COVID III: The Bill Comes Due

Weeks into the global pandemic, countries across the planet are trying to stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Governments are taking extreme actions, businesses are going bust and conspiracy theories are proliferating. Today's question: What if some of those theories are true?

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Brady. Hello, welcome back to the show.

(00:26):
My name is Matt, my name is all they called
me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer
Paul Mission controlled deconds. Most importantly, you are you. You
are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want
you to know coming to you again, live, direct and
full effect, in the midst of a global pandemic that

(00:46):
hasn't been seen since the beginning of the nineteen hundreds.
This is our third episode on the coronavirus pandemic, and
you know, as we said in earlier episodes, just like
when we're covering Epstein, this is an ongoing event. It's
one that we, like everybody else out there in the world,
are keeping a close eye on. And in our previous episode,

(01:07):
towards the end, I'd mentioned we weren't able to get
to all the conspiracy theories about COVID nineteen. In a
move that should surprise no one, these conspiracies are still
around there. In fact, they're even more but Let's start,
as always with the facts, because there are some much
needed updates we want you to be aware of. So

(01:29):
here are the facts. Yeah, I think it'd be smart
to take a look at the global state of COVID
nineteen UM. At this point, we have a confirmed death
toll UH due to the coronavirus that's approaching one hundred
thousand worldwide UM. And as COVID nineteen is detected in India,
the Ivory Coast, Brazil, and and more, the fears begin

(01:50):
to grow that the infection could um ravage particularly densely
populated UM lower income areas, neighborhoods, slums, many of which
don't have clean running water or access to medical care um,
let alone equipment that the rest of the country is
obviously lacking and is in very short supply, like ventilators,
well yeah, in personal protective equipment, just something as simple

(02:14):
as masks and gloves, things to protect healthcare workers. It's
it's crazy even around here, like my pharmacy, they're sold
out of gloves and masks. You can't really buy them.
And I've seen so many people making these cloth masks.
And the CDC just put out an infographic showing the
protection level against certain you know materials, of course, first

(02:36):
and foremost being um viruses, and those cloth masks are
apparently zero percent effective in protecting you against the virus. Well,
it's it's also the function of the cloth mask is
that it protects other people totally. No, And I see
that's that's that's very important. But I think there's maybe
a misconception in some folks that those are apples to

(02:58):
apples um to those much more medical grade surgical masks
and the ones that are used in industrial situations that
have the little filter on the front. Well, we've we've
had people writing in and calling us who are healthcare workers,
are people working in this industry to try and you know,
stop this thing and help people who are dealing with

(03:19):
COVID nineteen and there. They have mentioned to us that
the you know, imagine like what they're doing. Imagine going
to work every day exposing yourself to people that have
have been infected, you know, are infected. You have tested them,
you know they're infected, and you don't have the proper
equipment like you're talking about there, You've just got something

(03:41):
you created, like uh handkerchief over your face, you know, um,
just pulling your shirt up in order to protect yourself
like that. That is mind boggling to me that that
could happen anywhere in the world today in well, and
a really spooky thing that's been happening is the federal
government has been quietly, uh, commandeering medical supplies and diverting

(04:06):
orders of medical supplies placed by hospitals, um and quietly
Well yeah exactly, but it's unclear what they're doing with it, right,
because I mean, you know that that really becomes the
feeling of living in a police day where you know,
regular rules don't apply anymore, and who needs these things
more than hospitals? And what is the government actually doing

(04:27):
with them? Where's the accountability? In the same way, you
have to wonder what the accountability is on this kind
of you know, bailout package where so much money is
being diverted to corporations and uh and far less than
than maybe we would like being diverted to individuals. I
have some pretty choice things to say about that as
we get towards the conspiratorial side of today's show. Uh.

(04:50):
In the meantime, I would like to recommend a show
called It Could Happen Here. It's a pure podcast of
ours by h guy named Robert Evans. I'd love that
him on the show too at a later date. Please
getting a thumbs up from Maddie Fred there. But you
guys are absolutely right. You're right. And before we go
into the US, let's explore the world a little bit more.

(05:13):
That's something everybody wants to do while we're in quarantine.
Right multiple companies are declaring bankruptcy already. Over the first
two months of more than two hundred and forty thousand
companies in China alone went belly up. As a matter
of fact, right now, we mentioned the UK Prime Minister
Boris Johnson, after bragging about how he loved to go

(05:35):
to hospitals and shake hands, he came down with COVID nineteen.
He was in I c U Uh. He is on
the mend according to the official government statements. But the
doctor who tried to warn him to practice social distancing. Uh,
that guy contracted COVID nineteen and died. To your point, matt, Um,

(05:55):
you can see these harrowing videos of medical professionals on
the lines. Um. I'll send you, guys one of a
guy who's showing his suit up process and it's it's insane,
even sped up. It takes forever um and we know
that people are fighting against it. China recently in news
that a lot of racists have mischaracterized. China recently instituted

(06:19):
bands on the consumption of wildlife, and some cities like
shin Xin are explicitly banning the consumption of animals that
are considered pets. So you know, racists are hopping on
saying like, oh, China is eating cats and dogs. But
to be clear, I think we mentioned this before on
some show. Most people in China not only don't eat dog,

(06:43):
but have never eaten it and never ever want to.
But wet markets are the real problem, not consumption of pets. Yeah,
we talked about these wet markets where animals are kept
in pretty close proximity to each other than they are
live generally, and then they are slaughter on site and
then taken as meat. We noted that this was one

(07:04):
of the possible origin points for the for you know,
all kinds of diseases that have occurred across time since
these things have you been around and you think about
the history of wet markets, They've been around longer than
most social constructs that exist. You know for humans, um,
but they're thought to be the origin place or possibly

(07:25):
the orangin origin place of the COVID nineteen uh, well
the coronavirus and the COVID nineteen affliction and stars there
was a pangling call. I mean, it's it's clear, you know,
when we say thought to be, we're we're being pretty diplomatic.
It's it's pretty much thought to be unless you think, uh,

(07:46):
it was created in that nearby lab. Uh. The worst
part of about the wet markets is that it's plausible,
if the practice is not ended, that another pandemic could
arise from these locations, because you know, as as we
established in your previous episode, this is not the first
time that a market like this has produced uh, a

(08:10):
lethal infection. And now the world as a whole. I'm
sure we're we've all heard this. We're in this together.
The world is a whole. We have a theoretical path
to reducing the scale of the infection, but there's currently
no vaccine, there is no cure, and perhaps most troubling,
there's no real estimate on what will happen next because
there are so many factors at play. There's so many

(08:33):
things we can do to make this worse or to
make it better, and just to reiterate something that we
talked about. I believe even in the first episode. These
are zoo anotic diseases, which means that they are transmissible
between species or between you know, from animals to humans,
and that is what makes it particularly virulent and and scary.
And we even heard a story recently about a tiger

(08:55):
I believe is it at the Bronx Zoo UM that
that was found to have COVID and they're actually monitoring
this tiger and you know, testing the tiger. I thought
that was really interesting, especially considering UM how the Tiger
King Netflix series has caught fire, that we're living in
a time of COVID and tigers. Well yeah, I mean
just think how strange that is. The small amount of

(09:19):
human interaction that that tiger has with a very specific
number of people, and one of those people just happened
to be carrying it. That's the only way that tiger
gets coronavirus, right right. It was a get a report
on this um episode UH Strange Newsdaily a few days ago.
It's it was multiple tigers by one zookeeper. The tigers

(09:42):
are UH fans, big cats will will be happy to
learn the tigers are okay. As a matter of fact,
the tigers, I hate to say it, but the tigers
are getting better medical care than a lot of human
residents of New York City, and that's something that critics
are quick to point out. Um. But also, you know,

(10:03):
tigers are an endangered species, and there then those tigers
specifically are living in much closer quarters than a tiger
should ever ever should. There are also more tigers in
captivity that they're all in the wild. Tigers are like
my favorite animal. Can we do an episode of tigers
or octopus? I look, I'm getting distracted. You're right though,

(10:23):
You're right. It's it's coming out. And the zootic thing
is really important. Point no, old because I think fifteen
percent of cats that were tested for COVID in Wuhan
uh tested positive. Uh. We don't. We don't think that
this is a situation where a tiger or a house
cat could get COVID and transmitted to a human. But

(10:45):
we know that humans can transmit it to cats. So
if you feel like you are immuno compromised, you're getting
the signs and you can't get tested or something. Just
be mindful of how you interact with your pets, uh,
because uh, you know, the last thing you want is
an emergency vet visit. Right. So we're we're talking about

(11:07):
the world. There's some good news, there's some bad news.
We're at we're at a crossroads, were at a decision point.
And unfortunately, if you are listening to this show in
the US, or if you like us, are making this
show in the US, we have some pretty some some
pretty sobering things to report. As we record today April ten,

(11:29):
New York has reported its highest daily death count. The
positive lining there is that hospitalizations are down in general.
But get this, According to the latest figures, New York
State now has more coronavirus cases than any single country
outside of the United States, more than Italy, right, more

(11:52):
than more than China, more than well, China's numbers are
a little little sketchy. But but the New York the
state alone has more coronavirus cases confirmed than any other country.
They're like a hundred and ninety seven countries. Yeah, but
we have we have to keep in mind here these numbers,

(12:13):
any numbers you're mentioning. China's numbers are a little fishy.
There any numbers for any country, any state in the
US are gonna be off because of the lack of
testing or the limited amount of testing that we can do.
Also the lagin reporting. I mean, we're seeing numbers that
are already two weeks old, you know, so as like
as we see a number, it's probably you know, guaranteed

(12:35):
higher than that by uh not an insignificant amount because
of the fact that there's a lag in reporting. But
according to the official numbers out of New York, the
confirmed caseload of COVID nineteen jumped by ten thousand cases
in one day this past Thursday, that's yesterday as we're
recording this, and it jumped to one hundred and fifty
nine thousand, nine hundred and thirty seven, putting it ahead

(12:58):
of Spain, which will one hundred and fifty three thousand cases,
and then Italy, which was the number that everybody was
trying to avoid early on, which is one hundred and
forty three thousand as of today, Yep, YEP, and UH. China,
where of course the virus was confirmed to emerge from

(13:18):
those most likely from those wet markets last year, has
only reported a d two thousand cases. Now I don't
mean to sound callous when I say only a D
two thousand. I just want to emphasize again that there
are some serious and troubling questions about their methodology and

(13:39):
how they define a case the same way with how
a coronavirus death is defined. Right. Um, And you know
this is familiar to anybody who has recently tried to
get testing, because for a while, in a lot, in
a lot of the U s, there were some pretty
strict requirements to get testing. There were even some strict
requirements to get type different types of assistance. You had

(14:02):
to prove that you had COVID. And Uh, now the
US has recorded four hundred sixty cases. Uh, we're getting
closer to sixteen five hundred deaths that number. We may
surpass that number. Honestly, by the time this episode comes out.
Globally we're looking at one point six million cases. And

(14:24):
the same day that we recorded our earlier episode COVID
to Rise of the Pandemic. That same day the United
States Senate approved a stimulus package that was worth more
than two trillion dollars, making it the largest deal of
its kind in modern US history. And if you live
in this country, you know that the economy is still

(14:46):
going straight into the garbage. Why what what's happening? We'll
tell you after a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
So this stimulus package, First off, no one really, Let's
be honest, folks, no one really has a grasp of

(15:09):
how much one billion dollars is uh, not even uh
doctor evil in Austin powers. We we clearly have no
understanding what to trillion dollars really means. This. This package
is supposed to, or was supposed to help the country
and the people who live here respond to this coronavirus

(15:30):
pandemic by providing direct payments right uh two people and
jobless benefits, and then also giving money to states, and
then of course a gigantic, a leviathan size bailout fund
for various businesses. Uh. And I'm not saying that any
of those things are bad. You know, on paper, they're

(15:52):
they're very good. And a lot of people hearing this
have just struggled to figure out rent for April, you
know what I mean. These this is serious and the
problem here is that this bill is more than twice
the size. Yeah, it's more than twice the size of
a similar package that Congress passed back in two thousand

(16:15):
and nine during the days of the Great Recession, that
was eight hundred billion dollars. And uh, despite the size
of this two trillion dollar thing and all the corruption
and lack of oversight that's going into it, uh, economists
are are saying this might only get us a few
months down the road, because again, we don't know how

(16:35):
long this is going to go. Well, yeah, even if
a month, I mean maybe a month, that's probably what
you can get because you're talking about rent therapin which
generally is paid on a monthly basis, and the the
actual amount that's going out to the individual, you know,
we will probably take care of that and a little
extra you know, some food hopefully um or any necessities.

(16:58):
But yeah, that's that's all you're to get out of
that two trillion dollars per person. Really, the only hope
is that the injection of money for some of the
states you know that ends up going to businesses in
the perfect world, um, would actually help something. Because man,
right now, more than sixteen million Americans have lost their jobs.

(17:22):
Unemployment may well be the second epidemic that we're facing
here is in this country, at least and again that
situation is going to be true across the world because
of the nature of having to stay apart from one
another and stay home. Small businesses are just getting hammered
right now. Absolutely. Uh. You know, we have a lot

(17:44):
of we have a lot of people who are fighting
to keep a job we have. We have a lot
of small business owners. Some of our fellow listeners are
small business owners who are doing innovative things just to
try to keep the lights on. For for a lighter
note on this, I would add, for instance, uh, you'll

(18:05):
you'll hear all these stories about people doing very creative,
unorthodox things like restaurants staying in business by only doing
curbside take out or no contact delivery. Um. One example
that's a little bit body, uh, if you'll excuse the
craft nous, is something called buber Eats out in Oregon. Uh,

(18:26):
there was there's a strip club called the Lucky Devil Lounge.
And you know, these adult dance clubs shut down just
like a restaurant or something. And so to keep his
employees working, the guy who owns the I think his
name is Sean Bowden. The the guy who owns the
place started like an uber eats thing where they would

(18:47):
have dancers come deliver food to people. Uh and and
he started it as a joke, but people took him
up on it because they wanted to support the business.
So people are finding ways around it. But those are
very very small, all sparks of light in a very
very dark landscape. And I agree with you, Matt, absolutely,
ben and and uh Matt to your point about small businesses,

(19:09):
um and and to the point we mentioned earlier in
the episode about this two trillion dollar coronavirus relief package. UM,
there's an author um and uh a research director at
the American Economic Liberties Projects by the name of Matt Staller,
who wrote a column for The Guardian UM basically talking

(19:30):
about how the coronavirus relief bill, because of the lack
of oversight, UM, it could potentially become a corporate coup
if if, if the government isn't careful, because um, you know,
with all of these small businesses failing, we could potentially
to his his the point that he makes is emerge
with just like you know, some sort of crazy um

(19:53):
monopoly or bigger than that oligarchy. I don't know where
there's just like maybe five or six corporations control all
of the goods and services for the entire world. Yeah,
similar to um, well, I don't know about the entire world,
but um, it's similar to what they call a chibowl,
a chabol in uh South Korea, like this conglomerate that

(20:16):
runs everything, you know. Uh. And we're we are looking
at something that that could be well, very bad for
the average person. But yeah, you're you're right and all
there we were running the risk of a huge consolidation
and not necessarily um, some something that is a good

(20:37):
thing overall. I mean, they're they're also think about this,
like the politics business. Their fingers on a hand, you
know what I mean, As as different as they may
try to appear, Uh, they are fingers on a hand.
And it doesn't matter what sort of political ideology you
ascribe to. Um. They're at least here in the U
s they're both supported by big business. This and there

(21:02):
are also clear and present concerns that this pandemic may
interfere with the upcoming presidential election here in November in
the US, I mean primaries. So we have a lot
of we have a lot of listeners who have written
into us through one platform or another. Who have basically
asked us what the hell is going on with the

(21:24):
voting system in the US. And it is like complicated
partially by design, um, But so we have these things
called primaries. Again, this goes for it doesn't matter what
political party you vote for. If you want to vote, uh,
you you do a thing called a primary where you
kind of like, if you're a Republican or if you're
a Democrat. Uh, there are going to be multiple people

(21:46):
who want to be the Republican or Democratic candidate or
what have you. So before you actually vote November, you
go do to this other voting thing where you vote
between like, uh, there are five Democrat candidates, you vote
for the one you like, or there five or pub
looking candidates to vote for the one you like. And
this is already getting pushed off, Like a ton of

(22:08):
states haven't been able to vote in these primaries and
they were supposed to. So what does that mean for November?
It's it's scary. Yeah. The only good thing is that
largely across the US you're seeing an increase in you know,
applications for absentee ballots being sent out. I know, I
here in Atlanta, I just received one. Um which is

(22:31):
which is a good thing. I generally don't get them,
and it was just sent. It wasn't like I had
to request it. Hopefully, you know, that will continue to
occur where we can hopefully make the whole democracy thing happen.
And you know, we've talked about the problems with democracy
before and the way it's run, especially if you have
a two party system, a two party plus or a

(22:53):
two point one party system. Let's say, uh, if you
add in the independence there. But you know, and that's
gonna affect us. But the real, the real impact, and
the scary thing for me is that you know, we
talked we're talking about the sixteen million Americans that have
lost their jobs, right and you know that has an

(23:13):
impact on the individual but also an entire family for
each one of those people. Um. And the scary thing
is that that number ramped up to sixteen million over
the course of three weeks. And when you compare that
to what happened in two thousand and eight, two thousand

(23:35):
you know, well the end of two thousand seven all
the way into two thousand nine. Um, that that fifteen
million job loss that occurred back then took eighteen months
to reach that level. And we've only just begun this
thing and we're already seeing jobs hemorrhaging like that. And
when you say a job, it means rent and food

(23:59):
and you know everything, clothing, shelter, everything that's needed for
entire families, each one of those. Yeah. Yeah, And when
one important well said one one important point, I'd add
this is gonna sound unusual to a lot of people
outside of the United States. Uh, if you lose your
job here, that often means you lose access to medical
care almost always. Yeah, because of the way insurance works

(24:23):
in this country. You're you're right, this, this level of
growth is dangerous and things are very much no matter
what we do for for the near future, things are
set to get worse before they improve. Even if the
pandemic is wiped out, um the you know, sooner than
we think. Uh, there, they are still going to be

(24:47):
a lot of enormous problems. To the Knowle's point about corporations, Matt,
to your point about recovering this, this is not a
bounce back situation, you know. And and on the corporate point,
while there are tons of industries that are faltering, there
are a few, very few that are skyrocketing. Hedge funds

(25:09):
are making a killing. And we were talking about this.
I think, um, off air, we were talking about this. Uh.
Price scalaging is insane. You know. You think of toilet paper,
you think of a hand sanitizer and and ppe and
stuff like that, personal protective equipment. Uh. But Nintendo switches,
It's it's bizarre. Nintendo switches are going through the roof.

(25:32):
Exercise equipment, uh is going through the roof. I mean
someone right now, maybe someone listening to the show has
a side hustle or full time hustle, Uh, scalping Nintendo
switches and selling them for exorbitant amounts. And if shoot,
or scalping toilet paper and paper towels. Think about the

(25:53):
big paper in the heyday they're having right now. My god,
Ambidet companies, we called that a while back, I think.
But uh, but but something else is proliferating. And that's
something else is is conspiratorial thought. Um. Now, you know

(26:15):
some of this is some of this is a product
of fear and searching for answers, which is what humans do. Uh.
Some of it is a product of the truth, the
actual stuff that a lot of politicians and a lot
of mainstream media don't want you to know. Some of
these things sound crazy and they are, and some of
them sound crazy and they're real. After this break, we'll

(26:39):
get to a few that we didn't cover in our
last episode, as well as some brand new ones. Here's
where it gets crazy. Let's talk a little bit about UM.
The religious angle or some allegations pertaining to to religion
surrounding the coronavirus. They're few distinct religious aspects that are

(27:02):
coming to ahead right now in the days of corona UM. First,
some apocalyptic sects believe that it's a sign of the
end of the world. UM. Doesn't seem like too much
of a stretch to me, even not being a fundamentalist
UM religious person UM or there is it's some kind
of UM fundamental shift in our civilization. Second, some either

(27:27):
you know, unscrupulous or particularly deluded religious figures have started,
like many politicians UM talking about unproven UM and quite
expensive cures. Jim Baker, for example, UM for was recently
selling something he was calling Silver Solution UH that he

(27:48):
claims was created by God himself. He is in cahoots
with a woman named Cheryl Sealman and they have been
selling his massive viewership, UM like on this stuff like
it can you know, with the expectation that it can
cure coronavirus in just twelve hours, Um, it can't. And

(28:10):
and and the US Food and Drug Administration UH told
him to stop marketing this uh, this snake oil UM
as a cure for coronavirus. And and of course that's
not the only one. I mean in the same wait
wait wait wait wait wait wait, Jim Baker, you can
from this man. You can also purchase all of the

(28:31):
buckets of food you've you'd ever want to have. We're
talking burritos for two months, We're talking rice and chicken
dinners for like two years, just in buckets that you
can keep in your house if you will. And it's blessed.
I think you can get some of it blessed. Look,
you know, we're not we want to be very clear,
we're not UM denigrading religion at all, but we are

(28:54):
denigrading UH televangelists, especially those that you classify as prosperity
theology practitioners like Kreflo Dollar, who still is my my
favorite to love slash hate. But you're right, well there
that kind of business and for these guys, it is
a business. That kind of business is booming. There's a

(29:16):
guy named Kenneth Copeland out in Texas. He went to
the White House two years ago eighteen and had dinner
with uh, like for this dinner where a bunch of
other evangelical leaders got together, and he says that he
has a coronavirus cure that he can transmit through your
television screen. Remember all those old tropes, Oh, we're on camera,

(29:39):
so you do it now where it's like put your
hands against the against the screen, feel the energy and say,
you know, by the power. Uh, it's like that kind
of thing. On his Victory channel on March twelfth, he
claimed that he would be able to heal coronavirus infected
viewers who touched their TVs. Say, put your hand on

(30:01):
that television set. Hallelujah, Thank you Lord Jesus. He received
your healing as long as they wash their hands like
before and after. I think I'm okay with it. But
I think what we're pointing to here, which is really unsettling. Um,
these are these are businesses that can successfully take fear,

(30:24):
the fear that you feel, the anxiety that you feel
about this situation and translate it, turn it and spin
it into gold. It's very rumple, still skinnesque, and uh,
it's disturbing I think in general, but in a time
like this, it feels, at least to me personally, particularly vile. Yeah.

(30:45):
I mean these in the same way that um, you know, uh,
phone fishing scams are on the rise, you know, to
kind of take advantage of older people that are maybe
scared and and and living by themselves and willing to
give up their person information. In times of crisis, those
things always flourish, you know, or and thrive, and you

(31:05):
really have to be vigilant to keep your loved ones
who might be susceptible to this kind of stuff from
from you know, biting. But here's the only other thing
is that I have to add here. I currently cannot
prove that there is something to putting out energy in

(31:28):
the way that let's say Copeland is saying that he's
going to put out energy. I'm extremely skeptical of it,
to the point where I do not believe it unless
it has proven to me. However, I cannot disprove that
there is something to that kind of connection, even if
it's through a television Yeah. Yeah, and that's I mean

(31:51):
that that is fair. We also know that we also
know that the placebo effect is a real and powerful
thing to some degree. Uh. And and you know if
if uh someone making these claims, if they personally believe it,
then if they believe what they're selling, then it's kind
of like Merlin in Mark Twain's a Connecticut Yankee and

(32:14):
King Arthur's Court. We can't we can't call them liars. Uh.
We can say that maybe that practice is not as effective,
or maybe it's ineffective, but if they're not actually harming people,
then it's it's their choice to do as they will.
The problem here is that they could be harming people,
at least in the cases we outlined, and and this

(32:36):
idea though still what's interesting here by way of segue,
is that the difference here is that they're not purposefully
hurting people. In fact, they may believe that they are
helping people. However, there's another conspiracy theory that says this, uh,
this disease, this infection is purposely designed to target certain

(32:59):
demograph fix or to injure uh certain people. Right. It's
it's a population control or it's a weapon of war.
This this is quite a popular theory. In Iran. UH
the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kamani has refused American assistance
to fight the new coronavirus and said that it could

(33:20):
be man made by the US government. UM. And really
that's a little misleading because the issue is that the
US offered a certain kind of help and look, COVID
is out of control in Iran. UH, the U s
A offered a certain kind of help, and UH Iran
had requested another kind. They said, you know, lift the sanctions,

(33:44):
because you know, the sanctions that have been placed on
Iran and Cuba as well have interfered with the transport
of of medical equipment and assistance. People are literally dying. UM. Others,
of course, as always accused Israel of manufact exturing the weapon,
or obviously they accused China of creating the weapon. At

(34:06):
this point, it's kind of like the conspiracy theories about
HIV as a weapon. It's it's just such a um,
it's just such a dumb thing. If you were designing
a weapon, they're better ones to design and and this
is surprising that this is still proliferating out there. We
talked about this in the past. It's still there, it's
gaining grounds. I just want to add here, I I

(34:28):
agree with you, Ben, I just want to add here
that when you're thinking about Iran because of coronavirus, maybe
we've kind of forgotten, but we are actively engaged in
maybe not a proxy war, but but there are um,
actual firefights, actual hot conflicts that are occurring in Iraq

(34:48):
between US forces and uh um Irani. It's Iran back
to militias. I believe that we're the targets by the US. Yeah,
so it's it. I mean, that's still happening, and that's
been happening that kind of um but behind closed doors
battling has been happening for so long between Iran and

(35:10):
the US. Uh. You know, just trying to add that
other side there, like the reason why maybe community doesn't
want assist it from America in any way, and also
just due to all the things that we've outlined in
the past about that the relationship between the two countries. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
I mean it's unfortunately it's a very old story, right

(35:30):
and this is just another another um chapter in a
disturbing book. So we've outlined a couple of problems, but
we we want to give you a we want to
solve something for you, and we think we've done it. Uh,
we have new revelations. We have found the truth or
we're on the way of finding the truth about one

(35:51):
of the most popular recent conspiracy theories related to COVID nineteen,
the idea that five G technology is is responsible for
the virus, or responsible for what's being perceived as a virus.
We've mentioned this earlier, but there's more to the story. Yeah,
it's true. I'm just a few days ago there were

(36:12):
at least three attacks on cell phone towers in the
UK and in Ireland that authorities believe were related to
the five G coronavirus conspiracy theory. But there is proof
that a conspiracy of some kind really does exist here.
Maybe not the one that that we've been hearing about,
or that that conspiracy theorists would prefer that we uh

(36:35):
we think about. UM. A person named Mark Owens Jones,
who's a researcher at Hamad Ben Khalifa University and Qatar
specializing in online disinformation networks, analyzed twenty two thousand recent
interactions on Twitter mentioning five G and Corona, as as
this as the search terms and said that he found

(36:55):
a large number of accounts displaying quote inauthentic activity, so
like bought type accounts I imagine, um. He said the
effort bears some of the hallmarks of a state backed campaign. Um.
He noted quote there are very strong indications that some
of these accounts are a disinformation operation, and went on

(37:18):
to say that the campaign used a strategy similar to
Russia's Internet Research agency, which was behind the disinformation campaign
during the US presidential campaign. The reason that the term
Russian bots has become such a hot hot button thing
to throw around. UM. So, while Jones has an explicitly
linked this campaign to a specific state, he he does

(37:41):
note that there are pretty extraordinary similarities. Yeah. Yeah. In short,
the spread of the five G conspiracy theory is itself
a conspiracy. Um, just a backtrack real quick, Uh, and
be clear, Uh, the the five G concept is um

(38:03):
is something that existed before and it's just now being
tied with coronavirus. But people were concerned about the possible
health impacts of five G beforehand, uh and right now. Honestly, Uh,
not to be alarmist about it, but it is a
new technology, which means there are no longitudinal studies about

(38:24):
the h the possible long term risk. Do it right now?
It seems safe? Uh, it definitely doesn't seem like it
creates virus or viral like infections. Well, and you only
you only have to go back to October in Scientific
American and other places to see that there is some

(38:44):
research coming out about five G that it is potentially
dangerous the amount of radiation that people will be exposed to.
That doesn't mean it has anything to do with coronavirus.
It makes me ask and and just to to to
go off topic, just ever so slightly. How does this
stuff get pushed through so quickly without you know, if
there are these concerns and if there is even some

(39:04):
research already showing that this level of radiation is dangerous,
Like how how how are we as a country just
fully on board with five G? It just seems like
an example of like commerce being put in front of
the general well being of of people. Well, I mean,
if you go to like the New York Times or
Wired right now, you know around that same time December

(39:25):
and part of the summer of last year or twenty nineteen,
everyone is doing their best too to say no, look,
there's no actual harm that's going to be caused by
you know, using your phone or having a five G
device with you, or having five G transmitters near your
home or anything like that. And to a large extent,
it's it's true. It's just one of those things that

(39:46):
does need to be studied more. And I think I
see what you're saying there and all, like, it feels
like a necessity to push this through in order to
enhance our interconnectivity and the amount of stuff we are
doing online right now. Just as a an individual, Yeah,
it's needed. But you know, I like your point about
doing the things you want to do or need to

(40:07):
do as an individual. Part of the reason this stuff happens,
and part of the reason UH, political and corporate opportunists
are are taking they are buying the farm right buying
the ground out from under you right now, is because
we have as individuals a dearth of time. We have

(40:28):
so little time to invest in hunting down and finding
these things that matter. Yes, there are regulatory bodies right UM,
but they are there. There are things that you have
to go look for. Right The FCC, for instance, UM,
doesn't doesn't go public and blast out across broadcast channels

(40:52):
any any policy, every policy decision they make, you have
to look for it right. And it's the same with
these kind of approvals. The onus of the activity is
on you as the individual. Is that the way it
should be? Probably not? Are things getting past that the
average person would object to? Yeah? Probably? Uh, but that

(41:15):
is the way it is right now. That doesn't make
it right, but that's that's what's happening. That's how these
sorts of things can can continue. If you want to
learn more about bots, check out the excellent episode we
did with Joe McCormick from Stuff to Blow your Mind
about Russian bots. The only thing left, the only piece
of the puzzle here on the five G conspiracy is

(41:38):
figuring out who is controlling the bots. You know, Uh,
anti Russian types will say it's Russia. Anti China types
will say it's China. Um, and then you know, anti
US types will say it's the US. But the truth is,
at this point we do not have proof of the
puppet master's identity. We just know that. You know, when

(41:58):
you see uh sled berties like Woody Harrelson or um
that um the British celebrity Amanda hold him when you
see them plugging these kinds of stories and this kind
of information. They're probably not in on it, you know
what I mean. Like, I don't think Vladimir Putin or
um some other leader of a country contacted them like hey, Wood,

(42:19):
he love you and cheers helped me terrify the public
and make sure that people are scared of five G.
As you said, guys for the wrong reasons. You know,
you know who who it's It's Big four G. Finally,
Big four G. Yeah, that's the elephant in the room,

(42:42):
you know. The I guess one of the last things
we want to talk about today is that we definitely
knew something was on the way here in the US.
UH officials knew something was on the way, you know.
You can find an interview from NBC with two current
US officials and one former U s official who went
public and said that U S by agencies were collecting

(43:03):
raw intelligence about Wuhan, China, specifically back in November, and
they could tell that there was something going on, and
they it was. They could tell it was a public
health crisis. And now they say that this was not
initially understood as the first warning signs of a pandemic.

(43:23):
But um, they had situation reports, you know what I mean,
They had overhead images, they had intercepted communication that showed
health facilities were going into hyper drive. And this was
given to the FEDS and various public health officials way
back in November. Recall again that the insider trading started

(43:45):
to occur in January. And even when US officials realized
the magnitude of this problem, there wasn't it wasn't very
much action, right. We didn't take a lot of steps
as a country to ready ourselves for a pandemic like um,
like the Spanish flu epidemic. You know, there there was
no effort to boost those stockpiles of medical equipment we're

(44:08):
hearing so much about. There's no effort to encourage social distancing.
As a matter of fact, if if you think I
don't know, I don't want to be I don't want
to be unnecessarily frightening to people. But if if you
have been counting on six ft distance to keep you safe, uh,
that's unfortunately not gonna fly. Uh. We know, we know

(44:31):
now that even the even the personal behavior modifications we've
tried to institute there better than nothing, But they are
also not a silver bullet. We should have been prepared
for this in some way much much earlier. Yeah, I
mean back in Bill Gates gave a ted talk that's
being kind of bandied about a lot now, essentially outlining

(44:53):
exactly what we're experiencing right now, and outlining just how
unprepared we as a country would be, and and his
idea that we should run all these simulations to see
how uh prepared the private sector would be to have
then e lators, what kind of quarantine measures should be
put in place, um And and realizing as this has
happened that no one was prepared for any of this

(45:15):
at all, and people didn't even take it seriously to
begin with, including the government. Um And you know, not
to get too political, because I know it bugs people sometimes,
but you know, it does feel like there's a certain
amount of double speed going on in terms of the
narrative the government has presented in terms of how prepared,
uh we were, you know, this notion of it being

(45:35):
some sort of left wing plot um and then immediately
this about face of oh no, we were. We knew
all along that it was serious and were prepared for it.
So it's really kind of head spinning to see that
shift in rhetoric, and it's like but no, but but
but but you said, but no, but we have it
on Uh you know, well, well here here's the problem.
And we're hearing more and more stories that the Federals

(46:00):
dock pile of like Ppe and other you know, equipment
that is supposed to be available. These hospitals are getting
this old stuff and like if you're talking about one
of these masks, you can't use it because the elastic
strap has dry rot all over it and it just
falls apart because it's been there for so long and

(46:20):
that spans much further than the current administration, you know
what I mean. So it was it. It is like
one of those things where we we didn't we were
not prepared in so many ways, uh, throughout a large
span of time. Here the last thing really quickly, I
just want to jump back to what you were talking about, Ben,
the intelligence agencies looking hard at Wuhan in November, like

(46:44):
before we knew there was even a crisis. That's the
kind of thing that spawns conspiracy theories because you know,
when you hear of let's say, uh An official in
China saying this was you know, this virus was started
by the United States knowing that US by agencies have

(47:06):
overhead cameras in Wuhan before it officially becomes a pandemic,
knowing that they're watching the health facilities in particular and
seeing what kind of activity is occurring. That's what ends
up creating I think, or at least assists in the
creation amongst this uncertainty that oh, well, maybe the US
was watching the spread of this virus they created there. Uh.

(47:30):
And it's it's just somebody have to be careful about um.
But it's also troubling, right, and it should be because
you know, what that clearly points to is not just
a conspiracy theory, but an actual conspiracy. Make no mistake.
You know, certain members of Congress, with access to intelligence reports,
did indeed conspire to make a buck, make a vig

(47:53):
off of this, uh, this disaster. You know. Then they
did so because they had information that you and I
and everyone listening, well some of the people listening did
not have. And and this like, there's a really important
point that's kind of related to this that I want
to I want to point out. Um, we mentioned it
kind of at the top of the show. This spells

(48:14):
a lot of problems in conclusion when we ask where
do we go next? Right where now? We are already
seeing domestic stability become increasingly fragile here in the United States. UM.
You know, we've been very lucky as a country that
there's always a peaceful transition of power. A lot of
other countries have not been able to pull that off. UM.

(48:37):
And you know, it's it's something that we take for
granted here, but the chain of command uh may start
to break down. Just in Massachusetts, for instance, the governor
of Massachusetts had to smuggle mask from China that can't
believe there's a true story on a New England Patriots
airplane because the FEDS were going to take these things.

(48:58):
They wanted to be in charge of giving this metical
equipment to states. UH. And the system or the process
they used to determine who gets what has been under
a huge amount of criticism. So the Massachusetts governor smuggled
this stuff on a sports team airplane with the help
of the National Guard, with the help of the Massachusetts Police,
they transported it to other states. This is an open

(49:21):
defiance of the federal government. UH. And you know, like
think about think about what happens if um the federal
government and the state of California, which if it were
an independent country, would be like the world's fifth largest
in terms of GDP. What if California gets an order
from the Feds to fire or arrest their governor, just

(49:44):
being hypothetical, and California says, no, we're not gonna do it.
What are you gonna do about it? That? Like, that
is possible, not plausible, but possible. Yeah, maybe a different episode.
Let's let's hope that the next of all ar isn't
as close as it feels. Let's just put it that way,
because there will. There will be the next one at

(50:05):
some point in the future, hopefully not anytime soon. Do
you think it's a political party based or or is
it just between the halves and the have nots? Or
what's the division in this in this coming warrior you're picturing, Well, depends.
I mean, draw lines wherever you want there. They will
be drawn, and they kind of already are in so
many different ways, whether it's economics or you know, ideology,

(50:30):
or in this case, you know, something as simple as
states rights versus federal right. I guess you're right. I
think things have gotten so complex and there's so many
divisions in our country, Like, it's not going to be
as simple as like, you know, the North versus the South.
There's so many potential sects and things that can shoot off.
The one silver lining here is that there is a

(50:50):
common enemy. There's one common enemy now that each state,
each government across the world faces each individual, and that
is this pandemic, a tiny little microscopic thing, an invader
that can find its way into your body or your
you know, your spouse's body, or your child's body, or

(51:12):
your parents body. And that's the thing that we can
band together and fight and hopefully we can see past
a lot of this other stuff at least long enough
to to get through this together. That's a really good point,
Matt and and and and something that I'm leaning on
as well in terms of a silver lining or some
kind of hope, Well we better get it together. I mean,
you know this, uh, just the one point about politics,

(51:35):
you know, like or the US, California could go independent
and Texas has historically had this um this great pride,
a willingness to go independent. Um. So the stability of
the union might be a problem, but having a common
enemy is something that does really unite people. I think
that's a fantastic point, Matt, and we better get it together.
Because six new coronaviruses were discovered in bats in Myanmar

(51:59):
just this we uh, they're not they're not the same
as stars or um what we call stars and what
we call COVID. But the point is they're out there,
and this recovery period for the world will take much
much longer than a lot of politicians and a lot
of businesses want you to believe. Like I said at
the top, don't think of this in terms of bouncing back.

(52:21):
We need to think of this in terms of clawing
our way out of a slippery pit. And it's it's
gonna take everybody where a species that's terrible at working together.
But now the rubber is hitting the road, you know, um,
we we know that that international trade is already reaching,

(52:42):
um reaching some crisis points. Like you think you think
that that it's bad when you see the grocery store
shelves in your neck of the woods empty and you
can't get toilet paper. Imagine that happening on a macro
cosmic scale. With mask ventilator's respiration eads more. The US
is taking and I feel like we have to say

(53:04):
this even though we are residents of the U S.
And and I, for one, UH, I am a patriot.
I love this country. But the US is like straight
up stealing international shipments of medical equipment and this is
uh and other countries are doing shady stuff too. The
U S Is not alone here, but now as we
record this, at least sixty nine countries have banned or

(53:28):
restricted the export of protective equipment, medical devices, medicines, and more.
And this seems set to continue. I mean, I don't
I don't know, what do you guys think? This feels
very much like we are in a moment that future
historians will spend years writing about. We're We're in one
of the defining moments of history. This is a major shift,

(53:52):
and I think a lot of us have already started
thinking about this differently. Um. I I was really struck
by some comments that Dr Anthony Anthony Fauci I believe
is his name, UM, one of the one of the
you know, main people who is fighting against this thing

(54:14):
and attempting to advise everybody on what to do. And
he basically advised this week on Wednesday, and maybe a
little before that he advised that as a custom, the
world and particularly the United States, stops shaking hands forever,

(54:35):
Like we just cut it out of a thing that
we do, and that that to me is crazy. But
at the same time it makes total sense. And after
going through this, I think everyone will see that as well. Well. Obviously, yeah,
you don't shake hands anymore, you don't hug anybody anymore
in public. It's not It's not as though it's gonna
be for a couple of months or even a couple

(54:57):
of years. I think this is gonna be a so
full shift across the world. It feels like, because Ben,
you're saying, this is like a shifting point, This is
a This is one of those moments in history that
we literally make a turn twenty five degrees in one
direction and we don't ever go back the other way. Yeah, Ben,
I mean to your point about it not being a
bounce back thing. Like even if this were eradicated tomorrow,

(55:20):
which obviously isn't going to happen, It's just not how
it works. There's going to be a period of distrust
and a period of adjusting to, you know, the trauma
that we have all collectively experienced as a as a
as a you know, a global society, you know, where
there's going to be things some kind of PTSD as
a culture and and as a world that we're all

(55:43):
going to have to waite our way through. Even if
all of this just went, you know, blipped out of
existence tomorrow. And obviously that's not going to happen. So
we're going to be dealing with those, uh, those various
individual and collective traumas for probably a long time. But um, hopefully, Matt,
to your point, there is something we can learn about
our cells and the way we interact with people, and

(56:03):
the way government's work that maybe can be taken from
this and hopefully move things in a positive direction. I
would like to believe that I think shaking hands is
weird again. I know I say this a lot on
our show, but it's it's kind of it's it's like neckties.
You know. Sometime over the course of civilization, we just
accepted that it's weird. It serves it doesn't really serve

(56:24):
a function. The old story about shaking hands is just
to check people for weapons, and you've got to admit, man,
it's a weird and specific thing. Goodbye to it. I
won't miss I'll miss a lot of things, but I won't.
I won't miss just rubbing palms with some stranger right
off the jump when I meet them. That's so weird.
I love the human physical connection of shaking your hand.

(56:45):
I am a huge hugger, and I be aware. I
will hug you. Don't come too close. I will hug you. Yeah,
you got you've you've gotten us before. Yeah, well, I
mean that's that's on a like seriously, on a very
personal note. That is how I met my wife by
ran em lely hugging her and like like I you know,
losing that kind of interpersonal connection even with a you know,

(57:10):
a total stranger, you know, showing showing that connection that
you know we're both the same. Um. I don't know.
Not being able to do that physically and having to
do it either with an emoji in the future or
whatever else we're gonna have to do to communicate that
kind of feeling that troubles me deeply. But yeah, who knows,

(57:31):
Maybe that's where we're headed. Guess let us know what
you think, folks, shaking hands, you love it, You're gonna
miss it. What's what's your take? Uh? We still haven't
made a secret handshake for conspiracy stuff and now we
maybe never us, but we want to hear from you.
We want to hear your stories, your experiences from your

(57:51):
neck of the global woods. Find us on Facebook, Find
us on Twitter, Find us on Instagram where conspiracy stuff
or conspiracy stuff show. We also like to recommend Here's
where it gets crazy, our community page on Facebook where
we've um you know, we want to thank you if
you're listening, if you're on there. Uh, Facebook isn't perfect,
but this has been Uh, this has been a really

(58:13):
strong community. And thanks to our mods as well, and
thanks to everybody who's been calling into our number of
just leaving us some really great insight and you know,
just knowing that you're out there and hearing your voice,
just talking about that personal connection, it's just one step
closer to actually, you know, having a moment, an actual
moment with you when you call in. So we really

(58:35):
do appreciate that. If you want to leave us a message,
our number is one eight three three st d w
y t k UH and we we look forward to
hearing from you. Anything you want to talk about. Just
leave us a message. We're listening and you may well
get a call back from Matt and the and the
wee hours of the nights and and have that personal
moment um Matt you. I am always blown away by

(58:58):
how good a steward you are of of this, of
this call in and you really treat it with a
lot of respect and care, and I really appreciate that. Well.
I apologize in advance both if you don't receive a
call back from me and especially if you do. If
you don't want to do that, you can find us
on the usual social channels of choice. UM we we

(59:19):
would really like it if you joined our Facebook group.
Here's where it gets crazy. I think all you have
to do is name one or all four of the
members of our crew, or just make a reference to
something you've heard in the show, or just just make
us laugh, and I think you're You're in, like flynn, Um.
You can also find us on Instagram where a conspiracy
Stuff show or conspiracy Stuff one combination of those two.
On all of the social platforms, you can also find

(59:41):
us as individuals. I am exclusively on Instagram at how
Now Noel Brown. You can find me on Twitter at
Ben Bowling hs W. You can find me on Instagram
at ben Bowland. If social media, uh, if that doesn't
quite bag your badgers, never fear. If you hate phones,
don't worry about it. You can always reach just seven

(01:00:02):
at our good old fashioned email address. We are conspiracy
at i heeart radio dot com. Stuff they don't want

(01:00:27):
you to know is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.