Covid Latest: Shanghai, Kyrie Stands Up, Trump Calls for End to Mandates
28 Mar 2022
CLAY: China locking down Shanghai, Buck, which, I mean, the zero-covid strategy in general to me has completely failed. And whatโs interesting is two years after โ more than two years now after the initial outbreak in Wuhan, weโre talking about China being the only country, I believe, Buck, in the world that is still trying to embrace a zero covid strategy. Australia, New Zealand, island nations have abandoned the zero-covid idea. China now locking down the second biggest city in its country.
BUCK: And thereโs a huge problem with this because when places like Australia and New Zealand were pretending like they had figured out someโฆ Here was their covid protection strategy: Be on an island on the other side of the world and donโt let anyone in or out of your country.
CLAY: Yes. (laughing) Yes.
BUCK: That will kind of work for a while as it did, but we couldnโt do that in America. That wasnโt going to work in the Eurasian landmass. It wasnโt going to work in south America. You know, if you have an island nation with a small population relative to, you know, relative to square mile, you can actually do this at some level.
CLAY:Yes.
BUCK: But now what we see is what some of us, like you and me and others, Clay, were warning all along is, the moment you open up we are going to have covid. Because we know the vaccines do not stop spread. They may mitigate at some level spread. We have to see the numbers on this. But youโre gonna have a population with no, basically no, very little natural immunity and youโre gonna be entirely dependent on vaccines that do fade โ again โ according to the CEOs of these companies.
We no longer have to go, โI donโt know if Iโm allowed to say that.โ They fade rapidly. And so this is why Australia has had the huge rise in cases. Austriaโs had this huge rise in cases. Thatโs obviously not an island nation, but another place that thought it had done really well. But in the context of China, Clay, they just were told on Sunday shut down for Monday, and there are fights breaking out at grocery stores, fistfights.
CLAY: Yeah.
BUCK: Thereโs video of this stuff because people are in a panic, and this what you see is an authoritarian state like China doesnโt care. They donโt sit there and say, โWow, you know, maybe we were too heavy-handed with this.โ Of course not. The Chinese Communist Party is always heavy-handed. But I think we should look at whatโs going on in this country where weโve walked away from some of this stuff on a temporary basis, as we keep saying. They have not abandoned this. They have not gotten ride of even all of the mandates. New York City still hasโฆ Although Kyrie is calling for all of them to be lifted.
CLAY: Yeah, Kyrie Irving โ and weโve talked about this, because the mayor last week in New York, Eric Adams, walked back the requirement that all employees have to be vaccinated, allowed celebrities and athletes as Major League Baseballโs opening day will be next week, as itโs getting closer and closer. He allowed everybody to go back to work if youโre a celebrity or youโre an athlete.
Kyrie Irving, to his credit, has said, โNo, no, no, all the people, all of the unvaccinated people out there who lost their jobs,โ and I think there are 1400, at least, New York City employees โ teachers, firemen, police officers, โAll those people deserve to get their job back,โ and, man, I gotta give a lot of credit to Kyrie for speaking out and being a voice of sanity in an insane world when many people in professional athletics bent the knee and got a covid shot that they didnโt need because they were never remotely under danger.
By the way, on China, Buck, the thing that Chinaโs going to run into โ and I think itโs gonna be significant โ is theyโve had almost no natural spread of the virus because of their zero-covid strategy. And so if you look at what happened in Hong Kong and you look also at what has happened in Australia and New Zealand, the rates of covid infection explode in an exponential fashion there because they didnโt have 2020 real substantial spread of the virus in 2021, and all of these different two-year processes by which a huge percentage of people listening to us right now, Buck, are either vaxxed or oftentimes both, have been exposed to the virus. Iโve had it twice. Youโve had it twice. We have a lot of natural immunity out there.
BUCK: And yet there are people that are still โ and they proclaim this stuff on Twitter. There was a doctor over the weekend โ I mean, again, a blue check, says heโs an MD, I believe. You know, who really knows? And he tweeted out a photo of himself. So these are people that are making this part of the public. One thing for me, Clay, is that I never wanted to take photos of people in public it because I didnโt want to. I hate mask shamers.
CLAY: Yeah. Itโs an awkward spot to be in. Yeah.
BUCK: But when people share photos of themselves with masks on say, โLook at me,โ this guy over the weekendโฆ Iโm trying to find the exact tweet โcause it went viral; everybody was saying, โMy God.โ He has a full on like gas mask looking respirator on in a grocery store. The guy looks like heโs maybe a few years older than you and me. And heโs basically calling out everybody who wonโt wear one as, โOh, my gosh, why arenโt you? Donโt you understand? Donโt you take the virus seriously?โ
CLAY: (laughing)
BUCK: Kathy Griffin, who is an unfunny comedian โ not as unfunny as Amy Schumer, who was somehow at the Oscars last night making really bad jokes and maybe weโll make fun of one or two of them, remarkably successful for not being actually good at her job anyway. But she was tweeting out a photo of herself, Clay, what was it, getting her fourth shot and was praising CVS for giving her eight free covid tests, and she thinks this is great.
CLAY: Yes. She was posing like flexing, โFourth shot, second covid booster, and they also gave me eight free tests when I got my fourth shot.โ This is Kathy Griffin, D-list comedian, who posed, remember, memorably, with the severed head appearance of Donald Trump, which basically, even for Hollywood, put her on a different career trajectory than she otherwise would have been. But, yeah, these are the delusional rantings that weโre seeing. Here my fourth shot. Oh, Iโm gonna fine! Except Iโve also got eight tests in the event that I still test positive for covid.
BUCK: And I was so happy to see that President Trump not far from โ not too far, at least, right next to door state-wise to where I am here. He was at a rally over the weekend. And, Clay, former president Trump called for an end to all covid mandates. Play 15.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Another the top priority when Republicans take back Congress should be to pass a bill immediately terminating every single covid mandate.
CROWD: (cheering)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more hysteria, and no more masks, please, finally. We donโt want our children going to school in masks. Now theyโre saying the masks donโt work, and they still want the masks.
BUCK: This needs to be what happens because you should get Congress โ
CLAY: Amen.
BUCK: People can say, โOh, but itโs the statesโ or whatever. All right. Well, letโs get Congress, as soon as thereโs a Republican majority, on the record and push with actual legislation for an end to all this stuff, an end to it on planes, an end to it everywhere. Be fascinating. I bet you there will be some places that try within the federal bureaucracy, notably the FAA, that may try to say, โWell, Congress doesnโtโฆ They have to give us more time to figure this out or something.โ
I just feel like there are people, Clay, for whom this is a religious belief now. I mean, this is something that they donโt want it to go away. Itโs necessary for their psychological safety to be on a plane. Oh, Chris whatโs his name from CNN? Is he from CNN, Mr. Cillizza?
Couple in front of me on flight refused to wear masks.
They were tuned to โTuckerโ the whole time.
โ Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) March 26, 2022
I think he tweeted out over the weekend how upset he was on a couple on a plane with him that wouldnโt mask up, a blue check lib-journo type. This is what they actually think about.
CLAY: Absolute losers.
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