Retrospect
Retrospect
The Nipah Virus: Rare, Deadly, And Real | Retrospect Ep.227
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In this week’s episode we discussed the Nipah virus. A virus with a high fatality rate, no widely available treatment, and the potential to spark outbreaks. This rare but deadly zoonotic disease has caused outbreaks in parts of India and Asia. We break down where it comes from, how it spreads, why it’s so dangerous, and what scientists are doing to prevent future outbreaks.
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Keywords
Nipah virus, fatality rate, World Health Organization, global pandemic, brain inflammation, respiratory failure, vaccine development, supportive care, mutation, biological threats, diagnostic technology, infectious disease surveillance, zoonotic disease, RNA virus, public health.
Jason
A virus most Americans have never heard of, just re entered the global conversation, NEPA. It doesn't trend on social media. It doesn't have a catchy name, but has something far more unsettling, one of the highest fatality rates of any virus we know, often between 40 and 75% no widely available vaccine, no guaranteed treatment, and when it spills over into humans, it doesn't knock politely. NEPA lives quietly in fruit bats. It waits and it jumps to pigs, to people, to hospitals. When it hits, symptoms can start like the flu and end in severe brain inflammation, comas, respiratory failure, death, sometimes in days. Health Authorities attract NEPA closely because it sits on the World Health Organization's short lists of pathogens that could cause a serious international crisis if the wrong mutation meets the wrong conditions. Dense cities, global travel, overloaded hospitals sound familiar. So the question isn't whether NEPA is the next global pandemic. The real question is whether the world has learned how to respond before certainty arrives. Because outbreaks don't just test medicine, they test governments. They expose weak surveillance, delayed reporting, political hesitation and international systems that only work when trust exists. A virus like NEPA doesn't need to spread fast to cause damage, just needs time ambiguity and division in a world already split by conflict, sanctions and suspicion, the next biological crisis won't ask for unity. It will demand it, and the cost of hesitation won't be counted in headlines or markets. It will be counted in lots you
Ian
Ian, welcome to the retrospect podcast ashore. People come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from the generations perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Stoney,
Stoney
hello
Ian
and Jason.
Jason
Hello, everyone. How's it going? Well? I'm doing pretty good, because guess what I have in my
Ian
hand right now? I'm gonna assume coffee.
Jason
Yes, we got poo poo coffee. We're kind of returning to our roots a
Ian
little bit here. How long do you know? How long it's been?
Jason
It's been a few years.
Stoney
So instead of poo poo coffee and brownies, we have poo poo coffee and viruses.
Jason
That's it. Poo poo coffee virus. Maybe it cures the virus. Wouldn't that be great?
Ian
Yeah, maybe some better medicine. Imagine a medicine. Yeah, I got although
Stoney
the last medicine they shoved down our throat did more damage than the virus did.
Ian
Well, my goodness,
Jason
well, we got another virus out there. Everyone, yep. And believe it or not, I was scrolling. I forget if one of these like news apps I have and, you know, a lot of stories, it gives me a lot of great ideas for future topics and stuff like that. But I ran across this article about this new virus, yep.
Stoney
Well, the thing about this new virus is, is it's kind of not checking all of the boxes for it to become global, like covid or not even Ebola, is a global thing, right? Because it doesn't check certain boxes. You have to have an easier respiratory spread. Is one box you got to check? Well, this one doesn't have it. You have to be very close to somebody. It's almost, I don't want to say, sexually transmitted, but kissing and being really close to people intimate and yes, yeah. I mean, you got to get bit, so if you bite in your girlfriend, right? Something Be careful. Longer asymptomatic transmission and an herbal, super spreading. Well, one of the things is, is that this is between a 50 and 75% mortality rate because it goes straight to your brain and it just swells it. Now, I know a little something about a swelling brain here, and it's painful and it cause but people are dying before it can really and because of covid, yeah, we kind of know how to handle it. And right now, I think what the biggest outbreak is in India? Yeah, and again, this is the largest populated country in the world right now, right? But it doesn't really check all the boxes to be essential, sensual, sensationalized, excuse my language. Sensationalized as covid was, yeah, it's more along the lines of an Ebola, which, hey, kills people, yeah, but it's gonna have to do a whole lot of mutation or be mutated by our Yes. Friend, what's his name, Bill Gates, because wasn't he blamed for the covid thing 15 miles from his laboratory. Wuhan China
Jason
seemed like Bill Gates has got other problems right now too.
Ian
Yes, I the one thing I did some more research with this about also, like, why covid was so much such a scarier thing. And I realized I learned something from I learned something about covid That I don't think no one ever specifically told me outright. And I think if I would have known this sooner, it would have helped me understand the situation better. Is that, like with the covid situation, you were your most contagious before you started feeling sick, whereas, like regular flu symptoms or regular, like, cold stuff, whenever you start to feel the worst is when you're at your height of, like, contagion. What do they say
Stoney
with the flu? When you have fever, you're exactly but you're when you don't have a fever, you're not as right? Yeah.
Ian
And the hard part about covid and getting it under control, and among other political reasons, and other BS we want to get into right now, is that, like, that was the that was the part is that people are like, Well, I feel fine. It's like, precisely, and that's, that's when you're at your most contagious is at that moment. That was why it spread like it is. But like you're saying with this, this is more, so you got to get a little more touchy
Jason
feely. So they said, and do you
Ian
make a habit out of it?
Stoney
What's that expression? You can sit here, I don't bite. I might nibble a little bit.
Jason
They said in late January and early February of 2026 that health authorities confirmed two cases in West Bengal, India among health care workers. A reminder that even when an outbreak is small, it can reach those on the front line of care. So I mean, people that are dealing with, I mean, this kind of reminds me a bit of Ebola. It really does. It's the way it it kind of works, and we're glad that right now, it requires very close proximity. I think the fear is, with any virus, it can mutate.
Stoney
Well, I'm really afraid. The biggest thing you want to hear, hear me out. On this, he likes to say, hear me out. One of my biggest fears is actually the sensationalism behind it. Are they going to try to turn it into another covid? And I have a little catchphrase for us here. Curiosity is healthy. Evidence is king. We need to stay aware. Take a deep breath and understand that people are trying to control our lives and find out the truth, and hopefully we can dig into what do you say? Jason from a 10,000 let's just kind of look at it and see what some of the facts that we know today are right, but make sure that sensationalism doesn't take off like it did with covid, right, right? Because they use that and I'm what I'm afraid of is they're going to because, if you notice, everybody's starting to pick it up. Oh my god, it's, yeah, it was like
Ian
everyone was talking about it and all hyping it up, and then before you know it, it was here. But I know that was, I guess that's a different situation. Well, right? Though. I mean,
Jason
I'm just looking at some hard numbers. Here it says Bangladesh has seen NEPA cases almost every year since 2001
Stoney
said to date, I think it was first found in 1999 wasn't
Jason
it? I think was 9898 Okay,
Stoney
somewhere in right there they
Jason
said, You dated by 348 cases with approximately 250 deaths have been documented there, and that basically that given historical fatality rate of roughly 72%
Stoney
Well, nympha is is 50 to 75 covid was less or approximately 1% and Ebola, and I threw it because there's three types of, you know things out there. Ebola is 25 to 90% think about that. Yeah, that's a huge spread there, but that's, you know, what kind of care you're getting and stuff like that. And it averages around 50.
Jason
And see, this is, this is what to me, what is so angers me with with with covid, because of covid and the fallout of covid. And what we found out with with Dr Fauci and and finding out continuing the Wuhan China and the gain of research and all this, what's happened is now there's been a breach of trust in something that should everybody, should unite. Everybody on the globe is health. And unfortunately, because of that, the damage has been completely has messed that whole relationship up. And now I would say we're even more vulnerable. Oh yeah, we're even more vulnerable now to an outbreak happening, and because of the political fractionization that has occurred, not being able to tackle this in a way that if it should,
Stoney
you know, that's really interesting. Think about that. We're in South Louisiana, and you would think, when something like this, what happens in Louisiana, when there's a hurricane, we have a hurricane party, that's right. We say. We'll be damned if we're going to go anywhere. We're going to stand well because of covid. Now, are we more susceptible to standing our ground, like Jason says, and letting something come get us like that? That that's great. You said that because when you compare that like to a hurricane down or a blizzard or whatever, wherever you are in America, something can happen to you. Are we more susceptible now to an outbreak because of our distrust and our I'm going to stand my ground kind of stuff, because what happens? We even have drinks named after hurricanes. Oh, yeah,
Jason
yeah, I think about viruses. And you know that there's nothing you know. I've thought about all the things that you know, watch all these shows, look it in the world, and blah, blah, blah, and they talk about this, and they talk about, to me, what scares me the most are biological threats. More more than nuclear, more than chemical, it's biological threats because you can't see it. You really can't it just happens in nature, right? You know?
Ian
And sometimes, if there's no immediate cure for it, or Exactly, yeah, it's like, that's the stuff.
Jason
That's like, look, cures are, you know, that takes time to develop vaccines.
Stoney
It didn't take them long covid ones, but you know how many people, when I did that, it was kind of funny. I said, What are the treatments and vaccines, and it said, nympha, no approved vaccine, public vaccine, yet treatment is supportive care. Ebola, yes, R, V, S, V, dash, Z, E, B, O, V, monoctual antibodies available, right. Covid, 19, multiple vaccines. Parentheses kills more people than the virus, and then it says antivirals and supportive care. Wow. And I'm like, Okay, this is coming out when you're researching this. Now, this ain't even me adding to it. I'm like, Wow. You know, somebody's getting wise here, right, right, right, yeah.
Jason
I'm looking at a report right now from the World Health Organization regarding the two people that when this first thing kind of broke, they said both cases, both of the people that were exposed were between 20 and 30 years old, really, yeah, from Barasat, north, 24 parganis district. They say both cases developed symptoms typical of severe NIV NIV infection in late December, 2025 or admitted to the hospital early January, 2026, as of 21 January, 2026 the second case showed clinical improvement, while the first case remained under critical care. Interesting, yeah, but that's what I'm saying. It's and I've said this with covid. Covid was a test of how we as a society, multiple I'm gonna tell you if covid had the fatality rate that this thing had, I don't even want to think
Stoney
about because of the mortality rate, it wouldn't have spread. I think you see what I'm saying, because it's killing people so fast. I mean, to cut you off there, but it's it kills you so fast, it's kind of hard to spread it. I get what happens is, is, this is a different virus. It comes into your blood, which Ebola is another blood one. Remember, covid is not, it's a respiratory right? But it goes into your blood, and then it goes through the brain protection layer, right? And just massively inflates your brain, and it's, you're not going to be around people because you're going to the ground. It's kind of not the same with covid and these high transmittable viruses, you're around people like, like Ian said, you kind of even don't know you have it at first, yeah? And then you're, you're giving it to people, right? But these other ones, they come in so quick, and then what happens to you, makes you go away from people, kind of, except for hospitals, et cetera, et cetera. So I don't know if it really would. I wish we had a virologist that we could talk to about this.
Ian
I feel like if covid had the same like scariness as this does, like you're saying, with the brain swelling all that stuff like that is it also would affect younger people, like, like, for instance, like, like, I think a reason why, a number of factors, why I think covid spread and stuck around for so long. Not only was it contagious whenever you didn't feel sick, which was the scariest part. But it was also, like most people, if you're in pretty good health or of a young enough age, there's a large majority of people that, like, you may feel sick for a couple days and then you get better and like, whereas with this, this is not the case. So like, right? If covid would make your brain swell no matter how old you are, right? Or, or even if you're in the hospital, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right. And there's no real cure for it. I think that, like, there the severity would have been up, not
Stoney
another flu. Like, we're all used to it, hey, yeah, it's whatever, yeah, you know, right?
Ian
And that's what I'm saying, is, like, if it was, if the, if, the likelihood, for
Stoney
if you were born from the eyeballs, like Ebola, you might be doing a little something.
Ian
That's what I'm saying. It's like, that's why, I think, also not to, not to compare apples to oranges, but that's, that's what I mean. It's like,
Stoney
No, but you're saying, if it had some of those severity effects, it we would be doing things a lot different.
Ian
I just know that I'm speaking from personal, personally. I mean, I think at one point in time I got, I gotten covid, and felt bad for literally 24 hours, and then got better. And I was like, Oh, that's not so bad. But I know that people with respiratory issues and that were, you know, you know, either younger or older. I tried to stay away from those people for that reason for a large portion of that time. But that's not, it's not a perfect solution.
Stoney
Well, this is a brain disease, and it's encephalitis. I believe, I hope I did not murder that. I think is that right? I think I did. It can be caused by viruses, which is most common worldwide, bacteria, which is a lot less common. And I think you said something with bacteria earlier autoimmune reactions and rare toxic exposures, and this is viral. The nympha is viral. And basically what happens is you get some favor, some fever, and some fatigue, and the virus, again, like I said earlier, spreads through your circulatory system, yeah. And once it crosses that brain blood, brain barrier, you're in trouble, yep, because it happens
Ian
with a lot of really fast with a lot of things like that. Anything that crosses that barrier that are just not supposed to, it can be a very dangerous situation, yeah, just for this virus, but yeah, other things
Stoney
too, for anything, yeah. What is it? Meningitis? Is that the other one that can do that, that's what they were afraid of with me and my open wound. You know, when I hit my head right and I'm completely exposed, exposed, squirting cerebral spinal fluid. I was squirting 10 to 15 milliliters an hour out of my ear. I mean, they found me literally in almost a four, I think it was a three and a half to four foot pool, yeah, of cerebral spinal fluid. And I did that for 17 days. That was one of the things that they were worried about, I think was meningitis, because I have an open wound, right, an open door basically to my head, yep. And that's kind of scary, if you think about it, that is scary.
Jason
Yeah, I was looking at some statistics here on the Bangladesh stuff. It said about 29% of those cases from human to human transmission, really, yeah. So it's a, I mean, it's there, and, I mean, the Indian government has really been aggressive with this stuff. So that's good sign, you know. So, you know, maybe it's, they can kind of contain this, because, you know, maybe this is kind of one of those outbreaks like they have in Africa. Sometimes you'll hear about an Ebola outbreak, and they do a pretty good, good job of, really, you know, segregating that community, and they cut off everything. You don't leave
Ian
a real quarantine. Quarantine. Them down.
Stoney
Yeah, to give you an example, though, it takes less than 72 hours once it's in your blood system to break that brain blood barrier. Yeah, less than 72 hours. And I'm assuming everybody's different. Yes, it could be this, it could be that, it could be a whole lot of stuff, but on average, yeah, less. It doesn't say 72 Okay, it says less than 72 hours.
Ian
That's scary to, like, get a virus and, like, you only got three days left to live. That's scary stuff. Yeah?
Jason
I mean, this stuff is, is nothing to play around with. And I, you know, that's what I'm saying. This scares me because, you know, right now, it's, it's, it's, you know, relatively close, close to close contact, that this stuff spreads. But, yeah, you know, it could it mutate into something where maybe it's more airborne? Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, we don't know that. I mean, we don't know what virus is going to do. I mean, to sit back and say it's, that's not a possibility. It's, I mean, that's kind of naive. I mean, I I think we need to be vigilant. And I think they're doing a good job of of monitoring this stuff and and keeping it, you know, at least keeping it contained as best they can. But, I mean, you don't know me. Somebody goes to India and gets exposed to it. They don't know what's going on. Starts biting people. Oh, that are they? Oh they, are they go to, you know, they go to another country, they go back to their country of origin. They don't know they have it. Or they interact with somebody before, really, they develop symptoms. And, you know, that's how it spreads. I mean, we don't know how these things work. Like, I mean, God knew it's, I'm saying these kind of things just bothered the hell out of me, because the idea of a, you know, I just kind of think of, like the movie to stand or something like that, you know, where you just got the world, you know, falling apart, right? Because people are sick. I mean,
Stoney
I think, I think with nympha, you know, the real danger is not instant brain evasion. It's kind of a progression after the exposure. You know, I would think there would be, like, a little silent period while that stuff is working inside your blood system. But once those symptoms start, that window just has to, like, you know, it's not weeks, it's kind of like days, yeah, you know, I mean, out, you know how fast this goes, but it's not like, once that Brain Stuff starts, it's pretty from what you're reading it you're done. That's scary, you know, wow.
Ian
I wonder, have they not been able to find a cure for it? Because it's kind of more rare. Is that? Why the,
Jason
I think, or a vaccine for, I think, I think it's just, it is somewhat rare to agree, I don't, you know, to create vaccines. I mean, it's cost and, Oh, of course, time, and you've got to, you know, it takes time to develop.
Stoney
Well, you know what? They're going to first thing, they're going to come out and say, this is viral, right? Ivermectin is bad for you. Ivermectin is bad. It cannot help you. What did they find out two years after covid, ivermectin could have helped a lot of people. It could have and that's interesting, because you know this virus, nympha, is an RNA virus, really? Yes. Curious, does that sound familiar? Okay, so that you have two types of viruses, RNA and DNA, okay, and the differences are, and this is, you know, DNA is more stable. Double stranded. Takes a lot to mutate it, because you're dealing with a lot. You know, RNA is less stable, single stranded. And here's an easy way for our listeners. And I was researching a way to break this down for us on how we can understand it. And DNA equals a hard bound reference book, and RNA is a handwritten note pad. Yeah, page. You see what I'm saying. One, you got, you got to go through all of this to get to the end. And one is like you're writing it, yeah, like a napkin at a bar or restaurant or something. You know. One is durable and stable, and the other is quicker, more flexible and more error prone. And that's where we are with that with this RNA, you know, because mistakes happen more often, but that mistake can usually be a mutation stick. It can be something that mutates it because virus doesn't want to die fast, no, okay, because if it kills you fast, and that's one of the things everybody didn't really understand about covid, is it doesn't want to kill you fast, because then it can't spread to the next one. It can't spread to the next one, right? So a normal mutation of a virus is to not kill you as fast,
Jason
talking about Ian, you were talking about vaccines, is that there are several vaccine and therapeutic candidates in various stages of research and pre clinical testing, but none are yet licensed.
Ian
Because I'm just curious with like this is
Jason
probably, is the funding is probably not there to develop it.
Ian
I'm curious if, like, so is there, so they're working towards right?
Stoney
I guess there has to be working toward this all the time. I would thank you.
Ian
But I'm just curious, like, again, if there is an outbreak of NEPA, if there is, like, a big thing that's happening right now? Like, is that something that's being expedited? Or, again, like, I know it's all about funding, but like, I guess, since we're talking about this now, there is, like, I know that's probably sensationalized, but I'm curious as like, how if it, if the rates of it are going up, especially like in India or Asia or wherever it is.
Stoney
I don't think it's really it's taken off like that right now. I want to give a couple of other examples of RNA viruses. Tell me if any of these sound familiar, influenza, SARS, Ebola, measles and rabies.
Ian
Oh gosh, the rabies.
Stoney
These are all RNA viruses, interesting. Okay, you see there. But think about it. How many mutations of the flu are there? When you go get a flu vaccine, you're gonna get something that may handle three right of the 2500 variances of the flu, you're getting the right one or so they say, Oh well, it may ease the symptoms. Okay. We were told that bullshit. Excuse me. You can beat me if we want to. We were told that bullshit with covid, weren't we, and it wound up to be a big fat zero.
Jason
So, yeah, that's crazy. Well, you know, I mean, so when it comes to those things I've gotten, I mean, I said I get flu shots generally every year. And, you know? I mean, I understand people. I've got people I know that don't believe in them. That's fine, whatever. I think unfortunately with covid, if that was more of a kind of the way that was presented, it's like, Okay, we have something for you, you know, if you want to take it, take it. If not. Oh, well. But we have something available to you. I think it would have gone on a lot better. Yeah, I think, I think it also boogeyman would not have been introduced into this process. And I think it doesn't say it we, because of that, any future attempts at dealing with these kind of emergencies is going to be somewhat hampered, and rightfully so. People are distrustful. I get it.
Ian
Well, it also didn't help that. Like, I think we have said this on this podcast specifically. You know, even after covid had kind of died down, a little bit is like, I think that the the worst part about it all is that it got it became so political at one point in time like it was no longer about the virus. It was about it was about, you know, your political standing, or what you know, or who you sided with, or you know, whatever it is, and that was the I don't know. I think that was the real problem with it all that made, I think the distrust and vaccines even worse is because of all like the people we've talked about before with, who was that doctor we were just mentioning Fauci. Yeah, Fauci. That didn't make it any better. President, former President Biden. You know that with that whole situation, was like, gosh, that was not none that was handled well. And I think that's, that's the problem, is like, now that's what we're that's what we're going off of, of, like, in recent history, that's still in people's minds.
Jason
Yeah, matter of fact, I'm right now trying to find it. But if I, if I, if you all recall our friend Brandon, yeah, he talks about the Nipah virus, really, from his perspective, and what it actually can do, from some of the things he talked about, I reached out to him, possibly trying to maybe come back on the show do a, you know, I thought it would really tie in well with this topic, because I was reading it this morning early in bed while drinking my coffee, and he really shared a lot of a lot of good stuff on his sub stack regarding This, whole thing.
Stoney
These viruses are actually kind of smart, right? This is a negative sense, single cell strand, RNA virus, okay? And in simple terms, that when it starts, when it gets injected into your system, it cannot immediately be read by your human cells, okay, it first has to convert itself into something that's readable in a readable form by your body before it can replicate. Because what it does is it injects itself into your cells. But if it can't read it, it can't replicate itself, right? And that extra step in there requires a viral enzyme. It's an RNA dependent RNA polymorphs or something like that. But that enzyme is one reason that the more mutation rates are higher, because you know what it does is it attaches to your host cell and injects the RNA inside of it. Then it hijacks the cells. Machinery produces copies and bursts out and spread, yeah, but at first it's not your body doesn't recognize it, so it's not going to help it. But once it recognizes it, it produces that enzyme so that it can, you know, work in tangent, it can hijack your body basically, yeah, and start doing what it needs to do, crazy and it mean it binds to the receptors, which is in your brain tissue, your blood vessel, lining your respiratory tissues, and things like that. And then, you know, right? RNA viruses are higher mutation rates, the adapt, adaptation potential is so much higher. You know, think about, you know, the flu, the meat, you know, the measles, you know, and I don't know, man, it's kind of scary. But I think in a way, we're kind of lucky, too, unless some Bill Gates, or somebody likes that decides to turn it into something else. Hey, let's mix it with the measles and see what it'll do.
Jason
No, no, we don't want that.
Stoney
Yeah, that's wasn't that a movie? Was it what wasn't wasn't that one of the movies that came out where they were they realized that if they mix something with. Measles, they could cure cancer or something. I don't know. Can you go, what movie came out when they mixed it with the measles or something?
Jason
Well, you talk about, I know Stoney, you mentioned rabies. He kind of, you know, they can mutate rabies. And what was that movie? That kind of horror movie they made called, was it not Cujo that? Remember that one too good old Stephen King. What was the one dealing with? It was the rage virus. What was that call? Was that 28 days later? It was the rage virus. Okay, interesting. What it was, okay. It was a mutated version of rabies, if I recall, right, was
Stoney
it I am? Legend? Was it I am? Maybe it was I am. No, I am talking about that's right. I can't remember exactly, but that does sound familiar.
Ian
It says, right, or it says in here it was saying that the it was genetically engineered measles virus designed to cure cancer, that's it, and it mutated into a lethal airborne strain called Crippen virus. Okay, yeah, so that's fun.
Jason
Okay, well, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, you know,
Stoney
I can only feel for these people because I had the brain swelling and this encephalitis, confusion, drowsiness, disorientation, I had all of that, right, the pain, the massive amounts of pain in the brain I can I can only feel for these people, because In some way, I haven't gone through this virus, but with this TBI that I had, right, I can't imagine going through that again. I'm so thankful that I had the hottie, Dr Miranda, with me to kind of help guide me and give me strength to be able to get through that, because that was something Jason was there a lot. He can remember some of the stuff I was going through. And remember, I mean, what? I don't remember what the first five days it was, you were seven to 10 days before I was even halfway coherent.
Jason
I don't think we knew what was going to be happening with with all that. I think there was a lot of unknown there. But, you know, you came out of it, yeah, you know that's I'm saying you were lucky.
Stoney
Almost three years later, I'm still not near where I want to be.
Jason
But, well, I mean, you had a massive injury, and it's just what it is. And, you know, it's so funny. I There are times when I'm at at work and I still think about that day, and
Ian
wait, what day? You mean, my accident? Oh, I see what. You're different, okay, yeah, yeah.
Jason
It's amazing how much time has passed. It's hard to believe it's been three years. That is crazy. I mean, it's
Stoney
just been worth what, four months shy of three years?
Jason
Yeah, it's hard to believe it's been that long. That's true since since then. So, yeah, the
Ian
same thing with this podcast as well. It's crazy to think this show has been going on for as long as it has been four years
Jason
y'all been going over. Y'all were doing it about a year before I joined y'all.
Ian
So you've been here longer than you haven't been by a large margin, which
Jason
is interesting. The infamous dang that's interesting. Stoney, now we're talking about some just like those crazy topics that we all love to talk about. And here we are. Here we are. That's fun. I never thought in the world I'd be doing a podcast. Here I am. So, yeah, well, we're having fun doing it, and now we're drinking poopoo coffee. Never thought I'd be drinking that either. But here we are, yeah, so how fun? Yeah, we're having a good time with it. Some good stuff. I mean, it's just, you know, and of course, you know, we talk about these topics. And I know some pop some people think, God, they're always talking about all this, you know, doom and gloom. And, you know, into the world, and, you know, like, Well, I mean, the reality is the world is a, is a can be a very frightening place. And they're
Stoney
talking about doom and gloom, or do we offer a little hope too, and just some some calm reflection from a generational perspective. Because, you know, one of the things about leadership, and I always try to come back to leadership, is that just because something has changed doesn't mean that there wasn't any good in that, like the administration of that last organization that I was with, they came in and tried to dismantle the administration from before. Was there nothing good that you can take, you know, as bad as covid was, is there anything good that we can take from covid and bring to a new situation like this to help us? Maybe better handle it, yeah. I mean, does that make sense, or is that, you know, hopefully that's what we do here, and right?
Jason
I mean, I would love to, I mean, I love leaving these shows knowing we've potentially given some people some valuable information. They can take it. They can go research and, you know, and tell looks like not everything is always, you know, it's serious things to look at, but it doesn't always have to mean it's a bad ending, right? You know,
Stoney
that's why I try in my closings. I love your openings, but in my closings, I hope I offer a little thought and hope
Jason
Absolutely, I agree totally
Stoney
I try, right? You know, I try. I don't always succeed. And y'all know me, I usually have to stick my humor in there because y'all are both looking at me waiting for the next thing that's fixed.
Jason
Part of the charm of the show Stoney, I mean, you know? I mean, that's what makes people tune in and listen to us. I know I've had several people tell me about, God, that guy's really funny. That's right.
Stoney
Good thing. Looks aren't everything.
Jason
It's great humor. And we got some exciting things in the future. We got some, got some person that would like to love to come on the show, a young lady, I know, yes, you talked about this? Yeah, that would like to come on the show, and we're kind of, you know, kind of finalizing and trying to figure it out how to to, you know, talk about what she wants to talk about. And I think that would be a that's going to be an interesting show to listen to. So I tell people, keep tuning in and right, keep listening to us, because we got some good stuff coming up. But we
Ian
also got future episodes too that were, oh yeah, we're not quite at the end of the episode yet, but we got episodes that we've that we've talked about before. We've got on the calendar right now that I think we're gonna get hyped up.
Jason
I am in trying to find this stuff that I read. I knew it this morning when I read it, yeah, I was not going to be able to find it later, yeah, and I can't find it, of course not, because I was reading. And I'm going, you got to be kidding, because this is what we're talking about today on a podcast. And I can't believe it was it own friend Brandon was talking about, yes, about NEPA and yeah, how the Chinese are, can there's how. You know, if you remember all that stuff he was talking about, about how those chemicals in our body can be like transmitters for certain frequencies and stuff like, it feels kind of tied into that. And I was like, that would be, I can't believe that. And for whatever reason right now, I just can't seem to
Stoney
I would think a lot of the universities would be coming out and get away from their kind of, their indoctrination stuff. There was a time when universities were the ones who went after this kind of stuff, more than anybody. Yeah, you know, there was a engineer from Texas, A and M. His name is Calvin Richardson. He actually designed a bra that kept women's breasts from jiggling, bouncing up and down, and stops the nipples from pushing through the fabric when cold weather sets in. After the news conference announcing this invention, a large group of men took Mr. Rickson outside and kicked the shit out of him.
Ian
Yeah. Oh, dude, gee, I got sticking in there somehow. Excuse me.
Stoney
Like, why the hell would you do that?
Ian
Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, that's interesting, yeah, but I hope that this whole situation, I wonder. I mean, do we know why? I mean, I guess you said this already that I guess the outbreak there isn't really, like, a really big, strong outbreak, like, like you're saying, but like, I was wondering, like, if there is a spike in what's happening with the Nipah virus, especially, like I said, in India and Asia. Like, I wonder what's causing it. I know you're seeing it's like, close contact, but like, is but like, is there something else that's taking place? It's causing it to spread in a certain way, or, you know, or be different, or is it already starting to try and mutate into something different, which is even scarier to think about. Yeah.
Jason
Anyways, yeah. I was looking at a deal here. This is this doctor from he says, if you get the nip virus, it is bad. Explain. William Schaffner, medical doctor, professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, it can cause encephalitis with a high mortality rate, and even if you recover, you're likely to have a long term disability. Really, you'd never really get over it. That's scary. Say that it basically
Stoney
brain a TBI or brain swelling is hard to get over because it it, I mean, it's all, what is it? It's all cholesterols, fats and. Neurons, and you mess with it a little bit and you're messed up. Yeah, I'm learning, right?
Jason
Yeah, they say there is a seasonal aspect to NEPA outbreaks. Said prim prakesh, PhD research scientist with Meharry Medical College, also in Nashville. They said they tend to peak between December and may during this winter period. Said bats experience breeding and nutritional stress from scarce natural food sources, causing them to shed more virus and seek human planted orchards, they said, also cooler weathers in these months prolong the viruses survival in the environment, increasing the risk of indirect transmission through contaminated surfaces or fruits. So in essence, you eat a piece of contaminated fruit.
Ian
Interesting. Yeah.
Jason
They say, find the loss of habit.
Stoney
But I wonder, and not to interrupt, I wonder, how long when that bat bites it, how long that's survives on that piece of fruit? I mean, are you going basically right after and eating it?
Jason
Or, I think it depends on that. That's what I'm saying. So obviously, the very, very warm weather obviously impairs the virus's ability to survive. Okay, so when it's cooler, yeah, it stays on service is longer, right, than during the summers, which I can understand. I mean, I can imagine. I mean, just think of our summers. Yeah. I mean, it's, there's a reason, you know.
Ian
And it's also, if we're talking about India, we're talking about that part of the world too. It gets really hot out there. So I wouldn't be surprised if, like, maybe, I don't know, maybe during, like, the different part, maybe that's why we're talking about it now and not, you know, six months ago, during the summertime, oh, out there. Maybe that's something that's going on right now.
Jason
But they said right now, the most promising vaccine is the most. I should say progress is being made. By the University of Oxford has launched a world's first phase two clinical trial of Nipah virus vaccine candidate in Bangladesh. Interested. He also reported an experimental monoclonal antibody called m1, oh, 2.4 which has shown strong promise in animal studies and limited human use, but is not yet widely approved or available.
Ian
Okay, so I guess what you're talking about with people in academia, I guess are doing something which isn't too bad, but
Jason
yeah, they said right now, the only option right now is intensive supportive care, including oxygen support, mechanical ventilation, management, swelling and fluid balance. So that's basically, that's what they're doing right now to treat people that come down with this,
Ian
and they're still saying they don't survive out of it.
Jason
And they said, basically, the earlier you get it detected, the better.
Stoney
Wow, yeah. But if there's that little quiet period there, yep, boy
Ian
got three days,
Jason
they say, following the global covid 19 pandemic, the white the World Health Organization identified a list of high priority pathogens with the potential to cause future pandemics. The Nipah virus was included on this list, really, yep, highlighting the health authorities are aware of this virus as potential risk. I'm gonna tell you another one out there that that that's very prevalent and you can get it. It's kind of one of those diseases they keep locked up, like in these these chemical labs, is hantavirus, which is bad, yeah. And that comes generally from, like, rat excrement, really, yes. I mean, it's, it's in the same, yeah, family as Ebola and stuff like that. It's pretty serious. Yikes. They say. Right now, the World Health Organization currently considers the risk of a national or global spread of nympha virus to be low. They said people who have nympha virus are not likely to be asymptomatic and out and out among other people or traveling, as was the case, for example, with covid 19, because it seemed like once you get sick, you go down pretty quick, and so you immediately you're segregating yourself because you're not leaving your house or whatever the case may
Stoney
be, right? I can tell you this, when my head was hurting, I didn't feel like going, doing, seeing, talking, nothing, and if you mix that now with some viral, you know, the lung stuff, and, wow, yeah.
Ian
No, no, thank you. Oh, thank you.
Stoney
Yeah, I'm done. Yeah,
Ian
exactly. It's crazy thing to think too. It's again. We're heading into 2026, and that covid, like, began six years ago, like the big part of it, and to think that, like. There are people. There are people in my life. You know, my mom being a teacher. You know, there are kids that you know grew up or started high school whenever covid started, and are now graduated and like in the world now, or like, you know, you know the kids that were like, raised during it, and like, that was, like, a three to four year chapter of a lot of people's lives, and how, like, that's such a crazy thing that, like, we talked about this, when we talk about covid, obviously, how it affected also the young people as well. But it's crazy to, like, think about that from November perspective
Stoney
in China, it was killing the old people, and then all of a sudden the young people were like, oh, man, but
Ian
I'm just talking about the fact, yeah, I'm just, I'm talking about, like, the change in the world, the masks, the like, everything had to be shut down. Everyone's all freaked out, everything's all politicized, everything's all into all that stuff. That's right, that's the more what I'm talking about. You know, I got the chance to talk to my mom students a couple days ago, or last week, or whatever, and that was the thing. It was the thing that was just kind of brought up, was the fact that, like, Oh, this one kid was, you know, who's now 1617, years old in high school, whatever it was, like, oh, yeah, I was like, you know, 10 years old, 11 years old, when that was, like, he grew up. Yeah, that's saying there's like, and like, there was, like, a large span of of her, like, like, formative teenage, early teenage years, or whatever, or, you know, middle school years and stuff that's like, that's just crazy to think about. And like, you know how,
Stoney
when you're figuring out what life is, what people are, what, hey, right, right, and you have this whole world changing thing. So, you know, it's funny, you said that. One of the things I've said about this accident is that after having to learn how to walk again at 60, I will never laugh at a little baby learning how to walk again. And that young lady there, you're talking about there, that's how she grew up with this. That's what she experienced. What does she think the future has in store, and then, especially with the new virus coming out, we pick her brain the next time you talk to her, ask her some questions and
Ian
talk about the like, just the fear of it, like, you know, you talk about,
Stoney
write that down. We'll read it on the air, because that's the young people today are
Ian
different because of it, and that's completely different, right? Not only do I think that, like again, we to circle back around to an earlier part of this conversation. We talked about, like, what would it be like if there was another pandemic? What distrust would we have? I was in my I was in my 20s, whenever, like, you know, covid happened and it shook up, you know, a portion of my my mid, mid 20s, or whatever, and so, like, so I come with my own level of like, you know, my own chip on my shoulder because of the experience that I had. But talk about people talking about, you know, young people like her, where it's like, you know, what I don't know, her leanings, or what she believes, or what chip on her shoulder that she has because of all this stuff, or, you know, if something like that was to happen now that she's a young adult, you know, about to graduate high school, you know, if something like this was to happen, or if another pandemic was to happen, like, you know, how would she view that? Or what kind of, what would that trigger in her of, like, oh my gosh, like, this kind of, like, you know, I don't know that's, it's just crazy to think about, too, you know, we're talking about this whole topic all over again, and
Stoney
then you add social media and the Internet to that. You know, Internet has taught us two things The Internet has taught us. Back in the day, each town or village used to think they had one idiot that turned out not to be true, and they used to believe that the lack of information is what made people stupid. Guess what? They proved that wrong too. Because right now it's just crazy, you know. And you know, when you have sheeple, you know, they will follow. And that's part of the dangers of this kind of stuff here is who's going to follow this?
Jason
Yeah, I'm looking here. They say. Some estimates suggest a global, global Nipah virus infection testing market could grow at a mid single digit compound annual rate through the 2030s
Ian
really. Now, why is that? I wonder.
Jason
I guess they're making projections on movement of people, just kind of world economy. And, yeah, how things, you know, go, but yeah, I'm reading this thing. It's called Nipah virus infection testing market, you know.
Stoney
Well, somebody's got to make money off of it. Somebody's gonna make money off of it. That's what they do. Fear, yeah, I'm gonna make money off of it.
Jason
Well, you say this, I'm looking at this deals. It's future market insights. The Nipah virus infection testing market is valued at 2.1 8 billion already.
Stoney
2025 go. Many people have died. A total of 11 people have died.
Jason
If I'm reading this article, they say they as per the FMI analysis, the Nipah virus infection testing will grow at a at a CAGR, whatever that means, a 5.2% and reach 2.6 3 billion by 2035, the global industry for Nipah virus infection testing is undergoing steady expansion, powered by increasing concern over zoonatic disease outbreaks and growing investment and development of diagnostic technology. So they're, what they're doing is the market is projecting the infrastructure that would need to be built out to somewhat contain this. This is what they're projecting it to grow.
Ian
So CAGR is compound annual growth rate. There you go, pharmaceutical stuff.
Jason
Okay, well, then there it is, right? You know, that's crazy, yeah. So it's being fueled by increasing demand for rapid diagnostic solutions, advancements in the molecular testing sector and government actions to enhance infectious disease surveillance. That's what I'm saying, is to kind of build the infrastructure to be able to deal with future illnesses.
Stoney
Let's go ahead and get our money making factories in line so we can be ready to make it as quick as possible.
Jason
That's kind of what they're that's kind of what they're they're thinking right now. So, you know, they're looking at the projections and going for us to to at least according to this, for us to be able to deal with these issues in the future. This is the kind of money that they outlay. We need to put out snake bite to deal with it.
Stoney
Snake bite venom, okay, how many vials do they have in every hospital? How many people actually get bit by a snake? Let's have it ready for them. Let's get these. RNA, you know, vaccines ready. You know, Bill Gates is going, ooh, look, here we go. We got another reason to stick people. Oh, wow, you know, so
Jason
we are. It's here. And as I said, this is just another virus that is, you know, we gotta watch,
Stoney
you know, yeah, yes, well, but I don't know it has to mutate first. And many decades or centuries, will it take to mutate to where it can come
Ian
to to be another? And I also wonder, you know, like I said before, is like, what kind of like, I don't know, like, what kind of what would it need to get over here, right? What a need to like, really be a threat over here? Would we be able
Stoney
to, well, I would, basically, I kind of gave that list earlier. There's, there's boxes that have to check, and none of those boxes are checked right now.
Jason
I mean, theoretically would, you'd have to have someone that would come down with it, maybe for whatever reason, they don't develop immediate symptoms. They're asymptomatic. They get on an airplane, they land, and all sudden they become symptomatic. At that point, they've already interacted with people, and boom, you have, you
Stoney
got an issue. You see it has to be, you have to think about the progression of the covid virus. When you look at the very first Lysol can
Ian
No, yeah, we talked about this before, yeah, covid
Stoney
was on it, yeah, okay, it killed the covid virus. So covid has been around so everybody, there's so many. What does covid 19 mean? Covid, 17, covid, covid, covid, covid, covid, somebody changed it, yeah, somebody changed this one, and it got out in China, right? And spread. It checked all of the boxes that you needed to become a global pandemic. But it was created, right? And that somebody is going to take this? Because if you leave it up to nature, it could take centuries, if at all, right, but you leave it up to the human condition and the greed factor, and these people are ready. Hey, let's we got the groundwork. Let's get it ready. Hey, we can make money off of this, but we just needed to do one little thing. Maybe we could just help it out, just a little bit, right?
Jason
Yeah, it doesn't it. I don't put it past certain entities, Bill Gates, that would attempt to do some sort of gain of function with something like this. And that's what scares me?
Stoney
Well, remember, covid 19 was designed originally to take out the elderly population in China, and how quickly did that mutate to just anybody? Yeah, you're right, yeah.
Jason
I mean, as I'm saying, this biological stuff scares me more than.
Stoney
Yeah, and viral. There is a difference between biological,
Jason
I kind of group it all, okay,
Ian
bio weapons to that kind
Jason
of stuff, exactly, you know. I mean, the idea is, like, I know, back in World War One, they, you know, they use anthrax, and they, you know, just, yeah, I mean, well, that's chemical, I know. I mean, you know it's but, I mean, I just know that there are people out there that that would would do this, yeah, and, I mean, think about it, what government if someone say, could develop a enhanced version of this stuff that would be spread through the air, yeah? What would a hostile government pay? Oh yeah, yeah, or something like that,
Stoney
or some of these, you know, depopulation people, oh yeah, you know, I mean, thanks to Bill Gates, we have ticks now that can bite you and make you allergic to meat. Okay, that's Bill Gates.
Jason
Is some sometimes.
Stoney
What do you think he What do you think he would do to take out 2 billion people in this country? He said it there's video after video after video of Bill Gates saying we need to kill two to 3 billion people on this planet.
Jason
I think Bill Gates got enough to worry about right now. I think he's gonna be busy after what the latest accusations that came out of the
Stoney
there's emails talking about killing people and the Epstein.
Jason
Epstein files, yes, his name is all up in it. All in it, okay, yeah, interesting. Matter of fact, there's some very salacious material that came out.
Stoney
You know, you know what the I thought was gonna be the biggest one, but it turned out not to be the biggest one that he was contacting Epstein to get some medicine to quietly give his wife because he contracted an STD from one of the little island boys, and he wanted to cure his wife without her knowledge.
Jason
Well, I heard it was Russian, Russian prostitutes that
Stoney
if you look at the email, it's a
Jason
private he picked up something twice, he picked up something, and supposedly, he was trying to quietly give his wife this medicine without her knowing it, to prevent her from contracting this while they had because,
Stoney
remember, all of the sudden she filed for divorce, Yep, and when she found out his relationship with Epstein, is when she divorced him and took the money.
Jason
What was Bill Gates? See, this is what these guys that just, you know, you think about these guys that before Bill Gates was Bill Gates, and he was just some ordinary dude developing him. And what was it? Paul Allen, was it Paul Allen?
Stoney
What was his develop? He stole it market,
Jason
whatever his partner was at the time, just his business partner.
Ian
But I didn't realize that him and Melinda got divorced. Oh, yeah, I don't follow Bill Gates. Also. I don't how many years it was a 2021.
Jason
Yeah, yeah. He, she, they, they, she basically want nothing to do with him, really,
Stoney
especially when she found out, yeah,
Jason
now we know probably what was kind of behind us and
Stoney
because, remember, it was all of a sudden, she just woke up one day and said, I'm divorced.
Jason
It's just amazing to me that, you know, Bill Gates here starts off as some, you know, ordinary, just brilliant guy, smart guy. Was he computers and, you know, God, the guy's smart. I mean, yes, he's not a dummy. He didn't get what he's at without having some smart so. But, you know, something happens to some people when they reach certain levels in society. And I just wonder if you know those proclivities maybe existed in him, and now that he had the money to be able to engage in these proclivities, yeah,
Stoney
well, you have to also think about him. He did. You have to wonder where his head is, because Microsoft wasn't his baby, but he stole it and put it out there. Right? Who invented the first virus? I don't remember Bill Gates. Oh, really. Bill Gates invented the first virus that attacked Microsoft, and then what did he do? He sold you the antivirus, right? So he going, Oh, wow, that worked. What else can we apply this technology or this ideology to?
Jason
There was also, I think that kind of brings me, kind of thinking about, wasn't there a guy that. Eyed mysteriously on some island. Who was the developed some sort of antivirus software. Nor is it Norton?
Stoney
Was it the Norton guy? Yeah, yeah, I think
Jason
he there was some mystery involving what happened with him?
Stoney
Yeah, he went crazy. They were driving him crazy, apparently, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't. What was his name?
Jason
Crap, I know Ian's probably doing, so
Ian
yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to how to search for this. Was his
Stoney
name, owner of Norton, or former owner of Norton. Antiviral. Was it Norton?
Ian
No, it was McAfee John.
Stoney
McAfee, that's it. John McAfee, well done.
Jason
Yes, there was something weird about his story and what happened to him. But you know, sometimes you just got to wonder about some of these things. It's like
Ian
they said he was found dead in his Spanish jail cell as an apparent suicidal quote, unquote, yeah.
Stoney
But look at the six months before that event. Something was happening to that guy, something that might be a good that might be a good episode.
Ian
I think there's, actually, there's a Netflix documentary about it. Yeah, that's what I'm
Stoney
like, like, the last few days before Edgar Allan Poe died. Oh yeah, I would love to do an episode on that. Yeah. Okay, what was the last six months before John McAfee died? If you just it's insane. What was going on to this guy?
Jason
Crazy? Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm saying. So I just find it interesting that when certain people get to certain levels of society. And whether Bill Gates was kind of blackmailed into this, you know, basically he was, you know, kind of shown some of the forbidden fruit, and he partake, and then all of a sudden, once you do that, you're kind of like you're in, well,
Stoney
we kind of got an episode coming up in, I think, two weeks about kind of the same thing here, you know, evil and good and everything in between.
Jason
So, yeah, we just, I don't know, but he's got his own issue now, of course, and we'll say it. I know his, his, his publicist, or whoever, has basically come out, and they've denied this vehemently.
Stoney
So Well, they're not going to come out and say, Yeah,
Jason
I just want to make that announcement, yeah, he did. They did respond to some of these things that came out, and I just remember they vehemently denied any of this kind of stuff. So, right? I don't want
Ian
allegedly on the retrospect podcast,
Jason
you don't want to, exactly, yeah, I don't want to, you know, disparage someone, if right, because those kind of things, that's serious. But, I mean, his name is all throughout those, so a
Stoney
lot, yeah, it ain't one or two.
Jason
And I just, I just find it, I find it interesting that, you know, kind of the world's most at the time, you know, oh yeah, you know, that was very much involved those people in the world that they get, these are the people that can compromise. And of course, I just, I just, I just, there's something about that when you reach these levels of society, you get invited to certain circles. And I just, I think either you have to have a very strong sense of yourself, and you've got to be somewhat strong morally. I just believe that because I I think whatever vices that you may have, I think a lot of people's vices are checked because of the social conditions in which they live, they can't really do those things because they don't really have the means. Yeah, but if you have all those means and you're not kind of really grounded, I can see how temptation can easily bring you to areas that you thought you would never go because you simply can, and then you got people around you, saying, Come on in. Not only that, it's the grass is real green over here.
Ian
And not only that, but also, if you have enough money, you can grease enough palms, really silent about come on down.
Stoney
You're the next contestant on The Devil's Playground.
Jason
I just do so this kind of stuff is, yeah, we getting kind
Ian
of off topic. That's okay. That's okay. It's kind of in the same ballpark. But anyways, for those who want to let us know about this episode or anything else, obviously we have comment sections and the email address that we'll get to in just a second, but there's something, there's a bit of a call to action that Stoney would like to do for not not next week's episode, but the following week. So you have two weeks, yes, two weeks to kind of give us this submission.
Stoney
But can we start with the email and then give it back to I can again?
Ian
Yeah, so we have an email address get offended together@gmail.com, where a lot of times you can send some more long form responses, because sometimes the comment sections don't allow you they give you a
Stoney
careful we expect this to be lengthy, so use. Our email, yes, if you're a Delta utilities customer in Louisiana or Mississippi, we want to hear from you, has your bill going up? Have you had service issues, Storm response problems, or maybe it has been smooth and reliable. Tell us that too. We're putting together a future episode focused on real customer experiences, not just press releases and not just corporate statements, but what's actually happening in homes and businesses. Email us your story. Please keep it honest, please keep it specific. But what has changed, when and how did it affect you, because policy is one thing, ownership, structure is another, but lived experiences, that's what matters. Let us know the facts, so that we can get the word out, and
Ian
with all that being said Until next week, thank you so much for listening. Bye, bye.
Jason
Goodbye, everyone, and God bless boomers.
Stoney
Remember polio. Gen X remembers HIV, panic. Millennials lived through covid, and Gen Z grew up watching the World shut down. Every generation gets its virus moment, but here's the pattern, the virus isn't what defines the generation. The response is, do we fracture? Do we panic? Do we scapegoat or do we actually grow up a little bit? The infant today is a reminder that biology hasn't stopped evolving, but neither has human resilience. We're not fragile, we're adaptive, and if history has proven anything, it's this, viruses test biology and fear test character. Let's pass both of those tests. Thank you for hanging out with us today. You're the best. Peace.