 G'day mate, Forty here. Welcome back to Forty University. This is the Forty University Medical School. So you've been getting very confusing sets of instructions from our social bedders at the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, with regard to vaccines and masks. So now vaccinated people are supposed to resume wearing masks, lest they contract and spread the virus. Yet vaccinated people are strongly urged to get the vaccine, which is said to be highly effective, and if we all get vaccinated then we won't have to wear a facial mask anymore, right? So very confusing. What the heck is going on? Well, let's just dig a little deeper. It's not as confusing once you dig into this. So good article here in the Wall Street Journal by a neurologist and neuroscientist, Michael Siegel. So there's more than one type of immunity, right? So there is internal immunity, which protects the inside of the body, including the lungs. So this occurs by the release of antibodies into the blood, the production of T-cells, and vaccines injected into our muscles. They're highly effective at stimulating internal immunity, right? So this largely protects vaccinated people from being overwhelmed by the coronavirus, unless they have an immunodeficiency or they're exposed to an usually large amount of the virus. But people getting hospitalized and dying from COVID now, 99% of them are not fully vaccinated. So vaccines provide a high degree of protection against being hospitalized and dying from COVID. So Ricardo says, why are PhDs the most likely educational group to be most likely to be vaccine skeptical? Why are they the most likely educational group to be vaccine hesitant? The answer is I don't believe that survey because that same survey says that people with master's degrees are the most likely to believe that in vaccines. So you've got people with master's degrees in that survey the most likely to believe and then people with PhDs the least likely. So that doesn't make sense because people to get master's degrees and people to get PhDs pretty similar people. So I don't buy that survey. I know a lot of distance with trumpeting that survey that PhDs were the most skeptical about taking the corona vaccine while people with master's degrees were the least skeptical. No, master's and PhDs, I don't think they're very different. So I don't believe that survey. I don't believe that it's accurate and I don't believe that it was comprehensive and I don't think it was peer reviewed, bro. I don't know much about that survey, but it does not ring true to me. So it's the bell curve meme. Right, so people with what IQs over so people were getting PhDs generally speaking. We're talking about IQs north of 125. People are getting master's degrees. We're talking about people who with IQs north of 120. So I don't think there's that big of a difference between people with PhDs and people with master's. Luke's incredulity is sufficient, bro. I didn't say anything about getting in line. I'm saying I don't buy it. So there should be more evidence. There should be more surveys. We should know more. Do COVID deaths still have 94% co-morbidities? I would assume so. I haven't haven't heard anything to the contrary of that. But what the heck is going on? So there's internal immunity inside the body. You get the COVID vaccine in the muscle and you're highly unlikely to get overwhelmed by COVID. A lot of school teachers get master's degrees, true. So there's another type of immunity, mucosal. So that's to do with the nose, right? That's that provides the first line of defense. It protects the nose and the mouth and reduces the spread to other people. So vaccines are injected into our muscles and they are not effective at providing mucosal protection. So you really only get mucosal protection after you've had an infection with a virus. So vaccinated people can still contract COVID-19 and it'll be largely confined usually to their mucous membranes. So that's why a lot of people who are vaccinated get COVID and for them it's just a case of the sniffles. And they can spread the virus to others even if they are asymptomatic. So that's why it makes sense for many vaccinated people in some circumstances, such as when you're inside around other people to wear a mask. Because they can still get COVID and for them they may have zero symptoms or very light symptoms, but they can still transmit the deadly virus. And Elliot Matt says, what numbers do you need to say that this is over? Okay, when people are getting hospitalized. So so ICU's in Texas are overwhelmed. When people are not getting hospitalized and fighting for their lives in ICU's, right, and not dying, not getting hospitalized, then I'll be happy to say, hey, it's over. But when people are still getting hospitalized and intubated and put into ICU's with COVID, then yeah, we've still got a very real problem. Mask anxiety is strictly a blue state phenomenon. I'm not sure, but mask anxiety, mask anxiety. Now, I think that's much more on the red states, right? The red states are the Republican states. They tend to be much more hostile to mask mandates. And I don't have a strong opinion about mask mandates, which circumstances seems common sense to me that when people are gathering inside with large numbers of other people that people mask up. So I'd be curious if Joe Biden institutes a requirement that if you're going to travel between the states, you need to be vaccinated. So Ricardo says, I don't care what the coast do. They can keep it to themselves. I'm perfectly comfortable with the travel ban between red and blue states. Elliot says, most people in Texas weigh 400 pounds. Well, I think most Americans are obese. Right. Most Australians are obese. That is huge. Like when I moved to the United States from Australia in 1977, one of the first things that shocked me was how fat Americans were. But now Australians are just as fat as Americans. So in the 1970s, seeing a fat Australian was relatively rare. Right. An Australian traveling to the United States would be shocked. You know, the high number of obese people. So in the United States, it's long been about half the population or so is obese. Well, in Australia, until recently, there's only like one out of 10 people were obese. Why did the India pandemic collapse with only 10 percent vaccination? I don't know. And I don't know how reliable figures are from India. So from most academic papers on the topic, we are undercounting the number of COVID cases and COVID deaths by a factor of three. You know, there are really three times as many COVID deaths as are reported. So according to the Economist in May 2021, the real number of COVID deaths in the world is not four million. It's between seven and 13 million. So that's by looking at excess deaths. So in some countries like Australia and New Zealand, we have fewer excess deaths because the safety measures enforced to reduce COVID transmission have also reduced overall rates of death. And so we've had fewer excess deaths in Australia and New Zealand. But most industrialized nations have had far more deaths than normal. So Elliot Blatt says, with regard to India, Google, bro. Well, look, you can think you can just Google and whatever Google tells you about India, death rates is going to be accurate. But how much can we can we trust India Indian statistics? How many academic papers have I read? How many academic papers at this? I'd say academic papers are about my favorite thing to read. Generally speaking, I'd rather read an academic paper than a newspaper essay. Academic papers relating to COVID. I don't know, 40. Luke, yesterday, 70 Jews attended an engagement party in Melbourne. There are also three doctors in attendance. They all got fine $5,000. And I don't have a strong opinion on that. So I don't have a strong opinion on what lockdown measures make the most sense and what kind of fine should accompany the lockdown measures. So I'm sorry, I don't have a strong opinion. And you're pretty. I know you're pretty, pretty upset. It's like 40, 40 doesn't have a strong opinion. Oh, man. OK. So you might have heard about the province town, Massachusetts, outbreak in a very gay community. Are you choosing to believe things that comport with your emotional biases? I don't think there's any chance that my emotional biases do not. Affect what I believe. I believe that I am as shaped by my emotional biases as you are. I don't think I'm substantially less shaped. I don't think I'm substantially more shaped. I think I'm pretty much average. I think my emotional biases definitely affect me. OK, so we had in that province town, Massachusetts, outbreak, which led to the CDC's recent changing guidelines, right? It was a heavily gay community. And we had reports of the viral loads in the nose were equally high in the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Which would argue the vaccine's efficacy against infection in the nose that have effectively fallen to zero with the advent of the Delta variant. And that would mean herd immunity through vaccination is impossible. Ah, but what's underneath this data? So the vaccinated people who showed up for testing were disproportionately those who are having symptoms. So better control data from the Mayo Clinic suggests that the efficacy of the vaccines against nasal infections, including asymptomatic cases, has fallen from the original level of 90%. So 90% is what happens when you first get vaccinated. Like soon after you are fully vaccinated, you have about 90% immunity from apparently from catching COVID. But then as the weeks go by, that drops to 76% from the Moderna vaccine, 42% for the Pfizer vaccine. Now, you may still catch COVID, even though you're vaccinated, but you're highly unlikely to end up in the hospital or to die. So herd immunity from intramuscular vaccination is still possible, but it's going to require a higher level of vaccination and possibly continued masking and social distancing. So I thought this was an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal. There's internal immunity, which intramuscular vaccine shots provide. So you're unlikely to be hospitalized or die. But then there's mucosal immunity in the nose, whereby you may still catch COVID. Well, 42% is not disappointing if you're asymptomatic or if it's only a case of the sniffles. It's it's not a big deal. What you really don't want to happen is die. And what you really don't want to happen is end up in the hospital. So I know what you're thinking. And this is something that Elliot Blatt's been banging on about for a long time. Like Elliot's always saying to me is like calling me up at midnight saying 40. 40, how can doctors continue to spread COVID misinformation and maintain their medical license? I know like Elliot Blatt is just outraged by the number of MDs out there who are spreading COVID misinformation and retaining their medical license. Like, how can this be? Are there no standards in the medical profession? Right, you would expect that MDs would not promote bogus COVID-19 remedies. But no, problems become so acute that the Federation of State Medical Boards just issued a stark warning to medical professionals that physicians who spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation risk the suspension of their medical license. So it's one thing when a celebrity or an elected public official or YouTube commentator says something, but when a licensed physician spreads COVID misinformation, what are we going to do? Is it time to yank their medical license? Because when MDs are spreading misinformation, it amplifies that message and it gives it credibility. So generally speaking, it seems to me, the medical profession does not discipline their own enough. Like doctors, most doctors with five malpractice settlements are not disciplined, right? Doctors with five malpractice settlements on average face zero discipline. So we've got all these MDs out there pushing, you know, Hockham and Claptrap about COVID and fake cures. So what do we do? I mean, science changes and don't doctors need to keep up with what's permissible with what's approved, with what's authorized and what's not. I mean, there are doctors out there saying that COVID is being spread by 5G communication networks, which is, you know, ludicrous. So if doctors make statements about COVID that are not grounded in science and the medical consensus, you risk losing your license to practice medicine. So why do you think about that? So we had the hydroxychloroquine craze last year. Anti-malarial drug touted as a cure for COVID-19. And this was elevated by Mehmet Oz, Dr. Oz. Then we have doctors going on Fox News, Pierre Corey. There's a pushing Ivermectin as a COVID treatment despite the absence of scientific evidence. He was testifying for a Senate subcommittee. Do I acknowledge that viruses mutate over time? Yes, viruses mutate over time. But they can mutate to become more lethal, more transmissible, or they can eventually mutate to be less lethal and less transmissible. So yes, the Hollywood flu, the Spanish flu burned itself out a century ago without vaccines. But how many people? How many people died from the Spanish flu? So we've got 50 million people died from the Spanish flu. If you really want to, in today's terms, that would be the equivalent of about 500 million people. So would you be cool with 500 million people dying from the Spanish flu, from COVID when we've got these perfectly good vaccines, which in 99% of cases are going to save lives? Now, 98% of people who get COVID anyway, they're not going to get hospitalized, they're not going to die. Yeah, how come the Taliban are not wearing masks? I think very irresponsible. I'm thinking maybe we need to go back into Afghanistan and start forcing people to wear masks. Virus mutations always in the direction of less lethal. That's wrong. That's bogus. You don't have a clue what you're talking about, Elliot Blatt. That's nonsense. Sometimes viruses mutate in the direction of more lethality and more transmissibility. And sometimes they mutate away from lethality. Come on, Elliot, where are you getting your information, bro? Oh, so Dr. Oz is retired. Man, he pushed some bogus stuff. Yes, the Spanish flu disappeared without vaccination. Not only 50 million people died. So is that an example? Is that the great shining light of public health policy? What's my source on virus mutations? How they sometimes become more lethal, sometimes become less lethal? Like the Delta variant infects far more people per person who catches it than the original form of COVID. So transmissibility changes. So transmissibility changes. Yeah, our troops should not have let the Taliban into those palaces without making sure when they were vaccinated. But vaccination only provides internal protection. We need, we need to have the Taliban wearing face masks so that they have mucosal protection. Guys, internal protection is wonderful. Forty university supports internal immunity. But let's not give up on mucosal immunity. So look, if we all have to wear face masks to insure against mucosal immunity, isn't that a small price to pay? And what do we do with doctors who question the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines? And who advise pregnant women and recovered COVID patients against taking them advice that runs counter to that of the medical establishment? What do we do with these doctors? Do we take away their licenses? So the CDC encourages all pregnant people to get vaccinated. So we have a Texas doctor questioning the safety of COVID vaccines. Well, why should we do to him? So what do we do with doctors who are communicating COVID misinformation?