Coronavirus

Wow, this one is crazy! This is an episode from the vault and was recorded in February 2020 and 5 weeks before Covid shut the US down! 

It's May 2026 and I'm uploading a few episodes for your listening and reminiscing pleasure. Kind of prophetic and, dare I say, spot on?! Miss you Melvin and TU..

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Welcome. Settle in. It's time for your weekly dose of Truth Unscripted.

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Welcome back to Truth Unscripted. I am Julie.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

And I am Melvin. Welcome back, listeners.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Well, Melvin, we are going to be talking about the coronavirus.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Oh wow. This would be a bad time to be on a plane or be on a cruise ship or something like that with somebody. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 0:42

Because you know, illnesses seem to spread so quickly on cruise ships and airplanes and fire spaces. Right. Um, I thought this was really interesting too. You know, Australia has they announced today that they are going to be using Christmas Island as a quarantine location. Wow. So they are going to be evacuating approximately 600 Australian citizens from Wuhan, China, and neighboring provinces and housing them on Christmas Island for about 14 days.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:20

It is interesting. They're they're kind of there are a lot of people that are opposed to this. They're calling it Leper Island instead, which is I can't lie.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

You know, I for I understand. I understand the mindset.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

Yeah. But yeah, it feels a little extreme and well, I mean, I don't I won't even say extreme.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

I think it's just that whole idea of quarantine that later on turns into a feeling of forced confinement.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

It does, yes. And I think a lot of people feel like you do. Uh they have concerns about it. Um Australia is going to be helping other Pacific nations as well with evacuations, uh, but they said their focus is of course gonna be Australian citizens. So I don't know. I mean, Australia has had a lot of um issues with the fires lately, and you know, I don't know. Maybe they're taking this approach to address it quickly. I mean, they're trying to keep this from spreading.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

I mean, let's just be honest. I mean, you know, when you think about something that is already, you know, spreading Quickly. You know, quickly. I mean, I know myself personally. I would say, hey, you know, I I don't want to be, you know, thrown in a in a basement somewhere, but I I don't need to be infecting anybody else if we don't really understand yet the you know gravity of what you know can happen from this.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

That's right. And you know, I I like you, I get it, but I also have reservations about it.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Um I think the imagery that just is kind of portrayed in your mind when you start thinking about quarantine, it harkens back to other things, and I won't even use the the the the words of or the idea of some of the things that come to mind. But again, you just don't want it to roll into that feeling and mindset of forced confinement.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Well, and I think actually that this particular area, this uh Christmas Island was used as a detention camp or a detention facility at some point too. So, you know, I think for certain people the relation there is is a little too close. But, you know, I also kind of want to go over um what this is.

unknown 3:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 3:42

And I know everybody's heard it, but I I do feel necessary to need the virus. Yeah, just to explain a little bit about what it is, what the symptoms are, and that kind of thing. So um I'll just do that quickly. Go for it. Uh the coronavirus is from a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from you know the cold, uh common cold to severe disease like MERS, which is Middle East respiratory syndrome, and SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. The symptoms, it depends, of course, you know, it's mimics a cold or flu, uh fever, cough, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties, uh, can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Um, and to protect yourself, you know, people need to wash their hands. Let's face it. You have to wash your hands at least 20 seconds. They say to use a um, if you don't have, you know, if you're not able to wash your hands, use a hand sanitizer that has 60% alcohol in it. Um so you have to take basic precautions, but I don't know. This, this uh, I feel like this is worse than we're hearing. Because I always feel like the public's the last to know when it comes to these things. And China's been really controlling the narrative about what you know what information is getting out. Um and I don't know, I they have basically locked down about 50 million people. And that is uh pretty serious response if we're not talking about a major outbreak.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Sure. I mean, and and the whole idea, I guess, behind it, whether you know, you we like it or not, or whether we're getting all the information or not, is to try to control the spread of of the virus.

SPEAKER_05 5:42

I do think it's interesting too. Um, you know, there's a lot of misinformation through social media that's getting out there. And so Twitter, for example, is responding by um d redirecting people to the CDC.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Correct.

SPEAKER_05 5:58

The uh Centers for Disease Control sites for information. Um, because there's a lot of bad stuff getting out there. Um one thing in particular, there was a face post uh Facebook post saying that you should drink bleach to protect or cure against you know this disease.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Surely not.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Yes. So that's obviously horrible.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Horrible advice. Horrible advice.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

Um, but a lot of other things in terms of um, you know, there being racial remarks uh regarding, you know, Chinese citizens and just um all kinds of misinformation. So be careful where you get your information if you're looking for it. I would recommend the Centers for Disease Control uh website, and uh, you know, be careful.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

I I would say that as well. I mean, there are a lot of things, and I won't even begin to um just because I don't want to perpetuate some of the things that are being said, you know, as to where the belief is is what's caused the virus, and there are a lot of things that haven't been confirmed or that are, you know, that I don't know where it initiated from. So I'm just not even gonna go down that road with with some of them.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

But well, what we've been told is that it started in a marketplace in Wuhan, which is a province in China.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 7:19

A city in China, and that it is a market where they sell wild animals. And I guess um the thought is maybe from bats or a snake that ate a bat, or you know, there are a lot of things for sale. Um for us, it's hard to hear this. You know, I had heard that they sell wolf cubs or buffalo or you know, all kinds of what we would consider exotic and kind of off the table, I think.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

And again, as somebody who's not been there in in and over the years, you know, you see documentaries, you see different things, and you see that there are a variety of things that are not common there in the United States and in other places that are part of their culture and and and things that they eat. So it's you know, you have to take that with a grain of salt and understand.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

But I do think that this, you know, what what we're hearing coming out of this is is even beyond what you know most Chinese people are, you know, used to. It's it's this uh exotic stuff. And you know, there have been health issues that have come out of this type of you know food consumption before.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Sure. So um it's uh it's and it it's just it's concerning because of the fact at this particular point, and I think this is what you were alluding to uh when you were saying it's probably worse than what we are currently being made aware of simply because of the numbers. When you go when you add an additional nineteen hundred cases from the number that was there the morning, you know, of uh to that afternoon, late afternoon, or evening, that's a significant number. Now, we don't know uh when the previous number, you know, had been adjusted or it's pretty much been updating daily. But within that process, yeah, that's a significant number of you you have to look at the overall population to determine how significant of a number it is and and that kind of thing as well when you're talking about a virus that we're determining, you know, is passed from person to person.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

So well, can you recall? And there have there've been a couple of of things that have been on the radar for people recent history, you know, uh Ebola for one, a couple of years ago. There were some cases of that.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

Um bird flu, other things.

SPEAKER_05 9:53

I mean, we've had things, but I don't recall there being this level of attention and response from so many different countries. Um do you recall that?

SPEAKER_03 10:04

Not not like this. And and and that doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

It just and it doesn't mean that and I say that because Well, and I think it's okay to say that we recognize it as being different from previous.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

I mean, sure. What I was gonna say is is I think I think anymore, information travels much faster and much broader than it did once upon a time.

SPEAKER_05 10:27

Yeah, but I'm talking about just two years ago.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Well, yeah, I mean, I I I get that. So but honestly, my answer to your question is no, I don't recall in recent time anything that seemed to proliferate this fast and be as as big of a deal.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

And and not saying that other diseases or other things weren't a big deal, but as as being represented as as scary as this is at this point in in such a short period of time.

SPEAKER_05 10:57

Right, right. And this we just started hearing about this a couple of weeks ago. I guess it's been out there uh for the last month or so. Right. Uh so it it is you know, it seems to be moving pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

One of the real questions or concerns would be, again, since the short period of time of it being really diagnosed, I guess is the word I'll use, is the potential of anything that came along that might have been misdiagnosed. And you know, that it was just thought to be the flu or uh, you know, a severe, you know, whatever. Could that be playing a part in this in that it wasn't recognized that it was this and it wasn't recognized that it would move this way? So and again, that's that's just me asking a question that's purely speculation.

SPEAKER_05 11:49

Well, and that's pretty much what we do. I mean, we we go, like you said earlier, we do our own research and and you know, hopefully we have the right information, but again, we're not authorities on this. Right. Um, but we do our best to you know to discuss what is accurate and the truth, as we put out there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Um and I guess you know, for it you know, for the listeners, and just you and I, you know, the the concerns again are how you know the the potential of you know contracting it, especially when it's not one of those things that you know you can see, you know, you can't look at somebody and say, he looks like he's, you know, is it or she looks like she's it's not that kind of thing. And the fact that it is no longer just in China, you know, and and the fact of anybody who's traveled in or traveled out prior to it really being locked down or be before it the symptoms were really being clearly identified as, and it means it it can be quite a few places. And you already, you know, mentioned you know, a couple places outside of China.

SPEAKER_05 13:02

Well, there are a number of countries now where they have cases confirmed or potentially, you know, they're being tested. And you know, I've noticed too that there are a lot of universities where there are suspected cases, and that's because we do have a lot of um Chinese teachers here that do a lot of traveling, um, their families travel, and you know, just coming off of the holiday season here, we did have a lot of traveling going on. We had a lot of students, you know, American students going to China and Chinese back and forth, and and so I I thought that was interesting to see these cases popping up at universities.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

And and and and let's just be fair, also, aside from just Chinese teachers or students and things of that nature, um, China's a popular place. And so you know, that it it's just the potential of anybody who has been, you know, in in one of the locations or provinces where things were that's a hot zone.

SPEAKER_05 14:01

I'll go ahead and and lighten this up just a little bit because it's really it's all really a serious topic. Uh I don't know, maybe 2013, 2014. Okay. I started playing a game on my phone, and the game was called Plague.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

And this game has gone crazy with um this outbreak of the coronavirus. They um you've played it. We talked about this before. You said you've played it. If you haven't played Plague, um, the music at the beginning of of this episode is from that game, you would recognize it. But if you haven't played it, it basically is a game where you, the person playing, is the virus or the bacteria, you are the bad guy, and you are trying to eliminate all of the people on earth. That's how you win that game. So, what people have been doing is playing as a coronavirus, you know, and they're kind of trying to see mimic how this virus works and how it transmits to people. And anyway, that's been kind of interesting. There's been a lot of talk about that lately. And as I said, there have been a lot of downloads of the game in the last couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

And the company even put out a statement, right?

SPEAKER_05 15:25

They did. It's endemic is the company, and they put a statement out that said, you know, please don't use plague, you know, to research this game or to get your information. Um, not to research the game, but research the virus. Don't use the game for that. Don't use the game for, you know, information about this virus. Uh, but I thought it was pretty interesting because I'll be honest with you, I played a game and I used that, you know, the the things I know about the virus. Um and I did that. And I just enjoyed playing this game before. Right. And so I do, I do, whenever there's any kind of I don't know, when Ebola was going around, whenever things going around, I play that game, and it's just kind of an interesting, I don't know, fun thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

I hate to say that, but well, I mean, I think one of those what it does is it's you know, for lack of a better term, it kind of gives you an idea or a visual of how this thing can move, even though of course it's it's not accurate, which is why they were saying not to use it for that purpose. But, you know, it it it can give some kind of perspective.

SPEAKER_05 16:41

Well, and they now this company's being, you know, because basically what's happened is the CDC, for example, has seen how this game has been used by people as a tool to kind of understand how these viruses work. And so I think we're gonna see games developed that are going to teach people about these things.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

I can't think of of the other of the other game, and and I think it was a PC game, but it was very similar, and I'm trying to think of the name.

SPEAKER_05 17:15

There's a board game called Pandemic.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:18

I don't know if you've heard of that.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

That's kind of a similar thing where you're fighting the And of course, you know, there have been movies um that have you know, I I know you saw World War Z. Yes, of course. Which was interesting in its own right, in the way that and of course, that was extreme in the way that that virus moved, um, or whatever they were calling it. Um but yeah, I mean I think there's I think there's just a I think people are drawn to I don't know what the word is I want to use here.

SPEAKER_05 17:59

Well, in a way it's kind of, you know, we hear all this information, but we can't do anything with it. And I think playing the game kind of helps us to, I don't know, try to process, I guess. Process some of that, what we're feeling, maybe that I don't know. But the game is interesting. Um I think it's a fun game. I enjoyed it before this kind of thing comes up.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Um I guess the thing that struck me was the fact that there's been this correlation to an uptick in the amount that it's being played um related to what's happening right now.

SPEAKER_05 18:31

Well, there must be a lot of people like me then.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

I have a group that I, you know, game with. Um, and we do board games, we play Catan and and games like that, strategy games, but we've also played this game previously and talked about it. And so when this first started a couple weeks back, I actually sent a text and said, Hey, time to pull out the the play game. Let's see, you know. And that was before endemic announced, hey, you know, don't use this as a guy, la la. And I don't know. It's just one of those things. I don't know. But that's that's happening.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

So interesting.

SPEAKER_05 19:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Very interesting.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

So and you know, I don't know. What are your do you have any thoughts on it? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 19:17

You know, I'm just kind of curious as to uh what the the how the pattern continues and if they begin to put out any kind of statistics or stats on uh how fast it it's it's spreading, you know, because it it becomes one of those things that and if they begin to are able to do anything to slow the spread of it.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

Right, because right now there is no cure. Right. Um I have read that anything that is being worked on right now is you know it's gonna have to go through trials before, you know, it would be be released to the public uh the release to the public. So um I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

And then I guess, you know, looking at some of the data on the initial um confirmed cases, and I think that's the other word that we keep using because there've probably been a lot more reported that have as yet to be confirmed.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

But again, looking at some of the initial uh reported and confirmed cases, and then looking at uh the virus's behavior in those individuals in terms of so does it top out in terms of symptoms and you know, how long do they remain symptomatic? Uh are are we seeing that they are uh getting better? Did the symptoms seem to just continue at a certain, you know, yeah, we're we're still learning a lot.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

I think um, you know, everybody's out there just trying to see where this is going and how it works. And what do you think about evacuating citizens from Wuhan? You know, we we, the United States, have evacuated hundreds of people. Do you think that those people should be in quarantine? They're gonna be tested, I'm sure, but what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03 21:21

I understand the desire to do whatever you can to stem the spread of the disease or uh virus. I get that. Uh I guess it just depends upon how it's done, uh, what the citizens are being told in terms of recourse or you know uh at this point it's kind of hard to say because we don't have enough data and information on you know how long it takes for this thing to run its course.

SPEAKER_05 21:57

Well, I know Australia is using that 14 day. Quarantine.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

You know, you want to do something um proactive. We don't want to wait till, you know, we've got some kind of pandemic. You know, uh, you know, regardless, even if they were to say that, you know, it runs its course in this amount of time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's just like right now. If somebody in the house gets the flu or gets, you know, with your kids, if one of them gets chicken pox, you know, we know how that goes.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

And so, you know, but we can't quarantine our kids, you know, in in those scenarios. And quite frankly, we don't want to. Usually parents are like, You got chicken pox, hey, come here, hug your brother, hug your sister. You're all gonna get it now and get it over with.

SPEAKER_05 22:40

But that's not anymore with the chicken pox.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 22:44

That vaccine is you know, amazing.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

But telling my age because that's how it was when I was a kid. When I was a be lad. When I was a lad. But as far as this goes, you know, it's one of those things of, you know, the the idea of if as long as it doesn't feel like hurting people off to confinement.

SPEAKER_05 23:09

You know, that is not um well, even if it is hurting people off to confinement, as long as it doesn't feel like it. No. No, that's not what I mean. I know it isn't what you mean. I'm just trying to get you.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

My point is that, you know, I you know, it needs to be it needs to be humane. I that's what I was thinking. It needs to be humane.

SPEAKER_05 23:30

Yeah. And uh but I do think it needs to be addressed because we really don't know what this, you know, what this is capable of.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

And that's the reason why I started my statement with I understand the need. I understand the need to say, we don't know enough about this, we don't at this point, so we need to do whatever we can do to stop stop it from spreading rapidly, as long as the process is respectful and humane.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Have you seen any of the videos that have been on social media? For example, um, there have been some people who are in Wuhan and on quarantine, and they video walking out in the streets, and the streets are just there's no one there. Ghost town.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 24:20

Uh, and they're walking around, and you know, a couple people uh going to the store, and there's hardly anybody there, and it's just this surreal, uh, surreal situation. I can't imagine being there, you know, when you're in a place as bustling as New York City and there's nobody around. Uh, but then there were also some troubling videos um where interviewing, you know, people interviewing nurses. There's one particular video uh that was translated from Mandarin into English. And I had a Chinese friend of mine translate it to make sure that it was accurate.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

That what you were reading was correct.

SPEAKER_05 25:04

Yes. And she said that it was uh accurate. And, you know, I've had a lot of conversations with her because her parents are in a province about five hours away from where Wuhan uh is. This was actually a week ago when I saw this video. And this nurse was talking about how many people were sick, that the government was not sharing the information, how they didn't have enough medical supplies, how the government was telling doctors not to come to work because they were gonna pass this virus, how and some of this is terrifying, you know, how people were dying in front of them and you know they just didn't know what to do, and she created this picture. Um, as I said, it was terrifying. Um, and you hear her crying and the emotion in her voice, and then you know, that kind of contributes to my saying, I don't know if we're getting the whole story. I hope that that's not the story. Sure. Uh, but if it is, you know, I I feel we're entitled to that information. Um so we'll see. I just it's interesting all of the things that are that are circulating out there, all this information.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

So So you you've already accused me in our first episode of, you know I didn't accuse you changing already this season. But I have to say this. You know, it's one of those things, and I'm gonna liken it to things that the the government plots and things that the government stops that we never know anything about that if we knew about every one of them, we wouldn't sleep at night. And I'm not at any rate attempting to justify whitewashing um what's really happening. But at the same time, there's probably a certain level of that that needs to take place to keep a l a certain level of panic from happening as well. True. Because I guess that's you know, it becomes one of those things where you know, if you get everybody suddenly deciding they're gonna just try to leave China.

SPEAKER_05 27:09

Well, that's why that's why the government doesn't tell us about aliens or any of these other things that we've talked about, right? And they keep it from us.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

There we go. Well, I mean with the alien talk.

SPEAKER_05 27:24

I have a question.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

Sure. Ask your question. Ask your question. You're gonna love this question. I can tell already that I'm just gonna enjoy it thoroughly.

SPEAKER_05 27:31

My question to you is how do you think that all this stuff is affecting their social credit score? What do you think is happening with that? Do you think that social credit is going on right now in China? And anybody who wants to know more about social credit, please uh listen back to uh season two, episode. Oh, let me look here. Season two, episode one.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Episode one.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

Shame on you.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Shame on you.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

Yeah, is the name of that episode.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

I would say that right now.

SPEAKER_05 28:09

I thought you would think that was a funny question. It is a funny question. And you almost be like, I'm not answering that.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

I would say no, I'm going to answer that. I would submit to you that right now China is suspending social credit. You think? Because guess what happens if one of the highfalutin muckety mucks you know contracts this virus and has their social credit go down the drain for something that they had absolutely no control over. So my my guess would be considering, you know, again, for those who haven't listened to that podcast, you're you get a rating for a whole lot of things and it affects your ability to do things in in China, and it's called social credit.

SPEAKER_05 29:02

And you know, the title of that episode is Shame on You. Shame on you. And that's because the government will put your face on a billboard.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Yeah, they they shame you publicly.

SPEAKER_05 29:13

Yeah, they will shame you publicly. So that that's an interesting thing. You should check that out.

SPEAKER_03 29:17

But considering the fact that a lot of the things that fall into that social credit, I'm making air quotes here, people. Social credit, I think that I could see the government at least suspending it for certain individuals. Well, yeah. You know, so I I think that there is a there's a different version of social credit going on during this uh situation.

SPEAKER_05 29:39

Well, and that's supposed to be all over China this year. You know, and going back, and this is conspiracy talk here. I mean, granted, again, it's just conspiracy talk, but when this is the higher early.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Is this the official conspiracy minute? Not yet. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 29:54

This is a prequel. Okay. When this first came out, I believe I sent a text to you that said, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Yes, you did.

SPEAKER_05 30:03

I would not be surprised if China created this virus and was gonna release it in order to impact negatively the protesters in Hong Kong.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yes, you did.

SPEAKER_05 30:19

And I don't know, I don't recall what your response was, but that was just a thought.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Uh I think I think my response was something like, sure you do. Of course you think that.

SPEAKER_05 30:32

It was a thought.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure that was somewhere. My my my response was somewhere in that that realm.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

Well, do you think it's uh I don't know that you'll answer this honestly, but do you think that that's a possibility for the Chinese government to create something and create a situation to control something?

SPEAKER_03 30:53

As much as I dislike a lot of the things that they do, especially this whole social credit garbage. I just I just can't believe I just can't believe that they would do something that would be irresponsible and and heinous, and horrible and everything.

SPEAKER_05 31:21

I I would I would agree, I would hope that that's not the case. But that does lead me to Okay the conspiracy menu.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

And here it is.

SPEAKER_05 31:31

An Israeli analyst says one coronavirus conspiracy theory is less crazy than you think. Unconfirmed reports suggest the Wuhan coronavirus coronavirus may be a bioweapon developed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

And ladies and gentlemen, oh we're not done yet. Oh, we're not done yet.

SPEAKER_05 31:57

Internet sources speculate that the Wuhan coronavir why do I keep saying that incorrectly? The Wuhan coronavirus could be linked to the covert Chinese bioweapons program. The reports are unconfirmed, but I think it's pretty concerning, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Uh you know, it's one of those things that if it was true, it'd be definitely be very concerning.

SPEAKER_05 32:23

Well, unconfirmed reports suggest that the Wuhan coronavirus is a biological weapon that was either accidentally or intentionally released from the research facilities in Hubei Province, China. While these reports are unconfirmed, they shed light on the panic gripping the internet as the disease continues to mutate.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

And I think that's what it does, and I think that goes back to that comment that I made earlier about panic. But again, unconfirmed.

SPEAKER_05 32:54

And this is this is gonna sum up here a little bit. Okay. Wuhan is home to several major Chinese biological research labs. In particular, the city is known for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China's most advanced biological research lab. I think that's kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

It is.

SPEAKER_05 33:13

Uh, Washington Times suggests that this site may be linked to a covert Chinese biological warfare program.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

Now is that a confirmed uh comment from the Well it suggests, it doesn't say it's confirmed. Yeah, but I mean if there's a I mean, so but that is a legitimate source? Uh statement that came from a notable source. Why you said Washington Times?

SPEAKER_05 33:38

Yeah, Washington Times. I mean that's a reputable. Is that what you mean? Yeah. Uh let's see here. Um there's a person called Danny Shoham, who claims to be a former Israeli military intelligence officer. He believes the Wuhan Institute of Virology may be helping the Chinese military with its biological warfare program. And he states certain laboratories in the institute have probably been engaged in terms of research and development in Chinese biological weapons, at least collaterally.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

You know, and I'll say this. While there's so many different things out there that um are meant to protect the world against these kinds of things, I I think we are I think we're naive if we don't think that there are those individuals out there, whether they are sanctioned or not, that are experimenting with biological warfare.

SPEAKER_05 34:42

I mean we think we know that.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

We know that that exists.

SPEAKER_05 34:45

We absolutely know it existed 50 years ago for biological warfare.

SPEAKER_03 34:51

I think it I think it does add some intrigue that their virology, you know, uh the institute institute is located there, and that it sounds like it's awfully interesting that it's near what might be considered ground zero.

SPEAKER_05 35:14

Well, and this this uh conspiracy minute, which it's actually moved into, I'm gonna have to work on shortening this. You're gonna have to like leave your comments out. Oh, I'm just gonna have to read through it and then be like, sure, that's the end of the conspiracy moment.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Blame me for the run-on conspiracy minute.

SPEAKER_05 35:30

Okay, well, that is from uh ccn.com. Uh again, I don't know. That's just food for thought. That's just a conspiracy theory that's out there, and uh you can think on that. And that is the end of the conspiracy minute.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Minutes plural. But yeah. We'll work on tight. Thank you so much for, you know.

SPEAKER_05 35:54

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Yeah, and for blaming me for yeah, how long it took.

SPEAKER_05 35:59

All right. Well, was there anything else you wanted to say about this? I guess uh I've been hearing that um these surgical masks, you know, the filtering masks are selling out all over the world. Yeah. I I don't know that those I'm sure it provides some protection, however your eyes, you know, that's a common place for um Yeah, entry. I hate to say if somebody coughs, sure, you know, it's in your face, it could enter through your uh your eyes or but I don't know. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 36:31

You know, I think you know, the first thing is of course, um, you know, we're very concerned um for anybody who's contracted it. Um we're hoping that they come up with some ways, some viable means of treating it, not necessarily since they say that there's no cure, but something that's at least going to help the individuals who have it. Um but as that I mean that being said, I mean it this is very, very concerning.

SPEAKER_05 37:01

And it's scary. Yeah, scary. Um so uh in regard to this, uh be careful, you know, what you what information you take in, you know, uh be careful of the misinformation.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Definitely stay away from the crazy.

SPEAKER_05 37:17

I mean some of the things we've discussed here today.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

If it sounds a little bit crazy and ex and extreme.

SPEAKER_05 37:24

Like please, please don't drink bleach or any toxic chemical.

SPEAKER_03 37:29

Do your research on those things and try to determine what the source of that information was. And on the other side of that, keep up those basic cleanliness habits, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

Yes, how you prepare food, be you know, clean with that.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Absolutely. You know, wash your hands, all those things that we that we were taught as kids that we blow off a lot of the time simply because, you know, there's a lot, a lot of things going around in life.

SPEAKER_05 37:53

The flu right now, I mean you know, a lot of doctors say, hey, you know, stop worrying about this coronavirus, worry about the flu.

SPEAKER_03 38:00

You get this flu, you get more likely you're gonna get that stomach viruses that are going around, at least where we are right now, and several other things. But again, it's about some of those basic cleanliness habits, and starting with as simply as, you know, washing your hands, covering your mouth when you cough, you know, all those things that you know we thought our parents were just such nerds for you know overreacting to some of those things.

SPEAKER_05 38:28

So all right. All right. Well, I do want to briefly touch on our topic last week. Okay, because you know, I um I have to comment that Starlink has sent up another group. This would be the third group of satellites. Right. And I don't know how I feel about that. It continues, you know, it's I I still don't understand how it can happen, and we on the planet just have to put up with whatever they're putting up there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

So if you didn't listen to uh season three, episode one, yes, we talked about Elon Musk's intent and desire to surround with SpaceX.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

Uh to surround the planet with roughly forty-two thousand satellites and what that was all about. And so at that point in time when we did the story, I think sixty had just gone up.

SPEAKER_05 39:27

It was the second batch.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

And this is this is is this the third or the second batch?

SPEAKER_05 39:31

This was the third.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

Okay, so this is the excuse me, that would have been 120, and so this would be the third batch of was it sixty as well?

SPEAKER_05 39:40

I think it was. Um, you know, so we're looking at you know, about 180 up there so far, maybe more.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Long story short, the satellites are going up.

SPEAKER_05 39:51

Yeah, and this is going to be happening pretty frequently if they want to get to the numbers that they're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

One of the things that we talked about in going back to our previous episode, one of the things and one of the questions that I ask is what is critical mass for the amount of satellites that we can put up in the sky before they start running into each other? And you pointed out to me that he had uh an advantage because of a navigation system. That was being provided to him by the Department of Defense. By the Department of Defense.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

Well, the system has a navigation system and the satellite does. The satellite has a navigation system, but the government's providing, you know, a tracking. Not a tracking, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Yeah, they're they're providing him with information that allows the satellites to use it in tracking debris.

SPEAKER_05 40:45

Avoidant.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

Yeah. Yes. Well, that's interesting because there was a there is a story related to just this this idea. Two satellites just had a close call, but experts experts say it's just a matter of time before a collision happens. So, you know, we were talking about this, and the fact is, and my guess is whoever satellites these were didn't have access to the guidance system or the information, you know. But it said it was a close call, so they didn't obviously there was not a collision, but it was close enough that folks are saying that they're expecting it to happen. Um so I mean, you know, again, we'll continue to follow up on that particular story because there's I think there's a lot of concern because my concern was is, you know, when these come out of the sky, if they collide, are they gonna burn up on re-entry? Of course, he's saying they're made to do that, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:51

But I think until things collide and start falling out of the sky, we're not gonna really know what the ooh, this is a horrible word to use, but we don't we're not gonna know what the impact of that is.

SPEAKER_05 42:02

Well, and on that note, I thought of something else. Yeah. What about meteors?

SPEAKER_03 42:08

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 42:09

What about pieces of debris flying from space into our atmosphere? You know, we do have some meteors that make it through the atmosphere. What if it hits one of those satellites? I mean, that could throw it off course, that could create any number of problems.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

While the defense has a debris tracking system, it's tracking debris. You know, if you have a rogue, and and here's the thing that people need to understand about um uh a meteorite. Uh or and what's being classified a lot of times as meteors, it it doesn't have to be a giant a giant rock.

SPEAKER_05 42:48

I mean, it can be a small rock.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

It can be very small, but moving with the velocity that a lot of these things are if it hits something, you know, it may not even make it on the, you know, it's it's one of those things that if it made it into the atmosphere, it's definitely gonna burn up in the atmosphere. Talking about this minuscule piece of rock that's flying through space. But it may be more than enough when it comes in contact with one of these 42. It's gonna be it's gonna have an easier time finding a target with 42,000 of them up there.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Uh what happens then when that causes, you know, degradation of whatever that orbit is that that particular satellite was in that was not expected to be in that new orbit and at that new, you know, attitude as it was, what happens then? And so those are some of those unintended consequences that we like to talk about on this show that we sometimes think that because we can, does it mean that we should?

SPEAKER_05 43:50

Exactly. And just to reference back, the that system, the Department of Defense, um it's called the autonomous collision avoidance. System. So t Starlink satellites utilize inputs from the Department of Defense debris tracking system to autonomously perform maneuvers to avoid collisions with space, debris, and other spacecraft. I don't know. We'll see. Time will tell.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

The thing that we have to understand about something like that is it's going to make every effort that it can to avoid collision, but it doesn't guarantee it.

SPEAKER_05 44:23

Well, and the more you have up there, I think the more likely you are to have a problem.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:27

I mean, right? The odds are greater.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

You just start feeling this domino thing happen.

unknown 44:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:33

Satellite A move to try to avoid something, and now it's maybe a little bit closer than what we have set up as the distance that we're going to keep between it and satellite B, so satellite B starts to move and on and on and on. And you know, but who knows?

SPEAKER_05 44:48

And I'm really concerned about just being able to see these satellites. Um they're going to be in low orbit and we already, I mean, people have already seen them.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

But they've made adjustments for that.

SPEAKER_05 45:01

Well, they've tried to. I don't know if they're successful yet. I mean, like I said, they're trying to do the cloaking device, we'll call it that, where they um are reflected. Using material that's yeah, but I who knows? I I think it's gonna impact our skies, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

That word again.

SPEAKER_05 45:17

Impact impact. Yeah, well, it's appropriate. It's appropriate. So all right.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

All right then.

SPEAKER_05 45:24

Well, we agree on that.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 45:29

Well, I was gonna say you can uh email us at truthunscripted at gmail.com. We would love to hear from you and your thoughts on all of this.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

And we're trying to improve our presence on uh Instagram. Uh you might go out there and see uh the soundbite that's out there from the previous episode and and a couple things, and we're also working on getting our Twitter up and running and active. And and both of them are at Truth Unscripted.

SPEAKER_05 46:00

And Melvin's gonna be leading that.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

Yes. I have been assigned duty of getting our Twitter up and going. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 46:12

And we're also working on some uh merch for giveaways and some things coming up too.

SPEAKER_03 46:17

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:18

We do want to hear from you. Uh share some thoughts with us.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

So, yes, we got merch coming, and we're gonna have some giveaways, and we're gonna give you guys some opportunity, and we'll let you know in upcoming episodes what that's all gonna be about. We want you guys to jump in, be involved, give us feedback, give us information because Julie. The truth is out there, and it's unscripted.