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Swine Flu Snafu
428 Plays2 years ago
In 1976 Gerald Ford and his administration fast tracked a swine flu #vaccine hoping to avoid another #globalpandemic like the one in 1918. It went pretty poorly. We're here to chat about it.
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Transcript
Humorous Beginnings with Hair Helmets
00:00:00
Speaker
Thank God they weren't in there when I was actually pooping. It's good that nobody was in there, it sounds like. Yeah. John's moving his hair grow helmet. That's how he was doing. Hey John, do you put that helmet on your beard? I think you're wearing it wrong. No, I put it on my balls. Because as I've said many times in this program, I have a receding ball line and I'm a little insecure about it.
00:00:28
Speaker
You just need to get yourself a merkin. The problem with a merkin is it falls off every time you get into the action. Oh, yeah. You got to staple that thing. It's the only way it works. When you and none of your closest guy friends are making a human centipede with your pain issues, a merkin's not going to stick. They're not rated for that. Nine. That's aggressive.
Introduction to 'History Defeats Itself'
00:00:59
Speaker
History Defeats Itself is a comedy podcast. Kevin, John, and Greg are not experts, historians, or even all that smart. Hello and welcome to History Defeats Itself. I just realized I didn't do like a preview. Or like a, um, I don't have my notes up.
00:01:22
Speaker
I don't know who you guys are. If I don't have stuff in front of me, what the hell? Hello, and welcome to Kevin Rosenquist's Kevin Rosenquist Hour, an hour with Kevin Rosenquist. Hello, and welcome to the Joe Rogan Show. We're going to talk about mushrooms, psychedelics, and MMA. I'm going to tell you all sorts of conspiracy theories that aren't true, but you're going to believe. Special guest, Kanye West.
00:01:52
Speaker
Today we're going to talk about being wrongfully canceled. My guest today, Kanye West, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk.
Podcast Format Explained
00:02:05
Speaker
Welcome to History Defeats Itself, a comedy podcast that looks at events or people from the past and wonders, why do we never learn from our history? Only one of us knows the topic and the other two don't do shit. They are in the dark learning along with you. My name is Kevin, and as always, I am joined by my good friends, John and Greg.
00:02:24
Speaker
Guys, what's wrong with Greg? He got really dark. There he is. I turned off my light for effect that I'm in the dark. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Now you're good. Now you're light. Yeah. You're a beacon of light. I don't know the topic yet. Oh, well, you're no longer blurry either. That is weird. Who was the light the whole time? How does that make sense? I don't think it does.
00:02:47
Speaker
We're on a rock going at like 23,000 miles per hour per second or something, so it's fine. Okay. Per hour per second. No difference. It's the same thing. Here's the thing. If you hop off this planet and try to run beside it, you will die in space. How are you guys? I'm doing really good.
00:03:08
Speaker
I'm doing really well as well. Are you? Yeah, sure. Sure. I have COVID, so I'm not doing great. Well, Kevin, I don't think anyone asked you how you were doing. Greg just did. I did. I'm sorry. I don't listen to Greg. You don't listen to Greg and you listen to me, but you just don't care.
00:03:27
Speaker
Yeah, which makes it very confusing for me. I never know what we're talking about. So Kevin's here to tell you that COVID's not real. Nope. Conspiracy theory. Doesn't have any symptoms. Nope. I feel great. But haven't you been vaxxed and boosted, Kevin? So obviously that doesn't work.
00:03:47
Speaker
Weren't you breastfed? So I don't understand how you could have COVID. How can you have COVID and banks? That's these questions and more on 60 Minutes.
Cannabis Conversations: Smoking vs Edibles
00:04:00
Speaker
History defeats itself.
00:04:03
Speaker
I like it, Craig. That's good. Andy Rooney. Man, somebody in my building just fucking smoked the biggest joint ever. I can smell it coming in through my door. Is it you, John? No, it's not. Somebody in this chair just smoked the biggest... Somebody in my apartment is smoking weed. He just exhales this gigantic plume of smoke. I've been holding in for the last 10 minutes.
00:04:28
Speaker
Like dude, you're gonna get so fucking high I get so high that all you can talk about is how high you are I do not I don't like smoking It's weird like edibles do not make me I like weed. I don't want anyone to think this listening to us I don't like weed. Yeah, nobody wants nobody wants to feel someone's gonna be pissed. That's it. I'm turning this off
00:04:45
Speaker
But edibles, I feel fantastic with edibles. When I smoke now, I don't need more because I get super paranoid, anxious. I guess anxious. I don't get paranoid about anything. I'm not afraid of anything that's going on. But I just get super anxious about everything. All I want to hear about is your fucking anxiety.
00:05:02
Speaker
I feel like they're a little more unpredictable like I can I can kind of set my watch to smoking a little bit easier whereas with it with edibles I told John the same thing the other day because I feel the same way it's just kind of like drinking you know exactly how buzzed or drunk you're gonna get by how much you're putting in your body and an edible is kind of like
Adventures in Homemade Edibles
00:05:25
Speaker
Hey, here you go. But what he said was, you know what, the signs have really improved lately. And I find that the milligrams on the gummies are so accurate. So I know exactly what's going to happen when I talk about weed like this because it's.
00:05:40
Speaker
It's also kind of dopey. Yeah, it's kind of dopey. When I used to make my own, oh, that shit was like, I would do little slivers, because I don't know. There was no science behind it. I just took all the wheat I had left over and all the joints, all the roaches, put them in a thing, made some butter, and then made fucking cookies, right? I don't know. I don't know what's in there. But this, it's like, I know it's five milligrams, like the thing I buy, it's like they're five milligrams a piece. I take two of them.
00:06:06
Speaker
It's fucking in an hour. It's going to hit me. It's going to last about three and a half hours. And then I'm going to fall asleep on the couch. So and then I'll wake up at two confused, not understanding what happened. How I ended up on the couch because I don't remember falling asleep. And then I'll go to my bed and then I won't be able to go back to sleep. And then I think that I think that.
00:06:26
Speaker
Present you should make a video for future you and let you know. Hey, man. This is okay You're gonna wake up confused and not what's going on and then like you have a video yourself like eating that Go to the computer and on the computer it says play me Yeah, but what the video has to be is it has to be you and like like be like John? Shit has gone down man. Just really freak yourself out
00:06:52
Speaker
I like it, yeah. Yeah, but he just said edibles don't really make him paranoid. I mean, if I did, yeah, edibles, no, I'm going to be scared. So yeah, seriously, stone cold sober. You'd be like, uh, what the fuck? I call you guys. Bill, you got to get out of your houses. They're coming to get you. Is that the plot for
Critique of Found Footage Films
00:07:12
Speaker
Cloverfield? Uh, I think it's the purge. Oh.
00:07:16
Speaker
I was watching Cloverfield again the other day. And man, when you get to be my age, it just makes you dizzy. It's too shaky. Yeah, I agree. It was a good concept. It was like one of those. It just kind of went. That whole found footage thing got a little bit overdone. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But the writing was amazing. Yeah. Right. It was good. John Goodman was like, I was like, I didn't know
00:07:38
Speaker
He was in the second one, though. Are you talking about the second one? I am talking about the second one. The second one wasn't found footage, was it? No, it wasn't. That was Cloverfield Lane, I think, or something. But it was supposed to be related, wasn't it? Yeah. It's happening on the same day. That's a really good movie. You're right. Cloverfield... I'm sorry, you're right. That was like, same people did Blur Witch, right? Or same feeling of Blur Witch. Yeah.
00:07:58
Speaker
Right, and paranormal activity and racking. Because it's like, here's the thing, right? So if the world just got attacked by aliens, right, and it's from this person's perspective, who's left to watch this film? Is it the aliens watching the film? And also there's the whole thing of like, why are you filming everything?
00:08:16
Speaker
Well, you're supposed to be running for your friggin life. Yes. Or hiding. I like to hide and
Navigating Social Media
00:08:22
Speaker
fetal. Hide and fetal position. That is, and then just close your eyes, you pretend like nothing's happening and nothing bad will happen. You pee yourself, you get nice and warm. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Follow us on Instagram on TikTok. Hashtag TikTok. And I think, did we get rid of our Twitter yet?
00:08:43
Speaker
I lost the password. Okay. Yeah. I can't get back on it. When I got a new phone, I couldn't get back in and I said, fuck it. Cause Twitter's a nightmare anyway. It is. Yeah. Especially bad now. Yeah. Yeah. It was never great. No, it was never great. I was never my thing. I never really liked it. I did it for a while and I wasn't a huge fan. You did too, Greg. I remember we both, we both were. You had your taco truck thing. I never, I never really got into it.
00:09:09
Speaker
But you know me, I'm a terrible speller. I'm not a wordsmithie, so... You're not a wordsmithie, by any means. I am not. No. I am not. But you're very handsome. Oh, thank you. I feel very handsome. That takes you far in life.
Beard Growth and Self-Employment Freedom
00:09:22
Speaker
It does. It really does. Farther than being wordsmithie. Oh my god, so much further. I like how he was trying to counteract his handsomeness by putting a huge beard on his face. Do you know why I'm growing this beard? Do we really have to answer? I mean, am I asking you a question? I thought it was hypothetical. Do you know why?
00:09:40
Speaker
I don't. Can someone tell me why am I growing this beard? So you really don't know? I really don't know. I just kind of, you know what it like, it was like, I just, I'm not going ZZ. But I just, because I can never, I've always, I've been in sales my whole life, right? And so I could never just, huh? You're still in sales. Well, yeah, but, but, but now I work for myself and the people I do business with don't give a shit if I have a beard, right? Like I keep it neat. I keep it, you know, it's like, I'm not going out looking like a homeless guy, but it's like,
00:10:07
Speaker
But I just, I wanna see, do I look like a homeless guy? You made a face, Kevin. You look like a homeless guy who recently got a trim. I mean, and an apartment and a job. Mostly just a trim. But I'm literally in an apartment. I have no way of knowing if that's yours. That could be one of those backgrounds that they have, you know? Yeah, the John Banks background. That'd be pretty cool if I could just switch my backgrounds, exactly.
00:10:37
Speaker
Actually would be pretty good way to do that. That would be awesome All right, so I'm gonna have to take frequent cough breaks so I'll have to go and say just like they did in Jurassic Park Just because you can Doesn't mean you should mmm. Mm-hmm. You don't like the beard Are you coughing?
00:11:03
Speaker
I'm glad that you feel happy. I'm just fucking with you, dude. Whatever makes you happy.
00:11:08
Speaker
Well, that's the thing is like, I don't like, cause it's weird. Cause it's like when the wind blows, you feel it. And then like, sometimes like I, sometimes I like lay on a pillow and I pull my beard hair. So it's like, it's getting to the bone where it's like a knowingly long, but I just, I want to see where it goes. I want to see what I could do with it. I don't know why. It's probably going to go down. Probably. Probably. It's going to curl up. Well, but it's also, it's like getting, it's getting like the longer it gets, the softer it gets. So that's also fascinating.
00:11:36
Speaker
I can never get past the super itchy stage. Yeah, yeah. Oh no, it's a bad stage. This is just like crazy. But I don't, that's because I have fleas. I'm a beard. I got scabies. Scabies. All right, if you guys are done talking about beards. I'm not. Face craps is what we call them. You're not? Nope. Well that's good because the topic today is beards. Why do we grow them? I don't know. I don't get it, but John does.
00:12:06
Speaker
All right, my turn to lead.
COVID Inspiration and Podcast Topic
00:12:08
Speaker
And as we discussed, I currently have COVID. And as I was lying in bed shivering and sweating and coughing so hard, I thought I would pop a lug again. I couldn't help but think about all the COVID deniers, people around the globe, people in Congress, media personalities, and even our own president at the time said it was either a hoax or just a simple flu. I can tell you for me, there was nothing simple about it. I was miserable.
00:12:34
Speaker
I'm still at the tail end of it. You still look miserable, too. Yes. That's mostly just because I've been listening to you guys talk about fucking beard for the last 10 minutes. Oh, okay. Well, but also, I don't think you turned that color from bat. Maybe you're bored.
00:12:48
Speaker
Right? Maybe your bangs get sweaty. But no, no, that color, that is a you are not well, sir. Yeah, I know. I know. But at least I'm drinking. That's true. Yeah. Well, and doctors do say cigarettes and beer. That's how you get better, especially with a with a with a global pandemic kind of virus. Yes. Yeah. A lung, especially with a lung virus smoke.
00:13:08
Speaker
But anyway, so I've never felt that sick as I was telling you guys earlier. I described it to my wife as like the worst sinus infection I've ever had. And I've had some doozies coupled with bronchitis. So yeah, fun times. But during one of my fever induced hallucinations, I remember thinking, maybe I can do a topic about this somehow without getting all heavy and political.
00:13:28
Speaker
So, I stumbled across an article about something I had not heard about, and you guys may have, but I had not heard about it, and I was kind of surprised that we've been in the middle of this pandemic for a while now, and I had not heard about this, but it intrigued me, so here we go. Is it foreplay? There's a joke in there somewhere.
1976 Swine Flu Vaccine Initiative
00:13:50
Speaker
Are you guys aware of when the Gerald Ford-led US government tried to fast-track a flu vaccine in 1976? Yes.
00:13:58
Speaker
No. Okay. I did not know anything about this. So John, take it away. All right. So in 1976, Henry Ford.
00:14:09
Speaker
Off to a great start. Yeah. Had started making cars out of chickens and that was getting everybody the flu. Bird flu. Also, he was a Nazi. Yeah, absolutely. A Nazi bird flu guy. Yep. So on February 4th of 1976. Right, it was February 4th. Sorry, I forgot that part.
00:14:30
Speaker
The number one song in America was Paul Simon's 50 ways to leave your lover. Give us a chance to guess Yeah, that's good question. Yeah, but I want I want to play that game the 12th Winter Olympics began I would have thought it was gonna be like Billy Joel. Don't go changing Rapper can I was born who? Cam run. Oh cool
00:14:54
Speaker
I don't know.
00:15:12
Speaker
Conducted a blood test Lewis had contracted a type of swine flu Thought at the time to be genetically close to the Spanish flu of 1918 which as we all know by now as well killed 650,000 Americans and up to 50 million people worldwide Bullshit it did if there's one thing I've learned about go that it's like there's been no previous Outbreaks of any kind of viruses that kill people The same people
00:15:41
Speaker
who shot the moon landing are the same people who did the articles in the 20s about the Spanish flu. It's big. Did that
Historical Skepticism in Vaccination
00:15:49
Speaker
pharma is I don't know who's. It's big microorganisms. So 11 other soldiers at Fort Dix tested positive for swine flu but recovered. Hundreds more tested positive for swine flu antibodies.
00:16:09
Speaker
Is it possible he died because he was in New Jersey? That's a good guess. That seems like just as good of a reason as the flu. I agree. Sorry people from New Jersey. I don't know why I did that. They know what they did. They know what they did. It's because you gave us that situation guy. Yeah, did a whole beach about your fucking shore.
00:16:35
Speaker
I like to watch that. The New York Times put on its front page that the virus that caused the greatest world epidemic of influenza in modern history, the pandemic of 1918 and 19, may have returned. That was understandably scary for people. Officials were worried about the spot
00:16:52
Speaker
about the swine flu returning in the fall, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, F. David Matthews, projected one million Americans would die in the 1976 flu season unless action was taken.
00:17:11
Speaker
So, here's a question for you. Do you think that, because by like 1976, there was still a lot of people alive who lived through and had a very good memory of the Spanish flu, right? Including David. Right. So I wonder if like, if that was, you know, because that was part of the thing too, is there's nobody alive.
00:17:32
Speaker
that experienced it, right? There was nobody to be like, you know, even though you can look at the history stuff, there was nobody saying like, oh, man, that was fucking terrible. We were pulling people out in the streets and just leave them there because we had nowhere to put them. Right. Versus. So do you think that's kind of like why people didn't panic as much with covid? It could be. I mean, Greg, I don't think so. OK, cool. I think people are just fucking idiots. I mean, yes.
00:17:54
Speaker
I think today's day and age, we just have distressed for, I think people just go backwards when something's supposed to be scary. You're like, Oh, this is supposed to kill me when they're fucking scaring us. They want our money. They want us to be sheep. And then when it can't kill you, like.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah, just doesn't fucking there's a way. All right. All right. Those people would have died anyway. They're attributing all these deaths, COVID, and they didn't really die from COVID. It was only old people. Right. They died from a lung problem that they got from COVID. Unrelated. Uh, did John go away for you too? He did. He froze and then he went away, which is kind of like he went into the permafrost.
Mass Vaccination Strategy and Challenges
00:18:46
Speaker
So the CDC director, David Sensor, determined there was a strong possibility of a swine flu pandemic and recommended a mass vaccination of US citizens. What could go wrong? Nothing. I think it's a good idea. One important thing to point out is that there were no other reported cases of swine flu outside of Fort Dix.
00:19:11
Speaker
But the decision to go with a, the decision was to go with a better, safe than sorry sort of approach. That's kind of strange. Yeah, I, I, yeah, I agree. I'm just like, you know, where'd it come from? Fort Dix was fucking around with something, man. What, the flu?
00:19:31
Speaker
Well, if it was only isolated to there, and it didn't really spread beyond that, it seems to me as though it's going to turn into one of those. Were you at Fort Dix in 1976? I was part of a class action lawsuit. Mythosimmonomius. If you or a loved one went to Fort Dix, contracted mesophyllioma, you may be entitled to compensation.
00:19:59
Speaker
Every piece of fiber from the asbestos had a little bit of Spanish flu on it. I think that's why we gotta close the borders. That's right. One more fucking Canadian comes into this goddamn country. Breathing Spanish stuff. Speaking their fucking...
00:20:20
Speaker
English. Speaking their northern stuff. The cutesy, unthreatening English. They're overly free on fries, which is delicious, but still. Bringing all their charming Ryans. We will fucking go to war. But they also brought us a Bieber. That wasn't cool. No, no. We can send him back. But we're keeping the Ryans, god damn it. Yeah, we can keep the Ryans.
00:20:45
Speaker
So, the administration can tolerate unnecessary health expenditures better than unnecessary deaths and illnesses, sensor wrote in a March 13th memo. Then President Gerald Ford didn't have much of an option. He couldn't be the president that did nothing while hundreds of thousands of people died on his watch. That wouldn't happen for another 44 years.
00:21:10
Speaker
I wrote that. That's good. I wasn't in the article that I'm plagiarizing. Worked out great. Like I workshopped that for a while. It's been a few days. Some guys at work. The COVID message board that I'm on.
00:21:28
Speaker
When Ford was presented with a $135 million plan to try and prevent another pandemic, he felt he had to move forward. Of course, it was also an election year. There was no way to go back on Sensors Memo, a presidential aide recalled. If we tried to do that, it would leak the memos a gun to our head.
00:21:49
Speaker
Here, I thought it was just a memo, but it's yeah. No, no, no, they walk by. They cut. They cut the shape of a gun. They're like, well, Penn is mightier than the sword. Gregory, to whom it may concern. Put this memo in your mouth. Dear diary, but Jerry here.
00:22:06
Speaker
It's weird right now. Don't know what to do. Pandemic, maybe, maybe not. Maybe a pandemic, maybe not. Don't know. But Ford held a press conference to talk about the mass vaccination plan. He had the two men who developed the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabine, standing on either side of him during the press conference. It's a pretty shrewd political move there. Yeah, yeah. That's smart. It is smart. Was Fauci there, too? Yeah, Fauci was there. Looked the same. It was really crazy.
00:22:38
Speaker
And CDC officials were more concerned about flu epidemics like the ones that happened in 1957 and 1968, but the administration really pushed the fear of another 1918. They had to stoke the right amount of fear to get people on board. You have to sell the sizzle. Yeah, a couple hundred thousand people dying is not worth it, but a million, then you're talking. Yes. Or else the tail's wagging the dog.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah. Oh yeah, that is a term, isn't it? It is. That's what it tell. Wags the dog. Thanks, John. You're welcome. So visual aid for those of you listening at home, please slide on over to YouTube and see the video. Was that a smooth plug? Was that a good transition? Yeah, that was good. That was good. I like the plug of the video. Yeah.
00:23:34
Speaker
So the National Swine Flu Immunization Program, as it became known, received bipartisan support from Congress.
00:23:41
Speaker
bipartisan, a term that we are pretty unfamiliar with today. Yeah, I don't know what that means. The plan was to buy 200 million doses of vaccines from drug companies and distribute them to state health agencies for free. This was obviously a huge undertaking. I mean, imagine trying to do all that without the technology that we had with COVID, you know, the apps and just the tracking and all that stuff. I mean, I can't even imagine how you keep tabs on how many people actually got it.
00:24:10
Speaker
I don't know how humans did anything before computers. I really, I don't know how we made it this far. I don't know if we get to the point where we could actually make something called a computer. Isn't it weird, we probably have talked about this on this show, but isn't it weird how like, like how did my dad know how to do shit? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's more of a kind of implication of him. Well, no, but I mean, don't, don't you look up stuff on YouTube when you need to fix something around the house? I know you do.
00:24:34
Speaker
We've talked about it. So he would call his dad. I need to call Bob. Yeah, that's how it works. Bobby. He didn't have this old house that probably didn't hurt, but at the same super drunk and I'm trying to install a refrigerator. I think it's just going to work, though. This is the 70s of her mother drinks all the time.
00:25:00
Speaker
I want you to just take that refrigerator and just push it where the old refrigerator was and plug it into your wall. Tell me what happens. Hey, Bob, the old refrigerator is still there. Oh, God. We'll start over. I dropped it on my wife. What do I do now, Bob? I did it on purpose accident. Oh, the 70s. Oh, the 70s. Just drinking and murdering wives.
00:25:29
Speaker
And your clothes are too tight. Like in the 70s, there's like everything's tight. But only like the waist to the knees. Past that, they're not too tight at all. That's true. That's true. And John's beard would not have flown. He would have had to just trim down. I'll just have that mustache. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is good because that's the only part of his facial hair that's actually black. That's true. Oh, yeah. Just do a mustache. Yeah, that'd be. Oh, that'd be. Oh, my God. You have to do that.
00:25:58
Speaker
So I'm gonna like I'm gonna shave it for the wedding and I'm gonna like play around like I'm not just gonna cut it off I'm gonna look different like as I start shortening it I'm gonna start like doing different things with it. You're gonna get married? Yeah. Oh I just assumed that ship had sailed. What do you mean? I don't know like you got engaged like seven years ago. Well because god damn it Kevin there was a pandemic.
00:26:24
Speaker
Like you couldn't like all those engagement Yeah, anyway, yeah, but yeah, I'm excited for you John. Thank you in 2024 22 2024. Yeah, that's so far away. That's so far away. I don't know if I'm gonna make it I Don't know if COVID doesn't get me before I die John
00:26:49
Speaker
I have one last wish to walk you down the aisle.
00:26:56
Speaker
My god, yes, please have Greg walk you down the aisle. Yes, we have to sell so yeah, Courtney's got to be standing at the altar Yes escort me down that she won't do it. She won't do it. She wants like a traditional thing. Oh, that's lame. So disappointing. I know Well, not real traditional but but that part. Yeah, she definitely wants to be You know, are you guys gonna step on the glass and everything? I think so. Yeah. Yeah It's only the dude that does that and they're gonna say
00:27:26
Speaker
Well, you said, are you guys? Well, fuck, I don't know. I've only been to like three Jewish weddings. I don't remember what happened. And then we're going to see Mazel Tov. And then we carry him around on a chair. I'll do what happens. Kanye walks in the middle. Kanye always does a toast at a Jewish wedding and it's always weird. I bet. Kanye, Kanye tries to put the glass back together. I'm ruining this wedding. So, all right. So anyway, so we're fast tracking this vaccine.
00:27:57
Speaker
Not surprisingly, there were some problems. One drug company produced two million doses with the wrong viral strain. Okay, that happens. That's not great. That's not great. And that's how Pringles were invented. And so just, I mean, this is back, right? They, they do the egg, right? They, they basically like each, it's like a live virus. They grow in an egg, like a chicken egg or something like that. John, only you know this. Yeah.
00:28:24
Speaker
I'm just trying to give context of like how would a fuck up that is. So you'd have two million eggs that are all the wrong vaccine. They were all wrong. That's for sure. All right. That's not good. They weren't able to develop tests that were effective for children to find out if they had it or not.
00:28:40
Speaker
In fairness, they were just kids. Who cares? Yeah, who cares? And because this whole thing was fast-tracked, they couldn't do the usual years of testing, so insurance companies refused coverage for vaccine makers in the case of adverse reactions. That's weird, because insurance companies are usually really cool. Yeah, they're for the people, by the people. Always for the people. Yep. Yep.
00:29:04
Speaker
All right, well, that's all I got. Thanks for listening. Three senior citizens died of heart attacks after getting the vaccine. And even though no direct link could be found, some states did suspend the program temporarily. Dozens of vaccine recipients were diagnosed with, see if you guys, John can help me pronounce this. Massachusetts, Massachusetts. Julian Barr syndrome, is that how you say it? That's how you say it, yes.
00:29:33
Speaker
There you go. Let John kind of... Yeah, that's what I wanted to hear. Anyway, it's a rare neurological disorder causing muscle weakness, tingling in the extremities and paralysis. Oh shit. Wait, I have that. That's just called being lazy. That's ASMR, right?
00:29:53
Speaker
That is the air. You guys ever sleep wrong and you wake up your hands asleep and stuff? Yeah, no. No, I've never had that happen. You've never had that? No, I don't know. Next time that happens, I'm going over and beating you with my dead hand. Yes, yeah, I've had that. Dude, did I tell you that my leg is numb since my surgery? You did tell me that. It's so much fun. When you told me that, I punched you in the leg. You didn't even notice. Didn't feel it at all. Super numb. Why is it fun?
00:30:20
Speaker
To be numb? Yeah. That was sarcasm. Oh, okay. Got it. Yeah. No, it's terrible. It's terrible. That probably isn't normal, right? Here's the thing. No. Well, no, it is normal. Yeah, it's normal. Yeah, you get numbness after surgeries. I mean, I've had surgeries. I don't remember numbness in my leg. I don't know. Can you call hair plugs a surgery?
00:30:40
Speaker
Just I only got him in the bangs though. You're like bald from the little thing. You can't see, you can see past my, past my headphones. Side effect of Kevin's hair transplants is being bald. I had a buddy that got hair transplants.
00:31:01
Speaker
when he was in his mid 20s and he's because his hair was thinking out really bad. And so, you know, they kind of just implanted them where he and that was like 15 years ago. And all the other hairs have fallen out. So now it looks like he's just got his hair transplants and not. So he looks terrible. Can you take him out?
00:31:22
Speaker
Like, murder him? That's extreme, but I've thought about it. You're like, oh, he's bald? Can you kill him? Why do we want him in society then? No, can he take them out? Can he take the hair plugs out? Oh, yeah, that makes more sense. I don't think so. I think it would be very expensive.
00:31:45
Speaker
Can't you just shave it off? Yeah, you just tweeze him. Yeah, you could shave him off. I mean... I don't know what it looks like underneath, but do you have like, well you look like some sort of weird alien? Do you have all sorts of weird things in your head? I don't, I don't think so. It looks, he looks pretty normal. Well, not normal. After about a year I think it just looks like hair. I think it looks, because that's what they literally, right, they pull it from the back. He wears a lot of hats.
00:32:08
Speaker
It's probably for the best. What kind of person was he? A lot of hats kind of guy. A lot of hats kind of guy, yeah. He's like the edge. Edge, I don't think you're fooling anybody. Well, I mean, it's beanies, right? Isn't that what he wears? He wears beanies all the time.
00:32:24
Speaker
on a hot summer day. And the biggest problem from this program was that the vaccine program rolled out about eight months after Private David Lewis died from the swine flu and there had yet to be another case outside of the cluster at Fort Dix.
00:32:41
Speaker
So that's not great. No. God knows it would've been way better if way more people died. Well, I mean, you're rolling out a gigantic $135 million vaccine program and... You want some bang for your buck. I mean, nobody's got the bucket thing, so... I bet it never happened. Like, I bet somebody just killed that guy. And they're like, I have an idea. Let's just say he got the swine flu. Yeah. No one's gonna test him. He's got the swine flu. Was he missing like half of his skull, too?
00:33:10
Speaker
He probably just got murdered by a pig, and they're like, this guy got swine flu. And the pig had the flu. The pig had just the regular flu because, well, it's a pig, so it didn't have the human flu. They would have had to find a vaccine for the human flu. God, people in the 70s were so stupid. They were. They were. We should have been running the show. We could have been. We could have been. Totally could have been. I'll tell you one thing, there wouldn't be. Disco. Pigs were a lot more murdery back then.
00:33:38
Speaker
It's true. I think they're still pretty fucking murdery here. Well, yeah, but I guess we, you know, you don't hear about it as much. Are you sure? I don't know. You know, I think it gets swept out of the rug more nowadays than it used to.
00:33:52
Speaker
Pig murder used to be a big problem. Still is, apparently. We're just covering it up. This is the shit they don't want you to know, Judd. We just increase our listeners by a million because of this. We're going to get a lot of conspiracy theories now. 45 million Americans, about a quarter of the population, were vaccinated, but public support was gone.
Public Support and Political Consequences
00:34:20
Speaker
There was no link found between the vaccine and the heart attacks or the Juleen bar cases. But nope, I say it. Go ahead, John. The Juleen bar cases. But people just couldn't defend the risk anymore. It was clear that a pandemic was not on the horizon. Critics accused Ford of playing politics, trying to scare the public with an election looming. Damn it, Ford, you're playing politics.
00:35:06
Speaker
Soon we'll have something called the automobile. Here's my calling card, Chase. And others said that it was about making the pharmaceutical companies money. So that's very, very similar to today. So now, so, but now I think it's really fascinating because now you do have enough people who are alive then who remember that, who, so it would like help because I think it's all about point of view. Stop changing the narrative to fit your narrative.
00:35:10
Speaker
Thanks for the reenactment.
00:35:35
Speaker
I think it's a valid point. I think it's a valid point. You know what I think is funny is John appears to be getting lower and lower in his chair. I know. Greg, it's very difficult to edit the video because Greg, you always got like a ton of space above your head. Yeah. You ruined everything, Greg. I literally have a stomach bug right now. You're lucky I'm not pooping in my pants, and this is the criticism I get. I don't give a shit if you're pooping in your pants or not. What do I care? It's not going to be obvious. I'm going to just move my camera down to make it easier for Kevin.
00:36:04
Speaker
Me, Kevin, I have stupid COVID. OK, I did say that. You are a master of impressions, Greg. I will give you that. Thanks. Like if I close my eyes, it's just it's like we don't even need Kevin. You can do both parts. I like rich little. That's that's right. If you want the.
00:36:25
Speaker
I can't speak. They would do impressions anymore. That's another current reference from Greg. He's just really good at the current references. Well, it's a 70s episode, so I thought I'd... Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. So I don't know anyone that... Newsweek dubbed this program the Swine Flu Snafu, which I thought was pretty solid. Catchy. It was catchy. Like a flu. Like the Swine Flu. Humpty Trumpty. That was pretty good, too. That was good. That was good.
00:36:55
Speaker
The government halted the program on December 16th. Ford lost his reelection bid. Many attributed it to the unnecessary immunization program. Sensor and Jay Donald Millar, who directed the CDC's flu vaccination effort, wrote decades later that the decision had the unintentional consequence of undermining confidence in the vaccine and ensured that every coincidental health event that occurred in the wake of the swine flu shot would be scrutinized and attributed to the vaccine.
Modern Comparisons and Lessons Learned
00:37:25
Speaker
Of course there are a lot. You lost me at consequence, confidence. I did not say consequence. Confidence, consequence.
00:37:41
Speaker
So of course there are a lot of parallels to be made to COVID and I feel it's super interesting because the Ford administration overreacted massively but political or not the goal was to avoid large amounts of people dying. No one did die but because of the swine flu snafu Ford lost what was actually a pretty close election in 76.
00:38:04
Speaker
In 2020, the administration massively under reacted, even went so far as to say the virus was fake, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. Over a million Americans have died from COVID and the election that followed wasn't super close, but probably closer than it logically should have been. And so I know I said I didn't want to get political, but I just find it interesting to see how differently two Republican presidents 40 years apart handled the news of a possible pandemic.
00:38:33
Speaker
I mean, one went way overboard. I mean, let's be honest, this was ridiculous. Yeah, they both did. They were both ridiculous. I would say in both instances, neither one was like weighted, right? It wasn't rational. It was like, I think it was a panic one way or the other, right? And I think for Trump, it was a panic of like, he started that, right? It really pushed that narrative. But I think because he is so narcissistic, he couldn't be unpopular. And so he had to keep his base. He had to go with whatever they thought.
00:39:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think they didn't want to be they didn't want to believe in it. So he went ahead and I think so and stoked that fire Yeah, yeah But I do think your point John of earlier is it was interesting about how do people did people remember?
00:39:16
Speaker
I would imagine, right? Because that's the thing, right? Because these would be people like, because you remember shit that happened when you were nine and 10 years old, right? And so, you know, and you really like cue from your parents. So if your parents are like, oh, this is bullshit, then you're going to grow up thinking like, oh, it's always bullshit. So anyway, unless you're a rebel. I mean, that's true. I always thought everything was bullshit. Do what? My parents always thought everything was bullshit. And you didn't.
00:39:44
Speaker
Greg, do you remember? So you didn't know the story at all? Not at all. Yeah. Okay. I'm like, John, I just don't. I was living in Canada. Well, you were 23 at the time. We didn't pay attention. Yeah. Yeah. You're living in Canada. That's true. Cause I don't think this was really, although I think there were, you know, it was obviously the first one was such a global thing that there probably were some people who were nervous about it, but not to the same level. I'd imagine. Yeah.
Closing Toast to Vaccine Developers
00:40:11
Speaker
All right, guys. Well, that's the story of the great swine flu scare of 1976. I was scared for a minute. I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I thought maybe half the Americans died. I thought Gerald Ford was going to win re-election. I didn't know. I didn't see that coming. He got beat by that dynamic charismatic guy, Jimmy Carter. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. He was a peanut farmer. And Ford only got the job because Nixon and Agnew were out, right?
00:40:37
Speaker
Yeah. That's right. Yeah. So he wasn't really picked anyway. So Nixon got the job because of the electoral college and the fear. Do you say it like Toriel? I did the electrical college electrical.
00:40:53
Speaker
All right, well, so my toast today, even though Greg is not doing one and John just finished his drink. I'm going to drink Gatorade. I got a little ice in there. All right, good. My toast today is to the people who developed the COVID vaccine, because it's fucking astounding that they were able to do that. Some say that me getting super sick even after the vaccine proves that it was worthless. As a science believer, I say who knows how I would have felt if I hadn't gotten it. So cheers to all the mad scientists and doctors out there looking out for the rest of us, even the dumb ones. Cheers, guys. Thank you. Cheers.
00:41:26
Speaker
Thank you guys. Thanks all of you for listening. Next time I promise I won't be coughing as much. Well, actually I can't make that promise. Wow. And also, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving because even though we're recording this before Thanksgiving, it's going to air after Thanksgiving. Yes, happy Thanksgiving. How was your turkey, guys? Was it good? Oh, so good. So good. I got a little drunk, started smacking me around, felt like I was four.
00:41:50
Speaker
cried a lot, went in the fetal, ruined things. It was great though, it was great. Last day we played ball. So, put it in the light. You went on a hunt. Yep, that's right. Alright everybody, see you next time.