brutality."
READ MORE

Police and private security personnel monitor security cameras at the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative in New York City. (photo: John Moore/Getty)

ACLU | Facial Recognition vs. Protesters
ACLU
Excerpt: "For the past few weeks, we've all watched in real-time as the police attack the rights of protesters and the press across the country."
READ MORE

The Trump administration will resume Federal executions next week. (photo: iStock)

After 17 Years, Bureau of Prisons Set to Resume Federal Executions
Lauren Gill, The Appeal
Excerpt: "A civil rights advocate calls the scheduled executions of four men 'appalling' and a return to a 'biased, arbitrary, and error-prone' system."
READ MORE

Central Palo Seco power station of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is seen behind a cemetery, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan. 22, 2018. (photo: Alvin Baez/Reuters)

No Oversight of $1.5 Billion Electric Project Raises Alarm Over Privatization of Puerto Rico's Power
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "As hurricane season begins, we look at moves to privatize Puerto Rico's electric grid and a new investigation that reveals the island's government failed to follow proper oversight or examine the environmental impact when it issued a .5 billion contract to a company for the first large power generation project since Hurricane Maria, that will continue its reliance on fossil fuels."    





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Deforestation and wildlife habitat loss in Uganda. (photo: Ron Waddington)

Coronavirus Is a Warning to Us to Mend Our Broken Relationship With Nature

Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch

Davidson writes: "Leaders from three international NGOs - the United Nations, the World Health Organization and WWF International - teamed up to issue a stark warning that pandemics like the coronavirus are a direct result of the destruction of nature caused by humans."

EXCERPT:

"We have seen many diseases emerge over the years — such as Zika, AIDS, SARS and Ebola — and although they are quite different at first glance, they all originated from animal populations under conditions of severe environmental pressures," they wrote, adding those examples "all illustrate that our destructive behavior toward nature is endangering our own health."

As The Washington Post noted, the novel coronavirus that has led to a global pandemic likely started in a bat — the same host that was also linked to SARS, Ebola and MERS, among other viruses.

The three authors call for a green and healthy recovery in the wake of COVID-19. They note the importance of ending farming practices that destroy nature and the need to reform meat-intensive diets. And yet, they're watching the world go the wrong way.

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Mike Pence’s abrupt Covid shift

BY RYAN LIZZA AND RENUKA RAYASAM

Presented by

With help from Myah Ward

VEEP IN THOUGHT — Since February there has been a rift inside the White House between the scientists and the politicians over how to contain the spread of coronavirus. Anthony Fauci has been the consistent advocate of a forceful response and an opponent of any sugar-coating of the perils Americans face. President Donald Trump has been the reluctant warrior against the disease who took some major steps early on but soon grew impatient of the stay-at-home restrictions, the masks, and — most of all — the economic calamity that might jeopardize his re-election.

Vice President Mike Pence, the chair of the president’s coronavirus task force, often played the role of bridge between the factions. At the awkward task force briefings that dominated afternoon television in March and April, the three roles of the three men played out as theater: Fauci the doomsayer, Trump the misinformed optimist, and Pence the child of a troubled marriage trying to smooth things over during mom and dad’s public fights.

Pence abruptly reinvented himself as a coronavirus skeptic this week, with comments and an op-ed article that stray into pandemic denialism. In a conference call with governors, Pence incorrectly argued Monday that the spike in cases that almost half of the states are experiencing is simply a function of more testing. In a Wall Street Journal piece published today and headlined “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave,’” Pence wrote, “The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way, and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different.”

The op-ed cherry-picked a handful of positive statistics — there are of course bright spots — and emphasized the administration’s record in increasing testing and pumping up the manufacture of personal protective equipment. He boldly predicted a vaccine would be available “by the fall.”

Perhaps most telling, Pence made it clear that the effort to eliminate the disease before a vaccine is ready is not really the goal anymore. Instead, Pence argued that the White House now measures success by a lower level of daily deaths.

“In the past five days,” he wrote, “deaths are down to fewer than 750 a day, a dramatic decline from 2,500 a day a few weeks ago and a far cry from the 5,000 a day that some were predicting.” This purportedly tolerable rate of 750 dead Americans a day would equal 270,000 deaths in a year.

By this afternoon, the news pages of the Journal contradicted much of what Pence had to say. In an interview with the paper, Fauci reiterated that the jump in cases “cannot be explained by increased testing.” He warned that relaxed approaches to social distancing, such as congregating close to lots of people in large venues, and an aversion to mask-wearing would cause the disease to spread.

Pence is scheduled to be with Trump at a rally in Tulsa, Okla. on Saturday, while Fauci told NPR that he hasn’t talked to Trump in two weeks.

But Fauci did agree with Pence on one thing. “People keep talking about a second wave,” he told the newspaper. “We’re still in a first wave.”

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. I took a trip down memory lane today to watch highlights of Spud Webb winning the 1986 Slam Dunk contest. Reach out with tips: rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.

A message from PhRMA:

America’s biopharmaceutical companies are sharing manufacturing capabilities with each other so that once a treatment or vaccine is ready, they can get it to millions of people fast. And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. More.

Protesters block traffic on Interstate 395 as they march from Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. | Getty Images

NIGHTLY INTERVIEW

NOT STICKING TO SPORTS — Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, who is one of seven African American head coaches in the NBA, delivered a speech Monday at a rally in the wake of the killing of Rayshard Brooks, who was shot by an Atlanta police officer on Friday.

In the spring of 2020, during a year of pandemic and protests, more and more players and coaches have stopped trying to maintain the fiction that sports are above the political fray. (For Exhibit 1 of the 1990s effort to preserve the fantasy, watch ESPN’s 10-part Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance.) LeBron James, Trae Young and other athletes have started a group to encourage African Americans to vote. The NFL has reversed course on allowing players to protest police brutality during the national anthem, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell even encouraged a team to sign Trump target Colin Kaepernick.

Your host spoke with Pierce about how the NBA’s shutdown might have flattened the curve, whether the league should allow players to kneel during the anthem and how he’s trying to coach over Zoom.

Do you think the league should have been better prepared to handle coronavirus and arrange a less chaotic shutdown?

The abruptness of how we did it was the best thing that happened. It brought awareness to the coronavirus. I think we probably saved a lot of lives.

The Atlanta Hawks weren’t included in league plans to resume the season. How will this affect the young team?

It’s time missed, and you don't really get that time back, wherever you were in your development. If you’re at the peak of your career, everything was put on hold. For our guys specifically because they are young, they're gonna miss out on the game experience and you can't get that back.

And what about building a pipeline of new players?

Obviously you can’t scout or evaluate talent. We’re not sending anyone out to evaluate prospects. I don't believe there are many opportunities for prospects to play both collegiately or at the high school level. You just have to be creative in how you do it. You have to use a lot of past films. You have to do a lot of interviews and conversations. The new norm is different than we're used to, where we just fly around and evaluate, recruit, watch players, study players. All of that is on hold.

When the season resumes, should NBA players be allowed to kneel during the national anthem?

I will support our players. I will support anyone who is bringing awareness and attention to the fact that there’s racism in our country, and the fact that it needs to be addressed and talked about. I'm not so concerned with the act or what form in which they do it.

Do you think players have an obligation to be role models in this moment?

There are a lot of the African American players in our league. African Americans have never been shy about fighting for African Americans. I don't think it’s a higher responsibility for African Americans to protest or call attention to this issue. It’s quite the opposite. We need more white Americans to talk about the issue and bring the issue to the forefront. The burden shouldn’t be on African Americans fighting for African Americans.

Atlanta has now become the latest example of police brutality, when a police officer shot Rayshard Brooks over the weekend.

I’m not surprised, sadly. The issue is a reminder that none of the incidents that we are seeing are isolated. We just happened to see all of them now because they're captured on film. It seems new or it seems random or it seems relevant to what’s going on now. But if you are really paying attention, these things have occurred often. They just haven’t been recorded. It’s not out in public. That’s why the protests continue to occur because it’s a matter of bringing attention to what's going on because it's been ignored for a long time.

Right now is different than any other period of protest that I’ve experienced, but I hope it’s not just a moment.

Are you talking with your players about everything that’s going on right now?

Our team, we meet every Thursday and Sunday, which has been consistent for the past three months. The conversation starts to shift to the coronavirus and it starts to shift to a return a basketball and it starts to shift to the police brutality. It's our way of staying connected and being relevant with each other. We do it over Zoom.

What are your thoughts on the NBA trying to balance its economic ambitions in China with politics and public outrage over the country’s human rights abuses?

I can’t speak to any of that. I’m still worried about Atlanta. That’s out of my jurisdiction. I have no comment on that.

JOIN TOMORROW AT 4 p.m. ET - WOMEN AND COVID-19, SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS IN CRISIS PART III: WOMEN RULE INTERVIEW WITH PADMA LAKSHMI: The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the food industry and the experience of dining out, potentially forever. Join Women Rule editorial director Anna Palmer for a virtual interview with Padma Lakshmi, host of “Top Chef”, to discuss the inspiration behind her new series, ‘Taste The Nation’, as well as the devastating impact of Covid-19 on women chefs and restaurant owners, and how food has the power to connect Americans to their community. REGISTER HERE.

THREE MINUTES (AND COUNTING)

EASY PILL TO SWALLOW — Pharma reporter Sarah Owermohle has just 180 seconds to explain to your host the importance of today’s news that an inexpensive steroid called dexamethasone (“rolls right off the tongue”) helps treat Covid patients and how coronavirus has changed drug development. Can she do it? Watch to see if she can beat the clock.

FIRST IN NIGHTLY

ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOW — Colorado was the first Democratic-run state to reopen from a coronavirus lockdown, and now it’s avoiding the spikes in infection rippling across the West . Its approach could be a lesson for the country on how to reopen effectively, health care reporter Dan Goldberg writes. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis embarked on a slow and methodical economic recovery in late April — even before the White House’s stay-at-home guidelines expired. Polis limited when restaurants and other businesses could reopen, at first allowing only curbside pickups for stores, imposing strict social distancing for salons and other personal services and prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people. That’s in contrast to neighboring Utah, which never imposed a stay-at-home order and where gyms and dine-in service began on May 1. The average number of new infections has roughly doubled there since the beginning of this month. In Arizona, where casinos, restaurants and gyms opened by mid-May, hospitalizations are up 40 percent since June 1 and the health department recently told hospitals to “fully activate” emergency plans.

 

AROUND THE NATION

‘GLADIATOR TO GUARDIAN’ — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Tuesday embraced a more limited role for law enforcement that could include a diminished budget as he faces growing pressure to defund the city’s powerful police department, Jeremy White and Carla Marinucci write. During a POLITICO California Playbook Virtual Briefing , Garcetti said a key question in the wake of George Floyd’s death is how cities can transform the culture of policing “from a gladiator to a guardian mentality.” A day after Black Lives Matter activists made an extraordinary plea to the Los Angeles City Council, Garcetti supported rising calls to reevaluate police funding. “If we're going to step up to this moment we have to look at all budgets, including police budgets,” Garcetti said. But he insisted that the issue “isn’t about a single budget,” noting that if “you ask three people what ‘defund the police’ means, you’ll get three different opinions.”

Sunshine blues — When images of packed Florida beaches flashed across TV screens, critics predicted overrun hospitals. But that didn’t happen. Now as Florida prepares to host the GOP convention, cases are spiking. Marc Caputo breaks down how concerned Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — and his political ally Trump — should be, in the latest POLITICO Dispatch.

Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast

Flying (slightly) higher — Transportation Security Administration data suggest passengers are heading through security checkpoints at airports at a rate last seen in late March. Despite the uptick, the number of Americans taking flights is still well below rates seen a year ago.

TALKING TO THE EXPERTS

Nightly’s Myah Ward asks: Would it be possible to cure Covid without a vaccine?

“The term cure can be misleading — is cure getting rid of the virus or getting rid of the disease? We do have antiviral drugs for other viruses that can cure chronic infections like hepatitis C virus, and others that very effectively treat HIV without completely eliminating it. In addition, there are drugs that can reduce disease severity without actually targeting the virus itself. Developing either an effective antiviral or an effective treatment that ameliorates Covid-19 symptoms would have a major impact on public health, as they would reduce mortality.

However, it’s much less likely that a drug could substitute for a vaccine at fully preventing Covid-19, especially at population scale. A huge advantage of vaccines is that they only need to be taken a few times, sometimes only once, to provide lasting protective immunity. A drug that theoretically could be prophylactic would have to be taken continuously to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, and it would be hard to manufacture enough to meet the demands of the global population. Such an approach would not be sustainable over the long-term. — Angela Rasmussen, virologist at Columbia University, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

“We better have a plan that doesn't involve a vaccine. The timeline is uncertain, the probability of success is uncertain, scale up of manufacturing is uncertain, acceptability to the public, particularly amongst younger people and parents and their children, is uncertain. There’s just a lot stacked against a vaccine based strategy for the U.S. If we are going to get there, it's not going to be by rushing to an answer, but by rushing to do rigorous trials, as many as we can, as large as we can. And rapidly adapting to the changing information in front of us.” — Peter Bach, physician and director of drug pricing lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

THE GLOBAL FIGHT

LOSING INFLUENCE — Global opinion of U.S. influence on democracy around the world remains positive, but it has taken a dive: 44 percent say the U.S. is a positive influence, while 38 percent say negative, according to a new survey of 120,000 people in 53 countries, Ryan Heath writes.

Billed as the 2020 Democracy Perception Index by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the survey was conducted by Dalia Research for Rasmussen’s Alliance of Democracies Foundation.

In China, those with negative views of the U.S. have jumped from 38 percent to 64 percent over the past year, with only 17 percent having a positive view. Of the 53 countries surveyed, China is rated as having a better Covid-19 response than the U.S. by every country except the U.S. itself.

Protect Yourself and Others From Coronavirus: Even if you don’t have symptoms, you could spread the coronavirus. Practice these physical distancing and hygiene tips to keep yourself and your loved ones safe: Stay 6 feet away from others in public; wash your hands often for 20+ seconds; disinfect frequently touched surfaces like cellphones and light switches; and wear a cloth face covering when out in public. Together, we can slow the spread. Visit coronavirus.gov to learn more.

ASK THE AUDIENCE

Nightly asks you: Show us what the Summer of Covid looks like in your area. Snap a photo and send it in an email to nightly@politico.com. We’ll select a few to use in Friday’s newsletter.

NIGHTLY NUMBER

70 percent The amount bank profits fell by in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2019, as the coronavirus pandemic was just beginning to force an economic shutdown, the FDIC said Tuesday in its quarterly banking profile. (h/t financial services reporter Zachary Warmbrodt)

PARTING WORDS

SEX WORKERS’ COVID CONUNDRUM — Sex workers in Europe are faced with a dilemma — open for business and risk getting coronavirus or face having no income. Belgium was one of the first countries to allow brothels to start work, on June 8, even though saunas and massage parlors must remain closed until July 1. Customers’ temperatures are checked upon arrival and both partners have to wear a face mask. Hot Marijke, a sex worker in Flanders, has been getting state support but says she will lose it now that brothels are back open. “They are basically forcing me back to work,” she said over the phone. “It’s madness, you cannot touch your friends but you can climb into bed with a wild stranger.”

A message from PhRMA:

America’s biopharmaceutical companies are sharing their knowledge and resources more than ever before to speed up the development of new medicines to fight COVID-19. They’re working with doctors and hospitals on over 1,100 clinical trials.

And there’s no slowing down. America’s biopharmaceutical companies will continue working day and night until they beat coronavirus. Because science is how we get back to normal.

See how biopharmaceutical companies are working together to get people what they need during this pandemic.

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Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam

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