EP 13 Pandemic Panic! What's Up With RSV, Monkeypox, And COVID Right Now?

summary

In this conversation, Comrade Uncle Doctor AJ Layon and Comrade Nephew Odysseas discuss various diseases, including Mpox (aka Monkeypox), RSV, and COVID-19. They highlight the importance of vaccination and the need for global distribution of vaccines. They also discuss the transmission and prevention methods for each disease, emphasizing the use of masks and practicing good hygiene. The conversation concludes with a call for peace and healthcare access in conflict-affected areas. A time traveler briefly interrupts the transmission.

takeaways

• Vaccination is crucial in preventing the spread and severity of diseases like Monkeypox (of rather, mpox), RSV, and COVID-19.
• Masks and good hygiene practices are effective in reducing the transmission of respiratory viruses.
• Global distribution of vaccines is necessary to control the spread of diseases and protect vulnerable populations.
• In conflict-affected areas, access to healthcare and peace are essential for preventing the spread of diseases and ensuring the well-being of the population.

Catch up with us at ComradeUnclePod.com
Audio versions available on all major directories, or on our website.
Video available on YouTube

Transcript

0:00

You know, Judge Napolitano does that. I watched John Mearsheimer, who I really love. That guy's incredible. Do know him? And he's on Napolitano, I never thought in a million years I'd be interested in watching anything he has to say. He's sort of a, I think he's a, I mean, I don't know what he is, but he is, when it comes to Palestine and when it comes to Ukraine, the guy, I think, and Mearsheimer for sure is just right on the way. Anyway, he does the 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Every time I see that finger. That's all, That's funny. Yeah, no, they turned out to be a lot better than I don't know if they always were good and just got better or I don't know what the deal is, but they certainly are right on now. I mean, I don't know about everything, but. No, no, but on this, But that's the thing I think of, know, allies. I mean, don't know if they're more than that, but man, Mirshamer just goes on and on, not just about Ukraine, which seems like really it's fucking scary. you know, I I read his books. His honor got me his book years ago on the, what's it called? It's on AIPAC, I forget what the title of the book is. But man, it's just... It's detailed, is data driven, is fact after fact after fact. 10 years, what is it, 15, 20 years later, no question about it. so right, know. He's good, and Walton and Mercer, they're pretty good. And the thing that's odd, I mean, I don't if it's odd, but thing is he considers himself part of the school of the realest, realest school of. of foreign affairs, if will. And the same school that that creature, Henry Kissinger, belonged to. But just different in some ways, so incredibly different. I mean, I don't know, maybe it's because he doesn't have power. I don't know. But it's impressive. I find it impressive. Anyway. yeah, that's pragmatic. You know, mean, I guess with pragmatism, you can take it either way, you know, that can be pragmatism for an evil cause or pragmatism for the cause of just not blowing up the world and, you know, causing untold suffering, you know. Yeah, right. Well, it's ultimately not in anybody's benefit aside from, you know, this tiny minority of... arms dealers basically. Well, and it's not in their interest either. I think they're too fucking stupid to know about it. They think they think they'll be protected or they think they can control this stuff. Right. Of course not. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So shall we start the show? All right. Welcome back to Comrade Uncle Comrades. I'm here with my uncle. And we are here. We wanted to do a little roundup of kind of disease news. I had some questions myself. I was kind of curious. What's up? What's the story? You know, talking about RSV, monkeypox and kind of the state of COVID at the moment, just so that we can kind of get a handle on what we're looking at and how worried we should be in. And if we should be worried, then what kind of precautions we should be taking. So let's start with a monkeypox that's kind of been in the news a fair amount. There's a new, what did you call it, a clade? Or it's not even new. They call them clades. It's what the virologists call them. So it's considered it's a strain of there's clade one and clade two. Clade two is the less severe, much lower mortality rate of something like 0 .1%. It's seen in, primarily this is being seen in Africa, although in some cases elsewhere. Not an African disease. just seen in Africa, it will spread. CLA -1 is the more severe disease. it's a little unclear what the mortality of it is, It ranges from something like 0 .1 % to 10%, which is an impossible number. The numbers that I've seen were something like 0 .2%, 0 .3 % mortality. But it is more severe for sure. the thing about it, so... It's called Mpox now, not monkeypox. I think there was some concern about, I don't know what the concern was. Was it, I don't know what the concern was. But it's now called Mpox instead of monkeypox. It is an orthopoxivirus similar to smallpox virus. Not the same, similar to, same class DNA virus. DNA virus means it is less likely to. undergo significant variation in the genome while it divides, which makes it little bit easier to handle in terms of drugs and vaccines and so forth. It's initially transmitted by touch and sexual Men who have sex with men, of course it can also be transmitted by heterosexual sex, but the lesions themselves are infectious. So it's primarily touch. It's crazy, of course, to say, you know, it's just touch, that's it. Don't worry about droplets, don't worry about aerosol, because it is a orthopoxvirus, like smallpox virus, and there is droplet and aerosol transmission with that. So I think you have to be concerned about that as well. It's just not the primary motive. transmission. And usually happens if you're a normal healthy person. You'll have a flu -like illness for a couple of weeks and you'll develop these lesions on your hands and arms and legs and chest and face and genitalia potentially. And they were, they're unsightly, probably itch, but they, it'll get better after a couple of weeks they go away. It's, know, again, the mortality tends to be relatively low. If you're compromised or quite old with or have multiple comorbidities, know, it's slightly different issue. And those folks, the severity obviously can be much worse. I think from what I've read, and I have to tell you, I've not seen a single case of this, so I've only read about it, so bear with me on that. From what I've read, least most infectious disease colleagues would say, you know, if you're a reasonably healthy person, you know, and you get this, you isolate, you're in bed, you're in symptomatic treatment, which we did. If you're one of those folks who are quite unwell, I mean, compromised elderly multiple-combinants, there are drugs to be used. They're really anti -smallpox. Remember, this virus is related to the smallpox virus in the same family. So it probably would work. but physicians aren't giving it out willy -nilly for a couple of reasons. It's the work. And also, you don't want to develop resistance to the drug. There's not that many drugs for smallpox, and smallpox is lethal. This is not quite as bad. So generally speaking, it would be symptomatic care. And of course, there is an immunization. to start talking about getting immunized, people go absolutely crazy about it because there's this anti -vax movement around the world, not just in the United States these days. In my mind, it's absolutely crazy. This might be the place to get into it, but I don't want to get into it because there's no convincing. There are vaccines. The vaccines do work. The vaccines do have side effects. There's always side effects. You know, all you have to do is look at what happens when you don't vaccinate against polio in an area that's got endemic polio and see what happens to the little kids, right? And actually, and we see that, don't we? In Gaza today. So the vaccines work. There are side effects. They're uncommon. This is not about, I mean, you can argue big pharma, big pharma getting rich. That's also a different issue. One that, as you well know, I have spent 50 years fighting against. fighting for a national health system. But that's not the point right now. The point right now is there is a two shot immunization from monkeypox. If you're at risk, going to be in an area where there's monkeypox being transmitted, minimized sex with men, heterosexual, you know, with a non -monogamous partner, stuff like that, I would say you get immunized. You get immunized. It's safe. The immunization, excuse me, kind of The immunization is essentially effective 10 days, two weeks after the second shot. So I think it's really worth, it's worth, I get it's worth doing. So it's of concern, it's unsightly, it looks like smallpox and that might scare people a lot. And it's bad, mean, you don't want it, but it's not horrific, right? You can deal with it. Again, the folks who are at the most risk would be immunocompromised and people who have, whether they're young or old, who have multiple comorbid diseases, those guys would be increased. And so they should for sure get immunized and they'd be the ones who'd get the anti-violations if they wanted to, for sure. Right, right, and this new one, the not new, whatever, the clade one is potentially more dangerous. Right, yeah, okay. That's. is clearly less severe as lower mortality, at least from the data that exists now. Claim one is what's primarily being seen in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo. Again, BIA, I think as well. I mean, that's the, that's the, and that's the concern for sure. How would you know? mean, if you develop these lesions, you don't know, studies have to be done, but. But again, if you're in an area where there's transmission, think the thing to do is, or if you think you're at high risk, is just get in the nest. Just get in the nest. and since we are prescriptive and we are a leftist podcast, what would be the proper world response right now? Would it be to distribute vaccines in the areas that have high levels of the disease moving around? Or what could be the solution? You know, the response would be sort of like the response of Peter Hotez at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, where his lab developed, it wasn't -Pos, it was a COVID vaccine. It works, it's free, it's unpatented, it is pennies, pennies. And Peter has, although he's taken serious, serious flak. from anti -vaxxers. Well, I mean, it's serious. mean, it's on Twitter. only knows how serious he is on Twitter is. But he has done incredibly good work. He is a remarkable man. And he and his colleagues in his lab have just done excellent work. the response would be, to develop inexpensive vaccine, and two, spread them worldwide. Absolutely. And they should be via the World Health Organization, and these are free. Because if this thing gets out of control, don't think it's going to, but if it were to get out of control, it doesn't respect viruses, don't respect boundaries, they don't respect borders, and they don't respect class. They don't care how much money you have, they just make you sick. So that would be the response. All right. Okay. All right. Excellent. Now let's hit RSV. Where are we at with RSV right now? I've kind of heard some stuff in the news, people talking about RSV once again kind of spreading. What's the kind of current state of things? I the last thing that I've looked at it, I mean, it is around from years and years and years, it was only picked up in kids, because we didn't really care about adults. And frankly, unless you're elderly, like 74, 75, something like that, I guess that's elderly these days. It's a little scary. But, know, or it may be compromise. It's just not that big a deal. I mean, it can make you sick. Yes, it's a respiratory virus. There is immunization if you're immunocompromised beyond, I believe it's 74, 75. Recommendations are to get immunized. There have been agents to use antivirals. I'm used to using kids. The last time I looked, there wasn't much for adults. It's mostly symptomatic treatment. But the key is to get immunized against this thing. It's out there. I don't think it's running rampant, but it's certainly out there. The thing about RSV, like COVID, like -Pox, to think about, I mean, one of the things to think about is of course how severely ill you become, the morbidity, the mortality. Pretty much with RSV. And what's called the R0, which is the number of cases that will become, number of people who become infected. from an individual case. So like with smallpox, multipox, COVID, it's about six, eight or something. With RSV, it's three, four, two. It's not horribly transmissible. It's transmissible, not horribly transmissible. You know, you get sick, the mortality's low. And again, getting immunized, it's just getting in the way. mean, yeah, yeah, it is a vaccine, yeah. And, you know, it's probably more expensive than it ought to be. That's a big form of discussion. It shouldn't be like that, but it is. Certainly older folks who have Medicare can get it. It's not going to cost them an arm and a leg. I don't think it will cost anything. It's, I remember, 20 bucks. But if you're young and you don't have, and you're unwell or being compromised, it's a problem if you don't have insurance in the United States. But again, the topic, that topic. National Health System, Medicare for All, that's an important topic. It's one that you and I have talked about. It's one that I've done battle over for 50 years, lost every single time, continue to lose, but eventually we will have a... Right, right, but I don't know when, but the point is, that notwithstanding that, the immunization is the thing to do, if you can do it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. What about, I forgot to cover this with the MPOX. What about protecting ourselves from it outside of immunization? Is it like for RSV, is it the same as COVID? It's mostly transmitted through air. So, you know, whatever. Well, it's not mostly transmitted through air, pots. It is transmitted through air, aerosol and droplets, just like small pots, but it's primarily. It's through air, sorry, I thought you asked about pots, I'm sorry. RSC, yeah, it's droplet and aerosolized, sure. But again, in the old days, I don't even know when the old days were, five years ago. don't know. You sort of thought of things as aerosolized droplet contact. One, two, three, ones and zeros. There's sort of a big gray zone in all this stuff. So -pox is primarily touch, necrosal membrane, sexual contact, for example. But it can also be transmitted through droplet and aerosol. I think the thing is, if you're in an area where there's disease, you know there's disease, you be careful that you don't touch lesions, of course. And I think you wear a mask. mean, you know, know people don't like wearing masks. I don't like wearing masks, but you just do it because that's just what you do. That's what you have to do. And then all the stuff about the craziness about it doesn't work. It makes you breathe your CO2. I utter bullshit. mean, sorry, I can't really talk to you. I don't know, sorry. and effective. It's safe and effective. mean, you know, with COVID, made the best data that I saw was. meta -analysis from the proceedings of the National Academy of of the United States, PNAS, I dropped the risk of infection by 20%. I mean, that's a lot. And that's significant. And I gotta tell you, at least personally, I I went through COVID, whatever it was, 2020 through 2023. Just absolutely stone cold, always wore a mask, no problem, it was a drag. And then I got a little sloppy in 2023. got infected. And man, it was seven weeks till I was better. I'm not sloppy anymore about that. When I'm in the hospital, I wear a mask full stop. And I must admit, you know, when I go to restaurant, do I do it? Well, mean, probably should be. So there are, and everyone's got to judge that for themselves, but any event in general, with these disorders, they're, when the rates are going up, for example, COVID is going up now, I think you want to be masked. Yeah, I mean for my part it's, you know, I'll still go out and eat and I'll take my, but I'll wear my mask through, you know, high traffic areas. If I go to a big store, I'll a mask. I don't really care. You know, and I'll even when I go to a restaurant, like, you know, wear it to the table and take it off to eat and okay. It's about harm reduction or not harm reduction, sorry, you know, reduction of mitigation. Yeah, Right, I mean, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that leads us. Sorry, go ahead. No, no, finish. if you're around area for COVID for sure, but also pox as well. think if you're in an area where there are cases, I think you are. For pox, the biggest risk is touch, mucosal membrane. we be, speaking of touch for -Pox, should we be like, I don't know, if we're using toilets in public restrooms, should we be like, I don't know, using an alcohol wipe on the toilet? Is it that transmissible or? That's a very good question that I don't know the answer to. I don't know the answer to that question. Maybe, yeah, what's the viability of the virus on a non -porous material? I know that data must exist. I don't know it. I should have checked on that before we started, but I just do know that it was there. All right, good. Yeah, no, that's good. Okay, good, good. And then we have COVID. Yeah. COVID is just COVID. mean, the wild type virus back in whatever was 19 or 20 was really quite severe, fairly high mortality. And the versions that have come into existence through mutation have been, they're infectious, they make you sick, but they're not quite as lethal. The one that's going around now, and you see the bump in, and we'll put this on the website, right? The bump in wastewater viral. particles, viral level, increasing tests, increasing hospitalization, increasing ED visits for COVID. People are sick, but it doesn't seem to be as severe. The lethality is not as high for sure. The R0, the infectivity is about the same, around six, I think it is, for COVID. So it is transmissible pretty easily. And you know, what's to be done? mean, again, what's to be done is what's to be done in the past, right? Which is, you know, mask up. if when the disease is being seen in your area in significant numbers, and that's in the United States in general right now, we'll put the CDC wastewater and case numbers up and they can be broken down by region. So can get some idea what it's like in the region if you don't live in Florida or Wisconsin. you know, it's a mass vaccine. mean, again, vaccines, they work. They're not perfect. They clearly work. You know, even if you're vaccinated, you can still get sick. Even if you're vaccinated, you can still get really sick. It's just way less likely. And then there's the antivirals and the antivirals tend to work. Paxlimid is the oral agent. It's a dual antiviral agent. It really does decrease severity of disease. There's some question. The drug is administered over for a five day course. There's some question if that's actually long enough, should it be actually 10 days course? And I'm not sure that that's been fully evaluated yet. was a sense, based on the numbers, there was a record essence of the disease after you finished your course of tax limit that would come back. That may be related to an adequate duration of treatment. So 10 days may be more appropriate. That's not what's accepted. don't think that's what the infectious disease society says right now or anything like that. but that it's at least worth considering it you have, if you take the drug. It is, it will decrease the risk of severe disease for sure. And if you're a high risk person, right, really young, really old, immune compromised, multiple comorbidities. you want to be immunized and if you do still get sick you want to take the packs and there's any doubt about that at all. That's one of the core abilities asthma if you're a smoker if have COPD if you have diabetes I mean you know hypertension obesity I mean it's not to be toyed with that's for sure and the vaccine and masking our good preventive measures. Usually if you get it, again, as you know, usually if you get it, you've got a kind of a several days of feeling kind of flu -like symptoms and then it goes away and you're But for some small group of people, and it's not entirely clear who those people will be, it's not always, it's not, it's frequently the people who have significant underlying disease, not always, they get long COVID and the only... The that I've seen on long COVID and the rationale has to do with was a post -mortem series of folks with long COVID and they did autopsies and they found virus, a virus everywhere, everywhere. And so it may well be that just, and the folks who develop long COVID, we are just unable to clear the virus, the virus for reasons that are not entirely clear. There's some studies ongoing to see if utilization of longer term packs will minimize long COVID or take care of long COVID. I don't know the results of those yet. But that's, I think it's ongoing. I have a tip by the way. So I, as I think I've mentioned before, I have asthma. If when I get COVID, it's super bad. have to take PaxLavid for sure. I'm also one of the people that gets something called PaxLavid mouth. It's not a big deal. shouldn't be too scared of it. It is unpleasant. Basically you get this taste in your mouth and it is really hard to get rid of. And it's pretty, it's annoying. It should not keep you from. taking Paxilvid. If you need it, you need it, take it, it's worth it. There is a Ligevrio as well, but they kind of limit who they give Ligevrio to, at least where I am. However, my hot tip is if you get Paxilvid mouth, buy yourself some Sour Patch Kids Gum. There's nothing else that works like It is the weirdest thing. mean, Sour Patch Kids Gum is not. I mean, it is really weird and kind of strange, you know. no idea what this stuff is. This sounds like something that is beyond my generation. So Sour Patch Kids are like a candy. They're candy. This is like very much my childhood growing up Sour Patch Kids. They're like a sour and sweet candy. And for whatever reason, I don't know if the candy, you wouldn't want to be eating just endless amounts of candy, but like gum is something you can just kind of chew as your day progresses. Unlike cough drops, which don't really work. like for some reason, the weird, know, whatever they put in it is like it just knocks it right out. It's like nothing else I've ever encountered. So I keep some on deck. So that's my tip. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, and we should mention boosters. Should we still be getting the boosters? I know the answer, but. Yeah, we should. We should start beginning the business. No question about it. No question about it. When they're out, get them. You know, what if you've been sick? When you get immunized? I mean, you wait two weeks or four weeks. You know, yeah, you wait two to four weeks. Some people say six. I'd say sooner is better than later. You have both the natural immunity and the immunity induced by vaccine. You just, you just, I would say you just get it. But for sure, boosters, when they come out, get them. Absolutely. And they're probably, I don't know, they last six months, something like that. And if you get sick, how long should you stay away from other people? Because I know a lot of people don't get that sick from COVID, but they don't want to spread it around to, you know, to at risk folks. And so, you know, I've had, I've seen, I've had this question come to me from my own friends and, you know, and whatnot. How long should I be staying home? You know, I get COVID, I feel better. How should I test? and then once i could test clean i can go out amongst people and you know whatever on mask Well, the CDC's data, initially it was, you if you get sick, you stay away until you're negative, it might be 14 days, it be 10 days. and you're feeling better, because usually you've cleared the virus. I think that's just too risky. So I would say a couple of things. One, while you're sick and feel miserable, you just stay home, full stop. Now you're feeling better, test. If you feel really normal, but you're still testing positive, that can happen. Then you've got to make a decision. If you need to go back to work, then I think you go back to work and you wear a mask, full stop. full stop, always. You don't remove it. You're not around people with a mask on. If you're negative, then it's all good. You just go back to But I would say, many people don't have sick days and they can't stay away from work. If you can't stay away from work without losing your job, what are you going to do? So I think the feds are once again going to release no cost. tests, they'll mail to your house. So that's going to happen again. And so I think you test while you're testing positive, you stay home if you can stay home. If you can't, you have to wear a mask. I would say an N95 mask if you have to go back to it. You just do it. If somebody doesn't like it, know, while you're wearing a mask, I don't like masks, masks make you woke or something like that. You can say, but you say too bad, too sad. You just do it because you do put other people at risk. That's the key. and fuck them. Like who cares? I mean, you know, you need to channel your inner punk rock and just, know, yeah, you know, like, like, you know, do, do you do the right thing and fuck anybody who tells you otherwise, you know, don't let social pressure, the pressure to conform, dictate what you do, you know, especially when it comes to protecting people that are at risk. It's just the right thing to do. Okay, excellent, excellent. All right, so that's my big questions. think it's worth mentioning. We return to this a lot and our next episode will probably be about this, but this stuff is spreading and causing a lot of suffering. in Gaza because of the ongoing genocide. And so, you know, as part of our kind of sort of recommendation for global response, know, peace is important. And to refuse people healthcare to destroy all of their hospitals and to let disease run rampant in their population is not only cruel and evil and bad, it's ultimately self-defeating. Because again, viruses do not respect borders. Now we're seeing polio outbreaks, we're seeing -pox, we're seeing, of course, COVID. What do you do if you get COVID in Gaza? You know so permanent ceasefire now and the occupation that's my I'm with you. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, a single democratic secular state with equal rights for everybody. Christian, Jew, Muslim, done that atheist. But right, that's, but again, we can talk about, there's a lot to talk about on the Palestine issue. can talk about that in a minute. All right, good. Joe, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate you. I love you, man. love you. I look forward to our next next talk. Okay, soon. Thanks. Bye.