Speaker 1: Good morning, keeps, and welcome to Okay f daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody back in the Brooklyn Bunker.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to say. I have just been contemplating, y'all,
Speaker 1: when the last time, When was the last time that
Speaker 1: I had consistently good feeling days in America? Meaning I
Speaker 1: had good feeling days about the direction this country is
Speaker 1: headed in about my faith in our institutions, any form
Speaker 1: of patriotism. And I'm really at a loss. I go
Speaker 1: back to when the election was finally decided, and you know,
Speaker 1: this sense of foolish you know now in hindsight being
Speaker 1: twenty twenty foolish relief that I felt when Joe Biden
Speaker 1: was named president. I remember going down and opening champagne
Speaker 1: with my neighbors and being like, you know, we did it.
Speaker 1: And at the time I thought that we did it,
Speaker 1: that the did part was the hardest part of the
Speaker 1: work that was going to be asked of us, which
Speaker 1: was to go out in the midst of a health
Speaker 1: pandemic without a vaccine, to vote Satan or who we
Speaker 1: perceived to be Satan, out of the White House. And
Speaker 1: what I realized now, folks, is that I don't really
Speaker 1: know what we did right. You know. It's one of
Speaker 1: those feelings that I've that is like that has begun
Speaker 1: to go keep me up at night, where I've been
Speaker 1: saying for the longest time that the last election really
Speaker 1: just hit pause on our democracies decline. But it actually didn't,
Speaker 1: because if you've been listening and paying attention to you know,
Speaker 1: the major headline stories, and I know that you are
Speaker 1: because you listen to WOKAF, But there has been a
Speaker 1: rapid uptick in the destruction of our democracy. So whether
Speaker 1: we're looking at state and local bills like they don't
Speaker 1: say gay bill, whether we're looking at the over twenty
Speaker 1: trigger laws that are about to take place when Rov
Speaker 1: Wade is finally taken away, whether we're looking at the
Speaker 1: leak draft, whether we're looking at Elon must saying that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is going to return to Twitter, whether we're
Speaker 1: looking at you know, reports on climate change and how
Speaker 1: rapidly the Earth is declining. I look at these things
Speaker 1: and I thought that when we voted for Biden, that
Speaker 1: we were putting an adult back in the room, that
Speaker 1: there were going to be people that we could trust
Speaker 1: to lead these institutions that had been up until that point.
Speaker 1: Under Donald Trump completely and totally gutted. You saw a
Speaker 1: massive resignation of career, career staff, which is integral to
Speaker 1: the operation of all of our agencies, right, And I
Speaker 1: kind of felt that with the in stating of folks
Speaker 1: with integrity that we would be in a better place.
Speaker 1: And we're totally fucking not. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: fucking place we're in. And this is why, like I
Speaker 1: hit record, and generally I have some idea, you know,
Speaker 1: when things written down that I want to talk about.
Speaker 1: But I'm just like, folks, I'm fucking dumb struck. I
Speaker 1: really am. I can't because every conversation that I'm having,
Speaker 1: and this week I'm going to talk to you know,
Speaker 1: a range of folks, but every conversation that I'm having,
Speaker 1: I finished the interview feeling worse than when I went
Speaker 1: into it. Meaning that we do our due diligence between
Speaker 1: myself and my producer Andrew to bring in some of
Speaker 1: the most thoughtful, well read, well researched, well versed people
Speaker 1: on a range of topics, and it is starting to
Speaker 1: hit me that with each and every person that I
Speaker 1: am bringing on the show and engaging in conversation with
Speaker 1: we all hang up feeling the same fucking way, which is,
Speaker 1: I don't know what the fuck we're going to do,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we say that, you know, coming up in
Speaker 1: my conversation, my weekly conversation with our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I have been reading up
Speaker 1: on because the news isn't really covering it anymore. It's
Speaker 1: COVID and where the fuck we are with that? Welcome
Speaker 1: to find out we have two new subvariants that have
Speaker 1: been discovered in South Africa once again by the South
Speaker 1: African doctors who are researching continuing to research how COVID
Speaker 1: is mutating and the new sequencing and spike proteins. And
Speaker 1: they're the only ones doing it because their country is
Speaker 1: still largely sixty percent of the country is still largely unvaccinated.
Speaker 1: Now that isn't because unlike in the United States, where
Speaker 1: we have twenty three percent of the population that is
Speaker 1: unvaccinated because they're fucking idiots. No, it's because the vaccine
Speaker 1: is still not made widely available in places with black
Speaker 1: and brown people that are though, you know that are
Speaker 1: the citizens, and you know, these wealthier nations said that
Speaker 1: they were going to do their part in ensuring that
Speaker 1: less wealthy nations had the access that they needed in
Speaker 1: order to get these vaccines vaccines or at least be
Speaker 1: able to create their own versions for cheaper and they
Speaker 1: haven't fucking followed through on that. But why would we
Speaker 1: assume that white people in power would follow through on
Speaker 1: any goddamn thing? Right, the health and welfare of each
Speaker 1: other actually matters when you're in a shared global health pandemic.
Speaker 1: But as it turns out, you know, white colonization and
Speaker 1: supremacy doesn't really put the feelings and the well being
Speaker 1: of others in the same realm that they do themselves,
Speaker 1: And so they're pretty much like who the fuck cares. Sadly,
Speaker 1: they're who the fuck cares mentality as it pertains to
Speaker 1: giving low wealth countries the help and aid that they need,
Speaker 1: because their protection means all of our protection is in
Speaker 1: part of the scarcity white supremacy model. Right, You would
Speaker 1: have to have an abundant way of thinking, right, that
Speaker 1: all people matter, and that by and that my brother
Speaker 1: really is my keeper, right, and that my responsibility really
Speaker 1: is to my community, and not just the community that
Speaker 1: I live in, but the global community in which I'm
Speaker 1: a part of and you realize that that's not the case.
Speaker 1: It doesn't fucking matter whether or not Donald Trump is
Speaker 1: in office or Joe Biden, frankly, because their attitudes to me,
Speaker 1: when we are looking at the responsibility of this country
Speaker 1: that has done so much damage, particularly in black and
Speaker 1: brown nations and low income nations, to do the right
Speaker 1: thing you have won, Donald Trump will just be like,
Speaker 1: fuck those shit whole countries and tell you like it is.
Speaker 1: You may not like it, but at least he's telling
Speaker 1: you the fucking truth about how he feels, right, so
Speaker 1: you don't expect shit from him. But what I realize
Speaker 1: is that democrats are justice are are just nuanced in there.
Speaker 1: I don't give a fuck about that country, right, They
Speaker 1: just count their same result of do nothing in nuance.
Speaker 1: So you'll talk about, oh, we need to have immigration
Speaker 1: policy and we need to do these things, and the
Speaker 1: humanity of all people and the dehumanization that is happening
Speaker 1: overseas to the people of Ukraine at the hands of Russia,
Speaker 1: but you won't take any responsibility for the dehumanization that
Speaker 1: we all witnessed at the hands of US border patrol
Speaker 1: towards Haitian migrants and those from Central America and Mexico, right, like,
Speaker 1: we won't talk about that. And you see, this is
Speaker 1: what I'm saying about Republicans, is that they'll just tell
Speaker 1: you straight up who the fuck they don't give a
Speaker 1: fuck about, right Whereas Democrats, I guess, allow us to
Speaker 1: be able to pretend that they care when we know
Speaker 1: that their actions actually really do line up. So right now,
Speaker 1: when we're still reeling from the news of the leaked
Speaker 1: abortion decision draft from the Supreme Court, and then you're
Speaker 1: watching the news and realizing that some Democrats are still
Speaker 1: coming out publicly with their support for codifying a abortion
Speaker 1: and other repro care into our laws, we're still trying
Speaker 1: to convince Democrats that women need to be able to
Speaker 1: have the ability to control their own bodies. So I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to feel what exactly about the Republicans who I
Speaker 1: know where they have always aligned so on this issue,
Speaker 1: once again, we're not going to be able to do
Speaker 1: what is right. One. We need the sixty votes, and
Speaker 1: nobody's going to blow up the filibuster for voting rights,
Speaker 1: for women's rights, for anything, because it is the preservation
Speaker 1: of this archaic, fucking tool that is more important than
Speaker 1: the preservation of bodily autonomy, liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 1: So you know, forgive me on this Wednesday for being
Speaker 1: I don't know, just outdone and at a loss for words, folks.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you that it matters that we're gearing
Speaker 1: up for public hearings with the one six House Commission,
Speaker 1: because I don't think that it does. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you that it matters that Elon Musk, once he buys Twitter,
Speaker 1: is going to put Donald Trump back on I can't
Speaker 1: tell you that I give a shit. I mean, I
Speaker 1: hate Elon Musk and everybody knows that. And I hate
Speaker 1: white men in power who abuse it and use their
Speaker 1: power to threaten harm and cause pain for marginalized communities
Speaker 1: just because they can. For the fucktion of it. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm at a place where I actually do just want
Speaker 1: to see all of this shit burned to the ground.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be honest. I don't think that there
Speaker 1: is stopped, there's any way to stop the inevitable. I
Speaker 1: keep thinking about the matrix in my head where you
Speaker 1: know mister Smith, who was consistently going after NEO, said
Speaker 1: that he was trying to stop the inevitable. Right, it
Speaker 1: was going to be inevitable that the machines were going
Speaker 1: to take over, right, that that human kind was going
Speaker 1: to be enslaved right inside of this matrix, that they
Speaker 1: were never going to win. And I mean in it's Hollywood,
Speaker 1: so you know, the good guys win in the end.
Speaker 1: But there was a repeat of history, and there probably
Speaker 1: will be because what the matrix, the last installation showed
Speaker 1: us is that without persistent vigilance, without the consistency in
Speaker 1: vigilance in training, in building up a pipeline of people
Speaker 1: to come behind those that are currently in power, without
Speaker 1: this war posture, right, where do we go? What do
Speaker 1: we do? It is inevitable that our democracy is going
Speaker 1: to fail because it takes two parties in order for
Speaker 1: it to succeed, in two parties in order for it
Speaker 1: to fail. Now I can point fingers and say all
Speaker 1: of the things that I've been saying until I'm blue
Speaker 1: in the face about what Republicans are doing, and they're doing,
Speaker 1: you know, in broad daylight, right, they're doing out in
Speaker 1: the open, and they're doing it with little to no
Speaker 1: opposition whatsoever. And it is that lack of opposition. It
Speaker 1: is that lack of offense on the part of the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party that is going to be the final nail
Speaker 1: in the coffin of our democracy that were Publicans have built.
Speaker 1: And so when you realize all of these things one
Speaker 1: fucking interview and one conversation after the other, you're just like,
Speaker 1: can we fast forward to the end, right and figure
Speaker 1: out who is left and what is left and if
Speaker 1: anything can be rebuilt? Because this fucking, you know, accelerated
Speaker 1: coup ride that we're on right now is getting on
Speaker 1: my fucking nerves right, Like, I just want to fast
Speaker 1: forward to midterms when we lose, fast forward to what
Speaker 1: Republicans are going to do and how they're going to
Speaker 1: gut the country, and then fast forward to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four when there is the final fascist takeover, and then
Speaker 1: fast forward five ten years down the road from there.
Speaker 1: Will there be a revolution or will the people be
Speaker 1: too apathetic to actually do anything and they'll just succumb
Speaker 1: to the will and the whim of the oppressor. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I gotta tell you that it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel good after each and every conversation that people that
Speaker 1: are way smarter than me are feeling the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: Absent any action in the next five months from the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, We're done. So that's how I'm feeling today,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to bullshit you. Some days I
Speaker 1: have more energy and fight and fire than others. Today
Speaker 1: is not that day. Today is the day that I
Speaker 1: read headline after headline and watched way too much news
Speaker 1: and none of it is trending in our direction. And
Speaker 1: so what does that mean about how we're going to
Speaker 1: fortifiers ourselves, our sanity, our wellbeing as we move through
Speaker 1: what is going to be the inevitable demise of America
Speaker 1: and the America that we know. How do we prepare
Speaker 1: for this next version that is going to be Actually
Speaker 1: where my mind is for the next couple of days,
Speaker 1: in the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months.
Speaker 1: This country has seen a lot of bad days, a
Speaker 1: lot of bad centuries, depending on what community you're a
Speaker 1: part of. This is something that is a little bit
Speaker 1: different to me. It's a little scarier because we have
Speaker 1: more knowledge than ever before, we have more tools than
Speaker 1: ever before, and yet seemed to be stuck and I
Speaker 1: don't know what it's going to take to unstick us.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, friends, my conversation with our good doctor,
Speaker 1: doctor Jonathan Metzo, about where we are with COVID and
Speaker 1: what we need to be paying attention to in that
Speaker 1: news story that no longer makes news. Hey, I'm David.
Speaker 1: Plots of Slice Political Gabfest. As another election season accelerates,
Speaker 1: it can be tricky to sort through all the noise
Speaker 1: and the news. Each week on the Gapfest, John Dickerson,
Speaker 1: Emily Bathlon and I decipher the headlines, break down the races,
Speaker 1: and tell you what issues really matter. We do not
Speaker 1: always agree, We definitely do not always agree, but we
Speaker 1: always deliver thoughtful debate and we always have a good time.
Speaker 1: So subscribe to Slate's Political Gapfest new episodes every Thursday.
Speaker 1: Get a behind the scenes look at Comedy Central's The
Speaker 1: Daily Show on Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from
Speaker 1: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy
Speaker 1: Wood Junior goes deeper with the notable guests and experts
Speaker 1: from the Emmy Award winning series. Together, they use comedy
Speaker 1: to tackle current topics from gentrification to gun laws, and
Speaker 1: take a closer look at how and why these topics matter.
Speaker 1: Listen to Beyond the Scenes from the Daily Show with
Speaker 1: Trevor Noah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast, new episodes every Tuesday. Folks, when
Speaker 1: it is Wednesday and you know I'm marinating in misery,
Speaker 1: there's no better person than I love to talk to
Speaker 1: on this day than our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Mepsil. Jonathan.
Speaker 1: So I know that the world believes that COVID is over.
Speaker 1: I have had at least three friends in the last
Speaker 1: week tell me that they have tested positive for COVID.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I read a New York Times article that went
Speaker 1: through the two new sub variants of omicron that have
Speaker 1: been discovered once again by the amazing doctors in their
Speaker 1: sequencing that they've been doing in South Africa. Because no
Speaker 1: one else, apparently in the world outside of South Africa
Speaker 1: is still investigating how COVID is mutating and why is that? Well,
Speaker 1: because I believe that there is still sixty percent of
Speaker 1: people in Africa have not received their first dose of
Speaker 1: the vaccine in South Africa. In neighboring countries and neighboring nations,
Speaker 1: vaccination remains incredibly low. So it is not unusual for
Speaker 1: us to be hearing that there are mutations that are
Speaker 1: coming out of a region that we have yet to
Speaker 1: as as a wealthy nation, have yet to provide with
Speaker 1: the kind of aid that they need. In the New
Speaker 1: York Times article, Jonathan I will say this white journalism
Speaker 1: is on is some shit. And it was because there
Speaker 1: was one sentence in there that really threw me for
Speaker 1: a loop, and it said, even the United States doesn't
Speaker 1: have tent doesn't have twenty three percent of the country vaccinated. I'mlike,
Speaker 1: even the United States, the United States has the worst
Speaker 1: COVID numbers on the planet, with now over a million
Speaker 1: people having died, like a hundred million plus have been infected.
Speaker 1: But the way that was written was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: and even us were struggle. I'm like, we've been ground zero.
Speaker 1: So give me your initial reactions to this news about
Speaker 1: BA point four and BA point five, the new sub
Speaker 1: variants of omicron, and what they are saying is that
Speaker 1: you are vaccinated, you won't be hospitalized, but this time around,
Speaker 1: you also won't be asymptomatic. When when we were kids
Speaker 1: in Missouri, my parents would take us this place called
Speaker 1: Trout Farm. And the thing about Trout Farm was like
Speaker 1: there were like a bunch of like little trout that
Speaker 1: they would throw into the pond. They was like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like little kids can feel good catching fish in
Speaker 1: a teeny little pond. And the usually you'd catch some
Speaker 1: teeny little fish that had just been thrown in the
Speaker 1: pond like two minutes ago. And there were all these
Speaker 1: really big trout at the bottom, and they were the
Speaker 1: smart trout who like never got caught because they're like,
Speaker 1: I'm not eating that worm, Like the hell with that,
Speaker 1: you know, And so we just wanted to catch the
Speaker 1: big trout, but we never did because they were the
Speaker 1: trout that that, you know, that that knew what they
Speaker 1: were doing. And I feel like COVID now is coming
Speaker 1: for the big trout, and we're the big trout because
Speaker 1: we're the people who have been like wearing our masks
Speaker 1: and washing our hands and social distancing and doing all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And so now COVID has figured out, like, man,
Speaker 1: there's a whole there's a whole browth economy for us
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, and we can get the big trout,
Speaker 1: the people who have actually done the right shit the
Speaker 1: entire time. We're coming for those guys. And so in
Speaker 1: a way, that's kind of what's happening is that COVID
Speaker 1: has figured out a way to get like us, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised that, like, you know, the yackerdoodles who
Speaker 1: are just like, you know, embracing COVID and licking the
Speaker 1: subway pole and stuff like, they're you know, they've had
Speaker 1: it a bunch of times already. But the problem with
Speaker 1: these new variants is that, I mean, you know, the
Speaker 1: big O member when we started talking about it was
Speaker 1: it was so and it was so infectious that it
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, how could anything born infect said?
Speaker 1: Now this new ship is like twenty seven times more
Speaker 1: more infectious than that, And so we're up in Measles
Speaker 1: territory right now. Is basically the long and the short
Speaker 1: of it. And that makes I mean, and so the
Speaker 1: stories that we're hearing, and I'm sure it's the same
Speaker 1: for you, also, the stories that we're hearing are not
Speaker 1: of people who like, went to a strip club, Hey darn,
Speaker 1: I got COVID at a strip club. Whatever. What we're
Speaker 1: hearing is people who sound like me and you, who
Speaker 1: are like, I was so careful this whole time, How
Speaker 1: the heck did I get COVID? And I've got a
Speaker 1: ton of people in my circle who are the same
Speaker 1: kind of thing, the big trout at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the thing. But I would say that COVID has figured
Speaker 1: out a way to make itself. I mean, we're really
Speaker 1: in among the most infectious possible zones right now. It's
Speaker 1: I mean, we're way up there in the history of
Speaker 1: viruses with this kind of spread. Makes it's almost impossible
Speaker 1: to avoid. I mean, unless you're I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I live by myself. I go to the gym, I
Speaker 1: went to the gym's morning. I wore a mask, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. But even you know, I've got to
Speaker 1: go take a flight later today. I'll have my mask
Speaker 1: on that kind of thing. But it's hard to it's
Speaker 1: hard to avoid this now. I was gonna say, I
Speaker 1: feel like we have gotten to the place where and
Speaker 1: this is what I have was just home of visiting
Speaker 1: my family for Mother's Day, and you know, myself, my mother,
Speaker 1: my sister who lives abroad, we have yet to get
Speaker 1: COVID right, And I have said to her now it's
Speaker 1: pretty much just inevitable, right, like there is there is
Speaker 1: really no avoiding this. And for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: One because everything is back right, events are back. Panels
Speaker 1: are back in person, Galers are back in person. Right,
Speaker 1: You're being asked or invited to events and you can't
Speaker 1: say no at this stage because now every one it's going.
Speaker 1: So there is this pure pressure that is now present
Speaker 1: where it would seem ridiculous for you to say, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do X because of COVID. Right, We're
Speaker 1: never going to see a shutdown again. These things aren't
Speaker 1: going to happen. But at the same time, we haven't
Speaker 1: even hit summer yet, and the White House is already
Speaker 1: warning us of a really bad COVID fall in winter,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, you mean like the pattern we've
Speaker 1: been doing for the last two years, Like we know
Speaker 1: that every winter and fall is bad. So if we've
Speaker 1: all been doing the right thing, we're in Measle's territory.
Speaker 1: Just unpack for a bit what that actually means. Is
Speaker 1: it fully endemic? Is it just we just get ourselves
Speaker 1: all together, you know, in a hotel room, pop champagne
Speaker 1: and just get COVID and then go home and get
Speaker 1: over it. Well, you know the bad thing about this
Speaker 1: new COVID I haven't come up with a catching nickname
Speaker 1: for it yet, but I'll say that it's it's it's
Speaker 1: escaping the people who have got COVID before are getting
Speaker 1: COVID with this new COVID. People who got vaccinated are
Speaker 1: getting this new covid. The vaccine rate that the infection
Speaker 1: rates are just as high in New York as they
Speaker 1: are in the South. So the new COVID has figured
Speaker 1: out a way around not just around like our own
Speaker 1: social defenses, but also around the kind of antibody and
Speaker 1: and T cell and other responses that we've had that
Speaker 1: that that basically gave us memory. And so it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see, you know, right now there's infection rates
Speaker 1: right which are super high, and I think what we're
Speaker 1: seeing nobody wants to admit it really is that the
Speaker 1: vaccine is not it's not really. Of course, it's not
Speaker 1: preventing infection. A lot of people are getting sick, people
Speaker 1: are getting symptomatic even if they've been vaccinated. But that's
Speaker 1: also true for people who've had COVID before. So it's
Speaker 1: good getting around people who also have the imman response
Speaker 1: of having COVID before. So this is like this has
Speaker 1: reinvented itself to the point where it's almost like a
Speaker 1: kind of new thing in a way, and so the
Speaker 1: issue will be how sick are people getting right, what's
Speaker 1: going to happen to hospitalizations, what's going to happen to deaths?
Speaker 1: And I'd say, at least right now, at least right now,
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem the main thing is that the early
Speaker 1: variants attack the lungs, and anything in the Omo cron
Speaker 1: chain does not attack the lungs. And so I think
Speaker 1: that as long as we're in that chain, you know,
Speaker 1: lung infection is what killed a lot of people, and
Speaker 1: so so I don't think we're going to see the
Speaker 1: level of death that we saw before. But it's also
Speaker 1: super shit, right because what this tells us number one,
Speaker 1: is that the virus is mutating well beyond what anybody expected,
Speaker 1: Like people thought it would kind of fizz out by now.
Speaker 1: Number two, that probably means that the pandemic, I hate
Speaker 1: to say, this is probably going to go on for
Speaker 1: at least another couple of years. You know. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you this because you know, doctor Fauci, who
Speaker 1: will probably never hear from again, is using a different
Speaker 1: He's using different words. He's saying he had said right
Speaker 1: before the White House correspondence dinner that you know, we
Speaker 1: are entering into an endemic stage. So talk to us
Speaker 1: about these two words, pandemic and endemic, and what if
Speaker 1: any wrench be a point four and be a point
Speaker 1: five the two new sub variants throw in that midst.
Speaker 1: I mean, the best outcome is possibly what we have
Speaker 1: right now, which is this thing is just floating out there.
Speaker 1: When things are at endemic, they never go away. And
Speaker 1: so um, but but but again then he remember he
Speaker 1: said that it was the pandemic was over, and then
Speaker 1: he recanted. I'm sorry, I miss never he can't, and
Speaker 1: I just, you know, I laugh because I'm at a
Speaker 1: point of delirium, Yeah, where I just don't know what
Speaker 1: to do or say anymore. No, No, it's it's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: I mean it's kind of not funny, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny enough funny. But the thing is, he recanted,
Speaker 1: and and so so I will say that the fall
Speaker 1: is going to suck. I mean, the fall is going
Speaker 1: to suck. And so what I can say from an
Speaker 1: optimistic point of view unless it gets shut down by
Speaker 1: the you know whatever, is that they're working on a
Speaker 1: new broad broader vaccine, a vaccine that is at least
Speaker 1: bi valent that will attack different parts of the covid
Speaker 1: um virus as it infects you and stuff, not just
Speaker 1: the spike protein. A vaccine that is more specific to omicron,
Speaker 1: because it doesn't seem like omicron's going away, um, and
Speaker 1: that's being tested now. There's so in the best of
Speaker 1: all worlds, we would have a new vaccine coming out
Speaker 1: for what's happened now the way we have flu and
Speaker 1: it's not one hundred percent perfect and sometimes we miss
Speaker 1: it and that kind of thing. But I sure hope
Speaker 1: there's a new vaccine that's ready by fall that that
Speaker 1: to me is going to be the make or break thing,
Speaker 1: because if that's not the case, we're going to have
Speaker 1: a horrific fall. So that does seem like DejaVu all
Speaker 1: over again. But even in the midst of like everything
Speaker 1: else happening and molten lava falling from the sky and
Speaker 1: I don't know, before I go to bed, I read
Speaker 1: about the extinction of the dinosaurs now and stuff, just
Speaker 1: to keep my spirits up and so and so, you know,
Speaker 1: we're in that moment right where we're like, damn, look
Speaker 1: at that fifty foot lava cloud heading toward us. For lunch, honey.
Speaker 1: But the thing is that I do think it's going
Speaker 1: to be make or break. Honestly, if we get this
Speaker 1: new vaccine by fall, that's going to be a really
Speaker 1: big deal. But I mean, if we get a new
Speaker 1: vaccine by fall, is it going to be available to everybody?
Speaker 1: Because the last time the White House came out and
Speaker 1: told us that they don't have any money, that they
Speaker 1: don't have any money to you know, to distribute to
Speaker 1: people without insurance, to distribute you know, in mass because
Speaker 1: Congress hasn't approved any money for them, but they're sending
Speaker 1: all of our tax dollars to Ukraine. So I'm just wondering, like,
Speaker 1: even if something were to become available invented, is it
Speaker 1: going to be widely available? It really depends on what happens.
Speaker 1: I mean. The perfect example is the flu vaccine. Right
Speaker 1: the minute it's stopped being profitable, the minute they're stopping
Speaker 1: like a regular customer for the flu vaccine. It took
Speaker 1: a literally an active Congress to get them to start
Speaker 1: making flu vaccine again. All these kind of vaccines, the
Speaker 1: minute they stopped being profitable and the market drops, you
Speaker 1: need government. This is where you need government. You need
Speaker 1: government support for these kind of vaccines. And so that's
Speaker 1: a really good question. I sure, hope. I mean they
Speaker 1: really need to pass this COVID bill. I mean I
Speaker 1: don't see them. I mean, I honestly don't see them
Speaker 1: doing that. And we have midterms in six months against
Speaker 1: a party that doesn't believe in the COVID vacs, that
Speaker 1: doesn't believe in COVID, doesn't believe in the vaccine, definitely
Speaker 1: doesn't believe in helping people. So if we're headed into
Speaker 1: a bad fall politically because we have midterms, we're headed
Speaker 1: into a bad fall because they're telling us omicron is
Speaker 1: you know, coming on a cloud over the mountaintop. I mean,
Speaker 1: it just sounds like we're just in a collision course. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I might as well just enjoy my summer, right, like,
Speaker 1: drink as much as possible, laying the sun. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: this is the summer. I mean. The frustrating part also
Speaker 1: about that is that there's all this new there's going
Speaker 1: to probably be a new internasal vaccine where you just like,
Speaker 1: you know, snort a line of vaccine and you're fine.
Speaker 1: And so I would say, you know, like there's there's
Speaker 1: there's all this technology that's coming, so we could nip
Speaker 1: this fucker in the bud m. But I guess I
Speaker 1: just lost my viral moment there. But but I would
Speaker 1: say I would say that. I would say that, you know,
Speaker 1: we could fix this thing, and it's so prushuting. And
Speaker 1: if they don't pass that, I mean, they really need
Speaker 1: to pass that COVID funding thing, you know, they really,
Speaker 1: But I'm like, it's just you know, when you said,
Speaker 1: like we're at a point where you see the Moulten
Speaker 1: lava cloud coming and you're like, what's for lunch? Like
Speaker 1: this is I am laughing because I'm just like what else? Right? Like,
Speaker 1: there's just everything is just like the only thing that
Speaker 1: you can ask yourself is what else? What else is coming? Like?
Speaker 1: So we're not going to get funding. You have an
Speaker 1: impending bad fall in winter coming. The vaccines that we
Speaker 1: currently have are not you know, are well, I guess
Speaker 1: maybe stop us from death, But according to the New
Speaker 1: York Times article, it's not going to stop us from
Speaker 1: being very sick. And to my earlier point about friends
Speaker 1: that have evated COVID until this point and are now
Speaker 1: getting it, I don't know what version they're getting. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's omicron. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: this new variant entered the US yet. I have no idea,
Speaker 1: but I will say that one of my friends, it's
Speaker 1: been eleven days. It's been eleven days, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I am unwell, I I you know, I haven't been working.
Speaker 1: I'm exhausted, Like you know. He's like, I got over
Speaker 1: the fever part and the and the really bad cough
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. He's like, I got over
Speaker 1: that within five and six days. He's like, but the
Speaker 1: exhaustion persists, right, And so I'm like, we already have
Speaker 1: shortages in certain industries for workers because they're all down
Speaker 1: with COVID, right, and we're still at this, Oh you
Speaker 1: get down, it's five days, you come back. But if
Speaker 1: your symptoms, it says five days unless your symptoms persist.
Speaker 1: If now we're moving into a stage where these new
Speaker 1: sub variants are producing symptoms, we're not even lucking out
Speaker 1: in that way where it's just like, oh, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: good and I've negative. It's like we're in a hole.
Speaker 1: Am I wrong to say that we're moving into a
Speaker 1: whole different side of the forest now? And which side
Speaker 1: would that feed? The mean side with quicksand in it.
Speaker 1: Remember the forest from the Princess Bride, that's the forest
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I uh, I mean really,
Speaker 1: first of all, was pretty cute there, but no, I um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll just I'll just quote mister McConnell. This
Speaker 1: is our summer of glory. Hole. Um, you know, this
Speaker 1: is our summer. This is our summer to enjoy ourselves. Um,
Speaker 1: this is our summer to to to really um because man,
Speaker 1: the ship storm is coming, it really is. And so
Speaker 1: and and again it's so frustrating because like we're so
Speaker 1: better equipped for this thing right now than we were
Speaker 1: three years ago in terms of what we know. Um.
Speaker 1: So no, I worry about that too. I mean I
Speaker 1: think that this is a virus that then lives in
Speaker 1: your body for your whole life. And so of course
Speaker 1: people are going to have long term symptoms. Of course
Speaker 1: they're going to have exhaustion. And and the first rating
Speaker 1: thing is it's it's like the flu, Like it's like
Speaker 1: you can get it every year, but it's like it's
Speaker 1: much you know, it's obviously much more dangerous than the flu. Also,
Speaker 1: so yeah, so I don't know quicksands a good analogy.
Speaker 1: But so the last question that I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've been really thinking about this, and
Speaker 1: I just you know, we've hit over a million people
Speaker 1: in this country have died in two years. And you know,
Speaker 1: outside of the initial tribute that was done when right
Speaker 1: before the Biden administration began in twenty twenty one, there
Speaker 1: has been no memorial, no nationwide day of more that
Speaker 1: has even been named to recognize the fact that a
Speaker 1: million souls, over a million souls in this country have perished.
Speaker 1: What do you think that that says about our mental health,
Speaker 1: our empathy, our emotional contextualization of how this virus has
Speaker 1: impacted our lives. Partially, it's because this thing is still happening,
Speaker 1: and so there's no like it's still we're still in it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't seem like it because half people
Speaker 1: aren't paying attention, but we're still in it. And which
Speaker 1: makes a memorial day. Now, I think that's actually an
Speaker 1: excellent idea. I think we should have a national day
Speaker 1: of COVID memorial every year. I think that that's something that, yeah,
Speaker 1: we should do. And it's funny to think about those
Speaker 1: early remember everybody stayed at home. We had a Zoom
Speaker 1: concert with Lady Gaga and Elton John and it was like,
Speaker 1: we're all in this together, and like six months later
Speaker 1: we're like, ag fu yourself. You know. It's it was
Speaker 1: just kind of like, So, I do think that there
Speaker 1: needs to be something to mark this. I really do. Now.
Speaker 1: The problem is number one, it's still ongoing. Number two,
Speaker 1: we don't know what it is or where it's going.
Speaker 1: And number three, a million is just an incomprehensible number
Speaker 1: for most people, and so you know, I just so
Speaker 1: many people and families have been impacted by this. But again,
Speaker 1: the issue, of course is as it goes on this long,
Speaker 1: and it's airborne, and it's changing, and expert knowledge lasts
Speaker 1: about as long as a variant, and then it becomes
Speaker 1: a conspiracy. So it would be awesome if there was
Speaker 1: some kind of unity around this. It would be awesome
Speaker 1: to imagine what that is. Just given our political system,
Speaker 1: I can't see that, but I would totally support a
Speaker 1: national day like that. I think that's a great idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, we are at a point
Speaker 1: where every single one of us know somebody that has
Speaker 1: died of COVID, and so given given that reality, the
Speaker 1: fact that we just continue to press on like all
Speaker 1: is normal, like there hasn't like we're not still living
Speaker 1: inside of a plague. You know. I watched a segment
Speaker 1: of sixty Minutes where they were interviewing middle schoolers who's
Speaker 1: you know, their attempts at suicide have skyrocketed, right, their
Speaker 1: emotional like and their emotional well being is fucking shot.
Speaker 1: And we're not even paying attention to the pandemics within
Speaker 1: the pandemic, which is about our mental health, you know,
Speaker 1: And the fact that we're still we still expect kids
Speaker 1: to go to school and learn, we still expect people
Speaker 1: to go to work, and like, the lack of acknowledgement
Speaker 1: around what we continue to go through, I think is
Speaker 1: another form of gaslight, right, Like we're already being politically
Speaker 1: gas lit by the Republican cult Party, and then you're
Speaker 1: being gas lit here where it's like the lack of
Speaker 1: acknowledgement to me, just goes to reinforce the fact that
Speaker 1: this was not a big deal, right and and I
Speaker 1: and I'm like, is there an opportunity and what does
Speaker 1: that opportunity look like? You know, to to collectively mourn
Speaker 1: and acknowledge what we've been through. I mean, so I
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. We lost so much when
Speaker 1: we when we politicize this thing, we lost right there.
Speaker 1: And just wait for it to get worse. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you that. That's another prediction of mine. If the Republicans
Speaker 1: win the midterms, just wait for two years of China
Speaker 1: bashing and blaming other people and projecting and not reflecting
Speaker 1: and not mourning and all this kind of thing. So,
Speaker 1: you know, anger and projection is the kind of defense
Speaker 1: mechanism of the decade. And so I think, unfortunately, we're
Speaker 1: going to see this pandemic politicize in a whole new
Speaker 1: way if they take over after the mid terms, and
Speaker 1: it'll just make that sense of despair worse. It's been
Speaker 1: the case from the beginning. Everybody just wanted somebody to
Speaker 1: get angry at because the thought that you can just
Speaker 1: breathe and catch something and die is so incomprehensible. It
Speaker 1: led to this tribalization, led to more polarization, and there's
Speaker 1: none of what you're saying, which is reflection, which would
Speaker 1: be a much healthier response, a much more communal and
Speaker 1: kind of networked response. But we're very far from that,
Speaker 1: right now I agree, Jonathan as always, thank you for
Speaker 1: taking the time to join us each and every week,
Speaker 1: because if there's nowhere else we're going to have collective reflection,
Speaker 1: We're sure as hell going to try and do it
Speaker 1: here so that the rest of us don't feel crazy.
Speaker 1: So we appreciate you. Thank you hanging everybody. It's therapeutic
Speaker 1: for all of us. So let's just keep talking. Indisputable
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