The Importance of Getting Boosted

I hope that you had a good holiday weekend. You know, folks, in thinking about just the next couple of months of this year, and you know, there are all of these memes that go around in September that are like, there are four months left of you know, twenty twenty three, and like what are you going to do with yourself? And there's always this pressure to somehow finish the year, you know, on top whatever that on top means for you.

And I'm really working these days to reformulate and reimagine what it means for me to be able to finish out a year or as in the Rashishana tradition, start a new year. And it isn't about how much you accomplish, how many things you've checked off, how productive you have been, how you know great you have performed. It's for me these days the question is how is my body feeling?

How is my mind feeling how is my spirit feeling and what success is looking like for me is being able to wake up each day and end each day with the sense of ease. Right. It doesn't mean that the day was easy. It doesn't mean that there weren't any obstacles that showed up. But it is about the nimbleness and the ability to kind of move in flow and be able to operate in a way that centers

peace and ease and joy. And you know, it used to be that when I was racing towards the end of the year, I wanted to be able to post on social and list off all of my accomplishments and look at me, aren't I hashtag badass? Hashtag hustler, hashtag you know, grinding? And I just don't have the energy for that shit anymore. I don't know about y'all, but

I really just don't. And maybe it is, you know, age, Maybe it is the fact that everywhere that you look, you know, people are losing their lives in the tens of thousands in an instant, in a blink of an eye, in one illness, in one you know, catastrophic climate disaster, in you know, a moment, and so oh, just this idea of racing towards something. I just don't know what the point of it is, right, except to feed into

this capitalistic, greedy beast that is never satiated. And the other day I posted this awful interview that Tim Grunner did, this billionaire Australian billionaire, basically talking about the fact that pain and suffering need to happen so that people understand who's in power, That it's not the workers, it's the employers,

and all of these things. And I'm just like, this world is filled with a lot of evil, a lot of bad people, and I don't want to stress myself out in a way that makes disease, right, disease, disease take hold of my mind, my body, and my spirit.

And so, you know, as we change seasons, and if you're listening to this and you're you know, in the northern hemisphere and we're you know, shifting seasons and things are getting cooler, I mean, I just use it as an opportunity to really begin to ground and connect with myself and kind of prepare right for those winter months. Who even knows will it actually be winter. We have no fucking idea, but I do know that mentally, I

don't want to end the year exhausted. I don't want to end the year, you know, feeling like I need to sleep for the month of December in order to work up the energy to even tackle twenty twenty four. And so I just encourage you as we are, you know, changing seasons this week and moving, you know, towards the end of this year, that you start to take real stock over how you were feeling. Ask yourself, how is

my spirit feeling? And if it isn't feeling good right, then what are some things that you can do to help aid in that? And if that means tuning out of the hate spin and you know, and tuning in to people who need your love and care and attention, whether that's a pet, a child, a plant, do so. Do so. But I want to encourage all of us to be checking in, you know, with ourselves, every day, every day, every week, because this is the only vessel we got. Coming up next, my conversation with our friend,

our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. Folks, you know that whenever we have the time and opportunity to speak with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, we are always pleased to do. So I want to bring it to everyone's attention right now that I'm certain that you've all received the alerts from the New York Times and other outlets that tell us that the vaccines, the latest boosters for COVID have been approved and are beginning to

be rolled out. And you know, I am somebody who believes in vaccines, believes in science, and will be getting uh the booster when it is available in my area, which should be by the end of this month. However, given this state of affairs of the United States and the division along you know, fishtistic lines and the Republican Party not believing in science, wanting to kill people, you know, a whole host of things, there are articles that are

coming out op eds urging people to get the vaccine. So, Jonathan, I want to start with you. You know, I now know why two, three, four, five people that have that either currently have COVID or getting over COVID, or just finished having COVID. And this is my mother is the same. She has known several people over the last two months that have all gotten COVID. We know that it's on

the rise. What are your thoughts about the booster, about education, around the booster, and the fact that the last time the booster came out, according to CDC reports, only twenty percent of Americans got them.

become available. And so a vaccine is never going to be like a perfect protection, right because even now we're seeing with COVID, the COVID is changing in a way, but the infrastructure of the vaccine itself is still exactly the same. And so we have so much evidence right now about the overarching safety of this vaccine, this vaccine framework, and I don't know, I mean, for me, what do

we do about disinformation right now? I mean, the good thing about this really, honestly is it's not like in other illnesses we need like smallpox or polio or things like that, we need like eighty percent of the people to have immunity or ninety percent or something like that, or else we won't have heard immunity. But with COVID, I feel like people who people who don't want to get the vaccine, don't get the vaccine, you're just going

to have a higher risk of more serious COVID. But the crazy thing is if you look on Twitter, everybody's like, I'm not going to get the mRNA vaccine because I'm waiting for the and then they'll say some vaccine that hasn't even been tested that we have no idea works or something like that, and so it's just it's a crazy world we're living in right now. We kind of keep living the same thing over and over and over. I'm going to be the first guy in line when

the vaccine comes out. I feel like the data is pretty clear that places that got the booster did better with health outcomes than places that didn't do the booster. The inexact science part of it isn't whether or not the vaccine works, whether it's safe or it's been tested on humans. That is a subtle debate. Honestly, the inexact science is is the thing that scientists did eight months ago. How well did they predict what's going to happen with

the COVID vaccine. The basic assumption is that we're going to be all on the chain member like that we had, like the alpha beta. The micron chain then was dominant, and so they're just betting that we're still going to be on the same chain, which hopefully is going to

be the case. I think early data is pretty encouraging that this vaccine is going to be protective against the boosters, and so I guess the only thing I can say is what I always say, which is I would urge people who want to stay safer than they would otherwise to go out and get the booster.

a second. Can you speak to this idea that, well, I got a shot and I got another shot, shouldn't I be good? Because she's expressly saying here that even though you may have been infected before and had COVID, even though you may have had these other boosters, that the protection decreases over time.

isn't changed. It's just the formulation that's changing. And so the idea that you're going to go out and test this exact formulation on people for five years before you get approval is idiotic because by that point it'll be another formulation of the illness. And so it's a kind of a cat and mouse game that we're playing I'm pretty optimistic that they got it right this time. But COVID changes continually and in ways that we don't know is it going to get more severe or less severe?

get in. And that is similarly with what she also writes doctor Mandy Collen in this New York Times op ed is this. From January to July twenty twenty three, eighty eight percent of deaths from COVID nineteen were among people who were sixty five years or older, those with certain underlying health conditions approximately seventy percent of American adults, and weakened immune systems also are greater risk for younger

and healthier adults. But then she said something that I think is really important that I want you to weigh in on she says, quote, what's more, anyone who gets infected with COVID can develop long COVID, and I don't want any American to experience that if it can be avoided. Jonathan talked to us about long COVID, which does not and did not and still continues to not receive the type of attention that it should.

so the science is the science takes time here. But again, there are correlates in everything we know. Right. People know that if you have chicken pox, the vus celivaster that you know, the virus, the the the chicken pox virus that's a herpes virus lives in your body. That's why people get shingles later in their life. They don't just catch shingles from the air. They get it because the herpes virus has been living in their in their body, and there's tons of other things that live in our body,

so it's not that foreign. It's just that again because this is so new and the knowledge base is evolving. And the reason I'm saying this is because there is I agree, a leap of faith here, right. I mean, you could get the virus even after you've had the vaccine. You could get long COVID, even if you have vaccine. We're still figuring it out. I still think overwhelmingly you're in a much, much, much safer place if you get

the if you get the booster. And the reason I say that with some edge is because look at what's happening in Florida, where the state is basically the state attorney general and the governor of the entire state are rejecting the vaccine. And so what I worry about are two things. Number one is that people are going to live in places where getting the vaccine isn't an option if they want it, right, getting a booster, We're beyond trying to talk people into it. That's just not going

to happen. But I think the issue is people who want it to be able to get it always and they can make their choice. And so a place like Florida where the Surgeon General is saying we're blocking this and we're not whatever, or we're not you know, distributing it or funding it, that to me is the real risks because they are going to be places like Florida where there are a lot of older people or you know, I.

family of coronaviruses. So there's technology we could be developing, but we defunded the expertise, right, and so Congress didn't pass the right kind of COVID funding to be able to let us do it. So part of the reason we're in a feedback loop about this is in part about the changing nature of the virus, but it's also because you might remember last year your COVID booster was free. That's not going to be the case this year. You need insurance or you're going to be paying out a

pocket for it. And that's because even though this is a public health emergency, we haven't funded the research adequately and we are not now funding the rollout adequately. And so it's bad because again we don't know. I mean, in the best of all worlds, COVID just becomes like the flu every year, which is lethal for people who were at risk, but not lethal every day. But COVID, as we've seen, also has the potential to mutate in

a way that can become much more lethal. And so I just feel like we're you know, this is a canary in a coal mine kind of moment. It's highlighting to us that we're not ready, We're not investing not just in people's attitudes, but investing in the infrastructure of science that needs to happen to really push this forward. I just I really think it's an alarm bell moment, honestly for.

really powerful around the world. But I can tell you that if there are places in the world where these new variants of COVID are extolling a huge price, and people would line up around the block for a week to get access to an MRRNA vaccine, And so the privilege of US rejecting this technology when it was something that many parts of the world would do anything for, because again, as you said, herd immunity doesn't last with COVID, right,

you actually need to keep getting it. And so there are many parts of the world where they don't have access to this, and what you see is much more endemic illness, not just COVID, but all other kinds of illnesses and so so yes, other parts of the world are doing a better job of this. I mean again, we've only had this booster now for a week, so we'll see what happens with other parts of the world. But the other issue is places where there aren't regular

all kinds of vaccines have much more endemic illness. And so it's not just about COVID. It's about smallpox and measles and mumps and rubella and all the other things that kids get vaccinated for. We're seeing not people not get those those those vaccines either, and then you're in a you're just not in a category with other Western countries at that point, you're going to in categories where there's a lot of endemic illness circulating. And so it's

not just about the covide vaccine. The rest of the world, at least our correlate nations do a much better job of all kinds of vaccines, and what they're going to have over time is less circulating all kinds of illness.

keep them, keep them stupid, and keep them enraged. And that seems to be the recipe that the right is using.

we've thought of at other points in time. Because I mean, there was a great segment on Fox News where all the people were coming out against the vaccine yesterday and then what's her name, that amazing liberal woman on Fox News said wait all you guys got got vaccinated, and they were all quiet. I mean, the elites are all getting vaccinated, but the lay people are becoming the cannon fodder. And so it's a trade off for power that people

are making. They're sacrificing themselves, and the question is are they going to bring us down with them?

in science and I believe in help. But I think that when you talk about the foot soldiers and the ones that you know are believing the lies that are being told by people who are healthy and will remain healthy, and even when they fall ill, have the means and have the kind of employment that they're able to call out right, Like they're talking down to these folks who you know, in many cases can't take the days off of work if they're feeling ill, can't take the days

off to care for themselves or their elderly families or family members or what have you. And so the idea that then they would turn around and they all have they are all vaccinated and healthy and well paid and have good insurance, and then tell other people who believe them not to get the vaccine. It's just like, are they flipping the bill at the end of the day.

and so you're paying the price. In that way, you're paying the price because there's more circulating pathogen of all kinds. And so I wish it was just that like they make their choice and they die for that, which they do. But it's also that we all pay the price because public health is a communal enterprise and when we defund that those networks, then we all pay the price. And I know you know what I just said.

like rebuilding infrastructure, rebuilding health education. So there'll be some news coming out of Nashville about you know, Nashville obviously is a blue bubble, but potentially turning the tide in red states about some of this health infrastructure stuff. So next week we talk about the mayor election that's happening here. But I just want people to note that there are some tides turning down here in the South, potentially depending on what happens with elections like these ones.