 Trying to decrease vaccine hesitancy, that's going to be an ongoing issue, but Tucker Carlson went on his program to millions and millions of viewers and during his monologue he just made matters exponentially worse because he decided to promote the idea that the vaccines don't work. And it's not just that he misinformed his audience about what has been proven about the COVID-19 vaccines, but the next day, when it comes to vaccines on Facebook, Tucker Carlson's video was the number one topic across all of Facebook. So, let's watch and see what he has to say and then I'm going to break it down just before warning. Quality takes a dip about halfway through because I stitched together two separate clips of the same clip, but from different sources just because I wanted to give you the full picture. Nonetheless, take a look. The federal health authorities also recommend that you continue to wear your mask when you go outside. How long will this continue? Well, according to Yahoo News, experts say it's, quote, not entirely clear when it will be considered okay for people who are fully vaccinated to stop wearing masks. At some point no one's asking this, but everyone should be. What is this about? If vaccines work, why are vaccinated people still banned from living normal lives? Honestly, what's the answer to that? It doesn't make any sense at all. If the vaccine is effective, there is no reason for people who have received the vaccine to wear masks or avoid physical contact. So maybe it doesn't work and they're simply not telling you that. Well, you hate to think that, especially if you've gotten two shots, but what's the other potential explanation? We can't think of one. We know the Prime Minister of Canada has decided after thinking about it a lot that vaccines just don't work and we know that because he said it out loud. Watch this. I think it's really important that we work from facts and understanding of the science around things. We know, for example, that the UK is ahead of just about everybody else on vaccinations and yet they maintain very strong restrictions and are facing a very serious third wave. Vaccinations on their own are not enough to keep us safe. We need to engage in the right kinds of behaviors. Do things that the Conservatives aren't always good at, like wearing masks, keeping distances and obeying public health rules. So the leader of Canada, our closest ally, just explained on television that according to the science, the vaccine doesn't stop COVID. Well, if that's true, why are they pushing everyone to get the vaccine? It's really one or the other. Either the coronavirus shot works or it doesn't. But the shot can't be simultaneously highly effective, but not restore people's lives to normal. That doesn't make sense. That's actually not what the Prime Minister of Canada said. The message ultimately is that the vaccine alone isn't enough to stop the pandemic. We don't say that seatbelts don't work because cars have airbags now. That's not the way that this works. We have multiple things that we have to do to mitigate the spread of the virus. And using the UK as an example isn't necessarily ideal because even though the UK does have fairly high vaccination rates, the amount of people that are fully vaccinated is still pretty low. Whereas if you look to Israel, for example, their population has a lot more fully vaccinated people and their daily new cases of COVID-19 has plummeted. The vaccine works. Now it's just a matter of making sure that there's enough to go around, not just in the United States but around the world and making sure that people take them. But until enough people are vaccinated to the extent that we reach herd immunity, whatever that number may be yet to be determined, because this is a new virus that we're still learning about, we still have to take precautions. The reason why it's necessary for fully vaccinated folks to wear masks and social distance isn't because they're not more protected once they're vaccinated. It's because we're still learning about whether or not fully vaccinated people can carry and transmit the virus to folks who aren't vaccinated. That's the issue here. Now, sure, it is the case that there's evidence to suggest that people who are vaccinated can't carry the virus and pass it to other folks. But the experts just don't have enough information yet to say that this is the case definitively. And when CDC director Rachelle Wolensky said that there is some data suggesting that fully vaccinated people can't transmit the virus to unvaccinated people, the CDC actually had the issue of clarifying statements saying that she was just speaking more broadly about this. But overall, we still don't necessarily know for sure whether or not this is the case. So before you engage in risky behavior, just know that we don't actually have concrete data to confirm that this is the case as of yet. I'm willing to admit that public health experts, they don't have one unified cohesive message when it comes to what types of activity is risky for people who are fully vaccinated. And that's because data is still limited. We're still rolling out the vaccines. We're in the process of rolling out the vaccines. And it's kind of a catch 22 if you're a public health expert because on one hand, if they make a prediction but it doesn't come to fruition, then they lose credibility and nobody will trust them. But on the other hand, if they undersell the benefits of the vaccine and remain overly cautious until more data is available, then people, of course, are going to get frustrated as we see now. And they're just going to conclude that the vaccines must not work if I can't resume normal life while fully vaccinated. And look, I feel the frustration. We all want things to get back to normal. But the fact remains that there's not going to be any consensus within the community of health experts and epidemiologists until we have more information. Now, there was a really great article in the Verge by Monica Chin that I want to direct you to. So she talked to a bunch of experts in order to try to determine how long until things get back to normal if she takes everything that they have to say and kind of like comes away with a net conclusion. You know, an overall takeaway and she expectedly got a whole bunch of different answers and her takeaway overall was as follows. Experts across disciplines have conflicting advice as vaccination rates rise will likely see some authorities relax their demands while others continue to urge caution. Governors will allow things to open and people on Twitter will urge you not to go. It's going to be a confusing time and different areas will move at different paces. But for the riskiest indoor activities, there's a tentative finish line in sight. We're waiting for a large majority of our communities to be fully vaccinated and for cases and hospitalizations to decline. Here's my mental finish line with the caveat that variants and other circumstances could change the equation and that precautions should be eased carefully rather than thrown to the winds. 70 to 80 percent is the rough threshold I'm watching for. And having read the interviews that she conducted with health experts, I tend to agree with her conclusion. There are some in the health community that are a lot more conservative. There are others who are optimistic and they're going to say, you know what, once we reach 60 percent, I think that's probably good for herd immunity. I'm comfortable with that. But others are like, no, 80 percent. So there's a lot of conflicting opinions because there's just not enough data to objectively gauge when it's safe to return to normal as it was. But we just have to make sure that we encourage people to take the vaccines so we can get back to normal. And this is the thing that really frustrates me about conservatives because no matter what we do, they're just not happy with it, right? They don't support lockdowns. They don't want to pay people to stay home. So they want the entire economy to be fully open. OK, but they also don't support masks and social distancing. So they want everything to be open, but they don't want to make any compromises, no masks, no social distancing. Just open everything up at 100 percent capacity. OK, so if you don't want masks, you don't want a social distance, but you want to remain open, then of course you'd ideally push the vaccine to make sure that we don't have to worry about any of this. We just returned to normal as it was in 2019. But now they're against that as well. They're pushing vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories about the vaccine. So I mean, they want to have it both ways. People like Tucker Carlson, they want everything to return to normal, but they want to skip all the steps necessary to safely return to normal. No social distancing, you know, vaccines, those are probably bad. So let's not do it. Let's just return to normal. And if people get the virus, they get the virus. So be it. It's incredibly callous and just it really speaks to the disregard for life that conservatives have. And so what Tucker Carlson is doing here, not only is he dangerous because he's spreading white supremacist talking points and conspiracy theories on his program. But now he's saying things that are making us making it more difficult for us collectively as a species to get a very contagious, deadly virus under control. And I've said this once, I'll say it again. We are in a race to fully vaccinate people before the mutation spread because so long as the virus continues to spread, that increases the likelihood that new variants that are resistant to the vaccines pop up and we do not want that to happen. Otherwise, it's right back to square one. So Tucker Carlson, like to say that he should be more responsible on his program is an understatement. Someone who has utilized the amount of power and influence that he has that irresponsibly that frequently should not have that kind of a platform. If me, an individual on YouTube pedaled the amount of conspiracy theories and misinformation and lies that he did, I would be the platformed. I wouldn't be able to make a living on YouTube. So it's time that there's some accountability when it comes to Tucker Carlson. But Fox News isn't going to do anything to hold him accountable. In fact, they just extended the amount of programming that they're offering to viewers as it relates to Tucker Carlson because he brings in ratings and that's all that they care about. They don't care about the news. They don't care about how informed their viewers are. They just care about making money because Fox News is a business, not a news organization. And because we live in this late stage capitalist society where news agencies are actually businesses, things like this will continue to happen and as a species will all be worse off.