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Does the government…
care about our health?
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Serious question.
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I mean we've seen how hard
it works to make sure food is cheap.
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Why doesn't it do the
same thing for prescription drugs?
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You know, if a bank fails,
the government swoops in to save the day,
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but if your heart fails, they
feed you to the health insurance sharks.
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That'll be ten grand.
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Ooh! Twenty grand!
Great work doc, what a day!
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Or what about COVID-19?
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I mean, do you remember what
it was like when the pandemic first hit?
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We were all trapped inside,
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obsessively refreshing
the COVID death count websites
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and cheering out our
windows for frontline workers
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who didn't even have access
to basic protective equipment.
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-Thank you!
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Who needs a mask when
you've got clanging pots to comfort you?
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Actually, if you were
stuck inside you were lucky,
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because a lot of people,
like grocery workers were out there
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risking their lives for minimum wage.
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You want your body bag
to be paper or plastic?
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And as I watched
the pandemic sweep across the country,
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killing hundreds
of thousands of Americans,
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I couldn't help but wonder,
where the hell was our government?
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Why did we go months
without adequate testing?
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Why was there so little contact tracing?
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Where was the giant
government PSA campaign
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telling us how to fight the virus?
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I want you to
wear a goddamn mask.
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I've never felt more
abandoned by the system
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that I thought was supposed to
protect me and my community.
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So, what the hell happened?
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I mean our government
has literally wiped out entire diseases
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that used to kill us in droves.
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So, why couldn't it handle COVID-19?
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-Take malaria.
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Every year, it kills hundreds of
thousands of people around the world.
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Well here in America,
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we generally only worry
about it when we travel overseas.
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Not many of us realize
though, that up until the 1940s,
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malaria was actually
endemic to the United States!
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I declare,
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this mosquito-borne malaise is
wreaking havoc on the entire South
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and sickening hundreds of
thousands of Americans every year.
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Malaria!
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No need to fret folks!
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I'm from the government
and I'm here to help.
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We're going to train local health
officials, drain mosquito breeding sites,
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and spray millions of homes
with good old American pesticide.
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Ahh. Smells like Mom's home cooking.
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In fact, we've created a brand new agency
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with a specific mission of
eradicating this pest borne plague.
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The Centers for Disease Control.
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Well, control it you did!
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Malaria has disappeared
like a summer breeze.
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But are you sure this
cloud of poisonous gas is safe?
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Uh… Well, it did almost
eradicate the Bald Eagle…
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Luckily it is a resilient
and majestic bird.
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Bald Eagles!
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And it wasn't just malaria,
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the CDC worked to
help virtually wipe out diseases
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like the measles, tuberculosis and polio.
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Americans literally think of
these as old-timey illnesses now.
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And even today, our government
is investing massive resources
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in developing the cures
and treatments of the future.
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The National Institutes of Health
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is the largest public funder
of biomedical research in the world.
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I mean, name something that'll kill you
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and the NIH has made
you less likely to die from it.
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Everything from breast cancer,
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to diabetes, to hepatitis,
to heart disease, even prostate cancer!
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And today, at NIH's building 10,
they're on the verge of straight-up curing
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one of the most
pernicious diseases in the country.
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Thank you so much for having
me. This place is like a cathedral.
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It is, this is the largest
research hospital in the world.
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Has only about 200 beds,
but every one of those
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is occupied by somebody who's
here on an experimental clinical trial.
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So, funded
by the taxpayers,
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the first chemotherapy
was done in this clinical center.
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-The first… uh
-Wow.
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…treatment of depression for lithium,
that was done in this clinical center.
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The first gene therapy ever
was done in this clinical center.
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That's incredible,
so patients come to this building
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to get brand new treatments
that you're just now inventing with them.
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Do you know the disease
called sickle cell disease?
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Yes, I learned about it in school, it's
a very… it's a very difficult disease.
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It is. It's an inherited disorder,
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primarily affects people
whose ancestors came from Africa.
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Now we've known
the cause of sickle-cell for decades,
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but we haven't really
had an effective treatment.
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But now, here in this very building
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we're starting dare I say, to cure people.
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-Really?
-Not just help them, but cure them.
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And I want to introduce
you to two of the doctors that lead this.
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I would love that, please, ple--
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-Can we do that? Let's go.
-Alright, let's do that.
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Thank you so much.
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-Hi there.
-Hi.
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-Hi, I'm Adam.
-Dr. Fitzhugh, nice to meet you.
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Very nice to meet you.
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And John Tisdale.
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-Very nice to meet you. Can I sit?
-Nice to meet you.
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-Yes, that'll be great.
-Great.
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So in America, hundred thousand
people living with this disease right now,
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and you're working on… curing it?
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-Yes.
-That's our goal.
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We're trying to give
them a whole new life.
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How does it work? How do you do it?
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The type of transplant that
I do is where you take the stem cells,
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which are the seeds of the
bone marrow which make red blood cells.
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We take them from a family member.
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Ideally those stem cells
will grow and make
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normal red blood cells
and cure the patient.
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That's amazing. That's…
that could change so many lives.
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Yeah, it's really incredible.
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When I first started
my training, in the 90s,
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we had exactly zero drugs.
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The one thing that we can do,
and could do well then,
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is to treat pain.
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We weren't even doing that.
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It didn't seem like anyone was
doing anything for sickle cell disease.
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There's a lot of diseases
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that have less than a hundred
thousand Americans that suffer--
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That get a whole lot more.
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-Yeah.
-Yeah.
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Why is that?
Is it possibly because of the folks that…
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who suffer from it the most
in America are of-- is it an equity issue?
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I think that's an
easy question to answer yes to.
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Almost every patient
that you meet with this disease
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has had the encounter that
they go to the ER, writhing in pain,
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only to be denied
the very treatment they need.
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Well if I imagine
government science, I imagine you know,
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I don't know,
big particle accelerators and things,
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I don't necessarily imagine,
oh, you're caring for people.
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Like, you're working for the government
but you're caring for people one-on-one.
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The patients that are
eligible are able to come to the NIH
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and as long as they're eligible,
they get, everything's provided for free.
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So I love that too,
that we can pretty much,
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we don't have to ask
about insurance or citizenship,
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we can take care of everybody.
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And in fact,
we have a patient, in the clinic now
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who was on the gene therapy
protocol, that I need to go see.
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That would be amazing. I'd
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-love to do that if we could.
-Okay, let's do that.
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Dr. Fitzhugh,
it was incredible meeting you.
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-Thank you so much.
-Very nice to meet you too, Adam.
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-Yeah. Alright, let's go.
-Take care.
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-Hello! How are you?
-Hi, Dr. Tisdale.
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-It's so nice to meet you Clevetta.
-Hi Adam, nice to meet you.
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So before um, the
transplant I was really sick.
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I was up to… almost 30 ER
and hospital visits in a year.
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And then I was
introduced to NIH and the transplant.
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I prayed about it.
It was very risky you know,
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but I decided to go along with it
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and I feel so much better.
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I haven't been in the hospital since 2019.
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What does it feel like to,
you know, be not just cured yourself
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but to be a part of this giant
project to cure so many other people.
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To be on the forefront of that?
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Honestly, it's scary,
but whether or not it worked for me,
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I did it for the future, you know,
generations who it may help.
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Clevetta, it's…
it's amazing talking to you.
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Thank you--
Thank you so much for taking the time.
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Thank you,
I appreciate everything.
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Thank you for speaking with me,
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for coming, for introducing
the transplant to the world.
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Isn't that incredible?
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Can you imagine
growing up with an incurable disease,
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being turned away and
dismissed by the medical establishment.
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And then one day,
miraculously, you're cured!
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Not by some faith healer
waving a crystal in your face…
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-This crystal will align your chakras.
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-Okay, thank you very much.
-It will set your moons forth.
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Thank you, no. Uh…
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But by your own government,
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inviting you to take part
in a generational effort
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to end your disease for everyone.
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You know, they say the only two things
that are certain are death and taxes
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but it turns out
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that our government's been
using the one to fight the other.
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And, at least partly
because of their efforts,
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over the last century
American life expectancy
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has increased by 30 goddamn years!
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So, maybe the government
does care about our health?
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But hold on, if the government
is so amazing at curing diseases,
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how the hell did it totally fuck up the--
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Pandemic!
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When COVID-19 hit, our
government seemed to go totally haywire.
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The CDC and the FDA
wasted time developing flawed tests
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instead of approving working ones.
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The Department of Homeland Security
was seemingly nowhere to be found.
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We didn't even take basic steps,
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like developing a national
testing or contact tracing plan.
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People died as a result.
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According to expert models,
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if the federal government
had deployed a coordinated response,
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it could have saved
hundreds of thousands of lives.
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So again, what the hell happened?
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Well, think of the
government as an orchestra.
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And the president as its conductor.
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In order for them to play beautiful
music together, you need two things,
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qualified, competent
public servants sitting in these chairs
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and a conductor who's dedicated to
helping them all play together on cue.
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But when the pandemic hit,
we had a different kind of conductor.
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You mind if I take over?
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-How hard could this be?
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Oh boy, we got a lot of instruments here.
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Do we need all of these?
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The Trump campaign
explicitly ran on a platform
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of eliminating government
departments and personnel.
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And when Americans voted
for it, they were true to their word.
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The Homeland Security Advisor,
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a position created specifically
to handle threats like a pandemic,
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was effectively eliminated.
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Yeah. Go, go, go.
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The National Security Council Team
devoted to pandemic response was fired.
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Get out of here. Go!
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Go! Come on! Yeah. Bye-bye! Bye-bye.
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You know what else was cut?
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A project called "Predict",
which tracked animal diseases
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and was supposed to serve
as a pandemic early warning program,
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but nope! Bet you didn't predict that.
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Even the CDC was sidelined
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after it communicated
a bit too loudly with the public.
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-Hey you! Pipe down!
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This happened across
the entire federal government.
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By 2020, 80% of senior officials had left.
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The administration hadn't even advanced
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a nominee for a 150 crucial positions.
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And much of the government's
pandemic response structure
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had been dismantled.
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So, what went wrong with COVID-19?
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Well, if you don't hire enough musicians,
if you cut entire sections, and if the
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whole thing is conducted by someone who,
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let's face it,
doesn't really care a lot about music?
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Well, you're not going to get a symphony,
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you're going to get a cacophony.
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-Ugh!
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The federal response was so discordant,
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the job of handling the pandemic
was left to individual cities and states.
240
00:14:11,977 --> 00:14:14,021
But sadly, this same tune
241
00:14:14,104 --> 00:14:17,899
was being played by
politicians on the local level too.
242
00:14:19,818 --> 00:14:24,489
You might not even know they're there
but in your state, county, town or city,
243
00:14:24,573 --> 00:14:28,869
there's a local public health department
that's working hard to protect you.
244
00:14:28,952 --> 00:14:32,956
They do things like inspect
restaurants to stop food borne illnesses.
245
00:14:33,457 --> 00:14:35,959
Educate the public on how to prevent STDs.
246
00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:46,261
And, during the pandemic,
247
00:14:46,345 --> 00:14:50,557
they were responsible for everything
from distributing vaccines to testing.
248
00:14:53,226 --> 00:14:55,479
Yo, thank you for your thoroughness.
249
00:14:55,562 --> 00:14:57,397
Oh God, I think he touched the brainstem.
250
00:14:58,398 --> 00:14:59,232
But shockingly,
251
00:14:59,316 --> 00:15:03,779
these essential public workers
have been disappearing before our eyes.
252
00:15:03,862 --> 00:15:07,032
Budget cuts sponsored
by both Republicans and Democrats
253
00:15:07,115 --> 00:15:12,663
have led to the elimination of 56,000
local public health jobs since 2008.
254
00:15:12,746 --> 00:15:18,335
Oh no! I'm getting cut!
Tell my wife I never loved her!
255
00:15:19,962 --> 00:15:21,088
This is batshit!
256
00:15:21,171 --> 00:15:24,591
Those politicians never would have
voted to defund the fire department,
257
00:15:24,675 --> 00:15:27,803
but they sure had
no problem eviscerating public health.
258
00:15:27,886 --> 00:15:30,973
So, you want to know why
America botched the pandemic?
259
00:15:31,056 --> 00:15:32,975
Experts believe that we went into it
260
00:15:33,058 --> 00:15:37,354
with 300,000 less
public health workers than we needed.
261
00:15:37,854 --> 00:15:39,147
What must it have been like
262
00:15:39,231 --> 00:15:41,775
to be responsible
for the health of your community
263
00:15:41,858 --> 00:15:43,402
with that few resources?
264
00:15:56,581 --> 00:15:58,375
Hey! I'm here to see Shawanda.
265
00:15:58,458 --> 00:16:00,043
Give me one moment,
I'll go back and get her.
266
00:16:00,127 --> 00:16:01,378
Awesome.
267
00:16:01,461 --> 00:16:02,921
-Hi!
-Hi!
268
00:16:03,005 --> 00:16:03,964
Adam, how are you?
269
00:16:04,047 --> 00:16:05,590
Thank you so much for having me.
270
00:16:05,674 --> 00:16:06,633
Would you like
to come on back to my office?
271
00:16:06,717 --> 00:16:08,343
Yeah, let--
Show me around a little bit.
272
00:16:08,427 --> 00:16:12,723
Mr. Burns had showed me some
of your um, YouTube videos and I saw them.
273
00:16:12,806 --> 00:16:13,640
Oh you did?
274
00:16:13,724 --> 00:16:16,309
Kind of funny but uh… but it was nice.
275
00:16:16,393 --> 00:16:17,519
You thought they were kind of funny.
276
00:16:17,602 --> 00:16:19,104
-They were.
-Okay good.
277
00:16:19,187 --> 00:16:20,605
Tell me a little bit about Lowndes County.
278
00:16:20,689 --> 00:16:22,774
Basically, Lowndes County's a rural area.
279
00:16:22,858 --> 00:16:25,193
-There's no hospitals here. Um…
-Wow.
280
00:16:25,277 --> 00:16:28,447
There's no big restaurants
like McDonald's or anything like that.
281
00:16:28,530 --> 00:16:30,907
So like, we're the only
County Health Department here.
282
00:16:30,991 --> 00:16:31,950
What do you all do here?
283
00:16:32,659 --> 00:16:34,119
-What we don't do here?
284
00:16:34,953 --> 00:16:36,955
We do a lot um,
family planning.
285
00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:38,999
We have WIAC,
which is, women, health and--
286
00:16:39,082 --> 00:16:40,751
Women, Infants and Children. Um…
287
00:16:41,376 --> 00:16:43,587
-We do a lot of testing here.
-Yeah.
288
00:16:43,670 --> 00:16:45,756
With the CDC, with the STD program.
289
00:16:45,839 --> 00:16:48,175
We do vital records here as well.
290
00:16:48,759 --> 00:16:49,760
-Birth certificates?
-Birth certificates.
291
00:16:49,843 --> 00:16:51,636
Birth certificates, death certificates.
292
00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:55,015
If the County Health Department, Lowndes
County Health Department was not here,
293
00:16:55,098 --> 00:16:55,932
where would they go?
294
00:16:56,016 --> 00:17:00,228
Yeah. I did read that in Alabama that,
295
00:17:00,312 --> 00:17:02,522
you know, over ten years,
before the pandemic,
296
00:17:02,606 --> 00:17:06,234
that staffing at Public Health
Departments was cut by like a third.
297
00:17:06,318 --> 00:17:09,029
-Oh I feel like it cut more than a third.
-Yeah?
298
00:17:09,112 --> 00:17:12,616
Some days we have 40,
50 people coming in for one program,
299
00:17:12,699 --> 00:17:14,201
so, they got to wait.
300
00:17:14,284 --> 00:17:15,452
-Right.
-That's the barrier.
301
00:17:15,535 --> 00:17:18,455
If we had the proper
staffing, they wouldn't have to wait.
302
00:17:18,538 --> 00:17:20,749
Well, let me ask about COVID-19.
303
00:17:20,832 --> 00:17:21,917
There were parts of the pandemic
304
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,127
where this was one
of the hardest hit spots in the country
305
00:17:24,211 --> 00:17:25,253
-at that point in time.
-Mm-hm.
306
00:17:25,337 --> 00:17:27,464
You're the only
folks around for miles
307
00:17:27,547 --> 00:17:29,341
and everyone's looking to you,
what was that like?
308
00:17:29,424 --> 00:17:30,675
Scary.
309
00:17:30,759 --> 00:17:31,843
Um…
310
00:17:31,927 --> 00:17:33,845
You know, some people
is coming from everywhere,
311
00:17:33,929 --> 00:17:35,138
not only just for this county.
312
00:17:35,222 --> 00:17:37,182
When they couldn't get any other
place they would wanna come here.
313
00:17:37,265 --> 00:17:40,769
Were you having to pull
extra hours to handle this or what?
314
00:17:40,852 --> 00:17:42,938
I was working clerk,
that means I was doing intake,
315
00:17:43,021 --> 00:17:46,817
then I was doing a manager's job
which is the office manager's job,
316
00:17:46,900 --> 00:17:50,695
and then now I'm the director
so now I am doing the director's job.
317
00:17:50,779 --> 00:17:52,739
What powers you through to do that?
318
00:17:54,116 --> 00:17:55,158
Yeah?
319
00:17:55,242 --> 00:17:57,786
If I can help a person
put a smile on their face
320
00:17:57,869 --> 00:18:01,373
and um, be able to get what
they need, I mean, it's awesome.
321
00:18:01,456 --> 00:18:03,792
Thank you for being here
and doing this work.
322
00:18:03,875 --> 00:18:04,918
I'd love to meet Dr. Thomas,
323
00:18:05,001 --> 00:18:06,962
do you think it'd be okay if I
went over there and said hi?
324
00:18:07,045 --> 00:18:09,131
-It's okay, just relax, okay.
-Okay.
325
00:18:09,214 --> 00:18:11,675
Pull your mask down. Up. Well, come on.
326
00:18:11,758 --> 00:18:13,260
Close your lips please.
327
00:18:14,469 --> 00:18:15,929
I'm gonna see
Dr. Thomas in a second?
328
00:18:16,012 --> 00:18:18,974
You are going to see Dr. Thomas,
he's the only doctor in the county.
329
00:18:19,057 --> 00:18:19,808
What is that like?
330
00:18:19,891 --> 00:18:23,436
Have you ever heard
the phrase cool as a cucumber?
331
00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:25,147
-That's Dr. Thomas.
332
00:18:25,230 --> 00:18:27,858
He loves his clients
and his clients love him as well, so.
333
00:18:27,941 --> 00:18:29,693
It was so wonderful meeting you.
334
00:18:29,776 --> 00:18:31,611
Alright, take care. Alright.
335
00:18:31,695 --> 00:18:33,280
-Adam?
-Dr. Thomas!
336
00:18:33,363 --> 00:18:34,197
How are you doing?
337
00:18:34,281 --> 00:18:36,408
Tell me a little bit about
yourself and the clinic.
338
00:18:36,491 --> 00:18:39,077
Been in practice since 1986,
339
00:18:40,078 --> 00:18:43,957
I finished Tuscaloosa
Family Practice residency in Tuscaloosa.
340
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:48,003
Now I understand this is a
federally qualified-- What is it?
341
00:18:48,086 --> 00:18:49,254
Federally qualified health center.
342
00:18:49,337 --> 00:18:52,340
They basically will fund
a certain amount of money
343
00:18:52,424 --> 00:18:55,635
and then we're responsible for
making sure that all people are seen.
344
00:18:55,719 --> 00:18:58,889
In other words, if they don't
have insurance, we will see them.
345
00:18:58,972 --> 00:19:01,683
It's um, can be difficult at times but,
346
00:19:02,184 --> 00:19:06,438
right now we're trying to make sure that
everybody is covered in terms of COVID.
347
00:19:06,521 --> 00:19:08,190
You had a real outbreak here.
348
00:19:08,273 --> 00:19:09,357
-I saw that at one point,
-Yes.
349
00:19:09,441 --> 00:19:12,319
the positivity rate for test was like 35%.
350
00:19:12,402 --> 00:19:13,778
-Yes. It is.
-That's so high.
351
00:19:13,862 --> 00:19:17,490
I was actually
quarantined for about 14 days.
352
00:19:17,574 --> 00:19:20,243
You're the only doctor in
town and you were quarantined?
353
00:19:20,994 --> 00:19:23,371
My nurse practitioner
was here so she had my back.
354
00:19:23,455 --> 00:19:25,123
-She had my back. Yeah.
-She had your back but you weren't
355
00:19:25,207 --> 00:19:26,333
able to see patients during that time?
356
00:19:26,416 --> 00:19:28,460
-Right, right.
-Wow.
357
00:19:28,543 --> 00:19:30,212
-You also practice in Montgomery?
-Yes.
358
00:19:30,295 --> 00:19:31,296
How often do you do that?
359
00:19:31,379 --> 00:19:33,465
I'm going up there
every day after I finish here.
360
00:19:33,548 --> 00:19:36,301
Would it be okay if I tagged along with
you and we could talk more in the car?
361
00:19:36,384 --> 00:19:38,511
Like you to see some
of the countryside, it's beautiful.
362
00:19:40,138 --> 00:19:41,890
How did you start doing this work?
363
00:19:41,973 --> 00:19:43,808
I decided I
wanted to be a doctor
364
00:19:43,892 --> 00:19:48,188
but, I didn't really want to be
responsible for saying you can't be seen
365
00:19:48,271 --> 00:19:50,065
because you don't have enough money.
366
00:19:50,607 --> 00:19:53,485
There was an organization
called the National Service Corps.
367
00:19:53,568 --> 00:19:55,987
Once you completed
your residency,
368
00:19:56,071 --> 00:19:58,740
you would try and match
with a community health center,
369
00:19:58,823 --> 00:20:01,868
or Indian Reservation or prison system,
370
00:20:01,952 --> 00:20:03,245
anything that…
371
00:20:03,328 --> 00:20:04,496
-Was not covered-- Where there's
-Where there's need.
372
00:20:04,579 --> 00:20:05,538
need, exactly.
373
00:20:05,622 --> 00:20:07,374
So this is a
government program, "We'll
374
00:20:07,457 --> 00:20:10,752
pay your medical tuition
if you go somewhere
375
00:20:10,835 --> 00:20:13,171
where they really need
doctors such as Lowndes County."
376
00:20:13,255 --> 00:20:15,507
-And that's how you ended up here.
-Exactly. Right.
377
00:20:15,590 --> 00:20:18,093
-That's an amazing program. I…
-It is,
378
00:20:18,176 --> 00:20:19,469
-it is.
-I had no idea that it existed.
379
00:20:19,552 --> 00:20:21,096
I think it started in 1970.
380
00:20:21,179 --> 00:20:25,100
When President Reagan
was elected he cut the program.
381
00:20:25,642 --> 00:20:30,605
Do you feel that the government
cares about the health of Americans
382
00:20:30,689 --> 00:20:32,065
as much as it should?
383
00:20:32,148 --> 00:20:36,820
I think there's certain ones
in government who do care and others who…
384
00:20:38,947 --> 00:20:39,823
it's not their priority.
385
00:20:41,199 --> 00:20:44,911
Sometimes politicians
are of the impression that,
386
00:20:45,704 --> 00:20:49,666
those who are in poor health
are responsible for themselves.
387
00:20:49,749 --> 00:20:51,876
If you've never been poor,
388
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:57,173
or you've never had to decide
whether I can't eat and go see the doctor,
389
00:20:57,257 --> 00:20:59,384
if you haven't faced
that then you really don't…
390
00:21:01,052 --> 00:21:02,846
understand that position.
391
00:21:05,765 --> 00:21:09,352
You know, we keep having
this tiresome debate in this country
392
00:21:09,436 --> 00:21:12,272
over how much the government
should be involved in healthcare.
393
00:21:12,355 --> 00:21:16,067
When, in reality, if it weren't
for government health workers
394
00:21:16,151 --> 00:21:17,861
like Shawanda and Dr. Thomas,
395
00:21:17,944 --> 00:21:21,406
there'd be no healthcare
in Lowndes County at all.
396
00:21:21,906 --> 00:21:25,493
And yet they're still being
starved of the resources they need
397
00:21:25,577 --> 00:21:27,203
to keep their community safe.
398
00:21:27,787 --> 00:21:29,914
Is it any wonder that,
as I'm recording this,
399
00:21:29,998 --> 00:21:34,044
Alabama has one of the lowest
COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country?
400
00:21:34,544 --> 00:21:39,257
I mean, why aren't we investing
in basic public services like this?
401
00:21:41,468 --> 00:21:45,055
You know, I remember
my mom telling me when I was a kid
402
00:21:45,138 --> 00:21:46,931
that the government was wasteful
403
00:21:47,015 --> 00:21:50,643
and that the private sector was much
more efficient at getting things done.
404
00:21:51,144 --> 00:21:52,312
And looking back on it now,
405
00:21:52,395 --> 00:21:54,481
that was kind of a weird
comment coming from her
406
00:21:54,564 --> 00:21:57,150
because she was a public school teacher.
407
00:21:57,233 --> 00:22:00,236
She was educated at a State University.
408
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:01,863
Her dad, my grandfather,
409
00:22:01,946 --> 00:22:04,949
he got his education
paid for by the GI Bill.
410
00:22:05,450 --> 00:22:08,661
Our entire family
benefited from government support.
411
00:22:09,162 --> 00:22:10,830
So where did she get the idea?
412
00:22:10,914 --> 00:22:12,248
Where do we all get the idea
413
00:22:12,332 --> 00:22:15,335
that the government is
some useless bureaucracy
414
00:22:15,418 --> 00:22:17,545
that needs to be dismantled?
415
00:22:19,297 --> 00:22:23,676
For much of the 20th century,
there was a consensus in America
416
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:27,514
that a strong capable
government was a good thing to have.
417
00:22:27,597 --> 00:22:32,644
Folks! Behold the eighth
wonder of the world: Uncle Sam.
418
00:22:36,773 --> 00:22:41,152
Marvel as your government
stabilizes the banking system.
419
00:22:43,404 --> 00:22:46,950
-Boggle, as he sanitizes the food supply!
420
00:22:49,077 --> 00:22:52,080
That's right, a healthy
government needs a healthy society.
421
00:22:54,958 --> 00:22:56,584
But in the wake of the
Civil Rights Movement,
422
00:22:56,668 --> 00:22:59,087
some Americans began to resent the fact
423
00:22:59,170 --> 00:23:01,047
that the government
was now providing assistance
424
00:23:01,131 --> 00:23:03,675
to Black and Brown citizens as well.
425
00:23:03,758 --> 00:23:07,554
And they started blaming the welfare
state for the nation's economic woes.
426
00:23:07,637 --> 00:23:08,346
Uh-oh.
427
00:23:08,429 --> 00:23:10,181
Not so sure about that, are we folks?
428
00:23:10,265 --> 00:23:13,143
And don't look now,
but the economy is beset
429
00:23:13,226 --> 00:23:15,186
by inflation, stagnation
430
00:23:15,270 --> 00:23:19,941
and unemployment that ol'
Uncle Sam is struggling to fix!
431
00:23:20,567 --> 00:23:23,153
Boo! Boo I say!
432
00:23:23,236 --> 00:23:24,946
Oh, what's this?
433
00:23:25,446 --> 00:23:28,658
We got some wealthy
business-backed groups raising a ruckus.
434
00:23:28,741 --> 00:23:30,410
Here, boo this man!
435
00:23:30,493 --> 00:23:32,287
They're paying think tanks and colleges
436
00:23:32,370 --> 00:23:35,039
to pass along the notion
that the government sucks eggs.
437
00:23:35,123 --> 00:23:38,334
Yes, yeah. Boo him students! Boo!
438
00:23:38,418 --> 00:23:40,461
The free market is the
solution to all our problems.
439
00:23:40,545 --> 00:23:44,174
Boo!
440
00:23:44,257 --> 00:23:45,717
Boo!
441
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:51,139
Soon, politicians from both parties were
talking about downsizing the government.
442
00:23:51,222 --> 00:23:53,349
But these trends really came to a head
443
00:23:53,433 --> 00:23:56,728
in the campaign of one of
the most popular presidents of all time
444
00:23:56,811 --> 00:23:59,355
and not just because
he once starred in a movie with a chimp.
445
00:24:02,775 --> 00:24:03,943
You know folks, the
446
00:24:04,027 --> 00:24:06,988
nine most terrifying
words in the English language are,
447
00:24:07,071 --> 00:24:09,657
"I'm from the government
and I'm here to help."
448
00:24:19,918 --> 00:24:23,254
It's alright friend,
you won't feel a thing.
449
00:24:23,338 --> 00:24:25,506
This message was so popular,
450
00:24:25,590 --> 00:24:29,260
it helped Reagan win one of the
largest Electoral College victories
451
00:24:29,344 --> 00:24:31,095
in recent American history.
452
00:24:31,930 --> 00:24:34,599
Patient, Uncle Sam,
200 years old, mostly white.
453
00:24:34,682 --> 00:24:38,978
Suffering from laziness,
waste and a bad case of pork belly.
454
00:24:39,687 --> 00:24:42,523
The American people have
asked us for a government-ectomy,
455
00:24:42,607 --> 00:24:44,776
and we're gonna give it to them. Scalpel.
456
00:24:44,859 --> 00:24:47,070
Alright, let's see here.
457
00:24:47,153 --> 00:24:50,615
We'll just cut
the housing department by 70%
458
00:24:50,698 --> 00:24:54,285
and staff it with a bunch
of anti-housing capitalists.
459
00:24:55,495 --> 00:24:56,746
That's got it.
460
00:24:57,538 --> 00:25:01,876
Then we'll disembowel the regulations
on the mortgage industry here.
461
00:25:02,460 --> 00:25:03,378
Oh, don't worry.
462
00:25:04,128 --> 00:25:08,925
I'm sure that the free market
can prevent a housing crisis by itself.
463
00:25:10,426 --> 00:25:13,888
And let's just reduce
these taxes over here.
464
00:25:15,014 --> 00:25:19,477
Heck, while we're at it,
let's just gut the whole dang IRS.
465
00:25:20,979 --> 00:25:24,774
This philosophy, that the free market
should be trusted over the government
466
00:25:24,857 --> 00:25:28,236
to solve all our
problems became so popular,
467
00:25:28,319 --> 00:25:31,114
the Democrats started adopting it as well.
468
00:25:31,197 --> 00:25:35,243
When President Clinton was elected,
he cut welfare and financial regulations.
469
00:25:35,326 --> 00:25:39,455
"The era of big government
is over." Pass me that scalpel Ronny.
470
00:25:40,164 --> 00:25:44,127
And, despite its efforts
to push back against this trend,
471
00:25:44,210 --> 00:25:48,589
even the Obama Administration felt it
necessary to compromise with the market
472
00:25:48,673 --> 00:25:50,466
when reforming health care.
473
00:25:50,550 --> 00:25:54,512
"That's why our health care
law relies on a reformed private market,
474
00:25:54,595 --> 00:25:56,097
"not a government program."
475
00:25:56,806 --> 00:25:58,308
In the end,
476
00:25:58,391 --> 00:26:03,646
this anti-government philosophy
produced exactly what it intended,
477
00:26:03,730 --> 00:26:06,649
a government that's weaker,
less effective.
478
00:26:06,733 --> 00:26:11,738
Less able to protect
us in the ways only it can.
479
00:26:11,821 --> 00:26:15,992
There we are Uncle Sam. Isn't that better?
480
00:26:20,038 --> 00:26:21,914
You know, maybe it's hard to believe
481
00:26:21,998 --> 00:26:26,127
but I wasn't always the prime
physical specimen I am today.
482
00:26:26,210 --> 00:26:29,047
In my 20s,
I didn't care about my body at all.
483
00:26:29,130 --> 00:26:30,923
I was doing three stand-up sets a night,
484
00:26:31,007 --> 00:26:33,718
smoking a pack a day
and drinking too much.
485
00:26:33,801 --> 00:26:36,012
I treated my body like shit…
486
00:26:36,095 --> 00:26:38,097
Okay, you guys suck.
487
00:26:38,681 --> 00:26:40,558
What else, what else?
488
00:26:40,641 --> 00:26:43,102
Until it couldn't do shit.
489
00:26:46,397 --> 00:26:49,567
And our government
is kind of the same way.
490
00:26:49,650 --> 00:26:53,071
How can it care
for us if we don't care for it?
491
00:26:53,571 --> 00:26:57,742
But you know, we don't have
to treat our governing body this way.
492
00:26:58,284 --> 00:27:00,453
My own journey from boozed-up schlub
493
00:27:00,536 --> 00:27:02,872
to the paragon
of fitness you see before you,
494
00:27:02,955 --> 00:27:06,084
began when I started listening to my body.
495
00:27:06,167 --> 00:27:08,586
And in that same way
we could start paying attention
496
00:27:08,669 --> 00:27:11,839
to what our government
actually does every day.
497
00:27:11,923 --> 00:27:16,052
We could support its immune system
by investing in public health again,
498
00:27:16,135 --> 00:27:18,137
we could feed it healthy funding
499
00:27:18,221 --> 00:27:21,599
and exercise its muscles
by making sure it has a…
500
00:27:21,682 --> 00:27:23,893
well-trained staff or whatever.
501
00:27:23,976 --> 00:27:26,938
Okay, the metaphor
is breaking down a little bit, but,
502
00:27:27,021 --> 00:27:28,773
if we did do all these things
503
00:27:28,856 --> 00:27:31,776
we could end up with
a government that's strong enough
504
00:27:31,859 --> 00:27:34,570
to support us
in the ways that matter most.
505
00:27:34,654 --> 00:27:36,656
Ha-ha-ha!
506
00:27:41,619 --> 00:27:45,873
But, that's easy for
me to say, here on Netflix.
507
00:27:45,957 --> 00:27:49,961
And dramatized with
a couple of incredibly hunky actors.
508
00:27:50,044 --> 00:27:55,049
It's a lot harder for us as a
society to do in the real world.
509
00:27:55,550 --> 00:27:58,928
How exactly do we reverse this tide?
510
00:27:59,011 --> 00:28:02,140
How do we heal our government
so it's as fit as we need it to be?
511
00:28:02,223 --> 00:28:06,144
How do we take these
ideas and actually use them
512
00:28:06,227 --> 00:28:07,687
to make change?