Did Tua Tagovailoa suffer another concussion? What does that mean? What is CTE? How does it play into concussions? Does it not? And should he retire? Dr. Pierre Corey and Rep. Russ Fulcher join the show to discuss the latest in the latest concussion news, including the latest on Tua's head injury and the possible link to CTE. The Charlie Kirk Show is the official Gold Sponsored Podcast of The CharlieKirk Show, a company that specializes in gold and other precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at NobleGoldInvestments.com. That is where I buy all of my gold. Go to NobleGold.investments.co/thecharliekirk and use the promo code: "TheCharlieKirkShow" to receive 20% off your first month with discount code: CHALLENGE20 at checkout. If this show means something to you, if you get something out of it, please consider becoming a member at MemberscharlIEkirk.co. You get access to all the latest news, exclusive interviews, and insider insider events happening around the world, and more! CHILLYKIRK is the Official Gold Sponsor of the show. CHALKILLER.COM! Subscribe to the show and become a Friend of the Show! You will be the first to know when a new episode is available. Subscribe, rate, review, and subscribe to our newest episode every Monday morning. and receive exclusive access to the newest episode of the Charlie Kirk's newest show, The Charlie's newest podcast, "The Charlie's Korner." and the rest of the world! The One and Only Charlie's New York Times bestselling book, "Turning Point USA"? Subscribe here! Click here for more information about the show? Learn more about Charlie's new book "The Dark Side of the NFL? click here. The Dark Side Of The NFL? Check out Charlie's latest book "Tua's Journey to the Superbowl 2019? and much more! FREE PRODCAST! and other links to subscribe to Charlie's "The Best Podcasts? Subscribe for the latest NFL Podcasts! CLICK HERE! FREE FASTEST WEEKEND FOLLOWING THIS EPISODE? FREE TRAINING AND MORE! CHECK OUT OUR VIP PRODUCER? Subscribe to our NEW WEBSITE?
00:00:23.000Everywhere in pop culture and sports media right now.
00:00:26.000And we just love the guy and wanted to have that conversation with Dr. Corey.
00:00:30.000And then we're joined by Rep Russ Fulcher, who may have been the originator of the no tax on overtime idea that was just launched by President Trump.
00:00:38.000He breaks down his legislation, who he thinks it's going to help and how he thinks it adds to this growing conservative working class party in the era of Trump.
00:00:48.000And then I take a A few shots at John Legend.
00:00:50.000You're going to want to stick around for that.
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00:01:17.000Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:01:20.000Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
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00:01:25.000Charlie what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are
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00:02:37.000So I, you know, we have you on the show a lot to discuss, you know, Ivermectin, COVID, some of these stories, and we are going to get into the WHO and some of the updates there.
00:02:48.000But I wanted to bring you in kind of a, for a different reason.
00:02:52.000Last night, and this story is making its rounds today.
00:02:56.000We saw that Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tago, I always say his name wrong, we just call Christian guy, Alabama quarterback, national championship.
00:03:09.000And then he goes to the Miami Dolphins having a great early career, but the concussions that this young man has absorbed, uh, and it's been multiple instances now have really, really been a setback for him.
00:03:22.000And it's frankly, it's, it's frightening to watch this video.
00:03:25.000So let's, I'm going to, we're going to play this, uh, Dr. Corey and, uh, get your reaction on the other side. 196.
00:03:33.000We're down by 21 points, fourth and four.
00:03:37.000Pressure to his steps up, he's gonna run for the first down!
00:03:41.000And takes a shot at the six-yard line.
00:03:49.000So you see him, he makes a run for it, he's trying to get those yards, takes a shot, and then instantly you see the players on the dolphins say, get over here, you know, to the sideline.
00:04:24.000You know, it looks like he caught, it was head to shoulder.
00:04:27.000But, you know, the cause of a concussion is a major acceleration-deceleration event.
00:04:33.000Now that didn't seem to be like a particularly abrupt one but he did get stopped right so there was a acceleration deceleration and obviously he had symptoms afterwards right so the definition of a concussion is actually the technical term is a mild brain injury and it's evidenced by either loss of consciousness Um, ataxia, which is like instability while walking, uh, or short-term memory or cognitive deficit or disorientation, right?
00:05:00.000So they can't remember what date is, year it is, or they might not know where they are.
00:05:04.000And that's how, you know, they've had a concussion.
00:05:06.000Once you see that kind of cognitive deficit, I mean, number one, they have to stop playing immediately for that day.
00:05:12.000Um, and then you get, then you have to monitor them closely because you want to see how long those symptoms last.
00:05:18.000Some people with concussions can, You know, get up and they can return to normal neurological functioning pretty quickly.
00:05:24.000But here's the major issue with that hit, is that just like you pointed out, it wasn't like an overwhelmingly oppressively violent hit, but yet he got concussed and there's a reason for that.
00:05:38.000The reason why that happened to him is because of his history of prior concussions.
00:05:46.000Every concussion you get raises your risk of future ones.
00:05:49.000So for instance, if you've had three concussions in your life, your risk of getting another one is three times as high as a football player who's never had one.
00:06:00.000And so he's now, with each concussion, is raising the risk of another one.
00:06:06.000And, you know, I looked online earlier and an AI program said he's had definitely four and likely five concussions, I believe, including last night.
00:06:17.000And so you're seeing this guy getting successive concussions.
00:06:20.000So I think of him as having a rather fragile or sensitive brain that if he keeps playing, he might be running into a few more.
00:06:27.000Yeah, I mean, and that's the big question, right?
00:06:29.000I mean, the reason I think this story resonates is because he is such a phenomenal human being.
00:06:35.000He's polite, he's respectful, he's well-spoken, and he's talented.
00:06:41.000And so you go back, I mean, the first one that everybody remembers was the September 29, 2022 game against the Cincinnati Bengals when he was tossed to the ground and you could see his head whiplash and make direct impact with the turf.
00:06:56.000But what we ended up finding out was that four days prior to that, he had landed hard on his helmet after being pushed to the ground as well.
00:07:05.000And he, you know, he rose to his feet, stumbled around, but he was allowed to continue that game.
00:07:10.000And so this changed the way that the NFL did its concussion protocols.
00:07:15.000But a lot of people now, doctor, are calling for, you know, to resign, to quit the game of football.
00:07:22.000And I don't think that's something he wants to do.
00:07:25.000What are the long term health implications if Tua keeps playing this and God forbid he gets another couple of concussions in his career, which seems likely given how fragile his head is.
00:07:37.000So here's an important point to make about what happens with concussions.
00:07:42.000You'll see online everyone conflating repeated concussions with CTE, right?
00:07:47.000Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which is a degenerative brain disease.
00:07:51.000But actually, there's no evidence, strong evidence, to suggest that those two are linked.
00:07:58.000What CTE is actually caused by is repeated, repeated blows to the head.
00:08:05.000Subconcussive or concussive, but it's just like this accumulated, repeated traumas to the head over the career of a football player.
00:08:12.000And that leads to CT, and CTE is a progressive degenerative brain disease.
00:08:17.000What multiple concussions cause is they raise the risk for something called PCS, which is post-concussive syndrome.
00:08:25.000What that is, is persistent symptoms after a concussion, meaning they might have prolonged periods, could be days, could be weeks, could be months, of any number of things.
00:08:35.000So it could be Either memory, fluency in speech, even sometimes confusion, but also neuropsychiatric stuff like mood changes, a vacant stare, anxiety, depression, and so post-concussive syndrome alone can be really troubling.
00:08:54.000But the difference between PCS and CTE is PCS is considered to be generally milder And it tends to resolve with time and treatment and maybe away from sports.
00:09:06.000And, you know, I don't, I have no results of the physical exam that occurred after, like, he went into the locker room, he has to go under, undergo extensive neuropsychological testing.
00:09:47.000That was from repetitive hits to the head, was it not?
00:09:51.000Yeah, well he had Parkinson's and that's another neurodegenerative disease which can be associated with multiple traumas to the head like Muhammad Ali had.
00:10:01.000From what I understand of his case, he developed pretty severe advanced Parkinson's at a somewhat young age.
00:10:28.000Because you know of my work with COVID and Ivermectin, I hate to go to that all the time, but there is an association between this topic and Ivermectin.
00:10:41.000What I've said and what my book is about, it really lays out the disinformation campaign against Ivermectin because the pharmaceutical industry didn't want that used.
00:10:50.000Well, the NFL did their own disinformation campaign against CTE.
00:10:56.000And one of the tactics of disinformation is called the Blitz.
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00:12:01.000Dr. Corey, you were just relating the studies around ivermectin to the NFL's own study around
00:12:10.000CTE, and I think I can kind of see where you're going here, but it's really fascinating.
00:12:17.000I hadn't put that together, so please continue.
00:12:19.000Yeah, you know, when I first, you know, so yeah, so when I first recommended, when we discovered that ivermectin was so effective against COVID, and we tried to get that word out, you know, we ran into these amazing headwinds.
00:12:31.000You know, I started losing jobs, getting attacked in the media, you know, all these things.
00:12:35.000And some months into it, I recognized, because I was taught, that I was basically under attack by a disinformation campaign.
00:12:45.000And there's this famous article called the Disinformation Playbook, And they outline the five tactics that industries take when science emerges that's inconvenient to their interests.
00:12:55.000And one of the tactics is called the Blitz, because they're all named after American football players.
00:13:01.000And one tactic called the Blitz is where they go and they harass and they attack any scientist or researcher who's bringing out that science.
00:13:09.000And the reason why I bring up this topic is because their example For the Blitz is what the NFL did to the researcher who discovered CTE and started publishing on it that it was a consequence of playing in the National Football League.
00:13:48.000And he's reporting on CTE, which was, you know, making a lot of people pause.
00:13:53.000I think there's probably less participation in football in our youth because of the fears of a chronic degenerative disease.
00:13:59.000But they do everything to pretend that that sport is safe.
00:14:03.000And as you can see, for some it's not.
00:14:05.000And for Portua, I mean, if this is whatever, his fourth, fifth concussion, he's got a real big decision to make because he's going to be at high, high risk of getting another one.
00:14:16.000And I think, you know, it's fascinating when you, to relate these two stories, you know, we brought you on, I had no idea that you were going to, going to sort of full circle the CTE and ivermectin story, but it makes perfect sense.
00:14:29.000And, you know, I do think that the CTE issue has gotten a lot of publicity and now it's sort of fallen in favor and I think the same has actually been true with ivermectin and some of these alternative ways to treat COVID.
00:14:44.000But in general, Dr. Corey, I mean, We've seen a degradation of the trust that we have in the medical profession, which is actually, I think it's a tragedy.
00:14:54.000It's unfortunate because you look at what Tua is going through.
00:14:57.000We want to be able to trust the diagnosis.
00:15:00.000We want to be able to trust what steps he's gonna take next.
00:15:03.000And I hate to lose somebody from the NFL because he's so fun to watch,
00:15:10.000but I have to believe that the most responsible decision he could make is to hang it up.
00:15:17.000I do not wanna see this young man when he's elderly with obvious brain issues
00:15:30.000I know this isn't necessarily your area of specialization, but what would your advice be to him if you were treating him?
00:15:35.000Well, I think, and he's probably aware of this, but I would explain to him, you know, kind of what you and I just discussed about the, the increasing risk of future concussions.
00:15:47.000That's why, you know, with every concussion, your chances of getting another one is higher.
00:15:51.000And I think there's something about the recovery or healing or fragility of the brain after multiple concussions.
00:15:57.000And so he's got to understand, you know, him going back on the, Football field compared to someone of his teammates who's maybe had one or none.
00:16:04.000I mean, he's going to run into some more.
00:16:06.000And, you know, even before I would give him long-term guidance, you know, is you'd want to establish what is his short-term condition right now?
00:16:18.000Like, is he having speech or memory deficits even today?
00:16:21.000And you'd want him to fully recover before making that decision.
00:16:26.000You know, like I said, the evidence associated with CTE is not strong, it's not really there, but it still can create problems.
00:16:35.000Post-concussive syndrome, he's at much higher risk if he keeps getting them.
00:16:39.000And you're right, you don't want to see a young man deal with persistent neurological symptoms.
00:16:43.000I mean, persistent headaches, dizziness, vertigo, things like that can be really debilitating.
00:16:50.000You know, the thing about advice also, Andrew, is what's interesting is I was reading the NFL protocol for concussion.
00:16:58.000What I liked about it is that they have an independent neurologist, a neurologist independent of the club, not paid for by the club, who does these objective assessments.
00:17:07.000And I would like to get the advice of that.
00:17:11.000So not who's employing him, not his coach, nothing like that, not the owner, but a real objective independent neurologist.
00:17:18.000Well, that sounds like sound advice, Doctor.
00:17:20.000Thank you for walking us through that today.
00:18:38.000Did Trump get this idea from you or how did this happen?
00:18:42.000Well, we released a bill called the KEEP Act here a couple of months ago, and that's exactly what it does.
00:18:48.000And KEEP stands for keep each and every penny.
00:18:52.000We know that work, is necessary if you're going to have wealth.
00:18:55.000And over the course of years, we've created some bad habits in this country.
00:18:59.000And the government has put programs in place that have allowed people that are perfectly healthy
00:19:07.000and perfectly capable to not have to work.
00:19:11.000And so the whole idea came from some town hall meetings that I had in Idaho a long time ago.
00:19:19.000And we put it into legislation just earlier this year, a couple months ago.
00:19:25.000And the whole idea is to, just like the President said, allow people to have more money in their pocket, as opposed to going to the government and having the government distribute those dollars.
00:19:36.000So, break down for me how this would actually work in practice.
00:20:05.000And do we know, are there safeguards against people gaming this, for example, you know, moving salaried workers into overtime workers, uh, you know, into hourly workers, so they would, they would benefit from There is an existing definition for overtime pay.
00:20:24.000The federal government has defined that and so this simply takes that definition and utilizes it too.
00:20:31.000So there's categories for hourly personnel and what qualifies for overtime pay.
00:20:38.000There's definitions for overtime pay with salaried personnel.
00:20:44.000This would remove the tax on the personal portion of that the federal personal portion of your income.
00:20:55.000It would not touch the payroll component.
00:21:03.000It's straightforward, doesn't create any new definitions, but it would have a significant impact.
00:21:08.000It's hard to judge the average increase that would be for people, but it's somewhere north of 10% of your overtime revenue.
00:21:21.000Again, I can't stress enough how important it is to get money in people's pockets.
00:21:30.000We've got inflation right now that is robbing people of funds, interest is so high, and that's all due to government spending.
00:21:38.000And so by allowing people to keep more of what they earn, they are going to spend it, they're going to invest it, and they're going to do it better than the government can do it.
00:21:52.000So I believe this has got a win-win portion of it.
00:21:56.000I was ecstatic to see President Trump embrace it, and we have reached out to him ahead of time.
00:22:01.000I'd like to think that it came from us, but if not, I'll take it either way.
00:22:05.000We're glad to have his support, and we want to get this thing going.
00:22:09.000Well, your piece of legislation just got a massive shot in the arm, and I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of people in Washington looking to grab this piece of legislation and get it through, especially if President Trump wins in November, which we all hope he will.
00:23:46.000So you you're in Idaho, you know, how much more are people paying with I mean, in Idaho, for for basics for for housing for eggs for bacon for fuel under the in the last three and a half years, Congressman?
00:24:05.000It varies from commodity to commodity, but the fuel that we all have to put in our cars is up well over a dollar and a half on average of where it was a couple years ago, three years ago, before the Biden administration.
00:24:33.000Now, granted, COVID was a factor in all this.
00:24:37.000And, you know, I'd like to think we've learned a lot of lessons of how you manage an economy under a pandemic, but hopefully we'll never have to find out again.
00:24:48.000But hopefully we've learned some lessons from that.
00:24:50.000But one of the things that's come out of it certainly is the inflation, but the Biden administration has made it much worse.
00:24:56.000They haven't seen a spending program they don't like.
00:25:00.000And they have a government solution for just about everything that oftentimes shouldn't even involve government.
00:25:08.000What we're trying to do now is put the right tools in place to allow people to keep more of what they earn at the same time, encourage them to work.
00:25:18.000I actually, I mean, when Trump made this announcement yesterday in our own private chats here on the show, we were, you know, we were arguing about how workable this plan is, you know, would people be gaming it or, you know, how, you know, all I personally think it's absolutely the right approach.
00:25:33.000People deserve to keep more money in their pockets.
00:25:35.000And what I love about it, Congressman, is that this, this is You know, this new coalition, this new movement that Trump has brought about in the last nine years, so it's not even that new, but it's this working class coalition.
00:25:48.000You know, Charlie was, I believe, speaking with Senator Marco Rubio about this, how Hispanics have come over to the conservative movement in droves and record numbers, partly because they're voting more based on class than they are on race.
00:26:02.000You know, the Democrat paradigm is that the You know, they're just going to pander to this identity politics, racial grievances, and Hispanics are having none of that.
00:26:10.000They're saying, listen, I work with my hands.
00:26:12.000I work, I shower before at work and after work, and I want to keep more of my money in my pocket.
00:26:18.000And Trump's the guy that's standing up for the working men and women.
00:26:21.000And you know, your perspective in Idaho, I think is, it would be tremendous here.
00:26:25.000What can you say about this growing coalition that's, that's diverse, It's expanding of working men and women and what they mean to this country, what they mean to this movement and what they see in President Trump.
00:26:38.000I can tell you Idahoans overwhelmingly would prefer to keep more of what they earn than get access to some government program that puts all kinds of strings attached on whatever they can get.
00:26:50.000And so that's what this attempts to do.
00:26:53.000Andrew, you bring up some good points and I got to roll this into a related discussion.
00:26:57.000We got an election coming up here in November as well.
00:27:01.000And it doesn't hurt the conservative cause.
00:27:03.000It doesn't hurt the messaging that those of us on the ballot have to provide to be able to say, you know what, we've got some solutions here to keep more money in your own pocket.
00:27:17.000In order to make things more rewarding when you go to work every day.
00:27:21.000And I can just tell you that's a winning message in Idaho.
00:27:24.000I think that's a winning message in America.
00:27:26.000I think that's one that fits the conservative nature.
00:27:30.000I think that that's a great point for all of us on the ballot, including the president.
00:27:37.000But you know, For those of us who work for a living, we want to be in charge of those dollars instead of having to give it to the federal government and then go ask them for a program to give it back to us.
00:27:53.000I'm just reading Harris spokesperson Joseph Costello says, Trump is desperate and scrambling and saying whatever it takes to try and trick people into voting him.
00:28:04.000If he takes power again, he will only look out for himself and his billionaire buddies and their big corporations.
00:28:10.000There's only one candidate in this race who will actually fight for workers, Vice President Kamala Harris.
00:30:46.000And we're told that at least 20,000 people have come.
00:30:48.000And some people have said actually it's closer to 32,000 people have come.
00:30:51.000Haitians, foreigners, aliens to this place.
00:30:56.000So, we're looking at anywhere between 25 to maybe even as high as 50% of the population has been newcomers, transforming everything in their culture, their schools, social services, everything.
00:31:15.000But John Legend, a man who sings about cheating on his spouse or his significant other in some songs and doing other kinds of bad things, appeals to their Christianity and says to his hometown We had about 15,000 or so immigrants move to my town of 60,000.
00:31:43.000You might say, wow, that's a lot of people for a town that only had 60,000 before.
00:31:52.000So you might imagine there are some challenges with, you know, integrating a new population, new language, new culture, new dietary preferences, All kinds of reasons why there might be growing pains.
00:32:17.000When Haitians are jacking up insurance rates in the area because they don't know how to drive or where they're stealing the geese out of the park or the ducks out of the park?
00:32:26.000I'm not even making reference to them eating pets, okay?
00:33:11.000They did a whole press tour telling the people about their gated community and their beautiful home at the infinity pool and the views of the sprawling Los Angeles out in front of it and the beach in the distance.
00:33:57.000Why don't you, John Legend, instead of lecturing, virtually signaling on social media from behind your gated community in your big mansion in Beverly Hills, instead of lecturing your hometown of Springfield how they need to be more accommodating to 20,000 to 30,000 Haitian newcomers that nobody asked for, nobody voted, why don't you move some of them into your mansion and let them live with your three children?