WEBVTT - U.S. Faces New Attitude Toward COVID

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<v Speaker 1>It's Thursday, February ten. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>A new attitude is beginning to take shape with a pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>People are over it and ready to move on. Of

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<v Speaker 1>the US is fully vaccinated and many have natural immunity

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<v Speaker 1>from prior infection. Democratic governors are beginning to relax pandemic

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<v Speaker 1>rules and cases are dropping at a rapid rate. Lenny Bernstein,

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<v Speaker 1>health and medicine reporter at the Washington Post joins us

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<v Speaker 1>for the shifting attitude towards the pandemic. Thanks for joining us, Lenny.

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<v Speaker 1>I wanted to bring you on to talk about the

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<v Speaker 1>shifting attitudes again going on right now with the pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>You know, we've been here before where this moment where

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<v Speaker 1>we feel the surge has been dying down, people are

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<v Speaker 1>ready to get back to normal, you know, and then

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<v Speaker 1>another surge comes up or something like that. So we've

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<v Speaker 1>kind of been on this roller coaster, but right now

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<v Speaker 1>it seems to be taking hold a little bit stronger now.

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<v Speaker 1>People are ready to move on. You made mention of

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<v Speaker 1>other other news outlets writing up store easy. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>vaxxed and done. People just being you know, we've taken

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<v Speaker 1>all the precautions we can. We're ready to move on

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<v Speaker 1>with all of this stuff. But Lenny, walk us through

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<v Speaker 1>some of this. What are we seeing out there? Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I think you've touched on some of the high points there.

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<v Speaker 1>A number of things are just coming together at the

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<v Speaker 1>same time. Number one, we're vaccinated. Sixty of us are

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<v Speaker 1>fully vaccinated, and then a chunk of those folks have boosters,

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<v Speaker 1>so they're feeling pretty good about their protection. It held

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<v Speaker 1>against O macron, certainly against severe disease and hospitalization. Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>they may have gotten infected, but it was generally mild.

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<v Speaker 1>If you have the vaccine and the booster and even

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<v Speaker 1>and even those that have had natural infection already too,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean that offers them at least some type of protection. Exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>Another chunk of people have had the disease and so

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<v Speaker 1>they have natural immunity, and you can, to a certain extent,

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<v Speaker 1>according to the research, add them to the group that's protected.

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<v Speaker 1>The next thing is that O macron is not fading.

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<v Speaker 1>It's dropping like a rock thirty and down week over week.

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<v Speaker 1>That's a lot, and people are starting to feel better

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<v Speaker 1>about the direction that's going in. You know, it's still

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<v Speaker 1>at very high levels tod cases a day, but it's

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<v Speaker 1>dropping really fast. And then I think the third thing

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<v Speaker 1>is the number of months we've been dealing with this.

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<v Speaker 1>We're now fully into the month of this pandemic, and

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<v Speaker 1>people are exhausted. They are more willing to take their

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<v Speaker 1>chances now than they were I think doing any of

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<v Speaker 1>the previous five searches. Yeah, and you know, we're seeing

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<v Speaker 1>it reflect already in public policy. So California just recently

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<v Speaker 1>announced that they're gonna end their indoor mask mandate for

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<v Speaker 1>those that are vaccinated. We're seeing a handful of Democratic

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<v Speaker 1>states that are taking back mask mandates for schools. That

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<v Speaker 1>shifted attitude is taking hold at the public policy level

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<v Speaker 1>as well. You did make mention the article though we

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<v Speaker 1>have been through this before, We've unfortunately been wrong a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of times with these up and downs, this roller coasters.

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<v Speaker 1>These new variants have been pop being up, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>one of the things that a lot of health experts

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<v Speaker 1>still say, we don't know when that next variant could

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<v Speaker 1>come up. Yeah, the health experts would rather that we

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<v Speaker 1>not move quite as quickly as we are with the

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<v Speaker 1>shedding the mask mandates that you mentioned. They would like

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<v Speaker 1>us to be a little more cautious, but politicians reflect

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<v Speaker 1>the desires of their constituents, and their constituents have had it,

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<v Speaker 1>you know. Their constituents want to get back to normal

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<v Speaker 1>or as close as possible, and so I think that's

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<v Speaker 1>why the mask mandates are going away now. Like you said,

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<v Speaker 1>we've been here before. Try to remember the week before Thanksgiving,

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<v Speaker 1>nobody had heard of O Macron. Nobody, and we were

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<v Speaker 1>coming out of delta and we're like great, just in

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<v Speaker 1>times of the holidays. Well look what O Macron did

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<v Speaker 1>to December and January just completely uh, put us right

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<v Speaker 1>back where we were. So who knows, there could be

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<v Speaker 1>a variant bubbling up somewhere on this planet right now

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<v Speaker 1>that will send us into a sixth surche and we're

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<v Speaker 1>gonna be back to square one. One of the things

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<v Speaker 1>with the pandemic that we've been following obviously has been

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<v Speaker 1>the health impacts of the whole thing, but the economic

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<v Speaker 1>impact is the other half of things. And to the

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<v Speaker 1>point of what we're talking about right this new attitude

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<v Speaker 1>taking shape, people wanting to move on and just start

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<v Speaker 1>getting back to normal, and even invest in themselves in

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<v Speaker 1>their businesses. Again. You profile the guy who's runs like

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<v Speaker 1>a restaurant bar and he's ready to open up two

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<v Speaker 1>new locations. You know, he's not waiting for it anymore.

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<v Speaker 1>He's kind of tired of sitting on those sidelines and

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<v Speaker 1>is just going to go for it now. Yeah, it's

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<v Speaker 1>not like he wants to open two new businesses in

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<v Speaker 1>the middle of a pandemic. Who would want to do that.

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<v Speaker 1>But he also isn't going to wait for an unpredictable

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<v Speaker 1>pandemic to run his business life any longer. He went

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<v Speaker 1>ahead with his plans, which began the middle of last year,

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<v Speaker 1>and he's not putting them off. He does have supply

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<v Speaker 1>chain problems a little bit, so that's going to make

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<v Speaker 1>his life a little bit more difficult than it. What

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<v Speaker 1>if there were no pandemic, there may still be masks

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<v Speaker 1>on his waiters and waitresses, maybe the customers will come

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<v Speaker 1>in with masks. But he's past the time where he's

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<v Speaker 1>going to just not do anything because of the pandemic.

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<v Speaker 1>If you look at the economic data that comes out

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<v Speaker 1>every week, there are employers out there looking for hundreds

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<v Speaker 1>of thousands of people to come work in their businesses,

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<v Speaker 1>so the economy remains strong. It's finding the people to

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<v Speaker 1>work as we move forward and try to get ourselves

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<v Speaker 1>back to as close as we were before the man

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<v Speaker 1>as we can before the pandemic opens up. Lenny, you've

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<v Speaker 1>been on the podcast number of times a number of

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<v Speaker 1>times now, and we've always talked about this kind of

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<v Speaker 1>same general thing, right, when is it going to be over?

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<v Speaker 1>When are we getting there? And this attitude is changing now.

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<v Speaker 1>You you had it in your article Fatigue, frustrated and frazzled.

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<v Speaker 1>That's what we've all been going through. A lot of

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<v Speaker 1>people have already moved on to this next phase of

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<v Speaker 1>just living with it. It seems like everybody else now

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<v Speaker 1>is just catching up. The virus is not going away.

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<v Speaker 1>It's going to become endemic. It's going to become a

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<v Speaker 1>part of our society. What we have to do is

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<v Speaker 1>get it to the place where we currently have the flu.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a threat seasonally, will be vaccinated against it seasonally,

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<v Speaker 1>if not more often than that, But it it's chances

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<v Speaker 1>of putting us in the hospital or killing us. We'll

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<v Speaker 1>go down and down until we don't notice it anymore

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<v Speaker 1>than we notice the flute and that's the world we're

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<v Speaker 1>aiming for. That's the world that people who have moved

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<v Speaker 1>on are already feeling like they're sort of living in.

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<v Speaker 1>Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter at the Washington Post,

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<v Speaker 1>thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.

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<v Speaker 1>Next time, I hope we're talking about something else. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget

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<v Speaker 1>effort today's big news stories. You can check me out

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<v Speaker 1>on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So

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