The Critical Hour

Some US States Begin Lifting Lockdowns, VP Pence Defiantly Tours Clinic Unmasked

On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by Dr. Yolandra Hancock, a board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist who combines her hands-on clinical experience and public health expertise.
Sputnik

"More US states are beginning to lift lockdown orders even as US leaders say social distancing guidelines will be necessary throughout the summer," the BBC reported Tuesday. According to models prepared by epidemiologists and computer scientists at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this could cost a lot of lives, and the head of the World Health Organization has warned that the pandemic is far from over. As more states look to reopen their economies, health experts have said officials need to put in place expanded testing capacity and contact-tracing teams, among other measures, to safely return to some version of normalcy.

According to Common Dreams, "Leaders of some of the largest labor unions in the United States are warning that the Trump administration is brushing aside the interests of workers in its distribution of trillions of dollars in coronavirus bailout funds and instead using the taxpayer money to further enrich wealthy corporate executives." Is this a valid complaint?

"The increasing number of COVID-19 cases among people who voted in-person for Wisconsin's April 7 election is fueling demands for Congress to help fund the implementation of expanded vote-by-mail provisions in every state for the rest of this year, particularly for the nation's general election scheduled for November," Common Dreams reported Monday. We talked about this earlier this month when the Supreme Court decision on voting by mail in Wisconsin came down, and the issue continues to grow.

A Monday headline in the Wall Street Journal reads, "The Federal Reserve Is Changing What It Means to Be a Central Bank." The article states: "By lending widely to businesses, states and cities in its effort to insulate the US economy from the coronavirus pandemic, it is breaking century-old taboos about who gets money from the central bank in a crisis, on what terms, and what risks it will take about getting that money back."

GUESTS:

Dr. Yolandra Hancock — Board-certified pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist who combines her hands-on clinical experience and public health expertise with her passion for building vibrant families and communities by providing patient-empowering, best-in-class health and wellness care to children and adolescents who are fighting childhood obesity.  

Joia Jefferson Nuri — Communications specialist for In The Public Eye Communications.

Greg Palast — Award-winning investigative reporter featured in The Guardian, Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, BBC and other high profile media outlets. He covered Venezuela for The Guardian and BBC Television's "Newsnight." His BBC reports are the basis of his film "The Assassination of Hugo Chavez."

Dr. Jack Rasmus — Professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression."      

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