S20.E03: Ro Khanna; Johann Hari; Katherine Mangu-Ward

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

This week, Bill interviews Rep. Ro Khanna, the U.S. Congressman representing California's 17th district. On the panel, he is joined by British author Johann Hari and Katherine Mangu-Ward, the Editor-in-Chief of Reason Magazine.

Original air date 2022.02.04

[aghst]

Bill doubles down on his rants against Covid measures.  Trots out the old, “only the old and fat” are being hospitalized or dying! Theme again.

Says protect the vulnerable but let’s all go back to normal.  It’s not “my responsibility” to protect other people.  Is there a better example of Republicanism than that statement?

He says 75% of all Covid deaths are people over 65?  Officially, we’re approaching 1 million Covid deaths in the US, though the excess death numbers suggest it’s much higher.  But that means 25% of the 900k Covid deaths have been people under 65, or about 225k deaths in two years.

That is still a huge number.  Way more than a bad flu season for people of all ages or the approximately 40k deaths from car accidents.

Not as big as heart disease or cancer, which each kill about 600k Americans a year.  But a lot of those deaths are to older people as well.  Do we not try to reduce heart disease or cancer?

None of those other causes of deaths involve a highly contagious virus.  Well the flu is contagious but not to the extent Covid is.  Point is, we can determine how many people are killed by Covid, to an extent.

Bill also referenced a Johns Hopkins study which claims lockdowns didn’t prevent a lot of deaths.  This study is getting a lot of play on Fox News, which claims the liberal media is ignoring it.  Well these are not from the JHU medical school or public health school.  They’re 3 economists, libertarian, with history of opposing Covid measures.  They’re hiding under the JHU name but they’re not all at JHU anyways.

Quote

Throughout the pandemic, most COVID research out of Johns Hopkins University has typically come from its Coronavirus Resource Center, an initiative run out the university’s world-renowned medical school.

But the new paper, which was drafted by three economists, comes out of the university’s unaffiliated Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

The economists — who were led by Denmark’s Jonas Herby — only sought data on COVID mortality, and ignored the effects of pandemic strictures on other factors such as hospitalizations or overall case rates. They also excluded any study whose accounting of lives saved was based on forecasts.

https://nationalpost.com/health/johns-hopkins-study-finding-lockdowns-do-little-to-prevent-covid-deaths-flawed-critics-say
 

The article quotes scientists cr8tiquing the study but anyone paying attention the past two years know it’s BS.  The countries which locked down the hardest, most of Asia and both Australia and New Zealand, have way lower Covid death rates than the US, Europe, South America.

And Bill kept wanting to show where medicine has been wrong throughout history but quoted an Oprah claim on AIDS or talked about HSA not profiling but instead searching grannies at the airport.

Well he should have been questioning the field of public health, which is not the same as medicine but a lot of people in public health have medical training.  For instance Fauci probably hasn’t practiced medicine in decades but he was instrumental in dealing with AIDS back in the 80s — probably a matter of time before Bill goes after Fauci like Republicans are doing.

[revbfc]

Much like Bill, I also remember the AIDS crisis of the 80’s.  I also remember that mitigation efforts did a great job at making sure the worst case scenarios he called “Fear mongering” didn’t happen.
 

[iMonrey]

Ro Khanna started to call Bill out on the fact that Republicans do a lot of "cancelling" too and Bill cut him off and changed the subject.

Bill really does not like to be called out. Katherine Mangu-Ward implied he had a old person's world-view and didn't like change and he called that a cheap shot. He said old people are smarter because they know stuff. Yet during new rules he admitted (if jokingly) he didn't really know what cookies were. Hey Bill, I thought old people knew stuff. But Bill doesn't want to learn new stuff. He just wants to complain that things are changing. The very definition of a cranky old man.

And what was this nonsense about the left refusing to criticize China. This sounds like a grievously anecdotal story you'd hear on Fox News, and it's become the very way Bill defines the left. He hears some crazy, isolated story and thinks it defines every Democrat in the country.

When they got into the free speech issue, they once again omitted any mention of platform or context.

And why is it a problem that young people aren't having as much sex? Are fewer teenage pregnancies and STDs a problem?

To top it all off, now he's comparing AIDS to Covid. Good grief.

[Hedgehog2022]

Does he just keep harping on the same old worn out talking points from Fox News about COVID? Does he not talk about anything else??? Like, I don't know, the snitch line that Gov. Youngkin set up in Virginia and the teacher shortage all over the country because of white supremiscists taking over school boards and doing shit like banning books? Or, all the shocking revelations in the last couple weeks coming out of the January 6th comittee? Just COVID misinformation??? What a boring show and what a boring host...he is old and is now just trying to troll the libs and gain some ground in getting right wing viewers...he's losing his base and he knows it.

[Hedgehog2022]

19 hours ago, aghst said:

Bill doubles down on his rants against Covid measures.  Trots out the old, “only the old and fat” are being hospitalized or dying! Theme again.

Says protect the vulnerable but let’s all go back to normal.  It’s not “my responsibility” to protect other people.  Is there a better example of Republicanism than that statement?

He says 75% of all Covid deaths are people over 65?  Officially, we’re approaching 1 million Covid deaths in the US, though the excess death numbers suggest it’s much higher.  But that means 25% of the 900k Covid deaths have been people under 65, or about 225k deaths in two years.

That is still a huge number.  Way more than a bad flu season for people of all ages or the approximately 40k deaths from car accidents.

Not as big as heart disease or cancer, which each kill about 600k Americans a year.  But a lot of those deaths are to older people as well.  Do we not try to reduce heart disease or cancer?

None of those other causes of deaths involve a highly contagious virus.  Well the flu is contagious but not to the extent Covid is.  Point is, we can determine how many people are killed by Covid, to an extent.

Bill also referenced a Johns Hopkins study which claims lockdowns didn’t prevent a lot of deaths.  This study is getting a lot of play on Fox News, which claims the liberal media is ignoring it.  Well these are not from the JHU medical school or public health school.  They’re 3 economists, libertarian, with history of opposing Covid measures.  They’re hiding under the JHU name but they’re not all at JHU anyways.

https://nationalpost.com/health/johns-hopkins-study-finding-lockdowns-do-little-to-prevent-covid-deaths-flawed-critics-say
 

The article quotes scientists cr8tiquing the study but anyone paying attention the past two years know it’s BS.  The countries which locked down the hardest, most of Asia and both Australia and New Zealand, have way lower Covid death rates than the US, Europe, South America.

And Bill kept wanting to show where medicine has been wrong throughout history but quoted an Oprah claim on AIDS or talked about HSA not profiling but instead searching grannies at the airport.

Well he should have been questioning the field of public health, which is not the same as medicine but a lot of people in public health have medical training.  For instance Fauci probably hasn’t practiced medicine in decades but he was instrumental in dealing with AIDS back in the 80s — probably a matter of time before Bill goes after Fauci like Republicans are doing.

Last I saw, Bill isn't an M.D. nor a PH.D so why would anyone listen to him? Bill has always been anti science, anti vax and now anti everything else. What a tedious old fart he is and a whiny little bitch.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Hedgehog2022

[aghst]

He just seems to have more energy going at liberals than conservatives.

Like when he argues that Muslim culture has a lot to do with why they're terrorists, rather than liberals generally rejecting that a small number of extremists define a whole ethnic group or culture.

Maybe for him, denying these "truths" about Muslims or covid is as bad or even worse than climate change denial or conservatives denying how racist their base is.

 

 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Reminder:  No personal politics.  Also, there is a thread in which you can hold a more general discussion of Bill Maher: The Man, The Myth, The Legend in His Own Mind.  

[Shermie]

Ro Khanna said that he hoped the U.S. would become the first multi ethnic, multi racial democracy in the world. What the hell? Has he ever looked at the world? Or just look north to Canada’s multi ethnic, multi racial democracy. I get so tired of Americans making their hyperbolic claims.

[Shermie]

On 2/5/2022 at 4:58 AM, aghst said:

 

Bill doubles down on his rants against Covid measures.  Trots out the old, “only the old and fat” are being hospitalized or dying! Theme again.

Says protect the vulnerable but let’s all go back to normal.  It’s not “my responsibility” to protect other people.  Is there a better example of Republicanism than that statement?

He says 75% of all Covid deaths are people over 65?  Officially, we’re approaching 1 million Covid deaths in the US, though the excess death numbers suggest it’s much higher.  But that means 25% of the 900k Covid deaths have been people under 65, or about 225k deaths in two years.

That is still a huge number.  Way more than a bad flu season for people of all ages or the approximately 40k deaths from car accidents.

Not as big as heart disease or cancer, which each kill about 600k Americans a year.  But a lot of those deaths are to older people as well.  Do we not try to reduce heart disease or cancer?

 

Bill Maher may be an interrupting blowhard, but I agree with him on Covid measures. Enough is enough. Yes, we try to reduce heart disease and cancer, and we have reduced Covid deaths. In America the death rate is higher because participation in reduction measures (masks, vaccines, not socializing) was lower all along. But now those who fear the virus can get vaccinated, they can wear masks, and they can avoid crowds if they’re still scared (although I can’t imagine why they would be if they’re triple vaxxed). The rest of society should be able to live their lives. Covid isn’t going away, so we have to learn to live with it.

As for Bill’s “old and fat” rant; he’s not wrong here either. A vast majority of Covid deaths are in those who are overweight, and in America that’s a lot of people. Being old is also a risk factor, but usually if there are other risk factors, such as heart disease, diabetes or obesity, which is more likely as one ages.

[RealHousewife]

2 hours ago, Shermie said:

Bill Maher may be an interrupting blowhard, but I agree with him on Covid measures. Enough is enough. Yes, we try to reduce heart disease and cancer, and we have reduced Covid deaths. In America the death rate is higher because participation in reduction measures (masks, vaccines, not socializing) was lower all along. But now those who fear the virus can get vaccinated, they can wear masks, and they can avoid crowds if they’re still scared (although I can’t imagine why they would be if they’re triple vaxxed). The rest of society should be able to live their lives. Covid isn’t going away, so we have to learn to live with it.

As for Bill’s “old and fat” rant; he’s not wrong here either. A vast majority of Covid deaths are in those who are overweight, and in America that’s a lot of people. Being old is also a risk factor, but usually if there are other risk factors, such as heart disease, diabetes or obesity, which is more likely as one ages.

My only concern at this point is hospital capacity, otherwise I agree.