All Star Panelist Roger Simon on the Ever Changing Mask Mandates and Vaccination Information
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist and senior editor-at-large at The Epoch Times, Roger Simon, in-studio to discuss the moving goalposts of mask mandates and vaccination requirements as subscribed and supported by local and national medical advisors.
Leahy: Good friend, the newest all-star panelist on The Tennessee Star Report, Roger Simon. Roger, you’re telling us your Larry Elder story. You’re friends with Larry?
Simon: Yeah. And he’s a hard worker. He’s leading in the polls of the challengers to Gavin Newsom. It’s possible on September 16th, 2021, he could be inaugurated as the next governor of California. I’m hoping.
Leahy: So am I.
Simon: But, boy, would that be a flipperoo?
Leahy: Would that be something? I love it!
Simon: Anything’s possible in this crazy world.
Leahy: Just so you know, we have a lot of readers of The Tennessee Star in California, listeners of this program on the iHeart App, because if you’re a conservative in California, you got no other place to go.
Simon: Oh, well, you got The Epoch Times and Breitbart. Not too much. And I’m sure that you have people reading in California. Anyways, I got to know Larry because I was a guest on his talk show quite a few times. It started a long time ago.
We knew him well enough and so we said let’s invite Larry and his girlfriend over for dinner. So we did. And Larry said, fine. And he shows up at the door and said, where are the cars? I said, we invited you guys over for dinner. He said, but isn’t this a book party for your book? (Leahy laughs)
Leahy: He couldn’t imagine just a social engagement.
Simon: There is just no time for it in Elderland. Because he couldn’t imagine. I mean, there’s no room for it. So that shows you what kind of governor he’d be. On the case all the time.
Leahy: If he’s elected governor, we will open a California Star. No question about it.
Simon: He’ll be the California Star.
Leahy: He will be. That’s a good – another good line from Roger Simon, the wordsmith.
Simon: I’m thinking about going out there for a few days.
Leahy: We’d like you to do that and give us a report.
Simon: I’ll give you a report. I’ll be doing it for The Epoch Times and call in.
Leahy: Call in.
Simon: But, you know, wait a minute. I won’t be able to wake up that early.
Leahy: We can record it.
Simon: It’ll be late news, though.
Leahy: Some kind of local news here. A little segue here. Scott Rasmussen is a great pollster. He does polling for a good friend of ours at Ballotpedia. Ballotpedia.org. Our friend Leslie Graves. I had dinner with her and her husband in Madison, Wisconsin, two weeks ago.
Simon: Really?
Leahy: Because we’re opening up The Wisconsin Daily Star there in about a month or so, and she put together this Ballotpedia. It’s a great source. It’s sort of like the Almanac of American Politics on the web. But with more detail.
Simon: And more truth in it. If you’re looking for truth, stay away from Wikipedia.
Leahy: There you go. So here we have the number of the day from Scott Rasmussen, July 29th, 2021. Here’s what he writes – Looking back over the past year or so, 55 percent of voters agree that, ‘despite good intentions, shutting down businesses and locking down society did more harm than good.’
A Scott Rasmussen National Survey found that only 38 percent disagree and seven percent – These totals represent that 34 percent strongly agree. And so that’s a very significant number as we look at more draconian, authoritarian lockdowns.
Simon: Yes. In plain English: Here we go again. This is a scary time we’re living in, and I think everybody knows it. People have to look at all the facts because they’re very confusing. I’m one of the people who become increasingly agnostic about everything that we’re being told. And one thing to remember is that when the government is telling you something obsessively…
Leahy: Why are they obsessive about it?
Simon: Why, exactly?
Leahy: It sounds like it’s the old saying. If you repeat something often enough, even if it’s factually untrue, people will start to believe it. Now I want to get your reaction to one of our – we got a couple of stories – I’d like to get your reaction to the lead story at The Tennessee Star. Tennesseestar.com by Chris Butler.
Vanderbilt Medical Professor Supports Wearing Masks, Even for Those Vaccinated Against COVID-19. The CDC came out with these weird recommendations about wearing masks. But first, on masks. I’ve not seen the evidence that wearing a mask actually stops the physical transmission of Covid.
Simon: I haven’t either. And just by wearing the kind of masks that most of us wear, you can tell that. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist as they say.
Leahy: Or a Professor at Vanderbilt School of Medicine.
Simon: The interesting thing about Vanderbilt. I’m a Vanderbilt patient. I have a very fine doctor who’s part of the whole network. I’m sure a lot of people listening to this right now are too.
Leahy: Yes it’s the largest employer in Middle Tennessee.
Simon: And also a nationally recognized hospital. All the rest of that.
Leahy: It’s like a top 20 medical school.
Simon: All good. But is it all good? Is there a medical-industrial complex that Vanderbilt, just like my father’s Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and all the rest of these things, are part of?
I think it’s very interesting. And very few of these places will give you hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin, which are now – have been acknowledged to be able to ameliorate the situation very quickly for a lot of people.
Leahy: Here’s the story and I’ll get your reaction to it. A professor at Vanderbilt’s School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases reportedly said this week that new government guidelines (confusing as all get out, by the way), saying that even vaccinated people should wear masks in some areas of the country is an idea of which he agrees.
William Schaffner, who serves as a professor of medicine, reportedly told The Epoch Times – They’re everywhere! – that he believes the new guidance makes sense. I’m trying to sort this out, and I’m as confused as you.
Simon: Nobody can. Because it changes 20 minutes later.
Leahy: Here’s what he said. I’m going to read what he said, and we tried to follow up. He wouldn’t talk to us. He talks to The Epoch Times, but not to The Tennessee Star. Go figure.
Simon: Don’t be offended. (Laughter)
Leahy: That’s a funny point. All right, Here’s what he said. ‘The vaccines are excellent at keeping us out of hospital but not quite as good as preventing infection. And if you’re going to get an infection, even though you’re vaccinated, you could also transmit it to others.
You’re less likely to do that, but nonetheless, you could do it. And so I think this new guidance helps protect the people who are vaccinated and also contributes to our reduction in transmission to others.’ (Sighs and Laughter)
Simon: You no see kemosabe. (Chuckles) I hate to bring up crazy stuff, but I was watching the War Room last night on video.
Leahy: You saw Bannon’s War Room.
Simon: There was a guy on there. There are so many of these doctors now.
Leahy: Now there you go. And you never know which doctor is a little bit the expert in vaccines and pro-vaccine but had a lot of evidence that the Pfizer vaccine runs out in six months.
Leahy: Okay, so now I had not heard that before. By the way, I took the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Simon: What he’s saying effectively is by taking the Pfizer vaccine, we are setting ourselves up for continued renewal of vaccines.
Leahy: Well, that’s what this guy says. But again, it’s one report. But what it illustrates to me, Roger, is there’s no real consensus that I can determine. Let’s go back to the CDC guidelines. This new CDC director, Rochelle Walinsky, she sounds like she’s right out of George Orwell.
Simon: The whole thing is.
Leahy: Unbelievable. And the standard is: okay, the guidance, it’s a recommendation, right? It’s not a rule. It’s a recommendation.
Simon: This week.
Leahy: This week, wait for the wind to change. What they’re saying is if you live in a county where the transmission, not the death rate, the transmission rate is more than – in the past seven days has been more than 100, per 100, then they recommend you wear a mask.
Side note, nobody’s ever proved it stopped transmission, from what I can tell, indoors. I looked at the numbers for Williamson County, Rutherford County, Murray County, and Davidson County. Of those four, Davidson County is not in the high-risk category. They’re not.
Simon: Really? I didn’t know that.
Leahy: No, well, for the transmission, they’re at 92 per 100,000. The guidance doesn’t apply to Davidson County.
Simon: It applies to Williamson.
Leahy: But Williamson, Rutherford, and Murray. They’re like, at 105 or 100,000.
Simon: This is the difference when I drive between the two.
Leahy: So when you’re in the car and when you cross the line, put on that mask, Roger! (Laughter)
Simon: I keep it right there in my glovebox.
Leahy: That’s funny.
Simon: It’s funny in a way, but it’s like crazy now. The other thing is that these recommendations are getting to be irrelevant because in every workplace – I’m surprised that we’re not next right here – every workplace, everything you do they are making these requirements so that whether the government does or says anything or not, you’re already wrapped up in it.
Leahy: And a private employer has the right to set their own standards. Asterisk, at what point do those standards violate your individual rights? Question mark.
Simon: Big question mark. But every job virtually now is requiring a vaccination.
Leahy: You got all these different things you want to go back and forth on.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.