What A Day - California, Here We Close
Episode Date: December 7, 2020Biden has reportedly selected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court last month, to lead the department of Health and Human Ser...vices. We discuss the pick.California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new lockdown order takes effect today in large parts of the state, and will be in effect for at least the next three weeks but possibly longer. The UK will begin its initial batch of COVID-19 vaccinations this week, using the drug from Pfizer. Russia began vaccinating thousands in Moscow with their Sputnik V vaccine this past weekend, and there’s reporting that China is gearing up for a rollout of vaccines, too. And in headlines: judge orders DACA restored, hundreds of thousands of farmers strike in India, and Trump doesn’t nail the messaging in Georgia.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
It's Monday, December 7th. I'm Akilah Hughes.
And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day,
where we now think we've gotten takeout from pretty much every restaurant.
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of restaurants, at least a hundred,
but between the two of us, we pretty much covered all of them.
Wait a sec. I still haven't gotten delivery from the Wetzel's Pretzels
at Des Moines International Airport.
All right, well, hurry up because we're almost done.
On today's show, California enters a new COVID lockdown and Biden makes another cabinet selection, this time to run the health department.
Then some headlines.
But first, the latest. We may start to see some impact on the most susceptible people probably in the month of
January and February. But on a population basis, for our lives to start getting back to normal,
we're talking about April or May. And therefore, it's absolutely vital that everybody, A,
take comfort in the fact that we have light at the
end of the tunnel and find the energy in that to continue to wear our masks, distance, wash our
hands, pay attention to what we're doing. That was Dr. Mansef Slaoui of Operation Warp Speed in an
interview on CBS yesterday, talking about how vaccines once approved could start to put a dent
in COVID cases
among the most susceptible people in the next couple of months. He also said that residents
in long-term care facilities would likely be getting their first round of vaccinations later
this month or by mid-January. And this comes after President-elect Joe Biden said that his team still
hasn't seen a, quote, detailed plan on vaccine distribution from the current administration.
Slaoui said that his team is set to meet with Biden advisors this week to discuss how this
is all going to go down.
But what else is going on in the vaccine world at the moment?
A lot, which is really good, especially as recent daily case counts have been around
200,000 or more in the United States while we wait to kind of see this full potential
impact of Thanksgiving.
And that's at a point where many of the nation's hospital systems are stretched critically
thin, as is.
And on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor today, we're seeing that same level of death essentially every day right now in the United States due to COVID.
So on the vaccine, the timeline Slaoui was talking about is dependent on a pretty quick approval of the Pfizer vaccine, which could happen as soon as this week.
This upcoming Thursday, an advisory committee to the FDA is going to meet and review all the data that the company has. And assuming it gets approved, distribution would shortly follow.
Slaoui also said that if things progress according to plan, it's possible that much,
if not all, the population could be vaccinated by May or June, which is amazing. But Pfizer has
already had to cut in half the amount of doses it expected to have ready by the end of this December,
so we'll see if everything goes according to plan. We're also waiting to see if and when the Moderna vaccine
gets approved after they filed for emergency authorization as well. Yeah. And meanwhile,
we're also waiting to see how distribution goes in the UK this week. Exactly. So the BBC reported
that vaccinations using that same Pfizer vaccine are going to begin tomorrow with an initial batch
of about 800,000 doses.
And the UK has chosen 50 hospital hubs to be the sites for administering the vaccine.
And they're starting with hospital patients who are 80 and older, as well as the general population that is in that age group too.
And after this first shot is administered, people will need a second one three weeks
later.
So everyone's going to be following that process closely.
But elsewhere in the world, there are vaccinations happening with less evidence of their efficacy. This past weekend, for instance,
Russia began vaccinating thousands in Moscow with their Sputnik V vaccine. That is, honest to God,
the name of it. That got approval for emergency use before a clinical trial took place,
which some experts have said is kind of worrisome. Additionally, there's reporting that China is
gearing up for a bigger rollout of domestically made vaccines
with not a lot of further details on the potential side effects
in the estimated million plus who have already received them so far.
That's according to the AP.
So overall, that is our upcoming future,
which broadly looks brighter than right now,
which is utter hell on earth.
And one place that is evidence of that is California.
So Akilah, take us through what all is happening there. A lot's happening here as well. So in Los
Angeles alone, we're on our third new lockdown order in less than a week. The latest one kicked
in last night at 1159 p.m. That's Governor Gavin Newsom's plan, which was triggered based on ICU
capacity in Southern California falling below 15%. What that means in real
numbers is that there were only 110 ICU beds available in the whole county of 10 million people
as of Friday, according to LA County Health Services. And in Northern California, five
Bay Area counties have adopted the governor's new stay-at-home order even before their ICUs get to
that grim level. All in all, across the state, roughly 33 million people will be under the new restrictions, which is not the whole state, but it's about 85% of the population
in California now required to stay home. And businesses like bars, hair salons, museums,
movie theaters, and gyms are also closed. Retail businesses are allowed to stay open at 20%
capacity. And restaurants, which had been doing some outdoor dining, are limited to takeout and
delivery. So basically, we're back in March pretending like by Easter, this is all going to go away like one president characterized as a miracle.
Yeah, definitely that Easter was meant to be 2021 Easter.
Right.
Or two, perhaps? I don't know.
But how long is this order going to actually be in place?
Well, it depends.
So we know that it will stay in effect for at least the next three weeks, which means that Christmas and Hanukkah are going to be spent at home, which is a bummer.
But it's also really good news for those of us trying to make it to 2021.
The order will only be lifted once the area can maintain more than 15 percent of ICU capacity.
And again, all of this is kind of confusing because we've gotten several lockdown orders, one after another, that are only slightly varied.
So a lot of people are unhappy with the political leadership here. And speaking of poor leadership, one more thing. Yesterday, Trump tweeted that alleged
lawyer Rudy Giuliani has gotten COVID-19, surprising no one. He's reportedly been admitted
to Georgetown University Hospital and joins at least 40 other members of Trump's administration,
campaign, and inner circle to have gotten the virus since September. In the past week alone,
the maskless Rudy Giuliani has argued to the Michigan House Oversight Committee, along with similarly maskless
Melissa Carone, the box blonde who thought the Michigan House took the poll book and did, quote,
something weird with it. Why? We're not seeing the poll book off by 30,000 votes.
I know what I saw. And I signed something saying that if I'm wrong, I can go to prison. Did you?
Yeah, did you?
I definitely didn't.
And then last Monday, he met with Republican lawmakers in Arizona for several hours in a Phoenix hotel.
So it's likely that a lot of people have been in contact with him and should definitely be quarantining.
Yeah, I'm sorry if you have been in close contact with Rudy Giuliani in the last
couple of months, or frankly, at any point in your life. True. Well, back to California news.
Last night, we saw some reporting that Biden has made a new cabinet selection, California Attorney
General Javier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. So let's talk about
this pick. What do we know so far? Yeah, so this is being reported by the New York Times and the
Washington Post, though
the Biden team hasn't put out an official announcement just yet.
We're probably expecting that in the next couple of days.
It's interesting for a number of reasons and kind of came as a surprise given Becerra's
background.
So as you mentioned, he's the AG of California.
So you might think he might be more suited for the role of US AG, and he also doesn't
have a medical background.
So that's kind of how it came as a surprise. But it comes after reports of complaints from the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus about the lack of Latino members in the incoming cabinet. And on a personal history
note, Becerra served for 12 terms in Congress representing LA and is the first Latino to serve
as AG in California beginning in 2017. And he would be the first in this role as well if he
gets confirmed. And this position, of course in this role as well if he gets confirmed.
And this position, of course, is a huge undertaking given the pandemic,
which has disproportionately impacted communities of color throughout the country.
Yeah. So you mentioned putting him at HHS is kind of a surprise, but he does have some relevant experience on health care. So let's talk about that.
Yeah. So Becerra actually led the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court last
month. That was against other Republican state AGs who wanted to strike it down.
And anti-Trump lawsuits like this have been a big part of his work.
According to his office, Becerra has fought around 100 Trump policies in court on health care, immigration, and the environment.
So definitely something he is quite familiar with.
Also, according to the LA Times, he was involved in fighting consolidation in the health care industry in California itself in the last couple of years.
And recently, he wanted the state legislature to expand his authority to assess and combat health care mergers if they don't deliver better access or care to Californians or if they drive up prices and insurance premiums, which a lot of these private equity funds love to do.
Becerra has also voiced support for Medicare for All during his time in the House
and in more recent years, putting him at odds with Biden, who supports building on the Affordable
Care Act, but leaving the private insurance system in place. Yeah, the other thing that is
wild about all of this is that Becerra was among the names mentioned as a Senate replacement for
VP-elect Kamala Harris. Yes, who, by the way, held Becerra's job before she got elected to the Senate.
I know a million listeners' heads are doing the mind-blown gif right now,
as mine is currently doing.
So now, California governor and loyal patron of the French laundry,
Gavin Newsom, is going to have to appoint a senator to replace Harris
and a state AG to replace Becerra.
That's not to mention if L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti
ends up joining the administration, too.
I'm saying Newsom is about to be the most popular man in California. Like,
I'm frankly jealous about how many compliments he's going to be getting on his smooth Wall
Street villain hair and ragged cattle rancher voice. But that is the latest for now. It's Monday, WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check,
we're talking about a very noble effort that's being made on TikTok.
Thousands of users of the app, including some Broadway actors,
are working together to create an original musical based on Pixar's Ratatouille.
Here's a sample. Penny, the Ratatouille, the rat of all my dreams.
I'll praise you, oh Ratatouille.
May the world remember your name.
Oh, yes.
Wow. Triumphant. A masterpiece.
There's lots of other songs, too, including one called Trash is Our Treasure.
Plus choreographed dance numbers, a proposed playbill, set design mockups and way more.
We'll have to wait until quarantine is over to see the Ratatouille musical in real life.
But until then, Giddy,
what other Disney or Pixar movie do you want to see get a full-blown musical adaptation?
Okay, so the cop-out answer is definitely Goofy Movie
for the best music possible.
It's obvious. Great music already, yeah.
Yeah, it's an easy transition.
So I think the one, now that I think about it,
that would be cool from a visual standpoint would be Up
because of all the stuff that they could do on stage.
Maybe the house is starting to come into the audience or whatever.
Oh, yeah, that's kind of fun.
I'm not a set designer.
I don't know how this would work.
But something on that scale, I think,
would be a really cool visual to see.
The balloons could be doing something in the audience as well.
Maybe there's an actual dog involved.
I don't know.
Oh, I love that.
That seems really kind of apt for it.
Also, there's tragedy at the top, so all the characters are well-defined.
I mean, really any Pixar movie, I think, has all of the pieces to make a really strong musical.
But Up in particular, it's just such a colorful movie.
I think that would be cool to see.
Yeah, they travel a lot of places as well.
I could go on and on.
I would like to be hired to work on the show when Broadway is back.
But same question for you, Akilah.
What do you want to see happen here in terms of adaptations?
So this is definitely like, it's a big swing.
So I just need you to be supportive here.
I'm supportive.
I kind of feel like, I kind of feel like Wally and I know that they don't speak,
you know,
like it's just Eve saying Eve over and over again.
And Wally saying Wally,
but if we make an opera and we fill in a lot of context with the earth
singing and narrating,
I feel like that could be really kind of fascinating.
The people who are on that planet where they're stuck in the chair all day,
they can have a song.
It seems like it would definitely be a really good commentary.
And we need more climate change, you know, musicals and culture stuff to get people on
board.
So I feel like this is just another easy layup.
I want to see like a robot that's floating on the moon.
I think it's kind of cool.
I don't think that you needed to ask me to be supportive of this.
This is a genius idea.
This is like the new inconvenient truth for like a younger generation,
you know, that could like get at this issue in a different way.
Sad robot, dying planet, a dying planet singing arias about how,
you know, the plastic is in the ocean and it has killed all of the beautiful fish.
I think that's great.
Thank you.
I definitely think that it would be worth watching.
It also just, you know, I think it would have the same excitement as like Matilda on Broadway
had where people were like, who's going to be the new Matilda? It's like, who's going to play Wally
this time? Wally, like you've never seen him. It's Ted Danson. That's Wally. I don't know why
Ted Danson would be Wally, but that was the first person I could think of. A very tall, very old Wally.
The idea would be to contrast it with the sort of like rotund people that are in the chairs to have like a slim, older gentleman like that.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, we can keep working it, but just like that, we've checked our tips.
They are cool.
Like both of our really good musical ideas.
So if you're listening, make our dreams come true.
Stay safe and we will be back
after some ads.
Let's wrap up with some headlines.
Headlines.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fully restore Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, last Friday.
The program has protected hundreds of thousands of undocumented children known as DREAMers from deportation.
But in 2017, the Department of Homeland Security tried to limit the program, though the Supreme Court ruled this summer that they didn't have the authority to do so. Then Chad Wolf, undersecretary of the DHS at
the time, ignored the court and suspended the program anyway. The federal judge in this latest
case ruled that Wolf didn't have the authority to do that and threw out Wolf's suspension.
The DHS has now been ordered to start accepting first-time requests for deferred action
consideration and reinstate all benefits for people who are eligible. All the changes must be made to the DHS website by today.
And even if the new conservative Supreme Court majority tries to shrink the program down again,
Biden has vowed to restore DACA once he takes office.
That is great news. Farmers across India are preparing for a nationwide strike after failed
negotiations with their government over the weekend. Tens of thousands of farmers have already been blocking major highways into the capital to
protest new laws aimed at deregulating Indian agriculture. Prime Minister Narendra Modi
introduced the laws in September, which will replace its current state-run system with one
that makes farmers sell directly to private companies instead. Opponents of the law believe
that it will lead to a corporate takeover of the agriculture sector, as well as lower prices for farmers' crops.
On top of blocking highways, many farmers have also burned their crops in protests,
contributing to unbreathable pollution levels in the capital.
Protest leaders sat down with government officials on Saturday,
but they weren't happy with the government's refusal to repeal the new laws.
Over half of India's entire population depends on agriculture for their livelihood.
A new report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has the news
you need to carry you through the end of a tough year. Secret concussion guns are real and they
are really scary. The term Havana syndrome was coined in 2018 to describe a sickness suffered
by American diplomats and spies in Cuba, China, Russia and other countries. Symptoms of the illness include dizziness, fatigue, and headaches, as well as the loss of hearing,
memory, and balance. So if you have all of those good news, you probably don't have COVID.
Scientists and intelligence officials came to believe that so-called microwave weapons were
the cause of Havana syndrome. The new State Department commissioned report came to the
same conclusion and also noted that the technology needed to create a weapon from pulse radio frequency technology has long been the subject
of Russian research. The strings on my huge cork board are all coming together at last.
Victims of Avana syndrome have accused the Trump administration of downplaying their illness and
refusing to acknowledge their attacks because of possible diplomatic implications. The NASEM
report was sent to the State Department in August, but not published until this weekend. Personally, I'll be eyeing my own microwave with deep skepticism and will
need to be stopped from putting large amounts of tinfoil in it in attempts to neutralize the device.
Yeah, I'm stopping you, Gideon. Don't put foil in the microwave.
I will not be stopped.
Debates were held last night in Georgia Senate runoff elections, with Reverend Raphael Warnock
facing off against Senator Kelly Loeffler and John Ossoff facing off against an empty podium that actually seemed way cooler and more capable
than Senator David Perdue. Georgia's runoff will determine the balance of the Senate, but Trump
can't bring himself to care about it. He held a huge rally in Georgia on Saturday, where he
expressed some support for Perdue and Loeffler, but spent most of his time protesting the result
of the presidential election. Perdue and Loeffler, this isn't about you guys. You're still craving an unscrupulous
as anyone that's ever lived. Trump is just working through something right now. Trump
reportedly called Georgia Governor Brian Kemp before the rally, pushing him to call a special
session of the state legislature and override the popular vote. Georgia officials say that's
not going to happen. Republicans are concerned
that Trump's conspiracy mongering about election misconduct could lead some of his supporters to
sit out the runoffs. I sure hope so. He's not usually in a president's best interest to use
his last month in office to wage psychological war on his base and make them wonder if anything
matters at all. Yeah, truly not good. Doesn't seem like a smart idea. I'm not a strategist, but it doesn't seem smart.
But totally innovative.
And those are the headlines.
One last thing before we go.
It's been a long year and we are so ready for 2021
that we made a brand new What A Day desk calendar
for our beloved WOD squad.
That's right.
Shop the desk calendar and more,
including Crooked's annual holiday ornaments right now.
Go to crooked.com slash store to shop. That's right. Shop the desk calendar and more, including Crooked's annual holiday ornaments right now.
Go to crooked.com slash store to shop.
That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, reserve your tickets to Ratatouille the musical and tell your friends to listen.
And if you're into reading and not just Havana syndrome cork boards like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick.
And keep an eye on that poll book. Stop doing weird stuff to it.
Yeah, you never know where it's going to scurry off next if you don't take your eyes off it.
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 Kshaka.