Winter of Our Discontent

find good in what is transpiring. To think that, you know, it was just a couple of weeks ago that we had Thanksgiving and folks were gathering again, and you know, oh my goodness, just to think, you know, a year ago we were on zoom Thanksgivings and we didn't know what was happening. And now we have a vaccine and we have boosters, and you know, believing that we were working our way back to some sense of normalcy within

three weeks from Thanksgiving. We are in such a different state of being, and the instability of it all, how quickly things are devolving with this new variant. We're seeing headlines once again of shows being canceled and games being canceled, and you know, if you were headed back into work, you've probably received emails about that being postponed, and there is just this gloom, this desperation, this anxiety that once again, it's like hello, darkness, my old friend, it is returning.

A couple of weeks ago, uh, maybe two weeks ago, at this point, I was getting ready to go to a holiday party, right because it seemed safe to be able to do that, you know, so long as you were putting together what you thought were safe COVID protocols. Everybody go and get a negative test and you know, and you know, show proof of vaccination, and then we could gather maybe still not in these large groups, but

at least in small ones. And I went to this you know, holiday gathering of roughly like twenty twenty five people, and you know, again it just it felt like, you know, slowly things were coming back to this sense of normal, or at least a new normal where we put protocols in place, but that we were able to gather once again. Days following that event, received a phone call was a

breakthrough infection. Everybody needs to go and get tested. Thankfully, at that time I was testing negative and still you know, right now testing negative, even though I have come into contact with yet not one, not two, but three people

who have had breakthrough infections. Right now, I am testing negative, but the sense of fear that I have just continues to build so much so that I am like, you know, I'm just trying to make at home for the holidays, Like I'm just trying to get there so that I can just go back into my original COVID pod with my parents, with my sister and just close out the world for the next couple of days, just to give my mind my heart some rest and reprieve. And I

know that you all are feeling the same way. It just feels like the pressure continues to mount. And you know, in my upcoming conversation with our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel, it's the last one on one that we will have of twenty twenty one. You know, he struggles to try and find some hope. But essentially what Jonathan offers is a really stark warning that the next four to six

weeks in America are going to be terrible. That you know, as I am broadcasting right now, the first reported death from the omicron variant has been reported, and has been reported in Texas. I think that the news has been making false statements when they say that the omicron variant is mild. I think that we have no idea and by using terminology like mild, what you are giving people

is a false sense of hope. We have no idea what the long terms effect, what the long term effect of alpha is, the long term effect of delta, or the long term effect of omicron. We have no idea why it is breaking around the vaccinations and the boosters, but we do know that those that have been vaccinated and boosted are less likely to show up on ventilators, are less likely to be clogging up our hospital systems.

But as I'm watching the numbers, the numbers in Tennessee and other Red states are in the double digits of their infection rates. Tennessee right now is at a seventeen point three percent infection rate that is higher than some

developed fucking nations. Right, And we have just developed this sense of anger and fear and resentment towards one another as this has all been transpiring because of right, because of our initial response that was hailed by the Trump administration and Republicans to turn this all into political folly for their own gain. Who cares if over eight hundred thousand Americans are dead because of them? Who cares if they had all of the pertinent information to keep us

safe at that time and then chose not to. No one is going to go to jail. No one is going to be charged, right. I'm just so tired these days of seeing white, wealthy, powerful people do such fucking harm, cause such devastation, and nothing happened to them. They just get new jobs and are in different positions to be able to do the same things over and over again. I tweeted this week that I think that Merrick Garland may be one of the most ineffectual and week United

States Attorney generals that we have ever seen. Given every bit of information from the insurrection to the coronavirus, he has done nothing. This Department of Justice has done nothing. Right. We continue to act as if you know, all of these deaths are just attributed to God's will, when in fact they are not. The political leaders that were in charge in twenty twenty failed us, and they knowingly failed us. Right, It wasn't oh my god, we have no idea what

we're doing. We're just trying to do the best that we can and people died. No, they received the information, they chose not to share it with the public. And not only did they not share it, It's not as if they were like, oh, we're just gonna zip our mouths. No, they did the complete and total opposite of what doctors and what scientists were telling them. And that put almost a million Americans at risk of death. Eight hundred thousand, folks.

I keep saying that before the end of the first quarter in twenty twenty two, a million Americans, more than any other nation, will have died. And we still have an entire news network telling people lies while they put together their own vaccine protocols, their own booster protocols. But what they're putting on air is a complete and total opposite. And I ask again, where's the FCC. Why aren't these

people being charged? Why aren't they being fined at the very least, why aren't there big blackout screens before every Fox anchor goes on that says this is for entertainment purposes only. This content you know is rated you know whatever you know, rated and rated f rated whatever for its lies, for its misguidance, for its misinformation, all of these things. It's like we can't even do the bare

fucking minimum to keep people safe. It isn't just enough to come up with the tools and the tactics if you're also not fighting against the continued misinformation that is responsible for all of these deaths. It is not enough to just say, oh, we need to come together without pointing the finger and letting people know who is responsible for where we are right now. Jonathan will say later in our interview that the lockdown measures that happened in

twenty twenty would be ineffectual now. And why is that Because Amicron is a lot more contagious than Alpha was. You see, when we were dealing with the og alpha COVID variant, right, you could be you needed to be in space with people for ten to fifteen minutes, right, which is why we said six feet of social distance, which is why we said wear a mask. Because there was less virus and it took longer for people to

be infected. Well, thanks to Republicans, thanks to their push back to science, thanks to their complete dismissiveness to facts, we got into a political war where they decided to side with a virus over the health and wellbeing of the public. So when we could have mitigated and or squashed COVID out with six feet of distance, with wearing masks, and with agreeing collectively to lock down for an extended period of time to wipe out the alpha. We didn't.

Then the delta shows up and guess what it was more contagious than the alpha version, that you needed less time to be in contact with people. And now omnicron and what is that saying that basically you could walk into your fucking hallway, you could walk out your front door, and there is so much virus in the air, and it is so so contagious that it is even more so contagious than the measles were. And the reality is this, we do not know the long terms effects of this virus.

What Jonathan will tell us is that it exists in your body. You're seeing seeing pictures. And I wish that they would have put this as PSAs and commercials in the same way that they handled smoking back in the nineteen nineties. Here's a lung free of COVID. Here's a lung with COVID. Here are some of the long terms effects of what we know to be true, which is brain fog, which is fatigue, right that you continue to get sick easier because your body is still fighting off

this virus. But we're not doing that. We're not taking this on and waging a campaign against those that are doing their fucking damned this to make sure COVID never leaves us. We are going into year two with a variant that is out of control, and what we know is that as quickly as Delta emerged, as quickly as amicronover emerged, that there is going to be another variant just waiting in the wings that is going to sweep

the globe as quickly as Amicron did. And that is what it's terrifying me is that I'm trying, right, We're all trying desperately to get to this holiday season so that we can just have a week of reprieve. But what is going to follow that week's long gathering with our family and with our friends is going to be

the winter of despair. I'm not telling you not to go, I'm not telling you not to have your family over, But what I am saying is send them rapid tests so that everyone can test before they come in the door. Will that mean that you're one hundred percent protected? No, but maybe it can give you some ease. The lines in New York are hours long to get tested. The other day when I went before the holiday party, I stood in line for two hours. I hadn't done that

since twenty twenty. And now people are standing in line once again, going on three, four five hours to get tested. Test results that were once coming back in a few hours are now taking days because the system is so fucking overwhelmed. I wish that I could offer to all of you where we were in this cycle that we're in, if we were at the beginning, the middle, close to the end. But with each new variant, with each news report, it just seems like we are doing Groundhogs Day here.

It's like that movie. It just keeps repeating like you're waking up or its Memento, and it's just like didn't this just happen? That we just keep reliving over and over and over again. The first death has been reported, it is not going to be the last. And my fear, right, my fear, is that what we are going to realize is that Omicron is not as quote unquote mild as people are saying that it is, that it just takes longer. I'm worried that's all. That's all I can say is

that I am worried. And you know what I am trying to do is I am trying to meditate more. I am trying to connect with friends and family, you know, just call texts, check in with people to see how they are doing. Because I am struggling to get through this week. You know, I really am. I am struggling at this point in time in using every single good tool that I've been using in my toolbox to just keep my spirits up. And it feels like nothing is enough right now. And so what I say to you

is this, give yourselves grace. If you are down, if you are depressed, if you are struggling to get out of bed, sleep longer. If you are depressed, try and reach out to somebody just to connect so that you don't feel so isolated in your sadness. If you're able, you know, get out and walk and stretch, take a long shower, soak in a tub, take considerable breaks from

the news. If you don't have to watch it, give yourself, you know, a timer and say I'm gonna watch this program, or I'm gonna go on Twitter, I'm gonna read for this amount of time thirty minutes, an hour, and that's it, and then pick up another task, do something else that allows you to have some type of break. And I say that, friends, because I am feeling the weight of

this moment. I have been taking little breaks, but every time that I come back, it's like it's worse than when I left, you know, And I know that I'm not the only one that feels this way. And so if you can pick up a book, right, turn on a movie, to just go off into another world for a bit, it allows us, you know, to bring our quartisol levels down, because that's what rises up in our bodies.

That that is the stress hormone that you know, Meditation, deep breathing, yoga, acupuncture, walking, gardening, you know, playing with your pets that helps to release, right and bring down those levels because when they are too high, friends, they can cause a lot of serious illness. Right, if you're feeling you know, you're having a lot of sleepless nights, try some you know, melatonin, Try some CBD oils right,

or tease or tincatures. Just start adding a little bit more wellness and awareness into your daily state of being so that you were not caught off guard by these waves of unease, right because they knocked me down the other day. I will tell you that I was sitting and talking to a friend and you know, we're waiting the fifteen minutes as we were taking our at home tests, and I burst into tears. I'm just like, I'm exhausted,

I'm tired. I'm tired of all of this, right Like, I thought we were getting to a place where we figured out how we were going to be living with this, and now I feel like we're back to square one. And she, you know, responded, I know, I know, I know it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay, because that's all we can say to one another. Right now, give yourself grace, Extend grace to others, you know, try and make the best out of this season. Look for

moments of gratitude. If you're a prayerful person, do that. If you're a meditative person, do that. Sit in silence and just allow yourself to level out. We will make it through, and we will make it through together. Coming up next is my conversation our last Woke Wednesday conversation with doctor Jonathan Metzel of twenty twenty one I hope that you know, you get some important information out of it.

Share it with your friends, your networks, your families. The more that we can spread this information, the more that we can share these shows, the better we will all be folks. You know that when it is going to be Wednesday, I am so excited to be joined by our friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metso who if you can believe it, this is our last recording together of twenty twenty one. We have been recording remote for damn near two years and talking about COVID for

two years. Jonathan. Before we get to where we are presently, I want to do a little reflection moment of when COVID came on the scene in you know, I guess February March of twenty twenty one. It became part of our lexicon. Did you believe that we would like? What did you think was going to happen? It's funny. I was thinking about that exact thing this morning, and several memories stood out for me. One was that the night before we realized it was a pandemic, but everybody knew

about it. I was at dinner in a kind of random restaurant in Chelsea, and there was a line. It was like one of those New York things where it's a huge restaurant but there's only one bathroom for like nine hundred people, and we're waiting in line to get in the bathroom, and everybody's jokingly singing had the Happy Birthday song, because at that time, the only thing we knew about the virus was if you wash your hands and sing the Happy Birthday song twice, that was that's

what got rid of the virus. And so we were all joking and singing Had Birthday, and we were complaining that the people in the bathroom were taking so long because they had a longer version of the Happy Birthday song. And it was kind of a jovial moment of like, oh, here's some random thing that's happening to us, and I missed those days where like that's all we thought we had to do was like wash our hands and sing

Happy Birthday. And I don't think any of us could have seen how that moment in the beginning, And sure everybody has stories like this, but everybody was saying, just get two weeks worth of food, you know, get enough cash if you have to bribe somebody for you know, furell or toilet favor for two weeks and and just you know whatever. So people were thinking about this the

way we think about every other illness. Now, I wish I could just go back, and like, I wish I could just go back and know everything we know now, Like it sounds great to be that naive, but now it's almost like, I mean, the crazy thing is it's it's just um, it's just exponential threat, right, I Mean, that's the crazy thing about all this. That Alpha was Alpha was terrifying because we didn't have natural immunity, because we didn't know the rules, we didn't know what it did.

But Alpha was like an eight track tape player compared to you know, compared to what we have now. Um, then Delta seemed like the worst thing ever, which it was at the time. It was horrifically fatal for people. It was very, very spreadable. But that is like the junior varsity compared to now. And so now we've got a new as I call it oh micron, which is which is just raise the considerably on just how fast

it spreads, how infectious it is. And so we're in the middle of something that we don't know where it's going to end. And I think part of the issue is that was inconceivable two years ago. Two years ago, we felt like everything we knew, every trauma we knew, nine to eleven war, civil rights movement, everything had a

like a beginning and a middle and an end. And so to be in the middle of something that is TVD, I think is as stressful and as anxiety causing as is just the fear of everything that's happening around us. You know, It's it's really interesting because you know, as we come to the end of the year, it is very natural to go through these different reflection moments, right like, how did the year treat me? What? You know, what?

What what's transpired? And I've been going back, you know, beyond the beginning of twenty twenty one, two twenty twenty because I feel like we're locked in some type of crazy loop right now, right where it seems like things get better, then they get worse, then they get better, then they get fucking worse. So between alpha to delta, the thing that I've noticed about the virus is that it gets each with each iteration that becomes it becomes

increasingly spreadable. Right, so from alpha to delta, they're like, this is spreading more, this is spreading faster. Then you go from delta to omicron and it's just like holy shit. You can walk out of your apartment and like and and and get this. And it seems to me, Jonathan, that do you feel like it's becoming inevitable that everyone

is going to contract COVID at some time? Because I can tell you that for the friends that I have who are vaccinated boosted, there are a number of people who have contracted it now who have either had no symptoms to mild symptoms to being knocked out for days. And these are people again that are vaccinated and boosted.

So are we just at the stage of this where it's inevitable that this is going that this is going to continue to mutate, Which you say that it mutates, it's mutating every second, every moment, and that that's just what we're going to be living with. Well, I certainly think you're right. I mean, the devirus is always competing

with itself for which can spread faster. We're above Measles territory right now, and so whatever wants to beat out the big oh as I call it, is going to have to get you through your text message or your email or something, because this thing is just in the air. And so part of the issue is You're absolutely right, it is spreading much faster. But I cannot say this strongly enough and we've been talking about this for a while.

Don't get the virus right now, even though it's an inevitable even if it feels like everybody is getting it around you. It's so important right now. And I'll tell you why that is now. You can't help it right I mean, I'm doing outdoor dining tonight, and I don't know with omicron, like what how does it spread outside? We don't know that yet. I have to go down and get my mail. Like every everyday risk becomes every day becomes a risk, and so it's always a calculus.

But I can say that that is not a reason right now to let your guard down. And I say that for a couple of reasons. Number one is that even if people's symptoms are mild, now, we don't know what oh micron does for long COVID. And that's the issue, right This virus lives in your body like shingles or some other stuff. You know, it lives in your body, and so we don't know what the long term effects are. Even if it's mild, it could still have long term effects.

And so you don't want a virus living in your body. That's number one, So keep masking, keep doing all the stuff. Number two is number two is like, right now is a bad time to get sick, because honestly, everybody's getting sick. And so as we know that testing centers are overflowing, the clinics are overflowing, the hospitals are overflowing, hospitalizations when at fifty percent, and so you also don't want to get sick when everybody else is getting sick if you

can help it. So those are those are the two arguments I think against getting COVID right now, which again I really strongly think people shouldn't do. The flip side in the long run is I don't know. I mean, we're gonna have to We're gonna encounter this at some point, and so again now is not the time, not the time to do it. But I just keep thinking about like during the Spanish flu, for example, the people who like played it the most safe, kind of like me,

didn't have any antibodies to anything. They are the ones they didn't do well. The people who were like out there toughing it out and stuff like that, they ended up developing a natural immunity. Also, now we don't need to I mean, it's it's a risk for your life right now. But there's going to have to be some balance going forward. And again there's new treatment, there's new knowledge coming on the way. So now is not the

time to get sick. But I do think we're going to have to go into a state of you know, this is just our reality right as we know. So it's just every time the virus changes, it changes our reality. Can I say one more thing? That was like an answer I realized. But the other issue is part of the risk is medical, but part of the risk is social that every new iteration of the virus, every new iteration of the virus, changes the social and political landscape.

In other words, it made sense to lock down for Alpha, but locking down because it really did actually make sense because of the way Alpha spread. But the response of locking down and masks and all those things set off a political chain of events that was incredibly tribalizing and really almost catastrophic for our country Delta. Then the virus changed its properties, and you could see our politics change

around it in a certain way. And so I feel like with every iteration of the virus, our politics become more contested, more tribal, and so it's almost like we're mutating along with the virus in a political sense, and it does lead us towards some really bad outcomes in a way. And so it's not just about the virus, is also about the ways humans and political systems and

infrastructures respond to these mutations. You know. That's such a good point, Jonathan, And I really like the way that you phrased it, that the fact is that our politics are mutating in a way that is just as dangerous,

frankly as the virus is. And one of the questions that I've been you know, asking with experts like you and you know, and to colleagues on Twitter, is if if politics were taken out of it right, And and the thing is is that we keep finding out each and every week more and more information about what it was that the Trump administration did in order to essentially ensure that as many people as possible would get sick.

Like that that is how I'm framing it, Because there's no other way to say that you're given this information about a global health pandemic and then you've choosen your choke. You've chosen to do the absolute and complete opposite of what every doctor and scientist has said that you should do, and no one is going to be held accountable for it.

So I can get as angry as I want, but nobody's going to jail for over eight hundred thousand American deaths when in fact that they should because there is actual, you know, factual evidence pointing into the direction of willful negligence. But I say this that if politics were taken out of it and we have this new variant right right now, would we should we be going into a lockdown? Is

this a self quarantine situation? Which is which is potentially what is going to be happening in New York right like we're people are saying, like the bars are empty. I think it was David Gore from who tweeted and said the bars are empty and the lines for city MD are like miles long, right, So are we going to be heading into a If politics had taken out of it and doctors and scientists had been running the show right now, would we be going back into a lockdown.

It's funny because we know so much more than we did when we went into that initial lockdown. We know so much more about the virus its effects, and so I really don't think that going back into lockdown the way we did in twenty twenty isn't the cards, nor should it be, because with this version of the virus, a lockdown itself isn't going to do the work that it did in twenty twenty, and so part of the issue is to learn how to why is that wait

before you go on why why? Just so people can understand why wouldn't a lockdown be as effective as it was in twenty twenty March of twenty twenty as it could be. Now this is going to be a horror movie territory, But in twenty twenty, with the alpha variant, you needed to be exposed for about fifteen minutes, and so there was no chance you were going to get it walking through your lobby or from your mailman, or you give it to your mailman or things like that,

in other words, distancing people. And the other thing is the alpha variant didn't travel more than six to eight feet in the air, and so you could social distance. There are all these things that were very effective. And

I can't say this strongly enough. If the pandemic had stopped at the end of the alpha variant, which of course it didn't, we would be in a totally different space politically right now in a way because because because of all this, so but so, we had the right strategy for the alpha variant, we really did at the time. And also we didn't know anything but that that's not going to work right now. We've seen that shutting down

the economy is bad. I mean, I'm thinking bars should go give martiniz to people in line at CityMD or something. You know, there's got to be a way to keep the bars in business. But I think that there's economic effects. I also think that given the way that this virus hangs in the air, the way that it's transmitted and things like that, unless you're I don't know, I think like it's probably easier for somebody like me, as a single American to like isolate myself a little bit more

easily or something like that. But we we engage with other people, we're dependent on other people, and and so I just think that that strategy is going to take a back seat in a way, even though in a way that chaotic total lockdown, maybe maybe that, I mean, in a way we overreacted to that, But now we're under reacting to this. I think that's totally possible. Do

you think we're under reacting to this? I mean, this is by far the most dangerous threat we've had, and January is going to be the worst month of the pandemic by far. There's a chance we're gonna have a

million infections a day. So so yeah, I think no. But I say that, Jonathan, because Yeah, the thing that I think people keep hanging onto with this is that the symptoms are mild, right, that we're not like, while hospitalizations are going up, and again this is a with large regard to unvaccinated people, but vaccinated and boosted people are still getting this, but they're not dying at the same rate, and so like, is it wrong to say that while this is more contagious, it's not as lethal

or do we or has it not been around long enough for us to really say that it's not as lethal? Okay, let me just preface this by saying, I'm a happy person. I love puppies. Daffodils are amazing. I love I love a sunny day in a warm wheat field. So I'm not a total downer, except when you say, oh, the big O is mild. Talk to me in two weeks. Talk to me in three weeks, because that's really going

to be the issue. The information came out right away that this was this version was mild quote unquote bad word choice, and the reason was because it was where it was spreading in South Africa, was people were not getting hospitalized or dying as much. Now the reason that was happening we don't know for sure yet, but part of it is that everybody there had had COVID probably multiple times, or been exposed to it many, many times, and so they had a kind of form of natural immunity.

Plus about half the people were vaccinated, and so in a way, that was a very particular setting. And in a small study in London they found that it was no less and sometimes even more dangerous than the delta variant for people who were at least in this one town in London. And I think that's what Denmark is going to show also. And so the question of is it more mild, I think is not quite certain yet.

I don't think we know, And I think that the question is if people have been dramatically exposed to earlier versions of COVID and also were vaccinated, it's certainly going to be mild for them. If they're NFL athletes who are in incredible shape and getting tested every single day and have all been vaccinated three times, it's probably going to be mild for them. But for America, I have to say, we are facing something really major in the next four to six weeks, and hopefully this is a

mild version. I hope that's great, But I would also say that there's enough data right now that's not pointing that way that we should not just jump out and have a you know, a micron party and everybody get it, because we don't know yet, and we also don't know what the impact is for long COVID, So there's enough of a red flag there that I think just thinking of it as mild is not the time to let

your guard down, you know. And I the reason why I say that because I'm mimicking what mainstream media is saying, right, I'm mimicking what every news you know, station and show has been saying, which is that it's spreading rampant. I think Fauci had said the the O variant has already overtaken delta. We are at seventy three percent. I think

of the infections are of the omicron variety. And the reality is, though, Jonathan, this is this is where I think things are getting really troubling, is that people like myself are like, I cannot wait for this week to be done just so that we can have like a little bit of like for me, I will not be

watching the news for a week. I will be with my you know, with a small portion of my family, because we have already decided that Christmas is once again not going to look like we thought that it was going to look unless everybody is doing rapid testing at the door and did a PCR beforehand and like what have you. But the reality is is that emotionally, I

think we're all hanging on by a fucking thread. You know, Biden is speaking tonight to the nation, and he's not the most no charismatic guy, but I will say that now is a time to talk to humanity, to share humanity, because I think we've fallen into a trap which is

on both sides. Right when you hear somebody is not getting the vaccine, we jump to the conclusion that they just want the virus, or that they're a bad person, that there's a very strong moral component to that or and certainly our politics makes you think that way, and

and vice versa in a particular way. And so a lot of people are suffering right now, and a lot of people are feeling a kind of PTSD and a kind of sense of letdown about the future they imagined, about the about the fact that we've worked so hard just to get to this point, no matter what side of this spectrum politically you're on, we worked really hard just to survive to this point. And the fact that

now we're facing this situation again is profoundly demoralizing. And so I really think Biden needs to speak to that human component. Right this is not a time to cast I mean, we've seen plenty of blame in terms of political decisions and just everything about Twitter and stuff like that.

It's right there, there's no mystery, but right now, like we don't have a language for shared trauma, for shared humanity, for this sense that, like I teach college students, they're wondering, like, what is the future what is the future, what are the world? What's the world going to look like? And I think everybody's thinking that in terms of just this

and the next phase of their life. And so in a way, we need that kind of language right now, in part because we don't know where this is going, but in part because like we're all experiencing it and there's no there's no venue or language to talk about it. So I hope, I hope he rises to the occasion tonight, and if not, I hope somebody does. Yeah, I gotta

tell you, you know, shared trauma is right right. I have been talking to so many you know, so many people over the course of the last couple of weeks, and I just can't believe where we were on Thanksgiving twenty twenty one to where we are, you know, as we head into the Christmas holiday, how rapidly things have unraveled. The last question for you, Jonathan, is around this four

to six week lag that we're looking at. And we heard from jensak White House Press Secretary that this is going to be, you know, a long winter of death and illness for the unvaccinated. But again, it is not just the unvaccinated that are getting sick that they are breakthrough cases we have, you know, just this week, Senators

Warren Booker have breakthrough cases of COVID. What is your message for people as we're going into this gathering season where there are you know, travel is up thirty four percent. You know people are going home, you know they're making the choice to be with their family. It's been a really long tough time. UM. What is your advice to those to those people as we move into what you're saying and what we know to be true a really

precarious UM part of this this new surge. Well, I really think it has to be we're all in this together. I mean that that really it seems almost naive at this point to think about that, UM, because this has been so politicized, UM, and and there has to be a way to step back from that. I just think that I just I really think that I'm tired of fighting about this. I know people who are not vaccinated,

and they're not bad people. They're they're they don't we don't agree about political stuff, and and I feel like their politics is leaving them in a very different different recnation than mine. But I just think we've we've we've this level of fear as led to a kind of demonization which is reinforced by all the algorithms through which we engage with each other, social media and things like that. And there has to be a way to get back

to some kind of language of empathy. And I believe me, can't even believe these words are coming out of my mouth, you know, on the guy who wrote dying a whiteness. But I think that we're facing a tsunami, a tidal way. But the next month is going to be really hard, and if we don't get some common national resolve in some form or other, in some way, we are really going to be facing some really dire situation. And I think that also on the flip side, what sociologists call

social capital is what we need right now. We need a sense that our neighbors are looking at for us and vice versa. And so in a way, now is the time to think about is there a way to break down this stuff and think about some language of common good that again, because I think we are we're facing you know, a Pearl Harbor kind of situation, um

at nine to eleven kind of situation. Whatever, you know, moment brought us together and it seems impossible to imagine, but in a month, that's where we're going to be. And so I really think that that now is the time to start thinking about is there a way we can break out of this fingerpointing mess we've gotten ourselves into? And how is that even possible? Jonathan, I just don't know, I really am I know, you know, it seems it seems impossible. Yeah, um, it does. It feels impossible. It

seems completely overwhelming. Uh And I really I wish for everyone to be as safe and as healthy and as thoughtful as possible as I know all that listened to woke af have been an r but my god, Pearl Harbor nine to eleven tsunami, you couldn't have picked, like, you know, any good movie or any good you know,

good Gremlins too. Uh Well, Jonathan, I wish for you as the year comes to a close, some time for peace, some time for relaxation and recharging, because something tells me that twenty twenty two is going to be an extension of twenty twenty one, which was an extension of twenty twenty and that we're going to be in this for the long call, So take whatever break it is that you're giving to yourself and I wish you some form of happy holiday season. No same, I mean, I'll just

be here hunkering down in Brooklyn. If anybody out there in television America as around, we can go for a walk in four Green Park or something. But no, well, I'll just be here, you know, um working my way through my m my stockpiled peanut butter from the first round of eld stuff. So thank you, Jonathan. As always, we appreciate you and your insight and have just a lot of gratitude for the last two years of conversation with you. Hope that we can continue. We absolutely will

take care. That is it for me today. Here folks on Woke f daily as always. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.