The End of Days

eighteen months. But here's the story, and this is according to the Denver Post, conservative radio host and pastor in Colorado has become the latest vocal opponent of COVID nineteen precautions to die of the virus. Yep, Bob ein art. If that's how you pronounce his name, I really don't care. Pastor of the Denver Bible Church, died on Monday, according to a Facebook post by his co host Fred Williams.

One Yard, whose Real Science Radio show, which is Real Science Radio show really railed against what is described as the quote imagine burden of COVID nineteen cases on hospitals, offered advice on treating the virus from the Bible and accused fake news outlets of exaggerating the severity of the virus, had opted against getting the vaccine, citing the nonsensical claim that the COVID nineteen vaccines rely on cells of aborted babies. So he's a fucking Oh, I'm sorry. He was a

fucking lunatic and an asshole and now he's dead. And I wonder, in all honesty what the members of his church think. Did they just not pray enough? Did they just not harass enough women who were seeking an abortion? Did they just not talk enough shit? Right? Did they not spread enough lies? Like? Is that the reason why he died? Or do they think that maybe his death

is a hoax as well? Do they think that maybe that Bob ein Yard is now somewhere looking over them from a secret pocket of heaven that is just for COVID deniers, right? Is he there? How do you justify, right at this stage, eighteen months into a pandemic where we finally have a life saving vaccine for where you have fucking kooks like this son of a bitch who then decides to spread lies to I want to say,

foolish people, people who just will believe anything. Somebody tells them as long as that person isn't a medical professional, as long as that person doesn't have any type of higher education degree, but as long as they are the best snake salesman and carry around a fucking Bible in their hands, and then that's what we're going to choose to what bet our lives on? Will he bet and he fucking lost? So I'm just curious. I'm curious what is happening with you folks at the Denver Bible Church

right Will you now all get vaccinated? Or will you just pray about it? I have no empathy for these people at all. I really don't, and I will tell you this. I know people who are not vaccinated right now. I do we all do. I know people who are not vaccinated, who wear masks, who social distant, who don't go out because they also have decided that they are going to take precautions to keep themselves safe in a way that works for them, and then also the people

around them, and they're getting tested regularly. I say, however, just get fucking vaccinated. And what is forcing some people that I know to do that are these federal mandates that are rolling out where they're saying that if you are working in a building, if you're going to work with kids, if you're a healthcare worker, you must be vaccinated.

Why people are flipping out about that, I have no idea, Because you wouldn't be able to go to school, go to the hospital, go to all of these places if in fact, you weren't vaccinated for the measles, polio, chicken pox, all of these things that we don't see flare ups of anymore. You know why, because a vaccine was created. I am at a point where, like most vaccinated Americans and most Americans with scents, which is only half of the country, am at a place where I no longer

want to feel like I am being held hostage. Now right now I can say, well, I'm in an okayish position, I guess because I live in a blue state with a blue governor who has put together mandates. And you know you're not going to be able to as the colder months come in New York, you won't be able to eat inside, go to the gym, go to the movies, go to theater, do pretty much anything that is indoors

without showing your New York Excelsior pass. You're a COVID card, you're a health pass, whatever it is that you're using to indicate that you are vaccinated. And because of the steps that the governor here is taking, it is forcing people who still found themselves to be vaccine hesitant to actually do something about it, right, because they're not going to be able to do much if you are not vaccinated and you are living in New York. And that's

the point it was, here's the thing. In the beginning, We're going to use masks, and we're going to say if you cannot enter into this business, you cannot enter into this transit, you cannot go on the subway, you cannot go on a bus if you are not wearing a mask. Well, now we've changed that and said, you know what, it's not enough to just wear a mask. No, now you need to be vaccinated. Why because it's fucking free.

But yet these stupid people want to spend one hundred two hundred upwards dollars in order to get fake vaccine cards because you're a fucking dummy. I swear to you when I tell you that I am losing and this is me having lost patience with these people. I think that you've tried to be nice. You've tried to meet people where they are, You've tried all of these things, and at this point, I don't give a fuck anymore.

If the bob I'm yards of the world don't want to take a vaccine and they're gonna drop dead of it by all means, I'm saying, speed up the process, Darwin, have them all go. I just don't want the people that I love and care about to be taken to hell with them, right, That's pretty much where I am at this point. Like you are holding your own life

in your hands and that of your community. But you see, the barrier between us and your fucking stupidity is the fact that I am vaccinated, right, And we'll get the booster when the boosters become available widely available to everybody, and we'll continue to follow the rules because you know what, I want to try and live as full of a life as possible in the midst of a global health pandemic. Because see, this is what we're all being forced to do, to adapt in ways that we should have never been

forced to adapt, right, And why is that? Because we have half of the population that wants to hold the other half hostage. They want to articulate, and they want to yell and scream and say, no, this is about freedom, this is about liberty. No it is not. No, it is not there's nothing to do with any of those things. And you know nothing about those words. Right. It is about your power. It is about your ability to wield power over other people. That's the only thing that they

give a fuck about. It is this similarly, right about people being able to walk into whether it's a concert or a school, and wield their ar fifteen and mow down a bunch of people, or walking with the freedom into a Starbucks with the fucking bazooka on your backs so that you can show what a threat and how big and bad you are. It's the same fucking bullish, bullshit mentality that these motherfuckers have with their anti masket.

Oh look at me, I'm gonna sit on a plane and eat a bag of Doritos and ha ha ha and spit everywhere, or like the fucking COVID Karen and that was in Nebraska that wanted to run people down in the grocery store and pretend that she was coughing and blah blah blah blah blah and saying, oh, it's my allergies. Well, now, bitch, you're out of a job. The thing that we need to start doing with these people is take off the goddamn kid gloves. They don't

deserve them. They are fucking adults. Take off the kid gloves and make them feel like they're being held hostage by the fucking truth and not the rest of us, because I, for one, am tired of it. Right, we should have been able to have some semblance of normal without having to watch spikes happen in each and every state.

People should be able to go to the hospital when they're feeling unwell with non COVID related illnesses and not have to be treated in the fucking lobby or in the parking lot because the beds are full of people that should have been vaccinated. I am out of space, and I am in a place where if you were to have me on anyone's TV and any kind of future, the hot shit that will come out of my mouth is going to be very real because I'm done. I'm done with the foe, Like, what is this the performance,

the pandemic performance that Republicans are doing. I'm done with the fucking Jim Jordan's of the World tweeting that in real America, COVID is done, bitch. In real America, COVID is all over the fucking maps. You look at where all the red states are red. They're red filled with blood. That's what they are red filled with, right because you are allowing your constituents to die because you think that that's the way that you're going to fucking own the Libs.

And you see Democrats sitting by warning again to say here's the carrot, here's the carrot. And what I'm saying is beat them over the fucking head with it. I am tired of playing nice. I am tired of looking to be the bigger person. And like doctor Jonathan Mexil will be coming up next on the show, will say, you know, we just had the recognition of the anniversary, twentieth anniversary of nine to eleven, and he says that that was a crisis that had a beginning, a middle,

and an end. It had a common enemy, whether imagined or real. Our patriotism was at an all time high. Whatever that means for you. I'm sure if you're a

Muslim American you feel a little differently. But the reality is is that for better or for worse, we were able to come together friends as always, you know that when it is Wednesday, I'm always excited, well, you know, I guess as excited as one can be about the end of days to talk with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan and Metsol who is back in Tennessee at

his university. Jonathan, do you feel like COVID has become the perfect political weapon for Republicans because it is something that does not happen in broad daylight, right, that people are dying behind closed doors that we are not. We

don't because of hippo laws and things. We don't have cameras that are going into hospitals that are that are by people's bedsides, so that we understand what the what the end really looks like, right, and what these healthcare workers are up against, like this is not you know, it's it's very interesting to me as I'm thinking about this that you know, we're a country that always wants to applaud the troops, right, but then when the troops come home and they're in need of care and services,

we do nothing for them. Right. They're they're left to beg in front of you know, in front of the in front of the veterans hospitals, right for basic needs to be met, But we want to applaud the troops and put out yellow ribbons. It's kind of the same way that I feel about our healthcare professionals. To your earlier point, we wanted to open up windows and applaud and put up signs and do all of the things that folks were doing around Europe and around places to

show our gratitude for these healthcare workers. But now we could care less. Now we harass them, Now we stop them. Now we track them, we tell them that we know where they live. Right, And I'm wondering, you know, is there anything at this point right that would allow for people to see this is not an illness that you want. This is not something that you want to roll the dice with. I mean, we're eighteen months in John, you and I have been talking about this for eighteen months. Well,

like you, I have ranged that. You know, there's plenty of other things I'd love to be talking about. I was on a flight yesterday and I flew and I sat next to somebody scientist from Iceland, and all of this is uncorroborated, but He was telling me that they're a roughly ninety seven percent vaccinated in Iceland right now, and they haven't had a death since May that they know of from COVID, and they've opened their doors to tourists.

People are coming back on tours photography, sight seeing nature or all these kind of things. But they have like a vibrant health infrastructure and people just kind of buy into it. And when people when people go to Iceland, for example, you've got to take a negative test, get a test right there. If you're negative, that's cool. If not, you've got a quarantine. Like there's a whole system, and that would be harder here. Of course, we have quite

a few more people than Iceland. But I would just say that being part of a functioning health system, it's not just about health systems or health workers like it kind of reduces the anxiety for everybody because everybody's kind of working together. We're paying the price not just for not having that kind of unity, we're having the paying the price for not investing in that infrastructure for decades.

I mean, we had a great opportunity with the Affordable Care Act, believe it or not, as it was first written to I mean, the Affordable cat wasn't just about Medicaid expansion and insurance. It was also about promoting community public health, building our public health infrastructure, rewarding communities for working together to improve their health outcomes, reducing the stress

on the healthcare system and on ers. We threw all that out the window, particularly under the Trump presidency, and now we're really paying the price because we don't have the infrastructure. And so it becomes a vicious cycle because, you know, the Republicans to cry all this liberty, but also the people in Red States don't have another backup option because their healthcare system has been destroyed, particularly by their leader's rejection of the ACA. I just, you know,

I imagine that this is what help is, right. It is It is a bunch of people having access to so much information and choosing something else. Right. It is people having access having means, you know, to life saving technologies and vaccines and just being like, yeah, no, my freedom is in how many people I can infect, how much harm I can cause before I lead this earth.

And I really this is our dystopian present, like it I never in a million years, given all that we've seen, all that we've been through, all that we know about this country and its patterns and its hypocrisy, would ever think that we would get to a place where we have a community of people that are actively trying to harm other people, that are actively deciding that you know, I'm not going to take a vaccine, but you can't get an abortion that harms no one, right, that harms

no one, that allows you to actually have a life. But I'm not going to wear a mask which could impede your ability to have a life, right like it, just like the where we are, just in psychological terms, Johnathan just feels crazy, right, And I you know, is there a way back from here? Or do we just go continue through this dark tunnel for however many years

and hope that eventually we see light again? Yeah? I mean, you know, I as you know, I'm a structuralist, and so my sense is that instead of trying to change people's minds or even their politics, you build infrastructure and structures that reward cooperation and disincentivize the kind of competition and tribalism that we have now. I think it's important to note that you couldn't pick a worse pathogen for

our political system almost than the coronavirus. Right, it's an airborne pathogen, so it reinforces all kinds of you know, fears of other people, of it reinforces tribalism, and so part of it is about that. Then you know, people who don't play along become risks, right the way that an open carry white guy in a Walmart is threatening to everybody else and that's where his quote unquote power comes from. It's the same thing with an anti masker, right, who gets on a plane and what we're a mask.

That person derives quote unquote power from the threat they pose to everybody else. And so um, you know, in a way, people become vectors for an ideology, right, for this ideology of racial resentment. And I think, I think in a way that's where we're at, is that this pathogen really is the perfect storm. And it also of course enhances equity, structural racism, all these factors are all made worse by I mean, it's shining a light on

us and it's also making things worse. So for me, it's kind of a question of like, how can we change the structures so that you know, again, I always think about the affordable charact, the affordable Charact ten years ago gave us an answer to this pandemic. Right. It told us that we're going to build public health infrastructure. We're going to keep people healthy, we're going to reduce the burden on ers. We're going to build community health

centers and hospitals in rural underserved areas. So there was a whole blueprint, like it or not in the Affordable Care Act, and what the Affordable Character would have done that would have set us up so much better, so much better for this pandemic because we would have had not just health infrastructure, but prevent prevention public health infrastructure, and instead we kind of watched largely Republicans destroy this thing and chip away at it, and so not only

did it not get to be what it was going to become, but it also made us so much more vulnerable for this moment. And so for me, I think, I don't I'm beyond trying to change anybody's mind, But how can we rebuild those kind of infrastructures that build, that build community health and prevention. That's it for today's Woke, a f daily podcast to hear more from today's show, including my full interview with doctor Jonathan Metzel. Support me on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash Woke AF Power

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