- Welcome to another episode of the Wednesday Checkup.
Today's topic, COVID-19
because there's more confusion than ever before.
And I think there are two main driving factors behind this,
the media, and two our leadership,
more specifically, President Trump.
I'll be addressing both of those points
using several examples in this video.
Let's get started.
You don't have a medical background.
You're not a scientist, yet you're claiming this substance,
which has not been studied in any meaningful way
can cure COVID.
And do you have a financial stake in the company you would
profit from it if this is being sold widely.
Morally, is that right?
- Well, you know, I was contacted on Easter Sunday after it,
you know, that I've told the whole country to pray
for the answer for this pandemic.
So this guy called me on Easter Sunday
and the city had an answer.
- This is all bologna.
While I am very angry for him coming
out and spewing this misinformation about oleander
or Oleandrin oil which is poisonous.
There's actually cardiac toxicity that comes from this,
what I'm more upset about is CNN giving
this person a platform.
What was the purpose of bringing him on and making this into
a national story when it wasn't,
this actually led to president Trump being asked this
question by reporters.
- [Reporter] Oleandrin?
Have you heard of that as a possible
therapy for coronavirus?
- I've heard about it, yes go ahead.
- [Reporter] Have you pressed the FDA to approve it?
- No I haven't, I haven't.
- [Reporter] Is it something you would support?
- Is it something the people are talking
about very strongly?
We'll look at it.
- He clearly has no idea what the reporter is asking.
And the only reason the reporter is asking this question
is because it was seen on CNN.
I'm also really upset with CNN that they're wasting airtime
on Mike Lindell,
where we have great scientists that have hard hitting
stories that are really important to tell,
including that the black population in the United States is
being disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
That there are certain difficulties in obtaining tests
in low socioeconomic neighborhoods in the US.
Why are we talking to the My Pillow guy?
Let's move on to a tweet that president Trump himself
retweeted stating that only 9,000 people, incorrectly stated
that only 9,000 people have died of COVID-19 thus far,
the tweet actually ended up being removed for violating
terms of service.
But let's talk about where they got this number from.
This 6% figure or 9,000 deaths actually came
from a legitimate CDC
document that said 94% of the deaths related to COVID-19 had
several causes of death listed on the death certificate.
And that's actually not that surprising.
It is very rare for an individual to have a single thing
listed on their death certificate,
because for those of us who actually fill out death
certificates, we know we put a primary cause of death,
as well as contributing causes of death.
For example, if you have hypertension
or your BMI falls in the obese category,
you technically have risk factors and diagnoses
that contributed to your demise, to your loss of life,
but COVID-19 is what caused it.
These are just extra things, things that made you high risk
and more susceptible to COVID-19.
That doesn't mean it wasn't COVID-19 that led to your death.
It's very rare that a person dies specifically
of a single illness.
So it is completely inaccurate to say that only 6% of people
died as a result of COVID-19.
A 100% of those people died with COVID-19 and from COVID-19.
And some of them had extra things listed on their death
certificate, such as respiratory failure,
where do they get respiratory failure from?
COVID-19.
It's misinformation at its finest.
And it causes you to think,
oh, COVID-19 is not as deadly as it looks.
COVID-19 takes our most fragile patients.
And it lead to a high death rate.
It also affects the younger generations and creates
complications for them at a lower death rate,
but still a serious illness that we must not write off.
Let's look at this headline from kpbs.org.
COVID-19 and the brain quote "You should be afraid".
Now only do I think this is an absolutely trash headline.
It capitalizes on humans being afraid of COVID-19 in hopes
that they would click on this article
and read it and they would raise more money via advertising.
I think this is the worst type of health care reporting
because it's dishonest.
While we are seeing some longterm
effects related to COVID-19,
we also see longterm effects of any person that's admitted
into an ICU.
If you're in an ICU for a heart attack, for diabetic
ketoacidosis, for sepsis coming out
of that ICU will be a long recovery process.
Your lungs will be scarred.
You will have inflammation in your body.
At certain times,
you'll have neurological symptoms, brain fog.
This is classic ICU protocol in coming out of the ICU.
It is not the norm to see longterm
health effects of COVID-19.
Most people will get better with COVID-19,
most people will recover
and not have any serious long lasting symptoms.
There will be a subset of the population
that will have some lingering symptoms,
just like they do with a serious case of influenza,
just like they do with us heart attack or with any other
of reasonable number of illnesses.
The truth is we don't know what the longterm effects are
of COVID-19, we're studying them.
And if you ask doctors, they'll tell you the truth.
They'll tell you that
in some cases they're seeing effects on the brain,
on the heart and COVID-19 is unique
because it seems to be affect
different organs throughout your body, not just your lungs.
But again, this isn't the case for the majority of cases,
we should not report on medical stories this way.
A, it causes health care related anxiety,
which I see day in and day out, especially now.
And two, it's not gonna change anyone's minds
that disagrees with you.
The people who think COVID-19 is a hoax will not be
convinced by your overdramatic news reporting.
There's no reason to do.
Next, let's look at this tweet
by President Trump on August 22nd.
The deep state or whoever over at the FDA is making it very
difficult for drug companies to get people in order
to test the vaccine and therapeutics.
Obviously they're hoping to delay the answer until after
November 3rd, must focus on speed and saving lives.
If you are a president of a nation and you have at your
disposal, the FDA, the CDC,
the last thing you should be doing is trying
to make them look bad.
The more you put out into the public that the FDA
has deep state actors or the CDC is not being honest,
whatever it is, you're tweeting.
You're losing the faith of the American people in these
institutions, the scientists and doctors
that are working day in and day out at the CDC and FDA.
They're not hiding treatments and letting people die because
they care about who wins the presidential election.
What they do care about is making sure everything's done
with integrity, with scientific rigor, with accuracy.
And that's how it must continue.
Because guess what President Trump,
when we do have a good vaccine, that's safe, that works,
you're gonna need the public's trust in order for them
to get this vaccine.
And with tweets like that,
you're making it very, very difficult.
Final point I want to talk about is schools reopening the
fact that there's some infections happening at these
schools, universities, local institutions.
And I feel like we're approaching these stories with a lot
of irrationality, a lot of panic.
Remember my mantra from the beginning of COVID-19 has been
stay alert, not anxious.
The reason I say this is because there's constantly
headlines, University of Alabama
has over 1,000 cases in a month.
School district in Georgia has 20 cases of COVID-19.
We're gonna see cases in schools, in our cities,
in our states, as we begin to reopening process.
The danger with COVID-19 is that it
can spread like wildfire.
And as long as we keep these numbers low,
that's what's important.
We need to protect the population who is most vulnerable,
and we need to make smart decisions with good quality data,
not politicize the topic, not try and scare people.
And reality is as we reopen schools,
as we reopen shopping areas, gyms,
we will see a small spike in COVID-19 cases.
It's not about seeing a small uptick and panicking.
That's the last thing we want.
Students, let's be mature.
Let's not throw parties.
- [News Anchor] Tonight, several Yukon students have been
evicted from on campus housing after this packed party.
- Let's not say, forget COVID-19.
- [Group] (beep) coronavirus.
- I drink Coronas all day.
- I personally think it's a hoax.
- Look, odds are, if you're young and you get COVID-19,
it's not going to be the end of the world,
but you can potentially spread it to many other people.
And when you go to a party, a room full of a hundred people,
it takes one to get many others sick who then will travel
home and get many others sick.
It's about the speed at which it spreads.
Focus on school for a short period of time,
wear a mask at the end of the day, just be reasonable.
Something really important to talk about when it comes to
covering COVID-19 is that people really look down upon those
who are misinformed.
And just like I do with vaccine hesitant parents,
I do not rush to judge them.
That is a surefire way to get them to never your point
of view, to never understand truly how science works,
think about how you can connect with them,
to educate them on why it's not stupid
and why they should take care.
Because right now, as a person,
without a scientific background, it is confusing.
You do hear contradicting opinions on the news,
in our politics.
So media, President Trump and everyone in between,
let's take a more empathetic approach here and be smart with
the things we're putting out to the general public.
We all want the same thing, less deaths,
a healthier and happier public and the end of COVID-19.
And the only way we can get there is by working together.
You want to check out some of my other interesting content
about COVID-19 click here or for more lighthearted playlists
that I put together a special for you click here.
As always stay happy and healthy.
(mellow music)