What A Day - Ad AstraZeneca

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

European countries including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain will resume using the AstraZeneca vaccine as early as today or next week. This comes the European Medicines Agency found no increased risk of blood clots among millions of vaccinations. The Biden administration announced plans to do "vaccine diplomacy" by sending millions of AstraZeneca doses to Canada and Mexico.It's still not clear whether this week's killings in Georgia will officially be designated a hate crime... we explain why that designation is so rare, specifically in instances of anti-Asian violence. Plus, we're joined by The Daily Show's Roy Wood Jr. for headlines: Putin and Biden transatlantic beef, free sushi for people named Salmon in Taiwan, and Justin Long double-crosses to do ads for PCs.Show Links:"Asian-Americans Are Being Attacked. Why Are Hate Crime Charges So Rare?"https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/nyregion/asian-hate-crimes.html"Stop AAPI Hate National Report"https://secureservercdn.net/104.238.69.231/a1w.90d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210312-Stop-AAPI-Hate-National-Report-.pdfCheck out Roy Wood Jr.'s new podcast "Roy's Job Fair"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roys-job-fair/id1557272095Check out NBA ALL CAPS, the new Youtube series from Crooked's Jason Concepcionhttps://www.youtube.com/takelineshowFor a transcript of this show, please visit crooked.com/whataday.

It's Friday, March 19th. I'm Keela Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, also known as Zack Snyder's What A Day. Yeah, this is the Snyder Cut of today's episode. The original was only a minute long. Jared Leto is here, and, well, he's freaking everybody out, as usual. On today's show, more on the situation in Georgia and the laws around hate crimes, then some headlines. But first, the latest. The committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion. This is a safe and effective vaccine. Its benefits in protecting people from COVID-19 with the associated risks of death and hospitalization outweigh the possible risks.

That was the head of the European Medicines Agency talking about the AstraZeneca vaccine yesterday. Earlier this week, several European countries suspended the use of the vaccine due to isolated reports of blood clots. So, Gideon, what does this announcement from the EMA mean? It is a tricky situation over there. So the pauses came as several countries in Europe are dealing with a new surge of cases. So there was a lot of urgency in figuring this out really quickly. And now the EMA has repeated their stance that the vaccine is safe, as we heard there. But reportedly, they're also going to add a warning label to the shot so the medical community can be on the lookout for potential rare complications. They basically reviewed millions of cases, they said, and found that there was not an increased

risk of the clots, but this appears to be a precautionary measure given that some of the cases were deadly. They did confirm a small amount of the dangerous cases, though it's not conclusive whether they were actually related to the vaccine. Okay, so how are the countries responding to that new information then? Well, for one thing, a lot of these countries that had paused on using the vaccine have now said that they're going to restart as early as today or next week. That includes Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. I saw that Norway might actually wait and study the issue further. But big picture here, Europe is not in great shape at the moment. Yesterday, the World Health Organization said that the continent was vaccinating too slowly to slow down COVID transmission, and that cases have gone up for three weeks in a row, and that more people are dying than they did a year ago. That is

kind of how bad it is right now. And we can see it in the individual responses from countries too. The Prime Minister of France announced that a number of regions, including Paris, are going to go into a month-long lockdown beginning today. It's reportedly a less stringent lockdown than previous ones, but still, we mentioned a similar situation taking place in Italy and Poland as well, just to name a few countries there. And so the question has been this week with the suspension and now this quick reuptake of the vaccine,

is this going to diminish trust in this vaccine at a critical moment for Europe? When I spoke to Dr. Ashish Jha earlier this week, he said he hoped that the transparency would actually calm some nerves. I think that's a hopeful outlook. So we'll see. Well, meanwhile, AstraZeneca is all over the news. There was a big update from the Biden White House on the U.S. sending doses to Canada and Mexico. So what's the full story there?

Yeah, this is also interesting. We have talked so much about AstraZeneca this week. It's crazy. But, you know, we talked about some of this quote unquote vaccine diplomacy that was going on with other countries and how the U.S. would get pressed to contribute as well. So the plan as it stands is to send millions of AstraZeneca doses to our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. And as a reminder, this vaccine hasn't been authorized for use in the U.S. just yet, but it has in those countries. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki characterized it as a loan yesterday. And what's even more interesting is that this is coming at a moment where Biden is trying to address a surge at the border. Reportedly, in a conversation with the Mexican president,

he had asked whether more could be done to assist the U.S. in effectively stemming the tide of people from their end. And that was something that happened in the Trump administration, but with the threat of tariffs. The New York Times reported that both sides are saying that the two issues are not dependent on one another. They just happen to be overlapping at this moment. Then also on immigration, the House voted yesterday to create a pathway to citizenship for about 2.5 million undocumented immigrants, including DREAMers and others with TPS status, as well as a second measure for close to a million farm workers and their families. So lots of news to digest there

that we're gonna keep following. But for now, let's get back to the situation in Georgia. Yeah, so there's not a ton of new information about the investigation in the past day, but Atlanta police officials did hold a press conference yesterday where they said that they are continuing to investigate all motives for the shooting spree

and did not rule out classifying the attack as a hate crime. They also distanced themselves from the Cherokee County police. That's the office that held that blunder filled news conference earlier this week, saying that the gunman had a quote bad day, even though it's the same gunman, the attacks took place in different jurisdictions. So the Atlanta police are conducting their own separate investigation.

And by the way, that Cherokee County Sheriff's officer Jay Baker that gave the terrible press conference, well, he's now been removed from his role as spokesperson for this case. Couldn't have happened sooner. Yeah, I don't understand how he got into that position in the first place. Okay, let's also talk more about the hate crime designation. Activists have pointed out that these are not random attacks, that being Asian is central to why these women were attacked, but also why so many Asians in America have been harassed and harmed in the past year alone. I'm sure you've also seen a flood of posts on social media calling

to label this crime a hate crime, but we wanted to talk more about why the official designation can be so rare. Yeah, so there's a really excellent story in the New York Times from Nicole Hong on why proving racist motivation, but specifically in cases of anti-Asian violence, is so difficult. I encourage you all to read it, but the gist is that our justice system requires such explicit hatred towards a group that it's difficult to prove. But with Asians in particular, the problem tends to lie in the fact that the hate symbols and slurs against them are simply not well known or established the way a swastika, a noose, or the N-word might be. And because many of these attacks have happened at businesses, it's often hard to prove that the targets weren't chosen because of opportunity or perceived affluence, which goes

without saying, we have to, as a society, stop relying on such explicit bias and racism to be sure something is racist. The burden of proof is incredibly heavy on victims and their families, and it just doesn't feel like justice. Yeah, it does not. And it's also important to note that the solutions to these problems within the justice system are fraught for a variety of reasons. For example, giving more funding to police may lead to harsher policing of black Latinx communities and Asian American communities. But back to the laws that exist around hate crimes, Georgia has one that actually just passed and it could come into play here. Yeah, that's right. So following the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, Georgia added a law last June.

It was actually one of the very few states that still didn't have a law like this at that time, but it actually may be really helpful here. So I've seen some really strong discourse online about how messed up it is that violence against women isn't classified as a hate crime. I totally agree with that, even when the motive for a lot of mass shootings is hatred of women. Georgia's hate crime law actually does cover attacks based on gender specifically, though. So even if proving racism as a motive is difficult, the fact that women were predominantly killed and that Jay Baker of racist t-shirt fame expressed publicly that the gunman claimed sex addiction as a motive, that may be harder for him to prove that wasn't a factor now. And also, if you spoke out about Ahmaud Arbery's senseless death,

you may have helped encourage the bipartisan passing of this law that may now bring some accountability to this horrible tragedy. So thank you for speaking out. It does help. Yeah. And then last thing, we talked about the Stop AAPI hate report yesterday, but wanted to take a moment to go deeper on it to better understand what this looks like. So the report compiled data on hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

in the last year. The headline was that there were 3,800 incidents. Yeah, for sure. The report found that 68% of those incidents were verbal harassment, shunning, or the deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans composed about 20%, and about 11% of the reports involved physical assault. Women were more than 2.3 times as likely to report hate incidents than men, and as far as where these incidents took place, businesses were the primary site of discrimination, with over 35% of reports happening there, followed by public streets and then public parks. We're going to link to the report in our show notes, but given what we know

about all of these reports and the fact that they're only from people who did report the information, we can deduce that this is probably even more widespread than we know and that it deserves our attention and advocacy. That's the latest for now. Stay safe and we'll be back after some ads with a special Headlines guest. Let's wrap up with some Headlines. Headlines. So today we've got a special guest with us, wood jr he is one of our favorite comedians writers and actors an old homie from new york you might know him as a correspondent on the daily

show and soon you'll know him from his new podcast called roy's job fair roy so happy to have you thank you man i just want to briefly before we get into the headlines, Akilah, compliment your colorful radiance on all social media platforms. And I hope to, it wasn't until the pandemic I realized how many neutrals I've been peddling in my whole life. Yeah, you know, we all realize things about ourselves. Mine was that I expressed my emotions through colorful shirts. All right, let's get it. So world leaders may have power, but what's more difficult for them is friendship. President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are fighting right now after Biden described Putin as a killer on national TV. Not great. Biden's slam can be heard

here. So, you know, Vladimir Putin, you think he's a killer? Mm-hmm. I do. Okay, so to be clear, I don't think that he slammed him. I think he just agreed with the slam, but clearing his name, you know, whatever. Listen, guys, there you have it. The mm-hmm I do that started the second Cold War. What if he was just lying about knowing Vladimir Putin?

That's a good point. So you know Vladimir Putin? Oh, totally. He didn't hear the second part of the question. Yeah, maybe he heard. So you know Vladimir Putin? Oh, totally. He didn't hear the second part of the question. Yeah, maybe he heard, he's killer, right? He's like, yeah. We don't know.

We don't know for sure. Well, the interview prompted the Kremlin to recall its U.S. ambassador back to Russia. Putin weighed in yesterday on Russian TV, employing an expert, I know you are, but what am I, technique to say that Biden was the real killer? He said, quote, When I was a child, when we argued in the courtyard, we said the following.

If you call someone names, that's really your name. Biden, head to Camp David. You're going to need some rest. Jeez. Putin also challenged Biden to debate him online. Very strong alt-right YouTube energy. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the debate probably won't happen, which I think anyone could have guessed. But also that Biden doesn't plan to take back what he said, that mm-hmm, I do stands. And he shouldn't. He shouldn't. I'm Biden. I'll fight you.

Did you see the way I jogged to that podium on election night? He's all malarkey now. Yeah, he's got longer legs. You know, he could kick. We don't know what happened. All right. So cows are known for two things. Tasting good and contributing to global warming by burping and farting.

So nearly 10% of methane emissions in the United States come from agriculture with, you know, these gassy cows. They're farting up and contributing to it a lot. So I love how they always say, oh, it's, you know, it's livestock. It's cow farts. Yeah. Are we sure they're not being blamed for it? Like a he who smelted Delta situation? I think that they know for sure it's the cows.

So researchers at UC Davis may have found a solution, though, by showing the cow methane emissions can be cut by 82 percent if the cows are regularly fed seaweed. So the challenge now is finding enough of the seaweed used in the study for the cattle. Hopefully it doesn't take long because it would be nice to eat hamburgers. And I feel like I'm not participating in the murder of all God's creatures, just the one who's currently my dinner. Fully, fully. I don't know if I approve of this because it's just going to, like burgers are going to leave the dollar menu because they're seafood. See how much grass-fed beef costs? That's grass. That in america hella

abundant you're right we important no no the seaweed fed whopper it's gonna be it's gonna kill us yeah i mean if the other one doesn't move over saying it's your birthday to get free ice cream it's time for making your name salmon to get free sushi. Dozens of people in Taiwan added the Chinese character for salmon to their legal names this week after a chain said that made customers eligible for a free meal. Interesting. According to a local registration office, the names people chose to score fish included hotness salmon, dip wasabi and eat salmon and can't help but want to eat free salmon all very good names i would say but no reports of m night salmon uh some monsters inc or some monsters university at this time i will say in written form would be slightly more confusing than if you just delivered it um given

wouldn't it be word monster wouldn't it be m night salomon oh that's a good one salomon but then you have to hit the l and see you're you're a man of distinction you don't respect that l in the middle right yeah salman salman rushd someone just changed the name to that i mean it would have been fine yeah m night salman rushd is the one that we're going with. Apparently, most people change their names back after their meal, but officials in Taiwan discourage anyone from doing that, reminding residents that they can only change their names

three times in Taiwan, and they've already used up two doing what we call the salmon shuffle. I think that the biggest takeaway that I have from this is that, you know, apparently in Taiwan, the DMV line is very short

and you can just walk right in and change your name with no problem. And there's no drama whatsoever. Do you understand how long it would take? The promotion would be over with by the time your paper would have been sent out in the States. They're like, we just ate it, it went bad. Yeah, right, right. promotion would be over with by the time your paper would have come out in the states you're fred tuna for the next what was that charlie tuna that was his name yeah star kiss isn't a sponsor i think respect to star no. No allegiance there. Not anymore. They're not. I'm just kidding.

Hey, I'm Roy. With a quick word about Star Kiss Tuna. Do you know Tuna? All right. So I think we've witnessed what I believe is the first great betrayal of 2021 other than Rodimus Prime not being

nominated for Best Director for the 40-year-old version. But that's a separate conversation. Justin Long is doing ads for PCs. Now, if you remember Justin Long, 15 short years ago, he starred as a laid-back iMac in a series of famous Apple commercials. So here's Justin Long now with a new spin on his old catchphrase. Hello, I'm a Justin. Just a real person doing a real comparison between Mac and PC.

Wow, I'm a Justin. I'm adjusting to this new normal. So, they can make computers do anything these days except act loyal. Siri, look up No Fake Friends for me, please. The commercials are for Intel

and they follow a move by Apple to stop using Intel processors in their new laptops and computers. And Long isn't the first spokesperson to double-cross a Fortune 500 corporation. He follows in the footsteps of the Verizon can-you-hear-me-now guy who left Verizon

and started doing commercials for Sprint he still had the same smirk on his face right yeah and the same outfit it's been a hundred years is the outfit part of it I get it though I get this outfit too that's my question I get the Verizon guy Justin Long didn't have to do this he's a star of television and film I'm sure he has plenty of script offers on his desk but the Verizon guy guy got because he did so many verizon commercials that i think there was like stories that he was like uncastable or like it was hard to unsee verizon right and so now he's just like adrift so yeah i'm gonna do sprint and then i'm gonna do metro pcs i'm gonna do whoever right yeah is it cricket wireless

who do you all think will be the next big betrayal in commercials flow from progressive oh flow or the general car insurance but oh the general could pop up anywhere anytime what if he just came back as the admiral and he's in the Navy now? Allstate is mayhem and Dennis Haysbert, which I wish they would quit putting Dennis Haysbert

in danger. That man needs to stop being hit by cars. They just drop him in the middle of the freeway. Are you in good hands? You could have asked me that from the sidewalk, bro. Why are you in the media? And he's not. Clearly.

Why doesn't he switch his insurance? Also, it should be a crime to put the president in such danger. Dennis Haysbert has been the president for quite a long time. Respect to President Palmer from 24. That's a deep cut. I like it, G. I like it. You like the cut of your Jim Giddy. He knows his black fictional 24. That's a deep cut. I like you. I like you. You like the cut of your jib, Gideon.

He knows his black fictional presidents. That's right. Yeah, the other one is Morgan Freeman. Yeah. Right. And was it Terry Crews in Idiocracy? Yes. He was a black president.

We're really going deep on black presidents. You know, we have more fictional ones than real ones, so it's actually not that long. And on that note. Yeah, Roy, thank you so much for being here. This is just a dream. Is there anything you'd like to plug right now? The podcast, man. Roy's Job Fair.

You know, it's a place to you know, if you hate your boss, love your boss, want to slap your boss, be your own boss. Get tips on how to do all four. Awesome. I'm an expert. I've done all four of those things. At the same time. Well, thank you so much, Roy.

And those are the headlines. Well, I'm not saying before we go, we've been telling you all about Jason Concepcion's new podcast, Take Line, but he also has a brand new crooked YouTube series called All Caps NBA. This is a busy gentleman, folks. It's funny. It's fast paced. If you are familiar with Jason's work,

it is exactly what you know and love about him. Yeah. Find All Caps NBA as well as full video episodes of Take Line at youtube.com slash take line show and smash that subscribe button. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. We review Eat Seaweed for the Ozone Layer and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Vladimir Putin's schoolyard insults

and his native Russian like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Salmon. I'm Salmon Resnick. And thanks for the free sushi. You know, we finally got something for having this name

that we definitely already had. We've just been lying this whole time. I've been called this my entire life and it's good that it paid off. Yeah. Sal Resnick. Also sometimes Salmon. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis.

Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.