This is the Humanist Report with Mike Vigoreto. The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you through Patreon and PayPal. To support the show, visit patreon.com forward slash humanistreport or become a member at humanistreport.com. Now enjoy the show. Welcome to the Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Vigoreto and this is episode 304 of The Program. Today is Friday, August 27th and this show is sponsored by you, all of our Patreon, PayPal and YouTube members. If you wanna support the show and join the independent progressive media revolution, you can do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support patreon.com forward slash humanistreport or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos. I truly appreciate every single one of you who support The Program. I never try to ask more than I should for support but if you are supporting The Program monetarily, I really appreciate it but I can never ask for more than you just watching, commenting and liking the videos. That's all I could ever ask or hope for so thank you all so much. So this week we have a jam-packed episode that I hope you will enjoy. We'll talk about the showdown in Congress between the most right-wing Democrats and basically everyone else. And when it comes to COVID-19, we will continue our coverage and talk about Fox News who immediately began their fearmongering campaign against the new FDA approval of Pfizer's COVID vaccine. Also, Trump's own fans are turning on him after he encouraged them to get vaccinated including one of his biggest supporters, Alex Jones. Also prominent anti-vax conservatives are dying from COVID-19 and even if they've seen it firsthand some are still not changing their minds about the COVID-19 vaccines. Doctors in Florida staged a walkout to protest anti-vaxxers who are causing their state's hospital system to become overburdened. We'll talk about that and also look at a report from the New York Times that confirms what I think was pretty obvious. The American healthcare system is a gigantic scam. Additionally, socialist India Walton is seeing the Democratic Party establishment team up with Republicans to try to stop her from becoming mayor. The Biden administration is defying critics by remaining committed to their original Afghanistan withdrawal date. So we'll talk about that and why it's a really big deal. And finally, I spoke with epidemiologist and biostatistician, Dr. Caitlyn Genolina about COVID-19 mutations, variants, booster shots and much more. So that's what we've got on the agenda for today's program. Let's waste no more time and get right to it. I hope you all enjoy what I have in store for you. Well, last week we learned that Mike Lindell and Rick Wiles are beefing and now Alex Jones and Donald Trump are apparently beefing as well. Everyone in the Trump world is seemingly turning on each other and you really love to see it. But Alex Jones was turned off by something Donald Trump said at a rally in Alabama and it doesn't necessarily seem like Alex Jones was alone giving the reaction from the crowd. Take a look. In a flashback to 2020 last night former president Donald Trump held a rally in a state being ravaged by COVID. This time it was a rally in Alabama which has the lowest vaccination rate in the country and is out of ICU beds. At one point Trump did urge attendees to get vaccinated but then he backed off after some of the MAGA faithful booed. Watch. I recommend take the vaccines. I did it, it's good. Take the vaccines. But you got now that's okay. That's all right. You got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine. I recommend taking the vaccines. I did, it's good. Take the vaccines. The crowd then booze and he immediately does a 180. No, that's all right. You've got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine but you don't have to.  You know that Donald Trump's base, it's all a cult. Like the support around Trump is a cult of personality. There's no policy substance there. Having said that though, it is clear that Donald Trump along with a lot of Republican lawmakers and even Fox News like the entire right wing bubble is all very fearful of the Republican Party's base.  I would be afraid of them too if I was a Republican Party lawmaker which is why I wouldn't be a Republican Party lawmaker because I for one really care about facts and science and reason and just like basic common sense whereas they don't like that and they attack people who try to exhibit any common sense whatsoever. So when Donald Trump tells them, maybe you should take the vaccine. Even that like really tepid endorsement and I'm just like getting slightly nudged is enough for them to boo Donald Trump. Their savior, that's insane. So Alex Jones reacted to Donald Trump encouraging people to get vaccinated and he is going to turn on Donald Trump and even go so far as to question Donald Trump of all people's intelligence. This is a really weird thing to watch. Like watching this makes me feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone. Nonetheless, let's see what Alex Jones of all people has to say. Yay!  I want to play for you on this when we come back. But first, let's take President Trump who I believe is a good person and who I really care about and who I want to seek a lot of good Republicans elected in the midterms and who I would love to see run again. We got to take him to the woodshed though because he came out last week on Fox and friends and said, I really am suspicious of this booster shot. If this supposedly works so well, why don't you need a booster shot? Because you got lied to, Trump. He didn't have 98% efficacy. We knew day one, it wouldn't work, period. It's a fraud. It'll create mutants. You got chumped. You got signed on to a fraud to restart the economy. I understand why you did it. You believe in science. You said, these are bad actors, sir. You believed America could produce a good vaccine. Of course they could have. They didn't want to. They didn't create a vaccine. They created a Frankenstein. And now they've got you signed up to it.  CNN comes out and says, we need to see Trump come out and take the shots. And within weeks of them saying it over and over again, CNN snaps their fingers. Jeff Zucker snaps his fingers and Trump clicks his heels and hops up there in attention. It says, how do you want me to jump, boss? There's Trump in Alabama yesterday. I believe totally in your freedoms. I do, you gotta do what you have to do. But I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It's good. Take the vaccines. You got, no, that's okay. That's all right. You got your freedoms. But I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know, okay? I'll call up Alabama and I'll say, hey, you know what? But it is working. BS, Trump, that's a lie.  Just two weeks ago, they said it was 65%, then 40%. Saw a number put up on about Pfizer shots, 30% percent. Because they just want to tell you that it works, you're running at the new damn shot. And then they'll tell you in six months, that one doesn't work. It's called rope adobe.  Seriously, hey, if you don't have a good sense to save yourself your political career, that's okay.   All right, we'll be right back, stay with us. This video makes me feel so conflicted because Alex Jones is simultaneously right and wrong about Donald Trump. So he is correct to say that Donald Trump is a dumbass because Donald Trump is indeed a dumbass, but he's wrong about Donald Trump in this instance. Like in this instance, Donald Trump is right about the vaccines. He's correct to encourage his base to get vaccinated. And I don't know why Donald Trump happens to be correct here. He's had a history of being an anti-vaxxer, but I mean, he had COVID-19. Maybe it's the firsthand experience that led him to see how serious this disease was. Maybe it's because he tries to take credit for the development of the COVID-19 vaccines with Operation Warp Speed, which he does get some credit for that. So, you know, he wants to promote it or maybe he just doesn't want his base to die if he runs for president in 2024. I mean, that could be part of it, but either way, Alex Jones is right about Trump being dumb, but wrong because Trump is actually right here. What a weird world that we live in right now where I'm siding with Donald Trump in a spat that he's having with Alex Jones, but still have to concede that Alex Jones is correct to point out that Donald Trump is a dumbass because he is, he's pretty vacuous. Again, it's a cult of personality. There's no like policy substance there. But let's look at what Alex Jones says. I don't put too much stock into anything he says, so I'm not gonna like break this down one by one and fact check him because anything that comes out of Alex Jones' mouth, just assume that it's wrong, factually incorrect until like you see evidence to the contrary. This is an individual who told stories on his program about literal fish people tapping on the aquariums, begging for his help. Gay. They had in tanks people with gills and little babies and they were in there just gulping, clawing at the sides. You see a turtle at the zoo and it wants out and you feel for it. They got humanoids crossed with fish and stuff.  I mean, do you understand that? And I know I keep obsessing because it's in the news what they're doing now. They don't show it to you. They just go, yeah, gestating on farms or embryos of humans growing in animals. No, it's beyond that. They take them out, they keep them alive and notice they go, the only law is you don't put it in a real human woman and don't worry, these creatures don't have any rights because they're not human and they're not animal. They're in that phantom zone. They're in that fifth dimension of the twilight zone and they're just opening the gates of hell. On top of that, he's brought on kooks who talked about how there's a pedophile ring on Mars. Yes, the planet in our solar system that not a single human being has ever visited. Apparently, no, no, they've already visited Mars and also there's this like vast conspiracy of pedophiles on Mars. Okay, okay. So this is Alex Jones, right? So don't take anything that he says seriously. Nonetheless, let's look at some of these things he said. He says the vaccines, he knew that the vaccines wouldn't work and that they're gonna create mutants. I don't know if Joe Rogan got this from Alex Jones, but I know a couple of weeks ago I had to debunk Joe Rogan citing or misciting a vaccine study making the same claim. So who said it first, Joe Rogan and Alex Jones? It's interesting that they sound relatively similar now. If you're a Joe Rogan fan, you should really question supporting him still if he sounds identical to Alex Jones. The vaccine is gonna create mutants. No, stop. There's no evidence that that is the case. And to say that the vaccines wouldn't work, they do work literally. There is real world empirical data that proves the efficacy of these vaccines. They are incredibly effective. So to say that they don't work, I mean, there's an abundance of evidence. And if you don't see it, you're choosing to be ignorant to the evidence that proves that these vaccines are safe and effective. He also says, you got signed onto a fraud to restart the economy. So I'm not sure if this is a reference to the great reset conspiracy theory. It seems like the great reset conspiracy theory is a little bit more broad in that it's this belief that COVID-19 is a conspiracy to like reset humanity or something. But COVID-19 is hurting the economy. Do you think that doing lockdowns is good for the economy? I know that we didn't do lockdowns very long in the United States, but in countries like Australia and the UK, they actually did do real lockdowns where you couldn't leave because they wanted to contain the spread of the virus. So we live in a global capitalist system, right? So overall, big business and the economy would benefit from us getting rid of the virus. So if you're saying that like the virus is an attempt to restart the economy, you don't even understand the system that you shill for. And I'm assuming that Alex Jones is a capitalist, is he not?  He says, you believed America could have produced a good vaccine. Of course they could have, but they didn't want to. They didn't want to create a vaccine. They created a Franken-shot, okay? So people are turning into monsters. I mean, I feel like he watched I Am Legend with Will Smith where there was like a cancer vaccine and it led to a zombie apocalypse. Look, I feel like that's his evidence that these vaccines are Franken-shots. Like it's Alex Jones, so we have to assume the stupidest thing is what he actually believes. He also says, maybe you're not that bright.  True, but for different reasons than the ones you cited. So this is weird. Look, here's the thing. As harmful as Alex Jones is, he still has a lot of people watch him. And when I see these Trump sycophants, Mike Lindell versus Rick Wiles, Trump, the God of the Right versus Alex Jones, even if Donald Trump doesn't respond, this still is really substantial. Like to see the far right rip each other apart that really is important. I wanna encourage right wing infighting. I wanna encourage all of these ghouls get so conspiratorial to where they further factionalize themselves into oblivion because they're bad for society. They're bad for society. They're keeping all of us in a state of stupidity. They're spreading lies and misinformation. And democracy can't exist under these circumstances for that long. Like we're putting all of our democratic institutions to the test because of these dingbats who believe that the election was stolen and that this virus is a hoax or whatever they believe. So, you know, the more that they rip each other apart, the better we'll all be.   Well, at least one of the COVID-19 vaccines now has full FDA approval. Pfizer and Beyond Tech were awarded full FDA approval. So now the anti-vaxxers are totally out of excuses. Now I'm sure that all of them will be lining up to get vaccinated at once. But no, this is really good news. It speaks to the safety and the efficacy of these vaccines. But I mean, I don't want to put too much stock into this because it's not like the emergency authorization from the FDA before wasn't sufficient. There is overwhelming evidence that the vaccines are safe and they're effective. So if you really felt the need to wait until, you know, at least one of these vaccines were fully approved, okay? But now there's no more excuses. You are all out of excuses. Now is the time to try to get this virus under control, protect yourself and get vaccinated. But unfortunately, individuals are likely still going to be vaccine hesitant if they were already vaccine hesitant because mainstream media outlets like Fox News are still pushing fear mongering over these vaccines even if they're now FDA approved. So as Catherine Ellen Foley and Lauren Gardner of Politico explain, the Food and Drug Administration marked a pandemic milestone on Monday as it approved the first COVID-19 vaccine for youths and adults raising hopes that the decision will convince some holdouts to get vaccinated and spark a wave of employer and school immunization mandates. The agency's decision, which applies to people 16 and older comes as the country battles the highly contagious Delta variant. New infections have soared since early July as the strain has spread nationwide, filling ICUs in the hardest hit states and raising concerns about the safety of children returning to school. If you're one of the millions of Americans who said that they will not get the shot until it has full and final approval of the FDA, it has now happened to President Joe Biden said Monday, the moment you've been waiting for is here. I don't think that this is going to lead to an influx in vaccinations, but I really would love to be proven wrong. But where this does matter is that this is going to empower local governments, businesses to actually institute vaccine mandates, which in my opinion is the only way that we're gonna get this virus under control. And this is not something that I think is easy to recommend. I mean, vaccine mandates, they should have been the absolute last resort, but unfortunately that's where we're at kind of at this moment. We can either mandate vaccines and at least get the virus under control here in the United States, or we can choose to not mandate vaccines and let anti-vaxxers choose to keep all of us in a prolonged, if not permanent state of plague for however long. Like we shouldn't allow the most uninformed people, the most anti-science people to keep the totality of society in a pandemic because they're uninformed. No, so vaccine mandates are absolutely necessary. And hopefully this will allow more schools to institute vaccines, more employers to institute vaccines. Now Biden has to do what he can do at the federal level.  Make it so that when you can't travel unless you show proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours. But having said that though, this is why I'm really skeptical about the FDA approval of the COVID-19 vaccine leading to people making better decisions because things like this happen. There's a alert for you now. The FDA just giving full approval to Pfizer's COVID vaccine. It's the first vaccine to get that full approval and in record time too. That has critics asking if the process was rushed, was it?  So I mean, with things like this, how can we ever expect to get to a point where we've reached herd immunity because it's constantly non-stop fear mongering. Okay, well, you know, I didn't wanna get the vaccine because it wasn't FDA approved. Okay, now that it's FDA approved, well maybe the approval process was rushed. There's always going to be some excuse. And unfortunately the fear mongering from Fox News won't stop. But objective reality and science exists outside of the vacuum that is Fox News that sucks people in and misinforms them. So the only way that we're able to reach herd immunity is through vaccine passports and vaccine mandates. I'm not saying that we hold people down and forcibly stick a needle in them. What I'm saying is we incentivize good behavior through public policy. Otherwise you're not going to get to herd immunity by simply begging people to do what's right for their own health. By now they would have done that. And thankfully there's a lot of people who are getting vaccinated now because the Delta variant is that serious. There's been a million shots, I believe three days in a row because people are seeing the seriousness, they're seeing ICU's fill up, but there's still gonna be a large enough portion of the population that just will never budge. And what really makes me the most angry is that these news networks like Fox News, they will fear monger about the vaccines, but behind the scenes, they have requirements as it relates to the vaccines and masking themselves. They're requiring all employees to disclose their vaccination status and they're also requiring masks in certain workplace settings at Fox News. So I mean, as they push vaccine hesitancy, they're doing everything in their power to protect themselves. Like as Tucker Carlson fear mongers about the vaccines, you know that he's vaccinated, but he won't disclose whether or not he is vaccinated. And it's because this is all about money, it's all about ratings. They're actively and knowingly misinforming people because they're too afraid to lose ratings.  I mean, even Donald Trump was booed at a rally in Alabama when he encouraged people to get vaccinated. So Fox News knows that their far-right audience will turn on them if they encourage vaccinations and that's gonna lead to them losing viewers, which will amount to them losing advertisers if there's not enough viewers to warrant the money, you know, into advertising, which will ultimately hurt their bottom line. So that's why they're pushing misinformation even if they know that it's wrong. Even if they know that the vaccines are our only hope of reaching herd immunity at this point. So it's just, you know, I'm gonna just cross my fingers and hope that people use the full FDA approval as like the reason to get vaccinated and at the polls, you know, that we're showing that people were waiting on FDA approval are correct. I'm gonna assume that that's the case, but am I actually optimistic enough to think that FDA approval is gonna change anything if people are already vaccine hesitant? No. So I wanna talk about Bernie Sanders' budget resolution, which he's trying to pass using budget reconciliation. This isn't what we wanted, admittedly, right? I wanted Bernie Sanders to be president so we can have Medicare for all and a Green New Deal, not that we'd automatically get those things if he was simply president, but you know, if he were president, I know that that's what he would be pushing for, but as chair of the budget committee, he's doing everything in his power to at least move us closer towards those goals and what he's prepared with this $3.5 trillion budget resolution is transformative. Like it's not a panacea, it's not the end all be all, but it would save potentially tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands to millions of lives by expanding Medicare, expanding coverage to include dental, vision and hearing that would make a meaningful difference in so many American lives by actually taking money and investing it in clean, green and renewable technology. That doesn't mean that we're getting a Green New Deal, but doesn't move us closer towards a Green New Deal by at least trying to mitigate climate change to an extent, yes. Now, is all of this enough? No, but it's really important and I'm so sad that not a lot of leftists seem to be paying attention to what's taking place in Congress because this moment right now is really, really important. We're not gonna get another window of opportunity like this to act in quite some time if the GOP is successful at getting what they want, which is a power grab. They're on the verge of gerrymandering their way back to power, which is going to last at least for 10 years. So if we have a far right party controlling at least one branch of government, nothing that anyone from the center right to the far left wants will get accomplished because the Republican party, a far right extremist party can block all of that. So we're not going to have another opportunity to expand Medicare or have universal pre-K or free community colleges. Should be all colleges, but free community colleges or at least some money towards climate change if that happens. So we have to use this unique and limited window of opportunity that we have to do that.  The reason why us leftists care about politics at all, I'm assuming is because of policy. And we have an opportunity to push for policy that would be incredibly sweeping, but we're kind of just all in our own insular bubbles and we're not paying attention. When we could be using this moment to make calls to members of Congress who are trying to torpedo what Bernie Sanders is trying to accomplish. And it's really frustrating, but part of the issue isn't necessarily just stubborn headedness from the left and them not caring about anything but drama and infighting. It's also relatively difficult to follow because the situation as it relates to congressional day-to-day activities and lawmaking, it's hard to follow because it changes so swiftly. So let me try to get you caught up and explain why this is important and tell you who the bad actors are who are trying to stop us from making at least a little bit of progress, which even if it's minimal is still going to be substantial. So basically last month, I talked about how the Senate passed their bipartisan infrastructure proposal. Now the reason why this passed is because they got individuals like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin along with some so-called moderate Republicans on board. Why were they on board, you ask? Well, it's because they shut progressives out of the policymaking process and they allowed Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin and these individuals to kind of shape that legislation. So it's basically infrastructure, but it's also a corporate giveaway and that's why they support it.  Rightfully so, and Democratic Party leadership acknowledged that they were pissed because they shut out a substantial wing of the party from trying to have some sort of sway over infrastructure. So the promise was since you didn't really have much of a say in the infrastructure process, we're going to let you get some of the things that you wanted in a budget resolution, which Bernie Sanders is preparing and which they will pass using budget reconciliation, which means they just need a simple majority. They don't need the 60 votes. We don't have to get rid of the filibuster to the past this. We just need 50 votes. And then the vice president, Kamala Harris, will be the tie-breaking vote. Now, due to pressure from progressives, Nancy Pelosi refused to allow a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill in the House until the Senate passed the $3.5 trillion budget resolution. Now, that resolution has to contain progressive priorities. Otherwise, they're not going to have the votes in the House to pass the infrastructure deal. So that's why Nancy Pelosi isn't taking it up because it's going to fail if it's not progressive enough. She knows this and the congressional progressive caucus has vocalized the fact that many members will withhold votes if they don't see a lot of proposals that they want in Bernie Sanders' budget resolution. Now, nine right-wing Democrats in the House, led by Representative Goffheimer, threaten to withhold votes for the budget resolution if Nancy Pelosi held strong and she didn't bring the bipartisan infrastructure deal up to a vote, which is bad for progressives because it strips away leverage from them and also from Nancy Pelosi in this instance, and lets right-wing Democrats also butcher the budget resolution, which Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to happen because she wants the infrastructure deal to pass when it comes to a floor vote in the House, but it's not going to happen if progressives don't see that they're getting any policies that they want passed through the budget resolution. And so if they already stripped out the things that progressives wanted from the bipartisan infrastructure deal, well, once the House passes bipartisan infrastructure, if it is the case that the Senate doesn't pass, Bernie Sanders' budget resolution, well, then there's zero leverage left. The Senate can then pass whatever and progressives have no say. It's kind of take it or leave it. Everything is kind of off the table. Now, individuals like Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema have already stated that they're not going to support the $3.5 trillion budget resolution that Bernie Sanders wants to pass using budget reconciliation. So if the House votes on the bipartisan infrastructure deal before the Senate votes on a budget resolution, they give up all of their leverage and they give right-wing Democrats everything. They give them the power to gut Bernie Sanders' budget resolution. So you have to hold the infrastructure proposal hostage if you're even going to have a chance at forcing Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin to be the 49th and 50th votes required to pass a budget resolution using reconciliation with any progressive priorities whatsoever. So that's kind of where we're at right now. And the nine Democrats are as follows. Caroline Bordeaux, Philemon Vela, Jared Golden, Vinceri Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar, Jim Acosta, Ed Case, Kurt Schrader and Josh Gothheimer, as mentioned before. Now, these individuals, they're the ones who are trying to strip leverage away from progressive Democrats. So these folks should be public enemy number one for the left. We should be calling their offices and demanding that they back down, but you might not have to do too much because I have an update to the story that's pretty encouraging. But the reason why these right wing Democrats are trying to torpedo everything effectively if they don't get what they want is not necessarily because they're principled or they have some ideological disagreement with the rest of their party. It's because they're bought and paid for. So as David Cerro de Poinsart in an article for the Daily Poster, Democratic obstructionists are bankrolled by pharma and oil. And they raked in over $3 million collectively. So that's why they're doing what they want because if the progressive wing of the party gets what they want and Bernie Sanders budget resolution actually passes with a lot of money to fight climate change, that's bad for big oil. If prescription drugs become more affordable as a result of Bernie Sanders budget resolution, that's bad for big pharma. So they're just doing the bidding of their donors. That's all you need to know. They're corrupt, period. And shamelessly so. But the good news is that for once the Democratic Party establishment is actually fighting back at the people who are trying to torpedo their own agenda. Possibly. That's subjective. So as Politico's Sarah Ferris reports, Democratic Party centrists say the DCCC is threatening to withhold fundraising if they oppose Biden priority. Now whether or not the DCCC is tacitly threatening to withhold money for their reelection campaigns, if they don't play ball, it's really up to interpretation.  That really is refreshing. But nonetheless, Ferris explains multiple House Democratic centrists have fielded calls from their caucuses campaign arm that they took as a warning they would be cut off financially if they oppose their party's $3.5 trillion budget framework according to two people familiar with the conversations. That pressure campaign has included Democratic congressional campaign chair, Sean Patrick Maloney, who has phoned members in recent days to warn that their majority is in jeopardy if they derail Biden's broader spending priorities. But some of those centrists who received calls from either Maloney or his staff who already faced some of the toughest races in the country next November said they also took his comments to mean that their own fundraising help from the party would be at risk. And while they said there was no direct threat to withhold DCCC funds, those Democrats said the warning was implied, quote, at no point did the chairman or others threaten resources according to a person at DCCC familiar with the discussion so he declined to speak on the record because the calls were private. Now, if the DCCC wasn't actually trying to implicitly threaten these nine corporate Democrats, they really should and they should be more explicit. They should actually cut off folks who are sabotaging their entire party's agenda. And you've got to understand here what they're trying to do, like I give Bernie Sanders credit, but what he's trying to do is take all of the more progressive elements of Biden's platform that he ran on, not that there was a lot, but he's taking the most progressive things that Biden ran on, taking Biden's agenda and just throwing it all together and trying to pass it in one fell swoop.  And Ryan Grim pointed this out in a great tweet saying Democratic leaders pushed Henry Queyarm over Jessica Cessneros in Texas, pushed Ed Case over Kaniyia Ying in Hawaii, Carolyn Bordeaux over Nabila Islam in Georgia. Now Pelosi and her leadership team are watching all three of them to blow up the party's entire agenda. And that's just it. Like this is about Joe Biden trying to deliver something before the midterms. Democrats trying to deliver something before the midterm so they have something to run on. And also this is about Nancy Pelosi who is likely realizing that she's not gonna be speaker of the House again, assuming Republicans retake the House in 2022, she's done, right? So this is her trying to secure her legacy. She's lost support from progressives. She has basically not delivered much with her time in office and power. And so I think this is like their last ditch effort and they realize this. And now all of their pushing of corporate Democrats over progressives is kind of blowing up in their faces. And I wanted to blow up in their faces and I want them to be shamed for this. But at the same time, I don't want to blow up in their faces because if it blows up in their faces, then we also lose as well. Because the reason why I think that Nancy Pelosi ultimately is fighting these nine Democrats is because the progressives are the ones who are holding these votes hostage. I mean, there's these nine Democrats here, but there's more progressive Democrats who are threatening to withhold votes if they don't get what they want in Bernie Sanders budget resolution. Now the good news is that these nine corporate Democrats, it doesn't really seem like they're gonna be successful here. Now we don't necessarily, like we can't say that with certainty yet. I can't say confidently that it's over, but this is what David Dayan of the American Prospect points out via Twitter. They seemingly have backed down. So the prospect has learned that several of the nine conservative House Democrats who insisted to Nancy Pelosi that they would not vote for a budget resolution without a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package first have flipped. There are no longer nine Democratic holdouts among the possibilities under discussion is a vote on two separate rules, one for the budget resolution and one for the bipartisan bill. Now, as David Dayan adds, sounds like Pelosi offered the Gothheimer gang a deal. They rejected and Pelosi took out the major concession to the Gothheimer gang and put it up for a vote. Now there was talks of a deal between Nancy Pelosi and Gothheimer. He was supposed to take that back to the other nine Democrats. The situation is a little bit unclear because we don't have specific details about what was in that deal. So it seems like they rejected the deal and some of them are caving. But what's really important is that Ryan Grimm in an article for The Intercept with Sarah Sarota pointed out that this really was a rebellion that was doomed to fail from the beginning simply because so many Democrats, including fellow corporate Democrats, they just can't stand Gothheimer. So they write, Josh Gothheimer reported to Congress after winning a 2016 election to represent New Jersey's fifth congressional district and the ribbing at the weekly New Jersey delegation meetings began immediately. Yet five years later, the hazing much gentler than it might be in a high school sports team hasn't stopped. Members of the delegation simply couldn't bring themselves to stop giving Gothheimer a hard time, whether it was representative Albia Ceres putting a stopwatch on his phone whenever Gothheimer arrived to time how long it took him to leave, never very long or representatives Bill Pascrell and Donald Norcross mocking him for barely being a Democrat. The hazing has gone on for five years. The reason is simple. Gothheimer's colleagues simply do not like him and that would be trivial gossip of concern to nobody outside a congressional cafeteria if it wasn't having a real world effect right now on the prospect of the Biden administration enacting both its bipartisan infrastructure plan and the accompanying 550 billion in infrastructure spending. During a House Democratic leadership call on Sunday night, Pelosi mocked Gothheimer's effort as amateur hour pledging to push ahead despite his threats to stop the legislation. Pelosi is not known for miscounting votes suggesting that she is confident that enough of Gothheimer's eight co-dissenters will not stick with him. She's known to work the phones relentlessly and leaves little to chance. So you've got to take into account a bunch of things here. The Democratic Party establishment and Joe Biden, they want the budget resolution to pass and they want the infrastructure deal to pass and Nancy Pelosi, she knows this is her last term as speaker most likely. So how bad would it look if this relatively new member of Congress who's hated by everyone blew up the entire party's agenda? That would look horrible, right? So there's a lot riding on this and you know, this is about her securing her legacy as Ryan Grimm talks out and this is about Democrats trying to prove they're at least somewhat competent before the midterms come up because right now it's not looking too great seeing that they haven't accomplished that much. So I mean, at the end of the day, what we have to do is we need to follow this. It's really difficult to follow and understand if you're not following the day-to-days of Congress but if you can keep up with it by following the intercept and the American prospect and the daily poster and common dreams, I would encourage you to do that because these news stories gives us basically cues as to who we should be putting pressure on. Gottheimer very clearly isn't someone to exert pressure on because he's like the ringleader, right? But you could focus on the other individuals, Kurt Schrader in my state of Oregon, we can exert pressure on him because there are pressure on the individuals who we can actually break and we have the advantage right now. Right now, progressives have leverage and they know that Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin want that bipartisan infrastructure deal to pass because that's what they wanna take home to their constituents, that's what they wanna brag about. So we have to maintain leverage, hold that over their heads and make sure that they also agree to pass our proposals, otherwise we're not gonna give them what they want. So I hope that the left really focuses on this and pays attention to this and assists Bernie Sanders and the left in any way that we can with pressure campaigns or even protests because this is really important. This is not just about a win for progressives. This is about a concrete difference that we can make in the lives of millions of Americans in a plethora of ways. So this is important and I hope that people really start to pay attention to this. So there has now been countless stories of conservative anti-vaxxers denying the severity or reality of COVID-19 in some instances and vocalizing their anti-vax sentiment who have contracted COVID-19 and died after they spread misinformation. Misinformation that if they didn't believe themselves, they might still be here today. So on August 4th, the Daily Beast reported that Texas Republican official Scott Apley died from COVID just days after sharing anti-vax misinformation on Facebook. Then on August 7th, the Guardian reported that anti-vaccine conservative radio host, Dick Farrell, also died due to complications related to COVID-19. And now another conservative radio host has died from COVID-19 after spreading this information about the vaccine and COVID-19, Phil Valentine. So as Joseph Choi of The Hill reports, conservative radio host Phil Valentine has died of COVID-19 after expressing skepticism toward vaccines and later saying he regretted not being inoculated. Nashville, Tennessee radio station WWTN, which broadcasts the Phil Valentine show, announced his death on Saturday. He was 61 years old. We are saddened to report that our host and friend, Phil Valentine, has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers, the radio station tweeted. Tennessee lawmakers also expressed their condolences online after Valentine's death was reported. Phil Valentine was a visionary for the conservative movement and he made an enormous impact on the lives of many Tennesseans Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted. My deepest condolences and prayers are with Phil's wife Susan and his family. May they be comforted and surrounded by love during this difficult time. He had expressed skepticism toward the vaccine, though his family shot back at suggestions that he was an anti-vaxxer. Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an anti-vaxxer, he regrets not being more vehemently pro-vaccine and looks forward to being able to more vigorously advocate that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon, his family set at the time of his hospitalization. So when I read this, I think that his family is probably in denial about whether or not he was an anti-vaxxer. I mean, being explicitly anti-vaxx, being vaccine-hesitant, or just asking questions. Tomato, tomato, it's a distinction without a difference. You know, if you were encouraging people to not get vaccinated, you're effectively an anti-vaxxer. But the good news is that he did have a change of heart and hopefully people know that he would have changed his mind had he survived. He would have actually convinced people that they should get vaccinated. And it's irritating to me, though, that conservatives, they can't actually take a correct position unless an issue like affects them personally, right? Like Dick Cheney, Republicans, totally anti-gay, but then he has a lesbian daughter and then he is pro-gay rights, conservatives. You know, they spread misinformation as it relates to COVID-19 and vaccines, but then they get it themselves and then they all of a sudden have a change of heart. But I mean, even though Phil Valentine isn't around to regret his decision and encourage people to get vaccines, at least there's an indication that he would have changed his mind had he survived. But for some individuals, even experiencing death firsthand, that still won't lead to them having a change of heart. So Republican state lawmaker from Maine, Chris Johansson, who is an anti-vaxxer, while his wife, Cindy, also an anti-vaxxer, contracted COVID-19 and she died after discouraging people from wearing masks while she was suffering with COVID-19. So I mean, you think that if you're isolated and you have the virus and you know how severe it is, that would encourage you to want to tell people that they should be taking it seriously. But while she was suffering from COVID, she was discouraging the use of masks and she ended up dying. She wasn't vaccinated and she died. But if you think that that led to her husband, state GOP lawmaker from Maine having a change of heart, not at all, because less than a week after his wife died of COVID-19, he attended an anti-vaxx rally in Maine outside of the governor's mansion with about 400 other people. And as you can see, that's him right there, shared from this photo taken by Crash Berry. He's there, maskless, don't know if he was around his wife, possibly exposing other people to COVID-19. And he is protesting COVID vaccines after his anti-vaxx wife died.  You're doing anti-vaxxine rallies. You're speaking out against a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in the state of Maine after you know that this virus is serious. If your wife was vaccinated, odds are she would still be here, but he still didn't learn.   But to him, no. And when he saw that people were criticizing him for attending an anti-vaxx rally after his wife just died of COVID-19, he took to Facebook to call out the haters. He writes, I have a hard time understanding these haters. My address as public, if you really want to hurt me, come here and physically hurt me. I think you're doing enough yourself, bud. My wife Cindy was reluctant to get the vaccine because of all the conflicting information we have been getting from day one. To the haters out there, have none of you seen my picture at the Capitol on January 6th? I don't know what he's referencing. I don't know if he was there or not. You are a pretty tame bunch. I was sure you could hate me for many more reasons if you really knew me, so check the video. If you know what you're looking for, I'm not hard to find. So I think that he's saying that he was there on January 6th. Therefore, he's tough. Folks, Jesus Christ. So he's flexing on people who are pointing out the absurdity of him attending an anti-vaxx rally after his wife just died of COVID-19. I mean, like, if you lose your spouse, wouldn't you be totally distraught and not go to any political rally for a very long time? I mean, when my dad died last year, like, I felt so numb. I didn't want to leave the house for a really good amount of time because I just wanted to, like, be by myself and collect my own thoughts. But I mean, he's out here going to anti-vaxx rallies, flexing on the haters on Facebook.  And then he's saying or suggesting that people who are criticizing him want to hurt him. You're doing that yourself. Anti-vaxxers are literally killing themselves because you're not getting vaccinated.   He's bragging about the fact. I'm guessing that he was there on January 6th. And he talks about his wife being reluctant to get vaccinated because of all the conflicting information, i.e., misinformation about the vaccines, but yet there is so much more information out there that demonstrates how serious this virus is. But yet the seriousness of COVID-19, that's not something you take seriously, but potential side effects from this vaccine that 160 million Americans plus have taken, that I want to take seriously. I just, I don't know what to say. We've reached this point in America where there are some anti-vaxxers who are so glued to this position that even if their spouse dies, they're not gonna have a change of heart. And it's still really upsetting that people like Phil Donahue had to experience COVID-19 firsthand to have a change of heart about vaccines, but it shouldn't take you getting COVID-19 and dying or seeing a loved one die from COVID-19 to acknowledge that the vaccines are necessary. It's not just necessary for your own public health. It's necessary for us as a country, as a society to mitigate this virus, to stop it from filling up hospitals. People can't get elective procedures. They can't get surgeries because hospitals are completely overburdened by COVID-19 patients.  And that would be enough of a reason to get the vaccine, but unfortunately no. And the sad part is that stories like this are gonna continue to happen. People aren't going to learn after reading these stories. They'll think that Phil Donahue is like a crisis actor or these people who are dying who are anti-vaxxed or they're part of this plot or conspiracy. It's just, it's not going to stop. And that's really frustrating. And as a society we have to figure out a way to grapple with the reality of this. I think that it's a bad situation and it feels like even though we have access to more technology than ever, we all have phones with virtually unlimited information and that we are dumber as a society than ever before. And this is just so sad to see. But I mean, what else can you say? It's sad, but they brought this upon themselves. So I wanna share a couple of videos from CNN reporter Donio Sullivan. He often will travel around the country and he will attend Republican events and he'll speak with the participants of said events. So as you all know, not too long ago, Donald Trump held a rally in Alabama for some reason. And at this rally, he was famously booed because he encouraged his supporters to get vaccinated. Now, for him to be booed by his own sycophantic supporters, that shows you that the sentiment towards vaccines among conservatives is extreme. So Donio Sullivan showed up, spoke to a couple of attendees of that rally and it's not like what they said was surprising, but it still was incredibly entertaining and the logic or lack thereof is just truly, it's bizarre. No, not getting that vaccine. No, no, no, no, no. And vaccines are not good, huh? Are you vaccinated? No, but I have a lot of hydrochloroquine in my house. So have you got your vaccine shot? Nope, don't want it. No, wait. They ain't tested it enough, for my opinion. Yeah. The Pfizer shots is about to get full FDA approval. Would that change your opinion on it at all? Not sure they do a whole lot more investigating on it. Yeah. Nothing's going in me until then. Right. Do you think that would take a long time? About 10 years or so. I don't trust the government. I don't trust CDC. I don't trust none of them. What is it about the vaccine? Because I've watched Dr. T. Peany and she's done a lot of research on it. Dr. Sherry Tenpenny is a discredited conspiracy theorist who pushes dangerous misinformation about vaccines. I'm sure you've seen the pictures all over the internet of people who've had these shots and now they're magnetized and put a key on their forehead at sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick. Those and other unhinged false claims landed Tenpenny on a list known as the Disinformation Dozen, super spreaders of COVID misinformation. These 12 people are out there giving misinformation. Anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it. It's killing people. It's bad information. But Tenpenny and others in the Disinformation Dozen are finding appeal among some Trump supporters. My own doctor tried to get me to get shot and I told him to go watch Dr. T. Peany. So you trust this woman on the internet more than your own doctor? Uh-huh, I do. To listen to the internet or to listen to, rather than the professionals, the scientists, the CDC, the FDA, if you look at the history of vaccine, it's been, again, the greatest gift we've ever been given. People today wouldn't be at any of these events. They would either have polio, they would have smallpox, they would have many other diseases. Vaccines have saved us. Trump came here to Alabama Saturday. It's the state with the lowest vaccination rate in the nation. And at the time of this rally, every ICU bed here was full. His timid suggestion his supporters should get the shot was met with jeers. And you know what? I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You gotta do what you have to do. But I recommend take the vaccines. I did it. It's good. Take the vaccines. But you got, no, that's okay. That's all right. You got your freedoms. But I happen to take the vaccine. If it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know, okay? Trump got the vaccine, though. Yeah, they keep saying that. I don't know that. I mean, I'm not fully convinced of that. You don't think Trump took it? I don't think he did. I really don't. So many people's minds, so many people who don't want to get the shot, this is a Republican Democrat thing. Oh, absolutely.  And it's affecting everybody. I watch prophets of God and Newsmax and maybe a little fox, that's about it. That's about it. Praise. That's where you get to. But I've kind of turned away from news. I don't want to listen to it. I want to listen to what God's saying, what he's fixing to do. That's all I'm concerned about. I think it is a time where God is separating the sheets from the goats. You know what? What are you? I am a goat. Because I ain't a sheep. I'm not doing what they tell me to do. I'm fighting against it. There is so much to say about that clip. I don't even know where to begin. So the first thing that really stood out to me is that lady saying she won't get the vaccine because I ain't tested enough, from my opinion. And like I just wanted Donio Sullivan to ask her. So you say that they didn't test it enough? Are you an expert? Which medical school did you go to? You know, did you study epidemiology? Why do you think it hasn't been tested enough, even if the experts say that it has? They've proven that it's safe and effective. And even if you disregard everything that every single expert says, empirical data shows that the vaccines are indeed safe and effective. So what is it going to take to convince you that they've been tested enough? And she later says, oh, it's gonna take like 10 years. Oh, okay, 10 years. How old are you? Like 70, 80? I mean, at your age, if you get COVID-19, it would be disastrous. So I don't think that you should take that gamble, right? I mean, you're either gonna gamble with vaccines that you know are safe and effective, even if you don't believe that, or you can gamble getting COVID-19. You're not taking it seriously if you're showing up to rallies with lots of people, thousands of other people. So you're really playing a dangerous game and you think that you are being safe here and cautious when in actuality, the opposite is true. But this goes to show you how powerful propaganda is. I'm sure she is drunk on Fox News Kool-Aid and Newsmax. And it's interesting, if you look at her, she was holding, I believe, a Mountain Dew. Like does she know how much sugar is in that? For all of these anti-vaxxers who claim that they don't wanna get the vaccine because they don't know what's in it, I mean, how many of you will purchase a meal from the store, some frozen food?  Like we constantly consume things, we put things in our body that we don't know what they are. But for something like a vaccine, which now one of them has FDA approval, it's safe and effective. That's demonstrably the case. You can see it with your own eyes. It just, it doesn't make sense. It's like a double standard.  I'm sure that maybe she smoked cigarettes before. She'll put all this terrible things in her body. She'll show up to this rally for Donald Trump in a non-presidential election year during a global pandemic, but yet when it comes to that vaccine can't take any chances. The logic here is totally fucked. And it's just, it's not shocking at this point though. Now, another lady, she said that she isn't gonna take the vaccines because of one quack doctor, Dr. Tenpenny, who literally claims that the vaccines are magnetizing people.  But that's the only lady who that person takes seriously, Dr. Tenpenny. And the worst part about that is she basically said that her doctor told her to get vaccinated, but she said no. And she told him to go watch Dr. Tenpenny, this moronic quack doctor who's one of the biggest propagators of the spread of misinformation on all of social media. Like imagine, you're a doctor. You've gone to medical school for years. You've been doing this for a very long time. Maybe her doctor has been doing this practicing medicine for decades and he's had her as a patient for 15, 20 years. Let's assume that that's the case. Imagine somebody being so bold that they tell you, you're wrong, actually. Go watch this YouTube video of Dr. Tenpenny. She's more trustworthy than you. Like imagine that.   Like it's so insulting. These imbeciles think that they know more and yet they think that they're so smart. I mean, this is proof of Dunning Kruger, right? She said that this is God separating the sheeps from the goats. Yes, because when I think of individuals who subscribe to organized religion, I definitely think that that's a free thinker.   And she talks about God, but in her mind, there's zero evidence for God, but that's fine. But there's lots of evidence that the vaccines are safe and effective, but that's not enough evidence. There is enough evidence to deduce that God is real though and he's like actually talking to me. These people are just genuinely too far gone.  And it's sad because they're gonna have to find out the hard way. Hopefully they get lucky, but when you attend these events with thousands of people who are also probably anti-vaxxers, I mean, you're playing with your life here, but that's where we're at. People just were to this point where they're gonna have to find out the hard way. No amount of convincing them is going to make a difference. They're just going to have to get COVID and see it firsthand for themselves. And hopefully that doesn't happen. But I mean, that's where we're at, right? Now, not to be too doomer, there were some individuals at this rally who actually did say something that gave me a little bit of hope. There's a big surge in COVID cases here in your county at the moment. Have you guys been vaccinated? Yes. Yeah, you both decided to get the vaccine? Yes. Some Trump supporters have and some Trump supporters have. Why did you guys ultimately decide to get the shot? Just felt it was the right thing to do. Yeah. Protection. Yeah. Added protection. Do anything we can do to be protected. Yes. And do you have any friends or neighbors who decided not to take the shot? Have you tried to encourage any folks, you know, family to get the shot? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Try to encourage as much as we can. Yeah. But you don't want to do so much. OK, credit where it's due. They got vaccinated and they're trying to encourage others to get vaccinated. That's great. Dare I say that it sounds like these Trump supporters were reasonable? I mean, I can't assume that they're too reasonable if they support Donald Trump and they're attending Trump rallies in a non-election year and they have all their MAGA gear. So there's a level of like stupidity in them because I think that to support Donald Trump, you're inherently like flawed in the way that you think. And you're probably a bad person to an extent. Having said that, though, like the fact that they're pro-vax, I have a lot more respect for those two individuals than anyone else who's anti-vax. Like I have more respect for those MAGA chuds that I do for some individuals on the so-called left who are pushing anti-vax conspiracy theories, calling them experimental and then pushing horse medicine. Now, Donnie also attended another event and talked to other anti-vaxxers and some pro-vaxxers. This was the Iowa State Fair featuring Marjorie Taylor Greene. So let's listen to their reasoning as to why some of these folks won't get vaccinated. Greene brought her anti-science message to Iowa, repeating false claims about masks and vaccines. I'm completely against masks. They don't work. They're not stopping the spread of COVID. I'm also completely against forced vaccines. The vaccines are failing. What do you think of Greene showing up here to the state fair? I think it's great. I think it's a great way to get in touch with the people of Iowa. Can I ask, have you been vaccinated? I have not been vaccinated. Would you consider getting the vaccine if more businesses, there's parts of the country now where you can only go into a restaurant if you have proof of a vaccine? No, no, I'm not for that. This is America and we are a free country of free people. We have a right to decide what goes on with our bodies.  Our days are numbered.  It don't matter, you know? Life is what it is, you know? We take it how God gives it to us. But you were a seat belt, right? Of course, but if it's 50-50 chance, that'll save you or it won't save you. But isn't that sort of like taking a vaccine you take the steps to protect yourself when you can? No. No? No, I'm not taking the jab. What would it take to convince you to get the vaccine? I'm not sure that I could be convinced, but I'm open to looking at scientific evidence, real scientific evidence, not just something that's spoon feeding everyone. He may be unable to be convinced, but these men got their COVID shots at the fair. Today was your first shot? Oh, yes, it was my first shot.  I felt that when I'm traveling and around other people and things like that, it wouldn't be a very good decision that I were making on that one. We've had a lot of people stop and just talk to us.  Chuck Morgenstern and Vernon Hoover manned the Magic Maze and Rock and Roll Funhouse here. They say their decision to get the shot was in part because the next fair they are going to require staff to be vaccinated and in part because they realize it was the safer thing to do. Had you any concerns about the vaccine? Well, I heard that other people had the vaccine. They still ended up getting COVID-19. So that was kind of a concern, but now that we're working the fairs and most of us don't wear a mask anymore and all this and that, so I wanted to be better protected. Everyone should go on and if they haven't had the vaccine, they should go on and tag it. When I'm back tonight, I've got to drop by the maze. See you guys. So I mean, we were left with a little bit of hope, I'm there, right? Those men were convinced to get vaccinated because they want to protect themselves, but also because their employer said that they are going to start requiring vaccines. Look, vaccine mandates are effective and I don't know that they're going to get us to a point where we reach herd immunity, but do we have a shot without vaccine mandates? I just don't think that we do. So right there is a success story of vaccine mandates, but also they actually did agree that it was a good idea to get vaccinated. Now, some of the individuals in this clip were so insufferable. So one guy said that he won't get vaccinated because this is a free country. Okay, except I agree, this should be a free country free from a deadly contagious virus. So by you refusing to get vaccinated, by you refusing to take necessary precautions to prevent the spread of this virus, you are taking away all of our freedoms.   I would love to go to a movie theater. I would love to do all of these things, but we can't do that so long as we are in a perpetual state of plague and it's motherfuckers like you who are doing that. And for you to claim like, oh, you know, this is about freedom, that's why I won't get vaccinated. Okay, well, guess who agrees with me? George Washington, who was pro mandatory vaccines, right? So to pretend as if this is some newly authoritarian phenomenon, these people don't know anything. Now, the guy in the parking lot was talking about, look, everything in life is a risk basically, I'm paraphrasing, you know, you could get into the car and be t-boned and get killed. So what's the point of worrying about COVID-19? Might as well not get vaccinated. But then Donio Sullivan asked him, will you wear your seatbelt, right? And he says, yeah. I mean, you can just tell that they didn't think very deeply about this. It's just this like visceral response to medical experts and the thought of getting vaccinated. It's this anti-intellectualism that permeates throughout the country. It's so frustrating to see this. Having said that though, it's not shocking, but I'm never not exasperated watching these anti-vaxxers. Like I never watch this and think, well, that's just the way it is. Like I'm always angered because these people are the ones who are holding all of us back. These individuals are stopping all of us collectively as a society from reaching herd immunity. And it's not as simple as getting everyone in America to get vaccinated. Because yes, there are global inequalities as it relates to the distribution of this vaccine. We have to vaccinate the world to prevent some new variant from emerging that is resistant to vaccines. Having said that though, we can at least put a cap on COVID-19 in the United States if everyone just did the commonsensical thing and got vaccinated. But this is America.  So I'm thankful to Donio Sullivan for highlighting it for us and giving us this content. But I do feel sorry for him because there's no way he can enjoy talking to this many idiots. I mean, this would be like draining and soul-crushing, but, you know, he still continues to press on and I give him credit for that. I'll continue to show you his content because I think that what he does is a public service. Not to sound like a broken record, but the situation is bad in this country as it relates to COVID-19 and not all states have been hit equally. In some states, you have governors who are seemingly on the side of the virus doing everything in their power to continue the spread of this deadly disease. You have individuals like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of Texas who are trying to ban mask mandates and make sure that whatever little tools we have at our disposal to combat the spread of the virus, they're trying to stop that. And in Florida, it's especially bad. Last weekend, Florida reported over 150,000 new COVID cases and ICU capacity is at 94% with 59 hospitals anticipating critical staffing shortages and Oak Hill Hospital CEO, Mickey Smith, says that staffers are quitting as they reach their breaking point because of all of this and yet people aren't taking the virus seriously. Vaccinations have ticked up, but not enough to where we reach herd immunity so we can actually put this virus behind us at least in the United States. And this has led to a walkout from doctors in Florida because they're over it. So they're walking out of the hospital to make a statement and send the message to anti-vaxxers. We can't take this anymore. Get vaccinated, we are begging you. So as Mary Popinfoos of HuffPost reports, about 75 frustrated doctors staged a pre-summarized walkout on Monday from several Southern Florida hospitals to call out people who are refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and are overwhelming the healthcare system making their work nearly unendurable. We are exhausted. Our patients and resources are running low, internal medicine specialist Rupesh Darya said at a news conference during the action representing hospitals in Palm Beach County. Jupiter Medical Center emergency room doctor Ethan Chappan lamented the number of people that I'm going to see today who I don't need to, who don't need to be there, who shouldn't have been there in the first place if they'd taken the simple advice of getting vaccinated. Chappan added, all we're asking is in the same way you trusted us to take care of you, your family, your friends, trust us now in what we're telling you. The vaccine is safe and it can save your life. Infectious disease specialist Leslie Diaz emphasized, the science is there. The clinical trials are in abundance and we must stop denying the data. The vaccine still remains the most effective and reliable way to stop this madness. And WPTV, which is a local news affiliate in Florida, covered the walkout and here's a quick clip of what some of the doctors had to say. These people are dying. It's real, it's happening. And the only way we know to prevent it is to get a vaccine. We are exhausted. Our patients and resources are running low and we need your help. This time around, this variant is deadlier. It is impacting the lungs quicker. It's eating away at the lungs. It's causing more problems. It's causing pneumomediastime and it's causing pneumothorices and the patients are dying quicker. And elective surgeries and the visitation policies at many hospitals are also now being impacted. The main message out here today is the vaccine is safe. It is effective. It can prevent you from landing in the hospital and these doctors are saying everyone should get it. So we've reached a point in the pandemic where doctors are having to stage walkouts to beg people to take a vaccine that is free, widely available and most importantly, effective. And this clip was posted to YouTube and, you know, as you watch this, one of my viewers, normal people, I'm sure that you think, man, this is really terrible. I feel so bad for these doctors who are quitting, who are overburdened and they just they can't take it anymore. But that's not necessarily the response that you'd see if you look at the comment section of that YouTube video or the like to dislike ratio because the video actually got an overwhelmingly negative response with way more dislikes than likes and people in the comment section are actually attacking these doctors. One person says 75 quacks. They all need to be replaced. Another person says, this is from all the illegals entering your state, unreal. This person says, LOL, so let me get this straight. Hospital full of COVID patients and these doctors have got the time to walk out and talk to the cameras. Yeah, okay. Nice try. This person says, so what is next? Do they refuse to treat people with diabetes because they are obese and did it to themselves? This person says, let them all go. Good. Let them all quit and watch how fast the man made Chinese bat virus poll goes down. And finally, always footage of doctors and empty beds but never footage of actual patients. Interesting. Now just to reiterate, this is the response that people had when they saw a video where doctors were begging and pleading with folks to get vaccinated because they're overburdened. That's the response. What do you even say to that? They laughed at these doctors rather than trying to feel any shred of sympathy and try to see where the doctors are coming from. They get more conspiratorial and they attack these doctors. And there's a lot more comments that I didn't show to you but I mean, you pretty much get the point. Nothing will get through to them. It doesn't matter if doctors come out and they beg people to get vaccinated because they can't take any more people in these hospitals because they're filled up and they're stressed out. They're seeing people die when now we're at a state of the pandemic where we have a vaccine. This is all preventable. If everyone was vaccinated, yes, COVID-19 would still be spreading. Having said that though, hospitals would not be filling up. It would not be as bad as it is if everyone got vaccinated but yet people think that the doctors are in on this vast conspiracy. It's just truly like these are bizarre times that we're living in where in 2021, we have to convince people that modern medicine is safe and effective. And even after we have an abundance of evidence, even seeing doctors beg and plead with them, they refuse to take them seriously, even laugh at them in the comment section. It's very demoralizing to see this but I can't say that I'm surprised. I don't think that doctor staging a walkout has profound and meaningful as this may be is going to reach these people. They are conspiratorial to their cores. They think that doctors are all part of this fast conspiracy theory to microchip them or magnetize them, whatever the case may be. They're not budging and they won't budge possibly even if they get affected with COVID-19 themselves or lose a loved one. It's just it's truly a disaster that we are witnessing. So I want to talk about this new report from the New York Times which details the prices that hospitals charge private insurance companies for various healthcare procedures. Now, if you are one of my viewers who have been listening to me brands about healthcare for years now, you're not going to be too surprised by this but still I think that the findings here are really fascinating because it basically proves what we've been saying on this show for years that healthcare in the United States of America is a total scam. And I think that once you see these numbers there's no way you don't get radicalized because we're getting taken advantage of here. We are getting screwed over and all you have to do is look at a couple of examples of what people in America are charged for healthcare and how arbitrary those prices are depending on who their insurance provider is. So let's get to this. So this is from Sarah Cliff and Josh Katz who report this year the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret, a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers. The insurers trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would undermine competitive negotiations. Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it and appealed when they lost. They lost again and seven months later many hospitals are simply ignoring the requirement and posting nothing but data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden. It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services procedures as simple as an x-ray or a pregnancy test and it provides numerous examples of major health insurers some of the world's largest companies with billions in annual profits negotiating surprisingly unfavorable rates for their customers. In many cases, insured patients are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all. The secrecy has allowed hospitals to tell patients that they are getting steep discounts while still charging them many times what a public program like Medicare is willing to pay and it has left insurers with little incentive to negotiate well. The peculiar economics of health insurance also help keep prices high. Now they provide us with a couple of examples that really showcase the absurdity of this system. So when it comes to the cost of a colonoscopy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center well if you have Cigna it's gonna cost you $1463. If you have Etna you're gonna be paying more than $2,100. However, if you have no insurance you'll be paying $782. This is bonkers. I don't know what to say about this. If you want a pregnancy test at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania well if you have Blue Cross Blue Shield it's gonna be $18. But if you're a Blue Cross HMO patient in New Jersey that is going to cost $58, $93 for Blue Cross PPO patients in New Jersey and with no insurance $10. At Aurora St. Luke's in Milwaukee an MRI is going to cost $1,093 if they have United's HMO plan and $4,029 if they have United's PPO plan. That is a gigantic difference. Now at hospitals in the Erlinger Health System in Tennessee if you want a flu vaccine that's gonna cost $54 if you have a Cigna plan, $104 if you have Blue Cross and $201 if you have a United plan at Memorial Regional Hospital in Florida an MRI is going to run you $1827 if you have Cigna, $2148 if you have Humana, $2,455 if you have Blue Cross and $262 with Medicare. That is a giant difference. So that is just a little bit of insight into this insanity and that's only the hospitals who actually complied. Most hospitals, the article states did not comply and they're going so far to hide the prices that they charge to separate insurance companies that they're willing to spend $109,000 per year in the fines to hide this information because they know it's that incriminating. I mean if this doesn't tell you why we need Medicare for all then nothing else is gonna get the point across but Medicare for all is a single payer system which means all of these insurance companies would go the way of the dodo, right? We regulate them out of existence and we have the government be the sole insurance provider for all of Americans. And that's why you can see that Medicare gets better costs than these insurance companies. But what this also I think tells us is that we really should move the goalpost when it comes to healthcare and we have to acknowledge that Medicare for all single payer this is really a compromised position. What I would like to see is a nationalized healthcare system where hospitals are actually nationalized because I am of the belief that healthcare should not be an industry. Healthcare should not be commodified. Healthcare should be free at the point of service and so long as you have these for-profit privately owned companies in the mix they're going to do things like this and single payer would drastically improve our healthcare system but there's still gonna be these private hospitals that care at the end of the day about their bottom line and they're going to make decisions on the basis of what makes them money because these are businesses. So I think that progressives should continue to advocate for Medicare for all single payer but on top of that we also have to start educating people about the benefits of nationalizing hospitals in America making our system reflect the UK system which is imperfect, right? It's not the end all be all. It's at risk of being further privatized by Tories but if we don't start talking about totally removing the cost incentive from these systems then I think that we failed as leftists because sure insurance companies they are the lowest common denominator when it comes to most of the insane costs that Americans have to pay but it's also hospitals too, right? They're part of the problem and I think that we also have to have a conversation about their role and us needing to get rid of these private companies in all of healthcare because this is just ridiculous. I mean imagine if you went to a store and you wanted to purchase a video game, Elden Ring. The cost of that game is gonna be $60, $70 but imagine if they said actually you have to spend $150 on this game because you're from New Jersey. Well that wouldn't make sense, right? Just because you're from a different state. Why would you have to pay more for this video game than other people? It's totally arbitrary, right? Well they would only be able to get away with this if people didn't know that that was happening. Like if you were from New Jersey and you just always assumed that video games were $150, well you wouldn't necessarily worry about that but if you learned that other people are only paying $60 to $70 for games like Elden Ring, then you might get angry, you might wanna change the system itself and that's why they're willing to pay that fine every single year if it means that they can hide this information from the public. It's truly, it's fascinating and it speaks to how reprehensible these businesses in healthcare are. There shouldn't be a healthcare industry, there should just be a healthcare period because that's what's achievable in the richest country on the planet. Nationalize these bloodsuckers, abolish all private insurance companies, let's have a healthcare system that's actually centered on human need, not human greed. So since President Joe Biden made the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, he has been blasted by every single mainstream media outlet nonstop and there was a part of me that thought, okay, he's gonna succumb to pressure at least minimally, right? He's gonna at a minimum move back the withdrawal date because he's getting a lot of pressure and no president is able to withstand that. Like there's gonna be a breaking point and there's no way that someone like Joe Biden isn't going to succumb to pressure but he actually proved me wrong and he defied all of the neocons on television and he's still maintaining the original withdrawal date from Afghanistan which is pleasantly surprising. So as Jake Johnson of Common Dreams reports, President Joe Biden reportedly intends to stick with his self-imposed August 31st deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, rejecting calls for an extension from hawkish GOP lawmakers, members of his own party and European allies. During a Tuesday call, according to the Wall Street Journal, Biden told the leaders of G7 nations that the US is on track to meet the withdrawal deadline and that the Pentagon is developing contingency plans in the case of any delay. The US president's decision to stand by the August 31st deadline provoked immediate howls of outrage from pro-war Republican lawmakers who accused Biden of capitulating to the Taliban's demand for a timely withdrawal, even though the Pentagon has recommended adherence to the original deadline, warning that staying longer could pose security risks. On Monday, as Common Dreams reported, Taliban leaders made clear that they would not accept any US effort to push back the withdrawal date and that any extension would provoke a reaction. Despite the pressure from hawks, Biden actually appears to be ending this war. The Daily Posters Walker-Bragman tweeted Tuesday, this is a meaningful foreign policy difference between Joe Biden and his predecessor who didn't pull the trigger on it. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, said Tuesday that she was glad to hear that Biden is sticking to the August 31st deadline to get out of Afghanistan. So look, he gets credit where it's due. Out of all the presidents so far who have ran on ending the wars, Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden is the first one to do that. Now to be fair to Obama, I don't think he actually ran on ending the Afghanistan war, but he did run explicitly on bringing the troops home from Iraq, but he didn't do that. He brought home like a certain number of troops and then claimed that, you know, it's over. The war's over, but that wasn't actually the case. Trump ran on pulling out of Afghanistan, pulling out of Iraq, but he didn't actually do it. Joe Biden actually did it. And predictably we saw, you know, individuals who are part of the Bush era who got us into this mess, you know, defense contractors, the military industrial complex, mainstream media all scream at the top of their lungs, but yet Biden, he held strong and he gets credit for that. Now I think that you can criticize Joe Biden for the way in which he withdrew from Afghanistan. I think that that's fine, but you can't argue with a straight face that withdrawing was a bad decision because if you don't agree with withdrawing, then make the case for staying there indefinitely because that's effectively what your position is. Now there's been a lot of lawmakers in both parties who are trying to pressure him to stay longer. So 42 lawmakers signed on to a letter from Democratic lawmaker, Tom Malinowski, who are basically encouraging Joe Biden to push back the withdrawal date. And a surprising person who signed this is Barbara Lee, who was the one individual in Congress, the only person who voted against the Afghanistan war to begin with. Now to Barbara Lee's credit, she did actually explicitly say that Biden was correct to withdraw from Afghanistan. So I think that her disagreement with Joe Biden and her advocacy for extending the withdrawal deadline is simply premised on the fact that she cares about getting out all of U.S. citizens and U.S. allies in Afghanistan. But having said that though, I don't necessarily know that extending the deadline is gonna do much. Like it's like a bandit, you have to rip it off. And of course you have to get in as many people as possible, taken as many refugees as we possibly can. The White House is reporting that they evacuated nearly 60,000 people. So they are making progress and it is really messy. And sure, you can criticize Joe Biden. Again, I wanna be clear here, you can criticize Joe Biden for the way that he handled this withdrawal, but he absolutely deserves massive credit for withdrawing. He does, he deserves credit. If you're anti-war and you do not give Joe Biden credit for this, then you're just a partisan hack. You're unwilling to give someone who is a Democrat credit for something. And I get it, Democrats are bad. I shoot on liberals all the time. But when it comes to this, he made a major foreign policy decision that I think is commendable. It's difficult, right? There was no way that there'd be a clean withdrawal. So I think that, you know, I don't know how much I would criticize him for the way things transpired. You know, I think that he was a little bit too optimistic to say the least about how quickly the Taliban would take over Afghanistan. He kind of was like in denial altogether. But still he got us out of there and that's the right decision. And most of the mainstream media has been shooting on him nonstop. And there's only one individual that I've seen or maybe a couple individuals to be fair, but one individual who actually made a powerful case and a concise case as to why this is the right decision. Mehdi Hasan in this program. It's time now for what I call the 62nd round. Start the clock. One of the most annoying aspects about covering the Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan is that the American public support the withdrawal and those of us who oppose this catastrophic war have been tragically vindicated. And yet you wouldn't know any of that from the debate we're having right now. Our newspaper Op-Ed pages, our TV screens are filled with people who got it wrong, still trying to lecture the rest of us about what should happen now in Afghanistan. There are the journalists, people in my industry who never covered Afghanistan, never talked about it, helped make it the forgotten war all these years, now expressing outrage over the ending of it, the top U.S. generals and intelligence officials who falsely told us year after year that we were turning the corner in Afghanistan, that we were winning the war against the Taliban and building an amazing Afghan army and a democratic government. Even now, still insisting we stay just a bit longer. The Bush administration officials who got us into this mess in the first place, the Trump administration officials who signed the damn deal in Doha with the Taliban, both trying to blame it all on Joe Biden. There's the carping and complaining from politicians on both sides, Democrat and Republican who spent years sending other people's kids to fight and die and what they knew was an unwinnable and unpopular war. So forgive me when I say keep your views on the end of this war to yourself. Personally, I would like a period of silence from all of you if that's all right. And if you do feel the need to comment on the disaster that is Afghanistan. How about starting with the word, sorry. He is exactly right. He's the only person that I've seen make this common sense take. Even other progressives who I generally tend to agree with more on mainstream media. Anand Giridharidas, for example, is bringing on individuals who were part of the Bush administration. Nicole Wallace, when these individuals should not be treated as experts when it comes to foreign policy or anything related to Afghanistan. These folks should be shunned and shamed but that's not what's happening. We have a media apparatus that takes money from defense contractors. So they don't wanna rock the boat too much and they're kind of not just remaining neutral. They're going in the opposite direction and they're slamming Joe Biden for this decision because they wanna appease their advertisers or maybe they're all just stupid. I'm not sure. It's a distinction without a difference at this point but the outcome here is good. Biden withdrawing is a good thing. Again, you can criticize it. You can say that he didn't handle this appropriately. You can say that the United States now needs to do a lot to save people who are at risk of being prosecuted and possibly killed by the Taliban. But still getting out was the only feasible option because staying there indefinitely, that's not something that we can do. So Biden gets credit for that and I'm glad that he's sticking to his guns here because it's really difficult when everyone is against you but he's making the right decision. So I've been following the Buffalo Democratic Party primary which was over a couple of months ago but the issue is that the Democrat whose socialist India Walton was running against and defeated is refusing to concede. He's launching a red campaign. I've got an update for you about that effort in this video but also the city council is going so far as to consider getting rid of the position of mayor altogether all to stop this one individual who's so scary apparently. She ran on a platform of combating poverty in Buffalo and she won. She defeated a four term incumbent who constituents rejected and now the entire Democratic Party establishment in Buffalo is collaborating to stop her and that includes collaboration with Republicans now. So Julia Connelly of Common Dreams explains India Walton the Democratic Socialist candidate for mayor in Buffalo, New York who won the Democratic Party primary in June took aim at four term incumbent mayor Byron Brown on Sunday over his attempts alongside with other members of the city's political establishment to circumvent the will of the voters ahead of November's election. Without calling the Democratic mayor out by name Walton assured voters that if she had lost the primary I wouldn't be trying to change election laws and work with Republicans to override the will of Buffalonians. The community organizer and healthcare workers comments came amid Brown's right and campaign which has attracted the support of Republican real estate developer Carl Paladino and other conservatives. Brown filed a petition last week to change the filing deadline in order to run as an independent. According to a salon report published Monday nearly a third of the signatures the mayor has collected in favor of establishing a Buffalo Party candidacy are from the right including from Republicans from outside of Buffalo. The city's Republican Party is considering an official endorsement of Brown who is a close ally of outgoing Governor Andrew Cuomo and who's denounced Walton as a radical socialist. So I've said this before but I'll reiterate this sentiment. These Democrats are no different than stop the steal Republicans because they're trying to change election laws in their state all to stop one individual, a socialist. And Democrats often claim we're a big 10 party. But apparently that tent excludes socialists and is welcoming of Republicans at least in Buffalo. And it's disgusting but I can't even say that this is the worst thing because arguably the worst thing that the Democratic Party establishment in Buffalo did is try to get rid of the position of mayor altogether in the event she does actually win. Conley continues meanwhile should Brown's attempt to defeat Walton electorally failed, the city's legislative body is examining how it might rest power from the progressive if she wins in November. Weeks after the primary, the nine member Democratic-led Buffalo Common Council voted to study how the mayoral position could be dissolved in the city and replaced with a city manager who would carry out the will of the council members. So rather than having the mayor be popularly elected which is what happens in our system of governance, they just want to get rid of that position and have the city council appoint someone as city manager. I mean, if Trump had the power to do this at the federal level, he would have done this but these Democrats here at the local level are doing that. They are no different than undemocratic authoritarian Republicans who are pushing voter suppression laws around the country. Like these folks are the lowest of the low. They are not Democrats, they are Republicans and they're even teaming up with Republicans to stop a socialist from winning. Now, India Walton is not some sort of a scary socialist who claims she wants to have owner seize the means of production violently. All she's talking about are reforms in her city that would combat poverty, homelessness. But yet this is such a huge threat.  And I don't really even think it's about her being like this scary socialist even if the incumbent mayor who she defeated is calling her a radical socialist, which sounds very Trumpian. Like this is about the entrenched power refusing to accept defeat. They don't like the fact that the left is increasingly gaining more popularity and power across the country. So they're trying to stop this rise in any way that they possibly can. And if they can do it here, they could set up a blueprint for other cities who see similar outcomes. So look, we have to stand in solidarity with India Walton, support her campaign. Like this should be a foregone conclusion. Like we shouldn't have to worry at this point. This is a heavily democratic leaning city. So she won the primary and it should be over. Like it should be assumed that she will win come November. But because of all of this shenanigans and undemocratic behavior, we have to still go to bat for her. So support India Walton if you can. If you live in Buffalo, canvas for her. Don't take this race for granted. I mean, she has to win. She has to win so that way she can actually make a difference and prove to the people of Buffalo that there is still hope in, you know, participating in electoral politics. There is still hope in electing people who actually care even if the establishment wants to stop them and fear monger about them. It's just this entire situation is so gross. And I wish that more people would pay attention to it because it really speaks to the disgusting behavior of the Democratic Party, which is Trumpian if it serves their electoral interests. Hello, everyone. I am here with an expert. This is Dr. Caitlyn Gennalina, who is an epidemiologist and a biostatistician, and she is here today to answer all of our burning questions about COVID-19, the Delta variant vaccinations, and more. Dr. Gennalina, thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. So for anyone who's unfamiliar with Dr. Gennalina's work, I just want to share it with you because it's excellent. So she has a sub-stack. It's called Your Local Epidemiologist, and basically everything that I have questions about, she answers it. The blog does a really great job at explaining the complexities of science and how it's constantly changing. Like science is not static, it's dynamic, and that's the beauty of it. So you're kind of giving up the up-to-date news, and so I really appreciate that. So the first question that I wanted to ask is about the new booster shots that we're hearing quite a bit about. I know that the White House just has announced that as of September 3rd, Americans will be able to receive a booster shot after eight months of getting vaccinated, pending FDA and CDC approval. What do you know about the booster shots? Yeah, it's been a really confusing ride. I'll say that in the past two months. So what we know about the booster shots, well, first of all, what do we know about the vaccines right now with Delta? One, the vaccines continue to work really well against hospitalization and death. I think we're actually really lucky that it is. The real question what's really up for debate right now is how well do the vaccines work against mild and moderate disease? And we, unfortunately, in the United States don't have real-time data. We actually don't have a great surveillance system in the United States because of a chronically underfunded public health system that's decentralized. I mean, I could go on for hours about that. But so we don't have the data in the United States. So what we look at is the UK and Israel. And what they're showing us is that after time, about six months, our vaccines start to wane a little. Like the efficacy, the effectiveness of those vaccines aren't as good. For example, if you got vaccinated in January compared to if you got vaccinated in April or May or June or July. And that is really what drove the White House COVID Task Force yesterday to really push the need for a booster shot. And so it was very clear that this is a proactive approach, which I actually applaud them for. We've been playing a very reactive game in this pandemic in the United States. So I like the proactive approach. I think it's stirred up a lot of debate though among scientists. If we do even need a booster shot, antibodies isn't the only protection we have in our human body. We also have an adaptive system like T cells and memory B cells that are a lot harder to measure. So we don't even know if those are working. We assume that they are. So why would he even need a booster shot? There's also the whole global equity. Why are we taking three booster shots if only 30% of the world has a vaccine? If a variant pops up in Peru, it's going to affect us directly anyways. And so it's stirred up a lot of debate, but what it looks like is we'll be getting booster shots starting September 20th, only if or especially if you have the mRNA series. So Pfizer or Moderna shot. We don't know yet what's happening with Johnson and Johnson. We're waiting on that data. I'm glad that you brought up the global vaccine efficacy because that's something that I've been talking about quite a bit on this program. And there's a lot of countries that haven't been able to vaccinate large portions of their population. So this does definitely raise some questions about whether or not those of us in the developed world should be doing this. Having said that though, when the public health officials say get your booster shot, I'm going to be the first in line to make sure I do everything I can. Honestly, that's right. You know, I rather my vaccine go to someone else, but the reality is it's way beyond my control. And the reality also is we're throwing away millions of shots a day in the United States, just because no one's getting even their first dose. And so, yeah, I mean, it eventually helps also stop transmission with this third booster. So it's necessary in the long run. Is it necessary now? That's up for debate, but it is a proactive approach. So I wanted to ask about the necessity of boosters. And this might not necessarily be something that you can answer at this point in time. Are the boosters needed because just in general, the mRNA, the efficacy of those vaccines decrease over time? Or do you think that the Delta variant is what is decreasing the efficacy? So we actually don't know that answer yet. We don't know if it's because of Delta or it's because of the waning immunity or more likely, which I think it's going to be a combination of the both. We are still trying to sort through the data. And again, we just can't sort through the data in the United States because we're not collecting it, which continues to baffle me. And so we don't know. What we do know is that the coronavirus is mutating every two weeks. Really high transmission in the globe. We are worried that the next variant or the next two variants or three variants will eventually escape our vaccines altogether. And so what our goal right now is, which the booster shot will help, is to decrease transmission as much as possible. Right, that is really important. From my understanding, every single time the virus spreads, that's another opportunity for it to mutate. And so if it's mutating at this rate of every two weeks, I know that you don't have a crystal ball, but how long do you think it would take for a new variant of concern to emerge that actually does bypass the vaccines? I know that the Lambda variant that emerged out of Peru is a variant of concern and there's not much information yet. But I mean, do you think it would be unreasonable to predict that in a year, a new variant could go straight through to the vaccines? It's a really good question and one that's actually really complex to answer. I'll kind of give you like a higher level. So we know the coronavirus isn't mutating as quickly as the flu. So that's why we need a new vaccine every year, just because the flu changes so quickly. On the other spectrum, coronavirus is mutating faster than, for example, the measles, hasn't changed since the 60s. So coronavirus is somewhere in between. We think that, or our hypothesis is that we'll need a shot every couple of years. The reason we need lots of shots right now is because this thing is mutating so fast. Transmission is so high. Once we get transmission down and keep it down, the rate in which this thing changes will also decrease over time. It'll decelerate. So we don't know, honestly. It could be tomorrow that this thing mutates. It could be never that it mutates to escape our vaccines. It's just not a game that we're wanting to play. You mentioned Lambda. There's actually really good news that came out this week that Lambda is actually fizzling out. So it may have been more dangerous, but it's not more transmissible than Delta. So it can't push Delta out of the way, which is fantastic news. The other thing we're paying attention to right now is Delta Plus, which is the Delta variant with another mutation on the spike protein. Oh, no. Yeah. And we're keeping a close eye on that. Very low rates in the United States right now. And so we're really the threat right now is Delta. OK. That's good news about Lambda, actually. I was trying to follow that as much as I could, but that's really encouraging to hear. Getting a little bit more doomer, however, is I've noticed that there is a correlation between increased COVID-19 cases among children and the prevalence of the Delta variant. Now, from what I understand, there's not necessarily proof that there is a causal relationship. But what do you know about the Delta variants effect on kids? Because I know that there's a lot of anecdotal evidence that hospitals are filling up. PICUs are reaching full capacity in some places, and it's really, really concerning. So what do you know about the Delta variant as it relates to children? Yeah, it is. The numbers are concerning. I'm in the South when it's really concerning right now. Our PICUs are full. We don't know whether Delta is more severe than previous variants. We have a little bit of evidence from Scotland and Canada that Delta is more severe for adults. And so we're kind of making the assumption that's maybe a little more severe for kids as well compared to past variants. The good news is though, honestly, we're very lucky because the rate of severe disease among kids compared to adults is so low. And this is really weird. Typically in viruses like H1N1, kids are the most vulnerable and elderly are the most vulnerable because of their weak immune systems. And that's just not the case with coronavirus. And I think we got really lucky. With that said though, if hospitalization is around one to 2% with COVID, we have 50 million kids in the United States that are unvaccinated. One to 2% of 50 million is a lot of people. And so on an individual level, right? The risk is low. The problem is you start looking at a population level and then we start talking about needing to flatten the curve again. We are going to overwhelm our healthcare systems. We're already seeing that in the South. And that is what truly the concern is for epidemiologists or public health officials. The other thing that's really important, which I actually think gets kind of pushed to the side a lot, is the risk of severe disease is lower among kids. The problem is that it is clear that kids have a very important role in the transmission chain. They are able to spread the virus very efficiently and effectively and sometimes even better than adults. And so that's why it's even important when we start talking about schools, right? Yes, we're very concerned about the kids' health, the teacher's health, but also their role in keeping transmission down won't work because they keep spreading it too. And so that is a really important key into ending this thing, is ending transmission among kids as well. Yeah, and you talk about the proactive versus the reactive response when it comes to policy, and we're seeing some kids resume schooling and they're having to go into quarantine because there's hundreds of cases in some instance. What do you think is the good policy prescription as an expert in this field? I mean, should distance learning be resumed? I know that there's a lot of COVID fatigue and people are just kind of over it. Having said that though, it's still really serious, and as you said, kids are transmitting it. So what do you think would be the best thing for parents to do as they make their decisions in the Pacific Northwest? School is resuming in a couple of weeks. What do you think is the best decision if you had a magic wand and you can institute the correct policy like that? Yeah, so I've always been a big proponent that we need schools open. There's a lot of value of instruction learning. There's a lot of value, especially when we start talking about equity. People, kids rely on schools for food, for safety, for, I mean, there's so many reasons beyond just school. And so I've always been a big proponent of that. But there's a big if though, and that's if and when we implement public health mitigation measures. We can open schools safely in the middle of a pandemic. We saw this study after study after study last year that a lot of schools opened up and with masks with this layered approach of testing, of distancing, of good ventilation in schools and classrooms, transmission was really low and even low among a community with the background of community transmission is very high. So we have the tools to do it. The problem is, and I think this is what you kind of hinted at is the ability at least in the South to implement those without getting clients without going to jail. And so that's the challenge right now is convincing people to follow the science to open schools safely. Yeah. And you know, there's been certain states such as Florida where mask mandates at the school level have been banned by the governor. And this is something that doesn't really make any sense from a scientific standpoint. And part of it is misinformation, but we're seeing increasingly more anti-mask rhetoric disproportionately from conservative news outlets, Fox News, Tucker Carlson, one of the most prominent news hosts in the world or in the country, I should say. Why are people suddenly against masks in your opinion? You know, I've seen countless videos about the way that they are very effective. It's a very simple thing that you can do to stop the spread of the disease. What is, do you think it's just fatigue? Like how is this misinformation spreading again after I feel like we kind of put a cap on it? Yeah, I think it has to do with multiple things. I think one, there was a huge mistake that CDC dropped the mask mandate in May. I mean, I can talk for hours about that. It was a really big mistake. So you lose the social pressure to wear masks, right? Even from vaccinated. Two, there's always been nevermaskers.  And so there's always been that rhetoric. I think the other thing that has, Delta's changed the game. And we are having, we, as in who have public health officials are having a really hard time telling that story that this isn't last fall. This is actually a whole nother ball game we're playing with. And I think people look at last fall and schools were open, maybe half capacity, kids did fine, the hospitals didn't over, whatever, surge. But this is a different landscape. And people have a hard time, one, following the science and then two, understanding why it's a different landscape. And things just won't work the same as it did last year. Yeah, can you talk through the threats that you receive from anti-maskers? That's really interesting because you have a very popular Facebook page. And I think that what you're doing is so incredibly valuable. It's nice that you have a big following because what I've seen from my personal experience is that Facebook is one of the biggest sources of, for the spread of misinformation. And I, you know, I don't use Facebook that frequently but just logging on after not being there for a while. I see like my past co-workers, some family members spreading anti-mask, anti-vaccine misinformation. And to me, it really feels real when it reaches like the normie community and my personal life. What is the response on Facebook? Because that's where you see so much of this. So how has it been for you as an individual?  Do you feel comfortable kind of elaborating on that? Yeah, I mean, I think it's the reality of any public facing figure. And it is what it is. I mean, it's online. It's social media.  They come in waves. They come from different groups. Like I said, Nevermaskers was last summer. Now it's the anti-vaxxers. Especially when the kid stuff starts coming out with vaccines. And so it's the reality of the game. And honestly, I've gotten very jaded about it. I guess online it feels a little more distanced. Two months or three months ago now, I was actually doxxed. So my work information was published on a pretty brutal site. And so people started calling my work phone and leaving harassing messages. And so to me, that wondered me closer is a lot more scary than what someone says online to me. And so, you know, it's why is it happening? I think it's happening for a lot of reasons. A lot of really big reasons, right? I mean, it's just beyond the pandemic of politics, of anti-science aggression, of people are very stressed and confused. And there's an overload of information and frustrated and whatever. And so you just kind of get the brunt of that. But yeah, it's the reality. And I'm not the only public health official that's gone through this or is going through it. Many have received threats at their homes. I have a girlfriend in scientific communication. She had to move her house because they started showing up at her house. And so it's, it's a, there's some crazy people out there. And it's a weird time for scientists to be targeted. Yeah, it's just, it's so sad to hear this because hearing your story, I've also seen interviews with a lot of nurses who are talking about compassion fatigue because they, they treat COVID-19 patients and many people actually believe, depending on the area in more vaccine hesitant areas, like Little Rock, Arkansas, for example, that like they're part of some conspiracy and that the nurses and doctors are lying. And it's real, like it's really, like it's got to be draining on public health officials, on experts.  And, you know, it's, it's so sad to hear that, but unfortunately we're at the point of the pandemic where nothing really surprises me, but it still is, I'm not numb to it yet, even if I'm not necessarily surprised on another note. So I wanted to share a video with you. Give me one second here. Because while you're sharing it, while you're sharing it, I wanted to highlight, you know, it's important to also recognize it's a very small minority of people. And, you know, I have 300,000 followers, whatever, but the majority of them are amazing and find it super useful and send me wine and, you know, whatever. And so it's important to keep that perspective as well. That's true. That's true. Some folks who are the most vocal and the most like outrageous, they're always the loudest, but that is, that is a good thing to keep in mind. So this is, Dolminsle tweets this out. So this is anti-mask, anti-vax protesters protesting in a COVID testing clinic. So I have not watched this yet, but I just wanted to get your reaction after seeing some of this. So I mean, you pretty much, you get the point. It's a COVID testing facility. There are people who are very anti-vax as it relates to children. And I understand the sensitivity for children and being concerned about their health, but with increased COVID cases, pediatric hospitals getting filled up. It's, I don't know how you reach this people. So as an expert, what would you say? Like if you, if you have a family member who's very conspiratorial, anti-vaccine, anti-mask, what do you think is the best approach in your experience? Yeah, it's a great question. I think first people need to recognize that we're not going to, we're not going to build boards in the ivory towers, aren't going to change these people's minds. It's going to be family and friends. And so when you approach someone like that, one, you have to know the landscape, right? You have to know where they're coming from, which means you have to listen and it's really hard to do. You have to listen and you have to be a bi-directional relationship communication. Two, once you listen and you start understanding what their concerns are, then you can start combating that misinformation. A lot of misinformation is budded from a kernel of truth.  So you need to find that and then start redirecting them of that's a better way of thinking of it. And then third, it's the way you talk to them too.  And that's not an effective way to do it. And it's really, really hard to do. I'm not going to lie. I'm very guilty of the dumb work. Yeah, because to us, it's a no-duh. But we have to recognize that and have to come with empathy that there are legitimate concerns out there. There's a ton of confusion out there. And yeah, some people are just never going to change their minds. But I do still think there's a movable middle in there somewhere that we can start approaching this. And if you don't know the answer, say you don't know the answer. Don't BS them. But then what you need to do is then drive them or show them the way to find that answer. Because if you don't fill that void, they will fill that void with misinformation. And then you can do the best you can do and you move on, honestly. But I think we all have a role to play in this. And having those tough conversations and swallowing your pride and trying to be patient is really the only way we're going to change minds. Yeah, that's really important. On that same note of combating misinformation and disinformation, you did a really great write-up of a doctor, I believe his name was Dr. Stock, who was spreading both miss and disinformation. And one thing that I wanted to ask you about, just as individuals who don't have expertise in this field, so I've come into contact with people online who share anti-vaccine misinformation. And looking at some of these websites, they look very professional. If you read them, the language that they used, I mean, if I don't know any better, it seems medically competent, it's very technical. How do we look out for misinformation? Because somebody who isn't necessarily prone to conspiratorial thinking after seeing it myself, I think people can easily be misled because a lot of the misinformation, it isn't just like this foaming at the mouth, screaming like a lot of it sounds really legitimate. So what do we look out for? It does sound legitimate. And it's weaved into very technical jargon that some people are like, oh, yeah, that sounds right. And then even more dangerously, like with Dr. Stock, it's a physician. We're trained to be trusting these people. There's a lot of other misinformation coming from a physician from Pfizer. He used to work at Pfizer.  They have the credentials. So the thing I tell everyone is stick to solid news sources. Don't go down a lot of YouTube channels. Don't go down opinion pieces in Washington Post. Stick to like five news sources, right? And yeah, they're going to be boring. It's going to be NPR, New York Times, whatever, Washington Post. And they'll tell you when there's actually something serious going on that we need to worry about, like the myokite artists, right? Or like the blood clots after vaccines. Those are very serious safety signals that they talked about. And so that's what I try and tell people. It's very difficult to tell misinformation from true information if you don't have the training. And that's why I think it's really important for us scientists. And that's why I put so much frickin' time into these types of misinformation posts because there's nowhere else people can go. And you know, that Dr. Stock video got watched like five million times in the first hour. I don't even know what the stats are, but it sounds correct and it is confusing. Yeah, you know, I try to teach media literacy to a small extent on my YouTube channel because, you know, YouTube has been a huge problem in the spread of misinformation. But as someone who's on the platform, what I try to teach people is listen, question the resources that people present to you, question me, understand where we're getting our information from, what our motivations may be. And one thing that really is difficult to overcome is this veil of legitimacy, like with Dr. Stock. People who are doctors who don't necessarily have expertise as it relates to epidemiology or COVID-19, but they know enough to do a lot of people. So it's a really tricky thing to try to teach people what to look out for. And when it comes to, you know, medical jargon, it's tough because I don't know. So I get all of my information from resources such as yourself. People who I know are doing very, very hard work to try to get us the accurate information. But the problem with public health messaging, and I see this from a policy side as well, is this is all so complex and you can't distill something that complex into a really easily digestible message from the governmental level. But also the issue is that things change so rapidly with science. So that is in and of itself somewhat worrying for people who don't know any better.  So it's so hard to keep up. So I really appreciate folks like you who put in so much time and effort to, like, prepare graphs and explain things to people and explain that the change is part of the process. You know, this is what we expect as scientists and we try to equip ourselves with the capability of adapting. Speaking of adapting, I wanted to move on to the future of COVID-19. Impossible to predict at the moment. But a lot of epidemiologists that I've heard say that they believe COVID-19 will ultimately be endemic. It'll kind of be like this annual phenomenon. And on top of that, one epidemiologist, I'm blinking on his name, he says that he thinks after this latest Delta surge, that's when he thinks it's going to reach the endemic status. Talk through what that's going to look like for normal people who might not necessarily know what that means. Yeah. So I think there's a general consensus among epidemiologists that if, when and if we get out of the fall and winter, we should be pretty good to go in this spring. And that, so that said, without a variant that's, you know, escaping our vaccines. But what does that look like? It'll probably look very seasonal. Like the flu, right? It popping up at different time, you know, in the winter. What it'll also look like is we're going to have pockets of outbreaks. So for example, we're going to have an outbreak at a nursing facility or a school. These outbreaks aren't going to be statewide. Like they are right now. They're not going to be nationwide, but they will be pockets. And that's what it's going to look like. And we are going to be living with this thing. Hopefully we don't need a booster shot every year, maybe every couple of years, maybe just this third one and we're done. But it will be part of our lives. We've only eradicated one other disease in our lifetime in the human race and that's smallpox. And so this is going to be with us. We just need to figure out how to live with it and not have 650,000 people die in one year. And, you know, with that, we are creating treatments too. So, you know, like we have Tama Flu for the flu. They're working on a lot of treatments for like COVID viral treatments. And so this will get better. It's just we're in the weeds. We're in the thick of it right now. And it's hard to imagine life just with living with coronavirus. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing. You know, it seemed like for a while in spring, once vaccinations became available, when I got vaccinated, it kind of felt like the light was right there at the end of the tunnel and then Delta variant, you know, came along and then it's like, okay, how long are we going to be living with this? And I think the way that you described that makes sense. It's just a matter of like how intrusive it is in our lives.  It's not going to be as big of a threat. And so I keep that, you know, at the back of my mind, because, you know, it's really frustrating. I feel like I've been one of those people who tried to flatten the curve. I didn't go anywhere. It helps that, you know, I'm relatively agoraphobic as it is. But, you know, it'd be nice to not have this like fear in the back of your mind, not necessarily for myself because I'm vaccinated, but for my nieces and nephews who, you know, are under the age of 12. And I think, wow, this is something that I want to get rid of so they can have a normal future. So one last thing I wanted to ask you. Now, this is a seemingly really straightforward question, but I've heard so many different explanations. And so for viewers, when they hear, you know, this vaccine is 95% effective or efficacy has decreased to 85%. What exactly does that mean? Like, does this mean that if I encounter someone with COVID-19, I have an 85% statistical likelihood of not getting it? What does that actually mean in practice? Because we hear this all the time. And I think that mainstream media isn't doing a great job at informing people about what these numbers are. Yeah, efficacy is not that. It's not like how effective is the vaccine if you come in contact with someone and you're right, everyone's getting this wrong. What efficacy is is risk reduction. And so if there's 100 people that got COVID, right, if the vaccine's 90% efficacious, 90 of those people could have been prevented. And so it's a risk reduction. What we constantly figure out trying to find is that the vaccines continue to reduce our risk of COVID compared to the unvaccinated. When the vaccinated, or if ever, the risk of COVID among vaccinated equals the same as the risk among the unvaccinated, that just means the vaccines aren't working anymore and it's not efficacious at all. So we just need to make sure that really the efficacy is about over 50%. Once it starts getting under 50%, like we've started seeing in Israel, we start getting nervous and that's what's really informed the booster. Right. I don't know if that helps at all. Probably not. No, it's complicated, but it's nice to just have you here to set the record straight because I've heard a lot. And people, I think that we were a society where we read headlines and we don't necessarily look at the articles. So the headline is gonna be usually sensational is to grab the most eyeballs and that's not great at informing people if we don't actually dig a little bit deeper. So just to have you like clarify, that is very helpful. So I appreciate that. So before we go, can you please tell everyone what you do where we can find you and how we can support your great work? Yeah, of course. So I write a blog called your local epidemiologist. I do it. I have a day job as an epidemiologist. I have little kids, so I actually do it at night. And I also have a face. So the blog is on substack and you can subscribe to it for free. Science should always be free, but you can also donate. And then I also have a Facebook page where I literally just copy and paste my substack to the Facebook page because there's so much information on Facebook. And I'm also on Instagram, sometimes on Twitter. So yeah, you can really just Google me. You'll find me. Well, doctor, thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. This has been really illuminating. Hopefully we can touch bases in a couple of months because by then things might look completely different. Hopefully for the better. But yeah, it was really great talking to you. Thank you so much, doctor. Yeah, thanks for having me. This was fun. Well, folks, that is everything. Thank you all so much for tuning in. If you made it this far on the show, as usual, I'm not going to stop the show. We're not going to press that end record button without thanking all of the people who make this show possible. All of our Patreon, PayPal and YouTube members who help us not just to survive, but thrive. I truly, truly appreciate you all so much. A special thanks to my guests, Dr. Caitlin Jadalina, folks, we will continue to do our part, right?  So, I don't know what else to say. I will see you all next week. We'll leave it right there. I'm Mike Figueroa. This has been The Humanist Report. Take care, everyone.