Weird Medicine: The Podcast - 488 - Trout Mask Replicant

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

Dr Steve, Dr Scott and NP Mel B discuss: Pig Heart Transplant What to do with your body when you die Cannabinoids and Covid-19 Anaesthesia Risks Acetaldehyde Dehydrogenase Deficiency Type A personality: Inverse Dunning Kruger Covid Retinopathy Check out these important links! stuff.doctorsteve.com (for all your online shopping needs!) simplyherbals.net (for all your StressLess and FatigueReprieve needs!) Cameo.com/weirdmedicine (Book your old pal right now while he’s still cheap!) betterhelp.com/medicine (get professional counseling online ... NOW) CHECK US OUT ON PATREON!  ALL NEW CONTENT! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why did the lion cross the road? To get to the other pride. If you just read the bio for Dr. Steve, host of weird medicine on Sirius XM103, and made popular by two really comedy shows, Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez, you would have thought that this guy was a bit of, you know, a clown. Why can't you give me

the respect that I'm entitled to? I've got diphtheria crushing my esophagus. I've got Ebola spripping from my nose. I've got the leprosy of the heartbells, exacerbating my indefatible woes. I want to take my brain out and blast with the wave, an ultrasonic, agographic, and a pulsating shave. I want a magic pill. All my ailments, the health equivalent of citizen cane. And if I don't Get it now in the tablet

I think I'm doomed and I'll have to go insane I want to requiem for my disease So I'm paging Dr. Steve It's weird medicine from the world famous Cardiff Electric Studios The first and still only uncensored Medical Show in the history of broadcast radio Now a podcast

I'm Dr. Scott Well I said I'm Dr. Scott What an idiot That's been a long day I'm Dr. Steve with my little pal, Dr. Scott the traditional Chinese medical practitioner who gives me street credit. The weirdo alternative medicine assholes.

Hello, Dr. Scott. Hey, Dr. Steve. Also, the return of DJ Melby. Hello, DJ Melby. Hello, what's up, everyone was clamoring for your return. This is a show for people who would never listen to a medical show on the radio or the internet. If you've got a question, you're embarrassed to take to your regular medical provider.

We can't find an answer anywhere else. Give us a call 347-7-664323. That's 347. Poo-Hid. Follow us on. Twitter at weird medicine or date or god dang i'm i'll explain in a second way i'm i've just completely run out of steam today and d r scott wm visit our website at dr steve dot com for podcast medical news and stuff you can buy most importantly we are not your medical providers

take everything you hear with a grain of salt don't act on anything you hear on this show without talking over with your doctor nurse practitioner practical nurse physician assistant pharmacist, respiratory therapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, yoga master, physical therapist, clinical laboratory scientist, registered dietitian, or whatever. Don't forget to check out Dr. Scott's website at simplyherbils.net, simplyherbils.net. And also check out stuff.

dot, dr.steve.com. Stuff.com makes huge difference. And you just go there and you can click through to Amazon or you can buy stuff that we've talked about on the show, including the Navaj, the greatest investment in under $100 I've ever made. It's basically a motorized netty pot, and you don't look as stupid as you do when you do a netty pot, and it works better, and it actually sucks stuff out of your nose while it's shooting stuff in the other nostril. You're not familiar with the Navaj?

I've never used a netty pot. I'm so scared. Well, the Nabage is the coolest thing in the world because you can't. It shoots water in one nostril and sucks it out the other one, so it goes. in like that it goes around and then comes back out i can't stand putting stuff up my nose you know it's you're you're not though that's what's great about it oh we need to get okay i need to call navage and we need to get one and then let dj melb do it live on the air oh live on the air that would be so much fun because if she's going to be squeamish that'll be fun yeah yeah she'll be puking up her

tequila that would be hilarious and uh check us out on patreon.com at patreon.com at patreon.com Weird Medicine. Those are Tacey and Steve shows. And we're having a lot of fun over there. I'm putting some classic shows up there that you cannot find anywhere else. We've got some inexpensive tears and some not-so- inexpensive tears. And hopefully none of my tears when Tacey rips me a new one on that shows from time to time. But anyway, it's a fun show.

Yeah, yeah, of course. And that's about it. Oh, yeah, Cameo. I'm still doing cameos. I went up on my price a little bit because I had a pre-Christmas special. Shit. And I went up on my price a little bit, but they're still cheaper and shit compared to everybody else. And I'll say fluid and secretions and basically say whatever you want me to say.

So check that out. Go to cameo and just search for Dr. Steve Weird Medicine or just weird medicine. So anyway, the reason that I am flagging a little bit today, and I'm hoping I'll perk up, as the show goes on, is I did two hours of Patreon with Carl and producer Chris from Who Are These Podcasts for their Patreon feed. And basically did an analysis of John Melendez, aka Stuttering John, which was kind of fun. And did some excerpts from his book. And listen, I'm a fan of Stuttering Johns, or at least I was a fan of the earth. earlier, I'm okay, thank you. Mel B's handing me a shot glass full of tequila. I'm a fan of his. I

loved the guy when he was Hero of the Stupid on the Howard Stern Show, and then I gained respect for him when he was on, I'm a celebrity, get me out of here. He seemed like a very engaging guy. He got a neat gig out of that going to the Tonight Show. And then I don't know what happened, but he's not as much fun anymore. And he just seems angry. I feel bad. for him and I do like John but his book is just it's too much fun to listen to him and Carl it's infectious you know you get in there with Carl and and you start saying things that you normally might not say so he's good at he's good at that but anyway I really enjoyed it but we started at two and we ended up at four and so I'm just about tapped out and then we're doing another hour and a half of this stuff you know producing And I've got another two and a half hours to get all this stuff ready for broadcast. So, anyway.

So I'm just a little out of it. No, no. It's not that. It's not that. Tell me the tequila will help. I'm sure it will. I'm sure it well. Thank you very much.

You go right ahead, DJ Melby. I guess I could call you NPLB, or Melby. That's harder to say. You can call me whatever you want. DJ Mel B sounds like, you know, you're a badass. I am a badass. Spinning some tunes and stuff or whatever the kids say today. I think we're about to get so old.

We don't know anything. I know. I don't know anything. I was just thinking about it. What do they say? Because you can't say you're spinning anything anymore because nothing's spinning. It's all electronic. Do you say you're going to dial the telephone, though?

No, I'm going to call somebody. You're going to call somebody. Okay. So you wouldn't say dial this number? How would you say that? You would say it. Call that number. Okay, interesting.

Like call this number. Because the longest time, people were still saying dial, but we haven't had dials on phones forever. Are you old enough to remember those? Yes. My grandmother happened. Well, you're older than I thought. And we would sit at her house and play secretary with the phone, the one phone that

they had that was in the living room. I love that story. So anyway. Check out Dr. Scott's website at simplyhervles.net, simplyerbils.net. And happy birthday to Bill Schaefer. Dr. Scott was supposed to remind me last week. And I failed miserably. And you failed miserably.

That's 100% on this. Now, Dr. Steve gave me one thing to do when I screen. I did. I remember that at the end of the show. And who is Bill Schaefer? I don't know. Who knows? He's a police officer.

Is he? I think he is. Oh, he's. the thin blue line. Okay, maybe that's why. But I, uh, he reached out on the voicemail and said, can you, it's my birthday. Can you do a shoutout? It's like, sure, nobody ever asked me to do that. So that's who Bill Schaefer is. Just somebody who asked for us to do a shout out. And because no one has ever asked us to do that before, I said, hell yeah. Of course. Now, I even wrote it on the top of my notes. It clearly says, happy birthday, Bill, Bill the cuff. I forgot. I go on this

baking Reddit. This is. going to be hilarious, this baking Reddit, and people will take pictures of cakes that they made for themselves for their birthday. And really, it's like... That is depressing. It is depressing. I get so sad, seeing that,

and they make these beautiful cakes. Like it's British baking show quality or beyond. I mean, really nice. All this intricate piping and all this stuff on there. And I made this for my... for my birthday and I just imagine this poor person making this cake and being all excited about and then just sitting down and eating the whole thing crying the whole time because they have no friends you know it's awful it's awful and then of course everyone's like oh you know good

on you mate you know because there's a lot of people for main round here on there and and you know they They get a lot of attention, so I'm sure that's part of it. Anyway, I did, I posted something. But you know, you know, Dr. Stephen, I think the really shitty part about this whole last two years is exactly that. I mean, a lot of people just don't, don't, they don't get to hang out with their buddies anymore. They don't come over and have parties and birthday parties and Emmy. You know, you think about all these poor kids that used to be able to have these cool, you know, three and four-year-old birthday parties. God, damn it, Scott, you're making sense.

I know, dang it. Well, I had to. I feel bad about Brother Bill to come off. Well, that's what it is. Happy birthday, Bill. Happy birthday, Bill. God bless you. I hope he didn't make a cake for yourself this year. I know.

I mean, he's asking us for a shout-out. And I dropped it. And, you know, what if that was the only thing that he was counting on? He was counting on for his birthday. And I screwed it up. All I want for my birthday is a shout-out from Dr. Scott. And they wouldn't even give it to me. Write it down.

We'll do better next year. I did. And hell, I'm still for us. We should put it on the calendar. And I would still look at it and not. And not do it. I'm one of those people. I don't make lists because I'll forget to look at the list.

I'm better off. I just never remember, yeah. All right. Anybody bring any, so happy birthday, Bill, for the 10th time. Anybody bring any stories with them? We were going to have N.P. Jassy C. I don't know what her name's going to be.

That's going to be her name. And her real name is Carissa, and she is one of our partners, and she is hilarious. Now, this could go one of two ways when she comes. It'll either be, she'll hit it out of the park, or it'll be a huge train wreck, because if she gets nervous and just starts being nervous. That's what the tequila is for. That's right. Well, do you want some?

Do you know where it is? I don't know where it is. I don't ever think I've seen it in my drink out. In the cabinet under the little sink. I finished the bottle. I didn't drink the bottle. You were hammered. I was impressed.

Yeah. She makes a distinction between finishing it and drinking it. Yes. I like it. It's where now. Okay. So down in the kitchen, there's that long, what do you call it, countertop with a little tiny sink in it, a dry sink. And underneath there is the tequila.

Okay. I'm going to go get it. And then right above. the oven or all the shot glasses or highball glasses or whatever you want to drink it with. I'll be right back. Okay. So I had to stop buying the expensive

bourbon. I have a friend Mike, this guy named Mike, and I went over to his house and he's highfalut and I mean they've got money that's ridiculous. And it was cold and I was there picking up a Christmas present for Tacey because he and his wife own an art gallery and they said, well you want some bourbon?

saying, I don't like bourbon. I said, well, you'll like this. And I tasted it, and it shot my brain into outer space. I mean, it blew the top of my head off. Cool. And I've been buying bourbon ever since. But what happens is I like the taste of it. I like the burn.

I've got to have something that's got a heavy burn to it. I mean, I want it to hurt when it goes down. And hurt up in my nose in the back of my throat. I just love that. And then that warmth you get as it goes. But I like it, I like the taste. I don't have a, I mean, I know everybody says they have a, don't have a problem drinking, has a problem drinking.

But I don't have a problem drinking, but I like it so much that it's hard for me to stop. And so what I end up doing is something that sounds like someone that has a problem drinking is I will take all my bottles of bourbon and I take it to my friend Rick's house. Okay. They were here once. Were you here when they, I think it was a week you weren't here? He and his wife sing and he writes songs and he was here. But anyway, he has all.

He's half-empty, well, half-full, for him, he's a glass bottle of bourbon, half-full type person, half-full bottles of willets and other kind of pricey brandies. There you go. Oh, that's a girl. So here comes DJ Melby, and she's got, this is, we're going back to old-school weird medicine if you drink enough of that. So you've got some Luna Thule, which is not bad tequila. and a minion shot glass. Yes, I got the million. You didn't get the weird medicine shot glass.

I didn't see it. I'm sorry. Well, I'll give you one. Anyway, so we'll see. So we're going to do a drinking show, and we'll just, by God, see what happens at the end of an hour where DJ Melby is. Oh, we know where she'll be. Needing a ride. Yeah.

If that's the worst thing, then you'll be doing pretty good. I can get you over. All right. So while she's open. that Scott did you have anything and then we'll go get to questions yeah actually do I had two interesting okay and two positive things Dr. Steve okay we're starting out the year on a positive note good I should have done something about memory but that maybe that'll be next week man gets genetically modified pig heart in world's first oh yeah I like this I like this

it was incredible I'm surprised it took so long yeah so I'm assuming that they had to modify the pig genetically so that didn't have have certain markers that would cause someone to vigorously reject it. Is that what happened? That is exactly what happened. Oh, I'll get myself one of these then. Oops, wrong one.

Oh, anyway, go on. That's a thing, yeah. There it go. Give yourself a bill. I was a little delayed, but. It's the second, actually, pig organ transplanted. Like, the first one was a kidney a couple years ago. Okay.

And that was done on a person who was brain dead. And they had permission from their family. So they did that first, just to. to see because people say how do you do this the first time that's one way to do it that's exactly to have a brain dead person that's uh donated said that they were wanted to donate their body to science which is so awesome and when people hear that term i'm going to donate my body to science what they think of is medical school cadaver yeah or body farm right on but there is other stuff yeah that you can do what you want to be at the body farm really down in knoxville you want your

dead boobs just seeing how they decay and stuff that's not even had a full drink yet that's kind of really yeah well i took part of it so the body farm yeah yes i want to go to the body farm well let's get well let's talk about body farms hold that thought i want to talk about that because the body farm is interesting but there are other things that you can do when you donate your body to science and this is one of one of them that's great and so this guy's a 57 year old and and what they what he had to do was to take this genetically modified big heart because he literally was in such terrible condition. There were no other options.

Sure. Nothing. Evidently, thousands and thousands of folks every year die waiting on a transplant list, Dr. Absolutely. And you know that. You know that I've seen it. The liver transplant folks, it's really tough because you get somebody that's in-stage liver, jaundus, encephalopathy, meaning, you know, they're having trouble thinking properly. And they've got ascites.

a big big belly full of fluid and but they're five months and 15 days since they quit drinking and they're going to die in five days but they got 15 days before they're six months sober they can't get the liver and part of that has to do with the scarcity of the liver it also has to do it they want to make sure they're transplanting people that are going to get some use out of it But if we had more livers, maybe we could go be a little bit more slack with this. But I've seen lots of people die waiting for a transplant. Kidneys, you know, I see a lot of it with kidney, especially renal failures and things of that nature. But it was really incredible.

But one, the really interesting thing about this article is that they what they said, because of that one person that allowed them to do research with the kidney from the, a pig is they knew they were going to have to have different anti-rejection medications. Right. So they were expecting it. They were kind of prepared for it. So this gentleman, at 57 years old, is doing well three days after. And now this was three days ago when I got this article.

So I don't know how old or how he's doing today. But as the last check, he was doing well. So that's really exciting. And you think about two, Dr. Stevens. If somebody is a transplant candidate and they find a matching, you know, kidney your heart or something that's halfway across the United States. Yeah. That's a whole other issue.

Yep. You know, whereas if you can culture them and grow them in a lab. Well, that's the ideal. Heck, yeah. That's the ideal. Because the PETA folks would say, okay, now we're going to be raising pigs for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs. Which is not true.

You're using for bacon when you have to get the organs. True, but of course. I mean, come on. But I'm saying that's what they'll say. Yeah, you're right. For the same reason that people don't like stem cell research. that comes from fetuses because, well, then you're, you know, the argument is you're just doing, oh, I forgot to turn the cameras on, doing abortions for the sake of advancing medical research.

So I hear that argument. So the ideal would be to be able to go to the next step is just grow these things in the lab from some pluripotent stem cell of some sort. And that would be awesome in the same way that we need artificial placetas for preemies. Wouldn't it be nice of instead of taking a premature baby, you know, that's delivered early for whatever reason, and putting them in an incubator and trying to get them to respond and give them high doses of oxygen that can cause problems with their retinas and stuff like that? And instead of doing that, hook their umbilical cord to a machine and stick them in a vat of saline and let them develop there. And, you know, for the next, so that's an ideal is an artificial placenta.

So we have a lot of cool frontiers. How about figuring out how the brain works so that we're not just dumping bucket loads of serotonin in someone's brain and hoping it makes their depression better? because that's really what we're doing now. You do brain biopsies on people who are depressed, and you notice that their serotonin levels are low. So you give them drugs that just throw literally a boatload, well, not literally, figuratively, a boatload of serotonin in there, and just pray that that's what makes them better.

And we're not really dealing with the underlying problem. you know we're just kind of throwing treating a something that requires a staple with a mallet basically but that's cool that's cool as hell now people say well don't they use pigs and hurt stuff all the time and the answer is yes we use pig valves so if your life expectancy is 10 years or less they'll use a pig valve and but that is washed of antigens. It's just the structure, and the body will put its own, grow its own structure on there. And so it's just a scaffolding on which regular cells can sort of attach. And the nice thing about the pig valve is, if you do it right and your heart is beating normally, you don't

need anti-coagulation, unlike the mechanical valves. So let's talk body farm. So talk about, DJMLB, You've obviously researched this. Talk a little bit about what the body farm is and what it's used for. And why in the hell you would want to lie naked out there for everybody to see your naked dead body decomposing in a body farm? That's how she rolls. That's how it goes, girls. Yep. So my background before I became a nurse, I was in criminal justice.

Well, that's right. I forgot about that. Yeah. So the body farm. farm, they do a lot of research on how bodies decay in different environments, like in the water and just out in the woods, in a vehicle, in a coffin, you know, just how bodies decay so that they can study. And when they come across dead bodies in real life, they can kind of get an idea as to how long they've been there, what might have happened to them. So you know how long the

person's been there? And have you ever been to the body? farm? No, I haven't. I want to go so bad. I can't stand it. Really? Yes. Well, you've come a long way from forensics to what you're doing now. Well, yeah. That's interesting. But it's kind of a combination of the two things. Yeah. My past and criminal justice and my current medicine. Okay. Well, again, that's something that you can donate your body to. I mean, you're not using it anymore. No. And then I'm going to be cremated and throw my... So how long do they have you in the body farm before they just You know, I just imagine them coming and grabbing you and the tissue just, yeah, just scooping you up with a shovel. Yeah, with a bulldozer and dump her ass and not exactly sure how long you lay out there.

I guess it just depends on when they don't need you anymore. They do different things. They'll put you in different situations like in a car in the woods or in the car underwater. Or bury you under like a serial killer buried somebody. And they can tell what bugs are on there at different stages. Exactly. It's so disgusting. Yeah, like Dermasted Beatles will...

And maggots. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, buddy of mine went through their program and when they worked for TBI for a while and now FBI, he's pretty high up to, say he goes in and does a lot of those cases. Huh. Pretty cool. Yeah, pretty cool. That's me. Sure did.

Well, good for you. Cool, ma'am. So we had this guy, James Byrd on our show. He came in third in the funniest person in the Tri-Cities competition. Way to go, James. But he runs. a company that does medical research on people's bodies after they die. And I've, you know, I've played some jokes on him.

And, you know, we were buddies before he entered the contest. I was like, oh, Jesus, why are you? Ridley, you're entering this? Because I just knew he was going to tank. Hell, he almost won. Oh, wow. If the people from Bristol hadn't voted more times for Brian Morton, who was also our friend, I think James.

He stacked a deck against him. Yeah, James, he would have come in second anyway. James was really good. No, he came in second. He would have won because Jenny McKinney came in third, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I think that's correct. She's been on this show, too. And she's hilarious, and she has a podcast, too, which we should plug.

It's like something, Jennergy or something like that. It's hard to say. But anyway, so my last prank that I'm going to play on James is that when I die, He's younger than me. When I die, I want to go there, and he'll have to deal with my naked, dead body on his slab. You know, cutting my knees out and stuff like that and shipping them off to her the penis. Hell, Dr. Steve, they will have anything worth using left. Well, that's right.

You'll be 90 damn eight. I don't know about that. If I make it through the next year, I'll be happy. I'll just put it that way. You better. I want to lock up your hair when you die. They'll cream. Well, you can.

Tacey, you'll give it to you. Okay. I'll give it to you now. I'll wait, I'll wait. Okay. I want a tooth, just a tooth. Just a tooth. I could, well, I could probably do that too.

My across-the-street neighbor is my, you know what? He's my oral surgeon. He's got two of my damn teeth. I wonder what they did with those. I want those. I think he's got part of my jaw where I broke my jaw. Why won't they give you that stuff? How is it theirs?

Now, that shit pisses me off. I've had people say, you know, I'm having my gallbladder out. I would like the stones, and sometimes they can get them. Sometimes they can't. It's like, well, how do you own them now? Right, right. I don't know. Ask for my appendix back, but they wouldn't give it to me.

That's bullshit. You know, once they do, I mean, obviously, they have to take them and process and look at them under the microscope, make sure that there isn't something there. That's not aware of them. You're right? Yeah, look, yeah, do pathology on them. Look for cancer or anything weird in there. but then after that why can't you just have it you paid for it you paid a lot of money for it well my parents paid a lot for that well still I mean somebody even if your insurance paid for it you paid for the insurance so that shit should be yours

we need to look that up now I'm mad how do I get my appendix back hey while you're looking at up do you want me to give you my other topic no please do you talk about good news now this is really good news you thought that last one was good news this is better okay all right let's hear It looks like cannabis compounds stopped COVID virus from infecting human cells in a lab study. In vitro. Hey, but you know, so? Okay. Hey, come on, man.

We got to give it up for the weed. Okay, all right, all right. I'll give it. So, that was my show prep. No, okay. Good job. Mine's weak. His show prep was trying to prevent COVID by doing weed.

Exactly. Talk to us about the study. Obviously, it was done in the test tube. So you know what else stops COVID from infecting cells in the test tube? Bleach. Yeah. I mean, can we just run some bleach or something through blood? All right.

Oops. So, yeah. So in the test tube, lots of these, lots of things happen. There's a big difference between, you know, an environmental process in a test tube that some can be biologic, but not always, and something actually happening in vivo, meaning in a human or in a living specimen. Yeah, that's what they're telling me to. It was able to block the A and B variance of a virus in a laboratory, but they have not had enough time to study it against, you know, trying to pick up the COVID virus. Yeah.

But, you know, and the only thing I would think is that one thing we know is that nasal. steroids help to block the COVID. I wonder if we could... Does it help to block it or does it help to decrease the inflammation in the nose so that you don't lose smell and taste as readily? And you might be right, but my understanding was it helps to block the receptor sites.

But now I'm not saying that, I'm not seeing that, but I'm, you know... I think. That might be misinformation, Dr. Scott. By God, it wouldn't be the first time today or this year, would it? But, you know, you know, maybe that'll go on my next... There is some data on using

intranasal steroids in COVID-19, but what I saw was... It's probably just for inflammatory response. Yeah. You know, I was just thinking maybe if this is true, maybe I need to start putting some cannabinoids in the Simply Herbal's sinus spray. Well, can you do that? No, yes, I can. Because, remember, maybe I could use hemp.

I could use CBD. It doesn't have to be THC. Yeah. So I could actually use, I could actually use hemp oil. Okay, now, wait a minute now. Here's... Study finds cannabis compounds prevent invents. Infection by COVID-19 virus.

Now, is this the same thing? Yeah, that's not what I've got, but I believe you. Compounds in cannabis can prevent infection from the virus that causes COVID-19 by blocking its entry into cells, according to a study published this week by researchers affiliated with Oregon State University. What a surprise. A report on the research, cannabinoids block cellular entry of SARS-C-O-V-2 and the and the emerging variants was published online on Monday. The Journal of Natural Products. There you go. Yeah, well, okay.

I've published in some shitty journals myself. Let me see. Researchers found two cannabinoid acids, commonly found in hemp varietals of cannabis. And that's, oh, cannabroa, oh, boy, cannibirolic acid. I've never heard of that one. You mean to try to pronounce it? Yeah, please do. CBGA.

Do not ask me. Oh, shit, no, you don't want me doing it. And cannabodialic acid, also known as c. CBDA combined of the spike protein of SARS COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Wow. Okay. So I could see an inhaler with this stuff if this bears fruit. Or a nasal spray.

Do they need study subjects? Yep. Yeah, right. They're not controlled substances so they don't get you off. But, you know, why not just throw a little Delta 8 or Delta 9 THC in with it just to make it interesting? interesting. So, yeah, okay, that's interesting. I want to see human studies, obviously, but it says although further research is needed, they noted the study shows cannabinoids could be developed into drugs to prevent or treat COVID-19. Wouldn't that be nice? I mean, I'm glad to

see finally, after all this time, that we're starting to actually pay attention to therapeutics. Yeah, I mean, the vaccine's great, but we're seeing. I just, my medical student, double-vaxed with the booster, hacking in my office the other day. I said, go get tested. She's positive. So it doesn't prevent infection, but I am very confident that nothing will happen to her because of the vaccine. She might feel a little rough, but she'll be all right. But wouldn't it be nice if we could prevent her from either feeling rough by having something that she could take in the early stages to prevent her going into the heavy stages?

Now, she's not at risk, so right now they wouldn't give her anything. But we've got some. We have molupyrivir. It prevents going to the hospital 30% of the time compared to placebo for people at high risk. And by high risk, I mean over 65, obese people or people with immune deficiency or people with diabetes. Now, Paxlovid, the ratonavir and the ulterior and the ulterior and the other. other thing. Combination, there's a combination.

You have to take two pills when you take that twice a day. It's 90% effective, but it does have some adverse effects, including some effects on the liver and some other things that make me not want to just throw it into the mix willy-nilly. You'd want to use it on somebody if you can't get the monoclonals, which we can't right now, or if, you know, they're really high risk, have, you know, one of these people, with four comorbidities, they got to have something. Early IV Remdesivir.

We've all seen Remdesivir in the hospital. It's okay, but it wasn't the yay kind of situation that we hoped it would. When you give it to people at risk who are not sick enough to go to the hospital yet, it prevents hospitalization by 90 percent. it's an IV. We don't have a pill form of it yet that we can just throw it people. So that, but that's awesome. And that's off-label, but it can be given now, even off-label. As a matter of fact, because the Sotruvimab, which is the monoclonal antibody that is good against Omicron is in such short supply, the poor bastards that made Regenkov, you know,

they were just cranking it out, and then all of a sudden it's like it just came to a screeching halt with this new variant. And so this satrovimab is effective against it, but it's in short supply. So there are health systems now that even though it's off-label, we're gearing up to say, okay, if we can't get that, we can at least do the IV remdesivir. And then there's another drug that can be used as pre-exposure prophylaxis for people who are at extremely high risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19. And it's called something like, oh, God, now I'm having a senior moment.

Look up pre-exposure prophylaxis. Okay. COVID-19, and there's a drug. It's Dipper-shelled, something like, God, dang it. Oh, now I sound like an idiot. Evusheld, Evushel, E-V-U-S-H-E-L-D. So if you know someone that has a severe immunodeficiency or is otherwise at high, high risk and has not been exposed to COVID-19 yet, but if they do get exposed, you're pretty sure they're going to end up on the ventilator. They can get this stuff, this EV-U-S-H-E-L-D, have you shelled.

And it is long-lasting protection. So it's not for people who have COVID. It's not for people who have been exposed to COVID. It's for pre-exposure prophylaxis for high-risk people. So that's out there, too. So that's good news. So we're seeing more and more research geared toward therapeutics. I've said from day freaking one, if you go back and listen to some of my early COVID sit reps that I did at the beginning of the pandemic,

even before it was called a pandemic, that what's going to end this will be a therapeutic that will keep you out of the hospital. Right. Because then it just becomes a, you know, it really does become a cold at that point. It's my least favorite part of the job. Yeah. Yeah. Is all these COVID-infections. I know.

I know. It's just, we're naming, we are naming the spaces between rooms in the emergency room with room numbers now. Oh, yeah. It's ridiculous. So you have room two and room three, and you'll have room two C, and that's actually the space between those two, and you can put a stretcher there and have a patient there, at least you know where they are when they say they're in 2C. It's unbelievable.

I had a patient the other day. Screw HIPAA. Go ahead. Yeah, I had a patient like that the other day. It was two hallway, and I didn't catch the hallway, and I went in room two, and that patient was on a ventilator. I was like, wait, my patient's alert and oriented. Something bad has happened.

But they were in 2H because they were in the hallway. They're in the hallway. It's sad. Now, the reason we're seeing this uptick in the hospital isn't that because Omicron is that bad because it's not. If you go to COVID.stoutlabs.com, S-T-O-U-T-L-A-B-S dot com, COVID. Dotlabs.com. Look at the United States, get rid of everything else, and then look at new cases. You'll see this massive spike.

Biggest spike we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Okay. Then look at new deaths, totally flat. Right. Now, if the spike weren't as high as it is, you would actually be seeing a decline in deaths. Right? Sure. It makes sense.

But it's the, if you calculate the difference in the number of cases versus the number of hospitalizations in Delta, which peaked 9-7, which was the day I got it, the day of the peak, when you look back at retrospective. Congratulations. Yeah, that was a very auspicious day. Also, Tacey's birthday. Yes. She had the worst birthday ever. Poor thing. And then look at the difference between the number of cases and the number of hospitalizations now.

The difference is enormous, you know, comparatively speaking. So the data is bearing out the contention that Omicron is less lethal than all the previous. various variants before it, the problem is that there's just so many of them. You know, that's just the magic of huge numbers. We're still seeing lots of cases. But I'm waiting for, if you go to COVID.com, look at the peak. And when you see, if you'll activate the Bollinger bands, which we use in technical analysis for the stop market, when you see that green line pull away from the top band, two peaks

in a row, we're ready for a downturn. And every single variant that we've had has followed that mode. So that's happened every single time. So that's a good indicator that we're heading for a downturn. And you can see that before you actually see a downturn in the smooth moving average. So it's pretty cool. Anyway, all right. Fun with statistics, everybody.

Sadistics. Didn't know this was math class. Anything else that we want to do? Number one thing. Don't take advice from some asshole on the radio. Those were very good things, Dr. Scott. You brought good stuff today. I'm going to give you a...

But that's all you get. Do you want a shot of tequila? Better not. He just doesn't... He's scared to share a shot glass with you. You can drink straight from the bottle. I don't think you've got anything I haven't had at least twice. I'm pretty sure.

I'm good, pretty disease-free. Breasts and a vagina. I don't think you've had either one of those twice. True. That's true, that's true. Not these. Not those, no. Not those, but I mean, anyway.

That was, not a well- Let's get hot here, Dr. It is about being put under. Wait, we had a question from the, from the peanut, or the waiting room, right? Peanut Gallery. Not the peanut gallery. waiting room. Remember at the beginning of the show, I said, hey, someone has a question

and we need to grab it? No? Oh, yeah. I'll go back and find it. Okay. Well, we'll do this one, then let's do that one. Okay. Hi, Dr. Steve. It's Tom from Michigan. Quick question about being put under for medical treatment. Obviously, there's risk involved with that but what okay yeah we had a technical difficulty and his call got cut off but what he's asking is what is the risk of having anesthesia so there's anesthesia then there's anesthesia if you're talking about regular local anesthesia there's almost no risk to that unless someone injects your penis or your finger with lydicane that has epinephrine in it So any medical students out there do not inject lidecane with epinephrine into an appendage or a penis or anything that has a terminal blood supply.

Because what happens is it blanches, the epinephrine is a vasoconstrictor. It's adrenaline. It constricts the blood vessels, but it constrict the little tiny vessels in the fingers or the penis. And then they might just sluff off. which sluffing is an onomatopoeia. It sounds like what it sounds like, just sluff. I want to see that one day. You want to see it happen?

Yeah. I keep waiting for that to happen to me, but it doesn't happen. Well, just don't use epinephrine in your lytocaine if you're numbing somebody up. The reason that they use epinephrine is to reduce bleeding because it contract and constricts those blood vessels. But we can control bleeding now. So I never use epinephrine. I don't do the kind of surgery that requires epinephrine. nephrine when I inject it.

So I just never have that problem. And if you are going to inject a toe and numb it up, so here's one, you can sluff somebody's toe off if you put a rubber band around the toe as a tourniquet and then forget to take it off. So don't do that. So we always recommend, and the way I teach it is you take the rubber band and loop it around the toe and then clamp it. And then that way, nobody can pull their sock on with a freaking.

can clamp you know on their foot that's what they did when they removed my daughter's toenails there you go yeah they just put a little rubber band around it and but they clamped it right yeah you clamped it so you don't actually twist it around you just pull it you loop it around and then clamp the two ends of it and that's why you do that is so that you have control you can get rid of it you can undo the pressure in a second if you need to but the main reason is that you don't leave it on there right because that's catastrophic. Now, if you do a procedure that has an adverse, a catastrophic adverse event one time

and a thousand, it's going to be hard for you to tell if you, to compare that to a procedure where it has an adverse effect one time in 100,000. Now, the one time in 100,000 procedure is two orders of magnitude safer, but you will have to do a ton of procedures before you ever figure that out. That's one of the problems that people have this sort of by-outcome bias. Well, everything went good last time, so it will next time. So you have to

be very careful. But that's not what this guy's talking about. They're talking about anesthesia-related adverse events. And did you find anything, Scott? No. I was looking up, I thought you were looking at the anesthesia. I did. I just wanted

if you looked up anything. I've only taken care of one patient that had that problem that had what sloving off penis well no that was a separate that was different okay yeah that was from that was her boyfriend yeah that's he had been because she has some you know super herpes yes I have super herpes she passed on I will never have another date she passed on ringworm to his penis and her ate around left off left it off that would make an interesting story oh my gosh yeah let's don't do that well so I I do

have a thing. This is major incidents and complications in otherwise healthy patients undergoing elective procedures results based on 1.37 million anesthetic procedures. It says cases from 1999 to 2010 were filtered. Cases were defined as elective patients classified as ASA physical status grade one, and two, that's somebody without relevant risk factors that resulted in death or serious complication. And these were general anesthetic patients, if I am correct. So of 1.3 million patients, 36 people died. And that gave a complication rate of, let me see, 26 per million. And for those with possible direct anesthetic involvement, it was 7.3 per million.

So if I gave you those odds, you would go straight to Vegas. and bet everything you've got. Everything you've got. So there's a lot of procedures done, so there are going to be some people who die. But it's amazing out of 1.3 million people, only 36 died, and it was less than that. Let me see, if 26.2 per million,

so a third of those, so about a third of those, so maybe 12, 13 of those actually died because of an anesthetic involvement, you know, a problem. So sometimes someone will be intubated improperly or things like that. But that is so incredibly rare. I've never seen it. They said you had one. One.

Okay, well, don't talk too. You can speak in general terms, but we have to be careful. It's just a surgery patient that did not wake up after. Yeah. Oh, shoot, yeah. Now, a lot of times I have seen those, but it's usually someone that's got a lot of comorbidities and they already had problems. Well, we will see people who have maybe a little bit of.

dementia and then they have a surgical procedure and all that total body inflammation somehow affects the chemistry of the brain and then they go into stage seven dementia which is the only there's only seven stages speed them up and sometimes they recover from that as the inflammation recedes sometimes they never do yeah I don't count that though that's more of a total body thing and those people are not healthy in the first place so you're doing emergency procedure, you're not doing elective procedures on people that are that sick. Yeah, I don't remember what the surgery was. I read another thing that said for all anesthesia, it was like 0.04% of people had an adverse

effect that affected them long term after anesthesia. I think that one included, if I remember correctly, partial conscious sedation, like for colonoscopies and general anesthesia. So when you have a colonoscopy, you can still breathe. And you can still talk, too. Those people say all kinds of crazy shit. You know, I was just one, Dr. Steve, too, and we don't have to go into it now, and I'll do some research.

But I wonder if they break it down even further. People having cardiac procedures having worse signs of dementia following. Oh, I don't know about that. I see it in hips. Yeah, big joints and stuff like it. But I just kind of want it because the heart. Because the heart, mind connection, you know, about 100% of all people have heart procedures, have depression. Yeah, that's interesting.

Yeah. And so I just wonder if that's going to affect the brain more. I'll look at it. Yeah. We should do some more research on that rather than just spouting. Yeah, again, I'm not. Statistics, we don't know what the hell we're talking about. I'm not saying that for sure.

It's a query. Do you want to hear our question from the gallery? Yes. Yes, so for people who are listening to this after the fact, we broadcast live around 3.30 every Wednesday on our YouTube channel, and we have people ask questions in what we call the waiting room. And some of them are good questions. Yeah, no, they are. This actually is a good question. Okay.

So this is from Bob. Sometimes when I drink red wine, I get sharp pains in my cheeks and upper jaw. What's up with that? Oh, yeah. Okay. Do you know what? Well, I've got a guess. Alcohol flushing.

Sounds like it. Enzyme in your face. I have that now. No, one. Don't take advice. Wrong one, sorry. Give yourself a bill. Yeah.

It's what it sounds like. And the main reason I know this is because going to a Chinese medical school, a lot of our Asian, all the people I went to school with were Asian, and a lot of those guys would get red flush faces. And he's not being racist. No, I'm not at all. That's a thing. It's actually a real thing. Yeah, exactly.

It's not the badest, but you could kind of tell. It's a dead giveaway where. You know, me being Irish, German, my face looks like this all the time. You don't know when I've been drinking or not, which is more often than not. But, yeah, it's an alcohol flushing, not really harmful. You can control it with some of those, like those H2 blockers. Can calm it down a little bit? Do you know what?

So I'm going to do what they do in medical schools. We answer a question right. Then they keep drilling until you can't. Until you can't answer it. I don't think this will go very far, but we can try. Do you know what the defect is that causes alcohol flushing syndrome? Acetyl dehyde. Damn it.

Oh, you're real close. I'll give you that. Alcohol. Do you know? No, I do not know. It's an enzyme that you don't have enough of. Apparently, I don't have enough of. Yeah.

And so what happens is when you go from alcohol, you go from alcohol to acid aldehyde. And then you have to break that down even further to its constituent parts. And from ethanol to acid aldehyde and then, you know, water and other breakdown projects. And when it gets stuck in acid aldehyde, it'll make you sick and you'll get flushing and all those kinds of things. And so my dad's wine, my dad was a ventnor, and he tried to make wine out of local North Kakalaki gritty. They were called fox grapes, and they were pretty good to eat, but he was wildly unsuccessful in his, and he would make wine in these giant wooden barrels, and he would do the secondary fermentation in there, and then he would, he would bottle, he was so proud of it, and he would give people six packs of this stuff, and people that had had it, go, oh, thanks, Irv, you know, that's very thoughtful. Hauntful of you, and then immediately toss it in the dumpster, right? And so I was doing organic chemistry at the time, and I took a sample of his wine to my lab and ran it on the gas chromatograph, and it showed a peak not where alcohol is supposed to be.

There was a small one with that, but a huge peak where the acid aldehyde was. And your body cannot tolerate acid aldehyde. It's got to get rid of it. And if you can't get rid of it and it builds up, then it causes all these effects. And there are drugs that they can give you if you're a drinker that will stop the metabolism of alcohol and stop it right at acid aldehyde to induce this effect. It helps people from, you know, drinking again. I was trying to figure out how to work recidivism into that sentence that I'd already constructed and I couldn't do it. So anyway, it helps prevent recidivism.

of drinking and there's a there's an antibiotic that also causes this do you know the name of it de, di, di, D, D, D, D, D, D. I was the same. Give yourself a bill. That's it. Yeah, metronautil. Also known as, I know what it is. You need it for STDs.

Yes. Flageal. That's flageal. Ah, there you go. Yeah, very good. Yep, very good. So, yeah, if you take flageal, you should not drink alcohol because it meant. may, not always will, but may make you very sick.

So they'll always counsel you not to do that. So good. Did that a couple of times? Yep. Now it says here. Slow learner. No, working at the else department. It says here there are at least 540 million people worldwide with alcohol dehydride dehydrogenase deficiency.

That's about 8% of the population. People of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean descent are more likely to have alcohol. alcohol flush reaction, at least 36% and perhaps up to 70% of East Asians experience facial flushing as a response to drinking alcohol. Well, you know, we had our buddy that used to listen to the show years ago from National. He's the one that invited us to do the Sky Dog conferences. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, what's going on with that?

I hadn't heard from him in years. I think they stopped. COVID killed that, too. It killed every damn good thing. Yeah, he's a wonderful guy. Except WATP, they just had a big event right in the middle of a pandemic in Chicago, so. Yeah. And I woke up thinking that I'd given everybody COVID.

I got all real paranoid. Not sure why I got paranoid. It could have been the trip to the dispensary in Chicago. I don't know. It might have been at. All right. Let's see here. Let's take one last one.

We've got another minute. Matt from Connecticut. Hey, Matt. I am about halfway through. an accelerated nursing program at a state university here and I'm just heading into my med surge clinical and with COVID and everything

it's off the rails completely but I wanted to reach out to you with a different kind of question than what you're probably getting I know that you got into medical you know the medical profession healthcare as a second career I was an accountant

before I jumped in at 40 years old to do nursing. DJ MLB did too. I know that you had, in a way, you always keep busted on ham radios and things like that. You obviously had a much different degree. Did you feel a sense of like that you didn't belong or you're a fraud or they're going to find out or any sort of like a lot of stuff? We're almost out of time. That's a type A personality that's got nothing to do with your career.

No, you got this buddy. You are a type A person. That's why you're succeeding. Type A people, the classic symptom of that is they feel like they're a fraud and that someone's going to find out that they're there and they shouldn't be. You absolutely should be there. This is the opposite of the Dunning Krueger effect. The Dunning Krueger effect is when dumb people think they're better at stuff. And then there is the opposite side of the Dunning Krueger effect where really smart people think they underestimate their ability.

So you're going to be fine. And, you know, anytime you want to come down here. and be on the radio, you're welcome to come because we want our brothers and sisters in health care to, you know, be welcome in this place. So anyway, we're going to have DJ Mel B's mom on the phone. Mom's on the phone. Mom, say hi. Say loud.

Hi, Mom. Hello, everybody. You want me to hold the phone? Yeah, hold on just a second. I'm going to give you to Steve. Okay. Hello, Mel B.'s mom. I don't know if you know that's her radio name, so.

Well, I do. Oh, so she made you listen to the last time she was on the show? No, she didn't. And I wasn't sure how to get it up. Oh, that's probably good. That's what she said. I know. I was going to say that.

Mom, what's what you say. These men will tear you apart. I just realized that. Oh, we love it. I love it. So your daughter, who is slamming shots of tequila over here. I'm not slamming. That I don't doubt.

There we go. The truth comes out. It's said that you had a question for us. Hopefully we can answer it. We were wondering, can a severe case of COVID like my husband had caused problems with your eyesight? Oh, that's an interesting one. Now, he was sick back when I was sick. We all had it together.

Okay. So he got sick at the same time. everybody else did. Right. And so what kind of symptoms is he having with his eyesight? He's just having some blurring and what else? Well, yeah, and it's, I just can't read the fine print like I did. He can't read fine print like he did.

He's 80. He's just. having some problem making the letters out. Okay. He's also diabetic. He's also diabetic. Mm-hmm. Yes, and he has just had an eye exam and was showing no signs of any problem.

Now, let me ask you this. Before he had COVID. Oh, before he had COVID. Okay. So is he had an eye exam since then by an ophthalmologist rather than an optometrist? No. Okay. We had one of the middle of August by an ophthalmologist.

Oh, we did? Okay, and that was, that was, that was right before we. Right before COVID, okay. Probably a couple weeks. All right. So, you know, COVID-19 blocks or restricts blood supply to the retina in some patients, and it causes a thing called retinopathy. And diabetic patients already know what retinopathy is.

and they think it begins to occur between two and four weeks after they've recovered from COVID, and the main symptom is blurred vision. Now, the other thing that he could have, though, is a detached vitreous. So the vitreous is the clear jelly that's in the eye. And when you're in our generation, I'm 66, so he's got a few years on me, and you cough a lot, that can separate the vitreous humor from the back of the retina. that will cause blurry vision, too, but usually you'll have spots of blurry vision with flashes of light and stuff like that.

So if he's not having that, he may just have garden variety, long COVID retinopathy, and he definitely needs to go see an ophthalmologist and have them do a, you know, a retinal exam. Okay. Now, what can you do about it? Hell, I don't know. That's, you know. The ophthalmologist. Sorry about it.

I know what it is. I just don't know what to do about it, but the ophthalmologist will know if there is anything they can do about it. Okay. That's good. So I'm going to, my provisional diagnosis in the absence of flashing lights and spots, is going to be post-COVID retinopathy. And I would love for you to call back and, you know, tell us if I'm right,

because I am extremely narcissistic, and I like to know. I do like being right. But I like being wrong, too, because if I'm wrong, then it means I learn something. Exactly. All right. That's what I've always said. I've told Melissa that, but she doesn't have that. That gene, as far as tequila, is concerned.

So I'm not sure there's any hope for that. No, that's okay, but she's a good girl, though. Well, thank you. I think so. Yeah, we love working with her. So you raised a good one. Very smart. Aw. Thank you.

And she's right purdy, too. So there you go. She takes after home up. I'm sure she does. Awesome. Well, listen, hey, thanks for calling in, and I hope his eyesight gets better. And let us know how that turns out. He needs to see an ophthalmologist.

And if you need a name, I'll give him a lesson one. I know the best person for him to see. Mm-hmm. Okay. We do see an ophthalmologist. Okay. And so I'll check with you on that. Okay. Well, if you already have one, then they'll know what to do. Okay.

All right. Thank you so much. All right. Take care. Thanks. Bye, Mom. I love you. Okay, bye-bye. I don't know that she could hear you. We could hear you, but I don't know that she could. Yeah, there you go.

Post-COVID retinopathy. That's going to be my guess. It's an educated guess. Keep you posted. All right. Are we ready to get out of here? Sure. We have anything else? Anything else in the...

There was one other good question to very end. If I can find it real, real quick. It was a really good question. It's okay. While he looks for that, did you know that there's a code for if you get hit by a duck? Okay. So we're going to do crazy code, so that'll be a good teaser for the next show. Are you going to come?

Will you come next week? Yeah, I'll come next week. because Carissa will be here next week, and she had some codes, too. So one of the things that I tasked them with was to find crazy diagnosis codes that are actually in the manual. So what is the ICD-10 code for hit by a duck? I'll have to look it up. I didn't memorize it. I was my favorite sign-on in the emergency room from 1986 was they used to write patient states chest pain

or patient states short of breath. And my favorite one was patient states hit on head by Plastic Santa at Walmart. And that was a, they were trying to get a damn lawsuit going. So I wanted it in the medical record. All right. Struck by a duck, which my mother has been struck by a duck. I witnessed it. My uncle's been struck by a swan.

Yes. It's W61.62XD. That's for a subsequent account encounter. Oh, so there's a first encounter in a self-square now. Yes, we can have multiple visits. W-61, what? W-6-1.62. Okay, I'm just going to put that in and see.

Struck by a duck. Struck by a duck. I was looking to see if it was synonymous with anything else. That is crazy. It's also synonymous with being struck by a turtle, which is very close. Oh, is that right? Okay. I mean, I don't know how you can get struck by a turtle?

They're pretty slow. Somebody would have to be really mad at you. See that comment. dad's property, he had a lake, and there were two swans on there. And the male swan, for whatever reason, the rest of, we'd get around there, he would ignore everybody, just completely aloof. Whenever my uncle, and we called him Uncle Gunk, his name was Uncle Chuck, but we always called him Uncle Gunk.

That's awesome. And when he would come down there, that damn swan, you could see his wings would start to spread, and you would see him just thrusting in the water just to swim as fast as he could to go after my uncle. and he chased him around his car and my uncle got in his car and then he hears this like that and that damn swan hit with his beak it hit the panel of his car and put a big ass dead in it now they've got really really strong neck muscles and yeah you don't want to get hit by a duck oh my god and a turtle so it says here that there is some other the following

contain annotations and back references that may be applicable. One is external causes of morbidity and exposure to animate mechanical forces. I love that animate mechanical forces. That means a living thing hit you. Wow. That's a good one.

I remember there was one called Ghost Hand, and I've never seen that either. I want to code this code someday. W61.62. I might just throw it in once, just in the middle of a bunch of other codes. Just see what I have. That's hilarious.

All right, last one real quick. You're ready for this? Yeah, real quick. Richard asked about can wearing a mask cause a sinus infection? He had one last winter and said since they have to wear a mask all the time in New York City, has to wear again, and he thinks he's getting another sinus infection. So can you get a sinus infection from wearing a mask? I have not seen any data for that.

If you're allergic to the fabric for sure or the thing that you're washing it, in, I recommend people go by the paper surgical face mask. Stop wearing the, if you're going to wear a mask, stop wearing the cloth ones. They don't do anything. The surgical mask might actually do a little bit. With this Omicron, though, I mean, there's, you know, mask wearing kind of is a joke at this point. But here's a... It might help a little bit, but it's not going to stop it completely.

No, no, no, no, that's right. And a little bit might help. You know, back when we had OG COVID, it was great because, you know, the R-sub-T or the number of people one person would infect in the real world was right around 1.1. So, you know, if you had 10 percent effectiveness of the mask, that would drop that down to, you know, point nine. And so you'd see a decline in cases. So at that point, mask wearing made sense. when you have a, you know, an R-sub-zero, in other words, a hypothetical infection rate of 10 people for each one person. So this thing is going up by orders of magnitude, then I don't see where, honestly, wearing a mask is going to make a big difference.

Now, if it keeps one person from getting it, I guess, you know, what the hell? I don't know. I don't know. I think mandating it is a little nutty, but just because of the numbers, I just don't see that it has a significant effect now. But do I have data that says that? No, I don't. This is my own supposition, given the earlier data on how masks actually prevent infections. Can we give Richard a little bit of tidbit of advice?

Yes, of course. That may or may not work, but I would certainly, if he's susceptible to sinus infections, Look at a sinus spray, look at the nabage, look at your simple irritables, nasal sprays, et cetera. And do that prophylactically. Right, exactly. Maybe try to keep from getting your sinus infection. And see if there's anything else in his environment that may be causing him to get a sinus infection or whatever. I'm looking at several reviews of the literature, and none of them have pointed out that mask wearing is an independent risk factor for sinus infections.

And it says here people may mistake symptoms for a sinus infection when there's something else. And so, you know, viral URIs are confused with sinus infections. There's a lot of things are, you know, it could be a lot of things. If you're having problems in that regard, I would get, like Dr. Scott said, a Nettipot or a Navaj and see if you can prophylactically stop it from happening. Try to keep it cleaned out a little bit. And if keeps up, then definitely. If there's any chances, the detergent in your cloth mask or the cloth mask itself, then start using disposable paper masks.

They're cheap. You could, you know, in the beginning, they were hard to find, but now they're everywhere. Yeah. All right. All right. Thanks, everybody. Hang in there, Richard. Yeah, feel better.

Let us know what you find out. Thanks, Dr. Scott. Thanks to DJ Melby. You're welcome. Are you okay? You left for a second. I had to go potty. Oh, well, thanks for sharing that.

Well, you asked. It was all that tequila you've been slamming. God damn, how much, oh, my God, that bottle was full when you, am I going to need to get you an Uber? No, I'm good. Okay. I have teenagers. That's what everyone who gets it up in a drunk wreck says, well, I'll be fine.

I'll send my daughter my location. We can't forget Rob Sprats, Bob Kelly, Greg Hughes, Anthony Coombeah, Jim Norton, Travis, Taff, that Gould Girl, Lewis Johnson, Paul Off Charsky, Chowdy, 1008, Eric Nagel, the Port Charlotte Hoare, the Saratoga Skank, the Florida Flusi, DJ Melby, Roland Campouse, sister of Chris, Sam Robert Shee, who owns Pigs and Snakes, Pat Duffy, Dennis Falcone, Matt Kleinschmidt, Dale Dudley, Holly from the Gulf, Christopher Walkins double, aka Steve Tucci, the great Rob Bartlett, Vicks, Nether Fluids, Cardiff Electric, Casey's Wet T-shirt, Carl's Deviated Septim. Producer Chris.

The inimitable Vincent Paulino, everybody. Eric Zane, Bernie and Sid, Martha from Arkansas's daughter, Ron Bennington, and, of course, our dear departed friends, Fez Watley and GVAC, who will never be forgotten. Listen to our SiriusXM show

on the Faction Talk channel. Sirius XM. Channel 103, Saturdays at 7 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern on demand and other times at Jim and Clair's pleasure. Many thanks to our listeners. Oh, and one last thing. Okay, sure.

Happy birthday, Bill. Happy birthday, Bill. Or Bob. Or Bob. Wait, was it Bill or Bob? No, it's Bill Schaefer. It is Bill. Was it Bill?

Happy birthday, Bill. Many thanks to our listeners whose voicemail and topic ideas make this job very easy. Go to our website. The sad thing is nobody listens this far. I just do this for the people who know they're getting a shout out. They listen, but nobody else listened. Maybe Bill will be listening. I hope so.

And he won't have ate his cake. Poor old bill. Go to our website at Dr. Steve.com for schedules, podcasts, and other crap. Until next time, check your stupid nuts for lumps. Quit smoking, get off your asses and get some exercise. We'll see you in one week for the next edition of Weird Medicine. Thanks, everybody. Bye.

All right. Thank you.