-You guys, we're coming up
on a full year since the COVID pandemic radically changed
all of our lives, and even though we just passed the devastating milestone
of half a million deaths, there are now finally some real
glimmers of hope on the horizon. For more on this,
it's time for a Closer Look. ♪♪ There's one question that
everyone's been asking every day to friends, neighbors,
relatives, and that is, "When will everything
get back to normal?" We're all itching to
do normal things again. It doesn't matter what it is. I'd give anything to go wait
in line at the DMV and get yelled at by a clerk
for asking to borrow a pen. I want to squeeze avocados
at Trader Joe's without people looking me up and down
for signs of fever. Keep your eyes
on your own avocados! And yet,
predictions for normalcy have been all over the map from as early as April
to as late as next year. -In a "Wall Street Journal"
opinion piece, Johns Hopkins health expert
Marty Makary claims we're going to
have herd immunity by April. -I think we could get there
by the fall, or maybe even
by the end of the summer. -The Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington
says it does not expect the US to reach herd immunity
prior to next winter. -By next Christmas, I think we'll be in
a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today. -You and the president
have suggested that we'll approach normality
toward the end of the year. What does "normal" mean? Do you think Americans
will still be wearing masks, for example, in 2022? -You know, I think it is
possible that that's the case. -We are not in a place
where we can predict exactly when everybody
will feel normal again. -Dinner and a movie in New York
could be around the corner. The movie theaters are open
with reduced capacity. Indoor dining. Will we get back to normal? -I'm staying outside. -Yeah, me too, actually. -Oh, thanks for the tease, CNN. Dinner and a movie
is back in the Big Apple, but not for us. We're not ready to die. Enjoy your Brussels sprouts
and "Tom & Jerry," you suicidal maniacs. In fairness, though,
that's how we all feel. Everyone has had
that same conversation whenever they ease restrictions
on something, on anything. "Wow, they're reopening
bowling alleys. Amazing. We should take the kids." "Yeah, but not really, right? And wear community shoes and stick our fingers
in a bunch of dark holes? No, of course not." Problem is, no one knows for
certain when it'll be safe, and we can't know for certain. As you just heard, predictions for when
we'll return to normal range from April
to summer to fall to Christmas to next year. At this rate, I'm just hoping to have an audience back
for my farewell show. I'm back in a suit? So the first show they're back, you're going to put me
in a [bleep] suit. [Bleep] you, Shoemaker. I don't dance for you. And look, caution is good. We can't underestimate
this virus. It's been devastating,
and every time we think the worst is behind us,
it comes roaring back. It's like the McRib
but with a switchblade. We have to keep our foot
on the gas and stamp
this thing out for good. But there's also some
genuinely, genuinely good news, setting the stage for
what "The Atlantic" called "A quite possibly
wonderful summer." And look, I know
I've spent the past year starting each of these segments
by rattling off all the worst things
going on in the world, like a grandpa who immediately
launches into a laundry list of his medical issues
when you call him. "How are you, Grandpa?" "Well, my sciatica's back
and my winter skin won't go away and my blood pressure's
through the roof and I can't find
my hernia pillow." "Well, what about grandma?" "Hold on a sec. Barb? Barb? The boy wants
to know how you are. No, it's not a scam call,
you paranoid lunatic. She's fine. She's the same." So let's start, for a change, by reviewing
some of the good news. Today,
the FDA confirmed that Johnson & Johnson's
new one-shot vaccine is safe and effective,
especially against severe cases. Pfizer said this week it will double its weekly
shipments by mid-March. Pfizer and Moderna
told lawmakers they can dramatically increase deliveries
over the next five weeks, and between those
three vaccines, we could have a total
of 240 million doses by the end of March alone. All of which means
there's growing optimism about the course of
the coronavirus pandemic and the possible return to some
semblance of normalcy by summer. And I got to be honest, I
desperately need some optimism. They don't teach you this
in science class, but it turns out winter
during a pandemic [bleep] sucks. It's like my soul
has a hangnail. The sun goes down at 5:00. I'm wearing a whole outfit made
of SNL swag from 15 years ago, watching 20 minutes
of some Belgian Netflix drama before I realize
I watched it already. "Wait, Detective Bert Jansens?
[Bleep]. I've seen this. The body's in the canal,
Jansens! It's always in the canal. I don't know why
you didn't start there." Last week, I told my wife I was gonna regrout
the tile in the bathroom just to have something to do, but then she pointed out we
don't have tile in the bathroom, so I installed
tile in the bathroom just so I could regrout it. Also, I did a bad job
installing it, so we had to bring in a guy who
I'm certain is ripping me off. I mean, $1,000 per tile
is too much, right? So it's helpful to remember
there is some good news. Cases are falling
as dramatically as they've ever fallen, and vaccine supply
is ramping up quickly, thanks in part
to the Biden administration delivering more doses
to the states. In fact, both Democratic
and Republican governors have praised the Biden
administration for streamlining what was, before he took office,
a chaotic vaccine rollout. -The White House
press secretary, Jen Psaki, announcing just moments ago the Biden administration
now increasing its weekly COVID-19
vaccine supplies to states, upping it now to
13.5 million doses sent out to the states
on a weekly basis. -The Biden team
is doing a great job. They inherited
an empty cupboard. They're slowly but surely
fixing that. -In terms of
the vaccine distribution, it's been seamless, and
I was delighted that we had a 14 percent increase
in vaccine supply last week. This is going to be very,
very important for us. Thank goodness we have
that partnership which is good with
the federal government and President Biden and his team is working to assure
that partnership and not tear it apart,
which I'm very grateful for. Huh, so it turns out
you can just buy more of a life-saving vaccine
and give more of it out, and both Republicans
and Democrats will thank you for it? I'm no political genius,
but that seems like a slightly better strategy than,
I don't know, personally trying to
spread the disease to as many people as you can,
like President Outbreak Monkey. Sorry, Former President
Outbreak Monkey. I mean, there were times when Democratic governors
praised Trump, but it was with the dead eyes
of a hostage who is worried they'd have their
bathroom privileges revoked, whereas if Republicans
criticize Biden, their fear isn't that
he'll punish them, it's that he will show up
to the governor's mansion with a football and say, "You and I are going to
toss this pigskin back and forth until we find
some middle ground." "Oh, actually, Mr. President,
I was just about to go out." "You're damn right you're
going out. Down and out. Hut! Hut! Everyone's my friend." By the way, none of this means
Biden hasn't made some mistakes or that there haven't been
disappointments with some of his early moves. There have. For one thing,
he seems resigned to dropping a minimum wage increase
from the COVID relief plan, despite its overwhelming
popularity in the polls and strong support
from Senate Democrats like Chuck Schumer
and Bernie Sanders. He's flirted with narrowing the
eligibility for direct payments, and he's shot down proposals to cancel
$50,000 in student debt, which also has
majority support in polls and would be a huge boon
to the economy. -We need student loan
forgiveness beyond the potential $10,000 your
administration has proposed. We need at least
a $50,000 minimum. What will you do
to make that happen? -I will not make that happen. -Okay, enough of your
Washington Beltway double-speak. Are you going to make it
happen or not? -I will not make that happen. -Oh, you DC charlatans, always
trying to have it both ways. Are you going to make it happen? -I will not make that happen. -Damn, that is not the answer
I wanted to hear, but I do appreciate
his directness. The last guy answered questions the way a plane circles JFK
when it's foggy. Say what you will about Biden, but in many ways, he is
the exact opposite of Trump. A reporter at a press conference
could raise their hand and suggest literally anything and Trump would say
he was considering it. It's the only reason
you could never trick him. Mr. President,
do you have any response to the recent events
regarding Updog? "We're looking very,
very strongly at Updog. We don't like what they're
doing with Updog at all. It's not good. Oh, I much prefer Downdog,
don't we, folks? Or how about just good,
old-fashioned, regular dog? Whatever happened to dogs
without directions? There used to be
no such thing as Updog. No Downdog. No, Rightdog. No Leftdog.
There was just dog. Dog the Bounty Hunter. Bounty paper towels,
the quicker picker-upper, they like to say. A lot of people
are saying it now. Not as quick as it used to be. Sad. Tried to pick it up lately,
and it wasn't so quick at all. Slow." I both forgot how hard
it was to do that voice, and how it was little bit fun. I'm definitely going to have
to ice my voice tonight. Oh. Anyway, the point is,
the Biden administration has certainly had some missteps
and disappointments, but they've also been
bold out of the gate with executive actions
and their COVID relief plan, and there's been major progress
on the vaccine front. The rollout
has been streamlined. Supply is up,
and the news about just how effective the vaccines
are has been great, too. A new study has found that just
one dose of the Pfizer vaccine provides significant protection
against the infection, and another found
that the vaccines cut down on transmission, too, meaning the vaccines don't just
prevent you from getting sick, they prevent you
from spreading the virus, too. If that all ends up being true,
and we don't screw things up, we could potentially
have a normal-ish summer, Even typically cautious
public health officials are expressing optimism. -Essentially, what will happen
is it's a glide path down. Number of cases
will continue coming down. More and more people will
be getting vaccinated. Things will start opening up. We'll see occasional
outbreaks here and there. I'm expecting, and I've
been saying it to folks, and you're invited, John, that July 4th, I may have
a barbecue at my house. 20-25 people, and I think
we can be outside if everybody
shows up vaccinated and if everybody's
gotten vaccinated or most people have gotten
vaccinated in my community, which I suspect by July 4th,
they will. I think we can have
an outside barbecue, no masks, and be okay. -Damn, I didn't realize
it was at the point where someone
describing a barbecue would sound like erotica. You could sell a whole line
of romance novels on this vibe. I got chills thinking about
a barbecue with 25 friends, and then I immediately got sad
when I remembered I'm 47 and I definitely
don't have 25 friends. For me to have a party
with 25 friends, I'm going to need the vaccine
and a working time machine. Get on it, Pfizer. But honestly though,
I can't believe how excited I am at the prospect of making plans Before the pandemic,
I spent most of my time trying to get out of plans. Pre-pandemic,
the highlight of my week would be a friend
texting last minute that they can't make
after-work drinks because their babysitter bailed. Now, if that ever happens,
post-pandemic, I'll show up at their house with
some gin, a cocktail shaker, and a board game
that takes eight hours to play. It's called "Ocean Master." You score victory points
by mining precious minerals from deep-sea trenches,
which convert to gold coins, allowing you to buy islands
where you grow wheat, and whoever sells the most bread
gets to roll first. The directions are 500 pages
long and only in German. Now, this isn't to say things
can't change for the worse. If we loosen up too quickly
or not enough people get vaccinated
or the variants get worse, we could have setbacks. But the streamlined
vaccine rollout and the optimism from
public health officials are a nice change of pace after the previous
administration, which was so mendacious
and detached from reality, you couldn't trust
a word they said. Remember when Trump's
chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said this last year
in the run-up to the election? -Our goal has been to have
300 million doses by January. 100 million doses is
one-third of the population. That's pretty wide distribution,
when you look at that, and that's October. -They said we'd have
100 million doses by the end of October
and 300 million by January. Trump aides were less
trustworthy than those robots that call you about
your car's extended warranty, a call I get every damn day,
by the way. Side note,
what's going on with that? Who unleashed this army
of robot scammers trying to trick people into
buying extended car warranties? Are there really people out
there who fall for that? "Oh, good thing you called. I was worried about the warranty
on my 2003 Ford Fiesta. You have a strange voice. Are
you French? Ooh, are you German? If you are, can I read you
board game instructions? [ Speaking in German ] Seriously, I knew
the Trump people were liars, but it's even more brazen in
retrospect, especially compared to the overly cautious approach
of the Biden team. I mean, Biden's out here saying we won't get back
to normal until Christmas. He's going to miss the barbecue. Meanwhile, the Trump people were
going around telling everyone we'd all get vaccines
in the mail for Christmas, like they were
free AOL trial CDs. As we've said
many times on this show, things are still bad
for lots of people who need immediate help
in the form of direct payments, expanded unemployment benefits,
a $15 minimum wage, and a more robust
vaccine rollout in marginalized communities,
among other things. And the pandemic
has also exposed massive structural inequalities and problems that need
radical solutions. We can't let up now. The next few months
will be crucial, but there's finally
some reason for hope and some cautious optimism. We could even have a party
at my place this summer. What do you say? -I'm staying outside? -Yeah, me too, actually. -Okay, fine, fine. This has been a Closer Look. ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver cooks and brings over
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