The Great America Show - December 23, 2021


THE TIME TO GET AMERICA BACK TO NORMAL IS NOW!


Episode Stats

Length

56 minutes

Words per Minute

165.24518

Word Count

9,274

Sentence Count

611

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary

Dr. Peter McCullough joins us on The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs to talk about the new Omicron variant of the Chinese virus, and what it means for public health in the United States and around the world.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Great America Podcast with Lou Dobbs,
00:00:04.200 always in the fight for truth, justice, and yes, our American way of life.
00:00:09.220 And now, here he is, the Peabody award-winning voice of truth, the great Lou Dobbs.
00:00:14.340 Welcome back to the Great America Show. We are, of course, in the midst of incredibly troubled
00:00:19.560 times, whether we're talking about the Omicron variant of the Chinese virus that suddenly is
00:00:25.780 everywhere, and of course, so is Dr. Fauci. On every network, it seems, on every station,
00:00:32.840 blaring his alarms and his constant hair of fire demeanor isn't exactly calming the nation.
00:00:39.880 The great news is fewer people have died, more cases are asymptomatic, and symptoms are, for the
00:00:48.180 most part, mild as a result of this new variant. And that's, and I say seems, because it's early
00:00:55.620 days. And we already know when it comes to this China virus pandemic, we have to start out with
00:01:03.220 what seems before we know what is. But President Biden and his advisors seem intent on turning the
00:01:09.980 pandemic again into another national emergency, which means more shutdowns, lockdowns, closures,
00:01:15.960 and of course, more government power over our lives, less freedom, and seemingly more confusion
00:01:22.620 over what this version of the variant of the virus really amounts to. But we have with us today a
00:01:29.100 brilliant doctor, possessed of not only great knowledge about what we've gone through in this
00:01:33.920 country over the past two years, but who is possessed of an original mind and thoughtful advocate for
00:01:40.680 public health, good sense, and the freedoms of individual citizens. With us today, Dr. Peter McCullough.
00:01:49.140 Good to have you with us here on The Great America Show. Well, thanks for having me.
00:01:53.460 Doctor, let's start with, first of all, this Omicron variant. The authorities, public health
00:02:00.480 authorities, seem to be intent on making this into another delta, perhaps squared or cubed. And that
00:02:09.120 seemed to be the initial tone of it all. And then we hear from the South African doctor. She says,
00:02:15.560 mild symptoms, not to worry, basically. Your take on what we are facing here.
00:02:22.020 You know, our CDC has actually been, I think, very fair about this. We originally heard about the
00:02:27.520 Omicron variant on the border of Botswana. Some travelers fully vaccinated had this new highly
00:02:33.080 mutated variant, and it actually had a signature result on the PCR. It's called S-gene dropout. It means
00:02:40.160 the spike protein is sufficiently mutated that the primer, it doesn't cycle on the PCR for the spike
00:02:45.820 protein. Having said that, though, our CDC came out with a report in MMWR dated December 10th, 2021,
00:02:53.280 where they were chronically the first cases in the U.S., 43 cases. Turned out that 79% were in those
00:03:01.040 fully vaccinated. And the most commonly reported symptoms were cough, fatigue, congestion, or a runny
00:03:07.120 nose. One vaccinated patient was hospitalized just for two days. It was probably just a panic
00:03:11.700 hospitalization and no deaths. And since that time, our CDC, interestingly, has a forecaster. It's called
00:03:19.840 Nowcast. You can go on the website and see what they're forecasting. They are forecasting that by the week
00:03:26.460 ending 12-11-2021, and we don't have the data in on that, they're forecasting 12% Omicron proportion in
00:03:34.940 the United States, basically etching into the dominance of Delta. And then by December 18th,
00:03:40.860 again, that date is passed, and the data will come in in arrears. There, they're forecasting 74%
00:03:49.460 Omicron. Well, those are bold predictions. We've never seen the CDC predict such a giant jump in
00:03:56.780 proportion. With Delta, in fact, it was a little bit behind that we are going to have the dominance of
00:04:02.580 Delta. And the current estimates are on transmissibility index that the Omicron is going to be less
00:04:09.600 transmissible than Delta, not more transmissible, less transmissible. Well, let me interrupt you at that
00:04:15.700 point, because that's 180 degrees from what was being said by public health authorities a week ago.
00:04:24.460 You know, just so you can get a handle on this, the transmissibility, the very first looks at
00:04:32.240 transmissibility occur from computer modeling. So because the outer portion of the spike protein
00:04:38.220 called the S1 segment, in fact, that tip is called the receptor binding domain, that's what locks into
00:04:43.260 the human ACE2 receptor. All of the structure of that is sufficiently known that once the mutations
00:04:49.620 are known in the receptor binding domain, one can actually calculate how transmissible it would be,
00:04:55.400 because the virus, if it can't lock into that portal of entry, it can't inject itself into cells.
00:05:00.800 So with Delta, the transmissibility index was worked out and has ultimately proven
00:05:04.220 in infectivity cell cultures to be over 10 for Delta. It was about two for the original Wuhan wild
00:05:11.920 type. So right now, transmissibility came in from a lab in France, the initial from the modeling at around
00:05:18.960 four. So we'll have to see. And our CDC directors, I think, did fairly say that, listen, we don't know
00:05:24.980 yet how transmissible it is. I've just never seen such bold predictions that literally we would be,
00:05:31.080 you know, if they're correct, that means right now we're at 76% Omicron. And if that is correct,
00:05:38.240 it's very interesting. You know, there's a whole wave of COVID positivity across major sports leagues
00:05:43.020 right now. And we're not hearing of anybody getting sick. There's a whole wave of COVID cases
00:05:49.320 in the U.S. Senate right now. But no one's sick and in the hospital on ventilators. This is a really
00:05:54.320 interesting time.
00:05:55.980 It is an interesting time. And by the way, when I say something is 180 degrees opposite what had been
00:06:02.520 said earlier by public health authorities, I have no dog in this hunt. I'm a skeptic by nature of
00:06:10.420 government. I don't trust government. I think it's a God-given right of every American, and I think
00:06:16.860 a birthright, to be skeptical of government. We used to pride ourselves on our ingenuity,
00:06:22.780 our hard work, and yes, our skepticism of authority. That seems to have been ebbing here in the last few
00:06:30.860 decades. But where I come from is not as a political, you know, a political partisan. I just have a,
00:06:37.000 what I consider at least a healthy skepticism of government and taking things that just face value
00:06:44.780 in particularly early days like these. So we did have a sort of a uniform statement from public
00:06:52.880 health authorities that it was going to be much more highly transmissible than Delta, and certainly
00:06:59.060 more so than the Wuhan virus. And this is great news. If indeed it isn't, I think that that would
00:07:07.220 be a positive. Is it what it seems, or is it counterintuitive?
00:07:12.780 Well, Lou, they're following what's called Mueller's Ratchet. And Mueller's Ratchet says that when the
00:07:19.700 virus gets to an evolutionary bottleneck, that there can be a big jump in mutational status in order for the
00:07:27.140 virus to become more transmissible. And almost always when that happens, it becomes less lethal,
00:07:32.960 because the virus has to keep its prey alive in order to go to the next susceptible person.
00:07:38.400 The only thing that we're seeing here, that new variable here in the kind of viral ecology and
00:07:45.400 evolution is vaccination. And, you know, the vaccination is something that the virus, you know,
00:07:51.620 naturally won't anticipate, but obviously is going to respond to. And so we have data that just came in
00:07:57.020 from Denmark. And the report is dated December 13th, status of SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron in Denmark.
00:08:05.120 And listen to this, they're a heavily vaccinated country. So they had 67% of their cases of other
00:08:14.360 variants, not Omicron, 67% were in the fully vaccinated. And we see that now in Israel and
00:08:20.520 elsewhere. And it's just because the vaccines don't stop Delta, don't stop Delta particularly,
00:08:25.700 don't stop the other variants as completely as what we would like. Now with Omicron, they had
00:08:31.640 reported 33, 60 cases and 79%, which was in Omicron, 79% of those cases, 33, 60 out of the 42, 51,
00:08:45.380 they were in the fully vaccinated. The point I'm making is the proportionality of Omicron in the
00:08:50.400 fully vaccinated is even greater. So it's possible that Omicron has quickly learned how to thrive even
00:08:56.920 to a greater extent in the vaccinated. Now that would give it an evolutionary advantage over Delta.
00:09:02.640 Evolutionary advantage. And for we hosts, our potential host, a disadvantage, correct?
00:09:09.820 You know, yes and no, because if, if, if, if a vaccinated person, and we assume maybe many of
00:09:16.980 the senators right now who are sick, let's just say that they're vaccinated. In fact, they have
00:09:21.480 Omicron and they're having a mild illness. We know that they get fully exposed to all the epitopes on
00:09:27.400 the spike protein, the nucleocapsid, you know, the virus has 27 proteins. When you get the, when you
00:09:32.480 get the respiratory infection, you get immunity against 27 proteins. You're not just dealing with
00:09:36.760 permutations in the spike protein. You have a robust T cell immunity, a T presenter helper and natural
00:09:43.040 killer cells. And so that permanent memory then would give a much more durable immune status where
00:09:50.200 one goes out in a, in a congregate setting, they're not going to, you know, get COVID-19 again because
00:09:55.400 they're protected. So, so what are we to make of Omicron at this particular point? Is it deadlier?
00:10:03.480 Is it more transmissible? Uh, is it, is it milder and will there be fewer deaths or more? What,
00:10:11.260 what is your, uh, your picture of Omicron and what can we expect?
00:10:17.120 Well, you know, Laura Ingram had me on, I think a couple of weeks ago on this. It's always hard to
00:10:21.660 make a prediction. Last year, I published a whole series of op-eds in the Hill. This year, I started
00:10:26.420 America out loud talk radio, the McCullough report. And so far I haven't missed on major predictions
00:10:31.080 because I've been conservative. Um, but I can tell you right now, reading the data early,
00:10:35.400 it looks like Omicron is, uh, carving out its own ecological niche. It's maybe have a greater
00:10:43.240 center on those who are vaccinated. And so far, all the reports indicate that it looks like it's
00:10:48.840 milder. Although the first death was reported, I think in Texas, uh, in vulnerable, yeah. In
00:10:54.760 vulnerable people, there will be deaths. But remember the single greatest factor that dictates if
00:10:59.320 something is mild or severe is early treatment, not, not the, not the vaccine status or not even
00:11:04.400 the virus. It's always about early treatment. So if people get early treatment, they get prompt
00:11:09.720 early treatment, starting with virucidal, uh, washes in the nose and mouth that are highly effective.
00:11:15.120 And then we move on to our monoclonal antibodies. You know, I was on Joe Rogan and he went over the,
00:11:20.080 the protocol. I saw, I told him Joe, basically he, he received the McCullough protocol. It's now
00:11:23.880 copyrighted. Someone copyrighted in my name, the original protocol I published teaching the world how to
00:11:28.360 treat COVID-19. I said, Joe, you, you received exactly how I drew it up for America and the world.
00:11:33.520 And you got through it in three days. And I said, if we just did that in everybody, you know, we could
00:11:38.600 get back to work and just let America be, get back on to business here and just treat the sick patients
00:11:43.920 who present before us. The, the, uh, McCullough treatment, uh, works for Joe Rogan and, and thank
00:11:52.760 goodness, uh, you're talking about therapeutics. You're talking about antivirals and a way to
00:11:58.200 proceed. Give us, give us the rundown. The rundown now in 2021 starts with breakthrough
00:12:05.720 information about, uh, the nose and the mouth. And there was a pivotal study by Chowdhury and
00:12:10.280 colleagues, 606 individuals randomized 303 to each group. They were coming down with COVID-19 and they
00:12:16.200 were randomized to getting Pavadone iodine or dilute betadine. Uh, you buy betadine as a brown,
00:12:21.780 uh, solution. They use in emergency rooms to sterilize wounds. Uh, ophthalmologists use this
00:12:26.840 eye drops, but you just dilute it down. You buy it on Amazon or Walmart, uh, dilute it down, uh,
00:12:32.240 considerably to a 1% solution. And then basically squirt it up the nose, sniff it back and spit it
00:12:37.600 out the mouth, then gargle with it, or just gargle with scope or Listerine do that once or twice a day.
00:12:43.120 That's enormously preventive in terms of killing the virus or killing enough of the viral particles
00:12:48.440 to where they don't start a clinical infection. And then what Chowdhury did blue Chowdhury actually
00:12:53.080 randomized people coming down with it. It dramatically clears the PCR to negative dramatically. I mean,
00:12:58.980 over 75% drops risk alone with no other treatment reduces the chances of ever ending up in the hospital
00:13:05.860 needing oxygen or dying. So we start this now. I do this in my seniors routinely. I teach all my
00:13:10.660 patients this, and we still have great backup. After that, we use nutraceuticals and supplements
00:13:15.220 that are modestly helpful, but zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C, quercetin. We use an antihistamine
00:13:21.140 antacid called famotidine. Remember president Trump received famotidine as part of it's a mild
00:13:26.620 antiviral. We use azithromycin and doxycycline to cover some overlap organisms. And then after that
00:13:32.540 inhaled budesonide in the stoic trial, they had over an 85% reduction in hospitalization. It's
00:13:38.120 inhaled a strong steroid. We use oral colchicine, an anti-inflammatory. That was shown in a huge
00:13:44.300 randomized trial, the co-corona trial, over 4,000 prospective double-blind randomized placebo-controlled
00:13:49.300 to reduce hospitalization and death. On day five or pulmonary symptoms, we use oral prednisone like
00:13:55.160 we'd use in asthma or in emphysema. And then we're just down to blood thinners after that. Everybody goes
00:14:00.680 on aspirin, 325 milligrams throughout. Japanese do that out to 90 days. I think that's prudent because
00:14:06.020 are late heart attacks and strokes. And then high-risk patients, honestly, Lou, someone your
00:14:09.960 age, someone the age of our people who may have some other medical problems that accrue or are less
00:14:17.600 mobile. We use Lovenox. We actually use Lovenox injections preemptively, one milligram per kilogram
00:14:23.040 every 12 hours. And then we can use oral anticoagulants. All the seniors, certainly all the nursing home
00:14:30.940 residents get the full suite. Joe Rogan used the term kitchen sink. I said, Joe, it's really what's
00:14:35.520 called sequence multidrug therapy. It's typically four to six drugs, short course for somebody over
00:14:40.660 age 50. And that's kind of where we start treatment. People under 50 in general don't need any treatment,
00:14:44.800 but over 50 with medical problems, five days is short course. I'm about 60, Lou. So for me,
00:14:51.220 it'd be about 10 days. People are getting closer to upper 70s or 80s. We go full 30 days. And I have
00:14:57.420 treated patients in their 90s and I get them through the illness. And let me tell you what,
00:15:01.160 if I get a 90-year-old and they get COVID-19 and they get no treatment and they sit in their
00:15:06.660 apartment or in their senior facility and you let them brew for two weeks or three weeks,
00:15:11.560 I guarantee you they're going to end up in the hospital. The viral load, I think, increases
00:15:17.000 greatly in that period of time when I have the opportunity. So this is fascinating to me,
00:15:23.180 the doctor, because what you're saying is we should start with the therapeutics,
00:15:27.700 not sit there and kind of wait around and see whether or not we go to the hospital, right?
00:15:33.040 Right. What I described is what's called the precautionary principle. So when I
00:15:37.200 laid out the treatment program for the U.S. and for the world last year,
00:15:41.860 the operating principles were the following. That, listen, this is a mass casualty event.
00:15:47.740 Large, randomized, highly definitive clinical trials take two to five years to do.
00:15:52.300 The federal guidelines that depend on large, randomized trial will take another two years
00:15:56.460 to come forward. We don't have time. Americans are dying now. The precautionary principle says,
00:16:01.520 it's like being a trauma doctor. Take action now. We look for drugs that have an acceptable
00:16:06.780 signal of benefit and acceptable safety, and we put them together in combinations. We knew this was a
00:16:13.040 fatal illness. It's not a single drug program. I mentioned the oral and nasal washes, then the
00:16:20.080 nutraceuticals. The next layer after that is the monoclonal antibodies. And I should have mentioned
00:16:25.220 the Operation Warp Speed delivered some terrific products. We have lilies back on the market with
00:16:31.020 bamilivimab, urtosumab, combination, Regeneron spent our workhorse. Former President Trump received
00:16:36.280 this. Rogan, that's indimimab, caracivimab. And now GSK probably is the best product. That's
00:16:42.420 sotirivimab. That's an antibody against a stable epitope on the spike protein. I'm telling you,
00:16:48.080 these monoclonal antibodies are wonderful. I use them every day in my practice. The GSK product hit
00:16:54.280 the New England Journal of Medicine, 85% reductions in hospitalizations and death. And that's just up
00:16:59.080 front. We give it day one. I tell everybody, we're two years into this. There shouldn't be a single
00:17:04.160 senior citizen where we get a panic call. They should scout out, know where their antibody centers are,
00:17:09.160 know the hours of operation, first come, first serve, or scheduled. I have like two or three
00:17:13.820 people today getting monoclonal antibodies. They work, they're effective, and they make it so much
00:17:18.680 easier. If we give monoclonal antibodies, I typically skip hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin,
00:17:23.600 and I go into the anti-inflammatories and antithrombotics. If I don't give monoclonal
00:17:28.280 antibodies, then my fallback is to use hydroxy supported by over 300 studies. Now, it's a modest
00:17:32.960 benefit, about a 25% treatment effect. Ivermectin supported by 60 studies, about a
00:17:39.120 70% treatment effect. And then outside the United States, they have favipiravir in Japan and Russia.
00:17:45.240 A lot of Americans don't know that there's actually officially FDA-equivalent-approved drugs
00:17:48.900 outside the United States. And now we got the Pfizer drug coming on, which is a combination of
00:17:53.360 two protease inhibitors. One of them is a novel commies like 3-protease inhibitor, and then an older
00:18:00.400 one used in AIDS called ritonavir. It's a combined product. And then the Merck product is molnipiravir,
00:18:05.160 which is similar to the favipiravir used in Japan. But the point is, we have a nice layer of
00:18:10.080 antivirals, and they are very well tolerated and safe. It looks like all of them would be safe,
00:18:16.060 that we would use them as an oral approach if we can't get the monoclonal antibodies going quickly,
00:18:22.340 or for some reason are not going to use them. If I had a younger person with severe symptoms,
00:18:26.880 for instance, or going to be remote from a center. I had a lady today, East Texas.
00:18:31.120 I talked to her today. She got through COVID. I said, did you ever get the monoclonal antibody?
00:18:36.320 She goes, no, I was too remote. I relied on the hydroxychloroquine and the other drugs.
00:18:41.120 Fine. Unfortunately, her husband ended up in the hospital. That's what the call is about. He's in
00:18:44.920 his 70s. And I tell you, Americans should know, listen, we have pre-purchased so many of these
00:18:50.700 antibodies. We're oversupplied with them. Everybody should have an action plan. There should be no
00:18:55.300 surprises right now. COVID is still, somebody is still susceptible. They need to take action and have
00:19:00.400 their plan in place. When you say if somebody is still susceptible, we're hearing a lot of stories
00:19:07.140 about Omicron attacking the vaccinated successfully and infecting them. What does that mean for immunity
00:19:18.060 of the vaccinated? What should people expect here? We had data with the vaccines. Americans were
00:19:28.840 owed a monthly report from our agencies now that FDA are running the vaccine program, which in many
00:19:35.280 ways is a mistake. The FDA should actually not be running a program. They should be the drug safety
00:19:39.560 watchdog. The CDC shouldn't be running a program because they're really the outbreak investigation
00:19:44.700 unit. We should have had a separate vaccine task force run the US program. And then we should have had
00:19:51.120 an independent data safety monitoring board. Someone like something I do in my academic career,
00:19:55.700 someone like me or a panel of people like me to actually oversee the program in order to guide on
00:20:00.640 safety and efficacy. But because we had the wrong agencies leading the program, Americans still have
00:20:05.600 not gotten a report. There still hasn't been an official federal report saying, what's the best
00:20:10.600 vaccine? What's the worst vaccine? Where are the safety problems? We've been flying blind. And so what we
00:20:16.360 had to do is rely on what kind of gets out in the peer-reviewed publication literature, which is
00:20:21.240 oftentimes delayed, but it started to come in and let me give you the key citations. They started to come
00:20:27.100 in in September and the first one looked favorable. It was produced by the CDC in their own journal called
00:20:35.060 the MMWR. The first author is self and colleagues. They reported protection against
00:20:41.460 hospitalization. Now, remember, this is not randomized and people who take the vaccine are much more likely to
00:20:48.200 get monoclonal antibodies and get early treatment, right? Because they're activated. So these numbers
00:20:52.520 are stilted in favor of making the vaccine look good. We also know that the CDC told the vaccinated
00:20:58.800 not to get tests and they told hospitals don't test people when they come into the hospital. So there's a
00:21:03.620 testing bias where the unvaccinated get overtested and the vaccinated get undertested. So all these biases
00:21:09.000 work to exaggerate vaccine efficacy. Having said that, here are the numbers at 128 days, 120 days in the
00:21:17.580 self-publication. Moderna came in at 92% vaccine efficacy against hospitalization. Pfizer came in
00:21:25.380 same time period, 77%. And then Johnson & Johnson came in at 68%. Now, Moderna in every analysis always
00:21:33.140 is the best against protecting against hospitalization and complications because Moderna is 100 micrograms of
00:21:39.320 messenger RNA. Pfizer is only 30 micrograms of messenger RNA. And Johnson & Johnson are adenoviral
00:21:45.780 particles. But our agencies have not, up until just recently, not really made a distinguishment
00:21:51.020 between the vaccines. And since we have an oversupply of vaccines, if this is an urgent problem,
00:21:57.520 which it is, I think our public agencies should be guiding people to the best vaccine. And we haven't
00:22:02.860 really seen that. Now, the self paper had no information on Delta. The big paper that came in was
00:22:08.980 the Ivy Network paper. That's a federally supported investigational group. First author is 1040.
00:22:15.500 That is in Gemma. And they're about 85% vaccine efficacy and hospitalization with all these biases.
00:22:22.220 But the key table is figure three, where they have people in the hospital who clearly have COVID. So
00:22:28.200 this is now clear. This isn't just with COVID. They have got COVID. And the vaccines collectively had
00:22:34.980 a 59% risk reduction in the progression of COVID-19 disease. But the key number is death. Now, of the
00:22:43.000 vaccinated hospitalized, 6.3% died. Of the unvaccinated hospitalized, 8.6% died. And the P value was
00:22:53.180 statistically insignificant. So it trended in favor of the vaccines for protection and death, but was not
00:22:58.700 statistically significant. And then the final paper to mention is by Cohn and colleagues. This is from the
00:23:03.840 US VA system. This just came in in the last few months, 780,225 veterans. And they organized them
00:23:13.780 in terms of age group. They don't know exactly if they died of COVID or what they died of, but they
00:23:19.800 know who's COVID positive and who isn't. So of those who never tested COVID positive ever, they died of
00:23:25.480 other things. The vaccine was actually associated with a benefit. So that means selection bias. Those who
00:23:31.800 who take the vaccine are more likely to survive overall, just because of general selection
00:23:37.600 characteristics. And the point spread on that was about a three percentage absolute difference in
00:23:45.320 those survival curves. Now of those who died and they had COVID or died with COVID, the spread over age 65,
00:23:51.960 Lou, was 12% absolute risk reduction. That's pretty substantial. Now age under 65, the story is very
00:23:59.660 different. There's only a 1% absolute benefit for the vaccine under age 65. Now in that finally,
00:24:07.040 for the overall PCR positivity rate and developing COVID-19, all the protection fell off a cliff in
00:24:15.220 September. So Moderna went from 90% protection to 59% protection. Pfizer went from 87% to 43%. And Johnson
00:24:25.560 and Johnson went from about 86% down to 15%. All right. Yeah. What happened in this is a huge
00:24:32.020 sample. What happened in September, Lou, was most of the veterans came to a six month expiration on
00:24:37.140 their vaccine. The vaccines basically wore off. And then we had the full shading in of the Delta variant,
00:24:42.220 which is, you know, has resistances against the vaccine. So both those things happened. So in September,
00:24:47.080 we knew that our seniors were becoming uncovered. And I think that's what pushed our agencies in the next few
00:24:52.640 months to basically say we need boosters. Yeah. And, and with the differences in efficacy, after you, you know,
00:25:01.720 account for some, some bias, some advantage, which of the vaccine seems, now we're two years into this,
00:25:11.400 as you point out, I have the horrible feeling going back to my skepticism. I have the horrible feeling
00:25:17.760 that we don't have two years worth of better information and knowledge about what we're doing
00:25:25.240 in this pandemic, our public health agencies in particular, and the way in which the science is
00:25:31.580 being disseminated to people who need to understand it. So after all of that, doctor, which is the best
00:25:39.620 vaccine of the ones that we, we mentioned, whether it's a Moderna, whether it's Pfizer, whether it's
00:25:45.840 J and J what is the other one? Right. There's AstraZeneca outside the United States. And actually
00:25:54.800 today Novavax was just approved in the EU. The answer to your question, though, I'm looking at the
00:25:59.700 data right now, just one more paper, Nordstrom and colleagues, huge study from Sweden in published
00:26:05.080 in Lancet, 1.6 million pairs. So it means half vaccinated, half not vaccinated, solid study.
00:26:11.460 Let me give you the data. Pfizer starts out at 30 days. Pfizer has 92% protection against symptomatic
00:26:17.800 COVID-19 and that protection in six months drops to 23%. Moderna starts out at 96% at 30 days and it
00:26:27.100 drops to 69%. I'm telling you every analysis, Moderna is the winner. Well, that's important, but we don't
00:26:33.700 hear that in the, in the popular press. We do not hear that from the CDC. The, there, this is like
00:26:41.460 putting out a placebo in many respects in the midst of a, of a, of a crisis and it's representative. And
00:26:49.940 thank you, doctor, for giving me a straight answer, because as you know, those straight answers are very
00:26:55.960 hard to get generally in the, in the media and it's desperately needed. Let me ask you this.
00:27:03.700 Uh, as well, if, are we going to just have to keep getting boosters here or, uh, what do you
00:27:10.800 anticipate? Well, first of all, let me back up and talk about we, and what that means. We people 65 and
00:27:18.340 older, we people 75 and older, we people, uh, in their eighties, uh, up, uh, these are very different
00:27:27.980 groups, especially from the forties and the 50 year olds in this country. And then the young people,
00:27:34.100 but we're all getting the same advice, the same counsel, the same direction about vaccination.
00:27:39.460 And we're being told that we're not vaccinated, uh, you know, and it's poppycock, the most vulnerable
00:27:45.140 populations. We who are older are getting vaccinated. Are we not? Absolutely. And, uh, you know, I think
00:27:54.100 there's been, um, so much division around this vaccinated and unvaccinated and I'll just give
00:27:59.720 you the, the, the CDC numbers. I mean, we are a highly vaccinated country. The CDC has a report
00:28:06.380 out August, uh, October 25th. Lou, we've, we've had 220 million Americans receive at least one dose
00:28:14.460 of the vaccine through October 25th. Wow. We are heavily vaccinated. Remember, you know,
00:28:21.060 the children comprise about 70 million, uh, individuals. Then we had data, uh, with the
00:28:27.260 Delta outbreak. My estimates are, you know, and it's the best I can as a, just as a, as a, as a
00:28:32.560 guess, as an estimate that we probably have 80% of children have already had COVID-19 now. And one of
00:28:38.680 the support for that, yeah, listen to this. The reason why, how do we know that is because there's
00:28:43.420 no school outbreaks. All the kids are back at school now for six months, not a single school outbreak.
00:28:48.220 I presented recently at a conference with Scott Atlas. Scott had the data on teachers,
00:28:53.800 elementary school and junior high teachers, safest profession from freedom of COVID-19.
00:28:58.300 The kids are an immunologic buffer because they've already been through it. So the CDC put out an
00:29:03.620 estimate of how many people are actually naturally immune. That means they've already been through the
00:29:09.900 illness and it's basically over with. And that number came in at, uh, the CDC tends to be conservative
00:29:16.160 on this at 146 million individuals. So, uh, you know, with that, we have, uh, over 140 studies
00:29:26.000 showing natural immunity is robust, complete and durable, uh, meaning, uh, that there is no meaningful,
00:29:31.940 uh, opportunity for a second serious infection. Now people test positive intermittently forever.
00:29:38.740 So there is a ton of false positive testing out there. Somebody in my family tested positive 17 times
00:29:44.120 after having COVID forever. And they, and I kept telling my family, I said, listen, they didn't get COVID
00:29:49.180 17 times. They're fine. It's just, you get it once. And we now know that remnants of the virus
00:29:54.820 loose stay in the body for a year and a half after infection that's been shown by Bruce Patterson. So of
00:30:00.000 course people are going to intermittently test positive after having the initial infection. We just need
00:30:04.160 to stop the testing. Once somebody has been through the serious illness. Yeah. And meanwhile, the,
00:30:09.560 the white house is wanting to put out, uh, what 500, uh, uh, million, uh, test kits. Uh, it's,
00:30:17.440 it's crazy. Uh, you know, if it's, you're not, when it comes to Biden, uh, and, and actually all of
00:30:26.660 government, uh, they really don't have much of a sense of what is taxpayer money and what is their
00:30:31.400 money. Uh, they spend hours like they would never spend their own. Uh, I, I just, the testing is,
00:30:38.360 uh, you know, I is important, but at this, at this juncture, based on what you're saying
00:30:43.460 with the number of people in this country, in the millions who've been, uh, inoculated,
00:30:49.320 uh, who have then add that, uh, those who have natural immunity, we're a country that shouldn't
00:30:56.800 need to be locked down. Should we? No. If you look at the Venn diagram of those who've already been
00:31:02.440 through it, the CDC estimate through October 2nd, 2021 is 146.6 million. The CDC estimate that 200
00:31:09.460 and 220 million people have taken at least one dose of the vaccine. Uh, and the fact that, you know,
00:31:17.400 our treatment, uh, approaches have advanced so greatly. I've taken the view that, you know, we
00:31:23.500 could just go back to normal. And when COVID-19 presents itself, treat it promptly, uh, in the
00:31:30.340 outpatient arena, if people get sick, handle them in the hospital and just go back to normal.
00:31:34.440 We, at some point in time, we're going to have to declare it over and just let the doctors
00:31:38.760 treat, treat it out. And let's close out the pandemic. Let's get back to normal. But if we,
00:31:44.220 if we go out and do the things that we've been doing is creating more fear. So for instance,
00:31:49.920 our president, uh, I want to say about a week before Christmas said that we're heading into a dark
00:31:55.960 and deadly winter or the unvaccinated blue America needs leadership. That's positive. That is, um,
00:32:07.000 joyous around the time of the holidays. And Americans want to hear, especially our seniors,
00:32:12.180 they want to hear a good word that it's okay. And that we can, uh, you know, get together over the
00:32:17.700 holidays. And if something happens, we can treat them and get them through it.
00:32:20.960 And let me just, if I may recap a bit here on, um, one thing in particular, uh, by the way,
00:32:29.960 I was reading the wall street journal the other day. Uh, and in it was what happens,
00:32:35.980 what should you do if you contract, uh, COVID or Omicron? It is the only article I have seen in the
00:32:45.200 popular press, uh, in all media in the last, I would say six months, certainly about what to do
00:32:53.260 if you get, uh, get, uh, infected. Uh, I haven't, and it may be by the way, much longer than that,
00:33:00.340 but I think it was about six months ago, six months to a year ago. We don't see people telling
00:33:05.480 people what to do if you get the disease for crying out loud. Uh, and so I want to, uh, congratulate
00:33:12.480 the wall street journal for having done so. Uh, but, uh, it's almost impossible to get good
00:33:19.160 information on what, uh, what is going on. And I want to thank you again, doctor, for,
00:33:24.480 for what you're doing here today. You're giving us reason for joy. I, and the, and the best way that
00:33:30.200 can, uh, you know, the best way to boost anyone is to improve their knowledge and to, uh, to give
00:33:36.220 them the facts, uh, and these facts are, are wonderful. But what I hear you saying too, is
00:33:42.180 we need to be focused as much on antivirals and therapeutics certainly, or perhaps more so
00:33:48.620 than vaccines. Am I wrong? No, you're exactly right. Remember the vast majority of people who
00:33:54.180 take the vaccine will never come in contact with COVID. So we just have to focus on the narrow band
00:33:59.680 at any given time that actually have the illness and treat them. Cause remember if someone is
00:34:05.300 untreated, Lou, they go 14 days of being contagious and they spread it around family members ultimately
00:34:11.040 come over everyone. They, everyone, it's, it just propagates the virus. If we treat early,
00:34:16.020 we reduce the infectivity period to like with Joe Rogan is good case example down to three or four days.
00:34:22.560 And so the bottom line is by treating early, we snuff out the pandemic. That's exactly what happened
00:34:26.800 in Mexico city. They shifted to an early treatment program. They snuffed it out. Same thing happened
00:34:31.460 in India, Sri Lanka, uh, Bangladesh is really focused on the oral nasal hygiene. They have 160 million
00:34:39.700 people, crowded conditions. They're almost down to zero COVID. Uh, countries have taken different
00:34:44.880 approaches. Italy, uh, heavily vaccinated country, but they, they overlaid it with a treatment domiciliary,
00:34:50.720 which is an oral hydroxychloroquine based approach with multiple drugs. They, they had declarations
00:34:56.380 in cities of zero COVID in some of their major cities. One of the things that we haven't seen
00:35:00.920 is we haven't seen teams of doctors in Washington. When I testified in the U S Senate last year,
00:35:06.100 I told America, I said, we needed four sets of teams. We needed a team of doctors focusing on
00:35:11.420 reducing spread of the virus. The biggest thing we've learned is decontaminate the nose and the
00:35:15.500 mouth. That's huge. The second thing is we needed a team on early treatment, all the therapeutics,
00:35:20.400 everything we talked about on therapeutics and each team monthly updates to the country.
00:35:24.660 Uh, team number three in hospital treatment. We haven't heard anything, any updates in in
00:35:29.640 hospital treatment now for a year. Um, uh, you know, there must be advances. There must be
00:35:33.540 clinical trials. Uh, let's see it. And then finally a team focused on vaccination. What we had is we had
00:35:39.080 a preoccupation on two things for two years now, masks and lawns and vaccines. And we, we have not
00:35:45.460 had a balanced approach and we haven't had any teamwork. American is pretty much seen one or two people
00:35:50.300 on TV, no teams of doctors. Remember no two doctors agree on anything. So we always need teams.
00:35:55.940 We need consensus. We need independence. We can't have our government officials calling the shots.
00:36:02.080 We never do, by the way, and other medical problems, it's always an independent team of
00:36:06.620 doctors that basically becomes the consensus panel. Always. We never have single government
00:36:11.760 officials running any consensus in medicine. I got to say to you, doctor, you and I are getting
00:36:16.300 along beautifully. Uh, I love it. Independence and, uh, it's in healthy skepticism goes a long way.
00:36:24.220 Uh, uh, even in science, I love the people who are decided that, you know, if it's, uh, it's emanating
00:36:30.620 from a, uh, uh, a science journal or whatever, it must be gospel and therefore must be, you know,
00:36:36.300 I have to respond to that because it was stated that, uh, one of our government officials that he
00:36:43.420 himself represented himself as science. And, you know, I can tell you as a, I can tell you as a,
00:36:49.200 as a senior, as a senior doctor, I mean, I have 650 publications in the peer-reviewed, uh, literature.
00:36:55.340 That's in the top echelon of anybody in the world. I'm in, I focus on heart and kidney disease. I'm in
00:36:59.760 that, in that area. I'm the most published person in the world in history. I have 52 papers published
00:37:05.600 on COVID-19, including the two seminal papers, you know, teaching the world how to treat COVID-19.
00:37:09.680 I have a right to have an opinion. Uh, I tell you, I can tell your listeners and you that science,
00:37:15.780 the process, it's a discipline. It can't be represented by a single person that type of
00:37:20.280 demagoguery America should, should, should immediately be alarmed with, uh, and be distrustful
00:37:25.640 of. And, uh, I can tell you something else that I've been on the news. One time, uh, I was accused
00:37:31.300 of being a skeptic and Laura Ingram brought this up and I said, Laura skepticism is the lifeblood of
00:37:36.480 science. Of course I'm skeptical. Uh, you know, if I wasn't skeptical, I wouldn't be good as a
00:37:41.440 scientist. Exactly. And, uh, again, you and I are getting, uh, getting along perfectly. Uh, this,
00:37:50.060 I, I want everyone, uh, in this country to be skeptical, uh, skeptical of their news choices,
00:37:56.520 skeptical of the, uh, of what is being presented. Uh, and by the way, if there is anyone, and I doubt
00:38:03.320 this doctor, but if there's anyone in our, uh, audience, uh, for the show who doesn't know,
00:38:09.420 uh, who Dr. McCullough was referring to when he said a person representing himself as science,
00:38:15.300 that would be the one, the only Dr. Fauci who has, uh, become ubiquitous, uh, and, uh, insatiable
00:38:25.180 in his, uh, public appearances, uh, and certainly no less arrogant, uh, in his opinion of who he is
00:38:33.140 and what he's doing. Uh, a remarkable, uh, well, a remarkable circumstance. Doctor, as we wrap up
00:38:41.820 here, I think that there's a great public service to be done. Uh, if, if you would, uh, uh, share with
00:38:47.760 our, our listeners, your website and how they can, uh, follow you, I think that's, uh, very important
00:38:54.080 if you would, uh, share that with them now. Sure. Thanks. Uh, this year I was really honored, uh, to
00:39:00.400 join the team at America Out Loud Talk Radio. So I, I started a show called the McCullough Report and
00:39:06.340 every week it is a report similar to this where I give critical updates. Uh, one of the things America
00:39:12.480 knows is that I will be true to the citation. So everything I state, uh, will have a citation. I
00:39:17.940 always try to localize it by first author. And, uh, so what these are, everything I've said is
00:39:22.780 readily identifiable on, uh, internet and there's no opinion. So people have made a big deal about
00:39:29.880 information or misinformation. I said, it's, it's neither. It's basically just the data. You, you
00:39:33.800 decide, uh, take a look at it. And so America Out Loud Talk Radio, the McCullough Report for the key
00:39:39.800 treatment guides, lists of treating doctors, uh, several different key websites. One is the
00:39:45.280 Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. That group has been around since 1943. They were
00:39:50.200 the first ones to endorse early treatment, aapsonline.org. Uh, one for advocacy on vaccine
00:39:56.720 safety and efficacy and early treatment is the Truth for Health Foundation, truthforhealth.org.
00:40:02.780 And then there are two, uh, active national, uh, treating services. One's called the American
00:40:08.880 Frontline Doctors, uh, AFLDS, and the other one's called the Frontline Critical Care Consortium,
00:40:14.400 FLCC.net. And through them, you can see linkages to all the other national telemedicine services and
00:40:20.420 regional telemedicine services. Uh, more and more clinical doctors are getting on board. It was
00:40:25.420 a bit of a learning curve for doctors to pick up the hang of how to do this by the phone and to be
00:40:30.340 quick and get treatment, uh, do risk stratification and get treatment to patients, but it is working.
00:40:35.200 Uh, I can tell you right now, the hospitals are not overloaded. I was in the hospital yesterday.
00:40:40.100 Things are very calm, very manageable. Uh, I hope we can get to the point of zero hospitalization,
00:40:46.740 zero deaths. We're still going to have some COVID. It's just that it's going to be the confluence of
00:40:50.960 all of our strategies working together to get us through the pandemic.
00:40:55.880 Doctor, it's, it's been very instructive. And, uh, while my comprehension level, uh,
00:41:01.800 it will, it would disappoint you. I I'm, I'm thrilled that I understood as much as I did of
00:41:08.540 what you, uh, uh, you've said you were crystal clear. Uh, but I love trying to understand all of
00:41:15.080 the medical terms. Uh, and I have to say thank you for not, not speaking down to us, uh, straight up
00:41:21.740 stuff. And that's exactly what this audience demands. So, uh, we're deeply appreciative. We'll
00:41:27.080 be putting out all of that information, uh, as well on our social media, uh, and getting it to our
00:41:32.960 audience. Uh, so there everyone has it. I hope you'll come back soon. Enjoy talking with you. I
00:41:38.320 want to thank you for everything you're doing for enlarging the, uh, the body of public knowledge
00:41:43.440 about this, uh, disease, this pandemic, uh, its treatment, uh, and, uh, and, and so much more. Uh,
00:41:51.660 you're a great American and thank you so much, Dr. Peter McCullough. Thank you. Thank you. And we
00:41:58.500 will continue in just one moment. Please stay with us for more of the great America show.
00:42:05.060 There are days in this halcyon era of the Biden presidency that we're all surely tempted to think
00:42:13.460 one day or the next reason will surely ultimately prevail that president Biden will suddenly come to
00:42:21.220 his senses and stop the Marxist madness, but instead his administration starts a new initiative
00:42:28.340 or an order that is not only divisive, but destructive and never has any American president
00:42:35.440 given greater power to the unelected permanent bureaucracy. The Biden food and drug administration
00:42:42.540 is dropping restrictions against the abortion pill. That's right. You heard me right. Now the federal
00:42:50.680 drug administration will no longer require that a woman visit a hospital, a clinic, or a doctor.
00:42:57.660 Now women can order an abortion pill online. Pro-abortion groups cheered the Biden decision.
00:43:06.220 Pro-life advocates, of course, are simply stunned in disbelief and furious. Joining us is one of the
00:43:13.700 great defenders of life in this country and committed opponent of abortion and most assuredly opponent of
00:43:19.840 on-demand online abortion. Senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Pastor Robert Jeffress.
00:43:28.800 Pastor, great to have you with us. I have to say this was a stunning and stealthy decision taken by the
00:43:37.460 Biden administration, wasn't it?
00:43:39.820 It was, Lou, but it was right in line with their pro-abortion policy. And this is just one more reason.
00:43:46.040 Several weeks ago to our congregation, I said, the Biden administration is the ungodliest administration
00:43:52.780 in the history of the United States. If you don't have to go to a hospital, you don't realize perhaps
00:43:57.960 exactly what you're doing. You think you're killing your child in private, but there is no killing of a
00:44:03.620 child in private. Even if no one else sees it, God sees it. And this pill does nothing. It's not
00:44:09.500 removing a biological blob from a woman. It's removing a life created by God. And this is pure
00:44:16.800 evil. There's no other way to categorize it.
00:44:20.580 This, that this got this far and that suddenly the FDA, which is certainly to be protective of life as
00:44:30.300 its primary mission, uh, is suddenly involved in abortion, uh, in a way that I think is, it's frankly,
00:44:40.340 it's, it's, it's backhanded. Uh, it's being done, uh, in the darkness of, uh, the corridors of
00:44:48.920 Congress and the Senate, uh, the, the people we elected aren't making these decisions. This is a
00:44:56.380 unilateral fiat coming from the president of the United States. Absolutely Lou. And it just shows
00:45:03.720 how Joe Biden and his ungodly policies have infiltrated and corrupted every agency of
00:45:10.380 government, including the FDA. But I want to give some good news here amidst all of this. I really
00:45:16.880 do think that the Supreme court is on the precipice of sharply curbing, if not completely overturning
00:45:25.280 Roe v. Wade. And I think that will have a dramatic effect, even on this decision.
00:45:30.820 Uh, and your optimism is based on the arguments in the, uh, in the Dobbs case in which, uh,
00:45:37.600 no relation, by the way, I should point out, uh, the Dobbs case in which, uh, you expressed early on,
00:45:44.580 uh, the thought, uh, and the hope, uh, that it would be an even stronger, uh, initiative than the Texas,
00:45:53.580 uh, the Texas law. Right. I think the Dobbs, uh, case is a stronger case because it isn't in
00:46:00.540 so to speak tainted by this enforcement procedure that even some conservatives have questions about
00:46:06.840 whether you want to empower private citizens to go after other citizens. You saw Gavin Newsom saying
00:46:13.160 they're going to use that same tactic to go after gun owners. So I think the tactic of enforcement is
00:46:19.020 questionable in the Texas case, but I appreciate governor Abbott trying to protect life. I think
00:46:24.960 the Dobbs case is a stronger case and more likely one that's to be a win for the pro-life group.
00:46:30.900 Now, I would love to be able to say, pastor, you and I agree on so much, but I, I am so leery
00:46:36.980 of this Supreme court, this Supreme court, uh, chief justice. Uh, I am, I just can't find that,
00:46:45.420 uh, uh, confidence that you express because, uh, frankly, uh, John Roberts, uh, is a liberal
00:46:53.260 pretending to be a conservative, at least during his confirmation. We have seen what he is and what
00:47:01.460 he is, is a sneak thief. Well, in my vote counting, I'm not counting on John Roberts, but I think again,
00:47:10.440 because of what president Trump has done and appointing these three solidly conservative
00:47:15.980 pro-life justices, I'm optimistic that there's going to be some curbing of abortion, uh, if not
00:47:23.640 an outright, uh, outright overturn of Roe v. Wade. And I mean, in the past, the Supreme court has never
00:47:29.940 had the courage to lead public opinion. They put their collective fingers in the air and see which
00:47:36.060 way the wind is blowing, but maybe this time that will be different. Well, let's hope so, because
00:47:42.060 it's awful to think of the lives that have been taken in the name of, uh, uh, choice, uh, since,
00:47:50.940 uh, Roe v. Wade. Uh, it's, uh, I wonder how we will look back, how historians will look back on this
00:47:57.440 period, uh, in American history. It is truly a terrible thing to contemplate. Uh, let, let's turn
00:48:06.040 turn to, uh, right now. I also, uh, a fascinating study that just came out from the Pew Research
00:48:12.480 Center. Three in 10 U.S. adults are now religiously unaffiliated and the number of self-identified
00:48:20.460 Christians has fallen significantly from just a decade ago. Uh, what do you think is transpiring?
00:48:27.600 Lou, I think there are a number of factors at play here. Certainly the secularization of our country,
00:48:32.920 the false idea. You can be good without God, the failure of parents to pass along their faith to
00:48:38.760 their children. But I don't think we ought to underestimate the role that two years of isolation
00:48:44.480 and separation from churches during this pandemic has caused the American people. Christianity is
00:48:52.660 something that's best practiced in the company of others. And I think this isolation we've gone
00:48:58.340 through has really played a negative role in the spiritual health of Americans. Well, the spiritual
00:49:04.460 health of Americans, it's, it is, there has been so much, uh, exploitation of the crisis that is and was
00:49:14.360 COVID. And now here we go again with the left looking to every possibility, this administration
00:49:21.380 looking for every opportunity to, to, to exert what is simply leftist authoritarianism, wanting to shut
00:49:31.060 down, uh, all gatherings, uh, to demand vaccinations, uh, as a right of the state, rather than a matter of
00:49:39.940 choice, of course, uh, for, for families and for their, uh, for children in school. Uh, it's very difficult
00:49:47.840 to rationalize what is happening because of the fact that we have a left wing president in office,
00:49:54.860 rather than say a, uh, uh, a moderate like, uh, uh, president Donald Trump. And I say that only with
00:50:03.680 a partial tongue in cheek. Well, I think we saw exactly what the left's game plan was during the
00:50:12.080 last shutdowns. I mean, if they were going to treat everyone equally, that would be one thing,
00:50:16.900 but we saw the left and States like New York and California arguing for casinos being open and
00:50:24.100 stores being open, but shutting down churches. And, you know, the fact is there is no constitutional
00:50:29.980 right for a casino to be open, but there is something called the first amendment that prohibits
00:50:36.200 government from interfering with places of worship. So I have no confidence that if shutdowns begin,
00:50:42.340 they're going to be equitably distributed. I think they're coming after churches like
00:50:46.800 they always do. And coming after churches and all of us, uh, apparently as a, a variant that is even
00:50:55.040 more transmissible, more contagious than Delta or the original so-called COVID-19 China virus.
00:51:02.840 Uh, how concerned are you that this, this variant, uh, Omicron will be even more destructive of rights
00:51:12.400 and liberties and the rights of Americans to assemble, uh, in, in their churches, synagogues,
00:51:20.940 uh, and places of worship? Well, I'm afraid it could be used as a tool, uh, to do just that. And look,
00:51:27.600 Lou, we've been very clear and you and I've been honest with each other. I mean, I believe that COVID
00:51:32.940 was a real problem and we'd lost real, uh, church members, uh, who died because of COVID. I've, uh,
00:51:39.660 encouraged people to be vaccinated. I'm vaccinated and so forth, but I do think it can be used as a
00:51:46.980 tool of control by government and we've already seen it happen. I wish everybody would get vaccinated,
00:51:52.660 would choose to get vaccinated so that we could move past this thing and not give the government
00:51:58.040 a false excuse to limit our freedom. Yeah. I, I would just hope that every American would
00:52:04.660 respect the right of, uh, their fellow citizens to make their choices and that government, instead
00:52:11.420 of mandating and telling people what to do as if they were, uh, cattle rather than citizens, uh, would,
00:52:19.120 uh, educate all Americans, uh, try to persuade, uh, on policy rather than demand as an
00:52:27.980 authoritarian government would. Uh, and then I agree with you. Uh, I, you know, we're my wife and
00:52:34.160 I are vaccinated. We are, uh, we're boosterized, uh, but, uh, you know, it's every citizen's right.
00:52:41.760 And I really think that has to be, we can't rationalize of when we have rights and when we
00:52:48.180 don't. Uh, and I think it's just such a, uh, if you will, that old cliche, such a slippery,
00:52:53.920 slippery slope of which there are so many in modern, modern, uh, American life. Let, let's turn
00:53:01.260 to, uh, if we may, you, uh, your event with, uh, President Trump, uh, and having, uh, the former
00:53:09.240 president of the United States, uh, in your congregation, in your church, uh, your emotions,
00:53:14.420 your thoughts. Well, we were so honored that President Trump chose to come and worship with
00:53:18.980 us on what we call, uh, Christmas Sunday, this past Sunday, which the whole theme is
00:53:23.640 Christmas. My message was about Christmas and, uh, you know, the President Trump's love
00:53:28.540 for Christmas and understanding of the importance of it, uh, is well known, uh, among people.
00:53:34.620 And, uh, you know, during his tenure in office, uh, he invited me two or three times at the
00:53:39.720 White House Christmas parties to come up and share about the real meaning of Christmas and
00:53:44.540 to lead in prayer. And, uh, I thought since he was visiting our house of worship, I would
00:53:49.700 invite him to do the same at the end of the service. And so we were glad to have him offer
00:53:54.080 a Christmas greeting.
00:53:55.940 And your sermon on what this world would look like, were there no Christmas, uh, that's a
00:54:03.040 provocative, uh, premise. Uh, and it's also one that, that causes, uh, everyone who is
00:54:10.720 religious to, to pause and think, you know, the, of the foundation of Christianity, it's
00:54:16.820 true meaning. Give us what you think, uh, is the importance of the, of the, of the hypothetical.
00:54:23.780 Well, if there were no Christmas, just think about it. We'd have to throw out our calendars
00:54:28.140 to begin with. I mean, we're about to enter 2022. Well, 2022 years from what? Well, it's
00:54:35.380 all centered around the birth of Christ. I mean, would you, would lose great works of
00:54:40.120 architecture like Notre Dame or great works of art, like the Sistine Chapel. There'd be
00:54:45.580 no great music from Bach or Beethoven who were Christians. Uh, we would have these great
00:54:51.540 educational institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Brown that were originally founded as
00:54:56.660 Christian schools. There'd be no, uh, great benevolent organizations like the Red Cross or
00:55:02.140 the Salvation Army that were Christian organizations in the name of Christ. If there were no
00:55:08.160 Christmas or Christmas would be the third, be no Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for our
00:55:13.560 sin and conquered death for us so that we have hope beyond the grave. I mean, the thought of
00:55:18.960 no Christmas is really appalling, but the good news is there is a Christmas and that's what
00:55:25.520 we gladly separate, celebrate this coming week.
00:55:28.620 Well, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, it's a wonderful, uh, uh, explanation and, uh, as I expect, uh, and I
00:55:37.380 thank you for being as, uh, as a pastor provocative and a great tutor as well. Uh, pastor, we appreciate
00:55:44.080 you being with us and thank you so much for, uh, taking time.
00:55:48.020 Well, thank you, Lou, and I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas.
00:55:51.320 Thank you, and to your family as well. Pastor Robert Jeffress here on The Great America Show,
00:55:58.280 and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, happiest holidays, and Happy New Year. Thanks for being with us.