August 6, 2025 • 8 mins
Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about mRNA vaccines and Justin Timberlake having Lyme disease.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jim Kinney, who is the chief Medical Officers for Dignity
Saint Mary Medical Center.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Jim, Good morning, morning.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Go okay, boy, do I have a question this morning
when it was announced that RFK Junior halted five hundred
million dollars from for mRNA vaccine. I think it was
that for not only development but also research. It struck
me as something not only serious, but come on, just
(00:31):
antime medicine across the board.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, I mean, so it's for the money was for BARTA,
the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority, it's under HHS, and
their whole goal is to prevent, to be prepared for
bioterrorism attacks, pandemics, emergency infections, and then like the biological, chemical,
radiologic attacks. And so that's their goal is to get
(01:00):
for these kind of things. And we've identified that f
RNA vaccines are something that can be ramped up quickly
and can be adjusted for whatever the particular need is
at that point. So, you know, a lot of it
is the way he did it too, because on one hand,
you know, you look at it when I look at
how much these companies have made off of COVID.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I am a little surprised. Why are we still supporting them?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
They may enough money off these fRNA vaccines that they
should be able to develop new vaccines without without US
giving them billions of dollars. And there are other vaccine
technology that should be supported.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
But then I would have come.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Out more with a statement like, look, you know, these
are highly effected. So he's saying they're not effective. These
are highly effective vaccines at preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death.
It's if you're going to go by people still get COVID,
then yes, that's how he's saying they're ineffective. But the
point is to save lives, not necessarily always to stop
(01:57):
the disease, saying with the flu vaccine, so you know,
he's saying certain things that aren't true. I would have said, look,
you know, these are highly effective vaccines, but we're going
to move the money in a different direction because there
are other technologies out there that need this funding and
need to be explored. And meanwhile, the billions that Sonofi
and all these other companies made the Glaxo smith all
(02:20):
they made off is they can use that to develop
new drugs for US.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, and I don't, but I don't think that was
the case RFK was making. He straight out said they're
not effective.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Right, Yeah, he's completely wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
And on top of that, I mean, does he have
scientists that say that he's right that they are not
effective other than crackpot scientists and the medical teams.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well, with the announcement, he didn't offer any scientific backing
for what he was saying. He just said they're not effective,
so they failed to protect effectively, and that's not true.
They protect you from death, hospitalization. It's been well established,
it's been proven, so they actually do work. And so
it's not about like, why are we getting into another
(03:08):
debate about, you know, the COVID vaccine. When we have
a technology out there that's been shown to work, it
should be developed. But again, I think you know a
lot of these companies, they do make a ton of
money off Americans, and then we're giving them the money
to figure out how to make more money off of us.
I can see if it came out that way, I
(03:28):
could see a point, right, but that's not how he
did it at all.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It doesn't make a much much sense at all.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I wonder how Senator Bill Kennedy is feeling about what
RFK is doing. Bill Kennedy is a physician, and he
questioned RFK like crazy, No, I'm not against vaccines. No,
I'm in favor of vaccines. I believe they're effective. And
Kennedy or Cassidy, I'm sorry. Bill Cassidy was the vote
(03:58):
that put him over the top based on the fact
that the RFK said, oh, no, everything is fine. I
would never I would never change anything. Man. I hope
he looks himself in the mirror and tries to kick
himself in the ass.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's Bill Cassidy, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Jim Justin Timberlake waited months to get line to get
his line disease diagnosis, and the more we talk over
the years, line disease, which didn't seem to be that
big a deal, is really serious stuff. And waiting months
to get the diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Explain that line disease is caused by a tick. In California,
where it is present, it's caused by a slightly different
tick than the East Coast, and it's in areas where
there's grassy tall grassy areas you might be hiking through,
or wooded areas that you might be hiking through.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
They especially love dead wood or dead.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Grassy areas to just kind of hang out on until
an animal or a human walks by and they jump
on and suck a little blood. So, and it's the
stage of the tick that usually carries the disease is
the tiny stage. So it does look very small, like
just slightly bigger than a poppy seed. Sometimes very hard
to see. So after you're hiking in these areas, you
(05:16):
need to check yourself. You got to do a tick
check and check yourself for those things.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And in terms of the symptoms and long range, it's
it almost seems like syphless, And I know that's kind
of a joke, but it's not. Early stage is fairly
easy to treat. And by the time it is hit
in the case of syphless, the tertiary stage, man, it
is just too late period and you have bought you've
(05:43):
bought the store on that one.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I mean, actually that's a great comparison. Sometimes your
medical knowledge kind of blows me away, you know. So
it's a very good comparison because it has those stages.
And yeah, the first stage, you get what it's called,
like we call it a target lesion or a rash
that looks like it's red and it's originally a red
rash around the where the tick bite was, and then
it spreads a little bit more open and the center
(06:07):
will become like more normal skin, so it looks like
a bull's eye and that will spread out. That's the
classic rash, but it's only seen in about eighty percent
of people. And if it's on your back or somewhere
where you're not looking you want, you may not even
notice it. So at that stage, easy you treat what
docty cycling, the patient gets better and you move on
with your life. If it goes on from there, then
(06:28):
it can progress to kind of a secondary stage disease
where you get problems with your joints, you know, arthritis,
severe fatigue. That's when people get really exhausted and tired,
body aches, and then it can affect nerves and that's
when you start getting those serious long term problems where
you get nerve damage. You can even get some effects
(06:48):
on the brain. So you know, you want to try
and discover this early. It's hard because if you miss
the tick bite stage, it's very vague and you may.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Not figure this out.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So once people start getting like multiple joints that are
hurting and things like that. Your doctor will often just
do align to these tests to see if it's there.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Can that still at that stage? Can it be treated successfully?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, all three stages can be treated, it's just harder
as you go along to get rid of it. So yes,
that second stage definitely can be treated successfully as well
as the third stage. But there may be at that
point some irreversible issues.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And so based on what you said justin Timberlake quote
waiting months, it's not a question of waiting months. It
just took months for these symptoms to come up where
the doctors could see what's going on.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
How often do you see this in the er room?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know, I wouldn't know because it's not a test
that we can really do in the eer. It's not
an emergency test. But I'll see people with chronic fatigue
that's really severe or severe joint pains or nerve pain,
and I'll let them know that, you know, you should
really go see a doctor and get all this test.
I we try not to do tests in the emergency
room that aren't emergencies because obviously it's a long wait already,
(08:06):
and if we start ordering things that are could be
done outpatient, we could really back the system up.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
As the system is not backed up like crazy anyway,
what I like, and I asked him all the time
about advice, medical advice and the best advice you've ever given, Jim,
as an er doctor, stay out of the er.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That will help you the most. It's true. By the way,
I'm not joking.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I mean, there's reasons to go, but that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
But if you can avoid it, but you should probably
try and avoid it and look for.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
The shaman, go to a witch doctor. You'll do much better. Jim,
we'll talk again next Wednesday. As always, have a good day,
take care,
Jim Kinney, who is the chief Medical Officers for Dignity
Saint Mary Medical Center.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Jim, Good morning, morning.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Go okay, boy, do I have a question this morning
when it was announced that RFK Junior halted five hundred
million dollars from for mRNA vaccine. I think it was
that for not only development but also research. It struck
me as something not only serious, but come on, just
(00:31):
antime medicine across the board.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
What are your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, I mean, so it's for the money was for BARTA,
the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority, it's under HHS, and
their whole goal is to prevent, to be prepared for
bioterrorism attacks, pandemics, emergency infections, and then like the biological, chemical,
radiologic attacks. And so that's their goal is to get
(01:00):
for these kind of things. And we've identified that f
RNA vaccines are something that can be ramped up quickly
and can be adjusted for whatever the particular need is
at that point. So, you know, a lot of it
is the way he did it too, because on one hand,
you know, you look at it when I look at
how much these companies have made off of COVID.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I am a little surprised. Why are we still supporting them?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
They may enough money off these fRNA vaccines that they
should be able to develop new vaccines without without US
giving them billions of dollars. And there are other vaccine
technology that should be supported.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
But then I would have come.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Out more with a statement like, look, you know, these
are highly effected. So he's saying they're not effective. These
are highly effective vaccines at preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death.
It's if you're going to go by people still get COVID,
then yes, that's how he's saying they're ineffective. But the
point is to save lives, not necessarily always to stop
(01:57):
the disease, saying with the flu vaccine, so you know,
he's saying certain things that aren't true. I would have said, look,
you know, these are highly effective vaccines, but we're going
to move the money in a different direction because there
are other technologies out there that need this funding and
need to be explored. And meanwhile, the billions that Sonofi
and all these other companies made the Glaxo smith all
(02:20):
they made off is they can use that to develop
new drugs for US.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, and I don't, but I don't think that was
the case RFK was making. He straight out said they're
not effective.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Right, Yeah, he's completely wrong.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
And on top of that, I mean, does he have
scientists that say that he's right that they are not
effective other than crackpot scientists and the medical teams.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well, with the announcement, he didn't offer any scientific backing
for what he was saying. He just said they're not effective,
so they failed to protect effectively, and that's not true.
They protect you from death, hospitalization. It's been well established,
it's been proven, so they actually do work. And so
it's not about like, why are we getting into another
(03:08):
debate about, you know, the COVID vaccine. When we have
a technology out there that's been shown to work, it
should be developed. But again, I think you know a
lot of these companies, they do make a ton of
money off Americans, and then we're giving them the money
to figure out how to make more money off of us.
I can see if it came out that way, I
(03:28):
could see a point, right, but that's not how he
did it at all.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It doesn't make a much much sense at all.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I wonder how Senator Bill Kennedy is feeling about what
RFK is doing. Bill Kennedy is a physician, and he
questioned RFK like crazy, No, I'm not against vaccines. No,
I'm in favor of vaccines. I believe they're effective. And
Kennedy or Cassidy, I'm sorry. Bill Cassidy was the vote
(03:58):
that put him over the top based on the fact
that the RFK said, oh, no, everything is fine. I
would never I would never change anything. Man. I hope
he looks himself in the mirror and tries to kick
himself in the ass.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
That's Bill Cassidy, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Jim Justin Timberlake waited months to get line to get
his line disease diagnosis, and the more we talk over
the years, line disease, which didn't seem to be that
big a deal, is really serious stuff. And waiting months
to get the diagnosis.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Explain that line disease is caused by a tick. In California,
where it is present, it's caused by a slightly different
tick than the East Coast, and it's in areas where
there's grassy tall grassy areas you might be hiking through,
or wooded areas that you might be hiking through.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
They especially love dead wood or dead.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Grassy areas to just kind of hang out on until
an animal or a human walks by and they jump
on and suck a little blood. So, and it's the
stage of the tick that usually carries the disease is
the tiny stage. So it does look very small, like
just slightly bigger than a poppy seed. Sometimes very hard
to see. So after you're hiking in these areas, you
(05:16):
need to check yourself. You got to do a tick
check and check yourself for those things.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And in terms of the symptoms and long range, it's
it almost seems like syphless, And I know that's kind
of a joke, but it's not. Early stage is fairly
easy to treat. And by the time it is hit
in the case of syphless, the tertiary stage, man, it
is just too late period and you have bought you've
(05:43):
bought the store on that one.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I mean, actually that's a great comparison. Sometimes your
medical knowledge kind of blows me away, you know. So
it's a very good comparison because it has those stages.
And yeah, the first stage, you get what it's called,
like we call it a target lesion or a rash
that looks like it's red and it's originally a red
rash around the where the tick bite was, and then
it spreads a little bit more open and the center
(06:07):
will become like more normal skin, so it looks like
a bull's eye and that will spread out. That's the
classic rash, but it's only seen in about eighty percent
of people. And if it's on your back or somewhere
where you're not looking you want, you may not even
notice it. So at that stage, easy you treat what
docty cycling, the patient gets better and you move on
with your life. If it goes on from there, then
(06:28):
it can progress to kind of a secondary stage disease
where you get problems with your joints, you know, arthritis,
severe fatigue. That's when people get really exhausted and tired,
body aches, and then it can affect nerves and that's
when you start getting those serious long term problems where
you get nerve damage. You can even get some effects
(06:48):
on the brain. So you know, you want to try
and discover this early. It's hard because if you miss
the tick bite stage, it's very vague and you may.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Not figure this out.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
So once people start getting like multiple joints that are
hurting and things like that. Your doctor will often just
do align to these tests to see if it's there.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Can that still at that stage? Can it be treated successfully?
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah, all three stages can be treated, it's just harder
as you go along to get rid of it. So yes,
that second stage definitely can be treated successfully as well
as the third stage. But there may be at that
point some irreversible issues.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
And so based on what you said justin Timberlake quote
waiting months, it's not a question of waiting months. It
just took months for these symptoms to come up where
the doctors could see what's going on.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
How often do you see this in the er room?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know, I wouldn't know because it's not a test
that we can really do in the eer. It's not
an emergency test. But I'll see people with chronic fatigue
that's really severe or severe joint pains or nerve pain,
and I'll let them know that, you know, you should
really go see a doctor and get all this test.
I we try not to do tests in the emergency
room that aren't emergencies because obviously it's a long wait already,
(08:06):
and if we start ordering things that are could be
done outpatient, we could really back the system up.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
As the system is not backed up like crazy anyway,
what I like, and I asked him all the time
about advice, medical advice and the best advice you've ever given, Jim,
as an er doctor, stay out of the er.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That will help you the most. It's true. By the way,
I'm not joking.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I mean, there's reasons to go, but that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
But if you can avoid it, but you should probably
try and avoid it and look for.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
The shaman, go to a witch doctor. You'll do much better. Jim,
we'll talk again next Wednesday. As always, have a good day,
take care,
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