- What's going on Coyote Pack?
Today, we have a special episode for you
on the Brave Wilderness Channel.
We've been invited to talk to
a couple of very special guests.
Mark, you wanna tell everybody
who we're gonna be speaking with?
- That's right, Coyote.
Some very important people contacted us.
In fact, yesterday, we got a call from the White House
that the president wants to talk to us.
- The president of the United States?
- Yes, the sitting president of the United States
of America, President Biden and special guest Dr. Fauci.
Can you believe that?
- It's pretty crazy.
Now, the reason we've been invited
to sit down and talk with them through Zoom
is we're gonna get the chance to ask
some rather pertinent questions surrounding COVID
and the vaccine rollout.
Specifically, as we get ready to have a fun summer,
hopefully with some travel,
our questions will help alleviate
some of your concerns surrounding the vaccine,
and what you're able to do in these coming months.
- Exactly.
And by the way, just so everybody knows
like we have been vaccinated.
But today's question and answer session with the president
and Dr. Fauci is really aimed to inform you
about some things that you might not know.
And at the end of this video
we're also gonna have a bunch of resources
for you to check out as well,
for those of you who are undecided.
But Coyote, are we getting close to time here?
- I'm getting the text right now.
All right, let's transition in,
it's time to meet with the President and Dr. Fauci.
(dynamic music)
- Hey fellows, how are ya?
- Good, how are you guys doing?
- I'm doing well.
- Good to see you.
- I'd rather be going down the Snake River in a raft
than talking about this, but I'm doing well.
- Nice, well thank you guys so much
for taking the time to speak with us today.
We're certainly looking forward to getting down to
some well thought out questions I would say.
And with what Mark and I do
we are often on some pretty crazy adventures.
Not sure if you guys are familiar with our work,
but it's pretty wild.
- Well, I understand that.
Mine's really calm.
(both laughing)
- Well we're definitely both humbled to be talking with you
Mr. President and Dr. Fauci, today.
And thank you first and foremost
for all the hard work that you're doing.
And yeah, Coyote, do you wanna kick us off
with a question about what's going on?
- Yeah, absolutely.
So with our work on the Brave Wilderness Channel
I get up close with all sorts of animals
that people would likely be afraid of,
snakes, scorpions, sharks, even grizzly bears.
And fear is usually a result of people
not understanding a certain species.
I could say that the same thing goes for shots and vaccines.
So as I understand it, a younger generation
is now being able to get the Pfizer vaccine,
kids between the ages of 12 and 15.
A lot of our audience demographic,
which we like to joke is between the ages of four and 104,
'cause we reach everybody.
But a lot of 'em are that younger age demographic.
So we're imagining that the kids
and the parents themselves might be a little nervous
about getting vaccines.
So what can you tell us that will help alleviate
any concerns parents might have
in regard to kids getting vaccinated,
and why children that are the appropriate age
should not be afraid of the vaccine?
- Well look, I'll let the doc
speak to the scientific side of that.
But let me tell you the practical side as I see it.
I have six grandchildren and I have,
I've taken them all down to almost every national park
we have, the greatest asset we have in America's
our national parks for real, our wilderness.
My point is that, exposing somebody to something
that is going to be for their benefit,
and if they learn about it they'll be able to do good by it,
is the same way I explain to parents about
why their 12 year olds should get the shot.
They should, number one, not be afraid of the notion
that they're gonna get a needle in their arm.
That's number one.
Because it doesn't hurt, by the way.
Number two, it's about being good to other people.
And I talk about it in terms of
teaching about obligation to other people.
It's not just about them.
It's an obligation they have to their friends
and other people.
And that's the way, and I'm sure you guys have kids,
you're doing the same thing.
And on your show you do, you talk about the obligation
we have to take care of what we've been given
in the wild and so on.
I'd also tell them when they get vaccinated
they can go anywhere they want.
There's nothing, they can go anyway,
but then go without a mask.
And they're part of something that they can demonstrate
they're thinking of other people.
And doc, why don't you tell them--
- Yeah well, the important thing is
that often parents ask some reasonable questions.
I mean, is this really safe for my child?
And did you really rush the vaccine through?
Because we only found out about the virus
in January of 2020, and then by December of that year
we were putting vaccine doses into people's arms.
What they need to understand is that
that vaccine that has been distributed, that I got,
that the president got, that is the result of decades
of scientific and clinical research that led to that.
So nothing was rushed, that's the first thing.
The other thing is some parents say, well,
I'd like to wait and see what the results are.
The results have been nothing short of spectacular.
These vaccines are highly, highly effective.
Not only protecting you against disease,
but they're also very good against some of
these variants that are circulating around.
And also, even if you do get infected,
which would be very unusual,
you don't spread it to someone else.
So as the president said, you think about yourself,
your safety, the safety of your family,
but also your responsibility to the community.
So those are the things we tell parents
when we want to get them to appreciate
why it's so important for them to get vaccinated.
- Good answer.
I guess that kind of leads us up to our second question.
Mark, if you wanna take that on, especially
as you consider these next couple of months
that are coming up for kids and their families.
- For sure.
And President Biden, I'm glad you brought up travel,
and it's so great that you mentioned the national parks.
We feel the exact same way.
Every single video we make on the Brave Wilderness Channel
requires some kind of travel.
And needless to say, for the past year,
that's been very, very difficult.
However, we do recognize it's not nearly as difficult
as it's been for all the families out there
who haven't been able to travel to see their loved ones,
or take their children on those life-changing experiences
in the national parks.
So with this new age demographic that's been expanded
for vaccination, can you both tell us a little bit about
how this is going to impact
summer travel plans for families?
- Let me compare to last summer,
as we're heading into summer.
What we did was, we decided that we had to get
a significant amount of this vaccine produced.
We're able to administer literally
millions of doses of this vaccine.
So now we're almost at, we're at 60,
over 60% of the people in America have been vaccinated
at least with one shot.
When we get to 70 we think we're gonna start to have
the ability to really get our lives back to normal.
So now they're gonna be able to travel.
They have that vaccine, that vaccination,
they can get on a plane.
They're probably still gonna put a mask on,
in most planes, planes, trains, and buses,
but they're gonna be able to go wherever they wanna go.
What it adds up, watched you guys a couple of times,
haven't, I don't wanna exaggerate,
but I've, and but I'm serious,
I think what you're doing is incredibly important.
What is there but to continue to provide for,
as you would talk about, maintaining the brave wilderness?
I mean, one of the things that I'm getting
from my grandkids, and some of them are really little,
calling me saying, Pop, they're gonna kill all the wolves.
They're killing the wolves, Pop.
Why is that happening, Pop?
I mean, so you have a generation of kids
that you can have a profound impact on,
but also older people as well.
What do you do when you're telling them how to respond
to when you see a snake, you're not saying,
just go get a brick and try to kill it.
You're not telling people, you're telling people
how to stay away from it 'til you know what it is.
You're telling people how to respond to everything from,
that shark you talk about in the ocean,
the vast majority of which are not gonna attack anybody.
They're not doing anything.
I want them to see and understand that
we all have a responsibility to nature,
but we also have a responsibility to one another.
- We are an interconnected world
and we stay interconnected by travel.
So travel is really very important.
And the gateway to safe travel is to get vaccinated.
And that's one of the many reasons
why we are so bullish on saying,
get as many people vaccinated as you possibly can.
Everything will get better,
but also we'll be able to travel safely.
That's a real plus.
- Hey Coyote, I got a question for you.
- Yeah.
- Of all the scenes you've done,
what one have you enjoyed the most?
And what one did you did it give you an insight
you didn't have before?
You know what I mean?
- Great question.
It's tough to ever pick a favorite, but I'll use the one
that we produced recently
at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center.
All about saving wolves and the fact that
you even called out today, that your grandkids
are recognizing just the atrocities
that are being done to wipe wolves out,
they need protections now more than ever.
So that episode we produced is one of
the most meaningful pieces we've ever done.
And very thrilled to hear that
you've got support for wolves, just like we do.
- I'm in, I'm in with you.
And let me know the places where you think,
now I mean this sincerely now,
let me know what you think are the most
at risk natural resources we have out there.
I have my views, and I've been working on it,
and we got a lot of, I have someone to head up
the Department of Interior who really cares about it.
You oughta talk to me about it.
And by the way, I'm a big dog person.
Every single species of dog,
every single breed has come from the gray wolf.
Every single one. - Absolutely right.
Tell you what Mr. President, you let me know
when you're ready to take a grand adventure.
If you wanna meet a wolf in person
I can get you situated with that.
Just send Air Force One out,
Mark and I'll be ready for any adventure
you guys wanna go on.
- By the way, I have spent time
with wolves on two occasions.
- Oh really?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- A real wolf, and other wolves, you know.
(all laughing)
Anyway, thank you guys.
You're awful, nice, thank you.
- Thank you both, so humbled by this opportunity.
And we really are excited for our audience
to hear these feedback points from both of you.
And hopefully they learned something today.
Thanks so much. - Thank you.
- Wow!
I don't even know how to react right now.
That was crazy.
We just talked to the president of the United States
and Dr. Fauci.
- I cannot believe that.
Like I'm just, I was so impressed by the answers.
Like I had no idea that President Biden
was that into nature, and the parks,
and all the things that he talked about.
I was blown away.
- I really liked that he asked me the question
about an episode that was meaningful to me
and that I got the chance to mention the work that we did
at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center,
and the protection that wolves need,
and to hear his support behind that.
It just opens up my imagination
for all the things that might be possible
if I can really take him up on his offer
of getting involved with more conservation initiatives.
- So cool.
Well, hopefully everybody at home learned a lot
from today's discussion as well.
And I do wanna say and stress, please don't take this video
as some kind of political statement
from the Brave Wilderness Channel, or Coyote, or myself.
For those of you who've been watching us over the years,
we are not a political brand by any means.
But these are two very important leaders
that are leading an extremely important effort.
And we wanted you all to be able to appreciate
this experience like we have.
But more so, if you don't have the information you need yet
we have more links in the description below.
Because we want everybody at home to be feeling good,
and feeling informed, and feeling safe
as we all get through this pandemic together.
So thank you again for watching,
and we hope that you learned something today,
and you got something from it.
- I'm Coyote Peterson.
- And I'm Mark Vins.
- Be brave.
- Stay wild.
- We'll see ya on the next adventure.
Or the next Zoom meeting.
Man, that was crazy.
(animals calling)