We're Not Following the Science

in time where we need to be intellectually nimble. What does that mean. It means that when you receive information in does not mean that that is the only new information that is going to be coming your way. That as we learn more right, that information is then shared with you and your understanding then grows. What I think is happening right now is that we have always understood science to be very black and white. Right, either the sky is blue or it is not, water is wet

or it is not right. And where we are in this world of viruses is that scientists and doctors are studying and learning, and as they are learning, they are sharing. Are they sharing in the best fucking ways? Possible. Absolutely not. Are they making things a hell of a lot more

confusing then they need to be sure. Is racism and homophobia and transphobia guiding some of the ways that they are delving into this monkeypox situation one hundred percent, But that does not mean that then we shut off our receptors and stop taking in new knowledge because we don't like the way that it's coming out. And that's what

I see happening. And Jonathan and I will get into a deeper conversation with regard to what it is that we need to do in order to continue to keep ourselves and the people around us safe, because that's what this all gets back to. Right. I did not go to school to become a scientist. I do not have degrees right in virology. I do not understand how these different things are happening but seem to be happening all

at the same fucking time. But what I do know is that any bit of information that I am given that is different from the one before doesn't make me assume that the initial information that I received was false. It just means that now we have more information, right, And that's what I mean by being intellectually nimble. It's allowing ourselves to take in and then once that information change, it does not mean that what we were given was false. It means that it was true at that fucking time.

And I think that with viruses. If there's anything that we have learned over the past two and a half fucking years living with COVID, is that we should probably at this stage in our life expect the unexpected right

to keep ourselves safe from monkeypocks. Jonathan will tell us to do the similar things that we should have been doing before COVID, but apparently not all of us do, which is wash our hands, which is clean services, which is, you know, be really keen on the people that you're bringing into your homes, into your offices, into your spaces are healthy, right that if they have lesions or they are not feeling well, that this is not the time

to kind of fucking work through shit. Right. This is and I think that this is part of the problem, is the way that we've been socialized into believing that we are all machines. Right, goes back to what I said yesterday, and that we should just be powering through that when you're sick, No, you of course you don't stay home and get well. No, I must go into the office and spread my sickness all around so that people know exactly how fucking hard working and serious I am. Well.

What I would love is that if people would be just as serious about making money for other people, for corporations and for other entities as they would about their own goddamn health. And maybe if we've been socialized into believing that when we are unwell, that I don't need

to prove my wellness to you. I actually need to be at home getting well, then maybe we wouldn't be concerned with people spreading germs and viruses because they would have learned a long time ago that you should be taking care of yourself before you're taking care of all of these multiple tasks that are on your desk right now. That maybe that we are human beings and we should

be actually living instead of just surviving. And I think that that leads back into the conversation that I had yesterday about what does it mean to be thriving instead of just surviving? And I believe that this all connects back to our understanding of how we are dealing with all of these you know, hundred year fucking viruses that seem to be becoming the norm. Also weird note, But I want to bring this up before I bring on Jonathan,

which is this. The other day I was looking at National Geographics Instagram, which I follow because I love, you know, the Earth and animals and planets and this, that and the other thing. National Geographic had put up a picture of a mummy that has been defrosted. And by defrosted we mean this mummified animal that is not present in our earth as we know it now melted because the glacier melted. And now scientists get to discover and research

this spectacular and I am using air quotes discovery. What the fuck do you think is going to happen when these creatures that no longer walk the planet are quote

unquote defrosted because of climate change and global warning. I'm pretty sure that the viruses and the ship that was inside of them is also going to be defrosted, right, and that we are living inside of this potential of Jurassic Park that, as all the movies show, doesn't end well for us, right, So the fact that we have mummified creatures defrosting because of climate change should send alarm Bells not the word spectacular, which is what National Geographic

used in describing this new phenomenon of what we can discover, because I'm pretty sure, like me, y'all don't want to discover any more new shit at this point unless it is a way onto a different planet that hasn't been fucked up by human beings let yet, and we can survive on just saying. Coming up next, dear friends, my

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All right, so I am back from a little respite and vacation, Jonathan, and so excited to be back with you on woke f and I gotta start off with the news that I saw last night before I went to bed, which probably was the reason I needed to take magnesium in order to fall asleep, which is that we've had our first transmission of monkey pox from humans

to an animal, a dog in France. Two men who lived together contracted monkeypox in France, and you know they were quarantining, but we're with their dog and the dog, twelve days after they had tested positive for monkey pox,

started exhibiting these same lesions and lethargic behavior. Jonathan, take it away and tell me that I'm not supposed to freak out about this, and this is totally fine, because when you said that monkeypox could find another host outside of a monkey, and I wasn't thinking dog, so I was thinking maybe squirrel. Also, you know around the United States a lot, but not necessarily as prevalent in people's homes as say a dog. So talk to me. Yeah,

I mean, really, this is a big deal. I think, you know, to be honest, I think that the concern always was something like monkeypox has been that the minute it finds animal reservoirs, um, it's just going to be unstoppable. And I think a lot of concern for people like us who live in New York is that monkeypox will end up being you know, in rats and sewers. But I think the main idea is if it's circulating in

animal populations, you can't stop it. It's not like you're going to vaccinate you know, all the animals obviously, and so it's a huge deal. We knew, we knew it was coming probably. I would bet if it's a dog on Twitter, there are many other animals who have it. We just haven't heard about it because the people aren't the animals aren't tweeting about it. Um so so so I think this is a huge deal. I mean, all roads point back to we need to get people vaccinated.

We need to get many, many many more people vaccinated, because if something like this is going to become endemic and also mutating and living in nature, then the only thing we can do as humans is is to vaccinate people. And I've been honestly fighting real frustration. I don't even know who am I supposed to get angry at. I mean, but we have really blown this right. We had. This is the calm before the storm period of the monkeypox era.

And again, if people are going to if it's just circulating in animals and then back and forth between humans and animals, it's going to be a big deal. Now, there are plenty of other illnesses throughout history that have acted in this same way. And what we do as humans is we unlike animals, we have scientists who can then make vaccines who can then protect us. So then it's not that big of a deal. And the fact that there's been such an unconstable delay lag with this

monkey pox. I don't know, You tell me who do I get mad at? Right? I mean, I think that the Biden administration obviously has a lot on its hands. Yeah, the world population is not trusting science and vaccines right now? Right man? I feel like this is going to be a big deal, and a really big deal, you know, in a couple of months, even more so, so I really want to unpack this because I think that you're asking the right question, like who are we supposed to

be mad at? And frankly, like we're just mad at everybody, right, Like, you know, we've been living in you know, the last you know, two years plus, just living in what seems like pure mayhem, right, And I don't know, is it the world population that no longer trusts science or is

it just is that is that unique to America? And I personally, you know, because I haven't traveled to Europe or outside of the United States in talking to people, but I'll tell you that when I was in Panama at the beginning of this year, everybody was wearing a mask. And it is an outdoor, you know country, It is a it is a tropical hot country. Everybody wearing a

mask and it was not like a problem. There were signs on all of the doors that said, don't enter into this place without a mask unless it was a

fully open air uh situation. And so you know that that for me unlike is it is it just you know Americans who who because of Donald Trump, because of the Republicans, and you know, since since the Tea Party haven't believed in science, you climate changes and real we have our you know, doctor, our scientists that are attached to Exxon and BP oil that are telling us that it's not you know, it's plastic straws that's causing that's not oil, right like so um, so that's number one.

And number two. You know, if monkey pox, unlike COVID, hasn't has been around, it just hasn't been in the United States or in Europe, but it has been in

nations in Africa. And once again the question that I have, Jonathan, is how much do you believe that racism and discrimination, whether it be against black people and people of color as well as queer people, that has played into the lack of significant intel and instruction from the CDC and the who, because if I'm going to be angry at anybody, it's the fact that these pandemics, multiple viruses show us just how fucking racist and discriminatory medicine the entire medical

community actually is, which people of color and gay people have known since AIDS. Well, where should I start? Wherever you'd like, I just want to go to Panama. First of all. That sounds a lot better. It's lovely, and I'll see a couple of things about that. I mean, obviously many many provocative points in that question, and certainly we don't need monkeypox to teach us that lesson. I mean, look at look at the response to COVID right when

things were spreading in Africa. You know, a great strategy would have been to help Africa developed vaccines or to think we're all connected in a global community, but also in our own country, we had, you know, government agencies who were actively suppressing data about COVID deaths among black populations. We knew that COVID was signing a sign of a structural problem, and we didn't fix the structural inequities on

and on and on and on. So I don't think we need monkeypox to tell us that now I would say it's a little complicated with monkeypox in my personal opinion. And the reason I say that is just because they're probably fifty illnesses or a zillion illnesses circulating right now that we're never going to talk about because they're limited. They're things like that. I mean, certainly we need more global aid in a way, but I mean there's still

tons of zeka out there. There's some new illness that's infected thirty eight people in China that came from some other weird ass animal and stuff like that, and so I would just say that, you know, it's really when it gets to this, when it gets to something that crosses from Africa to hear, that's when we have the

conversation we certainly need much more global health. I certainly think that's true, But I would also say that, you know, I mean it gif back to that question of kind of who to be mad at, who we mad at for monkeypox in particular. I mean, I do think that our system has also really had its hands full right now, and I do, want to be honest, feel like the Biden administration really has dropped the ball, even though it's

I've obviously got a lot on its plate. But I do feel like the Biden administration has dropped the ball in terms of prevention planning. I mean, we should, just, to be frank, we should have much more vaccine right now than we do now. The other thing about monkeypox, since it's been around for a long time, is that the vaccine technologies we have are pretty effective. It's not like MR and A vaccines where we're starting from scratch, and so getting more people vaccinated is going to be

really really key here. The problem is, as we talked about last week or two weeks ago, there's only one company that makes the vaccine right now, and so that that really has to change. But I don't know, I feel like this is a really complicated problem, and I feel like there was a lot of ball dropping. And

I certainly think global racism is an issue. But I mean, if you would asked me a year ago whether the ten biggest or one hundred biggest infectious disease threats facing Africa, monkey box wouldn't have been on my top one hundred list in a way, And so it's either I get it. I just feel like, you know, here's the thing, We're

not learning any fucking thing right like this. This is what gets my anger to like a level that I want more people to be at that level of anger, which is that we've had two plus years in COVID and we've learned not a goddamn thing, and I'm tired

of it. Either being the disruption of politics and the concern that if the Biden administration were to have raised a flag with regard to monkey pots, than their concern is that Republicans would have turned around and said, look at them being hysterical and wanting to trap you in

your homes and blah blah blah. And so by virtue of once again deciding that we're going that their reaction to Republicans is more important than being responsible with the whole host of citizens that actually, there are seventy five percent of the population that will listen to fucking doctors and believe the Biden administration and what they are saying.

There's twenty five percent of the population that doesn't care. Right, But you're being concerned and controlled by the twenty five percent that doesn't care because you're worried about how this is going to play in mid terms. And what I'm saying is that like absent politics and absent the politics of racism and homophobia, we would be in a different place.

Because I'm wondering how long it's going to take for the production act to go into play from this administration in order to develop more vax scene in the way that they did for COVID, but the Trump administration waited until four hundred thousand people were dead in order to do that, Well, first you need to go on vacation. More like, I love this, this, this is awesome. Let

me just say two things about that. If I can streamline my own thoughts, which are because I mega for me, it's like this is this feels just like everything all over again, because it is now, I will say something.

I don't know anything. I have no idea about the inner workings, but I can see how going just to play Devil's advocate very slightly, I can see how going to the mat on monkey pocks was maybe not a strategy they wanted to embrace, not because of mistrust of science, but because there are no vaccines and so scaring the

crap out of people for something that'ure. So in other words, I would if in other words, I think it would just been much different if they had if they had one hundred million vaccines, then they could have said monkey pox is not just to sexually transmit disease. It's going to spread in daycare, it's going to spread in college.

It's spreads in laundry, and also, here's our treatment. But I guess, I guess, And again I have no idea, But I could see somebody thinking, what do we get out of scaring people about this if we have no solution except for don't use laundry and don't go to the bathhouse and stuff like that. So I can just see I can see that being a hard It's not

just about the midterms. It's like raising a problem that you don't have an immediate solution for at that moment, given that everybody's in the middle of still of COVID and they're really going to need to get people vaccinated in the ball with these new boosters and stuff like that. So again I don't know if that's the case, when I wouldn't be surprised if that was, but I so I will push back on that. Just the theory not

necessarily with you. But the theory here is that let me not provide people with the most thoughtful information that we have the clearest information that we have at this very moment, while we continue to tell people that you need to be intellectually nimble because the more information that we know, the more that we are going to share it. But here is what we know right now, right which is A, B and C. That this thing functions more like smallpox spreads in a way that it isn't just

about sexually transmitted diseases or viruses. That if you are not cleaning surfaces and someone has open sours, if you are sharing up blankets and things that haven't gone through a considerable type of wash, if you were not quarantining like because I believe, at least initially that all of the strategies that we could use in order to keep ourselves safe were what we learned initially with COVID. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, clean surfaces, you know, and

all of these things. So if we had just said from the jump, here is something new that is scary, so all of the things that we had instituted with COVID, cleaning surfaces, washing things, things separately. But again, then what you're doing is just layering, layering the care that is needed on top of the information that has had that you have at this time. I don't believe that the CDC or the wahhow did that? Now? I there, I completely agree with you for sure. I completely agree with you.

There's just an information vacuum right now. And the CDC in fact, feels like to me, it's going backwards, like all this new stuff about oh, you don't have to quarantine are bad, like doing that now before the crap we're about to go through in the fall. So I completely agree with you there that it seems like there's an information vacuum. And I don't, for the life of me understand why they don't just do a weekly press conference with the experts or something like that from the

White House. I mean, it makes no sense. And so in that resent, I mean, in that regard, I completely agree with you, Like, let's find three or four trusted voices in sign, let's make this a weekly event. Let's have it be like the news that people want to turn into. I mean, hell, Trump did that while he was hawking you know, life drink, Lysol and stuff like that and so um our, Clorox or whatever, and so I think the Biden administration really hasn't done that. And

to me, I completely agree with you. I said in the beginning, I'm frustrated with the Bid administration, and I do think that the knowledge vacuum is huge. And the reason that it's huge is because not only are they not the megaphone for this, which they should be, but

then they create an opening. I don't know if you watched it this morning, but Governor de Santist from Florida had a press conference because this maybe happened when you're gone, but they're going to have soldiers teach kids in Florida that have no teacher training, no degree, no anything like that. So they're third graders in Florida are going to be

learning like how do you field strip or rabbit? And like, you know, how do you patch a a wound and stuff like that, not like math or science or literature or things like that. So he had a press conference this morning and the entire thing was a diatribe against masks and vaccines and science and you know, the woke agenda and all this kind of stuff, which we should market, you know, we should we should get on that. So anyway, my point is we've created a knowledge vacuum, right that

there needs to be a megaphone for science. Right now, that's not just regular Biden press conferences, but actually is let's the public ask the scientists the questions. Let's you know, have school kids one week ask their questions, stuff like that. Like, I just feel like, you know, we should have been promoting science beyond just um, you know, you know, the Biden press conferences are totally fine. They're you know, people, we know, former people we know from media running those

press conferences. They're very well done. But I would but I would say that there needs to be a public forum for science that the Biden administration, of my opinions, should have created. And without that, you're just leaving the door open for this crazy crap like what happened in Florida, which is somebody can get up there and link having untrained soldiers teach third grade to the woke agenda that's

trying to get people to work. I mean, look, look, this is this is going to be a push for parents. You want your kids to be fucking idiots, then by all means, you know, like keep voting for people like Ronda Santists. You believe that education is nothing other than having a body in front of your kid and playing babysitter in the third fucking grade. You don't want them to be competitive? Like there where is the pushback? That's the pushback, right, Like, because this isn't going to happen

to people in New York. It's not going to happen to people in California. And so when you start to converge, all you have to do is make the case to me, Right now, what do what do Republicans want a permanent underclass? And who are they hoping that permanent underclass is going to be in order to continue along with their capitalistic, fascist agenda, People of color? But what is going to happen actually is that it's going to be poor white people who are going to also be a part of

the underclass. Right because ninety percent of people in this country attend public education, attend public schools, right, So I

don't understand. You're right, there needed to be a regular science form, and there should be one, and there should be a regular press conference because all the things that we can say about Cuomo and what he did in New York, I sat down in front of that press conference every single day, every single day that he gave a press conference for COVID I sat down in front of the television because we did not have a president of the United States that gave a fuck, right, So

the world was watching his press conferences every day on COVID and what we were doing and where we were, and it was a calming force. Yeah, I think it's you can be creative about it. You know, you can bring in kids from PS ninety nine one day, you can bring in different experts, you can do different topics. I mean, just make it. Make it a go to thing that is seemingly a source of kind of unbiased information,

even though everything is political. But again, it's just that in that vacuum, it's just it's just created such an open space for um for everything else. So I just think that that's I think that that's UM. I think that that's a really major, major, major issue. Where do you let me say, let me just say I think that I think that monkeypox is an illustration of that. Right, And again, part of the point is the knowledge is evolving, So just say, hey, look, here's what we know this week.

Come back next week. We'll tell you what we learned next week. You know what I mean. It's not like you have to have the answer to every single thing. Um, But I don't think this has been done well. And again I agree with you about knowledge for sure, for sure, but they also should have had more vaccines. They should

have seen this coming. Yeah. So my last question for you though, because I will tell you that the feedback that I get, Jonathan from our weekly talks is the fact that the woka F audience is so grateful because all of the things that you have warned us about, all of the things that you have recommended, have actually happened, and people have take your recommendations and they take them

seriously because they're not getting it anywhere else. So, you know, barring the fact that we don't know everything about what is happening with monkeypox, tell folks what you recommend in terms of how they are now keeping themselves safe with the knowledge that we have at this moment. Well, Number one is to get a vaccine appointment. I can pretty much guarantee you that they're going to open this up beyond just high risk gaymend pretty soon. Here. I don't

have any inside information. I'm just saying the way this thing is spreading, just vaccinating gaym end is not going to work. And so that if you're in New York or other places, there are vaccine appointments that are opening up, and I would, I mean, I would recommend try to get a vaccine appointment for sure. I also think that,

as we're saying here, monkeypox is not like COVID. It's not floating in the air for the most part, for the most part, and so you can be much safer by becoming much more religious like we were in the beginning of COVID, with surfaces, and so I think surface protection is important. I mean, you know me, I'm a I'm a fatalist, right, but I bought a bunch of rubber cloves. Again, even though it already donated all my rubber gloves, I couldn't help myself. So stuff like that.

It's just basic kind of protections. But again, people should know that this is not for them. I mean, if somebody has active monkeypox and and it's in there, you know, inside of them, and then they sneeze, it could go airborne. But it's not an airborne virus, and so you can protect yourself with cleanliness and protection for the most part. But it's again it's going to take a level of attention.

So I would say The other really important point is to hang in there because hopefully we're not going to have this problem next by the winter or next spring, so there will certainly be an f vaccines going forward. It's just that right now we got caught with our proverbial pants proverbially down, and so really it's hanging in

there right now is important too, Doctor Jonathan Matzel. As always, we appreciate you your advice, your recommendations, and your lifeheartedness through these increasingly dark times that we continue to be maneuvering through. Never a dull moment. Do I do want to talk about I mean, I was born on a military base. My dad was in the Air Force. This is no knock on military people or families or anything, but they're opening up teaching to soldiers and their spouses

without any training or degree or anything like that. So I do want to talk about, like what I agree with your point. I think it's really important. I want to highlight a Stephen Thrasher has this great book, Viral Underclass that just came out that talks about how we need like an educated poor people to do the labor that's not being done by education, by immigration, and I think this is a perfect example of it. I totally agree. Who's the who's the author Viral Underclass, Yes, Stephen Thrasher.

And there's an excellent forward. So the author of Dying of Whiteness wrote a forward to that book, which is love it. Thank you, Jonathan. We appreciate you. Okay, take it. That is it for me today. Folks on woke a f as always. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.