The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.25 New P. Diddy Details & Conspiracy Theories, Chappell Roan Scandal is Weird, & What is Disease X...

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

Everything is getting messier by the minute... Go to https://ground.news/defranco to stay fully informed and get all sides of every story. Subscribe through my link for 40% off unlimited access.  Beam’s Dream is clinically shown to improve sleep. Click https://shopbeam.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get up to 35% off. New Limited Drop @ https://BeautifulBastard.com is LIVE AND YOU CAN GET 20-60% OFF on Drop Week! 41 Days Until Election Day! Make Sure You Are Registered to VOTE: https://Vote.org  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Diddy Conspiracies About Kim Porter & Justin Bieber, Spread Online 04:41 - Marcellus Williams Executed, One of Five Executions Scheduled This Week 07:59 - Chappell Roan Clarifies Views on Endorsements After Backlash 11:20 - Sponsored by Ground News 12:24 - The Son of Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Arrested for Trove Of CP 13:59 - Haitian Group in Springfield Files Criminal Charges Against Trump and Vance 17:04 - Court Rules Alex Jones’ Infowars & Other Business Assets Can be Auctioned Off 19:48 - Israel Intercepts Hezbollah Missile Near Tel Aviv in First Such Attack 22:14 - Sponsored by Beam 23:11 - The World Is Already Preparing for the Next Pandemic ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on Pandemic: Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #ChappellRoan #Diddy ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. You daily dive into the news and we have a lot of wild news and updates to talk about today. So let's just jump into it. This is a news show. Conspiracies about P. Diddy right now

are spreading around the internet like wildfire and understandably so. All of this coming after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and a sweeping indictment that followed a string of similar lawsuits, and it's opened the door to tons of speculation. People questioning what celebrities either knew of or enabled or were impacted by his alleged actions.

Some of the biggest theories out there right now deal with Kim Porter, a model and actress that Diddy dated back in the 90s and 2000s. She had three kids with him, but she died in 2018 with her cause of death eventually being determined to be lobar pneumonia. But now you have tons of people suggesting her death was actually the result of foul play. Even had Al be sure who dated and had a child with him prior to her relationship with Diddy calling for an investigation into her death, suggesting that

she was killed because she knew about Diddy's sex trafficking and other alleged crimes. And this is he's just one of the many people saying this, but notably all of her kids just released a joint statement yesterday condemning these claims and rumors as false, writing, our lives were shattered when we lost our mother. While it has been incredibly difficult to reconcile how she could be taken from us too soon, the cause of her death has long been established. There is no foul play.

Grief is a lifelong process, and we ask that everyone respect our request for peace as we continue to cope with her loss every day. And adding, we are deeply saddened that the world has made a spectacle of what has been the most tragic event of our lives. Her memory should not be tainted by horrific conspiracy theories. They also addressed reports that Kim had written a book

exposing Diddy saying that was also untrue and that quote, anyone claiming to have a manuscript is misrepresenting themselves. And while with that, you have tons of people supporting their statement and expressing condolences that they have to deal with this, you also have a good number of people still trying

to convince them that Diddy was behind her death. Some even telling her kids that they've been brainwashed by Diddy or saying that his PR team put out this statement as part of a coverup. And all of this is now tons of people are thinking about Justin Bieber's relationship with Diddy in a new light. Because looking back, they started hanging out

when Justin was just a teen new to the industry. And while Justin hasn't spoken about the arrest himself, people are sharing old clips of Justin and Diddy hanging out and what they believe, with hindsight, show a young Justin very uncomfortable. Right now, he's having 48 hours with Diddy, him and his boy. They're having the times of their lives,

like, you know, where we hanging out and what we doing. We can't really disclose, but it's definitely a 15 year old's dream. Right, even though Justin hasn't made allegations against it or really said anything in this case, you have a lot of people out there reading between the lines and trying to fill in blanks. Some also sharing this clip of Justin from 2020,

where he discussed his desire to protect Billie Eilish from the industry and really wondering what he has witnessed or went through when he was a kid to be so emotional here. It was hard for me being that young and being in the industry and not knowing where to turn. I just want to protect her, you know? I don't want her to go through anything I went through. I don't wish that upon anybody. Yeah, if she ever needs me, I'm just a call away. Right, and all the interest and speculation here has gotten so big that a song people claim Justin made about Diddy is going viral on TikTok with lyrics like. of a fortune and fame. All the girls never walk in the same sign of paper so he never has to

ever say sorry. Lost myself at a ditty party. And that song has been featured in thousands of TikToks, some with millions of views. But as you may have suspected from listening to it, researchers told CBS News that the song is likely AI generated. It's not. In his catalog, there is no record of him

releasing it, and CBS even ran it through detection tools that determined that it was at least partially AI. And notably, all these discussions are coming as Diddy separately is now even in more legal trouble right now. With yesterday, him being hit with another lawsuit. This one from a woman who claimed that Diddy and his bodyguard raped her in 2001 and recorded it.

There's even more claims and allegations getting stacked up against him. We're gonna have to wait to see where things go, especially because there's no running away from this. Because while he has pled not guilty to the charges against him, We're gonna have to wait to see where things go, especially because there's no running away from this. Because while he has pled not guilty to the charges against him, he is currently behind bars. And with this obviously nowhere near the end of this saga, I think the final note that I'll hit on,

this is a good mindset to have really with any story, but when you have something that has this much attention, know that it is gonna be very messy. There's gonna be real stuff, there's gonna be fake stuff, there's gonna be speculation that's just fucking outlandish, and then there's gonna be speculation that absolutely makes sense.

And it's important to have that healthy amount of skepticism and not treat everything as equally valid or the same. Because when the fake stuff gets exposed for being fake, it hurts the legitimacy of the very real things. But for now, as we wait to see what happens next, I gotta pass a question off to you. What are your thoughts with this? But then, shifting gears, unfortunately,

we need to talk about what happened to Marcellus Williams. And we just talked about the man on Monday. He was convicted of murdering a woman by the name of Felicia Gale back in 1998, though he has always maintained his innocence. And last January, the prosecuting attorney in the same office that convicted Williams more than 20 years earlier,

he said that he thought Williams was innocent as well, with him even filing a motion to overturn the conviction, saying that the original prosecutor wrongly rejected a black juror, that the two main witnesses were not credible, and then on top of those things, that there wasn't any physical evidence tying Williams to the murder.

With actually last month, a new analysis finding no traces of Williams' DNA on the murder weapon. Instead, they found that the knife had been contaminated with DNA from a prosecutor and investigator working on the original case. But instead of that exonerating him, because the evidence had been mishandled, it couldn't be used to prove Williams' innocence.

And so eventually, after a bunch of back and forth, we got to this week, with the Missouri Supreme Court at least agreeing to consider a last minute appeal by Williams' attorneys, just a day before his scheduled execution. Right, and Williams' lawyers didn't really even focus on the innocence claim, but basically explained how the process had been so flawed

that his execution just couldn't be justified. But by Monday evening, we saw the Supreme Court not buying that and they declined to halt Williams' execution with the opinion saying, despite nearly a quarter century of litigation in both state and federal courts, there is no credible evidence of actual innocence

or any showing of a constitutional error undermining confidence in the original judgment. And in the end, his other avenues of appeal, they failed as well. Governor Mike Parson denied clemency. And finally, yesterday, the US Supreme Court rejected the final request to halt the execution. Though that split six to three

with the objecting justices being Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson. So last night, after more than two decades on death row, Marcellus Williams was executed. One of the things with this is he is actually just one of five people being executed this week. The first execution was carried out on Friday in South Carolina, again, after a failed appeal

to the state Supreme Court, with that being a man by the name of Freddie Owens, who was convicted for a 1997 murder. And very notably there, he was killed days after a key witness in the case admitted to lying on the stand. With the witness writing in a statement to the court, "'I thought the real shooter or his associates

"'might kill me if I named him to the police.'" Also last night, along with Williams, there was a man in Texas who was executed for killing his infant son, though very notably there, he had waived his right to appeal and there was no claims of innocence there. And then finally, you have two more executions scheduled for tomorrow. In Alabama, you have Alan Miller, who has already gone through one botched execution and he's being put to death for killing three men during back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999. And then in Oklahoma, you have Emmanuel Littlejohn, who's set to receive a lethal injection

in connection to the killing of a convenience store owner during a robbery in 1992. And notably there, you have Littlejohn admitting to his role in the robbery, but claiming he didn't fire the fatal shot. And while the state's pardon and parole board voted three to two last month to recommend that his life be spared,

the governor has yet to make a clemency decision. But if the two remaining scheduled executions are carried out this week, it will mark the first time since 2003 that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Plus, actually looking into it, it'll mean that the United States

will have reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. And notably, this after executions climbed for the second year in a row in 2023, with Texas and Florida accounting for more than half. Which I will say, regardless of your opinion on capital punishment in general, is something that's scary when you look at cases like

Marcellus Williams and the fact that at least 200 people have been exonerated after being sentenced to death since 1973. Because it makes you wonder, out of the nearly 1,600 people who were ultimately executed, how many were innocent? And then, to Chapel Roan, right, there's been mounting backlash against her. And while there's a lot of focus on what she did today, this story actually starts over the weekend. Because that is when she did this interview with the Guardian, which rubbed people the wrong way. Because while discussing politics,

the election, and a potential endorsement, she said, "'I have so many issues with our government in every way. "'There are so many things that I would want to change. "'So I don't feel pressured to endorse someone. "'There's problems on both sides. "'I encourage people to use your critical thinking skills, "'use your vote, vote small, vote for what's going on in your city."

And many of her fans were immediately upset, noting that her work is inspired by Dragon, that she is a vocal supporter of LGBTQ plus rights, and one party specifically is working against those rights. There were people saying things like, you can't play the both sides are equally bad card, and pretend that the party that would criminalize our happiness is the same as the one who protects it.

Some even going so far as to say she is a secret Republican. Though this, as other fans defended her, noting that her political leanings are clear, even if she is in prancing around in a Kamala team. Noting elsewhere in that specific article, she spoke up for trans rights and separately, she invites local drag artists to her shows

and has proceeds of tickets and merch go to LGBTQ plus rights charities and aid for Palestine. Right, but those defenses, it really hasn't stopped the criticisms from piling in. With that then leading to Chapel Rowan addressing all this in a video. I have encouraged people to use critical thinking skills, learn about what they're voting for,

learn about who they're voting for and ask questions. And it's being completely taken out of context per usual. There is nuance to what I say in interviews. I think it's important for me to question authority and question world leaders and question myself. Throne going on to say that she wants to be part of the generation that changes things for good. And also adding that anyone who knows her work

or reads her interviews knows what she stands for. Actions speak louder than words and actions speak louder than an endorsement. No, I'm not voting for Trump. And yes, I will always question those in power. But all of that then just resulted in more mixed responses, right? Some thinking she didn't even need to explain herself.

Whereas others thought, you know, this video really didn't do anything, that if she really supports the causes she's talking about, there's only one way for her to vote. Which then led to this morning with Chaperone addressing the controversy even more because she felt that people were skewing her words. Dorsing and voting are completely different.

Like obviously, fuck the policies of the right, but also fuck some of the policies on the left. That's why I can't endorse. That's why I can't like put my entire name and my entire project behind one. Fuck Trump for fucking real, but fuck some of the shit that has gone down in the Democratic Party that has failed people

like me and you. And more so, Palestine. With Roan saying she can't stand behind what you call the genocidal and sometimes transphobic views on the left. And with all that saying she doesn't wanna settle for the options in front of her and she won't feel bad about that, but also saying. So yeah, I'm voting for fucking Kamala, but I'm not settling for what has been offered,

because that's questionable. So if you look at my statement and you're still like, she's just playing both sides, she doesn't wanna, no, you're not getting it. I'm critiquing both sides because they're both so fucked up. But then telling people to vote for what they think is right, noting that she thinks one side is better than the other, but also saying we shouldn't settle for what's out there.

But yeah, with all that said, you know, I'll ask you, where do you land on this? But then taking a 60 second breather from the news, but then to also still talk about news, you know, the news cycle is showing no signs of approaching sanity. I mean, if we're being honest, it is hard to make sense of the chaos

and get the full picture in a world where seemingly everyone occupies a different reality. You know, we strive to make sense of the chaos here daily, and that's also why it's great that Ground News is sponsoring today's show. Their app and website aggregate the world's news, allowing us to compare coverage beyond mainstream media, which is critical to getting to the heart of each story.

Nearly 170 sources reported on Trump repeating the claims about the Haitian immigrants eating Ohio residents' pets. With only 10% coverage from conservative sources, it was clearly a huge blind spot for right-wing media. Headlines on the left calling Trump's claims baseless, while the few headlines on the right claim it's not just a conspiracy. We can even seek out these disproportionately covered

stories on Ground News via their Blindspot feed, which is pretty key. Ground News is for those of us tired of just mainstream media narratives and interested in leaving our silos once in a while to understand where other perspectives are coming from. So hey, head to ground.news slash defranquistoday or scan the QR code below for 40% off unlimited access,

which is what I use to read the news. But then, let's talk about big updates on Trump's would-be assassin. Because among other things, it turns out that he was planning that assassination attempt for months, and he had a detailed list of when and where Donald Trump would be in his car.

With him also reportedly leaving a detailed note of his plans in a box that he left at an unidentified person's house. And the reason we know about that is that after his arrest, that person went, "'Huh, I should probably look into this box. And on top of all that, the would-be assassin has finally been slapped with actual charges

related to the assassination. And I know that sounds weird because obviously that was his intention, but he was initially just held on some firearms violations, which also I will say is pretty normal. Prosecutors often use more easily provable charges to hold someone as they gather more evidence for the more serious charges.

And I mean, in this case, he was caught red-handed with firearms on him despite multiple felony convictions that ban him from owning one. So that was pretty cut and charges. And I mean, in this case, he was caught red-handed with firearms on him, despite multiple felony convictions that ban him from owning one. So that was pretty cut and dry. But either way, right, this guy is looking at life in prison and considering he was caught in the act,

it's a pretty slam dunk case. But also his actions may actually put multiple people in prison, although not exactly for helping him. Cause you see, there's actually a pretty crazy plot twist to all this. As part of their investigation, the FBI also raided the home of his son, Oren. With them looking for more evidence of his father's intentions, and during

that, they took two mobile phones that Oren had. With them getting warrants for those phones and quote, a review of the SD card located in device one revealed that it contained hundreds of child pornography files. And adding, these files include videos from a known child pornography series created outside the state of North Carolina. They also found apps that they say pedophiles use to communicate with one another to make this content, although we don't know what those apps are at this time. So this entire thing has kind of turned into a two for one for the FBI.

But it would be assassin behind bars and get rid of a pedophile who is actively looking for content. So I guess here's to hoping that family tree is done. I think that gene pool maybe needs to be drained. And then in a huge update to all the horrible and racist shit and lies being said about the Haitian community

in Springfield, Ohio, a nonprofit representing the group has now filed criminal charges against Trump along with JD Vance. Because as I'm sure you're aware by now, the two of them have been continuously amplifying a false online conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating pets. And that, even though they have been thoroughly debunked.

But among so many other things, you had officials in Springfield saying the allegations are meritless, police saying there were no credible reports of Haitian immigrants harming pets, the rumor even being traced back to various unreliable sources like viral photos, Facebook posts, and even a neo-Nazi group called Blood Tribe. And also with all that, you advance seemingly admitting to just making the whole thing up to get attention, while then also somehow continuing to defend the claims.

But also, besides spreading outrageous lies about eating pets, he has repeatedly and wrongly described Springfield's Haitian population as being there illegally. With this notably, despite officials including Springfield's Republican mayor and Ohio's Republican governor making it clear that most Haitian immigrants arrived in Springfield legally. And to be exact, the 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants who have arrived in Springfield over the past several years have one, often come after being recruited to local jobs, and two, been granted temporary protected status to be in the U.S. legally. And while Vance acknowledged their status, he also still said he'll keep calling them illegal. And now a spokesperson for the Trump campaign has done it again, responding to this case by saying, President Trump is rightfully highlighting the

failed immigration system that Kamala Harris has overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into communities like Springfield and many others across the country. And so now with all that, you have the attorney filing the action on behalf of the Haitian community group saying, advances in Trump's persistence and relentlessness, even in the face of the governor and the mayor saying, this is false, that shows intent. It's knowing, willful flouting of criminal law.

But that said, right, it's not just about the lies. The case that they're making is about the harm that these lies have caused. You can't cry fire falsely in a crowded theater, and you similarly can't persistently and relentlessly make false statements that you know your megaphone causes other people to go bananas.

With the legal filing describing Trump and Vance's rhetoric as an orchestrated campaign of lies that spread a false narrative that Haitians in Springfield are a danger. With it then going on to say, many public institutions have been forced to evacuate and vital local resources were diverted to investigate the barrage of threats to the community. And actually to that point, there's been more than 30 bomb threats leading to evacuations of schools and government buildings. And then of course, I mean, there's been violence and threats against Haitian residents

themselves with the FBI now looking into some of them. So specifically, the Haitian group is charging the two of them with disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, and a couple of other things. Plus, they're asking the Clark County Municipal Court to affirm that there is probable cause and issue arrest warrants against Trump and Vance. With the attorneys saying if it were anyone else other than Trump and Vance who had done what they've done,

they would have been arrested by now. And adding, they must be held accountable to the rule of law in the same way any of the rest of us would be. Though I will say, however you feel about this, it's not actually clear that anyone else would have been arrested by now. And that, because these types of cases that deal with free speech, they can be hard to make.

Also, because these charges are being brought by private citizens, hearings still need to happen before we know if it'll be moving forward. And at least as of Tuesday afternoon, none had been scheduled. And if and when they do, you know, that might lead to the case getting thrown out. But at the very least, you have people saying

it'll force a prosecuting attorney to make a public decision. But then, is this the end of Alex Jones and InfoWars as we know it? That is the question at hand after yesterday, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that InfoWars and other assets from InfoWars' parent company, Free Speech Systems,

can be auctioned off. And this to help pay for the damages that he owes the relatives of Sandy Hook victims for spreading lies that the shooting was a hoax, which of course resulted in families suffering harassment, abuse and threats. And he owes these families a metric shit ton of money.

The jury is having awarded family members of 10 victims, more than $1.4 billion in total from lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas. And that number could increase even more because the jury hasn't yet decided exactly how much Jones owes the parents of one child murdered during the shooting. But Jones seemingly doesn't have even a fraction

of the money that he owes, which is why the bankruptcy court has approved the auction of his child murdered during the shooting. But Jones seemingly doesn't have even a fraction of the money that he owes, which is why the bankruptcy court has approved the auction of his company's asset. And specifically, the ruling sets up auctions for mid-November and December that will sell off everything. And this reportedly including intellectual property like InfoWars' website and social media accounts, as well as production equipment, domain names,

inventory and products, trademarks owned by free speech systems. Though also very notably here, Jones' personal socials, including his ex-account with nearly 3 million followers, that will not be auctioned off. Though the trustee overseeing Jones's bankruptcy case has said that he might try to ask the court to liquidate Jones's personal accounts and other intellectual property, a move that is reportedly opposed by his lawyers, but supported by the Sandy Hook families in the Connecticut lawsuit. With the bankruptcy trustee also saying in court that there are several

parties that have expressed interest in buying Jones's ex account. What actually happens to those accounts, it's gonna be very significant because it does dictate Jones's future. Or because the bidder is vying to buy these assets, they're unknown and it's possible that some person or group could purchase InfoWars just to kill the company. But also experts say that the fact that there's interest

in Jones's personal social media accounts indicates that interested parties want the company to live on. And if that were to happen, legally Jones would still be free to continue working for whatever new entity purchases his company. But really, I mean, regardless of how all this shakes out, Jones has vowed to continue his talk show in some form. And while the lawyers for the families

have cheered this ruling as a significant step forward that brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm that he's caused, you have others saying, you know, the victory appears to be mostly symbolic, because ultimately it'll only pay the families a fraction of what Jones owes them. And according to the New York Times, court records show that Jones's personal and business

assets combined are worth less than $10 million. And then even that pot will be cut down before it can be doled out to the families because his lawyers and other bankruptcy officials who have racked up millions in fees and expenses will be paid first. With court filings indicating that just $8 million will be distributed to the families by the end of this process. In fact, the Times reported that this asset sale is probably the least lucrative option for the family members, though its potential for shutting down Infowars appealed to some. Lawyers for the relatives of eight victims who sued Jones in Connecticut wanted the company to be shut down entirely and have its liquidated assets distributed among the family members.

And lawyers for families who sued in Texas, they wanted a settlement where Jones would be forced to pay them a chunk of his future income over the next decade, which would likely result in each relative getting more money. With that deal also banning him from speaking about the shooting ever again. But then, in probably the least surprising news of the day, there are a ton of updates on the situation between Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon. And as many people have feared, the conflict just continues to heat up with both Israel and Hezbollah trading even more fire. Right over in southern Lebanon, there have been almost non-stop strikes for days now with Israel targeting Hezbollah trading even more fire. Right over in Southern Lebanon, there have been almost nonstop strikes for days now with Israel targeting Hezbollah facilities and leadership,

with it even managing to kill the head of Hezbollah's rocket program, meaning that it decapitated a significant number of Hezbollah's leadership. And Hezbollah has continued to respond with its own rockets. And now they're even targeting Tel Aviv for the first time since fighting began, which is a notable uptick in its response.

And that's because unlike the rest of Northern Israel, which does have communities, but is relatively sparsely populated, Tel Aviv is a major city. However, Israel managed to intercept the missile with its Iron Dome defense system, so no damage was done to the city and there were no casualties.

However, other parts of Israel weren't so lucky and they were heavily damaged. But at the same time, the people in Lebanon, they went through a different situation, especially those living in the Southern part, where Hezbollah is in de facto control. Like, I mean, just so far today, 51 were reportedly killed in Israeli strikes.

And since strikes really ramped up this week, the total is well into the hundreds. However, we also, again, don't know exactly how many of those deaths are Hezbollah members versus civilians. Although to be clear here, right, that is splitting hairs a bit, as we do know that there are substantial civilian deaths

based on reports like how many children were killed. Also, another thing that this has caused is the mass displacement of people all across Lebanon, but especially in the south. And then a sign of just how desperate they are, they've fled to Syria, which is a country that is in an active civil war. And all of this is it's now widely expected

that Israeli troops will eventually make their way into the country to directly fight Hezbollah, and no one wants to be in the area when that happens. This is speculation that even the Israeli military is giving its troops. But the military's chief of staff telling soldiers in Northern Israel that the airstrikes were, quote, to prepare the terrain for the possibility of your incursion. With them military's chief of staff telling soldiers in Northern Israel that the airstrikes were, quote,

"'to prepare the terrain for the possibility "'of your incursion.'" With them then going on to say that removing Hezbollah will let the 60,000 Israelis who have fled their homes in the north return. But also this conflict has caused concern from the families of the remaining hostages in Gaza, who now fear that the fighting with Hezbollah, quote,

"'may overshadow the plight of our 101 loved ones.'" And while obviously with all of this, we're gonna keep our eyes on it, the next expected updates with all of this are probably gonna come next week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the UN, because he's expected to get to New York tomorrow

and then speak on Friday. Also, while we're talking about the UN, President Biden touched on the conflict when giving his last speech to the UN today, with him saying that an all-out war is still possible, although he wants to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region, promising that it is a major priority

and that the administration is trying to get it done, although we only know the broad strokes of the plan, right? Things like letting people return to their homes and demilitarizing the border. But for now, we'll have to continue to wait to see what happens. Then, taking a quick break from the news, you know, struggling to turn your brain off

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So just go to shopbeam.com slash defranco and use code defranco or scan the QR code to get up to 35% off with my exclusive discount. And then, y'all, I know that it feels like we just got out of the last one. And for some of you, it's still not even over, but it is well past the time to start thinking about the next global pandemic.

Right, because as the World Health Organization's director general put it, this is not a question of if, but when. With one study even estimating that in any given year, the chance of a pandemic similar to COVID-19 happening is about one in 50. And so that means that people will have about a 38% chance of living through one in their lifetime.

And the thing is, is that yearly probability may as much as triple in the coming decades. But also that study is optimistic compared to one conducted by this disease forecasting company in London. With that putting the odds of a COVID-like pandemic occurring again by 2033 at 27.5%. Though if humans prepare well enough, the researchers say we could cut that risk down by as much as 70%. But you know, the real million dollar question here is exactly which disease will spark the next outbreak. And with that, for the past two years, over 200 scientists have been studying this question for the World Health Organization.

Them evaluating the evidence on 28 virus families and one core group of bacteria encompassing 1,652 pathogens in total. In their recent release report, they identified more than 30 priority pathogens that they believe could trigger the next pandemic. Which is very notable because that is a huge jump from the roughly 12 pathogens they picked out the last time this exercise was done in 2017 and 2018. And so this new list includes some old pals like the coronaviruses responsible for the last pandemic and Middle East respiratory syndrome, as well as some new characters like influenza A, specifically the bird flu.

Health officials keeping close watch on how much and how fast it's spreading. Monkeypox. The World Health Organization declared it a global health emergency. And dengue fever. Up more than 230% from last year. And then of course there's disease X,

which sounds really scary and it may or it may not be. It's just the who's placeholder term for any pathogen that we've never seen before. Either because it doesn't exist yet or it's hiding somewhere in the world that's under monitor. Probably a resource scarce yet biodiverse region which might harbor novel pathogens that are just waiting for humans to come along

and chop down the rainforest so they can get out. Now though obviously the features of disease X are only hypothetical, we can make some guesses based on how diseases usually become pandemic. So for example, it'll probably be a virus, it'll probably spread through respiration, and it'll probably jump from an animal to a human.

Though it could also be a pathogen already in humans that just mutates to become much more transmissible. Which I mean, really in either case could be the stuff of nightmares, right? Certain viruses like H5N1, Nipah, and Ebola, for example, they're many times more fatal than the coronavirus. But luckily right now, they're not very transmissible. But if one of those suddenly spreads super fast, that's, it's a fucking nightmare. And so how do we prepare for a disease we haven't even identified yet? Well, the World Health Organization came up with a solution that it calls prototype pathogens.

Basically, these are single pathogens that are meant to represent entire families of pathogens. So in theory, scientists can prepare for each of those. And then hopefully when disease X does emerge, it'll be close enough to one that we already have. And notably, this is not a new strategy. In fact, it kind of worked for COVID-19. Because of what was learned during the MERS epidemic in 2012,

BioNTech and Moderna had a COVID vaccine candidate ready within days in 2020. Specifically, they better understood how to stabilize the spike protein so it produced the appropriate antibodies. Maybe if we had also done even more basic R&D for the family of pathogens in general, we might've been more prepared for the outbreak.

Because it's not just vaccines that we can get a headstart on. Scientists are also aiming to develop broad spectrum antiviral drugs and monoclonal antibodies. And to further those efforts, the WHO is seeking to establish a global collaborative open research consortium of each pathogen family. So hopefully researchers from all different parts

of the globe could put their giant brains together and share knowledge. Also notably, the WHO's 194 member states were supposed to wrap up two years of negotiations on a historic pandemic preparedness treaty back in May, but thanks to disagreements, mainly between rich and poor countries over financing, enforcement, and intellectual property rights, there's still no deal.

Meanwhile, in April, the Biden administration released its new global health security strategy plan that's meant to roll out over the next five years, announcing that the U.S. has expanded its health security partnerships from 19 countries to 50, which in theory would make cooperation on testing, surveillance, and pandemic preparedness generally easier. But pretty much everything that we've talked about so far are just the preconditions for an effective pandemic strategy, which consists of three things, prevention, detection, and response. So the first step, prevention, basically entails doing everything we can

to make disease outbreaks less frequent, which generally means reducing or controlling all the ways that humans fuck with nature, like deforestation, mining, disruptive land use, the wildlife trade. Because when we encroach on or destroy animals' natural habitats, that brings more of them into contact with more of us. Also, it stresses them out,

which then makes them more likely to get infected with viruses and spread them to us. You know, one obvious solution is to stop doing that. Or if we are going to keep doing it, at least regulate hygiene standards at wet markets like the now infamous one in Wuhan. Also, it would be great to reverse climate change. But let's say we do all that

and an outbreak still occurs anyway. What then? Well, that brings us to phase two, detection. The sooner that you identify the emergence of a new disease and the better you track its spread, the easier it will be to contain. And the soldiers on the front line for detection are emergency room physicians, right?

Because that's the first place people go and they're experiencing strange symptoms. But hospitals in poor countries simply don't have the same diagnostic testing capabilities that rich ones do. So it's harder to tell if a disease is something new or more of the same, which is why experts argue that rich countries

have an interest in helping poor ones build genomic sequencing facilities. Because the sooner that you can sequence a novel virus, the sooner you can design tests and vaccines for it, and the sooner you can hunker down before it reaches your country. But that can't happen if the country sequencing the pathogen keeps its discovery hidden from the rest of the world,

a la China. So establishing open lines of communication and norms of data sharing between hospitals and governments, that's crucial. Even within the United States, after COVID hit, state governments didn't always share their data with the federal government, which made it harder to get a big picture view.

Also, another part of streamlining the detection process is making sure you have abundant quality data as soon as possible. And so you see experts pushing for a national readiness plan that includes the diagnostic industry and test manufacturers, the FDA and the CDC, private insurers and Medicaid, pharmacies and community centers. Because you don't want to be negotiating contracts and figuring out who's doing what in the middle of a crisis. It's better to have

this stuff settled in advance. But in the event that prevention fails and containment does not work, you move on to step three, response. And I really don't need to tell you what that means because you lived through it, right? The lockdown, school closures, remote work, social distancing, contact tracing, et cetera, et cetera. And if we dipped our toes into the debate over how effective each of those policies were and what we should have done differently, we would be here for another hour.

So instead, I wanna focus on some of the straightforward stuff that we could do right now to make the next pandemic response easier. Starting with a really simple one, increase funding for public health. What we often see is that money actually does solve almost everything. Whether it's shoring up hospital capacity, ending the healthcare workers shortage, or stockpiling equipment like ventilators. Also building up domestic manufacturing capacity for stuff like masks would insulate the United States

against supply chain bottlenecks outside its borders. Then we could update building codes and subsidize property developers and owners to install better air filtration systems everywhere. Finally, there's the capstone to any good pandemic response of vaccine. Right, as impressive as the rollout of the COVID shots were in wealthy countries, it took years for the rest of the world to obtain doses, which they largely got through philanthropy. So you have experts proposing

that building up local manufacturing capacity in poorer parts of the world and training people now and then waiving intellectual property rights so they can have access to the recipe, that's the trick. Though, as we've seen with the struggle over the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty, that seems unlikely to happen. But at the very least, we can look forward

to science and technology getting progressively better between now and the next pandemic. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations currently gunning for a 100-day vaccine development timeline using rapid response vaccine platform. Which, I mean, even if they accomplish anything close to that, that would be breathtaking. Or to put that into perspective, it took 326 days for the first coronavirus vaccine

to get developed and approved. But if we want to muster the political will to do any of this and ensure that ordinary people cooperate with public health measures, we need to restore trust in public health. Because when a pandemic strikes, it doesn't matter how many masks, tests, and vaccines you mass produce if nobody wants to use them.

And right now, trust in public health is at a historic low because as the saying goes, the only thing that spreads faster than a virus is misinformation. So in a sense, addressing the anti-vax sentiment and misinformation in general, that is the pandemic before the pandemic. And this is the further our world slides

into ecological crisis, the more urgent all of this is gonna be. Because humanity is at the same time more vulnerable to infectious diseases and more capable of handling them than ever before. Diseases can count on the interconnectedness of our world economy and the damage wrought by climate change to help them spread.

But humans can hopefully count on our public health systems, amazing medical technology and ability to adapt and innovate to keep ourselves safe. So the big question is, will we commit the resources needed to tilt the global balance in favor of humanity? Or will we just neglect our collective responsibility until the next disaster blindsides us? That is the end of today's show.

Thank you so much for watching. For more news, you need to know this is what YouTube thinks you're most interested in. This is the most recent video. That is, unless this is currently the most recent video. But either way, make sure you're subscribed and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.