WEBVTT - Endless COVID 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.640 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.239 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live once again from 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:22.880 our Podstream studios in Times Square. Folks, everything is bad. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.400 I don't know how to part and parcel out what 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:29.960 we should talk about on any given day because when 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.479 I open up Twitter, it's like just jumping into a 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.640 cesspool filled with acid rain topped by I don't know, 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.480 killer slugs and killer bees. Remember we had that back 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.240 in twenty twenty as well. So here's where we are. 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:49.080 We live in a country, folks, where reality is being debated, right, 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:53.599 And the question that I'm asking friends and colleagues is this, 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.120 can reality exist if fifty percent of people have created 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.200 their own is there actually a founding and a basis right, 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.080 a commonality? Because you see, in reality, we have to 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.840 agree on certain principles, right, on certain ideas, which is 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.080 that gravity exists, right, that you know you should stop 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.560 at stop signs, that there are certain laws that dictate 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.280 the reality that we exist in. We cannot fly, so 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.280 you should not try and jump off of a building, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.640 right that you should not ride a bicycle into you know, 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.480 into a house. Like there were just certain things that 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.760 based in reality, the reality that we all agree upon. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.800 But here's the thing. We no longer agree upon any 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:42.320 fucking thing, not anything whatsoever. And you know, there was 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.960 a time when I believed in strong debate. I used 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.160 to love the show Crossfire back in the day. You'll 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.640 remember that, where you would have people from opposite sides 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.480 and you would put out a theme or you'd put 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.360 out an issue, and then they would hack it out 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.400 and the audience right would be the better for it, until, 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:02.400 of course, like everything else, they just descended into fuckery. 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:08.679 But here's where we are. On Monday, Memorial Herman Hospital 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:15.560 in Houston closed three ars down, three ers. They've closed. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:17.880 And let me tell you what they've said in the 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:22.320 announcement that was made due to the continued COVID nineteen 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:27.720 surge and the strain on the hospital system's operation, it 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:33.040 was closing three of its twenty four hour emergency rooms. 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.440 I want you to think about that for a minute. 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.200 A hospital has made an announcement in a developed country, 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.440 in these United States, to say that they are closing 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:48.000 their fucking doors to three of their twenty four hour 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:55.079 emergency rooms because they are overwhelmed and at capacity. Right, 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:59.280 and apparently at capacity by a fucking hoax, by something. 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.919 We've all made it up in our heads that apparently 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.359 over six hundred thousand Americans have died in this country 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.959 by something given to them by Peter Pan. Evidently it's 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:14.760 all just in our fucking heads. Hospitals are crumbling all 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:19.359 across this country, and yet fifty percent of the population 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:21.840 wants to tell me that I should put a fucking 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.600 spoon on my arm where the vaccination shot went in, 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.480 and if it sticks, that means that my DNA has 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.399 been altered. And people are actually believing this fuck shit. 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.600 You know, when I saw the report, which was about 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:43.520 a week or so ago, of the young girl, and 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.400 I want us to remember her name. I want us 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:54.240 to know her name right, eighth grader in Mississippi, And 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:59.280 this is what the report says. Here, a sweet Mississippi 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.000 town is in mourning the death of one of its 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:06.960 sweetest students. A little over a thousand people called Raleigh, 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.960 a place nestled in Smith County, Mississippi, home where a 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.720 magnolia drive runs through the heart of downtown and a 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.200 road is dotted with pastel colored storefronts and red brick 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.200 government buildings. For half a mile. It's a sleepy place. 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:29.800 And now this sleepy little quintessential apparently American town is 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.640 in a collective state of grief over a thirteen year 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:42.880 old girl named Michaela Robinson who died of COVID. Here's 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:48.200 the thing, folks, and this is what is getting to me. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:55.120 How many Michaela's are there going to be? How many 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.719 children across this country are going to die in the 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:08.680 weeks because of the many executioners that we have at 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:16.480 the helm of Red states across this country, death santis 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:22.679 de satan, you know, choose your poison, abbot, and others. 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.920 I just named the top two because this is who 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.440 the rest of Red state governors are taking their cues from. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.360 Mikaela went back to school as every other eighth grader 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.520 in her town was going to go back to school, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:44.719 and she, along with eight other children, ended up in 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:52.080 the ICU of Children's of Mississippi, the Children's Hospital. She 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:58.719 died on August fourteenth. And the thing here in this story, folks, 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.400 is that we always have Republicans that want to feed 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:08.640 us this line of absolute bullshit about the children, And 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.559 what about the children? The children can't see two people 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.120 of the same sex get married, because what about the children? 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.760 The children can't go to the bathroom at the bathroom 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.560 is gender neutral, because you know, what about the children? 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.279 We need to put parental advisories on everything, because what 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.839 about the children? But when it comes to actually changing 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:31.720 and shaping and making sure that children are safe, right, 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.560 and changing policy in order to keep children actually safe 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.039 from harm, we don't fucking do that. And nobody ever 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.320 calls out Republicans and says, hey, what about the children. 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.960 You have a classroom of first graders that get mowed 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:52.880 down by an AR fifteen in Sandy Hook, and you 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:57.279 tell us not to politicize. Now, the same fraction of 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:01.760 QAnon fus right who believe that the vaccine is changing 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.479 human DNA are the same people that believe that Sandy 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.640 Hook was all made up. That apparently the parents who 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.320 lost their six and seventy year old children and had 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:16.480 to bury them right, somehow they just made it up 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:20.000 for attention. Say that the kids who watched their best 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.920 friends die in front of them in Parkland, somehow they 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.400 made that shit up too. They're just a bunch of actors. 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.840 I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, that 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:37.240 one of the Parkland students. His own father somehow now 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.360 because of QAnon, believes that he was some type of 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:45.000 actor involved in the Parkland shooting. The man was in 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.960 the house when he got the call that the school 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:53.040 was locked down because there was a mass shooting. If 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.480 this is where we have arrived in our society, we're 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.360 instead of creating policy, instead of doing something to protect 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:06.840 our children, we instead sell them bulletproof backpacks that instead 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:11.400 of using a piece of fucking cloth that could keep 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.400 your child from death from long term COVID, who has 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.280 any idea what the fuck that will actually look like 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:24.040 in a body that's still developing. Instead of doing that, 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:28.120 we have anti mask mandates rolled out in all of 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:36.559 these states, including Mississippi where MICHAELA died. What about the children? 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.920 Coming up next? Friends, is my conversation with our in 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.000 house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel to talk to us about 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:54.040 the latest with COVID, folks. I am so excited to 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.240 be back and in conversation with our in house doctor, 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:02.719 doctor Jonathan Metzel, who is now back on location in 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.720 Tennessee with his university, going to be teaching in person 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.960 two hundred some odd students. Jonathan You've been in Tennessee 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.160 for how long now? And what are you what are 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:18.960 you seeing? As the differences between how New York and 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.280 Connecticut were you also were throughout this time. We're hand 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.840 are handling COVID versus what you're seeing in Tennessee. I mean, 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.000 I've been here, I guess for a week, but in 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.480 dog years, it feels like I've been here for ten 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.120 years already. It's been a really long week. It's great 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.880 to talk to you. Hello, everybody. I would say in 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.160 I've had this really weird thing right where for the 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:44.320 past year I've been living on the East Coast, and 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.880 I mean certainly everywhere. It's not like you're going to 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.480 escape it, but in general in New York, for example, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.600 I mean, certainly some people do what some people don't, 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.920 but there's a general playing by a particular set of rules. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.920 You know, you go somewhere, people are in general wearing 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.640 a mask. You can pretty much people you're going to 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:08.720 interact with have been vaccinated. And now I started triple 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:12.800 masking yesterday because it's just odd. Well it's more just 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:14.920 that like like are you breathing? Like do you have 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.840 an oxygen techs? I had to go to the airport 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:25.360 and take up light on Southwest Airlines, and so I 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.199 just thought, man, I'm like swimming and I don't know 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.760 if it's COVID or whatever something right now, So I 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.800 figured I would rather be safe than sorry. But it's 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:38.000 just it's interesting that like your everyday interactions are just 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.800 you just you can't assume that people are playing by 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.160 that same set of rules. I mean, I've been the 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:48.040 only mask person in multiple indoor settings. Certainly there are 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:50.160 people here who are scared out of their minds. There 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.160 are people here who are worried about it, people who 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:55.560 want to do the right thing. But it's just interesting 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.680 to be part of a framework where the bigger framework 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.720 is out of public health framework, and so everywhere you 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.200 go you can pretty much just I just take it 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.000 for granted outside of my university that I'm I just 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.360 assume I'm going to be the only mass person, and 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:13.679 that's It's not always the case, but it's often the case, 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.360 and so it just leads to a different kind of 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.400 I mean, again, I'm coming from a health perspective, it's 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:22.760 much it's harder to relax. I mean, I feel like 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:24.959 this for me, I would mu surether be in New York, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.440 where everybody's kind of playing by a set of rules 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.200 that are linked to kind of communal safety. For me, 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.160 that is more relaxing, even though we're faced with this 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:37.480 shitty situation which is there's virus. But here it's kind 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.400 of like everybody's it just feels like everybody's for themselves, 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.720 which I don't know, I don't I don't like it 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.040 as much, you know, It's just it's hard when you know, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.959 when you say that, like so in New York that 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.079 everyone is playing by the same set of you know, similarly, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.160 the same set of rules, meaning that we're all kind 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:59.360 of focused on community safety and community wellness, and that 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.480 has been from the top down. Right, do you feel 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.840 though that when you are the only mask person inside somewhere, like, 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.839 are you receiving sneers or people looking at you because 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.680 they're operating frankly on a set of community values as well. 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.520 They're libertarian freedoms, right, and what it is that they 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:22.320 perceive to be their autonomy, which is the ability to 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.240 harm folks. And so I'm just wondering how are you 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:30.640 being perceived with your masking with you know, within the university, 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.960 but also just going to the store picking up you know, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:38.760 whatever it is that you need. Yeah, even if you 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.920 wanted to wear a mask, you're you're just out numbered 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.880 here basically. And so it's kind of like it's just 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.319 exhaustion really in a certain kind of way. I mean, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.040 certainly there are some people give you bad looks. Some 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.840 people are like, oh I A lot of people like 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.200 probably tried to wear masks and then they just kind 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.640 of tired of it and stuff like that. And so 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.760 it's more like it's more that it's more a structural 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.360 level exhaustion, if that makes any sense. In other words, 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.000 like some people are worried about COVID, some people aren't. 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.200 Some people want to do the right thing. Some people 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.440 are just wanting to get on with their lives. But 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.640 because the bigger structure isn't giving clear public health guidelines, 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.040 and if they did, people wouldn't follow them. I'll give 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.160 you an example. I was in the Nashville airport, and 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.240 even though there's a mask mandate in the airport, plenty 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.319 of people were just walking around with their mask, just 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:37.280 covering their chin nostril patriots because they were determined to 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.600 have their noses outside of their masks. Some people just 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.120 had their masks around one ear, and other people were 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.439 like scared o their minds and like me, they had 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.719 like seventy five masks on and stuff like that. But 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.360 it's just like you're in this bigger pool of people 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.160 doing things kind of differently. And so I don't know, 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.240 certainly I had the individual economy to wear seventy five masks. 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.440 That was my liberty and my freedom. But I I 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:02.840 would rather be part of a I mean, I'd probably 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.360 sound like some bleading socialist right now, but I'd rather 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:07.559 be part of a place where like everybody's just kind 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.880 of wearing a mask. I just find it moreally relaxing. 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.400 I guess what I'm trying to say, and it's hard 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.040 to articulate because I'm in the middle of it now, 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:19.800 is it's just coming from it. I find it to 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.440 be in a situation where everyone is just making up 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:27.400 their own rules. Yeah, and you know where are where 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.480 Where is Tennessee right now? In terms of their icee 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.800 you beds in terms of their infection right I'm certain 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.640 that you're probably following that in the same way that 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.760 we follow it here in New York, and so are 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.280 they in I'm assuming that they are in similar positions 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.720 as Florida and Texas and Mississippi and Alabama. What do 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.960 their numbers look like right now? It's catastrophic. I mean, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:53.360 it's horrible. There was a piece in the New York 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.640 Times about it this morning. Not just COVID. We had 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.040 a flash floods here the other day. Yeah, a lot 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:02.360 of people got killed. So there's um, you know, climate 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.560 issues and things like that. But again we've got it. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.280 We've got, like many southern states, a governor who's going 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.800 around overturning mask mandates, and so there's a push and 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:13.360 pull like and there's a nice piece in the New 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.400 York Times about it this morning that people are really worried, 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:17.880 and there are a lot of parents who are worried. 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.800 But the big issue is school is going back in 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.560 I'm starting teaching again tomorrow, and so it just it 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.960 just feels like every person's out there for themselves and 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.560 there's no an anytime you try to create like a 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.000 kind of okay, let's do public health, you've got somebody 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.240 like the horrible governor here, see who comes and overturns it. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.000 And so it's weird because on one hand, it's like, 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.480 you know, states rights or individual liberty or something like that. 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.680 But every time a school tries to say, Okay, look 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.840 we're going to we're going to legislate safety for our community, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.720 the governor comes in and says, you can't. You can't 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.400 mandate masks in your schools. You've probably seen some videos 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.280 of the people you know shouting down school board members 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:04.160 and doctors are now getting getting attacked on social media, 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.520 and so it's not a good situation. I mean, again, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.880 people have their individual lived there are times where you 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:14.160 need communal public health, and so I'm trying to get 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:15.800 the lay of the land. It's been a week here, 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.760 but I will say that I feel like this week 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.160 has been a very long week. I mean, I'm I'm 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:25.400 still kicking right here as we proceed, and I feel 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.960 you and the viewers in on what things are like 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.440 in the South. It's just really again, everybody you see 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.600 is not some crazy Twitter person, but just the everyday interaction. 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.560 You just can't assume the same kind of safety. And 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:40.720 of course this is all happening in the context of 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.320 a bigger conversation where COVID is getting much worse and 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.560 it's going to last now much longer, and vaccine hesitancy 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.080 is really really going to prolong this narrative, so it 0:16:51.160 --> 0:17:00.440 just feels tiring right now, to be honest. That's it 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.200 for today's Woke, a f daily podcast. To hear more 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:07.000 from today's show, including my full interview with doctor Jonathan Metzel, 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.480 support me on Patreon at patreon dot com slash woke 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.679 F Power to the people and to all the people. Power, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:15.840 get woke and stay woke as fuck.