In this episode of the podcast, I discuss the controversy surrounding the hydroxychloroquoquine trial, and whether or not it actually works, and how the media will react if it turns out that it does.
00:00:00.000Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum hey everybody come on in it's time for the simultaneous swaddle yes every 12 hours you get a little bit more of me some would say that's plenty but I don't think they're good sports
00:00:26.880I think a little bit more of me is just what you need just what you need so come on in here I'm going to be taking some questions talking about some stuff getting you ready for an extraordinarily good night of sleep in fact why don't you tell me in the comments if you had a really good sleep last night because I suggested that you would and it would be nice to see your confirmation
00:00:56.880so tell me if you had a really good night of sleep last night so let's catch up on the news for the last 12 hours it's been quite a bit for example President Trump did his usual task force press conference and after it CNN reported that he was quote
00:01:26.880he was out there touting he was out there touting around touting up that drug but is that really what happened was he touting I don't think so I don't think so I don't think he was touting here's what I think he was doing I think the president was saying exactly what you and I say when we listen to the doctors we make a risk management assessment based on what the doctors tell us
00:01:56.880he knows it hasn't hasn't one undergone you know rigorous tests he does know there are anecdotal reports that it works some that it doesn't he knows that he also knows that it's been used for years for other purposes so we know it's well tolerated he knows that so a risk assessment is that it might work doctors say they take it themselves because well it might
00:02:22.880it might and the risk if you're taking it might and the risk if you're taking it for a short term especially the risk is almost vanishingly small and it might work there's some indication it might so is the president touting a drug or is he simply looking at what the evidence is that we're all looking at exactly the same data and saying well it's a risk management situation would you take the risk which is nothing
00:02:52.880which could save your life yeah it's kind of easy actually my guess is that the only reason the president is being a little more full throated about this is because maybe we have more of it he said we have a you know 20 something million doses I don't know if they're in the right place but I guess we're we got some coming in now here's the fun part about this when the president puts down
00:03:22.740a stake anywhere and says you know this is what I think is true what's the natural thing that happens if the president says the sky is blue CNN says it's not blue not at night you know and they'll say why it's not blue so the president has I don't know if he planned this but if it turns out this hydroxychloroquine actually works if it works
00:03:52.520because I'm going to get the same treatment no matter how many times I say if it works unproven only anecdotal you know darn well that that my troll future critics are already planning to say you were out there touting it Scott you touted it and then I'll say I did not tout there was no touting I simply explained the same data that you're looking at anyway
00:04:21.240so the president is forcing CNN to take an increasingly strong stand against against believing in the drug so they're not against the drug they're against believing in it without sufficient scientific evidence now of course we all we all agree with that right if you had a choice if you had a choice of lots of high quality studies
00:04:51.060well yeah we'd all take that choice if we had that choice which we don't so so I think it's hilarious if it turns out the drug works then the president will have forced CNN into mocking him for something that turned out to be right and there's going to be a lot of mocking because it's basically as soon as I heard him say it I thought well there's the whole news cycle right there that CNN and MSNBC will say
00:05:20.720it's unproven it's unproven it's unproven it's unproven I say it's unproven as if the president doesn't know that because he said it's unproven and they're going to act like he doesn't know it even though he says it directly is it by imagination or did the number of deaths from coronavirus decline today it's not the end of the day but it looks like we're going to end down right now the other day I said don't get don't get excited
00:05:49.720excited about you know one day in a row that it looks like it's going down because then the very next day it was up of course but it's down again it's feeling like we're starting to top not in not topping in infections but topping in deaths which could be because the hydroxychloroquine works I don't know could be
00:06:13.720so David Angel sends me this question if you want to ask me a question go to my go to my top tweet on Twitter and you could just put the question there I'll read it
00:06:27.760so there's this graph that I've seen but I don't know to believe it or the source anyway it's a graph that shows the amount of pneumonia by each season or each year in the United States and it purports to show that the number of cases of pneumonia are way way way down this year
00:06:50.740which would mean what well first of all I don't know where this came from it's just something I saw on Twitter so I have no idea if the data is right but if the data is right that the number of pneumonias or things that we call pneumonia is way down could it be that we have a counting problem going on and that
00:07:11.800that what we think that what we think are coronavirus maybe we used to think of pneumonia and vice versa so I do think there's probably some issue about how we're counting things and I will say once again it seems that we've gone yet one more day without the dire consequences and every day that it's every day we get closer to the predicted peak which is still what 10 days away
00:07:41.800and it's not looking dire yet the skeptics are getting a little happier and I have to admit there's part of me there's part of me that can see that other movie just as clearly as I can see the one that I spend most of my time in so the one I spend most of my time in is this is pretty bad but I think between science and in our good work we'll get a handle on it so I don't think the death toll will be bad I think the risk
00:08:11.800risk is very very high but I think humans will prevail but that still puts me in the movie that says it's a gigantic problem that could have killed you know two million people if he did everything wrong but the people who say it was never a problem and it's all just in your mind and it's just a hysteria you can't rule them out yet
00:08:38.800because so far we don't have even one hospital over capacity right but again 10 days from now it could be a hellscape and it could look like you know world war zombie and the experts say that's going to happen
00:08:54.640they seem pretty clear they seem pretty clear that in 10 days we're going to be super unhappy
00:09:00.480I can see both movies at this point and they're both so clear can't you see both
00:09:09.360I'm not saying that one you know one is definitely going to happen and the other isn't
00:09:15.640I'm saying as of this point in time I can see them both just like they both exist
00:09:20.160and it's sort of a Schrodinger's cat situation