The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.9 Bon Appétit Staff EXPOSE Treatment, HUGE $$ Accusations, Test Kitchen DEMANDS, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards hope you've been a fantastic Tuesday Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show and a big note before we get started, you know right now It's pride you have people protesting in the streets for for black lives people of color protesting against police brutality And so today in addition to the fifteen thousand dollars I'm donating to the ACLU Foundation and promoting in the links down below to a ton of resources and organizations that you can donate to Directly I'm also doing a surprise limited edition drop of these shirts, tanks, and of course our premium hoodies. With not 15%, 50%, 100% of profits

Starting point is 00:00:34 going to the ACLU Foundation. With our friends over at Teespring also donating what they would normally have made from a shirt as well on their side. So if you wanna snag one while you can, they're available for the next six days over at ShopDeFranco.com. But with that said, of course,

Starting point is 00:00:47 welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today, easily one of the most requested stories today, and that is all this news surrounding Bon Appetit and its editor-in-chief, Adam Rapoport. And for those of you who don't know,

Starting point is 00:01:01 Bon Appetit is a popular food and cooking magazine owned by Condonde Nast. Also, they have a very popular YouTube channel with six million subscribers, where some of their staff members test out new recipes, experiment with making things in their kitchen. And what really sparked off what we're talking about today is this photo of Adam that resurfaced on Twitter yesterday,

Starting point is 00:01:18 showing he and his wife in brown face for a Halloween costume portraying a stereotypical depiction of Puerto Ricans. Now as far as when it was taken, the Instagram screenshot comes from a post in 2013, but that photo actually is a throwback photo and was allegedly taken around 16 years ago. And the timing of this photo kind of making its way around the internet was also very interesting,

Starting point is 00:01:34 because it happened just a few days after Adam and Bon Appetit were called out for not sharing Puerto Rican recipes when Ileana Masonet, freelance Puerto Rican food columnist, tweeted, months ago I pitched Bon Appetit about Afro-Bori Quas that make regional rice fritters.' One of the editors said, "'Sounds like a story that could have been told

Starting point is 00:01:49 "'five years ago, "'and they published another Euro ingredient story. "'But if I pitched it today, they'd buy it. "'Hashtag solidarity my ass.'" And with that, sharing DMs of a conversation she later had with Adam where he talked about their lack of content on diverse cuisine, and in particular when it comes to Puerto Rican dishes.

Starting point is 00:02:03 She then called them out on not doing more to include them. Right, but that was sort of the timing and the context of that photo being shared. So, that photo sparks a lot of outrage, including from Bon Appetit staff members. Assistant editor, Sola El-Wali, ended up posting a lengthy Instagram story saying, "'I am angry and disgusted by the photo

Starting point is 00:02:18 "'of Rapoport in brownface. "'I have asked for his resignation. "'This is just a symptom of the systematic racism "'that runs rampant within the Conde Nast as a whole. "'I've been at Bon Appetit for his resignation. This is just a symptom of the systematic racism that runs rampant within the Conde Nast as a whole. I've been at Bon Appetit for 10 months. I am 35 years old and I have over 15 years of professional experience. I was hired as an assistant editor at 50K

Starting point is 00:02:34 to assist mostly white editors with significantly less experience than me. I've been pushed in front of video as a display of diversity and adding, in reality, currently only white editors are paid for their video appearances. None of the people of color have been compensated and she again demands Adams resignation as well as for black indigenous people of color staff To be given fairer titles salaries and compensation rain for this to be used as an opportunity to make change You also had contributor Priya Krishna who often appears on Bon Appetit YouTube channel sharing the photo and saying this is fucked up plain and simple

Starting point is 00:03:04 It erases the work the black indigenous people of color on staff have long been doing behind the scenes. And adding, I plan to do everything in my power to hold the EIC and systems that hold up actions like this accountable. You also had a former photographer for the magazine, Alex Lau tweeting other diversity issues saying, I left BA for multiple reasons.

Starting point is 00:03:20 But one of the main reasons was that white leadership refused to make changes that my BIPOC coworkers and I constantly pushed for. What made me want to leave was when I saw that year after year I was only shooting Asian and white chefs. As an Asian American, it is not enough to shoot Asian restaurants and call it a day. Asians are no longer marginalized in the restaurant slash food industry as much as BA would like to think that." And also adding that when he asked about why they didn't have pieces about African cuisine, they would sort of kind of push it off and say that readers wouldn't want to make those recipes because they were tricky.

Starting point is 00:03:46 And also with this, we've seen a huge group of people from the Bon Appetit YouTube channel speaking up against this photo of Adam and standing with the people calling for something to be done about the lack of diversity at the magazine. Starting with Molly Boz who wrote on her Instagram story that she is standing with everyone speaking out and does not support Adam, adding,

Starting point is 00:04:01 "'I will fight to foster equality and justice "'in our workplace and recognize that as a white person, I have personally benefited from our flawed system. I will do better for all the staffers of Bon Appetit magazine who haven't had that privilege. And adding, I will not appear in any videos on Bon Appetit until my BIPOC colleagues receive equal pay and are fairly compensated for their appearances.

Starting point is 00:04:18 With this, she called on other personalities from the test kitchen to join her and many did. Right, you had Alex Delaney sharing that message. You had the likes of Claire Saffitz saying that she will not return until there is real progress. Right, noting that the voice and platform I have give me the opportunity to push for more and better representation.

Starting point is 00:04:32 Andy Baraghani is saying that he will not appear on the channel until everyone is paid to do so. Now with all of this happening, a spokesperson for Bon Appetit denied the claims about unjust compensation to the Washington Post saying, "'It would be inaccurate to report "'that only white people were paid for video appearances.' And adding, "'We have a zero-tolerance policy

Starting point is 00:04:47 "'toward discrimination and harassment in any forms. "'We go to great lengths to ensure that employees "'are paid fairly in accordance with their roles "'and experience across the entire company.'" Right, and as all this was happening, right, people are speaking out, everything unfolding, you had Adam Rappaport announcing his resignation. And in an Instagram post, he said,

Starting point is 00:05:02 "'I am stepping down as editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit "'to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being "'and to allow Bon Appetit to get to a better place. "'From an extremely ill-conceived Halloween costume "'16 years ago to my blind spots as an editor, "'I've not championed an inclusive vision.'" And ultimately, it's been at the expense of Bon Appetit and its staff as well as our readers.

Starting point is 00:05:20 They all deserve better. The staff has been working hard to evolve the brand in a positive, more diverse direction." Then adding that he will support that work, though he can no longer lead it, and he apologized for his failings as an editor. But ultimately, that is where we are with this story right now.

Starting point is 00:05:32 You have a lot of staff furious, a lot of staff refusing to work unless there is actual change. You have fans absolutely furious, of course, a number of them also saying that they're going to unsubscribe unless they see actual change, proper compensation. Yeah, for now we're gonna have to wait

Starting point is 00:05:46 and see what happens next. And with this story, I do wanna pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? And then let's talk about the World Health Organization and the art and importance of proper communication. So yesterday, the World Health Organization held a news briefing about COVID-19. And during that briefing, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove

Starting point is 00:06:01 was answering a question about asymptomatic carriers. Right, those people who have the virus but do not show any symptoms. And here's what she said. We are constantly looking at this data, and we're trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question. It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward. Right, and so that clip, that statement appeared to contradict previous WHO warnings and downplay how dangerous asymptomatic carriers can be, which felt like it came out of nowhere

Starting point is 00:06:26 because literally the weekend right before this Monday statement, you had the WHO putting out infographics with information to heavily encourage people to still use masks, social distance. So of course this statement elicited a massive reaction from regular people, journalists who put out articles, but also from people and organizations

Starting point is 00:06:41 in the public health community. You had Harvard's Global Health Institute responding to the WHO's comments, saying all of the best evidence suggests from people and organizations in the public health community. You had Harvard's Global Health Institute responding to the WHO's comments, saying, "'All of the best evidence suggests "'that people without symptoms can and do readily spread. "'SARS-CoV-2.'" The director of that institute also making a Twitter thread

Starting point is 00:06:53 saying that asymptomatic spread is the Achilles heel of this outbreak. Also calling on the WHO to provide data when making statements that could affect public behavior, including several studies that have been noted by many experts showing that asymptomatic spread exists. Right, and so with this, it appears that the WHO realized their mistake because they then quickly put together a special news conference this morning to clear up any confusion. During that conference, Maria Vankurkov says that she was only responding to a reporter's question when she said that asymptomatic transmissions were rare and that that wasn't the WHO's official stance.

Starting point is 00:07:17 With Vankurkov saying that her comments on Monday were specific to particular studies and did not represent a new policy or direction. With Vankurkov going on to try to clarify her comments, saying, We do know that some people who are asymptomatic or some people who don't have symptoms can transmit the virus on. And so what we need to better understand is how many of the people in the population don't have symptoms, and separately, how many of those individuals go on to transmit to others. And so what I was referring to yesterday in the press conference were a very few studies, some two or three studies that have been published

Starting point is 00:07:50 that actually try to follow asymptomatic cases, so people who are infected, over time. And then look at all of their contacts and see how many additional people were infected. Also noting the importance of classification and how that can lead to confusion. Some patients transmit the virus before developing symptoms and contact tracers classify this group as pre-symptomatic rather than asymptomatic. With Van Kerkhove also going on to say

Starting point is 00:08:13 that the WHO estimates 16% of people who are asymptomatic can transmit the virus. But also at the same time, it is still important to note that some models suggest that up to 40% of coronavirus transmission might be due to asymptomatic spread. There are also currently estimates that range wildly that say that anywhere between 6 and 40% of the population is asymptomatic. Right, but that's such a large range that it's hard for researchers to actually make conclusions from it.

Starting point is 00:08:32 So if there is something I could stress at this moment, it is better safe than sorry you should still be wearing masks. That is still the World Health Organization's official position. It is also the position of a ton of health ministries around the world. You know, we see people like Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research talking about this whole controversy and saying, "'It's a mess. "'I don't know why they would say "'asymptomatic transmission is very rare "'when the truth is we simply don't know how frequent it is.

Starting point is 00:08:55 "'And it doesn't change the facts we do know, "'which is that the virus is very transmissible "'and is very hard to combat.'" Right, and actually of note there, there was a study published just last week by the Scripps Research Translational Institute estimating that asymptomatic people accounted for 45% of all COVID-19 cases.

Starting point is 00:09:08 But the biggest thing of all from that is that the study said the viral load of such asymptomatic persons has been equal to that of symptomatic persons, suggesting similar potential for viral transmission. Right, and this is more important than ever in the United States to keep in mind, because I mean, what, just over the last week,

Starting point is 00:09:23 we've seen tons of people out there protesting shoulder to shoulder, states are opening up right now. And since the start of June, 14 states and Puerto Rico have recorded their highest ever seven day averages of new cases. You know, as of recording this video in the United States alone, there have been just over 111,000 deaths,

Starting point is 00:09:39 about 2 million confirmed cases, which are numbers that would have likely been a lot higher if it had not been for the lockdown. In fact, a study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley followed interventions and lockdowns done in China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France, and the United States. And it stated that interventions in these countries, quote, prevented or delayed on the order of 62 million confirmed cases corresponding to averting roughly 530 million total infections. With those numbers ranging so much because so many cases are not formally diagnosed.

Starting point is 00:10:05 With that going on to note, there could have been 60 million more infections in the United States. And I mean, as far as lockdowns, quarantine, contact tracing, it is known to be extremely effective. It's not even a hypothesis. I mean, you just look at New Zealand, where over the weekend they actually announced

Starting point is 00:10:18 that their last COVID-19 patient has recovered, meaning that they currently have no active case of the virus. This is obviously a huge milestone, aided by heavy contact tracing to isolate as many people who came into contact with an infected person. And so with this, the country's now planning to reopen almost everything.

Starting point is 00:10:33 I mean, they're entering what they're calling alert level one, which means everyone can return without restriction to work, school, sports, and domestic travel, and you can get together with as many people as you want. However, the world is no longer local, has not been for a very long time, so border restrictions do remain in place.

Starting point is 00:10:47 Meaning, travel internationally is limited, and those who do come in must go through a screening and testing and enter a quarantine. There's also a new contact tracing app that's being rolled out, and if you're like, "'Well, why if there's no cases?' Well, it's because the virus may have been eliminated there for now, but the country does expect

Starting point is 00:11:01 to eventually see a case again." With Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying in a statement, "'We are confident we have eliminated transmission "'of the virus in New Zealand for now, "'but elimination is not a point in time, "'it is a sustained effort. "'We will almost certainly see cases here again, "'and that is not a sign that we have failed.

Starting point is 00:11:15 "'It is a reality of this virus. "'But if and when that occurs, we have to make sure, "'and we are, that we are prepared.'" Now, on the opposite end of this exciting news with New Zealand, it also comes at a time where the world itself has hit over 7 million cases according to Johns Hopkins. And also at a time where Brazil,

Starting point is 00:11:30 one of the hardest hit countries outside of the United States has now over 691,000 cases. Though we should probably add an asterisk to that number because there's just been report after report talking about the insufficient testing there. And in fact, now the country is also changing and limiting the way that it will be reporting coronavirus data. So the country's website devoted to statistics

Starting point is 00:11:48 on the virus will no longer be sharing cumulative totals and only sharing information on cases and deaths within the last 24 hours. And this happening in a country where President Jair Bolsonaro has constantly underplayed the virus, comparing it to the flu, calling it a media trick and encouraging people to just go back to work. He was also reportedly one of the people largely pushing

Starting point is 00:12:03 for the scaling back of data reporting. It's also not just Bolsonaro trying to undermine this data. You have his new Secretary of Science and Technology from their health ministry speaking to the Washington Post. And they're reportedly without offering evidence, claimed that local leaders had been inflating their coronavirus numbers, quote, "'Purely in the interest of getting bigger city

Starting point is 00:12:19 "'and state budgets.'" But all of that has also led to a ton of backlash. This including from the country's National Council of Health Secretaries who put out a statement calling this choice quote authoritarian, insensitive, inhuman and unethical saying that it will not succeed. And adding it offends secretaries, doctors and all health professionals who have tirelessly dedicated themselves to saving lives. You also had a Brazilian Supreme Court judge calling it a maneuver of totalitarian regimes. Adding that the attempts to hide information

Starting point is 00:12:45 will not exempt them from being responsible for what he called an eventual genocide. With the justice in Brazil's top court today giving the government 48 hours to return to the format it had used until June 4th. But ultimately that is where I'm gonna end this section and story and of course pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts about everything right now?

Starting point is 00:13:00 And that is where I'm going to end today's show. Of course, as always, thank you for watching, liking, sharing, being a part of that conversation in the comments down below. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, maybe you missed yesterday's show or you want to watch that new clip with Watsky, you can click or tap right there to watch that.

Starting point is 00:13:13 But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces, and I'll see you tomorrow. I hope you liked the video. Subscribe if you like it.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.9 Bon Appétit Staff EXPOSE Treatment, HUGE $$ Accusations, Test Kitchen DEMANDS, & More

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