The President's Daily Brief - August 29th, 2022. Vaccine Mandates: COVID vs. Flu? Cuba is Seeking Aid from the U.S. China Continues it's Attacks on a Texas Mining Company

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

It’s August 29th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ It’s a Special PDB this morning. The Main Brief today and all week is chosen by you — things we’ve discussed before but updated with new information, new data, and fresh analysis. First, vaccine mandates. Kids are going back to school and need certain shots. Including COVID jabs in some places. But should they? To help us think through that debate, we’ll start with this question: Why Is There No Mandate At Schools for A Flu Shot? Well, we’ve got some good science to answer that question, coming up. As always, I’m keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put these two on your radar. First, Cuba is asking for America’s help to fix a gas problem. I’ve got that interesting story. Second, China continues to attack an American mining company in Texas. We’ll discuss the latest.  And finally, the last thing before I let you go. A question from a listener on whether Joe Biden is blame for our outrageously high electricity prices. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's August 29th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA Officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. It's a special PDB this morning. The main brief today and all week is chosen by you, things that we've discussed before, but updated with new information, new data, and fresh analysis. So first up this week, vaccine mandates. Kids are going back to school and need certain shots, including COVID-Jabbs. in some places. But should they? To help us think through that debate, we're going to start with this question. Why is there no mandate at schools for a flu shot? Well, we've got some good science to answer that question coming up. As always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories.

Put these two on your radar. First, Cuba is asking for America's help to fix a gas problem. I've got that interesting story. Second, China continues to attack an American mining company in Texas. We'll discuss the latest. And finally, the last thing before I'd let you go, a question from a listener on whether Joe Biden is to blame for our outrageously high electricity prices. But first, let's get started with today's main brief. If you have kids, odds are you are getting them ready for their first day of school. And a part of that is making sure that they've got all of their vaccinations. Well, kids and parents in Washington, D.C. this morning are facing some drama around that process. D.C.'s mayor, Muriel Bowser, originally told parents that no COVID shot means no school.

But because so many kids and their families aren't vaccinated, she's backed off her threat. Well, for at least a couple more months anyway, families now have until January 3rd to comply or else. But here's what's fascinating. COVID shots are required for school in Washington, D.C., but flu shots are not. instead they are strongly recommended so why is that why don't schools and most employers mandate flu vaccines because i mean it is a serious public health threat five years ago we had a nasty flu outbreak it killed over 50 000 people hospitalized over 700,000 well this morning we're going to talk about why most places do not require flu vaccines we're going to talk about the science and the public health

reasoning for that and why some vaccinations are required while others are just recommendations. So let's get into it. First, we have to understand that there are two categories of vaccines, therapeutic and sterilizing. So let's take our flu vaccine to understand the difference. If I get a flu shot, I can still catch the flu and I can still spread it. In the world of vaccinations, that means that the flu vaccine is a therapeutic vaccine. It may provide me some personal benefit. In other words, my symptoms generally aren't going to be as severe, and I'm not going to be as sick for as long.

But I still get sick, and I still spread the disease to others. In other words, there is a personal benefit to this therapeutic vaccine, but there is no public benefit. My shot doesn't protect you or anybody else, just me. Okay, that's one type of vaccine, therapeutic with a private or, personal benefit. That leaves the other vaccine category that most of us know and think about, sterilizing vaccines. If you get the measles, mumps, or rebella vaccine, or a host of other childhood vaccines, you will never catch any of those diseases. That's because the vaccines

pump up your immune system so perfectly that the moment that your body recognizes the virus, it destroys it. In other words, it sterilizes or neutralizes the threat, immediately. You never get sick. And because of that, there is a profound public benefit. You get the jab, you don't get sick, but you also don't spread it to anybody else. That jab protects you and me. Okay, so that is the second type of vaccine, sterilizing with a public benefit. Which takes us back to our original question. Why has the U.S. government, virtually all schools and employers, never mandated the flu vaccine? for the general public.

Well, historically, public health officials have not wanted to mandate therapeutic vaccines. There is no public benefit, just a private benefit. Forcing people would be unethical to get these therapeutic vaccines. Instead, the messaging from public health officials has always been, look, if you want to get a therapeutic vaccine like the flu jab, do it. It might make you a little less sick. But to force you? No, no, no, no, no.

For decades, public health officials have said no way to forcing therapeutic vaccines into people's bodies. Listen to Dr. Tony Fauci of the National Institute of Health back in July of 2020 when he captured this sentiment. I don't see COVID vaccine mandates on a national level merely because you will be encroaching upon a person's freedom to make their own choice with their own health, end quote. And he added that, quote, we should not have central COVID mandates from the federal government. would not be appropriate, end quote. So to be clear, Fauci wasn't talking about vaccine mandates for measles and mumps and rubella. He has always favored those because they are sterilizing vaccines with a public benefit. The jab protects me and you. Instead, he was talking about a therapeutic vaccine, like the one for COVID and the flu. There's no public benefit. Thus, it's unethical

to shove that into people's bodies. So why did he change his mind? I'm going to let you debate that because it starts getting into issues of politics and power and ego, but perhaps we'll circle back on this one someday. Now, some of you all might defend Mr. Fauci by saying, well, COVID is different than the flu, more deadly. So even if the COVID vaccine is just therapeutic with no public benefit, it's worth it to force people. They need that private benefit. Well, I understand and I appreciate that argument, but to be clear, that has been clear that has. long been determined to be unethical, but for argument's sake, let's just consider it, most especially for your kids. CDC data tell us that one to five percent of people who get COVID

end up in the hospital. In other words, 95 to 99 percent of people who get COVID have either no symptoms or moderate symptoms. But still, that leaves one to five percent of Americans hospitalized, and that's a lot. But, and here's what we have to remind ourselves of, it's not just anybody who ends up in the hospital. The data show that the vast majority of hospitalized COVID patients are people who are obese, around 80% of patients. And the rest are largely those age 65 and up. The upshot then is that it's not just anybody who ends up hospitalized.

We have a very clear patient profile. Now, that doesn't mean that there won't be rare exceptions. There will be. Meanwhile, let's talk about kids. CDC data also tell us that of the 73 million, kids in America, around 1,000 have died. And of those poor children, the overwhelming number were either obese or those with profound immune disorders. Finally, consider this about kids. The CDC estimated that at least 75% of kids had already been infected with COVID by the time

that they were eligible for vaccination. And we did not see an unexpected rise in mortality rates, which matches what the data tell us. This COVID, disease is serious for some people, but not for kids. So folks, those are the data and those are the facts. If I were briefing you this morning in the White House, I wouldn't tell you what to do or to think on this one. You should do this in collaboration with your doctor. Instead, I'd ask you some questions to help you and your doctor wrestle with your decision. Should we force people to get therapeutic vaccines with no public benefit like the flu or COVID vaccines?

or instead should Americans be given the choice, just as Dr. Fauci said back in July of 2020. Meanwhile, should kids be forced to get therapeutic shots like in Washington, D.C. this morning, where there is a no-COVID vaccine, no school policy? And how do you justify forcing the COVID vaccine into a child's body, but not the flu vaccine, given what the data show? As always, I defer to you, but it seems to me that we need a now. conversation about this. In fact, we should have had it a long time ago. But it appears as though it's not going to happen, at least not anytime soon, and probably not in Washington, D.C., whether it be

in the White House, Congress, or in the schools. So instead of waiting for Biden or Fauci or anybody else, lead your own conversation. Use the facts and the data that I presented today with your family and your friends, with your local school boards, or your employer. And when you have good conversations, let me know about them. Or if you get frustrated, you can tell me that too. But either way, this podcast will stick to the facts and actual science, because that is what you deserve. Coming up, ladies and gentlemen, a closer look at what's on my radar. Two quick briefs for you. One on Cuba and the other on China. We'll be right back. Exema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with ebbglis.

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but first, a quick recap and a reminder of why we care. Immigration officials on our southern border have stopped more than 175,000 Cuban migrants since last October. And that is a record number of people from Cuba, easily eclipsing the number who arrived during the last big migration crisis in 1980 and 1992. So, why are these folks leaving? Well, Cuba is a communist-run dump, that is true, but also because the economy has collapsed. The food and medicine are scarce, and now they're facing extended blackouts. And that's because of a lightning strike that has set a fire some fuel tanks at the port city of Matanzas. That fuel was used to power their electricity plants, and that gets us to the update.

Cuban and U.S. government officials met virtually last week to discuss the cleanup effort at the Metanzas port. the Cuban foreign ministry characterized the conversation as, quote, professional and a fruitful exchange, end quote. The Cubans are asking for innovative U.S. techniques and procedures, they say, from both the U.S. government and from American oil companies. So what will the Biden administration do? Well, it certainly gives the White House the leverage to make a deal if they'd like. For instance, we'll help with this fuel problem if they give us something in return. maybe releasing political prisoners or making changes in how they run Cuba. Well, who knows what Biden and his team will do, but regardless, I'll keep you posted.

Finally this morning, China's propaganda machine is attacking a company in Texas, hoping to keep us dependent on some very special metals that they largely control. I brought you this story back in July, but I've got an update for you. To recap, rare earth metals are, as the name suggests, a set of minerals that aren't found very often. They're not in large deposits or in veins like other minerals. So they can be pretty tough to find and then to mine and separate out. But these metals are really important for a whole bunch of products. Your TV has them. Your cell phone has them. Your car has a whole bunch of them. And these metals are also very, very important for our military. They're critical for producing smart bombs,

fighter jets, satellite communications, name it, and it probably requires some amount of rare earth metal. Back in the 1980s, China caught on to how important these metals were and would be in the future. So they corner the market, and now they are the world's largest producer. And that is a position that they would like to keep. So when an Australian mining firm agreed to set up a rare earth metal separation facility in Texas, well, Beijing was not happy. They turned turned to a propaganda group called Dragon Bridge to stir up trouble. They flooded Facebook and Twitter with negative messages from fake accounts all about this new separation facility, saying that it would create health problems and environmental issues like radioactive contamination.

And they pumped these messages out specifically to environmental groups, who in turn shared them with other like-minded people. But all of it was, in fact, fake news. I brought you this story back in early July. But last week, we got an update. The CEO of the mining company said on Friday, quote, we see fake accounts posts on various social media every single day. And we report them every single day. And it's quite frustrating. It's very easy to see these bots post lies. The messages are exactly the same, end quote. One of the messages, by the way, is a smear that the company's environmental record in Malaysia is actually really bad with lots of fake pictures and fake stories. Well, the Pentagon and the FBI and others are investigating these continued daily attacks by

China, but nothing so far. The good news is that thankfully, the Texas facility is still on track to open in 2025. As always, I'll keep you posted. And with that, one more thing before I'd let you go, a debate about why our electricity prices are so high. We'll be. right back. This is a Bose moment. You've been there. Small talks going nowhere, but then the Bose speaker kicks in. Music you can feel fills the room, and no more chat with Jenny from accounts. Your life deserves music. Your music deserves Bose. Find your perfect product at Bose.com.

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Brian, if you have time, could you please go into deeper depth on how it's not great for America that Germany and Europe are importing our liquefied natural gas? I had a recent discussion with someone and they blame all the increase in our utility bills on Joe Biden and maintain that our increased exports don't affect us here. All right, Bill, I love this question and let me see if I can help settle this debate. First, the obvious. Our electricity rates are in fact skyrocketing. Things are so bad that about 20 million people all across this country, that's about one in six American homes, has fallen behind on their utility bills. And that is the worst crisis ever documented in the modern era. That's according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. So what's going

on? Well, America gets about 40% of our electricity from natural gas, and the cost of natural gas is soaring. We are now at a 14-year high. But why is that happening? Well, two reasons. First, supplies are really tight here in America. There's been a lot of demand this summer with unusually hot temperatures because of that triple dip la Nina that I briefed you on. So that means that we are consuming a lot more natural gas with less going into storage, and that has pushed up longer-term prices. But the other big reason, one that I've emphasized here on the PDB, is that we are exporting natural gas at the very time when we could really use it here at home. America consumes about 90% of what we produce, but oil companies export about 10% to foreign markets. And most of that

exported stuff is now going to Europe, because they are scrambling to find new suppliers after they foolishly and recklessly thought that Russia would always be their gas supplying friend. And that's not true anymore, all because of the sanctions and the counter sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. Now, your friend is right to say that Joe Biden shares blame for the high electricity prices. He could restrict that 10% export in order to boost domestic supply. And that would absolutely drive down natural gas prices here too and also your electricity bill. but he's not going to do that because he is trying to bail out Europe, or to be more accurate, you and I are bailing out Europe by paying higher utility bills. Now, is that okay with you?

Personally, I don't think so. Europe was stupid and being stupid has consequences, but I appreciate why reasonable people disagree. Meanwhile, Biden also shares a different kind of blame here. He could speed up permitting for oil projects because most of America's natural gas, as a byproduct of pumping oil from the ground. But he's not going to do that either because he is focused on climate change. Finally, we could make up for the limited natural gas supply by firing up our coal plants for our electricity, but that's not happening for the same reason that I just mentioned, climate change and the green energy revolution.

So, Bill, I hope that this all answers your question for both you and your friend. The bottom line is that exports really do matter on our utility bills. The war in Ukraine is just making things terribly worse. But it is also true that Joe Biden could do a lot to fix this issue. He just chooses not to. And because of that, one in six American households may lose their power, either in the summer heat or in the winter cold. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world.

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