Juan González: “Make No Mistake: This Country Is Edging Closer to Neo-Fascist Authoritarianism”

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/21/juan_gonzalez_coronavirus_update?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=ba2e3a1db1-Daily_Digest_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-ba2e3a1db1-190254837 AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, with my co-host Juan González joining from his home in New Jersey, second only to New York with infections and death from COVID-19 with at least 88,000 cases and nearly 4,500 deaths. Juan, welcome. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Thank you, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. AMY GOODMAN: So, Juan, before we continue with the show, we spoke on air last Tuesday. Your mother had just gone into the hospital, 92 years old, in New Jersey, and she tested positive for COVID-19. Can you give us an update on your mom and also your wife, Lilia Fernández? JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, Amy. Well, thanks for asking. Yes, my mother was in the hospital for several days, but, thankfully, she was released late last week and was sent to a rehabilitation center, where she’s getting some therapy now to get her strength back. But it seems that she’s out of danger. Likewise with my wife Lilia, we had a rough time last week. She was in really bad shape for several days but now seems to be in the clear. She’s eating well. She has no fever. She’s still in isolation, and she’s going to be in isolation in our house for at least another week to 10 days, but at least the worst appears to be over for our family. And luckily, I haven’t shown any symptoms until now, so, please, keep your fingers crossed. And I want to thank all of the fans of Democracy Now! who tweeted or emailed to us their hopes for the recovery of my family members. AMY GOODMAN: And very quickly, Juan, I think the things that have happened with your family are so instructive. When you called the ambulance for Lilia, the ambulance — the EMT heroes are not talked about enough, but who came in, and those kind of recommendations, like proning, like laying on your stomach to open up your lungs. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Right. Yeah, we did have to call on Thursday the ambulance, because she was really not only incredibly weak — she didn’t have a fever — but she was having a lot of trouble breathing, and she was also delirious. She couldn’t recall where she was, what was happening, what had happened the day before. And so I really got quite frightened. I called 911. The ambulance came. And these EMTs were fantastic. I mean, they’ve been dealing with this, day in and day out. They took all her vital signs, and they said she was getting enough oxygen. And the head EMT said, “Look, I know this all sucks. You’re feeling worse than you’ve ever felt in your life. But I’m telling you, if I take you to the hospital right now — I’m ready to do it, but if I take you to the hospital, they’re likely just to have you there for several hours and send you back home, because there are so many other people that are even more sick.” So he did give us a bunch of instructions about ways to get through it as best as possible. And then he said, “Look, any moment, anytime she gets worse, if it’s five minutes from now, half an hour from now, or tomorrow, just call us, and we’ll take her to the hospital right away.” So, I think that they calmed her quite a bit. They calmed me quite a bit. And then, within a couple of days, she was doing much better.