COVID Hasn't Gone Away

gone and which it is not. And today Jonathan and I get into a really real honest conversation about sounding the alarm with regard to where we are headed this winter. You know, we just all came off of the holiday, many of us mixing, mingling, holiday day parties, family gatherings, you know, all of these things. And the fact is that I have received and you will hear this in the interview coming up next, multiple texts from friends in

different areas of the country who now have COVID. Some of them it is mild, for others not so much. Other people within my own family have been battling against a really bad cold that kind of mirrors RSV but hasn't been diagnosed as such. And during all of this,

I have been taking zinc multiple times a day. I've been taking theraflu pills because while I was home for the holidays, both my mother and my sister got sick, and you know, trying to remember that we do, in fact have all of the tools to keep ourselves well, one of them being wearing a fucking mask, which like many Americans, I have lapsed on only really wearing it when I'm on public transportation, but not when I'm going into indoor spaces and not taking the same precautions that

I was. And so for me, the fact that several people around me have gotten ill have prompted me to go and get my COVID booster, to go and get my flu shot, all of which I did at the end of last week. So take this message with you to your friends, take it to heart, take it to your family. But the reality is that we are headed into what Jonathan has said, and what I believe as well, is going to be a really rough health season in

this first quarter of the new year. Why is that, Well, we will go into specifics, but basically, China has relinquished their zero COVID policy after mass protests, and you know, folks will say, well, now you see what's happened. Well, their zero COVID policy was pretty much not putting into consideration the needs, the emotional concern and how it was

wearing on the citizens of that country. Because of that, however, you now have a billion people plus that are going to be in circulation with one another that haven't been for the last three years. And we know that COVID readily mutates when it has guess what, more host bodies in order to mutate with. So now we've just added a billion people back into circulation in a really huge way, meaning travel bands have been lifted, you know, people being able to go out and dine in all of those things.

And we know again the world is not flat, you know, outside of what some QAnon idiots may believe. And we are more interconnected, more globally related than we have ever been before. So what do I mean by all of that? Brace yourselves. Things are going to get real different, real soon. I'm not gonna say real bad, I'm gonna say real different. So, if you, like me, ran out of mass over the holiday season, I suggest that you get on Amazon, get on wherever. If you buy them locally and stock up

on the good medical mass. I suggest that you stock up on the hand sanitizers, that maybe the next couple of trips that you make to the grocery store and to the CVS, that you go ahead and you buy those home rapid tests that you have, you know, a couple on supply for yourselves and for your family, because on top of COVID, we have RSV, we have the flu.

And again, folks, the boosters, the vaccines, they are not one hundred percent, but what they are helping us to do is keep people out of intensive care units, keep people off of ventilators, keep people as well as possible to be able to ride out sickness at home. So if you have not gotten your shots, please please please take this episode as the alarm that you need to

go off. At the beginning of this year, as we are, you know, people are taking up resolutions, and as I said, I'm not really into the resolutions, I'm into intention setting. Wellness is at the top of my list in so many different ways, and so put your wellness, your health on the top of your list because we are going to need it as we go into the first quarter of this new year. Coming up next my first conversation with our dear dear friend, doctor Jonathan Metzo. Well Jonathan,

Happy New Year. It is officially twenty twenty three. We have changed the calendar, and you know, while it is a signifier for some of of a fresh start, we know that I believe that the beginning of the year is very much a review of where we came from and where we think that we are going to be headed. So I want to start off today with you, Jonathan,

with saying a couple of things. One, folks that I know we're hit with significant illness at the end of at the end of the year, my mother, my sister, some semblance of they didn't have the flu, wasn't COVID potentially RSV, maybe just a really bad cold. Folks that I know have COVID have gotten it fairly bad. And while all of this is happening because we have largely let go of masks, we have largely decided that COVID

is no longer a thing. We're also watching places like China which have now lifted their COVID restrictions in a lot of ways. And now the United States is putting on and other countries putting on restrictions or guidelines about how folks coming from China need to enter into the country.

So I just you know, as we're moving and we are, you know, in the beginning basically of winter, what are your thoughts on how we ended the year with talking about public health, recognizing that hospitalizations for young people, old people are going up because of this triple pandemic that we are in COVID, RSV, and flu, and how we need to be talking about public health and what we need to still be paying attention to in this new year. Well,

happy new year everybody. You know, I have to say I'm about to say something I haven't said on this show in a while, but COVID's going to be a big deal. It's going to actually be a big deal coming up for us. And I know everybody's like, we've moved on, we're not paying attention all that kind of stuff. But you know, just think about think about cave people out in the out in the you know, in their day and they're like, we're done with snephylopteris. You know,

we're sick of living in caves. We want to go outside to help with this new this new dinosaur, Torontosaurus Rex we're just going to go out, and then they got eaten by the t rex. And in a way, what we're seeing is a really terrifying I think, even though nobody's willing to admit it, new combination of virus. I mean, this new, this new covid is immune escaping

in a way that we haven't seen before. And at the same time, we've got like people flying u from China, you know who are It's it's just it's it's really just a disaster that's happening, and it's going to get worse. And so I don't want to be like Debbie Downer again. I love puppies, I love um other galo PNEs all that shit. Um, but I would say that we're in

for some COVID stuff coming up. And the other thing I worry about, again not to be a total downer, is we're getting caught with our proverbial pants and because and the reason I'm saying that is because at least the last time we had a wave like the wave we're about to have right now, we had been preparing

for it. You know, we had rapid tests build up in our stock pile, and we've been working on a new vaccine, and we've been funding prevention and we had testing, and I understand, like you know, people are saying that that's not a good way to address a pandemic, that we should just ignore it. And I'll go on. But as we've said a million times on the show, the

virus sets the narrative. We don't set the narrative. And I think the virus, unfortunately, is about to set the narrative in a way that we've not been preparing for. And so it's a it's an interesting time. You know. Hopefully Kevin McCarthy can do something to stop all this. But that was funny, But I would just say, you know, it's just our our divisions are great, our preparedness is not great, and the virus is preparing another attack right now, and so I just I'm concerned, you know, And I

want to say this to Jonathan Um. I often thank you, right UM for you know, just continuing to join each

and every week over these last couple of years. And over the holiday you might have seen it, maybe you didn't, but there was a tweet that went out, uh, and then a couple of like uh reply tweets thanking you and thanking us for continuing to have a conversation about COVID when it seems that everywhere else UM has has stopped, and that continuing that the only place UM, that that folks are receiving any information about what to expect, how to prepare UM is on this show. Oh my god,

that's great. Yeah, And so I genuinely want to say, you know, folks can sometimes feel like we're beating a dead horse, like you know, can't you just let GOVID already? But the fact of the matter is UM is no UM. And and and so what happened and folks, and I'll and I'll share this is I got UM two text messages, oh, during the holiday week between Christmas and New Year's from friends in different regions of the country who came down with COVID. One was, you know, super mild, you know,

just like some sinus issues, fuzzy. The other one is over a hundred degree fever, chills, body aches, as if they had never received the vaccine to begin with. And I got to tell you that it was a reminder to me, and thank god I did it. I went out, I got my booster and I got my flu shot. Yeah,

because I had become fairly lapsed in. You know, even though we're doing this, having this conversation, I'm being transparent that I had become fairly lapsed in how I was moving and taking care of my own health and the health of people around me. And then when I got those two separate messages in the same week, I said, boom, I'm going to CVS. And I did, and I got the shots and I walked out no side I mean, I didn't have any side effects, as not to say

that other people won't. But the reality is is that let us be your clarion call. Let us be you know, the canary in the coal mine that is saying to you that if you have yet to go get you're a booster, your you know, your flu shot. This is not the time to wait. I mean I I will say a couple of things. I I've gotten two boosters, and the second one, my second booster, I got this morning. So I'm in the same boat, and we're busy and other things are happening. But I would just say, now

is the time to be careful. Now that the caveat here, of course is uh, you know, we should have been updating this booster, you know, like we should we should we We've we've defunded the science, We've defunded the preparedness things like the medications. You know, we we we did great, honestly, relatively speaking, science wise, compared to how it could have been. But we've just the loss and faith of public health

has led to a defunding of science. And so the tools that we have at our disposal right now are not as good as the tools we had a year ago. And I just I mean, the Republicans are controlling Congress now, and that Congress controls the budget, which controls funding for science, and they're gonna defund all that stuff, and private foundations just cannot make up for that kind of funding. And so I don't know, it's it's it's an interesting time.

It's it's an intense time. I mean, certainly everybody seems to have agreed to live with the virus, but I think the still the same old ways of protecting yourself. If you're in a crowded place, like I'm going to be on a plane on Friday, you can bet your petuity I'm going to be having wearing my N ninety five masks, even if I'm the only person on the plane wearing it. So at times when you feel crowded on safe bad airflow, you know, do what you can

to protect yourself. But again, I think these next two months are going to be very important, not just for the urgent time of these two months, but also for the long COVID that's going to come out out of the infections that are going to happen. Now at the

end of the year. In New York, where we both are, did not issue a mandate, but a more so of a directive that stated that you know, let's begin to mask indoors again, that it is a good idea because you have this triple pandemic that is happening, and why are people even if it is just a quote unquote bad cold, why is that happening? And it didn't happen last year because last year at this time we were all heavily masking. Last year at this time, we were

all heavily testing. Those things have now gone out the window. And what happens is our immune systems you tell me of them, because you're the doctor, that our immune systems are not as um robust as they were to kind of these other particles, other germs that are in the air because we had kind of kept ourselves at a distance and separate from other people. And the masking really does work obviously in terms of keeping us healthy and safe.

And so can you can you talk about I guess those shifts and changes and how we you know, maybe some ideas about how we prepare our immune systems to um to kind of to fight against us on top of right, in addition to folks, uh not an andor, but in addition to getting boosted and getting the flu shot, what are some things that we can be doing to

boost our immune systems. Well, the scary thing about this XBB one point five whatever, the new one, is that it looks very immune evasive, and so it's not like, oh u, I had COVID six months ago and therefore I'm in good shape. Like this new this new variant is very immune evasive, and so it's a trade off, right, But the best thing you can do is to try to not get it right for right now until we know more a bit more about it. And that means masking.

Masking blocks the virus coming into your body, and so that's kind of the best thing we got. Now. It's a trade off, right, because as you're suggesting people who masked. I mean, I have colleagues who massed for years, which I kind of did too, And you do have to then go kind of retrain your immune system. It's like almost like you're you're like a new bee. Yeah, And so I don't think that masking all the time is ever gon. We're never going to go back to that.

We're never going to go back to mandates. But I would say that, I would just say that, Um, it's I don't want to be like two alarmist or anything like that, but I would just say the best thing we have right now in these two months is masking. Now, it's hard. Masking is not a realistic opportunity. It's it's not realistic when nobody else is masking. It just actually makes it really hard to mask, not just because of your self conscious but because I don't know people. It's

not functionally realistic. So, um, but I would just say that masking is what we got right now. So get a good mask That's that's really the most important thing. Get a booster if you can. The booster is not going to totally get this variant, but it'll give you some anti bodies, which will help you. But but again, it's just it's just this weird moment of watching these

It's like watching a slow mom car wreck. Really is really what it feels like, because here's the virus coming, and here's America dividing and fracturing and not figuring it out and all these kinds of things, and it's a it's just a weird time. It's a weird time. Yeah. And I you know, and again, you know, to remind folks that like, this is your health, right, this is

your wellness. And so you know, yesterday, as everybody was, you know, coming back into town and you know, going to the grocery store and all of these things, I saw more more people in my neighborhood in mass in the grocery store than I've seen in the last six months. Yeah. And whether or not it was because they had a cold and they didn't want to give it to other people or they're now starting to, you know, sense that a lot of people around them, as as I have,

are getting sick and just don't want it. And I think that to Jonathan's point, which is that yes, the boosters are not going to like turn you into a superhero that you have a full body shield. But what it will do is that it will help your ability to fight off whatever it is that comes into your system. The mask is to prevent anything from coming into your system.

The boosters and the vaccines are that if something does come into your systems, that you're not going to be down for the count or you know or at a at the extreme need to go to be hospitalized. That's the point here is that if we take these you know, thoughtful steps and measures, then we can prevent severe illness and severe severe illness to Jonathan's point also includes law from it. Yes, so tell us again, Jonathan, just to remind folks, because I want us to be their alarm.

What are some of the things that I've been happening with folks who have long COVID. Well, it's just it's just for it's you're tired, and you feel like you have the flu and last for nine months or something. And so I just think that I've got colleagues whose kids have pairicardial disease, hard you know, inflammation, some people have lung disease, exhaustion, um and and unfortunately, we were

just learning a lot more about long COVID. I think what we think about it now is very different than than what people thought about it, you know, even a couple of months ago. And I think what we're seeing is that there's a new strain of thought about long COVID, that it's actually the residual effect of the actual virus. It's not it's not like oh, your bodies whatever, that actually there's still residual virus in your in your system

and so um. And so we're still learning about it. Um. But but again it's hard because the vaccine may or may not help with long COVID, depending on kind of I mean, there's still there's still a bunch of uncertainty. And again, and this is understandable, we've only been in

this fight three years. But I would say that what we've done, which is the biggest mistake, is really stopped all the development of our knowledge, right we I mean, the current vivalent vaccine that we have is the current valent vaccine that we have is is the result of like a lot of science about what the virus looked

like two years ago. And but we have the technology to continually update update the vaccine, update our treatments, and I know that work is kind of happening in a way, but it's not happening the way it would be if we were federally funding more research, which was what we're not doing. Yeah, and you know, and what I will say, and I think it was recently on MSNBC a doctor was on Jonathan and she said that, you know, there are still thousands of people that are being hospitalized in

hundreds that are dying every day from COVID. And while mainstream media doesn't still have the ticker on that we all got kind of used to in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one that outlined what was happening in each and every state, it doesn't mean that it isn't happening.

And so the point of this message for our first recording together is to remind people that COVID has not gone away, that because we have this triple pandemic with COVID, the flu and RSV, that we need to be doing everything that we can, which includes masking indoors and in places that are crowded. If you're outdoors as well, but

it's crowded to be taking care of yourself. And look, it's fucking winter and most of the places right like, why are you going out anyway, so you know, be mindful of those get togethers, and be mindful of how you are taking care of yourself and the folks around you, and maybe begin to slowly institute the things that we were doing before, which is washing your hands, which is you know, making sure that you're wearing a mask and crowded spaces. Maybe not going to the large you know,

uh indoor event. And if you are going, please get boosted, Please do the things that unnecessary to keep yourself safe, and advocate for continual support. I mean, we're about to get a barrage where the entire COVID apparatus is going to be seen as a a China plot and a government plot and an oppression plot. And so the politics of COVID, unfortunately are also mutating, and so and so we are I just everybody be careful, but also realize that this is a system issue also. So last thing, Jonathan,

for you is what are you seeing? Again? Largely the United States seemed to over the last couple of years lagged behind in about three weeks to a month behind other countries. That we're giving us some mirror into what to expect. And so is there anything that you've been following internationally over the last month, the past month, that is giving providing some intel and foresight into where we're headed. I mean China, un least the orc army of COVID

on us. The zero COVID policy was great idea for a while there, just the virus outlasted the policy. And we know that the virus mutates as it circulates, and so all of a sudden got a billion more circulators and and and also a complete clampdown on information about what's happening in China, and so I think it's going to be super concerning, and it's just infuriating after how

this stupid thing all started in the first place. Um that that there's still a clampdown on science and there's no transparency and so nobody, nobody really knows really what's happening in China right now in terms of how bad it is. UM. But but I would say it's not like there's any one country that has a corners the market now on creating mutant mutations. Member. We used to think like there's the Italy version and the you know, Shawnee's breakfast Bar version and whatever. UM and mutations are

happening in our own neighborhoods now. But I would just say that adding a billion more circulators to the pool um um, you know, it probably was going to happen in China anyway, because that it was not a sustainable policy to lock down everybody forever. But I would say that it's just going to increase the mutation. And unfortunately the mutations. People are probably noticing a pattern. They never get better. It's not no, they don't. They actually get worse.

Like I wanted, as you know in the beginning, a mutation that grew that cured male pattern baldness or give you a four hour you know whatever, or that kind of stuff, but we don't. We don't have the laughing gas mutation. They're all worse and so and so we'll have to see what happens here. And I unfortunately, I mean, there's so much other stuff to talk about, and I'm sure we'll talk about it, but this is a topic

that is just going to really require continued attention. So I'm glad to hear from your viewers that that people appreciate that, Jonathan. As always, we deeply appreciate you, your analysis, your insights, your jokes, and thank you for ringing the alarm for our first interview together for twenty twenty three and folks, as always, we will continue to keep our eyes open and inform you as we get information so that you can continue to keep yourselves healthy and safe.

Appreciate you Jonathan hanging there. Everybody. That is it for me today. Friends on Woke a f as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.