(logo buzzing) - Hi, this is the news and welcome to it. Wow, look at all this news. Stonks, dogecoin, and a pandemic, which is still, hold on let me check. (paper tears) Yep, still happening. You know that whole trope, where humanity finally
decides on world peace when faced with an alien invasion? Like it would take some
kind of malevolent force that targets all of humanity for us all to come together and defend our existence. Well, in reality, if
malevolent aliens came to invade earth, we would spend most of our time debating their existence while Ted Cruz retweets and I identify as the aliens headline from the Babylon Bee, and the rest of our time
watching various CEOs offer automated delivery services of human brains to the aliens using doordash drivers who also get eaten by the aliens. (transitional buzzing) This pandemic reveals how
the champions of capitalism are willing to risk human extinction to make about a dozen
people extremely wealthy. Capitalist cheerleaders like to say that the market will be able to sort out what's best for humanity through the magic of competition. And any little gaps left over will be filled in by
charity and philanthropy. So let's check in on one of the world's biggest philanthropists, Bill Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been such a force
for good in the world. Evidence that rich people really do want to solve all of the world's problems. For example, they're donating money to help increase access to COVID vaccines in low-income countries. And in April, 2020,
Oxford University pledged to donate the rights to its COVID vaccine to any drugmaker, making it open source. This would make the
vaccine recipe available to all drugmakers all over the world, vital in creating enough doses to inoculate the global population at low costs and in
poor countries as well. So, (beep) yeah, we did it. Capitalism works, and worked. The rich did it. Cody's showdy, ovey. Over. Let's pack it, we're pack it in. We're gonna pack, pack it in. There's another page here, so I'm gonna, I'm just gonna, I don't think it'll affect anything, but it's gonna give a quick, quick little read over of
COVID da, da, da, da, da... (paper tearing) So, okay. So, the good news is there's more showdy, and the bad news is there's bad news. Just two weeks after Oxford pledged to donate the rights of its COVID vaccine, making it open source, the Bill and Melinda Gates
foundation convinced them to instead assign an exclusive
deal with AstraZeneca, one of the pharmaceutical companies the BM foundation has invested in. This grants AstraZeneca sole rights to Oxford's COVID vaccine, with no promise of making
the vaccine affordable. Basically, the Bill and
Melinda Gates foundation held millions of potential
grants and funding over Oxford's head in
exchange for the deal, which benefits AstraZeneca
and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation's investments,
and like, not other people. But, but why would the Bill
and Melinda Gates foundation promise to donate millions of dollars to make COVID vaccines more accessible just to turn around and cut a deal with Oxford and AstraZeneca
that could stand to make them billions at
the expense of others. We may never know what could make someone do such a thing. But, as K.M Gopakumar, the legal advisor to the Third World Network says, "If we change the way in which
you regulate the industry, or the ways in which you want medicines or vaccines to be produced and delivered, it's definitely going to affect these companies' business model, and also the investments
of Gates foundation. So they are using their money to reinforce the status quo." Weirdly, interestingly, coincidentally, Bill Gates' wealth has increased during the pandemic by over $10 billion. Gosh, it's almost like this whole charitable foundation of his is mostly about making him money, with any actual charity being a bit of a fun little byproduct. It is weird. (transitional buzzing) So, how's that plan of using charity to make Bill Gates and
friends super wealthy and leaving a few crumbs
behind for the poor? Well, it's looking kind of grim right now. The global vaccine rollout, especially to poor countries is an absolute bumble
(beep) show of a butt. Studies project that at current rates, poor countries won't see their populations vaccinated for years. In no small part due to
companies like AstraZeneca, you know, who got sole rights
to that Oxford vaccine, they were going to make open source until Bill Gates said, "Please, please don't do that, please." But uh oh, and golly gosh, they're now under-producing the vaccine. I'm being told because relying on a private company who is motivated by profits to save people who may not have a lot of money, is actually not a super
great and smart idea, maybe it should have been open source. And it's not as if the Bill
and Melinda Gates foundation champions of thinking just don't realize what they're doing is a
global health oopsie-goofer. In October, 2020,
diplomats from South Africa and India came to the
World Trade Organization to plead with pharmaceutical companies to waive their patents during
the duration of the pandemic, so that all countries
could afford the vaccine. This concern is made even more clear when you find out that countries like South Africa, are
paying twice the amount that the EU is paying for
the AstraZeneca vaccine. Why? Because the EU
invested in the development of the vaccine, even though it was tested on South African study
participants in Johannesburg. Weird, it's like White Western colonialism that uses black bodies
for their own profit never went away. Hmm, as if the global
economic institutions that profited from slavery in the past are still finding ways to exploit people, and this is just a really obvious example of it highlighted by a crisis. Huh, so much for making a
racism illegal, Abraham Lincoln. Nice try, mister. But despite the South
African and Indian diplomats' humanitarian proposal,
AstraZeneca refused, putting their profits over people. You see this? This is my shocked face. This is my pants-pissing look of total (beep) surprise. So, pharmaceutical
companies like AstraZeneca are hoarding patents, and
forcing poor countries to pay double for the vaccine, which means we're probably looking at years before we see everyone getting access to the vaccine globally. And that's uh, bad, because millions of people are going to get sick and die just because they were born in a not-super-rich country. I'll bet that's a good enough reason to care for everyone
listening to me right now, because you're a bunch of cuties with working empathy goo. But hey, let's say you're
a ghoul, all right? Why should you, a ghoul care? Well, as it turns out, allowing a virus to rampage through billions of people, even if you can't see them from your high-rise yacht, is bad, because we're all human. No, this isn't a speech about empathy, (Cody laughs) I know, I know, you don't have any of that, this is from a biological perspective. The longer a virus has to
spread through a population, the more chances it gets to mutate and the more likely one of those mutations will turn out to make the virus deadlier, or more resistant to vaccines. Let me see if I can, I can put this in a terms the richies can understand. It's like, it's like,
it's like, it's like, it's like if you gamble
on the stock market. The more stocks, AKA, human bodies, you, the virus, gets to own, the more likely you're
going to become stronger and some of your gambling
is going to pay off. This isn't just a fun
biological thought exercise. It's literally happening right now. You may have heard of the COVID variants from the UK that are
spreading more easily, but there's also a COVID
variant found in South Africa, and now in the U.S., that maybe both more transmissible and less
responsive to vaccines. South Africa, that sounds familiar. Oh, we talked about it 10 seconds ago, about the South African diplomat who asked pharmaceutical companies to make the vaccine
accessible to their country, to help them inoculate people. Which would probably, maybe have stopped this new strain from developing. Don't worry though,
I'm sure if this strain starts to wreak havoc on
the rest of the world, we'll find a way to blame South Africa in a super racist and xenophobic way. Yay! Sorry, I have this thing where, when I reach a certain level of despair, I say, "yay," don't worry, it's just the sound of my brain getting fried by sadness and rage. Yay! So, if we allow the virus to spread and destroy lives in poorer countries, it's going to come back
to bite us in the ass, not just morally, or
karmically, but biologically, as the chances of creating a deadlier, stronger, and more resistant virus becomes way more likely. Which, let me check
with my science expert. Dr. Katy Stoll, a doctor,
from a medical perspective, is people dying bad? - Well, Cody, if you look
at this science chart, here is an alive person, figure A, and here is a dead person, figure B. Now, if you examine the data using a mathematical model to take the square root of the formula of being alive, you will conclude that being dead is in fact bad. BBC QED. - Well, there you have it folks. Which is weird, because it's almost like the rich ruling class would prefer a bunch of people to
die, over helping them. Almost like they're more afraid of losing some of their total power than they are of human extinction. That may seem like an exaggeration, but let's look at some research. - Oh, Cody, do you need another chart? - No, that's... - Remember Q.E.D. - Yes, right, kwed. (transitional buzzing) So, studies back in may of 2020, found that over 36,000 lives in the U.S. could have been saved,
if lockdown measures had started even just a week earlier. Another analysis shows that if the U.S. had done a serious lockdown early on, like South Korea, Australia, Germany, and Singapore, between 70 and 99% of Americans who died from COVID may have been saved. It's easy enough to draw the conclusion that the lack of lockdowns in the U.S. was a mere calculation of the
economy over human lives. But even that doesn't quite make sense. An analysis by the World Bank found that earlier lockdowns
not only saved lives, but had less negative
impacts on the economy. Countries like South Korea, that contained the virus by successfully locking down, and paying people to stay home seemed to get less wrecked,
economically speaking. South Korea's GDP shrank by only 1.1% compared to the U.S.'s 9%. So countries who locked down early, and got people to stay home, are doing better both in the whole keeping people alive
thing, and economically. This just in, ear thing, killing a bunch of people, and having the constant threat of a deadly unabated virus may actually not be so great for the economy. So, in the U.S., either we have a bunch of foolish billionaires,
a distinct possibility, or there's something
that billionaires fear more than a pandemic. After all, so far the pandemic
hasn't hurt them too bad. In fact, many billionaires
are doing quite well. Jeff Bezos, has added a cool
$35 billion to his wealth, Mark Zuckerberg, with
a measly $25 billion, and like I said earlier, Bill Gates, philanthropists, got $10 billion. So, the pandemic's not really hurting the wealthiest in their pockets. But you'd think the prospect of breeding an unstoppable super-virus by letting it munch away at
the poors would be scary. But, there's something even scarier, the poors. Specifically, the poors'
realizing they can and should demand more
from their governments. After all, if the
government can pay people a living wage to stay home, what's next? Paying people healthcare? Free education? food security? Where does it end, asks ghouls, like GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, who took a stand against $600 unemployment checks back in April, 2020. Quote, "I promise you over our dead bodies will this get reauthorized," he said. Dead bodies, huh? Cool choice of words
during a deadly pandemic. Real obvious dramatic irony. Very, very Sorkin-esque Lindsey. But then he gives the game away. Graham said, quote, "It was never our goal to pay people more to be out of work than at work. If a person is making $23
an hour on unemployment, it's going to be hard to get you to go back to work for $17 an hour job." That right there, that's
what they're afraid of. People suddenly feeling
what it's like to be valued. Suddenly being given a scrap of dignity and realizing that
maybe they should demand that little piece of dignity when companies beg them
to come back to work. If you wanna know what
scares a rich ghoul, it's this, right here. A poster on the unemployment
subreddit, titled, "For four months I felt normal." This person wrote, "For the four months that the $600 was in
place, I got to feel normal for the first time in my entire life. For once I could afford all my bills, and have a little left over to enjoy. My entire adult life I worked at jobs that paid just over the minimum wage. I worked hard, and never
got ahead financially. I even felt the government
was doing right by me for the first time. I don't know if we'll ever see that again, but it was nice while it lasted. It's sad that the majority is left out and that it took a once
in lifetime pandemic to be able to feel what it is like to make a fair amount of money. I still maintain that the
problem wasn't the $600, it was the fact that so
many jobs pay so poorly." That, that scares the (beep) out of the Lindsey Graham's and Bill Gates's of the world. That is what they fear far more than a pandemic growing out of control. Someone getting just a tiny glimmer of comfort and normalcy, and wondering why they don't deserve
this the rest of the time? Why can't they keep that little $600, which makes such a huge
difference to them, while Jeff Bezos, makes $35 billion extra during a pandemic. That's probably part of the reason the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation was so threatened by Oxford making their COVID vaccine open source. Because if they did
that, people might start to wonder why other vaccines
shouldn't be open source? If it saves so many
lives, at so low a cost, why don't we do it with other vaccines? Why do we beg and plead for scraps from generous billionaires
like Bill Gates, when we could make global
healthcare a reality ourselves. It might mean we question
why COVID vaccines, developed using public funds and government-funded
research are being sold by private companies globally at a profit. So the pharmaceutical companies
get government subsidies and the rest of the world gets rugged free-market capitalism. It's interesting, It's
as if socialism is good. And maybe there's a
reason private companies are hoarding it for themselves. The thing is, people
realizing their worth, their collective power,
and the positive impacts of sharing wealth is scarier than a super-mutant COVID virus to them. And that's, I'm not sure
how to put it into words. - Aha! I knew you'd need more charts. - You were so right. - As you can see illustrated
by this diagram... - That's a penis. - Yes. A science penis. - Very educational. Thank you, Katy. Maybe, maybe it's break time. (transitional buzzing) So, here's some news; a commercial. Are you in the free market for sound? Sound in your ears? My ears? Well, these are mine. They're comfortable, charge really fast, have a long battery life, and again are mine. I use them to get away from screens while still consuming. Always be, must be consuming. You can't have mine, but we teamed up with Raycon and they're offering
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ship go down than risk giving people a taste of economic freedom. And this death-culty
response to the pandemic happens to highlight other
cracks in our society. While we may see the
capitalistic death-cult more clearly during a pandemic, it's always been there. And we can see evidence of that in some of the communities where the pandemic has hit the hardest. Earlier, we talked about how AstraZeneca used South African bodies
to test the vaccine, and then denied them access to the patent, and charged them double for the vaccine. It's a pretty perfect demonstration of how western colonialism still exploits other countries with callous
regard to their lives. But hey, I don't even
have to leave the comfort of my own country to see this happening. Yes, even though Abraham Lincoln, made racism illegal in 1862, and then LBJ made racism
double illegal in 1964, weirdly, racism seems to still exist. And not just the on-the-nose, proud boys marching around with their loser confederate flag, cosplaying in their desert camo in urban environments way. See, the pandemic is hitting black and brown communities hardest. Which seems weird, because
the coronavirus itself can't be racist, unless... Hm, an improvement, honestly. Anyway, research into the impact of COVID has shown that black communities die from the virus at two-to-three times the rate as one would expect based on their share of the population. Latinx communities also see
a disproportionate number of COVID cases compared
to their population, up to four times than
they should experience. Native communities in the
U.S. including in Alaska, are seeing COVID cases at 3.5 times that of non-Hispanic whites. White communities,
meanwhile, see fewer deaths than one would expect given
our share of the population. And I know this is getting some Nazis hard as a rock right now, reaching for their calipers
to tweeze their dicks and claim that for some
reason, coronavirus just happens to spare white people more, because our buttholes are the perfect aryan shape or whatever. But to actual scientists, this is a very wrong explanation. As epidemiologist and
director of public policy at amfAR, Greg Millet says, "There's a structural issue that's taking place here. It's not a genetic issue for all non-white individuals in the U.S." So put away your butthole caliber, Nazis. The epidemiologist didn't
say that last part. That was me, the butthole
caliber thing, just to clarify. So it's not a coincidence
that the communities that have endured some of the
most long-term oppression, genocide and exploitation in the U.S. are being hit hardest by the pandemic. Another person who knows stuff,
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of the Equity
Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine, says, "We know that these
racial ethnic disparities in COVID-19 are the result
of pre-pandemic realities. It's a legacy of structural discrimination that has limited access to health and wealth for people of color." The structural lack of access to healthcare in black
and brown communities means that people with
preventable disease, like diabetes, heart and lung disease, struggled to get treatment. And having these diseases
makes COVID infections more dangerous and deadly. Also people of color are more likely to have frontline and essential jobs. You know, the jobs we
applaud and cheer for until it actually comes
to raising their wages or improving their working conditions. This is something to consider when people talk about the impact of racism in this country. It's not just confederate
flag-waving weirdos, or when Prager U defends slavery, although those things
are both extremely bad. It's also found in the systemic,
structural inequalities in our institutions like healthcare. Which has always existed, but is especially noticeable when a pandemic reveals
horrifying statistics, like how black counties that make up 30% of the U.S. population are the location of 56% of COVID deaths. It's interesting too. And when I say interesting, you know I'm about to
say something horrible, but it's interesting
how getting the country back to work and businesses are suffering always seems to be framed as a middle-America, white dude issue. Anti-lockdown protests seem to draw in the white supremacist crowds, who capitalize on the lockdowns as a way to say that white people are being oppressed by
using fun slogans like, Albeit Macht Frei, JB, which is German for work sets you free. The slogan which was featured at the entrance of the
Auschwitz Nazi death camp. JB refers to the Jewish governor
of Illinois, JB Pritzker. Now, I'm no branding expert, but I think rooting your
anti-lockdown argument in the slogan of a literal death camp where people were worked to death and died of disease in large numbers, is maybe a swing and a miss. But the big thinkers over
at Proud Boy University may need to check their math, because according to data
from this past December, the people most likely to lose their jobs due to the pandemic are women of color. That's not to say that there
aren't many white people who have lost their jobs or
are suffering economically due to the pandemic, but
it does kinda poke a hole in the old white supremacist, "Brown people are taking our jobs, and they're stealing
our freedoms," theory. (transition buzzing) Of course, racism isn't
the only piss stain that the pandemic is shining a light on. Legal advocates and civil
rights groups have reported that hospitals have been
denying life-saving care to people with physical
and mental disabilities. In March, 2020, a woman
with a mental disability was given a DNR, do-not-resuscitate order, without her consent by
hospital staff in Oregon. Staff of that same hospital also requested that the woman's group
home fill out DNR forms for the rest of their
mentally disabled residents prior to them coming to the hospital. Despite this, the hospital
was not sanctioned by the Oregon Health Authority. There are apparently,
shockingly few safeguards in place to protect the
medical rights of people with cognitive disabilities. In another alarming,
sort of eugenics-ish move pandemic disaster preparedness
plans for certain States openly threatened to withhold treatment for people with mental disabilities. A ProPublica report found that Alabama's pandemic plan
detailed that, quote, "Persons with severe mental retardation, advanced dementia, or severe
traumatic brain injury may be poor candidates
for ventilator support." Other States are less
openly discriminating, but have no protections in place if a doctor decides that in triage people with cognitive disabilities should be given less priority. This is especially concerning, given that the American Bar
Association's commission on Disability Rights has
found a negative bias against people with disabilities amongst healthcare providers. The report States, quote, "Studies have consistently demonstrated that healthcare providers
hold negative views of people with disabilities and fail to fully appreciate the value and quality of life with a disability." I believe the Nazis referred to such people as, useless eaters. But anyway, this is not me, Cody, saying, "I hate doctors, I hate nurses, and healthcare workers. They're all bad people. Nazis, even." Obviously, most people who enter into the medical field are deeply caring, as we can see by the sacrifices healthcare workers are making right now. But when biases exist in general society, like biases against the
mentally disabled, or racism, they're obviously going to
infiltrate the medical community, because we all live in
a society, bottom text. Even the medical community is not immune to the prejudices that
exist in our culture. The pandemic is just a dramatic example of what those biases lead to. Differential treatment,
which can literally be fatal. Perhaps nothing is more demonstrative of how social hierarchy
leads to death than how we treat the unhoused
during a pandemic. Right now, shelters aren't
a great place to be, because, you know, the virus thing. Germ theory, people indoors, you get it. At the same time, hotels
and other buildings are being vastly underused, because of the pandemic. So, what if, what if, what if, what if we took all this
extra building space, and we gave it to homeless
people to live in. Well, hey, would you look at that. The Austin City Council is
voting on that right now. Using funds taken from
excessive police budgets to buy empty hotels to house the unhoused. Look, we could do that. Or we could continue homeless camp sweeps, where SWAT, state troopers, and ICE, armed to the (beep) teeth show up to kick people out of their shelters, destroy their belongings, and I guess, try to deport them. Something which is not only cruel, but also goes against CDC guidance on COVID safety, which advises that kicking people out of their shelters and forcing them to constantly move around is actually bad during a pandemic. And I'm no Dr. Science, but that kinda makes sense, huh. So my friends, my cutie-patooties, I'm not telling you all
this to bum you out. Yes, a lot of this stuff is, as the kids say, "a real (beep) bummer." But I think this last example of how we treat unhoused people really does exemplify
the way in which empathy and kindness is actually the
logical, science-backed move. Providing everyone with a vaccine, regardless of whether their country has the most money,
fighting against racial and disability discrimination in our healthcare system, providing our most vulnerable
neighbors with housing. These are not only the
kind of things to do, but they're doable, and they actually make everyone safer, healthier, and better off. Cruelty though, only providing vaccines to the highest bidder, allowing prejudice to taint our healthcare system and treating unhoused
human beings like vermin is not just cruel, but threatens everyone. It makes things worse. It's perhaps more tangible
when we're talking about a viral disease that is mutating into a worst viral disease, but there are so many other issues, like climate change or
general quality of life, where it still holds true that protecting vulnerable communities trickles up and helps protect all of us. And there are lots of
people who recognize this, from the diplomats who saw the importance of making the vaccine attainable for every country in the world, to the houseless advocates
in Austin, Texas, getting the City Council to vote on giving them housing. People who see how important empathy is to our survival are out there working hard to advocate for people
who need it the most. - Cody, I just ran the numbers. - What? What numbers? I was really getting sincere there, Katy, these better be important numbers. - These numbers, Cody, these, I ran em! I ran all of them and I found it. I found it. This is it. This is the answer. - What? The answer to... Just, just tell me what you wanna say. - Aha! - What? - Wait, wait, wait, there's more. Huh!
- Oh, that's so nice. - Aha! - Okay, I think we're done here. (dramatic instrumental music) Thank you for the true science. Hi everybody, thanks for watching. Make sure to like and subscribe, and leave a comment that's nice or mean, it's up to you. But the important thing is
that you like and subscribe. We've got a patreon.com/SomeMoreNews. Even MoreNews is the name of the podcast. And T-shirts as well is a link that you could find in the description. Like. Subscribe.
Some More News is so fucking good - I don't understand why it's not even more popular on Breadtube.
Some more news is one of those channels I shouldn't watch for my mental health but I just keep watching anyway cause newsdude Cody is just so agreeable
Screwing up implies that they don't all have eugenic characteristics.
A lot of the issues brought up here - the systemic devaluation of black and brown lives - are also relevant for the way we deal or don't deal with global warming. Covid really seems like a warm up run to that. I talk a bit about these issues in this video on global warming https://youtu.be/i2eyXA0b-lI
Fuck Microsoft, and fuck anybody who still buys a shitbox and that shitty block game after knowing all this. Minecraft fans are the fucking reason why we can’t have free covid vaccines fuck FUCK THEM. fuck Minecraft fans are giving Microsoft even more money.