Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WIKA f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: You know, I remain really startled taken aback, if you will,
Speaker 1: by President Joe Biden's comments with regard to the COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen pandemic being over that. Don't you see people aren't
Speaker 1: wearing masks anymore, and they're you know, healthy, and you know,
Speaker 1: everything is fine, and that. Yeah, we have some things
Speaker 1: that we need to do with regard to I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe stopping or halting or minimizing the five hundred deaths
Speaker 1: that are still happening a day, which is resulting in
Speaker 1: about three thousand deaths per week to the COVID nineteen virus.
Speaker 1: To me, when we are no longer having a nine
Speaker 1: to eleven type catastrophe each and every week, that to
Speaker 1: me would signal that we are quote over the pandemic.
Speaker 1: If President Joe Biden had followed up his statement by saying,
Speaker 1: this is no longer a pandemic because COVID nineteen has
Speaker 1: become endemic to America because of the fact that we
Speaker 1: had governors and a president prior to him that called
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen virus a hoax that didn't want to
Speaker 1: roll out vaccines, that made it seem as if it
Speaker 1: was a government conspiracy to get your DNA and data
Speaker 1: that maybe twenty five percent of the population wouldn't still
Speaker 1: be unvaccinated and people wouldn't still be dying. That if
Speaker 1: we had banded together right and made this the cause
Speaker 1: of this nation to have a healthy, robust health infrastructure, right,
Speaker 1: then we could then say to ourselves, oh, yeah, job
Speaker 1: well done, mission accomplished. But that's not where the fuck
Speaker 1: we are. And that's also not what the President of
Speaker 1: the United States said. Right now people are having to
Speaker 1: pay out of pocket once again if you don't have
Speaker 1: insurance to be able to get the next round of
Speaker 1: booster shot. Why because all of the federal money that
Speaker 1: was put out for the COVID nineteen response has dried
Speaker 1: up and Republicans say they're not going to give people anymore.
Speaker 1: How do you turn around and make this some type
Speaker 1: of campaign when the President himself has just said that
Speaker 1: the pandemic is over and so any relief aid right
Speaker 1: that now, this White House, this administration was looking to get.
Speaker 1: How do they think that they are going to get
Speaker 1: that when they have gone on the record on national
Speaker 1: television and said all is well. That is, of course,
Speaker 1: until we head into yet another winter season under COVID,
Speaker 1: where we know that that five hundred deaths that we
Speaker 1: have just become so okay with begins to spike once again,
Speaker 1: or as other scientists and doctors have been saying, but
Speaker 1: again haven't been publicized, that there is probably a new
Speaker 1: variant that is coming. This is not hyperbolic, folks. This
Speaker 1: is called follow the fucking pattern. Follow the pattern, right.
Speaker 1: So the fact is that we can spend over two
Speaker 1: goddamn weeks following a colonizer to her grave, but we
Speaker 1: can't spend any amount of time educating the public on
Speaker 1: the fact that, yeah, we are actually still in the
Speaker 1: midst of a national health crisis, and why that crisis
Speaker 1: has been exacerbated is because we have never had a
Speaker 1: strong fucking health infrastructure in this country to fucking begin with.
Speaker 1: That it has only been strong for those that have
Speaker 1: either worked for corporate overlords right or have been able
Speaker 1: to fund their own healthcare out of their pocket. Either way,
Speaker 1: that means that it has been money that has allowed
Speaker 1: you to have the healthcare that you have needed because
Speaker 1: remember when the black man, when the black president came
Speaker 1: out and said that he wanted to give Americans healthcare,
Speaker 1: they decided to protest him. I swear to god, you know, folks,
Speaker 1: there are days when I'm just like, this bullshit is
Speaker 1: just too fucking much, right, Like you understand the power
Speaker 1: of messaging, the power of words. We know that we have.
Speaker 1: And what Nathan will tell us in a bit coming
Speaker 1: up in our conversation is that we have been fighting
Speaker 1: multiple wars in this country, the war of messaging with
Speaker 1: regard to COVID to get people to understand that how
Speaker 1: this virus was couched and presented by Republicans was a
Speaker 1: fucking lie that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. That's right.
Speaker 1: It was the Trump administration, backed by the Republican Party
Speaker 1: that is the reason why hundreds of thousands of Americans
Speaker 1: died by the time that Joe Biden was sworn into office.
Speaker 1: Because if in fact, we had a president and a
Speaker 1: party that gave a fuck about the lives of people,
Speaker 1: we would never have gotten to the number of deaths
Speaker 1: that are now have exceeded the million mark. Ever, but
Speaker 1: we don't talk about this anymore, and what Jonathan and
Speaker 1: I will talk about is not only the president's remarks,
Speaker 1: but Jonathan will talk and walk this fine line between capitalism,
Speaker 1: the poll of capitalism, and public health, which is where
Speaker 1: we find ourselves because there is nothing more important than
Speaker 1: the almighty dollar, and there is nothing that is a
Speaker 1: bigger driving force in this country than the greed of
Speaker 1: the rich and the white. There are days, folks when
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, you know, things don't seem that bad,
Speaker 1: and then there are weeks when I'm like, God, this
Speaker 1: shit is just unrelenting and it's never going to end.
Speaker 1: As we had into mid terms, which are still pretty
Speaker 1: much a motherfucking toss up, right, Like, we honestly don't
Speaker 1: know where midterms are going to end up. And frankly,
Speaker 1: you know how I feel about Poles. Right right now,
Speaker 1: Abbott is up in the polls in Texas, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure that those polls were taken before he'd started to
Speaker 1: start trafficking motherfuckers across the country, right, And maybe if
Speaker 1: the media actually referred to the heinous dehumanization that we
Speaker 1: are witnessing across our screens, maybe then those poll numbers
Speaker 1: for Republicans would go into the toilet but that's not
Speaker 1: what corporate media overlords want, right, These are the people
Speaker 1: that they want to bring on their air waves so
Speaker 1: that they can show both sides. It is up to us.
Speaker 1: It is up to us taking our health in our
Speaker 1: own hands. It is up to us to take the
Speaker 1: importance of our democracy into our own hands. Because folks,
Speaker 1: if you were sitting around and waiting on any leader
Speaker 1: to tell you what to do and how to do it,
Speaker 1: at this stage, you're gonna be waiting a long time.
Speaker 1: Because understand that people in power are motivated by different factors.
Speaker 1: Your motivation in order to keep yourself safe and healthy.
Speaker 1: It's about your health and safety. Your boss doesn't give
Speaker 1: a fuck about that. That's why they went to the
Speaker 1: CDC and they said, cut down, cut down that quarantine
Speaker 1: from ten days to five. People can come back to
Speaker 1: work in five days. Just wear a mask, doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if you're going to kill over or pass out you
Speaker 1: have a migraine that makes you feel like your brain
Speaker 1: is coming through your fucking skull. So long as you
Speaker 1: can remain in front of that computer or standing up
Speaker 1: at that cash register, no one is going to care
Speaker 1: about you more than you care about yourself. That's the
Speaker 1: message here. So if you care about your health and
Speaker 1: well being and productivity, then you need to make your
Speaker 1: health a priority. And it doesn't look like waiting around
Speaker 1: for those people to tell you what you need to
Speaker 1: do in order to stay safe and healthy. We know
Speaker 1: that masks work. We know that winter brings a darker
Speaker 1: time in the COVID nineteen pandemic. So folks, you make
Speaker 1: sure to keep yourself safe and those around you. We
Speaker 1: have all of the tools now, we don't need their
Speaker 1: rhetoric and bullshit to tell us what it is that
Speaker 1: we should and shouldn't be doing. Coming up next, my
Speaker 1: conversation with our very own doctor Jonathan Metzo. Hey there,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about another podcast I think
Speaker 1: you'll love. The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by
Speaker 1: a Shanty Gooler, the president of Emerge. BGG, is the
Speaker 1: one stop shop for women of color who want to
Speaker 1: hear and talk about the world of politics. Join a
Speaker 1: Shanty this season as she talks to incredible women of
Speaker 1: color who are changing the face of politics and tackling
Speaker 1: some of the most important issues basing the United States,
Speaker 1: from reproductive justice to voting rights, to climate change and more.
Speaker 1: Tune in every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts, get
Speaker 1: a behind the scenes look at Comedy Central's The Daily
Speaker 1: Show On Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from The
Speaker 1: Daily Show with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy Wood
Speaker 1: Junior goes deeper with the notable guests and experts from
Speaker 1: the Emmy Award winning series. Together, they use comedy to
Speaker 1: tackle current topics from gentrification to gun laws and take
Speaker 1: 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, you
Speaker 1: know that whenever we have the opportunity to sit down
Speaker 1: with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, I am
Speaker 1: beyond thrilled, particularly when Jonathan over the weekend, President Biden
Speaker 1: joined sixty Minutes in Detroit for the first car show
Speaker 1: in three years since the pandemic. During the course of
Speaker 1: that interview, he was asked if the pandemic was over
Speaker 1: and Joe Biden, our president who came into office as
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of people were dying, as we did
Speaker 1: not have a vaccine, there were no shots in arms,
Speaker 1: hospitals were overwhelmed and collapsing. He pledged that he would
Speaker 1: fight this virus until it was eradicated. Well, we're not
Speaker 1: at the dire place that we were Jonathan in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty and in twenty twenty one when Joe Biden came
Speaker 1: into office. However, we are not clear as far as
Speaker 1: I can see, what cleared would be, as if we're
Speaker 1: saying mission accomplished, the pandemic is over. So I want
Speaker 1: to get your initial reactions to Biden's statement and what
Speaker 1: you were hearing from your friends in the medical community
Speaker 1: about that. Well, let me be clear, first, I don't
Speaker 1: know what when. I don't know what went on in
Speaker 1: that statement, And I don't know if it was just
Speaker 1: Biden learning something out or if that was part of
Speaker 1: a strategy. And so that would be something I would
Speaker 1: want to know first of all, as kind of what
Speaker 1: was the impetus behind that. We're doing a big event
Speaker 1: at Vanderbilt today where we are actually having two pretty
Speaker 1: big time COVID doctors speak, and I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: that question in particular, and so I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know, and and so part of The issue, of course,
Speaker 1: is the pandemic of horse is not over. And not
Speaker 1: only is the pandemic not over, but our public health
Speaker 1: infrastructure is is failing. The lead story in the New
Speaker 1: York Times this morning was about how we're not tracking
Speaker 1: illness the way we should be, not tracking variants the
Speaker 1: way we should be. There's probably going to be a
Speaker 1: new variant at some point soon because we're vaccinating against
Speaker 1: the other variant, and so, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: part of the issue is and we're not tracking monkeypocks,
Speaker 1: we're not tracking polio. And the article in the Times
Speaker 1: this morning was about how, you know, decades of neglect
Speaker 1: about what should be a functioning public health system, and
Speaker 1: so part of the issue, of course, is just a
Speaker 1: statement of fact. The pandemic is in no way over.
Speaker 1: If you believe that, just talk to anybody who's suffering
Speaker 1: from COVID right now and they'll tell you that the
Speaker 1: thing isn't over. And so I think that is a
Speaker 1: statement of fact. But I do think it's it's important
Speaker 1: to think about what might have gone behind a shroment
Speaker 1: like that. And I don't know the answer, except I
Speaker 1: will say that, like it's where I have this weird life.
Speaker 1: As you know, like I go back and forth between
Speaker 1: New York and Nashville, and so in my Nashville life,
Speaker 1: which is where I am now, the economy is booming.
Speaker 1: We've actually just reached skyscraper max here that you can't
Speaker 1: you can't put any more cranes in Nashville because there's
Speaker 1: so many cranes dotting all the things that are you know,
Speaker 1: every place is open, there's surplus of all all the stuff.
Speaker 1: So there's been a massive move of capital, of investment.
Speaker 1: A lot of New York firms are moving down here,
Speaker 1: and part of the issue here is like they were
Speaker 1: just much as people know, I'm in the South. We
Speaker 1: you know, it's like good for you on COVID. We're
Speaker 1: not showing our economy. We are not paying attention to
Speaker 1: this in a way. We had a lot of death here,
Speaker 1: a lot of infection, a lot of resistance. But I
Speaker 1: can say that the economy is in part booming because
Speaker 1: of a lot of things, tax policy, some lack of foresight.
Speaker 1: I feel like on behalf of places like New York
Speaker 1: that pushed a lot of infrastructure to move down here.
Speaker 1: But I contrast that with my New York life, where
Speaker 1: Mayor Adams, for example, is practically begging people to come
Speaker 1: back to workplace. Midtown is kind of still very under capacity.
Speaker 1: Public transit is under capacity, and I think there's a
Speaker 1: kind of fiscal disaster looming for New York just about
Speaker 1: not having enough writers in the subway and not having
Speaker 1: enough taxpayers and not having enough people utilizing the services
Speaker 1: that were built for a lot of people. And so
Speaker 1: if there is a strategy, which again I have no idea,
Speaker 1: I do think that just in my mind, comparing what
Speaker 1: I see in Nashville every week with what I see
Speaker 1: in New York every week, New York really needs a
Speaker 1: kind of boost in a way about just kind of
Speaker 1: getting people back into circulation. And so maybe it was
Speaker 1: an attempt economically to say, look, we know COVID is
Speaker 1: going to be with us, but it's also like Midtown's
Speaker 1: going to collapse, and we're not going to have money
Speaker 1: to pay for structures, and we're going to be facing
Speaker 1: some pretty direct consequences if we don't, if we don't
Speaker 1: get kind of back to work in a way. And
Speaker 1: so that's my only guess about why he might have
Speaker 1: said that, and it's pretty stark. Yeah good, Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the issue that I continually have and have had
Speaker 1: throughout this entire pandemic which is still happening, which is this,
Speaker 1: I don't want decisions about public health being made about
Speaker 1: through the lens of capitalism. I don't want public health
Speaker 1: decisions being made because we have a midterm election that
Speaker 1: is looming. And these are the things that we all
Speaker 1: said when Donald Trump was president, right, that the reason
Speaker 1: why Biden became president was because we wanted to be
Speaker 1: able to trust our institutions to be making decisions about
Speaker 1: our best interests through a lens of actually what our
Speaker 1: best interest is. And so the reality is what has
Speaker 1: happened in New York. And you're absolutely right, because I
Speaker 1: don't ride the subway anymore. Right, I do my work
Speaker 1: from home because I have the ability to do that.
Speaker 1: And even when I am in when I am in circulation,
Speaker 1: in population, I choose not to use the subway. Right,
Speaker 1: I either walk to where I'm going, or I will
Speaker 1: or I will grab a car, right because for me,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what the mask mandate has done.
Speaker 1: The subways were disgusting anyway, and frankly, like I don't
Speaker 1: feel like putting myself at risk in a city where
Speaker 1: you have, you know, Frankly, tons and tons of homeless
Speaker 1: people that have taken over the subways in a way
Speaker 1: on certain lines, I don't feel like I need to
Speaker 1: put myself in the mix there, right, and I know
Speaker 1: that I'm not the only one. Then you have the
Speaker 1: push here where a lot of people, a lot of
Speaker 1: office workers, had the privilege and the ability over the
Speaker 1: last three years to leave New York but still incurr
Speaker 1: in New York salary. So they have moved to places
Speaker 1: like Tennessee in North Carolina and South Carolina and to
Speaker 1: different places that have a lower cost of living, but
Speaker 1: they're still banking their New York salaries and are able
Speaker 1: to live a much fuller life and because their money
Speaker 1: goes further. That's a testament to the fact that New
Speaker 1: York does not push rent control in the way that
Speaker 1: it should. It does not push housing in the way
Speaker 1: that it should. For middle income people, it's either you
Speaker 1: need to be absolutely broke or you need to be
Speaker 1: a billionaire to be able to live in New York. Right.
Speaker 1: So I think that there are economic issues that have
Speaker 1: always been at play, but that for instance, Mayor Adams
Speaker 1: and the mayors that came before him, right, they were
Speaker 1: always keen on linking arms with those billionaires and millionaires
Speaker 1: and saying, oh, we'll just allow this gentrification, gentrification to
Speaker 1: come in until those people pick up their money and
Speaker 1: decide that they want it stretch somewhere else. So my
Speaker 1: issue with Biden and with this just apparent shrugging off
Speaker 1: as as we are preparing for yet another COVID winter
Speaker 1: is like, we clearly don't ever learn anything, right, and
Speaker 1: the assumption is that our memories are going to be
Speaker 1: short term. I mean, I am going to push back
Speaker 1: a little bit on the I mean, it's a different
Speaker 1: ballgame under the current administration than the previous one, just
Speaker 1: in terms of I mean, the Biden response and the
Speaker 1: Trump response to the pandemic are not are not the
Speaker 1: same in any way the same. You know, the grownups
Speaker 1: are kind of running the show right now. But again,
Speaker 1: there are there are issues here. And you know that
Speaker 1: Congress didn't pass any COVID funding, right and so and
Speaker 1: so people are going to have to pay for vaccines,
Speaker 1: for COVID tests for um uh. You know, there's just
Speaker 1: the economics of the pandemic and the public health of
Speaker 1: the pandemic locales are just going to have to put
Speaker 1: the bill. There's not the kind of federal money that
Speaker 1: there was before because of decisions made of the federal one. Again,
Speaker 1: I have no idea what wood Biden was thinking, but
Speaker 1: but I do think that I do think that we're
Speaker 1: just facing a reality right now with the pandemic. UM.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like the attitude down here in Nashville
Speaker 1: is like, we're just gonna have to live with this thing.
Speaker 1: We'll have to learn to live with this thing. And
Speaker 1: I can just say that it just doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: there's the shortage here in terms of um, in terms
Speaker 1: of like I drove to work this morning and they're
Speaker 1: like the entire skyline and this is a there are
Speaker 1: many things having to do here. But I would just
Speaker 1: say that the economy down here really never shut down.
Speaker 1: I mean it did in a way, but but it's
Speaker 1: not like there's any push to try to get people
Speaker 1: back to work here, because I mean some they are,
Speaker 1: but but you compare compare that with New York, and
Speaker 1: I keep I really I'm saying the same thing I
Speaker 1: just said. But but like in New York, if the
Speaker 1: subway collapses, because people like me and you don't take
Speaker 1: the subway. Who who gets hurt by that? Right? It's
Speaker 1: it's not me and you, right, it's people, low income
Speaker 1: people who need to get to work. In a way,
Speaker 1: So if public transit falls apart, new York falls apart
Speaker 1: in a way, because so many parts of the city
Speaker 1: are dependent on I mean the minute. The minute low
Speaker 1: income people have to pay thirty five dollars each way
Speaker 1: to get to work on an uber, there's no more
Speaker 1: New York. And so in a way, I just feel
Speaker 1: like New York. It's in part about housing, but it's
Speaker 1: also just there are there are many many fiscal holes
Speaker 1: that New York is in right now. I've just this
Speaker 1: has been on my mind so much. And this was
Speaker 1: true before the pandemic. I mean the twenty seventeen tax bill.
Speaker 1: The twenty seventeen tax bill, basically all the tax deductions
Speaker 1: that people could get for having their business in New
Speaker 1: York went out the window. It led to a massive
Speaker 1: move of businesses to places like Tennessee or Dallas or Miami,
Speaker 1: which had no state income tax. And so I understand,
Speaker 1: I mean to talk about the pandemic. I think it's
Speaker 1: super important, but I just think a place like New
Speaker 1: York is going to have to get creative again about
Speaker 1: how it can lure people back in a way that
Speaker 1: will let it build its tax base to support stuff again,
Speaker 1: because cities and states are going to have to pay
Speaker 1: for the pandemic and the absence of federal funding. And
Speaker 1: so I don't know. I'm really nervous about this, to
Speaker 1: be honest, and I hope I'm probably making no sense
Speaker 1: right now except to say that. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: think that right now the economy and the pandemic are
Speaker 1: so connected. Again, I have no idea if that's what
Speaker 1: Biden meant, but it's just been hard to see. I
Speaker 1: think that I think that what Biden meant is exactly
Speaker 1: what was said. That we have midterm elections coming in
Speaker 1: less than fifty days or something something around that number,
Speaker 1: and Democrats are in a good position because of how
Speaker 1: Republicans have been going after abortion. He's like, let me
Speaker 1: tip this over the edge and you know, allow people
Speaker 1: to feel like the pandemic is over. This is about money.
Speaker 1: It's about money, it's not about public health. And so
Speaker 1: my concern is not necessarily about the collapse of New York.
Speaker 1: I think that New York will continue to be New York.
Speaker 1: I think that each and every generation provides a different
Speaker 1: iteration of what this city looks like. When you talk
Speaker 1: to people that grew up in New York in the
Speaker 1: seventies and eighties, it doesn't look like that now, right.
Speaker 1: It looks far from it in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: a thousand times better because of you, because of crime
Speaker 1: and better infrastructure and better investment in all of these things.
Speaker 1: And then in some areas really terrible because people of
Speaker 1: color have been pushed out because they can no longer
Speaker 1: afford to live here, right, And so I think that yes,
Speaker 1: there needed to be a push and pull and a balance.
Speaker 1: But what we also have to understand is that there
Speaker 1: is no I mean, I know that many operations are
Speaker 1: pushing their people back to work, that pushing them back
Speaker 1: into offices, but their reasoning for that is honestly bullshit.
Speaker 1: The reasoning really is because they are leasing buildings that
Speaker 1: are costing a ton of money that they have no
Speaker 1: one inside of. But to turn around and say that
Speaker 1: people need to be in the office is bullshit, because
Speaker 1: none of their businesses collapsed because people have been working remotely.
Speaker 1: And so they tell you this perpetual lie because capitalism
Speaker 1: forced us to believe that we needed to be in
Speaker 1: a cubicle for eight to ten hours a day in
Speaker 1: order for us to do our jobs. And now that people,
Speaker 1: particularly young people, are hip to the idea of no,
Speaker 1: I can actually do this job while I'm living my
Speaker 1: life and not the other way around, I don't want
Speaker 1: to go back to this place. So yeah, people need
Speaker 1: to start being really creative. But I think that telling
Speaker 1: the public right before winter that a pandemic is over
Speaker 1: when it's still killing three thousand people a week was
Speaker 1: probably one of the most irresponsible things to do. Well again,
Speaker 1: I'm curious about the story of where that comment came from,
Speaker 1: and I wish it would have been articulated in a
Speaker 1: bit better way. I mean, I certainly think that this
Speaker 1: is a false statement that the pandemic is over. I
Speaker 1: think that's right. I also think that Jonathan he could
Speaker 1: have said, and I've seen this on Twitter many times,
Speaker 1: the pandemic aspect of COVID nineteen is over because it's
Speaker 1: become endemic. Because it is because now it is a
Speaker 1: fabric of our society. Because when we had the opportunity
Speaker 1: to eradicate it, we didn't, and so now, we can't
Speaker 1: pause life right for something that is showing no signs
Speaker 1: of going away. We have had to adapt that. Again,
Speaker 1: is a totally different narrative than just saying, look around,
Speaker 1: no one's wearing a mask. People seem kind of healthy.
Speaker 1: This is what he said. And so let's so, how
Speaker 1: are you going to convince Republicans to vote for a
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen package that they didn't want to vote to
Speaker 1: vote for when we had tens of thousands of deaths
Speaker 1: a day. How are you going to do that now?
Speaker 1: When you just said the pandemic is over. So what
Speaker 1: do you need the money for? Yeah? I mean again,
Speaker 1: it's not like there's no money. It's that states and
Speaker 1: cities are going to have to pay for things that
Speaker 1: the federal government was paying for. And so, and we
Speaker 1: know that they're not going to right the Red States.
Speaker 1: We know that New York right now. I think one
Speaker 1: of the other things that I saw City MD, which
Speaker 1: was one of the outlets in New York, one of
Speaker 1: the places where people were going to get their testing
Speaker 1: on a regular basis now is sending bills in the
Speaker 1: hundreds of dollars to New Yorkers saying, oh, well, you
Speaker 1: owe us all this money back, right like, which sounds
Speaker 1: like a class action lawsuit to me at some point.
Speaker 1: But the reality here is like this president, yes, is
Speaker 1: he better than Donald Trump one hundred and fifty thousand percent,
Speaker 1: But it was still what he said was reckless. What
Speaker 1: he said was reckless at a time when we have
Speaker 1: kids that are back in school, when we know that
Speaker 1: winter is coming, and that every winter season since we've
Speaker 1: been living with COVID has incurred devastation. Yeah, again that's
Speaker 1: a statement of fact. And again I very clearly and
Speaker 1: personally wish that this thing, whatever, whatever the message was,
Speaker 1: it would have been said a bit more clearly. You know,
Speaker 1: Fauci at different times has said the pandemic phase of
Speaker 1: this is over, and he gets a lot of pushback,
Speaker 1: and so hopefully there'll be some more clarity coming out
Speaker 1: about this going forward. And I certainly don't think I mean,
Speaker 1: it's funny we're having this big panel here at Vanderbilt today,
Speaker 1: and when I set the panel up like six months ago,
Speaker 1: even then I thought like, Okay, we'll be after the
Speaker 1: pandemic or things like that. But it just seems like
Speaker 1: this thing just keeps reinventing itself. We have no idea
Speaker 1: where where this thing is going, as you and I've
Speaker 1: been talking about for quite quite some time here, But
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I guess I'm going to
Speaker 1: I think this is a very productive tension for you
Speaker 1: and I to keep in the front of our conversations
Speaker 1: going forward, because I do think that the number of
Speaker 1: people who live in New York, for example, really matters
Speaker 1: to the tax base of New York to to you know,
Speaker 1: how people get jobs and benefits and pensions from the
Speaker 1: city to The more people you have, the more you know,
Speaker 1: the more people who fill out the census, the more
Speaker 1: congressional representation you have. Like there are a whole range
Speaker 1: of reasons why I think it's important right now for
Speaker 1: New York to protect itself because there is a lot
Speaker 1: of power and authority and capital flowing down here to
Speaker 1: the south, and so I think these things really matter.
Speaker 1: And and there's a there's a pandemic medical war going on,
Speaker 1: and there's a pandemic fiscal financial war going on, and
Speaker 1: I just think you have to kind of see both sides.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not I'm speaking for Biden. I have no
Speaker 1: idea what was in his comment, but I would also
Speaker 1: say that there's a reason why. I mean, the New
Speaker 1: York Public Transit has a ten billion dollar deficit in
Speaker 1: six months, New York Infrastructure twenty twenty four has a
Speaker 1: twenty five billion dollar deficit. Like that's going to change
Speaker 1: New York if that's not if that's not figured out.
Speaker 1: And so I just think that I agree with you,
Speaker 1: there's creativity and energy and goodwill and resilience in New York.
Speaker 1: But I would also say that twenty five billion dollars
Speaker 1: deficit will change light conditions of life for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and so and so I think there's going
Speaker 1: to be a balance here. And again I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about what Biden said. I'm just saying, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean my heart is with New York. Like I went
Speaker 1: New York to like be the center of the world,
Speaker 1: which it is, um but I think that it's just again,
Speaker 1: these worlds I'm living in. I live in a world
Speaker 1: where there is no pandemic and everybody ignores it, and
Speaker 1: I live in a world where there people are facing
Speaker 1: it on a daily level in a much more realistic way.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know, I feel I feel torn
Speaker 1: between two worlds right well, but I mean like as
Speaker 1: as as your friend, I would tell you, like, I
Speaker 1: think that that's like a perfect um op ed to
Speaker 1: write because I think that as we are moving, you know,
Speaker 1: I I after Biden said what he said, I am
Speaker 1: concerned about what is going to happen in the fall
Speaker 1: and winter. Um, particularly here in New York, but also
Speaker 1: around the country. UM, you know, I am very concerned
Speaker 1: with how you know, we know that new variants pop
Speaker 1: up all the time. It doesn't just magically go away
Speaker 1: because we've decided to stop facing something. And so all
Speaker 1: I will say with folks as we wrap up our
Speaker 1: conversation today is that you know, you don't need the
Speaker 1: CDC or the President of the United States to tell
Speaker 1: you what you know is actually right. And so if
Speaker 1: you are still concerned and rightfully so, wear your mask right,
Speaker 1: continue to wash your hands. If you haven't gotten a booster,
Speaker 1: go and get a booster, and continue to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself because you know at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: what it is that you need outside of what politicians
Speaker 1: are telling you that you need. And so at this
Speaker 1: point in time, we need to all be taking our own,
Speaker 1: our own consideration of our health in our hands and
Speaker 1: not allowing other people to dictate how we move. So
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, remember I was in Scandinavia this summer,
Speaker 1: and I am not trying to sound like an apologist here,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I feel like this is an
Speaker 1: important conversation for us to be having. I will say,
Speaker 1: when I was in Copenhagen the summer, for example, nobody
Speaker 1: wears a mask there, nobody, but it's like ninety nine
Speaker 1: vaccinated and everybody lines up for the booster and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So there's just like a lot less
Speaker 1: severity and transmission, and so the stakes are just a
Speaker 1: lot lower. And so you know, our attitude about the
Speaker 1: pandemic is not separate from our investment in public health infrastructure,
Speaker 1: which has completely fallen apart. Also, and I think resources
Speaker 1: in our in our pathological zero some formulation are linked
Speaker 1: to who wins elections and who gets to allocate resources.
Speaker 1: So all these things are tied up together right now.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know the answer except I know
Speaker 1: that things can always get worse. And on that note, job,
Speaker 1: as always, thank you for making the time to join
Speaker 1: us on wekay F. We appreciate you. That is it
Speaker 1: for me today, Dear friends, on Woke app as always,
Speaker 1: Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck. Get a behind
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