WEBVTT 00:00.530 --> 00:09.290 The public may not have received the apology they wanted from those in government that leveraged the pandemic to, you know, lock school kids down or force a vaccine. 00:09.890 --> 00:13.850 But we are seeing some movements here politically and also through the military. 00:14.290 --> 00:21.990 This was a statement from the Department of War from their press, their chief Pentagon spokesperson, and it's saying their establishment, 00:21.990 --> 00:26.070 establishing a Department of War's COVID-19 Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force. 00:26.230 --> 00:32.750 They're also doing a reinstating service members unjustly discharged under the coronavirus vaccine mandate memorandum. 00:32.910 --> 00:45.330 So they've to date reinstated about 170, reassessed about 170 warrior soldiers and about 800 have expressed interest that were discharged during COVID for refusing. 00:46.050 --> 00:48.270 They've expressed interest in wanting to come back. 00:48.270 --> 00:53.070 So this is a big move, at least for the military, to take the lead on this. 00:53.650 --> 01:04.750 A lot of other, you know, individual hospitals and schools, they really never stepped up and brought these kids back or these teachers or, you know, these doctors or nurses. 01:05.230 --> 01:08.790 So the military is leading the charge on this in this space. So it's really good to see this. 01:09.010 --> 01:17.710 I agree. You know, what I think is really important about this and in some ways it certainly shows us the stark difference between the Trump administration 01:17.710 --> 01:28.450 and the Biden administration. I think we all have questions about, you know, Donald Trump's allegiance to this COVID-19 vaccine, the mRNA technology. 01:28.970 --> 01:36.730 He seems to have a soft spot for it. As we've heard, you know, many people around him say, you know, once he puts those Trump golden letters on the side of anything, 01:36.990 --> 01:40.450 he kind of owns it for life. But there's a difference, right? 01:40.450 --> 01:47.890 I don't even, I think the fact that, you know, he was a part of Warped Speed, he got that vaccine out there, but that he's open to having people that don't want to take it. 01:47.970 --> 01:53.250 And he's open, you know, and I think it shows us that it was really unlikely we would ever have seen a vaccine mandate. 01:53.430 --> 01:59.670 He said that, he said that, you know, when Biden was doing that, he said it when he was making it, this will never be forced on you. 02:00.350 --> 02:06.390 And I think this is evidence of that position, which is the position our government should take. 02:06.390 --> 02:11.590 We're going to make things for you. You know, we're going to test them the way that we think is best. 02:11.790 --> 02:16.170 But you are allowed to have your own informed consent and make a decision for yourself. 02:16.390 --> 02:19.910 And when they do that for the military, I think that's the highest level. 02:20.070 --> 02:23.490 I mean, in a lot of ways, our government has seen the military as, you know, guinea pigs. 02:23.650 --> 02:28.050 They sign their lives over. And the fact that this administration has said, yeah, go ahead. 02:28.550 --> 02:32.690 They were allowed to turn down, even a vaccine that Donald Trump seems to like. 02:32.690 --> 02:38.990 I think it says a lot about this administration, at least the difference between one that mandates, one that takes away your job, 02:39.150 --> 02:42.050 and one that says, hey, it's a free country. You make your choice. 02:43.210 --> 02:50.050 And the real battle seems to be going on with the regulatory agencies, FDA, CDC, HHS. 02:50.410 --> 02:55.990 And what's happening within those? We saw a judge shut down ASIP, the Trump administration, is currently peeling that decision. 02:56.090 --> 03:00.390 But within the FDA, we've seen Marty McCarrie. We just reported on that last week. 03:00.390 --> 03:05.030 He is stepping down from the FDA. We have Vinay Prasad just weeks before that. 03:05.210 --> 03:10.770 Now we have Tracy Beth Hogue. This is the New York Times, just a straight headline here. 03:10.890 --> 03:15.610 Top drug regulator is fired from the FDA, but you go to independent journalism to get more of a full story. 03:15.970 --> 03:20.670 Here is MD reports. FDA official Tracy Hogue fired after refusing to resign. 03:20.990 --> 03:26.710 There's the better headline. And it quotes, it quotes Tracy Beth Hogue in this article saying this, quote, 03:26.710 --> 03:30.570 I said I didn't want to resign. Hogue told MD reports in an exclusive interview. 03:30.690 --> 03:34.150 I said I'm not signing a letter of resignation if it's not my choice. 03:34.750 --> 03:40.750 The officials, FDA officials whom Hogue declined to identify then informed her she would no longer be working at the agency. 03:41.090 --> 03:44.010 She says this, quote, they made it clear that it wasn't their decision. 03:44.170 --> 03:48.750 She said they said it was from someone above them, from someone way above their pay grade. 03:49.170 --> 03:52.270 Now she does go on in fairness in the article to say these people were very nice. 03:52.310 --> 03:55.990 There was a lot of emotion. It's a very tight team. It wasn't all adversarial. 03:55.990 --> 04:01.910 But what this means for the future of the FDA is really uncertain because we've had the top leadership now. 04:01.990 --> 04:11.850 They're really moving forward on a maha agenda that was voted in through Trump and then also Kennedy and HHS is somewhat unclear at this point. 04:12.010 --> 04:17.310 So, you know, we're reporting this, but we hope obviously that the people that take the helm at this point, 04:17.310 --> 04:21.990 whether it's interim leadership or the people that will replace these individuals, these key individuals, 04:21.990 --> 04:25.210 will continue this movement forward, this high watermark. 04:25.970 --> 04:29.330 Yeah, I'm Tracy Beth Hogue. It was fantastic throughout COVID. 04:29.590 --> 04:33.130 She's been really just a true North Star in so many ways. 04:33.130 --> 04:35.550 That is disappointing to see that going on. 04:35.710 --> 04:41.590 And I think what we're watching is a struggle between commerce and science. 04:42.490 --> 04:45.210 And, you know, it's going to be very, very difficult. 04:45.470 --> 04:48.450 I think Donald Trump, clearly as a business president, 04:49.210 --> 04:54.230 looks like with some of the decisions around McCarrie, like, you know, bowing down to the tobacco industry, 04:55.050 --> 04:58.870 bowing down to big industry, Tracy was probably, I'm going to assume, 04:58.910 --> 05:06.730 getting in the way of some of that, you know, free flow of, you know, vaping, you know, flavors and things like that 05:06.730 --> 05:08.710 that none of us want to see on the market. 05:08.710 --> 05:11.690 But again, it's also commerce and it's a free country. 05:11.890 --> 05:15.950 You could see the argument saying people want to smoke best of decisions as long as they're of legal age. 05:15.950 --> 05:23.610 So these are the types of, I think, things that really run, you know, headlong into each other inside of politics. 05:24.090 --> 05:25.690 It makes it very, very complicated.