Biden's Report Card

the President's State of the Union. What's funny about that is that usually people from your own party don't offer rebuttals, but we have a member of the Progressive Caucus, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus offering their rebuttals to what Biden is going to say. And here's the thing, Um, I will give fuller and more detail if you're if you follow me on Twitter and all of those things, you will have seen that. But here's what I will

say about the State of the Union. I was racking my brain because always, you know, the day of the State of the Union, everyone offers their hot takes, myself included. People tweet out them. They'll say the state of the Union is and then allow their followers in the comments to fill in the blank. And here's what I tweeted. Instead not offering, you know, to hear necessarily from other folks about their thoughts because I'm grappling with my own.

I mean, the point, you know, if we if we want to be real friends, the point of the State of the Union is to offer a kind of report card for the American people from that president, to say, these are the things that we have done, these are the things that we are working on. And I got to be honest with you, the State of the Union is not fuck be strong. And I really wish that we had a president who had the courage to stand

up and tell the fucking truth. And I think that what gets me really pissed off about politics in general these days. And you know, let's just be real. Politicians are notorious for the lies that they tell, for the hope that they spread, and then you know the concrete policies that they do not offer, because once they get into the job, then they tell you that the job is just too hard for them to get things done that they told you on the campaign trail that they

were going to do. Not all politicians are like that, but a lot of them are. And so here's what we know to be true. We know that the Biden Harris administration took over and essentially are playing janitors right to the absolute fucking cesspool mess that Donald Trump left behind. But here's the other thing that we know to be true. They decided really not to hold the past administration accountable

for the fucking cesspool mess that they left. Joe Biden had the opportunity right to choose a US Attorney general right that had actual teeth, that had an actual spine, that was going to do what needed to be done, because that was the conviction, not only just to restore our thoughts in institutions right and in systems and our faith in them, but to show the American people that when you do wrong by us, regardless of if you are a regular normal citizen walking on the street or

the president of the fucking United States, that you're going to be held accountable for that. So they failed in that regard. Right, then they come in and they tell us, yes, we are going to get vaccines, and yes they did roll that out, but they rolled it out and they did a shit job doing it, which is difficult to do. So let me give you my two be sure difficult to do when you had the former president politicize right

every aspect of a global health pandemic. So I'm not saying that it was an easy lift, but what I'm saying is that you can't shoot yourself in the foot. You're already starting the race behind. And somehow Democrats always manage to when they get the baton, to throw it fucking behind them, right, Like that's what they are doing. And so what I tweeted in my thoughts about the state of the Union, this is what I said. I said, the state of the Union is over four hundred voter suppression,

voter suppression bills. I don't say gay bill in Florida, anti transgender bills in Texas and nineteen other states, vigilante anti abortion laws in Texas. Thousands still dying each day of COVID and unrelenting racism and anti blackness. I mean, folks, when you think about just the last couple of months in terms of headlines, like we are in March, right,

So I'm saying, couple of months, Let go to fucking January. January, we recognized the one year anniversary of the direction, and yet we still have active members of Congress who we know participated in that insurrection, whether by giving floor plans,

giving money, giving access, and they're still there. This President has said really nothing, really tough talk on oh insurrection and what it means to be a patriot, but then gets up at the prayer breakfast and refers to Mitch McConnell as his good friend, right, who is an honorable man. So every time that Joe Biden gets a little bit gets a little bit of gully into him, he fucking takes ten steps backwards. So I don't know how he's going to stand up before the American people and tell

us that all is okay. The fucking dow Jones fell off another motherfucking cliff, right, as we are headed into day seven of Putin's war in the Ukraine, and to boot on top of all that, we are seeing all of the terrible coverage of people losing their homes and fleeing. What are we seeing on top of that anti fucking blackness?

So not only not only do you get to black person in the Ukraine, whether you are a black American student right or from an African nation, but what we are getting reports of, right are people being told all blacks off the bus, all blacks to the back of the line. So I ask you, what is this administration saying to their fellow members of the EU that this

is something that we will not tolerate. That let's not make matters fucking worse, right, that the people that are fleeing are deserving of safety just as well as their white counterparts that are fleeing along fucking side them. Like, why is it that regardless of where black people in this diaspora are, they're always told to get to the back of the bus or better yet, get the fuck off.

You know, it is really difficult for me to go along with the get along right now, which is the constant refrain that we need to just unite as Democrats behind our president. And here's the thing, folks, I'm united behind people, right, not a person, but people who recognize how fucked up this country is and is going to actually call it out. And I don't know who that is, but it's not Joe Biden, right. Joe Biden, if folks remember, was not my first, second, third, or fourth choice for president.

He was my fifth. I swallowed that pill because I figured that we needed a stabilizing figure. But when Joe Biden came in, I honestly thought that the worst was

behind us. And that was me being naive, right, all of us being naive, thinking that the only work that we had to do was to get rid of Donald Trump and then we could begin the slow progression back to normal, because the assumption that I made was that our democracy was going to be reinforced by serious guardrails, right like a new voting rights bill, right like fortifying Roe v. Wade, which, by the way, on Monday, Joe fucking Mansion voted against us even having debate on it,

and was the sole Democrat decide with Republicans. So people keep saying like, oh, we need Joe Mansion. Tell me what for, because I've never seen more of a Republican than that man. You're voting against women having the ability to get the reproductive healthcare services that they need, knowing good goddamn well that Republicans set in the Supreme Court by June will strip it away, and you don't even

want to have fucking debate on that. And instead of this president opening the doors to the White House to try and beg and plead with Cinema and with fucking Mansion, maybe you should have used your platform, your time, your air time, to be calling these motherfuckers out. There are times in our political lives where you have to call people out and then decide who you are actually calling in.

Joe Mansion is not the one to call in. Joe Mansion and Kirsten Cinema's records are bullshit, right when you hold them against the rest of the Democratic Party. But of course what we have is that instead of calling out the white people who are obstructionists to our progress, what this Democratic Party is doing already eight months ahead of midtime at midterms is calling out the progressives who have been carrying the water for Biden's agenda. This is

why you have rashided to live giving a response tonight. Now, again, this is being recorded before, so I don't know what she's going to say, but my assumption, my assumption is that she's going to talk about how the progressive in the House had been doing the most, passing the most bills, only for them to go to the Senate and to die, only for the senators like Joe Mansion and Kursten Cinema

to be negotiating on our fucking backs. Right, So I hope that one of them tells the fucking truth tonight in terms of what is happening in America, Like you know, Here's here's a little anecdotal thing. Right. The reality, right, it is this, we have an entire party that bet everything on following the science right and saying that we're going to follow the science with COVID, whatever the doctors say,

whatever the scientists say, We're going to do that. And then as the calendar year changed, right, so did everybody's fucking tune. My mother right, who sat by right, watched every press conference, didn't take our eyes off at MSNBC says I'm no longer listening to the CDC or the president, right, Like, I'm gonna mind my own damn business and wear my mask and wash my hands and do what I need

to do to keep myself safe. Later in the show, today, I will speak with doctor Cameron Webb, who is returning guests to woke f and is a senior White House policy adviser for COVID equity, and I will ask him, so, what do you say to the people that for the past thirteen months of this administration, but the past two plus years have been doing the quote unquote right thing, and now the CDC is telling them take your masks off, right, Like we don't need to show vaccination cards, everything is down.

All is well, so you will listen to what doctor Cameron Webb says. Coming up next, our friend, doctor Jonathan Metzel, is going to be testifying today in front of the committee in the House to talk about the mental health issues that we are not addressing as it pertains to the collective trauma that we have experienced over the past two years. How suicides are through the roof, not just for teens, but for everyone across the board, and what are we doing about that? Folks. You know, the state

of our union, as I said, is not strong. Our union is actually hobbling on. You know, I don't even know if it was a stool, it'd be a three legged stool, right, It is hobbling. We are hollowed out, and there is no signs of anyone recognizing how important, how urgent this time is. If Joe Biden stands before the American people and says all is well and wants to talk to me about the economy, I'm gonna fucking scream.

I'm gonna fucking scream instead of talking about the fascist war that Republicans are waging in our classrooms right in our courts, and talking about that don't give me rose colored glasses when when I take them off, all I see is a nightmare. The American people deserve the truth after all that we've been through. We deserve the truth, and we deserve a leader that has enough faith in us to not bullshit us. And I'm just wondering who

that is going to be. Coming up next, dear friends, my conversation with our friend and in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel and doctor Cameron Webb. Folks, I am very happy to bring it to you today, our friend, doctor Jonathan Metzel in house, a doctor who is standing outside of an airport. That's how dedicated he is to woke a f because he's on his way to Washington, DC

to testify before Congress. M Jonathan, thank you so much for making the time before you get on air, before you get in the air, tell us about the testimony that you're going to give tomorrow and why it's so important. Well, thank you. It's of course I would never miss. This is our weekly therapy, so I would never miss this conversation. I've seen outside the Nashville airport. There's a gentleman next

to me smoking a really nice looking stogie. He's saying hi, everybody there he is so so everything is everything is great.

It's nice here, but but so so we're having a big hearing tomorrow for the Houseways and Means Committee, which will be today for when this broadcastings, and the theme is they're doing a two part series on mental health and mental illness in America during the pandemic, and the theme tomorrow is addiction, suicide, and depression and how those have been going up really over the past three years,

not surprisingly. And so my testimony really will be about you know, I'm a psychiatrist, right, so they want to know what to do about it. But I mean, the message I'm going to say is that we should just step back and think about wide mental illness is important in this moment anyway, which is not just about oh, here's a circumscribed group of people who have mental illness and there's them and there's us, which is maybe what

we used to think. But that the pandemic and that you know, reckoning with racism we've had and so many of the other moments of our people we've had I have made us really realized that we're all vulnerable as a species in a way that we're all, we're all a little bit or a lot mentally old right now, and so addressing the crisis of mental illness is really a way of thinking about how we can repair our country right now, and that in addition to individual treatments,

we really need to be thinking like what structural ways can we come together to heal during I mean, oh my god, a moment, it's even more stressful. I mean every week they just turned up the volume on us. And so, I mean last week was nothing compared to even today. And so I think the hearing will be what can we do to heal? And what is mental

health at a time like this? You know, one of the things that we've been talking about, and I've been so grateful for you, and I don't I think that it has been missing from the mainstream media discourse is about mental health, that those people who were already had mental health issues, that how they had been exacerbated during this time, how depression and anxiety and all of these

things had been exacerbated. But then for those people, and I'm myself included, who have you know, not have not been medicated, but have been in therapy for five years. My own therapist has told me that you know that her numbers in terms of her clients that she's seeing has risen over this time. What do you think is the thing that we are missing as a collective. And I like the fact that you said that us versus them, like, oh, it's these people over there that have a problem as

opposed to something that is rising nationwide. Well, that's a great question. That's really at the heart of all of this, I think. I mean, first of all, we should recognize that the pandemic and everything that's happened over the past couple of years have been a stress accelerator on par

with nothing we've really ever seen. I mean, social isolation, despair, anxiety, fear of death, addiction, all these things, you know, they all I mean, if you look at psychiatric textbooks from before the pandemic, people will say, you know, don't spend time by yourself, and fear of you know, fear of immortality is a link to anxiety and PTSD like and in a way every you can just go through the checklist of every stressor for every psychiatric illness and they're

just floating in the air. And so I think part of the issue is for me, we haven't had a national reckoning, which is what it meant to what it's meant to go through a pandemic as a country. I mean, we all gone through something really really deep and really stressful, and instead of having some kind of conversation about trying to understand other people's experience, everybody feels like they've gone

through it alone or with their tribe. And so part of what I'm advocating for is actually having a national referendum on what mental health means at a time like this,

because we really haven't had that. And if you think about it, I mean, we haven't had any kind of we haven't had any kind of town hall at least, you know, not even with the you know, with the present, but we haven't had a town hall, let's say, with you know, a bunch of doctors like yourself, to talk about the complexities of this moment, to talk about how even you know, the anxiety that many of us feel with the new regulations that are just being rolled out,

particularly in New York, right where you and I have been, and they are saying, oh, well, we don't need vaccination cards, we don't need masks, we don't need this, and we don't need that and I don't think that we're talking about the effects of what it was a to adapt to the measures that were put in place to supposedly, you know, uplift the safety of the public, but then now being removed or how we flip flop back and forth. And the stress is that that's how that has occurred

there and so much of that is internalized. Also, I think that's part of the point that everybody feels this uncertainty, anger, um and and we kind of internalize it and then we lash out or something. Just the intensity of our emotions are so are so isolating, and there's there's so um you know, there's it's so psychological, but there's no

there's no way of talking about it. It's not just feeling anger, feeling despair and then and then either internalizing through addiction or despair or externalizing um by by anger or lashing out. I'm because the nice man on, the nice man on one of the one of the things Jonathan two that has been coming up. And I don't if this is again something that you've talked about, um, you know, with your students in different spaces and places

that they're going to be in. But work is changing right the way that your bosses and deal with mental health. There are a lot more people and I don't know if that's by virtue of you know, gen Z and millennials, but really transforming how work views mental health. People need are asking for mental health days and not being met with you know, what is that or what you know? Why do you need it? Or what have you like

it's being given? So can you talk a little bit about how those shifts are happening that you may also have noticed as it pertains to work and mental health. Well, you know me, I'm a structuralist, right, So the main point I'm going to make when I speak at Congress tomorrow is that we have to create structures that accommodate the kinds of anxiety that we're experience right now, and also build bridges between people so that people feel like

they're in this together. And so, um, you know what I was saying is, in addition to individual treatment, we need to make therapy more accessible, we need to make addiction treatment more accessible, and we need more money for crisis hotlines and see US hot hotlines. All those things are true, but at the same time, we also have

to think about what kind of structures. Can we build work structures, health structures that can make people feel like they're part of a team and not going out and a loan which I think has been such an important and really devastating aspect here, which is not just the mental health crisis, but how it's tied to a crisis of isolation and so um, you know the Also I can tweet out because it'll the public record tomorrow my written testimony, but I but I basically show I basically

show how um we've you know, we have the I mean, like I'll give you one example, the Affordable Care Act. When people got health insurance in their neighborhoods, it didn't just affect their own access to healthcare, they also felt much more connected to civic engagement to their neighbors. That had all of these effects of people feeling like they were they were had a safety net that connected them

to other people and healthcare. Health in terrances is one example of the kinds of the different kinds of social infrastructure we can build that again not only accommodate mental home illness symptoms, but also think about, you know, think about how how people are, how people are connected and can feel supported Yeah, I think that that's right, and I think that it's important. I mean, I'm grateful for the fact that this hearing is even happening, right, that

these numbers are not being overlooked. We've we've talked about them on here, you know, with teens and the and the anxiety and the stresses and attempted suicides being at

an all time high. You know, we've talked about and have seen, you know, on headlines and in the news that like a lot has changed, right, And I think that there is this to go back to normal, but not but recognizing that, you know, wouldn't you say, Jonathan, that we are all living through collective trauma and so how do you go back to quote unquote normal when this traumas has been a part of our lives for the last three years. Yeah, I mean, and it's and

the trauma is leading. I mean, just think about I you know, I think about how different you are, I am than we were three years ago. Just the thought that we could catch an airborne pathogen and get really sick, or that somebody close to us could do it. I mean, you're living and I just keep thinking, like like the

early studies of post traumatic stress disorder. For example, they would study airline fighter pilots in Vietnam and the idea was basically, if you if you thought you were going to die by flying sorties for ten hours, you had a ten percent chance of gating PTSC, and if you flew forty hours, you had a forty percent chance of

getting PTSC. And so basically the assumption was if you ever thought your mortality is at risk, that that was a hyper stress event that would lead to a sense of I think, and then think about during the pandemic, like every time you walk outside and open your mouth you could catch a deadly illness or something like going

to the grocery store. Any yeah, yeah, yeah, And so we're living with a kind of collective trauma, collective hyper vigilance, a collective just fight or flight response that is really almost unparalleled. Really it's certainly in our lifetimes in a particular way. And then you put on top of it all the political issues that are happening, you know, war and tribalization and polarization, and so I just think it's

a moment. I mean, I it's funny. I would never think I would be the person who would say this three years ago. But it's a moment to really think what structures do we have to build to promote collective healing. What is some of the pushback that you're prepared for.

I mean, I know that you're you know, it's not not supposed to be a combative hearing, but I'm certain that there will be you know, people members probably honestly of both part at this point, that are just like, well, you know, COVID is done, and we're rolling out all of these things, and you know, people just need to get over it. What will be your response to the kind of get over it, let's move on, you know,

things will go back to normal mentality. I mean, I study guns, right, so I'm getting ready for some pushback, right And you know, if you can't ask me about suicide without me talking about my research on guns and suicide. You know, the biggest risk factor for a gun suicide to our number one overwhelming to spare social crisis anxiety, which we're feeling, and having a gun in a home. And so we know that millions of guns have been sold over the course of the pandemic into homes that

didn't have guns before. And so what we're doing is we're adding, we're adding a vector, we're adding a pathogen. And so really, even as we say we support the second, what's our plan for promoting safety when there are all these guns in these homes that that become risk factors

for harming yourself or partner violence, things like that. So we've kind of spread the vector without really spreading a safety plan, and so that I mean, if we're talking to talk about suicide, it's kind of like, what's our plan for what's our plan for gun suicide? Because I don't think more guns stop more gun suicide. More guns are risk factor for more guns suicide. So I'm sure I'll get some pushback from that from from that, you know, people on the committee on actually on both sides, who

are strong support of gun rights. But I think, you know, if we're thinking about mental health, the point is not to penalize everybody. That's to balance, um, you know, individual rights with with with public safety, and so I don't think we have to be done about it. So I think certainly guns will be one issue. Um And then of course building communal infrastructure just takes resources, right, you know,

building healthcare networks. So I guess the question is the tension about infrastructure is really one about resources and should we you know, should we fund the government to do that? Should we fund industry? Honestly, I don't care. I just think we need more industry. I think we need more infrastructure right now that it supports people because you know,

another thing we have even talked about is wealth and balance. Right, many people made out really well during the pandemic, and many people are fell into into the seed of despair, and so you know, again, I just think these are these are hard issues and they tie into real, real political heart potatoes right now. And the last question for you, because I know that you have to run, um, you know, what are your hopes for how this how this hearing it lands right, and what are your hopes for the

conversations that it will um continue following this initial hearing. Well, I'll send the links so we can tweet it out tomorrow. It's going to be I think on c SPAN, but I'll send you I'll send all the information. But I very I feel very encouraged by the fact that we're

having this hearing at all. This is the second in a series of hearings about about mental health and the pandemic and I hope we just amplify these messages and really start thinking not just about what how can we treat mental almost but what structures do we need in place to promote to promote promote public health, but mental health.

I think, I think mental health is really something we really need to focus on, and hopefully it's something I mean, look, what's happening over the past two weeks, like people people work together who we never imagine good work together before in the face of common cause, and hopefully mental health it becomes another one of those issues. I hope that it does. Jonathan, and I you know, I'm so excited one that you are one of the people that are

that are speaking before the committee. But I'm you know, I'm really hopeful that by having these conversations that once again we normalize mental health in a way, particularly during these heightened times of trauma. I mean, we didn't even get to touch on what is happening in the Ukraine, what is happening, you know, in in Ethiopia, what's happening in these places, and just by virtue of watching it

from here, how it is affecting all of us. So I hope that we will continue that conversation next week, dear friend, So good luck um and you know, and we will share the link when you send it along with this episode. We appreciate you. THANKI all right, folks, I am very happy to welcome back to wok F doctor Cameron Webb, who is Senior White House Policy Advisor for COVID equity for the Biden administration. Doctor Cameron, you don't join us. What will air tomorrow a couple of

hours before the President's State of the Union. What can you tell us about what President Biden is going to offer with regard to where we are with COVID. We are experiencing a lot of guideline changes that came out by the CDC, a lot of vaccination and mass changes that we are seeing m state by state in my state of New York, which led the way in terms of how we were going to use mitigation efforts. So

what can you tell us about where we are right now? Well, you know, I think the President, you know, tonight, in the State of the Union, he's going to speak to the arc of this pandemic over the last thirteen months, over the course of the Biden Harris administration thus far and in the tremendous progress that we've made and acknowledging that, but also acknowledging the tools that we've built up to

fight this pandemic. We have more tools than ever before, from the masks, the high quality masks that are available, to testing home testing that you can do within thirty minutes, to the therapeutics you have with you, the monoclone antibodies in the the oral intelvirals that are critical to keeping people out of the hospital, keeping folks from dying, and then finally now two fully FDA approved vaccines that are highly effective, highly safe, and have been saving well over

a million lives. At this point in time, I think thinking about all the tools that we have and how we are applying those in this moment. And so the President's going to speak to that, He's going to talk about how even with all of that, we can't get complacent. We can't, you know, think about these tools or think about the fact that cases and hospitalizations and depths are coming down from this omicroncert over the last couple of months and say the job's done. The job's not done.

And what's critical is people continue to use and leverage those tools as appropriate in their community. To keep making progress, and if you see that things are moving in the wrong direction, make sure that we're ready to use those tools again because we've learned how to apply them, We've learned how to get the greatest benefit out of them, and that's how we're going to save lives. I think the President is going to speak to where we are

and also where we're heading. So let me ask you this because I am one of those people that have a lot of anxiety. I have a lot of anxiety every time that we have guidelines that come out that shift things, that tell us, now, you know, we don't need to wear masks indoors, and we're going to have

children start not to mask at schools. What do you say to people who, for this entire pandemic, not just during the course of the Biden Harris administration, but the entire pandemic, that have been doing the quote unquote right thing, that have been following all the guidelines and now have a deep sense of anxiety and concern about the mitigation efforts being rolled back. Well, you know a couple of things.

I go back to an old phrase in the black community that when white America gets a cold, black America gets pneumonia. I think about the disproportionate impact this pandemic has had since the very beginning. So when you talk about that anxiety or those concerns, that that's shared across the community because of how disproportionately Black Americans have been

hit by this pandemic. You know, just today in Virginia, the mask requirement was rolled back in schools, and my ten year old daughter could not sleep last night because she was worried about going to school today and kids not wearing masks. That's despite having two parents who are physicians who've explained this science, who've explained to her how her continuing to wear her K and ninety five mask

is going to help really keep her safe. But she's worried, And I think that that comes from from a place. It comes from having family members who've had COVID, It comes from from having parents who are on the front line lines and worrying about what this pandemic, with this disease has done. So the first thing I tell you is that just because public health, local, state, or federal entity tells you to take off your mask, where you can take off your mask, doesn't mean you have to.

And for me, personally, I'll continue to wear masks in public spaces as long as I continue to see cases and hospitalizations in my community to create that cause for concern, and I look to public health officials to give me a sense of what those levels of concern are. But at the same time, I'm always going to use an abundance of caution because what's at stake is my kids and their safety and their well being. It's my parents

and their well being. I want to do everything I can to stay safe, so I give that encouragement just to say, if you take additional mitigation measures to stay safe, that's okay. And I think that a lot of people are going to continue to do that. I think the CDC guidance does nothing to discourage people from doing that. But I think that we have to keep in mind there's a countervailing opinion. There are a lot of people who say, I am so overmask I want nothing to

do with masks. Unfortunately, it's because of how it's been politicized. Right, Masks in and of themselves are a political statement, but they've become that. I think that just making sure that people recognize this is a moment of less transmission, lower hospitalizations,

fewer deaths. If there were a moment in the last several months where you can feel a little bit more confident that there's a largely immunized population and lower transmission, this might be a reasonable moment to take a break from masks. But keep in mind there are people with disabilities,

keep in mind their immuno compromise folks. Keep in mind there are folks who are anxious or worried or have a higher level of concern because of what they've seen in their family and their community, and many of us are going to continue to wear masks. We can both coexist, but again, we all have to be pulling in the same direction. If the dynamics change, can I get I want to ask a question too with regard to the patterns that we have seen. Right, so, initially we saw alpha,

the alpha variant of COVID. Then what was it? I would say, what eight months to a year, we then saw delta and then quickly Amicron followed that, what is the thought process of where we are with the patterns that we've seen, with there being new variants that come within six to eight months of each other, and taking these measures. Now, yeah, you know, I think that we're not at a point where you can say we get

new variants every six months. Right. What we know is that there are dozens hundreds of different variants that are created by this virus every time it replicates. Where there's replication, there's the opportunity for mistakes in that replication that can create new variants if it creates a survival advantage for the virus. The thing to keep in mind is there was a lot of transmission around the world in folks

who haven't been immunized against COVID nineteen. There are more folks who are vaccinating, more folks who are immunized, more folks who had natural immunity, and so there's less viral transmission than there were at certainly their points. So I don't want to create the expectation you're going to see new variants every six months, but I do think it's reasonable to think that there will be more variants in

the future. I think where we are now is that we've got a little bit of experience with dealing with variants. We've got a little bit of experience of saying here's how you surge resources to different communities. So we don't see spikes like we've seen in the past. In the past, we have more tests available than we've ever had before. We have the ability to tell folks listen, when things are a little safer, we'll tell you can relax some

of those masks requirements. But when things are more dangerous, we're going to tell you put those masks back on. We want you to trust us and trust the scientific rigor behind both of those recommendations. So I think that you know where we are. Yes, we're going to continue to see threats, but I think people just need to stay really attuned to the messaging coming from public health

leaders and trust that its rooted in science. It's rooted in the interest of preventing spread, preventing hospitalizations, and preventing deaths. And if people buy into that notion, I think that it's going to help us as we move forward. Well, I know that you're not a psychiatrist, but I did want to touch upon the mental health aspects of the trauma that people have faced that we have as a collective, as a global citizens have faced with regard to COVID.

We've seen spikes and suicide attempts, spikes and you know, overdoses with drugs and alcoholism. You know, do you think that we are talking enough as a nation, not just about the physical effects of COVID and long COVID, but that we're also having a conversations as a country about the emotional effects and the mental health exhaustion around COVID. Well, you know, the short answer is no, we're not talking

enough about it. And you know, I lost a really close friend the suicide and the first year of the pandemic. My wife lost a really close friend and colleague to suicide in the first year of the pandemic. But that impact wasn't limited to just those early or days. It continues. The number of children who've lost guardians, lost parents, or grandparents that reverberates. That has a huge impact on families, has a huge impact on development, and even beyond that,

the increase in substance abuse that we're seeing. You mentioned suicides. We just know there's a huge impact that this has from a mental health standpoint. The good news is that I do know that's a huge emphasis within the Biden Harris administration. I do know that we have an entire agency within the Department of Health and Human Services called SAMSA and actually The director is an African American woman, Miriam Delphin Ritman, who's a PhD from Yale. She's phenomenal leader,

was leading in Connecticut before then. But she's taking a very equity focus lens to the mental health challenges that

we're seeing in the setting of the pandemic. And she and I have traveled to cities around the country together to talk about mental health in this kind of twandemic of mental health crises, and so I think we have to continue to have those conversations, continue to lift that up, continue to normalize it because this has been a collective trauma for our communities and it continues to be and so we just have to have that perspective as we befoward.

So finally, uh, doctor Webb, what are what are your what are your hopes as we you know, try to live in this new normal? Right the understanding that you know, while we're telling folks they can ease their mass uh pull you know, pull them down now that they can

ease their mitigations, but that threats still remain. So what do what do you what is your message to people that are are feel off balanced, feel imbalanced by the messaging that they've received because they still believe that that threat is ever present and looming, and they're just waiting for that breaking newsticker to come across. That's right, you know.

I think my hope is that ultimately, the way that people trust and engage with the public health experts in our country, it's a lot like the way they engage with the you know, the weather forecasters in their community. It's the reality that over the course of time, gonna have some moments that feel like hurricane season. You're gonna have some moments feel like a snowstorm, You're gonna have some moments that feel like a really sunny afternoon in July.

And the recommendations are going to be different at different points in time based on the prediction, based on the evidence that scientist is sharing with you. But you trust that individual to be an honest broker and tell you what you're going to have to prepare for, what tools you're going to have to have to navigate the environment that you're going into in July or September or December. And I think that's what my hope is, is that we can use moments like this to say, hey, the

temperature is getting a little bit better. Hey, the storm is calming down a little bit, and you can change what you're doing. If we get to that point of trust, If we can restore that dynamic of trust, I think that we have a chance to move forward really thoughtfully together with public health guidance rooted in science being our true north. That's really what my hope is, and I hope that just by communicating thoughtfully that that is our goal,

you take a step in that direction. Doctor Cameron Webbitt's always good to see you. Thank you so much for making the time to join Woke f and thank you for your continued work and effort not only with the entirety of the Abiden administration, but particularly adding a voice to the racial inequities that we have seen during the course of COVID nineteen. So we appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Take care folks, for your moment of woke wellness. You know, today I went

for about a little over a four mile walk. I had decided that I was going to go to bed right when I was tired. I find that we don't often peel ourselves away from the news from social media, particularly these days, as things just get grim. You know, remember when your parents or your caregivers used to set a bed time for you and say, all right, lights out, it's you know, it's seven o'clock, it's eight o'clock, depending

on what age you are. I think that in order for us to preserve our mental health get the rest that we need because we're also physically and emotionally exhausted, that we need to bring back the bedtime. We need to put ourselves to bed and start with deciding an hour before, right, because this is what all of the reports and science will say, an hour before you are actually ready to put your head on the pillow, put your phones on, do not disturb, log out of social

media for the day. Begin to quiet your mind at least an hour before you are ready to rest, so that you are beginning to send your body and your mind signals that the day is done. I have been My friends have been joking me, because friends, most days, I will be in bed by nine thirty ten o'clock at night, like I am done. There's no reason for me to stay up just to binge watch another episode

of blah blah blah, right, like I need. What I recognize is that I need my strength, and in order to have my strength and to have my health, I need to have rest. And so I've begun my own process of logging myself out of things and then beginning, you know, to have a nighttime ritual. How I'm putting myself to bed as an adult, and I'm telling you I am sleeping better, i am waking earlier and feeling

like I can do more. And when I need to during the day, I rest right because I'm still fortunate enough to work from home right and make my schedule that I can also allow my body to tell me what it needs instead of me telling my body what it needs. So try, friends, a nighttime wine down ritual, and if you have one, tell us in the comment sections what you do to begin your wine down so that you can all be a little less jittery when we awake in the morning. That, friends, was your woke

moment of wellness. Stay well and stay woke as fuck. That is it for me today, folks, on this Woke Wednesday. As always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.