Latest / Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News / How media fear amplified public anxiety during COVID-19

Transcript

How media fear amplified public anxiety during COVID-19 · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:06
  Welcome to the unto take a deep breath.
• 0:11
  Take the higher road.
• 0:13
  That's what they always say.
• 0:14
  Let's see if they know the way.
• 0:16
  They won't take it from me.
• 0:20
  Don't ever dump himself with swiping juice to dream.
• 0:24
  You made your own so kid can scream.
• 0:27
  The people who will laugh with a never-ending force.
• 0:31
  It never had the chance.
• 0:33
  So watch it with calm my friend because this is whoa.
• 0:44
  It's time.
• 0:54
  Five years later, people are still pretending that we didn't just collectively traumatize an entire generation of children.
• 1:04
  We shut down schools.
• 1:06
  We isolated grandparents.
• 1:08
  We told kids that other human beings were dangerous.
• 1:12
  We masked toddlers.
• 1:14
  We canceled graduations, sports, birthday parties, funerals, church services, and they just the human connection itself.
• 1:26
  And if you questioned any of it, you were attacked.
• 1:31
  Today I want to talk about the emotional impact of COVID, not just the virus itself, but the fear campaigns surrounding it.
• 1:42
  Because now in 2026, I'm watching the media begin another fear cycle with hantivirus coverage.
• 1:51
  And I think Americans are exhausted.
• 1:54
  We need to talk about what happened to our children.
• 1:57
  What happened to our public trust?
• 2:00
  And why so many people no longer blindly accept what they're told?
• 2:07
  Welcome to the Nurses Report on America Out Loud.
• 2:10
  I'm your host, Ashley Caputo, registered nurse, functional medicine practitioner, patient advocate, and founder of rooted wellness functional health.
• 2:21
  Today's gonna be a deeply personal episode because I lived through COVID, not only as a nurse, but as a mother.
• 2:53
  But was it because of the virus, or was it because of our response?
• 3:00
  But what also happened, and what many people still refuse to acknowledge is that government agencies, media outlets, corporations, and parts of the healthcare system used fear as a weapon.
• 3:16
  Fear became policy.
• 3:19
  And when fear drives policy, freedom disappears quickly.
• 3:27
  Children learned that human interaction was dangerous, right?
• 3:32
  Think about it.
• 3:33
  Kids were taught, don't hug, don't visit grandparents, stay away from others, your classmates could kill somebody.
• 3:41
  I mean, this was the language that was being used.
• 3:44
  I'm not just being, you know, I'm not exaggerating on this.
• 3:48
  We heard this kind of language be used towards our children.
• 3:52
  You know, your breath was dangerous, right?
• 3:54
  Uh unless you were six feet away, because that was scientific, you know.
• 3:58
  If you were six feet away, nothing could get to you, you'd be fine.
• 4:03
  But all of this does something psychologically, and I can attest to this.
• 4:09
  We saw spikes in anxiety, depression, suicide attempts, and these aren't just my personal accounts.
• 4:17
  You can find documentation of this.
• 4:19
  There were developmental delays in children, speech delays, behavioral problems, social isolation, and honestly, you know, none of this should surprise us.
• 4:33
  Humans are not meant to live isolated from each other.
• 4:37
  That's just not who we are.
• 4:40
  We thrive to be around people, to have interactions, to have acceptance, especially our children.
• 4:48
  You know, as a nurse, I watched medicine become almost unrecognizable during COVID.
• 4:55
  And as a mom, I watched fear infiltrate childhood itself.
• 5:03
  You know, just this weekend, um, I went to Great Wolf Lodge with my family.
• 5:09
  It was what my kids wanted to give me for Mother's Day and my birthday.
• 5:14
  And so they planned this trip.
• 5:16
  Now, this is like their favorite place to go.
• 5:18
  And if you've never been to a Great Wolf Lodge, it has a giant indoor water park, uh, wave pool, lazy river, then inside there's restaurants, bars, magic quest, um, bowling, putt putt, a rock climbing wall, a ropes course.
• 5:39
  I mean, oh, a build-a-bear, a candy store, gift shop, of course, which I absolutely hate, but yes, there's a gift shop.
• 5:47
  But there's so much there, right?
• 5:49
  Like you just you spend days there.
• 5:52
  There's a playground outside, so you can go outside.
• 5:54
  There's a pool for the summer.
• 5:56
  Anyway, it's my kids' like favorite place.
• 5:59
  My point to telling you guys that is that the kids were excited.
• 6:04
  They were excited to go.
• 6:06
  Now, I have a seven and a five-year-old, and the seven-year-old was crying the day that we were supposed to head to Great Wolf Lodge.
• 6:16
  And I kept asking him, like, what's wrong?
• 6:19
  Why are you sad?
• 6:20
  And he would not, he would not answer me.
• 6:22
  And the more I asked, the more upset he got.
• 6:25
  So I kind of backed off.
• 6:27
  And I was like, okay, well, you know, I'm thinking to myself, like, when he gets there, he's gonna have a good time, right?
• 6:33
  So then about like 10, 15 minutes later, he comes up to me and he's like, Mommy, are there mice at the hotel?
• 6:43
  And it took me a second, but then it clicked because all over the news, you're hearing about the hantavirus, and you're hearing that it comes from mice and that people are dying.
• 6:58
  Now, my youngest five-year-old, he's like, ah, whatever, we'll be fine.
• 7:00
  Year old, he's like, ah, whatever, we'll be fine.
• 7:02
  He had no fear, no worries, nothing.
• 7:02
  He had no fear, no worries, nothing.
• 7:04
  My seven-year-old was, let's see, he was what, like three during the COVID lockdowns and during COVID.
• 7:04
  My seven-year-old was, let's see, he was what, like three, um, during the COVID lockdowns and during COVID.
• 7:15
  He was impacted a lot more, I think, than I ever realized.
• 7:15
  He was impacted a lot more, I think, than I ever realized.
• 7:18
  He has a lot of health anxiety.
• 7:18
  He has a lot of health anxiety, and that's definitely not created by me because I'm a nurse.
• 7:22
  And that's definitely not created by me because I'm a nurse.
• 7:26
  So if you're not dying, like we're not going to the hospital.
• 7:26
  So if you're not dying, like we're not going to the hospital.
• 7:30
  I take my kids to the doctor if I have to, but I don't run to the doctor every single time they're sick.
• 7:37
  They've been on antibiotics like once their whole life.
• 7:40
  They've never needed them.
• 7:41
  So I don't have a lot of anxiety regarding their health.
• 7:46
  But the environment that they were in during COVID.
• 7:50
  Now, my my youngest, I was pregnant during COVID, and then he was an infant.
• 7:54
  So he really has no, you know, he has no memory of any of that.
• 7:59
  And my older son, my seven-year-old, he still experiences this anxiety of, am I gonna catch something from somebody?
• 8:12
  And when he started hearing about this virus, he started getting a lot of anxiety.
• 8:16
  So he didn't want to go to Wolf Lodge because he was worried that he was going to get this virus that people are dying from.
• 8:27
  So I had to explain to him, like, you know, first of all, it's really hard to catch this virus.
• 8:32
  We had the whole, you know, conversation.
• 8:35
  And he got there and he was fine.
• 8:40
  So this didn't help.
• 8:43
  But today I woke up and I was sick.
• 8:46
  So today we came back from Wolf Lodge.
• 8:49
  And of course, I have a little cold.
• 8:50
  So I apologize if my voice is scratchy and I'm gonna try not to cough during this podcast, but I'm super congested.
• 8:58
  I got a little cough, you know, I just feel a little under the weather, no big deal.
• 9:02
  But my seven-year-old doesn't want to be anywhere near me because he doesn't want to get sick, and he wanted to make sure that I don't have hantivirus.
• 9:12
  So we talked about that.
• 9:13
  You know, it's not even the same symptoms, right?
• 9:16
  But he's so fearful of being sick.
• 9:20
  And I remember being a kid, and it was just like you got sick.
• 9:25
  I remember I probably took way too much amoxicillin when I was a kid because I constantly had ear infections.
• 9:33
  I was constantly sick.
• 9:34
  Um, there was always something chicken pox or you know, whatever it might be, and it was just no big deal.
• 9:39
  You were never fearful.
• 9:41
  You know, it sometimes it was like, you know, it was exciting to be sick because you got to stay home from school, you know.
• 9:48
  So I remember those days.
• 9:49
  I remember staying home with my grandmother.
• 9:52
  She would make me chicken noodle soup, cover me up in a blanket, and we watched soap operas all day.
• 9:58
  And like I loved being home.
• 10:00
  I didn't like being sick, but I loved, you know, that I got to have that time.
• 10:06
  But kids today are so fearful of getting sick.
• 10:11
  They're fear of fearful of germs.
• 10:13
  And like, and we've created that, right?
• 10:16
  Like as a society, we've created that.
• 10:19
  And a lot of it stemmed from COVID.
• 10:22
  So one of the one of the hardest parts for me was, you know, watching all of this unfold.
• 10:31
  And all the people that claimed to care about science, right?
• 10:35
  Follow the science, completely ignore the emotional, developmental, and psychological damage that was being done to our children.
• 10:44
  And now we are left as parents, we're left to clean that up and to try to heal it.
• 10:52
  So there's even, you know, they came out, I say they, like the government, have come out and admitted that school closures were not good, like not the right move.
• 11:06
  And we know that school closures, prolonged school closures, had devastating academic and emotional consequences for kids, especially vulnerable children.
• 11:18
  And many parents knew it in real time.
• 11:20
  I mean, I remember people stepping up and speaking out.
• 11:25
  Some of those same people who now quietly admit that schools should never have closed and spent years attacking parents who said who were saying that from the beginning.
• 11:38
  Those same people are now, you know, just kind of quietly admitting that they were wrong.
• 11:45
  There's no apology, there's no like policy in place that this isn't gonna happen again.
• 11:51
  You know, maybe in an interview, they they casually say, well, yeah, you know, that probably wasn't a good thing.
• 11:57
  But we didn't know at the time, you know.
• 12:00
  But I think one of the things that bothered me about it, besides the emotional impact.
• 12:05
  Like my kid was not in like elementary school, um, but we were trying to find him a preschool or something to go to, and I had the hardest time finding a place for him because everybody required a three-year-old to wear masks.
• 12:25
  And that was absolutely insane to me.
• 12:29
  And we finally found this one school, and they did not require masks.
• 12:33
  They were like, no, that's optional, parents' preference.
• 12:36
  So I go pick my kid up one day, and he had had a runny nose.
• 12:40
  Like he really, maybe a little cold, but he wasn't coughing or anything, just runny nose, probably allergies.
• 12:47
  I live in Georgia.
• 12:48
  Pollen is crazy.
• 12:50
  So I come pick him up, and the the teacher handed him to me, and she was like, Oh, he did so well today in his mask.
• 12:59
  I said, Excuse me.
• 13:01
  What do you mean he did well in his mask?
• 13:03
  I did not bring him a mask.
• 13:04
  I did not say he could wear a mask.
• 13:06
  I did not say I wanted him to wear a mask, and you did not ask if he could wear a mask.
• 13:12
  I was livid.
• 13:13
  She was like, Well, he sneezed, and he's got a little runny nose.
• 13:19
  I'm like, welcome to the entire population of Georgia.
• 13:23
  What do you mean you put a mask on my three-year-old without my permission?
• 13:28
  He never went back.
• 13:30
  That was the second incident that I had had with them that I didn't feel comfortable with.
• 13:34
  The first, y'all, my kid got bit on the nose really bad, like really bad.
• 13:40
  He got bit on the nose by another kid because he wanted to hug the kid, and the kid didn't want to be hugged.
• 13:47
  So I go to pick him up and he has this gaping wound on his nose.
• 13:53
  And I was, I wasn't, I didn't blame anybody for the situation, right?
• 13:58
  Like kids, things happen, but like nobody notified me.
• 14:00
  But like nobody notified me.
• 14:02
  You couldn't pick up the phone and tell me.
• 14:02
  You couldn't pick up the phone and tell me.
• 14:04
  So when I go pick him up and find out that he had a mask on, I was that was it.
• 14:04
  So when I go pick him up and find out that he had a mask on, I was that was it.
• 14:10
  That was the last straw.
• 14:10
  That was the last straw.
• 14:11
  I took him home.
• 14:11
  I took him home.
• 14:12
  I was like, whatever.
• 14:12
  I was like, whatever.
• 14:12
  We don't.
• 14:12
  We don't, he doesn't need to be in a preschool.
• 14:13
  He doesn't need to be in a preschool.
• 14:14
  I was of the mindset at that point that he needed to be in kind of a school environment in order to learn and socialize and develop.
• 14:14
  I was of the mindset at that point that he needed to be in kind of a school environment in order to learn and socialize and develop.
• 14:26
  And we really just shifted gears after that.
• 14:26
  And we really just shifted gears after that.
• 14:30
  And I was like, we can do all these things at home.
• 14:32
  Now the socialization part you couldn't do because they even shut down playgrounds.
• 14:38
  Y'all, I mean, outdoor playgrounds.
• 14:41
  So, you know, it it was hard to socialize the kids.
• 14:46
  Um, because nobody was allowed to socialize.
• 14:50
  This greatly impacted our children.
• 14:53
  And I know it has a lot to do with why my child has developed some of these anxieties.
• 15:01
  You know, and I think this is really hard for people to talk about when we look back at what happened.
• 15:11
  But fear works.
• 15:15
  Right?
• 15:16
  Fear makes people compliant.
• 15:20
  Fear makes people emotional.
• 15:23
  Fear makes people stop questioning authority.
• 15:29
  And you can be as strong as you think.
• 15:33
  But if you truly become fearful, you will surprise yourself sometimes the things that you do and that you allow.
• 15:42
  And during COVID, fear was constant.
• 15:46
  I remember, so I worked at the hospital during COVID, and I would go into my patient's room to do their assessment, bring meds, whatever it was.
• 15:58
  And on the TV, there was that that countdown, or the the numbers of how many people, how many COVID deaths there were.
• 16:08
  And it was a tally, and it was constantly going up.
• 16:11
  So you might have somebody in the hospital diagnosed with COVID, watching the news and watching those numbers of people dying going up.
• 16:23
  And it caused fear.
• 16:41
  But, you know, put him on some nasal cannulas, his oxygen went up.
• 16:45
  He was doing great.
• 16:47
  And the doctor came in and was like, you can go home.
• 16:50
  You know, we'll we'll discharge you today.
• 16:52
  And he was like, no, I I can't go home.
• 16:55
  And the doctor asked why.
• 16:56
  And he said, Well, because if I go home, I'll die.
• 16:59
  I'll be one of those people on the news right now that are dying.
• 17:04
  You can't, you can't make me go home.
• 17:06
  And he got himself so worked up.
• 17:09
  Um they actually had to call security to come in there and just kind of like talk him down because he was getting, he was getting really riled up.
• 17:19
  But it was all fear.
• 17:21
  It was all fear-based.
• 17:23
  And I kept telling the nurseme, I said, we have to do something.
• 17:26
  These people can't sit and watch this stuff on the TV.
• 17:29
  It's just not healthy.
• 17:30
  They're not gonna heal.
• 17:32
  You know, they're not gonna get better when you constantly sit in fear thinking that you're gonna die.
• 17:39
  You know, every screen, every headline, every press conference, every social media platform.
• 17:46
  It was all COVID and it was all fear.
• 17:50
  The case counters, the death trackers, the shaming campaigns.
• 17:55
  And if you spoke out, you usually got shadow banned.
• 17:58
  Nobody saw your content.
• 18:00
  There's fear-based advertising, and eventually people became conditioned.
• 18:07
  I mean, talk about social consequences.
• 18:11
  People lost friendships, families were divided, people were fired, healthcare workers were silenced.
• 18:19
  I know I was.
• 18:53
  How are they doing today?
• 18:56
  And I would give them a rundown of my assessment and they would leave and go put orders in.
• 19:02
  And that's it.
• 19:03
  They would never lay hands on the patients.
• 19:05
  And I started to speak up about this.
• 19:07
  So I got moved off the COVID floor.
• 19:11
  They didn't want me, you know, they nobody talked to me about it or anything.
• 19:15
  They just were like, you're gonna work on the oncology floor now.
• 19:18
  There's no COVID patients here.
• 19:20
  Now they told me it was because I was pregnant.
• 19:22
  But if that was the case, you wouldn't have been putting me on the COVID floor from the moment I found out I was pregnant.
• 19:29
  But they did.
• 19:30
  They kept sending me back there.
• 19:33
  They only moved me once I started speaking out.
• 19:36
  And eventually I got to the point that I could not take it anymore.
• 19:40
  I couldn't watch what was going on.
• 19:42
  They were calling us off all the time.
• 19:44
  I was blowing through all my PTO.
• 19:47
  I had a maternity leave.
• 19:48
  I had to think about why were they calling us off?
• 19:52
  Because they only had like four floors open in the hospital.
• 19:56
  Everything else was closed down because nobody else was at the hospital.
• 20:01
  You were only there if you had COVID or if it was really something serious that you just you happened.
• 20:07
  Otherwise, they were they were telling you not to come in.
• 20:09
  It was on the news.
• 20:10
  Don't go to the hospital unless you absolutely have to.
• 20:13
  So people didn't.
• 20:14
  Now we saw consequences from that as well.
• 20:18
  You know, down the road, people that should have come in, diabetics, kidney patients, people that should have come in sooner, didn't because they were told not to.
• 20:30
  Their doctors were only seeing them via telehealth.
• 20:33
  Nobody was seeing them in person.
• 20:35
  Wounds got out of control, blood sugars got out of control, patients' chronic conditions were out of control.
• 20:41
  We saw a lot of consequences from the decisions that were made.
• 20:50
  And this is this is why people now are skeptical when media outlets began aggressively covering another infectious disease story.
• 21:00
  Story.
• 21:02
  They did this to themselves.
• 21:02
  They did this to themselves.
• 21:04
  The government created the situation because of their response to COVID.
• 21:04
  The government created the situation because of their response to COVID.
• 21:09
  Nobody trusts them.
• 21:09
  Nobody trusts them.
• 21:11
  So let's let's shift gears a little bit.
• 21:11
  So let's let's shift gears a little bit.
• 21:15
  Um, and let's let's talk about the hantivirus.
• 21:15
  And let's let's talk about the hantivirus.
• 21:18
  We'll start talking about it a little bit.
• 21:18
  We'll start talking about it a little bit, and then we'll head to break, and then when we come back, we'll we'll kind of dive more into it.
• 21:20
  And then we'll head to break, and then when we come back, we'll we'll kind of dive more into it.
• 21:25
  But this virus is not new, first of all.
• 21:25
  But this virus is not new, first of all.
• 21:29
  Um
• 21:29
  Um it's been around.
• 21:33
  It's not a good virus, right?
• 21:35
  I mean, no virus is good, but if you get like right now, I know I have some sort of respiratory virus.
• 21:41
  I'm gonna be okay.
• 21:43
  I don't need to go to the doctor, I don't need to take medications, just supportive care, hydration.
• 21:47
  I'm good.
• 21:48
  Hantavirus, yes, it is not a good virus, but it is extremely rare.
• 21:55
  And if you've opened social media recently, you've probably seen headlines designed to trigger PTSD from 2020.
• 22:04
  And that's exactly why trust has eroded.
• 22:10
  And people feel manipulated.
• 22:16
  The hantavirus, like I said, it's a real virus.
• 22:19
  It absolutely can be serious, but context matters.
• 22:26
  Hantavirus is primarily spread through contact with infected rodent urine droppings or saliva, especially when contaminated particles become airborne.
• 22:41
  In the overwhelming, y'all, overwhelming majority of cases, this is not spread person to person like COVID.
• 22:51
  So there is something called the Andes strain.
• 22:56
  And there's one strain, the Andes virus, and it has shown limited human-to-human transmission.
• 23:07
  So again, they think that there was human to human transmission, but even then, experts describe it as requiring prolonged close contact.
• 23:18
  So this is not casually spreading because somebody walked past you in the grocery store line.
• 23:26
  Like right now, there's intense media coverage because of a cruise ship outbreak involving the Andes strain, where health officials are monitoring passengers closely.
• 23:39
  But again, context matters.
• 23:42
  Public health officials themselves are repeatedly saying that the risk to the general public remains low.
• 23:51
  So we're gonna stop here and take a break.
• 23:54
  And when we come back, we're gonna dig into the hantivirus just a little bit more and also talk a little bit more about the media.
• 24:03
  Um thank you so much for joining me today.
• 24:06
  Hang in there.
• 24:08
  We'll be right back after the break.
• 24:09
  One in three people will face cancer, and most never see it coming.
• 24:13
  I'm Dr.
• 24:13
  Kelly Victory with the wellness company, and I know this personally.
• 24:28
  That's why I formulated SHILD, a two-part system designed to support immune health and antioxidant defense, a chemical-free cocoa mix and soft gels.
• 24:38
  Prevention is power.
• 24:39
  Visit TWC.
• 24:45
  I'm Doug Evans, author of the Sprout Book.
• 24:47
  And I'm also a father with a three-year-old daughter.
• 24:51
  And that's why we grow sprouts.
• 24:54
  Did you know that you could take seeds, add water, and get fresh organic vegetables in three to five days without soil, sunshine, or fertilizer for under a dollar a serving?
• 25:06
  That's the miracle of sprouting.
• 25:08
  And I want to share that with you.
• 25:11
  Go to the Spouting Company.com slash out loud and use the code out loud for a special offer.
• 25:19
  Is your gut a mess?
• 25:20
  Two-thirds of Americans suffer because of gastrointestinal issues, and I was one of them.
• 25:25
  That is why we created a three-step doctor formulated completely natural gut reboot system that you can do at home in just minutes a day.
• 25:34
  Go to chemicalfree body.com forward slash out loud today.
• 25:38
  Get the Malcolm Healthy Gut Bundle, reboot your gut and your energy, and save 20% on your first order.
• 25:46
  Oral hygiene hasn't changed in 50 years.
• 25:49
  Brush, floss, repeat.
• 25:52
  We're told to use fluoride, which doesn't really address the acid creating bacteria.
• 25:58
  That is where the dentist recommended spray dental defense system shines.
• 26:02
  Sprite products contain xylitol, a natural sugar, which helps get rid of those nasty, smelly acid-creating bacteria in our mouth.
• 26:11
  The best way to care for your teeth and gums is by using spray.
• 26:15
  The spry dental defense system has a wide variety of products, toothpaste, mouthwash, mints, and chewing gums that are designed to work together to keep your teeth clean and mouth healthy and smelling sweet all day long to get your oral care back on track in an easy, effective, and very tasty way.
• 26:35
  Switch to spray today.
• 26:36
  Ask your dentist about xylitol and the spray products.
• 26:40
  Sprite can be found online and at all fine natural product retailers.
• 26:47
  Well, did you see Google quietly updated its AI principles removing its pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance?
• 26:56
  A promise they agreed to in 2018.
• 26:59
  Well, the American people have seen Google's track record.
• 27:04
  An untrustworthy player in the AI race.
• 27:15
  America of Moud News.
• 27:18
  Liberty and Justice for all.
• 27:24
  All right, welcome back to the Nurses Report on America Out Loud.
• 27:29
  I'm your host, Ashley Caputo, registered nurse and functional medicine practitioner.
• 27:34
  I also work with remnant health care and rooted wellness functional health.
• 27:39
  I usually have my cohort on Amy Whitlock, but she could not join us today.
• 27:46
  This is um two weeks we've tried to record together, but y'all, we are in battle for her to help her son get the medication that he needs.
• 27:57
  And it's just this ongoing battle.
• 27:59
  So she's um she's dealing with that right now.
• 28:00
  So she's um she's dealing with that right now.
• 28:04
  So hopefully she'll be back next week so we can do a segment together since we've been trying to do this for a couple weeks.
• 28:04
  So um hopefully she'll be back next week so we can do a segment together since we've been trying to do this for a couple weeks.
• 28:11
  But y'all say prayers for her and her son.
• 28:11
  But y'all say prayers for her and her son.
• 28:14
  Um, he was just recently in the hospital.
• 28:14
  Um, he was just recently in the hospital.
• 28:17
  His symptoms were exacerbated because he was not able to get the infusions that he needs.
• 28:17
  His symptoms were exacerbated because he was not able to get the infusions that he needs.
• 28:24
  And um, so he ended up having to go to the hospital, impatient, and then he did receive.
• 28:24
  And um, so he ended up having to go to the hospital, inpatient, and then he did receive the infusions there.
• 28:31
  So he's doing much better, but keep them in your prayers.
• 28:35
  So um, I just wanted to throw that out there because this is the second week I've done a segment by myself, and normally I have her with me.
• 28:43
  And um, just wanted to let you guys know, kind of update you on what was going on.
• 28:49
  So before the break, we were talking about the hantavirus and kind of what's going on.
• 28:56
  Um, there were people on the cruise ship, and now they're being isolated.
• 28:59
  There's some in Nebraska.
• 29:01
  There's some right here, right in my hometown at Emory University hospital, and I believe it's I don't know if it's husband and wife, but I believe it's a couple that are here at Emory and everybody else is in Nebraska.
• 29:15
  But you know, everybody it if you notice it it's a lot different than it was back in 2020, 2021 with COVID, because there are so many more people that are skeptical because trust was broken during COVID.
• 29:33
  People remember the changing narratives, the censorships, the mandates, the public shaming, the inconsistent policies.
• 29:42
  That drove me absolutely insane.
• 29:45
  I understand it was a fluid situation, policies are gonna change, but literally when I went to the hospital to work every day, I would have to clock in, and the first thing we would do is check our email to see what new policy change was made that day.
• 30:04
  Every day it was something different.
• 30:05
  Wear a mask, don't wear a mask, wear two masks, wear a cloth mask, wear a mask from Home Depot, put your mask in a paper bag, you know, and then by the end of it, it was change out your mask every day, wear an N95, wear a surgical mask, wear a face shield, but you have to wear it all day.
• 30:24
  It was just insanity, you know, the and the and the visitation policies constantly changed.
• 30:30
  And that was something that really impacted not only families but nurses.
• 30:35
  Um I will say there were some nurses out there that uh enjoyed families not being there because it can be intense to have a family member there.
• 30:50
  Um you have to remember the intensity is out of concern, right?
• 30:56
  Like they are worried about their loved one, their mom, their kid, whoever it might be.
• 31:01
  So I always tried to have a good relationship with whatever family member was there because if you had a good relationship with them, your day was easier.
• 31:12
  They understood that you were busy, they helped you if needed, either bathing or feeding the patient or whatever it might be, they were there for it, right?
• 31:23
  And then COVID took that away.
• 31:26
  So no more family members staying overnight.
• 31:29
  Visiting hours were limited.
• 31:33
  At some point's visiting hours were completely taken away.
• 31:38
  And this broke a lot of trust, right?
• 31:41
  Because people died in the hospital with never seeing their loved ones.
• 31:47
  They never got to say goodbye.
• 31:48
  They never got to have that closure.
• 31:50
  They didn't really know what was going on.
• 31:52
  We hear story after story after story, people speaking out about this.
• 31:57
  And then what about the people that didn't die?
• 32:00
  You know, now they're fearful.
• 32:02
  They don't want to go to the hospital because are they gonna get stuck there again alone with no visitors?
• 32:08
  They're not gonna be able to call their loved ones, their loved ones not gonna be able to come see them.
• 32:14
  That's a real fear and anxiety that people have now.
• 32:18
  People don't want to go to the doctor.
• 32:20
  You know, COVID broke the public's trust.
• 32:26
  And it is hard to rebuild that.
• 32:30
  You know, as a nurse, I would get so worried because we would have confused patients, patients that I did not think should be making decisions for themselves in the hospital with no advocate.
• 32:45
  I mean, I was their advocate, which listen, I will be a fierce advocate for you if I'm your nurse in the hospital.
• 32:54
  But ultimately, I have no power in making decisions for you.
• 32:58
  So when you had people there that weren't able to make decisions, you you spoke with family members over the phone.
• 33:08
  And doctors, they wanted us to talk to everybody.
• 33:11
  They wanted the nurses to talk to everybody.
• 33:14
  I don't know if it was like this everywhere, but all day long.
• 33:18
  Family members were calling me and they're like, look, I appreciate your update, but we really want to talk to the doctor.
• 33:25
  And I'd pass that message along, and the doctor would say, I'm too busy, I can't.
• 33:29
  Can you call them back and tell them this, this, and this?
• 33:33
  Over and over again.
• 33:35
  That wasn't right.
• 33:36
  It wasn't my place to be telling the family members all these things.
• 33:41
  The doctor should have been communicating.
• 33:44
  The doctors should have been in the room examining the patients.
• 33:48
  And I'm not saying all doctors did that, but I that's that story is not just my story alone.
• 34:00
  I've heard other nurses talk about how doctors weren't going into the patient's rooms.
• 34:05
  So you have a doctor that's not seeing the patient, you have a doctor that's not calling the family members, and there was a lot more stress on the nurses.
• 34:15
  So this got really hard because we were constantly overwhelmed, you know, constantly being asked to do way more than we were used to with more patients and with less staff.
• 34:32
  You know, staffing ratios were not good.
• 34:36
  So this time around, it seems a little different, right?
• 34:41
  So today there was actually a Senate hearing involving a CIA whistleblower connected to COVID origin allegations.
• 34:51
  A former CIA officer testified publicly that intelligence surrounding COVID origins may have been influenced or suppressed internally.
• 35:00
  Influenced or suppressed internally.
• 35:03
  Well, y'all, we knew that.
• 35:03
  Well, y'all, we knew that.
• 35:06
  But this included claims that the analyst favoring a lab leaked theory were overridden by leadership.
• 35:06
  But this included claims that the analysts favoring a lab leaked theory were overridden by leadership.
• 35:13
  So all of the conspiracy theory talk, telling all of us to be quiet.
• 35:13
  So all of the conspiracy theory talk, telling all of us to be quiet, it's now coming to light that there were more people out there that thought the same thing.
• 35:18
  It's now coming to light that there were more people out there that thought the same thing.
• 35:26
  Important, you know, it's important to talk about this.
• 35:27
  You know, it's important to talk about this now.
• 35:30
  I know we we beat COVID like a what is that saying?
• 35:34
  Like a dead horse.
• 35:35
  I don't want to say that.
• 35:36
  That's terrible.
• 35:37
  Anyway, y'all know what I mean.
• 35:39
  But we talk about it all the time and we keep bringing it up.
• 35:42
  But I think it's so important for moments like these.
• 35:47
  These are allegations and testimony, of course, today that happened.
• 35:51
  Um, not anything proven criminal findings or anything like that.
• 35:55
  But the fact that these hearings are even happening years later tells you how much distrust still exists surrounding COVID and transparency.
• 36:09
  Whether you believe COVID came from a lab, which it totally did, or from nature, or somewhere in between, Americans deserve transparency.
• 36:21
  Science should never fear questions.
• 36:25
  Government should never fear scrutiny, and citizens should never be punished for asking reasonable questions.
• 36:35
  And we were punished, right?
• 36:40
  And it goes, it goes on and on still to this day.
• 36:47
  People are more open about it.
• 36:49
  You see more posts about it, but there's still a lot of scrutiny and there's still some suppression, and you're still called a crazy conspiracy theorist, even though all these conspiracies are now being brought to light as true.
• 37:12
  That creates ongoing distrust.
• 37:15
  Like they're not even really.
• 37:17
  I'll say the administration right now, it seems like they're trying to rebuild trust, right?
• 37:24
  They're having these hearings, they're public, you can watch them, but there's still a lot of scrutiny, which still makes people just not trust the government, not trust what's being told.
• 37:37
  And I'll be honest.
• 37:38
  Sometimes you look at things online, you see an article, you see a study, research, whatever it is.
• 37:46
  I question everything.
• 37:48
  There's no longer a time where I think, oh, look, that comes from a credible source.
• 37:54
  It must be right.
• 37:56
  No, I do more research on research than I ever have before.
• 38:05
  You know, and I think this is the dangerous part that nobody in the mainstream media wants to discuss.
• 38:13
  You know, when these institutions lose credibility, people stop trusting everything.
• 38:19
  Like I said, there's not much that comes out that I trust.
• 38:23
  I trust more podcasts than I do anything else.
• 38:27
  And it's not just the government, it's not just media, it's everything.
• 38:31
  You can't believe anything.
• 38:35
  And that ultimately has consequences.
• 38:47
  Yes.
• 38:49
  Were dissenting voices unfairly silenced?
• 38:53
  Absolutely.
• 38:55
  Were risks exaggerated?
• 38:57
  Totally.
• 38:59
  Were harms minimized?
• 39:01
  Did politics influence science?
• 39:04
  Did pharmaceutical companies have too much influence?
• 39:07
  Of course they did.
• 39:09
  That's been going on forever.
• 39:12
  But I think, you know, COVID shined a light on a lot of things that were already there.
• 39:19
  The system was already broken, and COVID happened and it just brought a lot of these things to light.
• 39:26
  And then people started digging in and looking into this stuff.
• 39:30
  You know, and there were certain narratives and conversations that were just completely shut down.
• 39:36
  You know, and honestly, whether people agree with those questions that I just said or not, they are valid questions to ask.
• 39:53
  And I had um an old nursing school professor that friends with on Facebook, don't really interact too much, but she messaged me privately and she goes, You need to be careful.
• 40:07
  I said, careful for what?
• 40:09
  You know, I was kind of shocked.
• 40:10
  Like, what are you talking about?
• 40:12
  She was like, you can't put out all this misinformation and not expect consequences.
• 40:19
  Consequences from who?
• 40:21
  And it wasn't misinformation.
• 40:23
  It was a verified, peer-reviewed, published study, but it didn't fit the narrative that they like.
• 40:31
  It caused more questions than answers.
• 40:36
  And they don't like questions.
• 40:39
  Don't question the authority, right?
• 40:43
  And medical professionals, they're they're they're not, they're not benign from all of this.
• 40:52
  You know, because you still have the doctors and the nurses that are my word is is the word, you know, do what I say.
• 41:00
  I know what's best for you.
• 41:02
  I worked with nurses like that.
• 41:04
  I worked with doctors like that.
• 41:06
  People have autonomy, they get to decide what they do.
• 41:11
  You know, if if you have cancer and you choose not to do chemotherapy, that is your choice.
• 41:17
  If you choose to do an alternative therapy, that is your choice.
• 41:23
  But all of these fringe subjects, you know, they're all shut down.
• 41:30
  There is no conversation surrounding them, and that is dangerous.
• 41:35
  That's what makes a lot of this so dangerous.
• 41:38
  Because when you can't even talk about it, people are gonna go elsewhere.
• 41:44
  You know, I was talking to somebody about the COVID vaccine the other day.
• 41:50
  I shouldn't even say vaccine, the COVID shot, right?
• 41:53
  And it was it was a nurse, and um just so you guys know, I can't remember if I've talked about this before, but my husband got a blood clot.
• 42:00
  Guys, know I can't remember if I've talked about this before, but my husband got a blood clot.
• 42:05
  He got a DVT, a blood clot in his leg, and it tried he uh ended up with pulmonary embolisms multiple.
• 42:05
  He got a DVT, a blood clot in his leg, and it tried he uh ended up with pulmonary embolisms multiple.
• 42:13
  They could not find anything wrong with him.
• 42:13
  They could not find anything wrong with him.
• 42:16
  All the labs, all the DNA, the gene tests, everything.
• 42:16
  All the labs, all the DNA, the gene tests, everything.
• 42:20
  They tested for everything.
• 42:20
  They tested for everything.
• 42:23
  Could not find why.
• 42:23
  Could not find why they said it was just unprovoked, just a fluke thing.
• 42:24
  They said it was just unprovoked, just a fluke thing.
• 42:27
  Sometimes these things happen, right, guys?
• 42:27
  Sometimes these things happen, right, guys?
• 42:29
  Like they.
• 42:29
  Like they just happen.
• 42:31
  No, they don't just happen.
• 42:34
  So convince me otherwise until somebody can prove to me that it was not the one COVID vaccine that he got out of fear.
• 42:45
  Prove to me that that didn't cause his blood clots, because until proven otherwise, I know that that's what caused his blood clots.
• 42:55
  So I said something about it, and he was the nurse was like, How'd your husband get blood clots?
• 43:01
  He's young, healthy.
• 43:02
  And I said, Oh, I'm sure it was the COVID vaccine.
• 43:05
  And he said, Oh, yeah, well, I mean, that's like you taking birth control.
• 43:09
  Everything comes with risks, and just went on about his day like it was no big deal.
• 43:14
  And that mentality is further fueling this distrust, but it's also creating this attitude of like, well, you know, everything comes with risk, just do it.
• 43:31
  You know, it like it's no big deal.
• 43:33
  We still know what's best for you.
• 43:36
  Good thing you he even said it's better than the alternative.
• 43:40
  I said, What alternative?
• 43:42
  And he was like, Well, dying from COVID.
• 43:44
  And I just thought, man, we're still here.
• 43:47
  We're still at this place.
• 43:49
  Like you are an educated person.
• 43:51
  You're a registered nurse, you work in the ER.
• 43:55
  You are educated.
• 43:56
  And this is the conclusion that you have still after all of this evidence.
• 44:01
  This is still what you're thinking.
• 44:03
  Y'all, I was just, I couldn't even say anything because I'm like, okay, do I pick an argument tonight?
• 44:08
  Like, we're at the ER.
• 44:10
  But no, I was like, I'm not doing, and we were at the ER for something totally different.
• 44:16
  But I was like, okay, this is not the time or the place, but it just reminded me that there's a lot of people still on that level.
• 44:24
  There's a lot of people still there, right?
• 44:27
  But you know, questioning authority is not extremism.
• 44:33
  Questioning authority is literally one of the foundations of freedom.
• 44:38
  And healthcare workers forget that all too easily.
• 44:44
  One thing that that really changed me, you know, during COVID was just watching healthcare workers become afraid to speak honestly.
• 44:53
  And I'm not talking about like the reckless misinformation, I'm talking about legitimate questions.
• 45:00
  Nurses and doctors saw things in real time.
• 45:04
  Some, like myself, argued with policies, but some didn't.
• 45:09
  And that's okay.
• 45:10
  I mean, I I would hope that everybody would speak up, but until you find your voice, there are going to be those that can speak up for you.
• 45:20
  And there's always gonna be somebody that disagrees, right?
• 45:24
  But to sit quietly and to sit back, if we had had more people step up and we had been united and questioning these policies and the actions, maybe we would have got a better response or more movement.
• 45:38
  I don't know.
• 45:41
  But many people were just, you know, they were terrified to speak publicly because you saw people lose their careers, lose their license.
• 45:50
  There's nurse practitioners, physician assistants, doctors, nurses that lost their license that they worked so hard for because they asked questions and they didn't follow the norm.
• 46:06
  I mean, livelihoods were on the line, right?
• 46:08
  Like you you have a family to feed.
• 46:12
  That alone should concern every single person.
• 46:17
  Science is supposed to evolve through discussion and through debate, not censorship.
• 46:26
  And the media, I mean, come on, they played a massive role in all of this.
• 46:33
  I got sucked into it.
• 46:36
  When I was home all day long, we had the news playing.
• 46:40
  I didn't want to miss the update, you know.
• 46:43
  It was it was drama, but I felt like I needed to know what they were saying.
• 46:49
  And the more I listened, the more I didn't believe, the more I distrusted, the more I knew that we were not doing the right thing.
• 46:58
  But that fear of what's gonna happen next, what bad thing happened, how many people have died now.
• 47:04
  That fear keeps people glued to their screens, and the media knows that, right?
• 47:11
  But here's the problem.
• 47:14
  Constant fear changes people's psychologically.
• 47:19
  It creates hyperviligence, vigilance.
• 47:23
  Sorry.
• 47:24
  See, that cold's really getting to my brain, y'all.
• 47:28
  Maybe I was thinking vigilante.
• 47:30
  I don't know.
• 47:30
  But it does create this like hyper vigilance.
• 47:34
  You know, you you feel something.
• 47:35
  Uh oh, I had a little tingle in my chest.
• 47:38
  Oh my gosh, I must be having a heart attack.
• 47:40
  You know, like people, people are worried.
• 47:42
  Um, just me being sick today, you know.
• 47:45
  My manager, um, she was like, Well, did you get tested?
• 47:50
  No.
• 47:51
  Oh, well, maybe you should get tested so you can start early treatment.
• 47:54
  I was like, what early treatment?
• 47:56
  She was like, Well, if it's the flu, you can do Tammy flu.
• 47:59
  Um, if it's COVID, you can do what is it, Remdesivir, whatever they, whatever they use now.
• 48:06
  But no, that was what we used in the hospital.
• 48:10
  Anyway, whatever they're giving to people now for COVID.
• 48:12
  See, I don't even know because nobody gets COVID anymore and gets treated for it.
• 48:16
  But I was like, y'all, I like I'm sick, I don't feel good.
• 48:22
  But I'm not gonna go out and panic and go to the urgent care and get tested to see it's a virus, it will run its course.
• 48:31
  I am doing some supportive things, and I'm gonna be all right.
• 48:35
  But it also, you know, everything that happened with COVID and now that's happening with the hantivirus, it's causing anxiety.
• 48:43
  People are starting to isolate again, they distrust everything, and people are angry, they're mad that this is happening again, you know.
• 48:55
  And some people still have not emotionally recovered from COVID.
• 48:58
  I mean, look at my seven-year-old to have this much anxiety, like health anxiety, and nothing bad has ever happened to him.
• 49:00
  Old to have this much anxiety, like health anxiety, and nothing bad has ever happened to him.
• 49:06
  He broke his toe once, but he that's like a cool story for him, you know, that he broke his toe.
• 49:06
  He broke his toe once, but he that's like a cool story for him, you know, that he broke his toe.
• 49:12
  But nothing's bad.
• 49:12
  But nothing's bad.
• 49:13
  He's never been hospitalized.
• 49:13
  He's never been hospitalized.
• 49:17
  And, you know, maybe my husband and I, I know we do play a role in it.
• 49:17
  And you know, maybe my husband and I, I know we do play a role in it, um, because we do have to be cautious, even if it's just me and my husband talking about something like.
• 49:22
  Um, because we do have to be cautious, even if it's just me and my husband talking about something like there, the kids are in the other room.
• 49:31
  They hear us, they listen, you know, but so we have to be careful what we say because you know, we were talking about the hantivirus and what's going on on the cruise ship and stuff.
• 49:40
  So I know he overheard that, but we'll also have the news playing, and it's all just fear mongering.
• 49:48
  And kids hold on to that.
• 49:50
  You know, people hold on to that.
• 49:52
  You still have people that have PTSD from their hospital stays during COVID.
• 49:59
  I have a patient that I work with that has extreme claustrophobia.
• 50:06
  And he was like, I've I've never had, I was never claustrophobic before COVID.
• 50:11
  And I'm thinking to myself, like, is it from being locked in your house?
• 50:14
  Like you couldn't go out.
• 50:16
  And he he told me that it was from being in the hospital.
• 50:19
  He was in this tiny little room.
• 50:22
  The doors were locked, there were no windows, and you know, people only came in once or twice a day.
• 50:30
  He wasn't allowed to leave, nobody was there to come see him.
• 50:33
  And then after like, you know, 12, 13, 14 days in the hospital, he was feeling so anxious being trapped in that room.
• 50:43
  And he's carried that anxiety with him, you know.
• 50:47
  Um, there's people that are vaccine injured, and this goes for the the COVID shot and other vaccines, and you just get gaslit.
• 50:57
  You get told that there's nothing wrong with you when you know, you know, you got the shot and you went home and have you experience sickness like you'd never experienced before.
• 51:10
  And then you're told, no, it's probably not the COVID vaccine.
• 51:13
  Give me a break.
• 51:15
  Like the gaslighting, again, continues to fuel the mistrust.
• 51:22
  But now it pushes people away and it makes people angry.
• 51:28
  I'm mad that nobody can consider that my husband had an injury from that stupid COVID shot.
• 51:36
  Like just say it.
• 51:39
  Just say it.
• 51:40
  Now you want him to be on blood thinners for the rest of his life because you don't know what caused it.
• 51:47
  I know what caused it.
• 51:50
  And we will be doing the homeopathic detox protocol for him.
• 51:56
  It's just something that I don't know why we're putting it off.
• 51:59
  We just need to do it.
• 52:01
  I help people at Remnant do the homeopathic COVID detox protocol, and we see great results, and people tolerate it really well, and it's it's such a cool product.
• 52:14
  But you know, again, I think that's that's one of our downfaults.
• 52:18
  Um, mom, nurse, all the things we take care of everybody else, and then sometimes our own health and our family's health kind of suffers for it because you get so focused on other people.
• 52:30
  But, you know, to be gaslit and say that these vaccines didn't cause any harm is just absolutely ridiculous.
• 52:38
  Absolutely.
• 52:40
  And then those patients carry that anger with them.
• 52:43
  And then do you think that they trust their doctor, that they want to go back to their doctor, that they're gonna believe anything their doctor says?
• 52:49
  No.
• 52:50
  No, they want nothing to do with them.
• 52:53
  And that's why people are looking for alternatives.
• 52:56
  They're looking at functional medicine, naturopaths.
• 52:59
  They're looking for an alternative to the system, to the insurance system, to the healthcare system, to the pharmaceutical system.
• 53:10
  People are hungry for alternatives, and I'm glad.
• 53:14
  I'm glad that people are waking up, but it shouldn't have taken something like COVID to cause this.
• 53:22
  You know, and I think too, like this is where people, many Americans just kind of fundamentally disagree during COVID.
• 53:29
  There's, you know, there's a difference in giving people information, information and controlling every single aspect of their lives.
• 53:37
  Adults should have been trusted to evaluate risk for themselves and for their families.
• 53:45
  If I want to go over to my friend's house, I'm gonna go.
• 53:48
  You can't lock me, tell me I can't see my friends.
• 53:52
  We all get to make our own decisions.
• 53:55
  We need to be provided with the right information, and there needs to be transparency so we can make good decisions.
• 54:02
  But instead, we just saw government overreach mandates, censorship, businesses destroyed, churches shut down, children masked for years, outdoor activities restricted, people shamed for simply wanting human interaction.
• 54:18
  You know, they they had the apps you could go tell on somebody, hey, I saw my neighbor go outside.
• 54:24
  They weren't supposed to.
• 54:26
  People getting arrested at the park for going jogging by themselves.
• 54:29
  Like it was insanity, absolutely insanity, and we cannot forget it.
• 54:35
  We cannot let them do that to us again.
• 54:38
  I know I keep coming back to my children because I truly believe that he carries a massive burden that he got from COVID.
• 54:48
  He, you know, they lost milestone, social development, sports, routines, stability, and emotional safety.
• 54:55
  And many adults now admit that those prolonged closures, the isolation is it really harmed children significantly, and there's zero accountability for it.
• 55:07
  And this is exactly why people are reacting strongly now when they when they see this aggressive infectious disease headline, you know, because emotionally people remember 2020.
• 55:20
  You know, people are gonna ask is this being sensationalized?
• 55:25
  What's being withheld?
• 55:27
  Is fear being amplified?
• 55:30
  You know, and does this mean every health threat is fake?
• 55:33
  No, it means that trust has been fractured.
• 55:38
  It's a shame, y'all, but I think, you know, we just gotta stay grounded, and we have to not spread fear, not spread division, but make sure we never stop asking questions again.
• 55:51
  Too much trust was lost, too many relationships were damaged, and too many people suffered silently.
• 55:58
  Maybe one positive thing that came from all of that is that people finally realized how important freedom actually is.
• 56:00
  Positive thing that came from all of that is that people finally realized how important freedom actually is.
• 56:07
  Freedom of speech, freedom to ask questions, freedom to make medical decisions, and freedom to think independently.
• 56:07
  Freedom of speech, freedom to ask questions, freedom to make medical decisions, and freedom to think independently.
• 56:15
  So thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today.
• 56:15
  So thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today.
• 56:18
  Um, I really appreciate it.
• 56:18
  Um, I really appreciate it.
• 56:20
  I think this is an important conversation.
• 56:20
  I think this is an important conversation.
• 56:22
  I really just needed to get it out and talk about it because I see what's happening.
• 56:22
  I really just needed to get it out and talk about it because I see what's happening.
• 56:26
  So thank you for listening to me today.
• 56:26
  So thank you for listening to me today.
• 56:29
  Um
• 56:29
  Um, God bless you guys, and I will see you next week on the Nurses Report.
• 56:39
  It's time and this is why.