Episode 857 Scott Adams: Start Your Morning Right With Some Positivity

Date: 2020-03-18 | Duration: 1:08:10

Topics

My new book LOSERTHINK, available now on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/rqmjc2a Positivities and feel-good stories in war against coronavirus

If you would like my channel to have a wider audience and higher production quality, please donate via my startup (Whenhub.com) at this link: https://interface.my/ScottAdamsSays

> [!note] Rough Transcript
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## Transcript

[0:15]

boom hey everybody come on in it's time for coffee with Scott Adams hey Jack good to see everybody you know I can't tell you how much I look forward to doing this every day yeah I think his shows I mean you probably figured it out by now but I wouldn't do any of this if I didn't want to well maybe I would but in the emergency I probably would but I do enjoy seeing you all that is genuine it is by far you know not counting family Cristina stuff it's the best thing I do today and I've tried to be useful I think we're doing a good job here and now would you please if you please join me now for the simultaneous sip if you're not prepared you've got a moment to get prepared and all you need is a cup or a mug or a glass of tanker chelators died a canteen jerger flasks a vessel of any kind fill it with your favorite liquid I like coffee and join me now for the dopamine ease of the know

[1:17]

me now for the dopamine ease of the know what is it the join me now for the unparalleled pleasure how could I forget it the dopamine it of the day the thing that makes everything better including the coronavirus it's coffee and you're about to have it simultaneously with people all around the world go that coronavirus doesn't have a chance I pity it I pity the coronavirus it's trying to attack earth doing its best but we're pretty pretty good at this it's amazing how much the standard war analogies work with this virus literally our strategy against the virus is a strategic retreat which is what we're in now you know divide and conquer that's part of what the strategic retreat buying us we're building weapons there are literally labs all over the world

[2:19]

are literally labs all over the world building weapons against a virus and the worlds of coordinated allies have formed the entire you know power of humanity the highest level of power it's ever been smartest more capable most connected most determined and we are focusing on one problem right now if you were that one problem in the entire power of humanity formed over 15 billion years out lasting 99% of species dominating the earth I wouldn't want to be on the other team because we're gonna kick their ass and it's not gonna happen yet hold wait for the weapons the weapons are being formed right now and they're gonna be a lot of them we're gonna have our test kits we're gonna have our treatments for people who get it a little bit later we're gonna have some vaccines so hold the hill hold what

[3:23]

some vaccines so hold the hill hold what I say hold I don't mean just stay healthy I mean the economy hold it together I mean the psychology how old this is different than a lot of types of crises if this were you know a real world war you might have some question now who's gonna win on this one we don't have a question who's gonna win we have questions of when and how and you know what the casualties will be but we're gonna win that part's not a dispute so we had an earthquake today in Utah I guess it just happens with 5.7 that's pretty big I haven't anything about damage I'm hoping that because it's in Utah maybe there are fewer large structures less damage but you know good luck to the people in Utah who who did not need another problem here's something that nobody is complaining about this week for a good reason

[4:26]

about this week for a good reason nobody is complaining this week that they don't have meaning in their life think about that I mean maybe I'm wrong there's somebody out there who says oh my problem this week is I don't have meaning in my life you know I don't see that and it turns out that you know my my discovery after living enough years is that the only time you you have that internal sensation that you have meaning is if you're helping somebody else now it could be that you're building your own power up you're going to school to be a you know doctor or something and you're gonna be useful so that gives you meaning you're just not helping people yeah but you're preparing to help people I don't think there's an exception to that I don't believe that you can find meaning in life by pursuing I don't know your your sculptures that nobody's gonna look at your paintings that nobody buys I don't think you can find meaning in life just as an

[5:28]

find meaning in life just as an individual the meaning is the connectivity it's it's what you're doing for other people and one of the things this you know crisis has reminded us of is what that feels like because I don't know about you know most of you but were you were you really engaged in trying to make sure that your fellow humans were we're surviving were you know doing okay probably not probably we were all just evolved with our own our own selves and there was really nothing wrong with that in good times take care of yourself that's actually good for the public too but I think this crisis has I just flipped everybody's thinking let me read something that I found very inspirational which was this was for representative max Rose and he tweeted that absolutely amazed by the number of emails I've gotten from retired doctors

[6:28]

emails I've gotten from retired doctors nurses and medical professionals looking for a way to help if you know that it goes on to invite more of them now think about that retired medical professionals these are not young people and and they're actually overwhelmed with volunteers so I would you know there's no doubt about the the most at-risk person would be a medical professional you know working with patients in any way who's also older and that's what retired medical professionals are so these are people who are volunteering in waves to attack the beach I mean these are people are just signing up for Normandy you know Normandy it was a little rougher but percentage-wise but you get the point right we don't have a shortage of heroes we actually have an excess of heroes you just think about that we have an excess

[7:30]

just think about that we have an excess of heroes that's pretty amazing so I've got some other positivity that I'll get to but I'm gonna jump around a little bit for a few different things sometimes the simulation plays games with you yeah coincidences and such and you know today's one of those days last night Christina told me a story that I was going to tell today just sort of a feel-good story and then there was a headline unfortunately a sad one today that Kathy Griffin's mother died I think she was very elderly but if you follow Kathy Griffin and for a moment just hold your comments about what you think about her these are emergency etiquette you know we're at a crisis so it's a little different etiquette we're not going to chew up the enemies you know your political enemies they're about real enemies but political enemies we're on pause for that right just let

[8:32]

we're on pause for that right just let me finish my story just hold your opinion of Kathy Griffin for a moment so she's got a tragedy on top of a tragedy today it must be just horribly hard for her today because she was very close to her mother she was part of the Act etc so I sent her a little message of condolence but here's the the coincidence last night just randomly Christina said that I tell you the story about Kathy Griffin and I said no I don't think you did and here's her story I think it was 2018 and so Christina and her daughter and her sister were in New York City for recreational reasons and her sister had tickets to Kathy Griffin so who had a show that night and on Instagram you know Christina just happened to see that Kathy Griffin was promoting her show and she knew her sister had tickets to the show so Christina just you know send a direct

[9:33]

so Christina just you know send a direct message through Instagram to Kathy Griffin what she doesn't know and as far as I know Kathy Griffin is not aware of her connection to me all right so I'm not part of the story as far as I know and she sends a message to Kathy Griffin and says you know I'd love to go to your show but too bad you know I'm with my daughter and you know I have to watch her and Kathy Griffin replied back to Christina who's random fan who says I wish I could go to the show you know big sold out probably shall and Kathy Griffin says maybe we can help get a babysitter and offered free tickets think about it no Christina does not have an adult daughter she's a very young daughter and so Kathy Griffin offered to help babysit you know or find somebody tell babysit but complete strangers kid just offered

[10:40]

so you know I'm going to give you some feel-good stories that's one of them so you know Sandra condolence today the least important news in the world happened last night there was something called the Democratic primary for several states and I didn't continue to widen his lead on Bernie Bernie continues to stay in we think to push his policies which is not a bad reason to stay in because he's been successful in you know in getting that to happen
but I've never been less interested in the political event of you have you ever been less interested in such a major political event you know I I tried to watch the news and maybe it's because we just figured Biden was gonna win so there's no surprise it could be that it could be that but in normal times I think it's all we'd be talking about I you know what I'm talking about it

[11:41]

you know what I'm talking about it because you know I know some of you will be interested but I don't think I've ever been less interested in a major political event then than that I because we're in this situation I just I just can't care but here's what's interesting about this the two most influential Democrats right now in terms of this crisis so you know the influential of the moment I would argue our Andrew yang because of the you bi thing which certainly is going to get a test and Bernie Sanders who has been a very you know capable and loud voice for the working families and definitely part of the productive part of this crisis I think Bernie and and yang are the two most influential people and they lost to Biden now tell me what Biden's done I'm not I'm not sure it's necessarily his job to do anything except run for president I mean so it's not a criticism

[12:43]

president I mean so it's not a criticism I'm just it's more of a compliment to Bernie anti-gang the in losing it didn't it didn't stop them from being Patriots didn't stop them from being useful didn't stop them from helping didn't stop them from being powerful voice it voices for for our upcoming inevitable victory over the virus so thank you to Bernie Sanders and thank you to Andrew yang su and you know I mentioned this yesterday when I did my special evening periscope maybe I had mentioned yesterday but Dana Bash well-known one of the most prominent pundit voices on CNN pointedly and directly complimented the president for his you know new leadership style his revised current one and I really appreciated that as as a citizen I appreciated that here's some

[13:44]

citizen I appreciated that here's some more stuff I wanted to give you some more good news but look at my notes out of order so here you go Joe Pollak is reporting today that stores are already restocked restocking is hoped delays and a few things like certain meats but eggs are back in plenty of produce you know I told you that produce produce will never be problem you know if you're worried about the starving there's no worry at all because you can't hoard fresh fruit and broccoli you know worst case the worst case scenario is you might have to you know eat your vegetables for a week and even that's not going to happen because the the meats already coming in too so the grocery supply chain as Joel says is tweet is amazing I have a little bit of experience because I had a food company startup for a while so I got a little bit of exposure to you

[14:46]

so I got a little bit of exposure to you know the whole food distribution and plus my restaurant businesses so I have a little bit more vision on that that world and the thing that I knew early is that it would perform no matter what because the nature of it is that people can't stay away from each other physically they still get all the work done you know if you're picking the vegetables you can have lots of space from you and the other people picking vegetables if you plant it that way you know if you're in a processing plant I'm sure you can get enough distance so it's a it's the nature of the problem that it would be easy to find people to substitute it's a very mature lots of back ups lots of you know if this goes wrong if that goes wrong probably our most mature and solid pipeline is our food and so you know knowing that and having a little bit of insight into that that world I've been telling you since the start it's the last thing you have to worry about so don't worry about food we're gonna be okay toilet paper you you know we're starting

[15:49]

toilet paper you you know we're starting to see people realize that there wasn't any reason to hoard that the first place if nobody had hoarded it yeah we'd be fine it's only the hoarding that caused the problem and I think the hoarding just caused the stimulus to the toilet paper companies and they'll bill they'll catch up pretty quickly probably already are well good I'm gonna read you a whole bunch of at least positive looking trends so they're on the list I'm not going to tell you the source only because I haven't asked permission but I think in normally I wouldn't read it because I haven't asked permission and it was an email it wasn't public but because it's the emergency I'm gonna I'm gonna read you the good news because you need the good news more than I need some minor old-world etiquette about not telling you something that wasn't an email okay so we're an emergency a tacit I wouldn't do this normally it's just good for you so without without mentioning the source because that's not important at the

[16:49]

because that's not important at the moment here are things that are relatively good it's a relative world right you know this is not winning the lottery good this is just better than better than it could have been so China's closed down its last coronavirus hospital because there are not enough new cases that's that's pretty big Indian doctors successful treating coronavirus with the combination of drugs so they're using these drugs called been aver ritonavir Lucia Tama veer along with clora Fenneman so the Indians now have a body of experience it may or may not be the answer because I don't know if I'd heard if most of these drugs but very valuable so you're seeing the you're seeing humanity with you know pockets of knowledge starting to starting to bring that knowledge into one unified you know meta brain if you will and when that happens it's going to be amazing and we're really close to it

[17:52]

be amazing and we're really close to it researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center claimed to have found an antibody against coronavirus I'm not a scientist I don't know what that means but sounds good right a hundred and three year old Chinese grandmother made a full recovery after being for treated for six days you know China is also released to us what all the things they tried so they've released to the world this is what we found out didn't work this is what worked very valuable and when the president tweeted a thank you to the Chinese people and to President Xi for their transparency and all the you know sacrifice they've made I think it was genuine and and you know I certainly am maybe the world's biggest critic of China there might be people who make more noise about China than I do well I don't think anybody hates up as much as

[18:53]

don't think anybody hates up as much as I do I'm talking about the government not the people and you know because I lost the stepson to fentanyl so for me it's personal but it is nonetheless true that I think China has done the world a solid a solid favor by working as hard as they have and by compiling that information in sharing it so we're we're way ahead of them because we know what they tried and that's a gigantic advantage Apple is reopening all 42 stores in China I don't know what that means economically so much as what it means psychologically because Apple has a hold of our you know our global consciousness they're just more important than other companies so what do you see China is you see Apple make any move the first thing you say is well they're the smartest people we know so it's probably the right and right move and that they have a de facto leadership role in the world whether they wanted it or not so Apple good leadership Thank You

[19:58]

so Apple good leadership Thank You Cleveland Clinic has developed a covin 19 test that gives results in hours not days how big a deal is it that somebody has hacked away to do a test of hours instead of days really really big now I don't know that this can be immediately put into production anywhere else and then scaled up but it's big this good news from South Korea where a number of new cases is declining so good job South Korea Italy still hit hard but you know the exploration is the the elderly population there I don't think that's the full story and we'll find out more about that but so Italy the good news bad news is there's something special about them that makes them in the worst situation but I don't think that's the whole story let's say scientists and Israel likely to announce the development of a vaccine

[20:59]

development of a vaccine I thought we knew that was coming so that's good news 3 Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered and able to return well I don't know it's just three people two more of Filipinos have recovered a network of Canadian researchers are making excellent progress again I don't know the details the San Diego biotech company is developing over 19 vaccinations vaccinations working with Duke University and National University of Singapore good you it's all hands on board I mean everything there's nobody on the sidelines now you know I've been saying from the start this is this is not a spectator sport if you're not in it
it get it one way or the other
all seven patients who were getting treated in a New Delhi Hospital have recovered here's the most interesting thing plasma from newly recovered patients can treat others and were infected so if you got it and you got

[22:01]

infected so if you got it and you got over it they can take your blood serum your your your hemoglobin or whatever the health I'm no scientist and they can take it down to somebody who had it and recovered recover and being the important part and then give it to somebody else and apparently the early indications are that that could make a difference now here's that's the good news bad news and somebody says plasma not hemoglobin thank you so just assume that anything I say about the medical technology is probably wrong but directionally accurate here's the good news the more people that get it the more people will recover and the more people are available as candidates for giving blood to be part of this you know newly newly recovered people giving blood serum to the two other people to protect them so

[23:01]

the two other people to protect them so in the beginning they're not that many people that you could even get to volunteer but as the as the crisis worsens so too will our weapons improve not for a good reason in this case you know the good reason is that so many people got it that now we have a lot of recovery people and they become the you know at least potentially you know everything I say about what might work you just put a big caveat in your mind we don't know anything right now but we have strong indications of some things that are really promising and that's worth noting all right I put this logger meter the election slaughter meter had 60% I did have it at over I think my last my last you know slaughter meter was around 500-600 percent basically saying that Trump was gonna win easily no matter what so that's what the slaughter meter records that's just my opinion it's not based on anything and I I'm our KITT

[24:03]

based on anything and I I'm our KITT down to 60% because the the uncertainty of the coronavirus takes what would have been otherwise a fairly slam-dunk reelection for Trump and it just introduces variables that they can't yet to be fully seen so operate is 60% you know there's a 50% greater chance the Trump would get reelected then buyers would win but you have to put some insert uncertainty back in there will have that and of course the slaughter beater gets updated so it doesn't tell you what's going to happen at the end it just tells you artificially if nothing changed this is what it would look like but something always changes something always changes what if we can't go to the polls we'll figure it out between now and November I have great confidence that the full weight of the United States power and energy and focus can

[25:05]

States power and energy and focus can figure out how do if I have an election that doesn't look great yeah I suppose we're gonna yell that it was rigged no matter what happens but I think we can do this that that that feels well within our capability you know in a in a wartime footing which we're in now that's November's a long time away right in a normal world if you said to me Scott can we redesign our voting system by November I'd say whoa what are you been drinking the world can't do anything that fast we're not gonna redesign our voting system before November that would be crazy it would be reckless and we couldn't get it done but that was yesterday we're on war footing now friction is sort of disappeared in terms of like political friction and you know people just carping about what would be the best thing to do at this point that the time it takes between now and November to figure out how to have a legitimate election in the United States that's a lot of time in a in a crisis

[26:08]

lot of time in a in a crisis if we can't get that done well be surprised I'll be surprised there's very early indication that people with blood group blood type a might have a greater risk than blood type O and so I immediately went to my online health records to find out what my blood type was and I couldn't figure it out so I sure wish I knew I I think I would already know if I were a blood type oh right if your blood type o your doctor taps on taps you on the shoulder maybe I'm wrong about this but this is just an assumption if you blood type O I think people somebody taps you on the shoulder so you know it'd be nice if you donated blood because I think o is the one everybody that that is in most demand so you'd probably know if you had blood type O if you're an adult of a certain age and I don't know that and so I'm guessing I'm probably a but there's also

[27:13]

guessing I'm probably a but there's also a we're getting information that conflicts about whether you can get the coronavirus from a surface as opposed to somebody breathing on you in some fairly intensive way and the conflicting information is that scientifically the the virus can live for a while on surfaces you know a day or two depending on the surface I think would is safer than something else etc but basically the scientists say oh it can definitely live on surfaces so in theory if you get it from touching something that somebody else touched but they also say that there are no confirmed cases where we know somebody got it from that in other words everybody who has it has a story of a direct connection with a human being that they they were close to physically close to so there's no case of somebody who says you know I don't have any connection with anybody I've just been you know living my life keeping my distance but I haven't washed my hands

[28:16]

distance but I haven't washed my hands that much and I got coronavirus now I don't know how easily we can tell how easily can we tell this somebody got it from a person versus got it from an object I don't know that we can tell that's why there's something's uncertainty but there are so many cases that have been exhaustively you know researched because that's the main thing you do and somebody guess it you say all right who did you talk to where were you and you and you deconstruct their recent history to find out who else is infected so we should have kicked up at least at least some people where you could say you know maybe they got it from the surface because even if somebody got it from close contact with a human how do you know you got it from you know the air droplets flying through the air versus somebody touched a glass of their spouse who had it how do you know so at least there's some reason to be a little

[29:18]

least there's some reason to be a little bit optimistic the surfaces are not going to be the main source of infection and I think we can we could probably confidently say that's true I think we can confidently say that the main problem is not going to be surfaces but of course it still exists as risk so wash your hands use your hand sanitizers and keep your hands away from your face so I think there's no question that it's a potential problem so treat it like it's a full problem so Democrats are trying to blame Fox News for the slow response by the president or at least not taking it as seriously as soon as they think you should have they've gotten some very clever but misleading memes showing the Fox News hosts you know downplaying it while the while the virus was getting worse now that certainly happened so in terms of you know describing what happened we all

[30:19]

know describing what happened we all watched it so there's no question about what happened but here's the thing was this some kind of weird isolated conservative Republican Fox News watcher problem can anybody tell me that there weren't any Demick that's in the country or Democrats on TV who also were saying well looks like it's just the flu you know does anybody think that now I'm not excusing anybody for anything that's not my job and I don't want to look back too much but I would note that I think we were sort of all in this together of people slowly realizing that this wasn't normal you know a lot of us went through that went through that phase where we were trying to figure out how bad it was but I was thinking to myself who are the earliest voices saying clothes travel from China were they Democrats you know who it was the first person to say close

[31:21]

who it was the first person to say close the airports from China I think it was me I'm not a Democrat now I I'm putting that out there provocatively because I want somebody to prove me wrong but is there anybody in the public you know I consider myself a public figure but was there anybody in the public who was said to who said loudly and I was pretty worked up about it
it I'm January 24th to close the airports from China immediately figure it out later but close that close the airport now and then figure now I don't think anybody said that before I did am i right who was telling you that the supply the supply line problem could be as big if not much bigger than the the virus itself who was saying that really early Mike sort of itch Mike sandwich is he a Democrat no don't think so I think he's independent but you know you can you can tell you what he is but

[32:21]

you can you can tell you what he is but he's not a Democrat who who are the biggest Hawks on China really early so names like Gordon Chang Lance Bass I don't I don't know what their political affiliations are but I don't think either them or necessarily you know classic Democrats I don't know what they are so I'm just that out there but these are the strongest voices I heard the the people who were on this thank you Tom cogman was the next woman's could have mentioned Tom cotton who had never been on my radar before you know I've heard the name and you know sometimes he was against the president issues I don't really even remember what they were but I would say Tom cotton is showing tremendous leadership on how to think about this how to be aggressive at it how to deal with Jive on this so Tom cotton he's no Democrat so I hear what you're saying I hear what you're saying

[33:22]

you're saying I hear what you're saying Democrats the Fox News has some explaining that conversation can happen later and I'm and I invite it because I think is actually a useful conversation you always want to audit you always wanted to do an autopsy on anything that worked and anything that didn't work so let's have that conversation but let's not pretend this is the the conservatives got it all wrong when the Democrats were smart because nothing like that happened nothing like that happened so I don't think it serves the country to be trying to frame it that way at the moment let's have the conversation but let's have it later I cancelled two surgeries for myself so I had two upcoming minor surgeries that I don't know why no larathen you know one was so minor it's not worth mentioning you know it just would have been stitches and getting rid of a cyst wall you know the cysts already is cleared up but I guess they leave a

[34:23]

cleared up but I guess they leave a little they leave what's called a wall will structure beneath the skin that I can't even feel so I had the most minor surgery planned for that there was going to be you know ten minutes and walk out with some stitches to get rid of that that's canceled until further notice then I had far more important surgery that I was going to have on my sinuses that is just postponed forever until till further notice so that one and interestingly I was I was contacting my health provider at the same time they were contact to me both of us were canceling the surgeries at the same time because even if my health care provider had said yeah you know we're not an emergency yet let's just keep your surgery on the books and you know we'll do it next week I want to go on ahead because I can you know my surgery the nasal stuff is you know it's optional in the sense that I could push it off better than somebody

[35:24]

could push it off better than somebody with a you know heart attack or something but it would have been really hard well it is going to be so if my symptoms return it's going to be a tough time for me but I was going to cancel the surgery anyway because it's optional and it's an emergency and if people like me can just get her get her a business end of the healthcare system and a wait we should do it so I cancelled my stuff I should tell you that this is just a personal note cuz I feel like we have a personal connection I hope you do too that I had a big worry that went away yesterday the reason that I had an MRI on my sinuses was not just to get the lay of the land so that they could plan the surgery it was because there was a suspicion that I had that there was a problem with the brain barrier to my sinus which would have been a pretty big problem and the cat

[36:27]

been a pretty big problem and the cat scan showed that it might be a problem the MRI said no problem you know once it could be seen clear the brain barrier was intact I'd never even heard this as a problem before but apparently if your sinus problem gets to the extreme level than I did in some cases the brain barrier is arrest is at risk I've never heard of that I guess from the infections over time but mine is not so as of yesterday I found out I had a gigantic thing to worry about that just went away and I gotta say made me feel good I wasn't sharing that with anybody but it's all good news so I can tell you now all right
newt gingrich said in sweet reporter asked me today why conservatives were initially so skeptical of the threat of the corona virus which we which many of us were at least in some ways and he said i tried to explain that one of the dangerous consequences of having a totally dishonest left wing news media

[37:28]

totally dishonest left wing news media was that most americans discounted their hysteria as phony and you know newt once again you know one of the one of the keenest observers i think that's true I mean I don't think it's complete because it's not it's not as if the left wing news was the only one that got what things wrong this is certainly nothing like that but it's part of the question yeah I think the news business in general has some some questions they answer left and right but newt is right the the extraordinary disservice that our news business as has been serving up really hurt us in this case it really hurt us because there was no trust whatsoever and i'm not sure there should have been I don't think that's a problem of the the public if anybody is blaming the public for not taking us seriously as soon as they should I think that's misplaced I believe that

[38:29]

I think that's misplaced I believe that the news destroyed his credibility to the point where we had trouble believing it until it was impossible to ignore we see looks like the government is thinking seriously about sending on direct checks you know not really ubi but sort of looks like that baby propping up airlines and small businesses and Trump seems to be aggressive about this which is good I told the yesterday so last night I gave an update that I sent a direct message on Twitter to the FCC chair Ajit PI I hope I pronounced his name right I don't know if I did about the question of doctors practicing across state borders and and he said basically he's on the same page and has been for years and the government is working toward that I don't know the details I offered to offer to help persuade if there's some person who needs to change their mind

[39:30]

person who needs to change their mind but I'm a little disappointed that that's not already done because I can't imagine anybody at the federal level disagrees it seems to be the local state licensing boards or being little tyrants or something I don't know what's going on that's my guess but certainly at the federal level I'll bet you couldn't find one person who doesn't think this is a tremendous idea to temporarily get rid of the state restrictions and let us doctors practice anywhere for the emergency you you know Fertel telemedicine especially and I just need to know who's saying no is there anybody saying now it could be a case of just it takes a while to say yes you got to get your ducks in order you know maybe you need to research some things before you say yes but if anybody is resisting this can you get me that name if there's any entity or person that could be identified who is on the other side of that yeah at the federal level I don't care about the states but if anybody at

[40:31]

care about the states but if anybody at the federal level is saying no to this first of all I'd like to hear the reason and if I'm not satisfied with the reason I'd like an opportunity to persuade because I don't think I don't think it would take me more than 20 minutes you give me 20 minutes with whoever is the problem and I will change their mind I don't usually use persuasion at let's say weapons-grade but it's an emergency so I would pull out all the stops assuming you know there was no good reason for the for delaying but I would there's nothing I would I mean I would get that done give me 20 minutes in a room with whoever and ease their mind changed and I'll make that happen for you I promise let's see what else we got going on oh
this is really interesting I don't know how many of you will remember this but and correct me if I didn't say it

[41:32]

but and correct me if I didn't say it but I pretty sure I talked about this some time ago on periscope there if we have a ventilator shortage I asked is there any way to just make additional tubes so that two people can use a ventilator instead of water and then you've instantly doubled your capacity so that was the first thing I said which is it was a ready way to you know have a t-connector and have two people use the same ventilator the other thing I said was we need some kind of a tutorial to train the untrained and how to use a ventilator now I learned a lot about that since I made that ignorant suggestion because it was it was an ignorant suggestion because I literally don't know enough about that world to be smart about it but in the emergency I feel it's good for us to float any idea that needs consideration and that was one of them and smart people told me this they said Oh Scott it's two to four years to learn to be a respiration therapist which is the job that manages

[42:33]

therapist which is the job that manages the ventilators there are different kinds of ventilators you know you couldn't quickly train somebody to operate a ventilator and then I asked somebody who actually does that job so you know you don't want the people don't do the job telling you how hard would it be to learn so somebody who actually did the job weighed in on Twitter and said you know I do this I'm a I'm a respiration therapist I work with ventilators and in my opinion two weeks two weeks so here are the things you need to know there are lots of different ventilator types but they are somewhat standard in the sense that if you learn to use one you would know how to use the others you know you'd find the on button and there would be enough in common sort of like driving a car if you learn to drive one car you probably could drive any a car so that's the first thing you don't you don't need much extra learning for the other types of machines the second thing is that if you skip all the

[43:37]

second thing is that if you skip all the stuff that you know you don't need during an emergency you're in good shape so in a normal world presumably you your respirator people would need to be as smart as a doctor on that narrow topic right I mean you do why your respiration is therapist to know everything a doctor would know but in that narrow respiration the world but we don't need that you know we do have doctors wait they're going to be nearby and in an emergency situation at least one individual thought that you could take somebody who had medical training let's say an EMT or a nurse and you could convert somebody who had already got a head start on the medical stuff you could convert them in maybe two weeks now that's just one one person who does the job opinion and feels right kind of feels right doesn't it but here's the good part and I'm continued I continue to be impressed at ordinary

[44:39]

continue to be impressed at ordinary heroes stepping up there was a woman who was a doctor who apparently was part of a study in which they studied the exact question of whether in an emergency you could use one ventilator for more than one person turns out she gave it she did a video that she just whipped together for the emergency and it was very well done look you know was just done on the cheap I think probably done with an iPad or something and she showed very easily how you could convert a one-person ventilator into a four-person ventilator using stuff that's already at the hospital so in other words I guess they already have you know parts there's one part that you cut and you cut in half to you know connect to things but it's a common element and she showed it she did a tutorial it looked pretty simple looked like I could have done it really and it was a it was a connector for four

[45:39]

and it was a it was a connector for four one two three four four hoses from one ventilator now does that work can one ventilator safely work on four patients turns out it's been tested unfortunately unfortunately there was a reason to test it was the Vegas shooting so there was a Vegas doctor who had been familiar with the doctors who did the study so he had some personal connection to the people who did the study and suddenly his emergency room is overrun with shooting victims from the the Vegas shooting and he needed more ventilators than he had and he knew about the study and so he put that into practice he had never been tested on a human it had been tested you know mechanically but nobody had ever tried to have a human he tried it on humans because he had to it was an emergency it worked so that's not a clearly that's

[46:42]

it worked so that's not a clearly that's not any kind of a you know long-range fda test but it worked on humans and it quadrupled the number of respirators now there's there's a wild card here if you have four people who have a virus and they're on the same respirator you're sharing air or at least there's the potential for sharing air and you're you you would probably reasonably ask yourself you know is that gonna make anybody worse well as the doctor who did the video said you would only be using it of people who were confirmed and very sick from the virus so what's unlikely that they would give each other the virus I still have that question of whether you could get somebody else's virus couldn't make it worse you know only a doctor can answer that but the but it was a doctor doing the video and she said as long as you already have the virus and it's an emergency is not the safest thing in the world but if it's emergency you could do this so one doctor in one place being a

[47:46]

this so one doctor in one place being a hero said what can I do and she made this video and she spared her special knowledge and now the ventilator capacity of the United States just quadrupled now remember when I told you that the when when geniuses get to get and that's what's happening with this coronavirus situation when geniuses start sharing information you form a a meta brain that will be more powerful than anything we've ever seen and then when the results start to happen that they're going to happen really quickly but it's going to take a while to get to the elbow this is one of those examples do you think before today did any of you think that you could quadruple a ventilator supply in the United States in one day did anybody think that was there anybody in the world who said yeah you know I think will quadruple ventilator supply in one day nobody

[48:46]

ventilator supply in one day nobody thought that but we did we did now I'm giving you the optimistic view there that everybody can do this and they all saw the video and and things and I hope I'm part of a part of spreading the the idea now I didn't I think I tweeted it so you could find it in my Twitter feed from yesterday but I imagine you could google it something like you know Google ventilator shared hose t-connector coronavirus it would pop right up I'm pretty sure so anybody looking for that probably find it easily so that's good news let's talk about some other technology there's a report that Palantir that would be believe that's Peter Thiel's you invested in that and they I don't know exactly what Palantir does it's sort of a mysterious company but they do something with data and and you know digging through large amounts of data to find stuff and so the report

[49:47]

of data to find stuff and so the report says that Palantir and Clear View AI that's the app that law enforcement uses to take a picture of you and then they know your name are among the tech firms now in discussion with the government about implementing widespread surveillance tools in response to the corona virus now here's another one you didn't see coming did you ever see coming that we probably could slap together the technology from from existing systems that you could find out who somebody came in contact with by taking a picture of them it might bring up you know I I don't know how they would do it bring up their social connections find out where they were I don't know exactly how that works but it seems promising because identifying people and knowing something about them is the primary thing we need to do to get a handle on this I've said before that the corona virus is an information problem disguised as a health problem because if

[50:48]

disguised as a health problem because if we had enough information it wouldn't be a health problem and we're watching the amount of information that we have expanding exponentially
did you see the Biden livestream you know of course the candidates are staying home as they shed and Biden did a live stream in which he looked presidential in front of some flags with a BAC background at a podium and he gives us serious little address that I don't know if I was written or not but that he's done but they don't turn off the camera and so there's this weird awkward thing where as his wife walks onto the camera - I think convinced him to get off camera because he's just sort of standing there awkwardly on camera like he doesn't know what to do like he's old that's what it looked like so his wife comes in and then I don't think Joe Biden knew why she was coming in because he didn't know that he should get off the stage because he was looking weird and awkward and old because the camera

[51:50]

and awkward and old because the camera was still running and he wasn't doing anything useful and so he thinks she's going in for the hug so he gives her a hug and people she goes along and gives him a kiss and and they sort of walk off and I'm thinking to myself that could not have been a worse look that really looked bad we're gonna see a lot more of that
Governor Cuomo who has been quite a critic of President Trump is changing his rhetoric a little bit and he's saying today quote his team is on it so this is Governor Cuomo talking about President Trump his team is on it they have been responsive late at night early in the morning and thus far they have been doing everything that they can do and I want to say thank you and I want to say that I appreciate it and I think he has some other good words too now of course well you know when the when the dust settles everybody will be finger-pointing and we'll get political again but thank you to Governor Cuomo thank you for I think exactly the right

[52:55]

thank you for I think exactly the right tone at exactly the right time for for a little bit of healing when we need it
there was a report out today anonymous sources of course that minuchin was warning in some kind of a private meeting with Republican senators I think it was he senators anyway and he warned that the u.s. could see a 20% unemployment yeah I was meeting with the Republican senators yesterday and somebody there told the media about that think about that there was somebody in that meeting who thought that the well-being of the country was not nearly as important as being a little and tattling about what happened in the meeting this is some of the worst behavior I've ever seen honestly because the first thing is what does the word

[53:57]

the first thing is what does the word could mean in this context do you know do you know when other time we could we could have 20% unemployment any time I mean anything could happen to say something could happen is sort of also saying it's on the high side he's not putting the percentage on it but if you take that number out of context which is what happened that's a number that could tank the whole economy this is the kind of rumor that works against the psychology of the economy in such a grotesque way that whoever did this needs to wake up today and this is what you know Joel Paul excited his tweet about this I'll just read his tweet because I think he captures it right he says journalists have a duty to report the news you know obviously so it's not the journalists fault for reporting this even when it's bad for the country you know we kind of accept that then that the news business has a special place they can tell us good news they can tell us bad news we

[54:57]

good news they can tell us bad news we have to figure it out but once it's new as it's news so the reporter has a different responsibility than other people especially in the crisis and then Joel goes on he says but whichever Republican senator leaked this conjecture because it is just conjecture and it's the high end of conjecture which is what makes it so bad which can only have been made as part of a plea for unity and I'm sorry let me leave it read it again but whichever Republican senator leaked this conjecture which can only have been made as part of a plea for unity in other words what minuchin was doing was trying to rally people saying you know this could be bad so we need to be on the same side a plea for unity in action order wrestled with his or her consciousness evening it's not about politics this is war hashtag pulled together totally totally agree you know normal business when people are tattling on these clothes meetings and running to their sources and normal times I don't like it

[55:58]

times I don't like it in normal times I think it may might be damaging but it's also just part of the baseline political weasel process and so I don't care about it that much but we're in a different situation if you if whoever did this doesn't know how to modify their behavior in an emergency they don't deserve their job period so later when the dust settles should we ever find out who this was I think we've got to ask if we want to keep them on the job and this is a Republican so let me be as fair as I can I don't care what what party they're in I would say this about it I would say this about an independent I would say this about a Republican and I am whoever did that you really hurt the country there's no one there's no two ways about that that was a private conversation for private professionals to know what to do it was not something you tell the public because it's not the way to frame it for the public the

[56:59]

way to frame it for the public the public needs the truth but let's frame it properly if you're going to give it to him this was despicable despicable behavior and we can do better pretty sure we will I remind you that even though it's impossible to not talk about what's happened you know you can try as hard as you want but you sort of have to we don't have to focus on it so that's my last word on that topic because I'm not going to focus on it going forward my expectation for you senators my expectation that that's higher than wanting you know if you had to rank it you know there are things you wish you had and then there are things that you expect I don't want you to stop you know leaking to the press it's not something I want this is an emergency I expect it I expect it that's all I'm gonna say it's not it's not it's not a

[58:01]

gonna say it's not it's not it's not a what I expect it get on board
let's see what else we got going on here here's one that's knocked up on me so you know the the company zoom which is a tremendous product by the way you know I don't I don't glow about too many products I glow about this one but this is the Apple the earbuds this is like one of the best products ever invented you know I could quibble about a couple things about mostly that I lose it but you know because there's small items that's my fault but man this is a good product the zoom is like that so zoom is a video conferencing product that you can very easily send some the link they don't need to know anything nor have any special software they click the link and you have it you're in the video conference it's got all kinds of features and stuff great great product you know and I've been

[59:03]

great product you know and I've been testing a lot of different video conferencing things because I do podcasts and the podcasters you know as a guest and the podcasters all use different software and stuff no doubt about it zoom is the good product yeah I mean it's really solid I love that product I wish it could do live streaming but what it does it as well but here's the thing it's an American company that's good right aren't you glad that the the aren't you glad the zoom is an American company so first all they're doing well that's great you know it's good that anybody's doing well maybe that can partially compensate you know at least in terms of stimulus to the economy for the people we're not doing well so you need some people to do well and that's great and it's American company but here's the thing they're engineers are Chinese in China so they've done the smart thing which is they've they've

[1:00:04]

smart thing which is they've they've lowered their cost of labor tremendously by using offshore experts so the main engineers for the biggest most important business communication tool in the United States are Chinese engineers living in China China Chinese citizens if you were the person who owned zoom you know in other words you were the company and you were the engineers who worked there could you see or capture every bit of high-level business and political conversation that goes across that platform because I assume the way it works is that when I have zoom on my side and you've got it on your side it's the traffic is going through their servers is it not now it might be encrypted I hope it's encrypted but how hard would it be for them to unencrypted it not hard right now here's what I hope I believe the the

[1:01:08]

now here's what I hope I believe the the the top guide the founder of zoom I believe he was born in China but he's an American so he came over here early in his life so he's just an American so none of this is about the entrepreneur let me be as clear about this as I can the guy who started I don't care where he came from he's an American alright let's just put a period on that he's an American he was doing what Americans do build great companies it's a great company it's really a great company in terms of the product but he had a vulnerability that was an advantage and until now I think the vulnerability is that he was using Chinese engineers now can we trust that the Chinese government cannot co-opt engineers who live in their countries no you can't trust that at all you can't trust that at all unfortunately could the Chinese government twist an arm of a

[1:02:09]

the Chinese government twist an arm of a some engineer who lives in China and it works on the zoom product the of course they could of course they could now here's my request to the American owners of zoom see what you can do see what you can do my assumption and I'm gonna be as firm on this as I can that everybody who is working on this product who is American once America to do well and knows how to do the right thing and will do the right thing now I don't know what that is it could be a case of you're diligently watching your code to make sure that if anything is changed by somebody in China you can tell I'm not smart enough to know what that entails but in the short run watch it carefully please because the rest of us are going to be watching it in the long run kind of need to bring your engineers home you know you kind of

[1:03:11]

your engineers home you know you kind of gotta need to bring that home because I think that that's a security potential security flaw I don't know if it is a security problem but it's a potential one that has enormous consequences you know all the most important business in the United States is going through that platform could they put on a sniffer that could pick out key words and know what to listen to yeah they could they could technologically they could but again the founders an American I have every reason to believe he's gonna do the right thing every reason to believe he's on our side completely so let's assume that they'll take care of that that's a that's a that's a request from the public all right here's a question I don't know does the corona virus and this is like a scientifically ignorant question I would just like to understand this and it's a

[1:04:11]

just like to understand this and it's a general virus question so it's not specific to the corona virus but maybe there's something different about it and it goes like this if you were if you get a small exposure let's say you get it on your fingers and then you touch your mouth and the virus comes in that way little just trace bit on your finger trace bit got on your your lips and got into your mouth and then it grew compared that to let's say somebody who was on a cruise ship or in a confined space such as a nursing home where where their exposure might be I don't know if we know this yet but more of an aerosol sort of you know sort of in the it's in the room as opposed to something you touched once and put it on your lip and it got in your body do both of those affect you the same way here's why I asked the psychosomatically I had to I had to scratch an itch on my face I will wash my hands at the moment I turn

[1:05:13]

will wash my hands at the moment I turn this off it's like so physically do you have the same outcome if you've got a small infection that worked its way into your body versus you were you were sort of you know marinating enviros you know it was sort of coming in your ears in your mouth and your skin maybe you're getting it in multiple different ways at the same time would you have a better outcome by getting something that grew slowly through one opening because your body would would get the warning faster and have more time to to you know build up a defense versus that you're just overwhelmed and it's coming from everywhere and then you're dead because I the reason this is important is it would tell us a lot about mitigation you know it would tell me that if I simply stay six feet away from people and don't stay in the same room with people for too long and that sort of thing then you know perhaps I even if I caught it perhaps I would get

[1:06:15]

even if I caught it perhaps I would get the the slow-growing kind that maybe gives me a little time to build up my defenses so it's just a question somebody says our bodies have no defense well that's not true we build the defense yeah so we recognize that your body kicks and I would say that's a defense people recover from it somebody says it's not the same I don't know if any of you were experts I'll just read some comments so that somebody is speculating that the the size of the viral load matters and I've heard that but I'd like to hear from somebody who's an expert because it could be it could be one of them the main determinants of where things are gonna go well everybody who's answering is saying yes but I don't know if any of you are experts so put it put an asterisk on that maybe but we'll find that down tomorrow those are the points I wanted to talk about see the traffic

[1:07:16]

I wanted to talk about see the traffic is dropping you've got other things to do I hope I'm being helpful and I will I don't know when but I'll probably try to pop on again tonight we can't get enough of this can we all right I'm just looking at your comments now because I've been sort of looking at my notes until now well I love you too stay safe dad got it but only one of three kids did it happened in my city yeah that's good news you know if if a family member gets it and only one other family member gets it and you and you can you know sense it and separate them that's pretty good news all right everybody saying goodbye so I guess it's time to go thank you so much for joining me I will see you later today