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March 21, 2020 - Real Coffe - Scott Adams
54:46
Episode 862 Scott Adams: Goodnight Vibes. Forget Your Cares
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Time Text
Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum Hey everybody!
I've got an invention I'd like to show you.
Hold on. You know, when it comes to these pandemics, everybody's got to jump in, do their part.
And you've already seen a lot of inventions.
I just saw another video of another hospital that turned, I don't know, two ventilators into nine or something with some creative tubing.
So you're seeing inventions just all over the place.
And I didn't want to be left out because I'm kind of inventive myself.
So I thought I would invent something that you can all use.
Now, first you have to start with a problem, right?
The problem is people were touching their face with their hands.
Now, it's hard to avoid.
What if you have an itch? What are you going to do?
So I started with this ordinary back scratcher, and I did some modifications.
It's a little more aerodynamic, took a little weight off it, you see.
And now, should I have an itch, let's say, on my nose, In the old days, I would go scratch, scratch, scratch, and then die, you know, most likely.
So since I don't want to die just because I have an itch on my nose, I've repurposed the back scratcher.
Watch this. Forehead.
Oh, that's so good.
Oh, my God.
I've been so needing to scratch my head.
Wow. Wow.
Now, of course, you have to immediately burn the stick so these are disposable.
That's how I make my money.
Because if I were just to sell you one of them and it just lasted forever, well, how do you make money on that?
So this is sort of like giving away the razor and selling the blades.
You have to throw it away after one use.
So get that over there.
All right. Make it longer.
It needs to be six feet long.
So I have my guest mode on.
And that means you get to ask me a question before you get to go to bed.
And I'm going to see if anybody's queuing up to ask any questions.
Oh, Carpe.
Let's see if you're still on there.
Carpe, can you hear me?
Oh, that didn't work.
We'll see if our technology is working today.
Let's go to Lynn.
Lynn, can you hear me?
Lynn, can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Well, just barely.
Let me see if I can turn up my volume.
Maybe I can't.
Let's see if I can.
All right, Lynn, speak again.
Can you hear me now? I can hear you well enough.
So speak loudly.
What is your question for me?
All right. So I want to call this Blanket Time with Scott.
All right. A little branding.
You know, I don't know if anybody tried this technique.
Good. Coffee in the morning.
Blanket Time at night.
All right. Blanket Time at night it is.
Well, thank you for that suggestion.
All right. All right.
Bye-bye. All right.
I am having a little bit of sound issues, so if I choose you, speak loudly.
Charlie? Charlie, can you hear me?
Charlie? Hey, Charlie.
Do you have a question for me? Can you hear me?
Yes, well enough.
Okay, nice.
I actually just joined.
I'm so happy that you're doing what you're doing.
I've spoken to you a couple times.
I'm a huge fan of yours.
You're doing such a wonderful thing for the entire fan base, the people that log in to see you.
It's just wonderful.
Thanks so much for the positive I've been taking that energy and bringing it to my team at work, and I'm trying my best to keep the morale up.
It's awesome, so thank you so much.
This is tough time, but we're going to get through it.
I really believe it. Oh yeah, we're definitely good.
The only thing that I'm not worried about in the least is that we'll get through it.
There's a timing question, but yeah, we will certainly get through it.
That part is not in question.
Thank you, Charlie. Thanks a lot.
Have a great evening. You too.
All right, let's see what else is on here.
Look at all these good vibes today.
People got good vibes.
Let's see if Annalisa wants to ask me a question.
Annalisa, are you there?
Hi, do you have a question for me?
So I'm in the oil and gas industry here in Houston.
And it's kind of, I want to keep a positive attitude.
However, it's really, I don't think we've ever been in a place like this before.
So it's kind of, it's a little bit scary.
Well, you know, it is a little bit scary, you know, fear of the unknown.
But here are the things that I think you don't have to be afraid of.
There's zero chance of running out of food, if only because you can't hoard fresh food.
If you took home a whole bunch of broccoli, it just wouldn't last long.
There will always be fresh food, and the pipeline is flexing its muscles.
It's the best pipeline in the world, so you always have food.
My prediction for what's going to happen with our infection and death rate in this country It's based on the fact that we're getting really close to just putting these therapeutics that seem to work really well, the chloroquine in particular, and some other ones, resverin, however you say that.
So I think what you're going to see in this country, because we had enough time to prepare and we slowed it down enough, I think you're going to see that the infection rate will continue to just explode because there's just nothing you can do about it.
But I think the death rate will start to approach zero with the exception of people who have underlying issues.
If somebody's unhealthy overall, then anything can take them out.
But I think you're going to see the combination of more infection and less deaths And that might fairly quickly get us to a point where we can open stuff.
And I think the economy is pretty resilient.
You know, nothing got broken.
It's not like we got bombed.
People can just walk right back to their offices whenever it's time.
So I think we'll be fine.
Well, I don't think we'll be fine.
We'll be fine. There isn't any really doubt about it.
The question is, you know, is it inconvenient and A real pain for, you know, a month.
You know, is it two months?
Is it six months?
Who knows? But definitely something we can do, you know, standing on our heads.
We are. We are America.
And the last thing we're going to do is, you know, let each other starve.
So thanks for the question, but you should feel better.
We got this. All right.
Let's see what else we got going here.
Let's talk to Jennifer.
Let's see if Jennifer has a question for me.
Jennifer, can you hear me?
I'm good. How are you?
Do you have a question for me? Dr.
Shiva and He's someone who just seems so knowledgeable, but he was bringing up some really serious questions, concerns about Dr.
Fauci, and I'm just struggling with trying to figure out who to trust, who to listen to.
Maybe I shouldn't listen to so many of these, but I'm just kind of...
What's your advice to those of us who are...
Well, why don't you give me a specific?
What would be a specific thing that's not just a general criticism of how things are being approached, but what's a very specific thing that Fauci should be doing, according to Dr.
Shiva, that he's not already doing?
Well, it's not so much that.
It's his past associations with...
People, I guess, deep state or whatever, that he is part of that group and has been for years.
Well, that's very close to the bottom of the list of things I'm going to worry about.
I think the medical community has a very high opinion of him.
One of the things that you can guarantee about any of these Washington critters or anybody who's just operating at a very high level is They all have all these weird connections to other people.
It's sort of just built into being successful and prominent and being in that part of the world.
They all know each other.
They got connections. They did things that you wish they hadn't.
Back in the day, they had different opinions.
I wouldn't worry about any of that.
The medical people have great confidence in him.
That's all I'd worry about.
I would relax about that.
Thank you for the question. Alright, let's see if we can bring on Brian.
Brian. Brian, can you hear me?
I can. Do you have a question?
Yeah, I was wondering why don't you think we hear more cases out of Russia of this coronavirus if it's such a big deal and they share such a big border with China?
Well, that is a really good question.
So why don't we hear more cases out of Russia?
Well, you know, the obvious explanations would be that, you know, maybe they're not testing, they don't have a, you know, it's just a, could be a, you know, a measurement problem, it could be that Russia is concealing information, and it could be that...
Just by luck, there wasn't a lot of travel across the border.
I don't know how much travel there is across the border, really.
That's something I'd have to ask.
But is there a robust China-Russia back-and-forth travel?
I just don't know the answer to that question.
Well, I guess I just presumed that there would be a robust China-Russia travel connection because they're Political systems are both communists and they seem like natural allies.
So you'd think they do a lot of trade and have a lot of back and forth.
Well, I'm not sure how natural allies they are, but they have to share a border so they're doing the best they can.
I mean, I guess they're natural in the sense that it wouldn't make any sense for them to ever fight.
So yeah, natural allies in that sense for sure.
But, you know, it's a good question.
And we're also not seeing a lot from Africa.
One of the questions you'd have to ask yourself is, will there be a strong genetic indicator?
Not necessarily something that's limited to some ethnicity, but it could be something that just some people have in any group.
Maybe Russians, on average, are less susceptible.
That's entirely possible. That would be just speculation.
If you had to guess, is it just we don't have good information?
Or is there something genetically protecting them?
My guess would be lack of information.
Yeah, it feels like information, right?
It feels like that would be the big explanation.
All right, thanks for the question. Thank you.
All right, let's see who else we got here.
Oh, I think I feel like I can know what you're going to ask by looking at your little icons.
All right. Caller, can you hear me?
Caller, caller. Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, I can. Do you have a question?
You chose me. You know, I'm surprised it doesn't exist.
Think about all these older people that are in their houses in quarantine with this whole scary thing and the mob at the store.
What if they need stuff?
And how do they let someone know that if they need to leave, they call 911, but how do we find these people if they need help?
There's no hotline numbers on TMC?
Yeah, that's a real good question.
Everything has to do with their capability and just how capable are they?
If somebody is capable but older, they would do what I did today, which is a neighborhood A young person was willing to do some shopping for me just for some fresh food, fresh goods, and left them outside and cleaned the bag and everything.
So we're doing all the right stuff.
So that's what I did.
But I also have some resources and some capacity.
I'm not so old I can't take care of stuff.
So I think it's up to people who know them.
I think you have a lot of people knocking on neighbors' doors.
Of course, all the relatives are checking with the older relatives.
But there's still going to be some people that slip through the cracks.
So I don't know exactly how they get help, but I hope everybody has at least somebody who's young and capable that they can call and say, what should I do?
But yeah, it's a big problem.
But it's in the category of things that I think we can rise to that occasion.
So it's really just...
Yeah, and we've got an app here called Nextdoor, which I always recommend, because the Nextdoor app, if I put, you know, that I've got a chair I want to sell, if in five minutes, you know, ten people said, hey, I'll take a chair, and, you know, if you say you need a babysitter or something like that, you just get immediate responses from your local area.
So that would be a great way, but then again, you'd have to be Clever enough to load an app and know how to use it.
So that eliminates a lot of people.
All right. Good question.
Thanks. Let me take another caller here.
We're going to go for Pedro.
Pedro has been patiently waiting.
Pedro, can you hear me? Pedro disappeared.
He was not as patient as I hoped.
All right. How about Joyce?
Joyce, let's see if you can hear me.
Joyce, can you hear me? Good, good.
How are you, and do you have a question?
Yes, I just learned something tonight, and I wondered if you knew it, because I never really heard it.
The virus out there is not COVID-19.
The virus that's stalking us is a SARS virus.
Is a what? SARS. SARS? Okay, go ahead.
It's SARS-CoV-2.
That's the virus that's talking us.
COVID-19 is the disease that it causes.
That's the disease name.
Did you know that?
I knew that there was a distinction between the disease and the name vaguely, but I wasn't paying too much attention to it.
But yes, it's good to know.
I've seen it written as SARS-CoV-2.
COVID-19, so I figured that was how the scientists were talking about it.
All right. Thanks for that.
Thank you. Let's see what else we can learn today.
Maybe we'll talk to...
How about Perry?
Perry. Perry, can you hear me?
Perry? Hi.
Do you have a question for me?
Well, I do, but also a comment on a few things that you've mentioned.
I need to exacerbate your human ingenuity because I'm a public health nurse in California and I cannot believe what our county is doing for the homeless.
Like you said, It's amazing what humans can do.
And we are popping up a tent tomorrow to isolate the homeless from the well ones to the sick ones.
I want everybody to be reassured that you cannot even imagine what public health has been doing behind the scenes.
So that's number one.
I'm working all day tomorrow.
I've been working all week. Unfortunately, my kid's home alone, which stinks.
But it's amazing what's happening.
I want everybody to be very reassured how incredibly safe and the extra care given to homeless folks.
Wow, that is terrific to hear.
I had not heard that from any other source.
So thank you for that.
And I think everybody here would join me in thanking you for your public service because You know, we're all, I think, pretty much uniformly in awe of how brave you have to be to run toward this thing.
And all of you folks are running toward it.
And believe me, we appreciate it.
We appreciate it like crazy.
It's getting easier. It's getting easier because of the more information we're getting and there's hope and faith in these medications that are coming out.
I am not nearly as worried as I was 24 hours ago or 48 hours ago.
And my co-workers feel the same.
Now is that because you have, say, more direct information about these drugs working?
Or are you working off of the news reports like the rest of us?
Okay, both.
Because I also have been in close contact with...
with our director of public health and my supervisor who have changed their tone whereas last Thursday was a totally different freak out looking face on my supervisor versus now today and in the text constantly all for the last 24 hours have been the whole tone has changed it's completely changed they're not as worried it's more like We're excited to get this taking care of and we're going to be done in like a month or two.
That's what it is now.
A month or two would be terrific.
I've been predicting that wherever the experts are in terms of how long it will take to get back on our feet, however you want to define that, getting back on our feet.
My prediction was going to be probably left of everybody's, meaning the shortest.
So I think we're going to surprise on the good side.
And one of the things that, to your point about people being more optimistic and the attitudes change, I think that's entirely true of the people who are really paying attention, and for the reason you said, because the The meds that we're hearing about seem pretty good, but it's such a different feeling to know that you have a path versus not knowing what's going to happen.
I think we went from not knowing what do you do, how do we get to a vaccine before the casualties are too high, to now we kind of know exactly what to do.
The fact that it's going to be crazy hard It still changes your psychology because if you say, I know how to get to the other side, it's going to be crazy hard, I say, when do I start?
Crazy hard is not my problem.
Staying alive is my problem.
I'll take crazy hard.
If that's all it takes, it's just crazy hard, okay.
Give me crazy hard. I think that's where people are at right now, which is, yeah, we have a path.
We know what to do. Each of us know how to do our part.
People are being pretty darn good on the whole.
You've got some bad actors, of course, who are never going to follow directions.
But overall, the public has been spectacular, I think.
We're absolutely in the right direction now.
I feel like it turned a corner sometime yesterday, it felt like to me.
Is that what it felt like to you?
Yes, exactly.
24 to 48 hours ago.
And maybe it wasn't the medication stuff.
I think also everybody in my department and at our clinic, because we did a pop-up thing in the front, so we're screening everybody, including employees.
And now that we've got this plan in place for this pop-up for the homeless in the community, which is my...
My jurisdiction, it's such a calming feeling knowing that it's getting taken care of.
Everybody's coming together and now there's a plan.
That's great. And the hidden benefit, it's too early to crow about how good this is, but I'll do it anyway.
The stuff that we're learning from this is what's going to keep us from it being so bad the next time.
It's hard to feel that we're so far ahead.
But I would argue already it's inevitable that on the other end of this we're way hardened for the same risk and we'll learn a lot.
So thank you so much for that input.
I really appreciate it. And stay safe.
All right.
Take care. Bye. That was really good input.
Let's see what Pedro has to say.
Pedro, are you there?
Hi, Pedro. Do you have a question for me?
Yes. Well, first of all, thank you for the...
I'm here. Can you hear me?
Yeah, yes. Go ahead. Yes.
First of all, thank you for the great broadcast.
I love your book, God's Debris.
Thank you. Do you see any changes in geopolitical relations with this?
Specifically U.S.-China relations and other countries?
Yeah, I think this guarantees that we're going to pull our supply chain back from China.
Now, certainly, at least the important stuff.
Now, we might not do it, you know, overnight.
It might take a while.
But I would say it's a guarantee at this point that we're going to pull back our manufacturing for strategic and other reasons, economic.
And that's gigantic.
That's about the biggest change you could ever imagine would happen.
So at the very least, the China situation will change substantially.
I think that's a guarantee.
Everything else could go back to something close to normal in terms of relationships.
I was surprised to see that Mexico seems to be willing to close down its border.
I don't know what that means for illegal immigration.
But, you know, you always get good and bad out of this.
People will work well together and we'll bond them.
Maybe some countries won't work well together and they'll get angry.
You know, Iran is another wild card because if Iran doesn't get on top of it, you know, they could be losing a few Ayatollahs and that could change what it looks like there.
So I understand that Joe Biden is essentially in seclusion And his aides are wearing gloves and masks even to come into the room.
But, you know, people are at risk, and he's certainly in that age that's at extra risk.
All right, thanks for the questions.
Thank you. Let's see who else looks interesting.
I think, let's bring in Nils.
Nils, are you there?
No. Nils is not.
But let's pick Tyler.
Tyler. Talk to me, Tyler.
Can you hear me, Tyler? What's your question?
Yes, dude. Done.
When everything calms down a little bit.
Is the whole idea of doubling going to become a lot easier?
Like, you've got to think...
People are going to be asking a lot of questions after all.
This has calmed down.
Yeah, I think the decoupling is guaranteed.
I was just telling the last caller.
So yeah, I don't think the relationship with China and the United States will ever be the same, and that's probably good, because where it was was not where we wanted it to be.
So President Trump did a lot to move it.
The virus will do a lot more to move it.
Yeah, it's going to be a different world in a little while.
All right, thanks for the question.
Let's see who else is here.
Fernando. Fernando.
Fernando. Fernando.
Fernando, can you hear me?
I can. Do you have a question for me?
Yeah. I loved your book, How to Fail Almost Everything, so I'm wondering if at one point in your life you had to start a new venture Well, I've started businesses in good times and bad, and usually the only thing that matters is whether the idea is good.
So there are definitely a whole bunch of opportunities opening up right now, but they might look different from the ones from two months ago.
So there are definitely people getting rich.
Right now. Some for good reasons, maybe some for not.
But I would say, you know, this is a little hiccup, so you're not going to get much done for the next month or so.
But I think everything will be fine.
And I think that good ideas will still win, and bad ideas won't.
But I always recommend looking at it as a numbers game, which is...
That there are a certain number of things you're going to try in your life, and most of them won't work.
Most of the people you fall in love with won't love you back.
Most of the jobs you apply for you won't get.
I mean, some people will, but in general, life is a big old failure machine, and every once in a while you hit it.
You get that job, you find that person.
So I don't think it's much different in good times or bad.
If you've got a good idea, it's going to work in good times or bad.
So that's the best I can do.
I don't know if that helps, but thanks for the question.
Alright. Let's see.
Let's bring on Kim, who has been patiently waiting.
Kimmy, can you hear me?
I can. Do you have a question?
Yes, I do. Well, I don't know if it's a question, but it's kind of like I haven't seen it anywhere.
I'm a retired RN. And I've been sidelined for about 10 years because I have fibromyalgia.
I am not in a risk group or anything, but I'm 60 years old, so I'm staying at home.
Here's my question.
Out of the positives, I am not seeing anywhere what percentage of those positives are requiring hospitalization?
And what percentage of people that are staying at home and self-care?
I believe I saw that statistic, and I don't want to guess in public, but I will, just between us, if you all promise.
Okay, well, I just saw the same number I was going to give.
It just went by in the comments.
Somebody said 20%.
I think I saw 16% somewhere.
Somebody said 18% to 20%.
So it's in that range.
But it probably also greatly depends what country, what age, and all that stuff.
Specifically speaking of the United States.
Yeah, I don't know that I've seen it for the United States.
Maybe our numbers aren't big enough.
And I would also think...
That the percentage of people who were hospitalized might change based on how much capacity we have.
In other words, if somebody's like, well, I don't know, maybe we hospitalize them, maybe we don't.
As long as you have capacity, you're going to hospitalize them.
But as soon as it gets constrained, that same person, you're going to be, well, maybe they could work it out at home, but we don't have any beds anyway.
Maybe we send this one home.
So that's going to play with the statistics as well, just the availability of beds.
So that's a good question.
In fact, there are a number of facts that I think the public would like to know.
For example, if I had a little dashboard where I could watch how we're doing against this thing to make myself feel better, I'd like to see how many...
I'll just use one example.
How many N95 masks do we need How many do we have?
And how many are in the pipeline?
And how many will be in the pipeline in three weeks?
So you can sort of visually see what's happening.
And are there two companies that are trying to crank up to make more masks?
Or are there 25 different companies that are making masks?
And were there five yesterday, but today we've got 25 because we're just spitting them up like crazy?
I'd love to know that.
I'd love to know what the food industry thinks is the realistic time before there's enough toilet paper for all.
Oh, I'd like to know.
And even where does it come from?
I don't even know. Is it all American trees?
Why don't I know this?
Is our toilet paper from China?
Our toilet paper comes from China?
No, I'm asking. Well, it feels like that wouldn't make sense because we'd have to...
Wouldn't we be shipping lumber over there?
I don't know. I'm just making fun.
I'm sitting here thinking, you know, I live alone.
I have two toilets. I have six rolls of toilet paper.
I think I'm okay.
And if push comes to shove, I've got washcloths, and I have a washer and dryer, you know?
I don't think the whole hoarding toilet paper for a respiratory infection.
All right. Well, we're all set.
So thanks for the question.
Talk to you later. All right.
Let's see. Let's take at least one more.
See how we feel.
I'm going to take Prince here.
Prince. Prince Aki, can you hear me?
My pleasure.
Do you have any questions? I do.
My question is, we've seen kind of some Really good connections from both sides across the...
Hello? Yeah, go ahead.
Prince, can you...
Oh, sorry, man. There was some lag going on.
Yeah, so basically, Trump and the Democrats have been kind of on better terms nowadays.
And do you think it's going to be...
Well, I think I caught your question before you got disconnected there.
So yes, it does seem like at least some of the Democrats are working well with the President, willing to praise him for his effort, etc.
Will it last?
Probably not. You know, I think that it probably won't.
But I think it's really smart for Democrats to read the room properly.
And I think the smartest ones are the ones who are saying, Yes, the president's doing a good job.
Now, partly, if they say he's doing a good job, he's probably going to be a little more helpful to the state that says he's doing a good job, because it's human nature, right?
So they may be just playing the odds.
It's like, well, we better say this guy's doing a good job, so we get his stuff.
Or it could be that they're just patriots.
And they know that complaining about stuff isn't going to make anything better, because I'm sure they're complaining privately about anything they're not getting.
But it looks like the cooperation between the states and the federal government is excellent at the moment.
So, no, I don't think it'll last, but I think the Democrats are smart to judge the mood of the country that we're not looking for political infighting at the moment.
And so I think that they're going to be able to say, look, I'm not always political.
You saw that last time that I agreed with President Trump, and that proves that I can't.
So it's not all political, and now let me tell you all the ways that I disagree with him and why he shouldn't be president, etc.
So I think it's just smart politics by Ilhan Omar and anybody else who agreed with the president.
It's good for the country, and it's smart politics.
Let's take another one.
Let's see who else wants to talk to me.
Huey. Looks like he has a question.
Huey, do you have a question?
Huey? Question for me?
Yes, hi. I've been in quarantine for a while now and got me thinking a lot about the topic of free will.
So the basic idea is that with the law of physics, there could only be cause and effect.
So my question is, can you imagine some sort of mechanism that would allow for free will to be a thing?
You're saying a mechanism that would create free will?
Yeah, well, so cause and effect is why flu isn't a thing in our cases.
So let's say they're an original species that created our simulation, for example.
So would they have a mechanism that would allow for them to have free will?
Is that possible? So let's say it was a simulation.
Well, I guess the question is, is the simulation just simulations, or are people inhabiting the simulated creatures?
In other words, if I Am I a simulation, but there's a real intelligence that's sort of using me like a fun ride and just experiencing my world through my eyes, but really somebody else is driving the car up there.
What was your question?
It was if we would have free will programmed in.
Well, free will doesn't make sense logically, so I don't think you can program something that doesn't even make sense.
So I guess that's my answer.
I could say more about that, but the bottom line is that something causes everything.
So the most you could do is build in ignorance so people didn't know why things were happening, but that wouldn't be free will.
You could build in randomness, an actual random number generator and I don't think there's anything that is free will and therefore it can't be programmed.
It's not an even internally consistent concept that makes any sense.
I would accept the idea that free will will never be a thing for human species, but how about the original species that created us, like our creator, the simulation creator, or however we might want to call it.
Do they have free will?
Well, it's turtles all the way down, right?
Because if physics is a thing in our world, whether we're simulated or not, we have these constraints of physics, you would expect that whoever was above us would have some kind of physical laws.
So the only way that could not be true is if the laws of physics are different, but I guess you couldn't rule that out.
I just don't know what it would look like logically.
If you take cause and effect out of the universe, I don't know what it looks like, so I don't know what's left.
So I can't say, well, if you just remove this, then everything would be fine and you'd have free will.
I just think it would just be nonsense without cause and effect.
All right, thanks for the question. Thank you.
We're dealing with the big questions today.
Let's talk to Kevin.
Kevin, can you hear me?
Do you have a question? Kevin, can you hear me?
Hi. What's your question, Kevin?
I saw a tweet that was liked by Naval and it was some guy who was basically suggesting that there may be way more people infected by this thing than we think because so few are being tested.
So he was like citing some data from Iceland.
I just wanted your opinion on that.
If you thought that it's possible that basically this thing has a way lower Yeah, I was asking this question the other day.
So this is a thought experiment.
Based on the information that we have and we can have now, how would we know the difference between a flu that was extra deadly, meaning it killed a high percentage of people, versus a flu that was extra mild, It was way more viral.
In other words, if 1,000 people get it but only 10% die, that's still more deadly.
That would be a mild flu because those numbers are not mild, but you know what I'm talking about.
If it was more deadly but not many people got it, you could end up with a lower death count.
I think that was the case with Ebola and stuff.
I'm not a scientist and I can't answer this question so I'll just say that as an observer how could you possibly rule out that it's a mild flu that just kicks some people's butts but way more people have gotten it that didn't have any kind of reaction at all.
Now that doesn't explain though why all the emergency rooms are overloaded everywhere.
Because, you know, it just seems like the effect of this is worse than regular flus.
But, you know, we often talk about the fact that the regular flu kills lots of people and you don't hear about it.
So what if we heard about it?
You know, what would that look like?
Now, I'm not going to make the mistake of comparing this to a regular flu.
I think that's the big mistake.
But there's certainly a lot we don't know about it.
I will agree with Naval.
I'm not sure what he said, so I'm not going to say this is agreeing.
I'll just give my opinion. My opinion is that there's a certainty that there's way more of it than we know.
I would say that's a certainty.
I don't know how that could not be the case.
But that doesn't mean it's good news or bad news.
It just means we'll find out more and the problem is what the problem is.
Now, the other thing that I've been hearing, I don't know how reliably, because I'm not a doctor, But that the viral load makes a big difference.
So if you get a whole bunch of it, and at the time of infection, you're sort of marinating it, you get a worse case of it.
So what if the nature of this thing is that it's mild, but it's also cumulative?
So that would mean that if you were just, you know, you had a grazing, if you were glanced, a glancing blow of the virus, you just got a little bit of it, Your body would adapt in time before the virus got to big enough numbers.
But what if it's really subject to a ventilation problem?
Maybe that's its weird characteristic, that if you're in a nursing home or on a ship or something that shares ventilation or just in close quarters, that's the problem.
And so it could be I'm not sure if this is even a thing, because would you call it a weak virus if getting a little bit of it didn't take you out, but marinating it is deadly?
Is that a thing? Is that different than other viruses?
Would that be true of every other virus?
Well, it probably has to do with Whether it's airborne and whether it's a lung infection and stuff like that.
But anyway, there are too many variables to quite know what's going on yet because it's probably going to be some interplay of lots of variables.
Anyway, thanks for the question.
Let's see what else we got going here.
Okay, RK, coming at you.
Yeah.
RK, can you hear me?
RK, can you hear me?
Do you have a question? The brief statement is earlier you were asking about chloroquine and prophylaxis.
The quinine only works once your immune system has triggered and started to develop antibodies for it.
That's why they don't want you taking it beforehand.
But let me ask you this question.
If you had it in your body, It would be doing nothing, nothing, nothing until you got infected and then it would already be there so it could jump right in.
But there are better medications that are out there.
I don't want to go too much into them.
By the way, my background is biochemistry and physical chemistry.
Anyway, that's just a comment.
Once you've started to develop antibodies, the quinine reduces a transmitter called the interleukine series, and it reduces three of them that are all affected by corona, the disease, and it brings them down.
So that reduces the spread, and your antibody system can wipe down.
So... Just to clarify, if I already had it in my body and then I got infected, it wouldn't stop me from getting infected, but it would already be in my body, so it would more immediately address the infection.
Would that be fair to say? Yes, but you've got to make certain that your body is actually responding to the infection.
Otherwise, your viral load will just continue to increase.
Okay. Anyway, that was my statement.
The question is this.
So it looks like the Senate plan for stimulus checks has come out.
And I know that you had been arguing for everybody to go through and get a check.
It looks like it's going to be a four-tiered system.
If you didn't If you didn't file in 2018, you're not going to get a check at all.
So that's people on Social Security who make less than $25,000, the homeless, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
If you make more than, I don't remember what the number is, $100,000 or something is the cutoff, then you won't be.
And if you make under $45,000 or something, then you're going to get a half-size check.
I just wanted to get your opinion On that and if you had seen that data that had been reported yet.
Well, you know, the suggestion that I saw somebody else make was Wall Street Playboys.
That's the name of the Twitter feed.
And the suggestion was so simple that I was angry at myself for not having thought of it.
Because the problem is people say, well, if you base it on last year's tax returns, That may not tell you about this year.
I might have had a different job.
I could be unemployed.
There could be lots of difference, so that's a terrible way to go.
But the suggestion was this.
Give every person the same amount of money, and then when it's tax time, The people like me, who didn't deserve the money, would pay 100% tax.
I'd just give it back. In the meantime, I probably spent it, but I'll still give back that same amount when I pay the taxes because I can afford it.
I thought to myself, that is the cleanest, simplest thing I can say.
You don't have to decide who gets it.
You just give it to everybody, and then you claw it back.
At tax time for just the rich who are used to, you know, used to filling out deductions.
They have long forms and stuff.
And it would be no pain.
There would be no extra work on my part.
You know, my accountant, I would hand my accountant my paperwork like always.
And then my accountant would know that she should account for that and deduct it.
And then I would get a big pile of paper and then I would sign it.
No work whatsoever.
Now, in the meantime, The government sent that $1,000, but it comes back in a year.
We could probably make that work.
And I thought that is absolutely the fairest because it's based on what your actual taxes were.
And you don't have to say, yeah, but last year, this year, that's not fair.
That's about as fair as you can get.
And then if you're doing it for your taxes, you can make it infinitely...
You could say, if you make this much, you get this much.
If you make this much, you get this much.
You don't have to have just three categories.
Then people feel like they got screwed if they were, you know, I was right close to the line, I was right on the line, and then I didn't get anything.
So you don't want that.
So you just add more gradations.
Do it on your taxes. It's just easy and automatic and the accountant takes care of it and it's nothing.
One industry that people have kind of ignored is really getting hit hard and that's the rental industry.
I had to try and rent a wheelchair Yeah.
talking about but it's been a big impact.
Yeah, I worry that there are probably 200 job types in industries that are big ones that we're not talking about.
Because, you know, you think automatically of a restaurant, for example.
So there's something you just think of.
But, like, I spent exactly zero time thinking about the rental industry.
But you're right, that's going to get whacked.
But it'll be fine as soon as we get the virus under control.
I think that'll all snap back.
So thanks for the question. That's it.
Appreciate it. All right.
All right. One more.
Then we've got to go to bed. How about...
How about Curtis?
Curtis? Curtis, do you have a question?
Tonight, actually.
I'm a waiter in Nashville, and tonight was essentially the last night that I'll have working for a while, and Something that I like to say that makes you optimistic is when people are people, people being people, and the amount of generosity.
The size of, you know, tips and things like that that people had and stuff was just really amazing.
And even though, you know, there's kind of worry ahead about things like that in the next coming weeks, it really gave a lot of encouragement to people that need it.
And it was really kind of an incredible night, even though it should have been sad.
It really didn't feel that way.
Yeah, you know, there is something to be said about the...
Just the way everybody feels in the public spirit.
I saw the caller just disappeared.
But yeah, thanks for that story.
People are stepping up and they're not going to stop until we get things right.
So let me see if people are asking me to add Kevin Ford.
And I don't know if Kevin is still here or if he went away.
I'm just scanning to see if I see him on the list here.
I do not see Kevin Ford on the list, so I think he went away.
Anyway, but I'm sure...
Oh, Kevin's back.
All right, Kevin? Kevin, what do you got for me?
You know? What do you got, Kevin?
Sorry. No, I'm just making sure you hear me.
All right. All right.
I don't have a major position in the hospital.
I really don't know how to begin here.
I'll just give you, from where I was at, I'd say, the beginning of last week to where I am now.
Okay. Beginning of last week, you know, there were rumors.
Oh, you know, what's going on?
What's going to happen? I've been watching your videos every day, and I've seen it go negative, I've seen it go positive.
Takes me to last Friday, a week from today, last Friday, and we started a no-implement visitor policy going on, taking major precautions at our hospital.
This is Northeast Massachusetts.
I work within the hospital.
I don't want to say what position, just because I don't know what sort of, you know, things I'm breaking here in terms of rules.
But over the weekend, I heard we had eight cases, supposedly.
That's what they told us. Wait, over the weekend what?
Over the weekend, from Friday to when I came back to work on Monday, I was told on Friday we had zero cases, on Monday we had eight.
Okay. By Wednesday, seven were gone home and one was left.
And then, you know, I begin to listen to...
Your theories and your positivity.
And I have family that's also within major hospitals in Boston.
And they have lower numbers than we have.
I'm at a very small hospital in terms of what we're at in Boston.
And for the most part, everybody's being pretty much sent home.
I mean, and I don't know what it means, you know, to the...
Sorry, I'm just...
I didn't expect to really get called upon.
I thought I was going to be sent off here, but...
Kevin, I would imagine it's entirely dependent on location.
I heard from somebody earlier today who was waiting four hours in a line for the emergency room.
It was a four-hour wait.
I don't know if that's typical or untypical, but I've got to imagine there's some that have no impact, literally none, and some that are already starting to strain.
But thank you, Kevin, for the input.
I appreciate that very much.
All right, people. On that note, we are going to take off.
It would be easy to be fooled by any anecdotal information, especially if you hear that some young person died.
I think you have to take all that with a grain of salt because I don't know how many times young people just sort of die from regular flus and other things.
So out of context, it's not telling you as much as you think it is.
You've got to kind of wait for the pros to sum everything up and give you some statistics.
So don't get frightened by anecdotes.
Wait for the pros to just give you the cold, hard statistics.
And I think those will improve over time as well.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this.
And I hope it allows you to drift off to sleep.
Everything's going to be fine.
It really will. It's just a matter of time.
Humans, we're pretty good at this stuff.
And we're going to be on top of this by the end of the week.
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