Another candid covid conversation with Josephine County city council member and business owners

hey everybody welcome back to another off the  beaten path off our normal lane episode of dad   cast it's a kind of a rebuttal to uh the episode  we did with our josephine county commissioner a   few days ago i am your host jp joined as always as  your co-host mr nick martin nick how are you today   i'm good how are you man good man i'm doing great  uh i actually i got my negative covet test back so   there you go vaccinated messed up still negative  we're doing good joining us today uh for uh what   we're looking to be a rebuttal episode to what  you may or may not have seen earlier is a business   owner mr bradley a converse how are you sir been  great thanks for having me on guys absolutely   and city council member on the illinois valley  here in southern oregon part of josephine county   mr jesse dugas how are you sir doing well thanks  for having me absolutely all right well and but   and so i don't make the same mistake as well you  guys are dads i heard three and three and four   yeah i got four uh ranging from 20 to a year and  a half wow so you're in the same boat as nick nope   that's good congrats man we'd i'd love to have you  guys back when it's a little more light-hearted   to discuss that whole journey anything but  here we go nick i leave it up to you good   sir the conscious yours i will uh obviously  interject where i see fit i'm sure i will   and uh let's do it cool okay so the point of these  episodes are to basically just spread awareness of   we need as a community to do something um we did  interview hermann bearcheiger a couple days ago   and it was good you know he we agreed that yeah  stay home if you if you can limit your trips   mask up if you can um and get get the vaccine  but you know seek medical attention seek   medical advice so um anyway basically i want  to get the take of somebody that works in the   schools somebody that works in town as a business  owner how big of a crisis is this in your opinion i'll take it um i mean it's it's bad i early on  like back in you know march of 2020 i was kind of   banging the drum like this is really really bad  potentially um and i mean a lot of people back   then didn't see it and couldn't see it some people  still don't see it um but my wife she was a nurse   in the hospital and she didn't have a mask during  the pandemic because they didn't have supplies so   yeah um early on it was a big deal we kind of  got out of it for the past couple months just   with vaccines and with um just kind of we kind of  had the bug figured out and then delta hits and   things got bad really fast so again with banging  the drum early on you know late july early august   like we're we're in dire straits and with our low  vaccination rates um we just had our daughter two   and a half weeks ago at the hospital and we had  all sorts of random people coming in taking care   of us which worked great for us because it  was actually like more qualified people but   the whole staffing there is just a mess the  the hospital ice views are just chock full um   we're trying to be as careful as possible so  we don't trip and fall and have to go to the   er because it's it's packed so it's a  it's a big problem locally right now   all right jesse yeah i would uh i would agree with  brad we're dealing with the same thing out here i   we've lost a couple people as recently within the  last couple weeks that passed away due to covet   um out here in the valley and and it's it's a much  tighter group out here you know cave junction has   a popular somewhere around that 2200 mark but  when you uh when you load the valley as a whole   there's there's much more than that and it's  it's scary you know i'm i'm finding families   on a daily basis that are quarantined and a habit  my entire family was quarantined just last week i   got off on tuesday uh from an exposure that we  had at preschool and so it's it's a situation   where uh where it is definitely hitting home um  it's bad i mean it's real i agree there's still   people out here that don't think it's real and  have turned that page to trying to make it more   political i don't think it's a political thing  i think it is uh it's something that everybody   needs to hunker down and and figure out how  to navigate through together because right   now there's there's way too much of a division  for anything to be successful right and speaking   on that division i'd just like to jump in here  now now this question may be next to impossible   to answer but i'm going to ask it anyway i don't  have an answer i have ideas but you always going   to have the other side so the people who are going  to oppose any possibility of a shutdown it's you   know it's our freedoms are being taken away you're  you're hurting business owners it's just not right   the mental capacity of people it's affecting them  but what's the answer in your guys's opinion to   if we were to shut down if we had the power to  shut down josephine county jackson county just   two three weeks to uh slow that curve uh what is  your statement to those who would object to that i   i kind of go first there's a lot of restaurants  and businesses that had to shut down due to covid   um you know so many that you know a local  rafting company had to shut down i heard   they had 40 some people or they had several dozen  people sick and they lost one of their employees   to covet so they shut down walmart had to get  shut down for a while because they were completely   covered all these shutdowns that they're going  to happen one way or the other so either the   government's going to implement it before it's  necessary which feels like it wasn't necessary   or the business is going to have to do it to  themselves after the fact and we kind of blew our   shot early on you know keeping things  shut down for so long when it just   wasn't that prevalent here shutdowns  are very necessary uh at a certain time   but when you do it when it's not necessary it  just burns people out so a lot of businesses   couldn't easily withstand one but you've  also got restaurants that can't get supplies   because the cisco is shut down and it's it's a  complicated mess where we have shutdowns happening   not artificially anymore like they're they're  people getting very sick and dying that   i had one of the local business owners he's a very  well-known guy around here uh he's in a coma right   now and we we really hope he makes it but that's  gonna affect a lot of women his restaurant's been   shut down for what i think the last two weeks  now which is a bummer it's hard i mean and it's   not like i mean these are just fantastic people  in the community that um no one wishes ill upon   them at all like our town is a better place having  these people in it and we are going to feel the   repercussions of this for years from yeah yeah and  it's it's a bummer because his wife's a teacher   like she's my kid's teacher and it's and  they're like super bummed out about it so it's   sucks yeah for me it's uh you know if  it's a couple week thing then you can   you can try to pull the positives out of it  you know number one safety that comes out   right out the gate but number two there is such  a staffing shortage right now people workers and   this uh you know a two-week break could give small  businesses an opportunity to revamp come up with a   new game plan of what they're going to do um come  up with a recruiting campaign to grab employees   but ultimately those those employees will return  if we can get coveted out of the picture and so it   uh it may take at some point a uh a revamp or  a reboot and i would i would try to spin that   and you know call it much more of a reboot  get everything up where it needs to be get   your security protocols in place understand what  you're going to require as far as coveted ghosts   separate from what the county and the state are  going to require and in trying to come up with   a new game plan but you know there's i i do agree  that's probably an impossible question uh we were   supposed to be through this by now right so they  told us hey we get through this last wave and   and it's in the rearview mirror we're good to go  and now our numbers are are worse than they've   ever been and we don't have the mandates or the  shutdowns that we did when it wasn't as bad as it   is right now and so it's it's a tricky situation  but i know speaking for myself i want to be here   in six months i want to be here in a year i want  to be here in five years i definitely don't want   covid and i don't want to take the chance to  get in covet and dying from covet and you know i   i definitely don't want any of my family or close  friends or any community can any more community   members to uh to be affected by it so i would as a  small business owner if i had to shut down i was i   was shut down i was shut down the last you know 10  days while i was on quarantine luckily because i'm   vaccinated i was able to uh to get tested and get  released off the quarantine early um but it's you   know it's it's just one of those things where you  gotta instead of fighting the system so damn much   do what's right yep i agree you needed to be tied  to the hospital like i posted on facebook back in   april 2020 saying we need to open everything  back up because we didn't have a whole lot of   covid in josephine county at that point and then  just tie things to the hospital if the hospital   raises the alarm that we're going to be running  out of bed soon that's when you shut things down   we've run out of beds we're maxed out and then  some now would be the time to shut things down and   tell our hospital to get to a level that they feel  comfortable with not just an arbitrary date like   you know if we shut things down really hard  and it's better in a week great open back up   but if we shut things down really hard  and it takes a little while we don't just   go off arbitrating arbitrary dates we go once  we have this many people in the hospital with   kovid and our icu has capacity again let's get  right back to it and not not dilly dally but   the whole arbitrary dates thing i think is what  um set a lot of people off of you know not wanting   to do really anything a lot of the government  restrictions were just arbitrary in people's   minds and that is hurting us now now is the time  we need these things and people just don't want   to do it yeah i agree i think they we stepped in  or the government stepped in too hard too fast   and over over-promised and under-delivered and  now we have a real crisis that is so much worse   than it was originally and we need a game plan and  from talking to herman i i don't feel that there's   a solid game plan like i suggested possibly  opening up the pavilion at the fairgrounds as an   offside hospital hospital to put in the patients  from the hospital that can't leave yet and i   was told that the hospital refused to do that  well so i talked to wynn about that and they're   thinking i don't think too much for him but rough  idea is there's beds that are in the nursing homes   right now that could take a lot of these people  there's just not staff for it so if we create a   new area that needs to be staffed additionally  with the food requirements and all that other   stuff you're you still need that staff from  somewhere so you're not necessarily solving the   problem isn't one of space it's one of um staff  and what about the medical staff that was sent in   the the emerging are the extra people here we've  got well there was a national guard and there was   healthcare there's 500 some healthcare people sent  around the state which is going to help for sure   i don't know the specifics so i know asante  has received some of those and you know that's   definitely going to help um there's only so  much we can do and talk about within regards to   specific hospital policy that you know it's  just kind of beyond our purview but there's   a lot we can do from just the community  standpoint of raising the right awareness   uh stopping the misinformation and countering  it so that when people say things that are just   factually inaccurate you get on that pretty  quick um and then yeah the schools is the one i   mean i was i called up my school um the principal  today i'm let the boys know waiting here back but   i'm with the mandate coming that's just gonna be  you know i've heard a lot of the teachers at my   school in the grade that my daughter's going into  are unvaccinated anti-backs and so come october   18th is it that those teachers are gonna go to a  distance learning is it that they're just gonna be   laid off for a year and we're gonna bring  in random substitutes like that's what   i'm trying to figure out right now  there's a big unknown there that um   i asked the same questions uh regarding my  school or my children's school i actually this   is week two in medford school district they  have not gone to school yet i'm planning on   sending them back on tuesday because apparently if  they go 10 days without being they get unenrolled   and even if i call and say hey look this is what  we're doing we're not leaving we're still here   they have to come back so we'll put them back  for a day maybe a week see how things go and   but that that's that's scary you know and being  unvaccinated in the same room with if it's one   of those teachers and again your choice but it's  also my choice to not have my children exposed to   possible you know infection and just it's a pickle  man it's a pickle and there's no right answer yeah   um yeah like we're still talking about not letting  my my 16 year old go back to high school yet like   kind of waiting it out for two weeks to see what  happens as far as if there's gonna be outbreaks of   that kind of stuff so it's just because she's not  vaccinated she is against the vaccine so which i   it's in we're having that conversation of hey why  you know she's a lot of influence from her church   is going into her choice on the on the vaccine  thing which is just it's that's a whole nother   topic we get into a lot of facebook memes yeah  i am dealing with the same thing with my 14   year old son who's a freshman he's uh he's not  vaccinated and it's he's extremely intelligent   but he uh he's uneducated on the matter so we've  spent the last week trying to educate him with uh   with legit sources as we feel at 14 with him being  as independent as smart as he is that he should be   part of that conversation yeah but it's uh it's  it has been ongoing it's what i'm finding to be   rough is just all the stuff that the kids have  gone through the last year and a half and all the   in your face covid and we're shutting you down  we're taking you out of school we can't do this   my daughter's at the point where she just doesn't  want to hear it anymore so she doesn't want to   have that conversation so that's that's kind of  what we're dealing with and it's and i'm like   hey you know look at all the positives of  you know what happened with me personally i   was in a car with jp when i had my first cove at  something and he he was backstage and he was fine   your grandma and grandpa totally fine because  they're vaccinated and they were around me   before i knew i tested positive so there's a lot  there's a lot of good things that come from it   it may not be a cure-all who knows it but  it lessens the symptoms and it increases   your chance of not catching it you know  what and it it may not have worked at all   right but maybe i'm immune to the thing i don't  know but all i know is i was trapped in a car   for eight hours with the guy who had coveted and  i had the vaccine we're i mean we're sitting this   close to each other yeah talking to each other  breathing in each other's faces making videos   a little disclaimer i had no idea that i had  cobit i had it already that was it so had i   known i would not have gotten in the car with jp  i would have stayed home and been responsible and   you hear the stories and this one was confirmed  i think it was the new york times but there was a   right after covet had hit here in the states there  were a group of i think it was 15 people that were   all staying in a ski lodge together one person  went infected and within four days 11 of those   15 were infected and that was uh that was the  original variant and that was pre-vaccination   so it's i mean the contagious level of it and from  what i was told this version you know like before   with the pre i think they said it was like an r1  not a medical guy but one-to-one transmission rate   and now it's like one to seven so every  for every one person is infected they could   possibly infect the seven people so it's uh on  average that's that's those are scary numbers   right yep okay sorry guys i'm going  through the the questions over here um   so kind of going back to the the  previous interview we did with with   herman do you think we should issue a state  of emergency on the county level because uh   according to to the county commissioners they  are not going to issue the state of emergency   i don't know i don't understand enough to  know that it does any if it's going to do   any good if it's going to help if it's just a  just a label you know i don't know well that's   that's the question i would have is what would  the uh what's the end game there so if we were   or the county commissioners were to grant  you know a state of emergency for our county   what's the goal of that what are you trying to do  are you trying to do that to impose a shutdown at   the county level versus at the state level is that  why you know is that why that's in the discussion   or is it a or is it just a label i think that's  that requires a more in-depth conversation mm-hmm   yeah it could be just you know an optics thing um  herman's response was that you know the state's   already got that so they don't need to do anything  else um a lot of that's just the politics game   herman's in a tough spot there's so many people in  this county that are not just ambivalent they are   very strongly anti-max anti-vax they're opposed to  any government measures at all and those are the   ones who are showing up to the meeting people that  are trying to be responsible wear masks stay home   they're not going to the wednesday commissioner  meetings it's 99 people that are yelling at   these guys telling them do not do these things  that's what they have to go up against so when   and then you've got a lot of people who are  opposed to or you know our pro vaccine pro   um you know stay at home pro taking majors  they're you know doing a little bit of talking   to these guys but a lot of them are just you  know blasting on facebook saying these guys   are terrible you know or writing letters to the  commission or the letters to the paper saying   how terrible they are but they're not getting the  point across um i've spent hours with herman and   uh and dan on the phone talking about this now  trying to come up with um you know solutions   that they could actually do that would uh move the  the needle even a little bit but they're they're   in a tough spot i'm going to throw a disclaimer  out though you know anything that we're saying   regarding herman i totally appreciate him for  jumping on and having the conversation with us   i every i don't have anything negative against him  you know the going back and forth on facebook is   stupid if if you have a question reach out  have a conversation the conversation went   completely different than the perception of  back and forth on facebook so going forward   i i have nothing against herman or any of our  county commissioners i'm just trying to get   answers and educate people a little bit more so i  don't want anyone to take any of this conversation   the wrong way thinking that we're dogging on  our county commissioners or we're dogging on   whatever that's that's i'm still dog on them a  little bit they i was also on the phone with dan   early on and like you know last year and he just  there was one point i told him like damn just look   these things up he's like i don't use the internet  so they're not all like completely innocent they   um and you know i went through and looked at all  the videos of what they were you know you can just   look at the recorded meetings and for the past  six months prior to um you know then taking it   even a little bit seriously they were making jokes  about it they were comparing the sterilization   equipment at the jail to stuff that the nazis  used against jews uh they were they were not   taking it seriously at all so yeah i'm glad  that they're doing a little bit better but   i'm not gonna sit here and say they've done a  great job either that that would be uh false on that note i mean like yeah we can we i mean  leaders are going to get more criticism than   others they have a lot more power than  anybody else so if we are not going to   hold our commissioner's feet to the fire then  i mean like i'm still hopeful that they do some   good things with this and but you know back in  the first part of august is when things really   needed to shut down when things needed to happen  when i was saying guys the dive is cast like it's   like i was doing facebook posts back then saying  we're cooked and it it didn't even look that bad   yet but i was like just looking at the numbers and  the growth we're cooked and right now we're good   um and what i'm seeing too is it's it we're  going to get worse in the next few weeks   and then it'll it'll hit a little bit of a low and  what's going to be what's frustrating is you've   got that vaccine mandate that kate's putting  out that is going to hit you know mid-october   by then josephine county is going to probably  have reached herd immunity um you know herd   immunity is the goal for everything you ideally  want to reach that through vaccination because   of the very low risks associated with  vaccination if you reach that through   everybody getting covered uh covets very dangerous  as you know a lot of us we've all had friends and   you know people either get it and become seriously  sick or i've been into a coded funeral like it's   it's a a really rough way of getting to hurt  immunity but we're not going to there's no   possible way we're going to be revving this high  for months and months there's just there's no   history of that you look to india you look at all  these different places that uh saw large spikes   in the spike it goes up and it comes back down  and then depending on how you stopped that uh   spike is going to determine what happens moving  forward so did you stop with vaccination did you   stop it oh if you stopped with vaccination  then you're just going to see a really low   um tail if you stop if you didn't stop it at all  then it's just going to spike and go back down   it's going to stay down pretty well if you stopped  it with a shutdown then that's an artificial stop   and you haven't reached her immunity yet so you're  going to spike you're going to come down and then   at some point it's going to go back up again  because you still haven't reached her immunity   so it again it's a very complex complicated  issue that um you know in georgetown county   we're not going to get her hurt immunity  with vaccines it's just not going to happen   the blowback that i continue to get on a daily  basis here uh seems to be that well no one saw   this variant come in so if we do everything  we need to now to get the numbers lower what happens to the when the next variant comes  out of the variant after that and it continues   to to alter its internal dna or whatever it's  doing for the virus and it's i i think that's   feeding a lot of the people that aren't willing  to get vaccinated aren't willing to wear a mask   they uh they're at that point where you know the  term that i keep hearing is quality over quantity   i would rather live my life the way that i want  to live it and then if i die at 45 from covet or   if i die at 50 from covet at least i didn't sit  in my house for five years before that happened   and i just i don't understand that way of  thinking and maybe that's the dad in me   i don't know i mean i i want to walk my daughter  down the aisle and that's exactly what i was   going to say you know so it's uh so i i don't  understand that part of it but this is this is   a grueling thing i mean our council out here we  had a council an emergency session on friday we   uh this coming weekend is the annual labor day  festival out here in illinois valley it's our   once a year thing that's put on by the lions club  and there's vendors and there's tough trucks and   there's a softball tournament there's a cornhole  tournament and there's greasepoll and there's   there's all these other small businesses  that are scheduled to come in uh the money   is already put out for it and so we had to have  an emergency meeting as a council on friday   to decide after this mandate came in place by  kate whether or not we were going to allow this   to happen whether we were going to alter its its  course or whether we were going to just cancel   it and then say sorry to those that are already  invested in money so we uh after two plus hours   worth of debating as a council and listening and  opening up the microphone for people the community   we decided to allow it but not like it's ever  been done before uh there's a uh there's a   shop booth where you can get vaccinated at the  clinic or at the uh festival which is great   um there's signings they're not selling tickets  to the tough trucks to anybody that's not wearing   a mask and so if you uh if you want to go sit  down with leeches and watch tough trucks there'll   be social distancing and mask requirement you're  not getting a ticket if you're not wearing a mask   and they uh they purchased i think they said  2000 mask and they have dedicated mask people   that would be walking around escorting people  out that aren't wearing masks and so it's uh   there were a number of protocols that were put  in place to hopefully make it as safe as possible   but it's again it's a it was a split vote i mean  it was 3-2 to uh to allow it to happen so it's   it's weighing on everybody it's a tough  one man like just even for like brit   and concert and concerts in general i mean  any gathering in general we don't know   the effect of how much this is going to spread  outdoors you know there's differencing difference   of opinions of it spreads more so indoors than  it does outdoors i've seen a lot of reports where   huge outdoor concerts are having just  massive super spreaders so who knows   that's that's i think in part if not the  biggest part is the information we do   have helps but there's so much information that is  still not there like factual factual information   on this whole pandemic and this epidemic and  and this virus there's still so many questions   regarding it because we don't have solid answers  um people they don't know what to think you got   one side and you got the other and they're not  respecting each other yeah somehow we gotta   get down the middle and just you know we can still  agree to disagree but we've got to work together   and that's that's kind of what i wanna i'm  trying to push is have a little understanding   you know if if you're gonna go out wear a  mask be respectful to people wearing a mask i uh i made a post before this bearing  had hit i made a post because i was still   you know going around the community grants pass  you know medford here in cave junction and i uh   you know even when there was no longer a mask  mandate i always had one in my pocket and if i   ever came even remotely close to somebody that was  wearing a mask i put it on as respect to them and   so it's uh i think it's it's one of those things  where people have forgotten how to be friendly to   other people and if you disagree then they're  ultimately looked on as if they're uh they're   lower than you or they're they're your enemy in  some way it's just that division it's our entire   country and it's i mean it's it's code related  related it's political there's uh there is no   unity here right now it's the culture i mean  you look at look at japan they they've been   wearing masks for years and years and years  and years and years periods part of their   culture no one looks up down on them they don't  fight about it that's just a normal way of life   and uh i've said it before i've said it so  many times yes we are the land of the free we   have our freedom but with that freedom comes great  responsibility i hate to sound like spider-man and   peter parker and his uncle and everything right  here but you know what i mean you know we have the   freedom it's our responsibility to protect each  other in these times it's not the first time this   happened but it's the first time where the world  is such a smaller place because of the internet   right i think conversations need to be understood  a little bit better by people a lot of times   you know someone says get the vaccine or get  to or you know wear a mask but there's kind of   three steps to a conversation first you've got  to determine what are the facts like what's your   foundation for understanding do you guys agree  on like when i was talking to herman or dan it's   like first question is what's the situation do you  agree that do we agree that the hospital's full do   we agree that covets causing it like do we even  have a foundation to work from and then what are   your goals are your goals to keep businesses open  are your goals to keep the hospital completely   empty you know what are you actually trying to do  and then once you've got that figured out and you   can both agree on that then you can talk about  things that you could do to reach those goals   but if you if you're talking to someone about  we need to shut things down and their goal is   to keep business open you're just going to  be ships in the night it's not going to work   right yeah i suggested too um let's set up a  vaccine site wednesday or saturday sundays at the   fairgrounds kind of like what they do in medford  just to create more awareness and again was told   that well we only had 49 people get vaccinated at  the fair well of course you did you have a bunch   of people at the fair that are anti-massacres  anti-vaxxers that just don't care we're not i   i don't i don't think that josephine county is  doing enough awareness as far as advertising   social media posts we're relying on the state  stuff that's coming in not our own personal stuff   i know they turned down the half billion dollars  but they said they already had money because they   weren't spending it to help um but again uh  it's it's not like we're you know in vermont   where everybody would get a vaccine if they knew  about it we live in a place where it's just a very   strong medical freedom community people uh want  to make their own choices if you tell them to do   something that they may have done otherwise they  won't do it it's it is a unique area that we can't   just say well if they knew more about the vaccines  they'd take them that's uh not the vast majority   of people that haven't gotten one weren't just  waiting for fda approval necessarily like there's   people that are and i think we've seen like a 17  jump nationwide is the latest number i've seen but   locally so many people aren't going to get the  vaccine until someone they know gets really sick   and even then they may not it's just that strong  of a personal decision for so many people here   so in that case sorry when i was talking  to like herman and daniel saying throw the   vaccine out like yes keep advertising that but  when we're talking about potential solutions to   help out the current situation you can't just  say well people won't take the vaccine so we're   gonna do nothing there's there's other things we  could do with the messaging that yeah and then   herman said you know he posted that simple thing  saying go to the website to learn about the crisis   and he said he got roasted for that i didn't  see it on his facebook page but he gets emails   and calls from all sorts of people and people  thought that was too much so again it would just   it is a uh being a leader in josephine  county with all the different areas that are   so different um it's a very tough job well locally  and nationally i i just don't think people like   being told what to do you know it's our culture  i don't i hate it you know i hate when some but   i don't look at it i didn't look at the vaccine as  something because i got it before it was mandated   people hate being told what to do and it's you  know i i feel like there is a massive backlash   locally when it comes to the vaccine and the mask  wearing because it's coming down the ladder like   it's something that's that's being forced upon  you and it's uh they're no longer being given   that choice you know it's the state workers  healthcare teachers um you know those those   are the people that we are going to be relying  on the most going forward and now you're telling   them they don't have a say and though my personal  opinion may be that they need to get vaccinated   that is my personal opinion i'm vaccinated but  i'm not going to sit there and tell them they   have to get vaccinated that's not my job that's  uh that's not what any of us should be doing   and when you throw that mandate word around  we are mandating that max you know vaccines   are going to be mandatory and we're going  to mandate that mass are going to be worn   people like to uh like to buck the system  and that created an avenue for them to do so   yeah i think mandating it was probably the worst  thing the governor could have done i think that's   going to be more catastrophic than people not  getting the vaccine just because it's going to   hurt the health care system or the school system  yeah absolutely like bradley mentioned earlier if   you have if you hadn't didn't mandate it didn't  tell someone that they had to do it it may be   just strongly recommended through media and all  the outlets and tv and whatnot you know news   conferences and gave them the choice i bet you are  percentages of vaccinated people would have been   higher because again they weren't told what to do  and while that being made me childish and stubborn   uh and not necessarily smart yeah that's my stance  i i agree i'm vaccinated throwing it out there   i was one of those that i wouldn't say i was  anti-vaxxed by any means but i was very skeptical   and wanted to get you know i wanted to see how  time went et cetera et cetera but again i got kids   and i got a woman who is very immune compromised  and there was no question after that you know it   is my responsibility and my duty to do what i can  to protect those around me especially my family   and then after that it was no question whatsoever  and i just wish more people would think that way my wife being a nurse in the hospital um  she you know pregnant during the pandemic   and so we talked to our ob gyn and said should  she get this you know very early on you know   when the healthcare workers could get it  for no one else he's like yeah absolutely   the everything looks great we had our honestly the  least difficult baby ever like you know we're very   short labor left the next day uh compared to our  first daughter who we had to go to the nicu for   10 days uh it was a breeze and perfectly healthy  sleeps great healthy i mean just no problems again   totally anecdotal but there's a lot of people  that like you know being me i'm an engineer   i kind of hate all that anecdotal stuff because  it's so worthless honestly like in the science   grand scheme of things but stories are what a  lot of people who haven't gotten vaccinated yet   are going off like well i heard this i heard  that so the more stories we can tell of i got   vaccinated and i got a sore arm for a day and  i took a nap and i was fine i i'm uh what five   i got back in april and it was no problem um  i've been around people who had coveted and i   still don't have it doing great like those kind  of stories are so boring and mundane that you   don't hear them whereas like well i had a friend  who got vaccinated and died the next day the one   and a thousand the one and one thousand one in  uh yeah 100 well one for death like the confirmed   deaths from the kovic shots is like three from the  johnson and johnson and yeah bear says a lot but   when you vaccinate uh 200 plus million people  there's a lot of correlation and so those are   the stories that people are going to pick up on  and say well this was a correlation so it means   it was caused and they're going to get all up  in it but the more stories we can tell of just   the mundane yeah i got vaccinated i'm fine those  are i think valuable at this point in the game   we had our daughter in april of 2020 c-section  um no vaccine at the time it was it was different   our fourth and final kid and it was unlike any uh  any of the others um family couldn't be there it   was it was tough but it's uh i got vaccinated in  february my wife went with me she had qualified   to get it and uh our medical provider at the time  said i suggested jessie get it and i suggest that   she suggested my wife didn't my wife at the  time still is breastfeeding and in april that   there just wasn't enough information on you know  the two and we got a call three weeks ago from   the same medical provider saying hey research has  been done you're good to go and she got her first   shot two weeks ago so it's you know trusting  the right people asking the right questions   contacting health care professionals and  letting them guide you on a health decision   it's way better than you know pulling your facts  off of a meme right yeah i think that was probably   that it doesn't have the answers you said too was  check there is a reddit subreddit covet 19. uh if   you that's all medical papers i search that  all the time so that's the bread it's great   so yeah you know my my my  vaccine thing was just talking to   every guest that we've had on and getting you know  the ones that we're willing to talk about and get   their perspective on it just people of different  walks of life different parts of the country   different doctors i've talked to because  i i was totally against it i was you know   on the fence of is coveted real is this the  government thing is this you what what is this   wait are they trying to take control of us you  know what's going on all the conspiracy crap and   you know after tons of research and just thinking  about i got vaccinated i'm super happy i did um   and there's you know no issues i did the johnson  and johnson no issues at all i'm still alive i   haven't turned into a zombie so yeah there's that  yeah yeah yeah exactly so yeah i think a lot of   i think a lot of that stems from the panic that  happened early on you know what i'm talking about   the government local and nationally they panicked  oh yeah they you know they were just as clueless   as everyone else right and it's uh i think the  the rate that they panicked has been something   that has driven where we are now it's uh if  they wouldn't you know but i understand why   i understand why they shut down i understand  the limitations that were being put on but   like brad had said you know he they came out a  little hot and it's uh i i think that that that   as much as anything is why people are are going  against it currently well and just to clarify that   i honestly think like early on they needed to be  even hotter like i was i called up dandy young i'm   like dan everything's shut down anyways just put a  sheriff at the exit say get your gas and leave if   you don't live here we're all just gonna take it  really chill for a little bit but not indefinitely   you need to do that until you get testing and as  soon as you have testing that says look we don't   have covert here open everything up and just  run entirely normally you know mask and social   distance as you can run entirely normally um and  you know they've kind of pushed back like well you   know kate put shut us down for all these things  if we had taken it very seriously and when any   situation pops up that says you know the  kobe drives again we take that seriously   we don't have to abdicate power to the  state because the state can look at us and   say hey you're taking this seriously you do you  that's kind of what we needed to do then i mean   i was saying shut everything down in march  and by april i was saying open everything up   that's the quick turnaround we should not have  stayed shut down through the summer when there was   very little covet spreading it just makes no sense  it just turns people off well now that we have it   everywhere the time to shut down was august 1st  right well and that's that was my point is you   know going through the summer panicking going  heavy with no answers you know there was there   was nobody giving us any any information besides  the fact that we're in a state of emergency and   you're working from home collecting unemployment  and not going out to eat you know that's that's   what we were told there were there were no other  answers besides that yeah the other thing to look   at too is when the extra unemployment money runs  out next month or this month what happens when all   those people go back to work and they're working  through being six they've got a fight or flight   mentality now of oh my gosh i got to make this  money and you know now you've got where i don't   think we're going to have enough of a lull  or enough hurt immunity yet to over the next   two to three weeks to have all these people  that are going to get back in the workplace   going to work sick and then i i feel like we're  going to have another spike in like november you   know the the thing about the unemployment though  is you look at oregon's numbers we're like at   five some percent it's not that high like it's  not like we're having 10 percent and everyone's   just sitting on the government goal there's not  a ton of people on unemployment right now so my   question which i haven't gotten good numbers  on how many people are medically unable to   work right now due to covid or whatever how you  know we've got all the problems with we're not   able to put people into the um the long term  living you know the care facilities is that   is that because the census is high or is it  because the staffing is low or both um you   know we have a lot of people that got coveted  got long covered that you know struggled to walk   upstairs now i'm not saying that to everybody  that's coveted but it is a considerable number   i just i don't see the unemployment number alone  causing the insane shortage we have right now i   feel like there's increased demand um there's a  lot of complicated factors more than just people   are sitting at home on kate's dime paradigm yeah  it's it's a little strange i mean it's you know   every restaurant i i went to go pick up some food  last night at a restaurant in grants pass and   the only people working were the owners it was the  husband and wife and the people in there were like   extremely rude which was a video i posted earlier  today but it's it's just like man like i i don't   i just i don't get where is everybody it's like  you know that every restaurant is short staffed   it seems like every store walmart is extremely  short staffed of there's nobody to stock shelves   where is everybody right and where granted a  good portion of those were or are collecting   unemployment but why haven't they returned yet  yeah when there's more workers there's more   workers now in oregon than there were at the start  of the pandemic like there's more people working   where like you know i've seen a lot of people say  that they're at better jobs for themselves you   know there's a lot more jobs in the distribution  like the delivery networks um you know more people   doing working for amazon different things like  are they doing that or did them work from home   are there um i've seen a lot of people say that  they just re-evaluated what they want to do with   their lives and they don't want to work in fast  food because you get terrible paid terrible hours   and so they found jobs elsewhere that would be  a really interesting deep dive from a reporter   where they don't just take the easy answer of oh  everyone's on employment like no where actually   are people take a sample of you know 100 people  just randomly that they're able to call up and say   what's your current status why are you working are  you not working are you working the same job did   you go to a different job what's the story that's  such an unknown that i feel too many people just   take the easy answer of oh they're just sitting  on unemployment and i just don't think that's the   case interesting maybe and that and i mean it's a  good point i've only seen it really in uh retail   and food and not all retail you know the big  the big stores you know the walmarts um and and   anything fast food which by the way i'm not trying  to eat as much anymore but uh uh yeah it's that's   where i see where it's hit but anywhere else  i tend to go there's there's people working at   going to the doctor's office this morning they're  doing fine on the hospital they're struggling to   get nurses and doctors and you know a lot of  that's burnout a lot of that i mean people   haven't quit yet for the vaccine mandate so it's  not like that's caused yet um yeah that is that is   something that one of the the big media outlets  really needs to dive into where are the people   on the uh the state mandate that's coming down for  vaccines with nurses and state workers i mean you   know from dhs to nurses in the hospital it's going  to be interesting and scary to see what's going to   happen when that deadline hits i've got a very  close friend who uh who works for the state and   she was anti-vaccine she already had covert so  she got covered it didn't affect her greatly her   entire family did she uh she got through  relatively easily considering but she uh   she didn't want to get the vaccine even after  having coveted and she had she has decided to   get the vaccine because the alternative  is to not be able to support her family   um but it's you know they're that's not  going to be the case for everybody there's   there's going to be a drop-off in an  industry that's already short-handed   that's why i've said what kate could do should  do is the whole antibody testing which even that   isn't perfect because buyers can still get around  that but if she were to say to healthcare workers   you know anyone that is subject to the mandate  who hasn't been vaccinated but thinks that they   may have already had covid submit to antibody  testing within two weeks the the reason why she   hasn't done the antibody testing yet is because  it could lead to coped parties where people like   hey i'm just gonna get covered the natural way  and then one percent of those people die you   don't want to do that but um to get the people who  already have had kobit and don't necessarily need   the vaccine even though the vaccine would help  them additionally it may be sufficient to just   do that we could keep a lot of workers who cool  you've got the antibodies you get a free pass   we're just going to be in such a crisis  as scary as a situation as it might be to   where people do the covet party thing and  try to get the natural immunity from the   from the antibodies that that can't  be your reasoning to not do it   you know it's i i think the pros of allowing  antibody testing for those people if   if that's what's needed to keep nurses and doctors  in the hospital and not doctors nurses or nurses   doctors are vaccinated right so but it's uh nurses  other other providers to the state if that's   what it's going to take to keep those people in  that infrastructure that is desperately needed   why are we not already doing that you know that's  that's the question i would have mm-hmm good   question that's a really good question have you  even gotten through that list of questions man no   we're getting there though so i'm gonna ask  a tough one for you guys um what do you guys   think about the sheriff's dance that he issued on  the mask mandate and not enforcing pontificating   kate didn't ask him to do anything osha does  stuff he he hasn't been asked to do anything   so he has a lot of people saying you need to put  out a letter to say that you're going to do this   it was just posturing it means nothing there  was nothing he was asked to do and he lives in   a community that wanted him to say that so he  did that's my that's my take i agree completely   it's uh it's not something the way that the  mandate was set down it's not something that   falls under his jurisdiction to uh to enforce  and so he uh i feel like he did the letter to   slow the calls down because i know there were a  lot of calls and emails on what is the sheriff's   stance but i legally he doesn't have one there and  so it you know that one was an easy answer for me   all right so such a great word all right nick  next so yeah so to follow up with that one how   do you propose our local businesses work with the  mask mandate as osha will be finding them if they   were to go in and check which i personally have  seen for my previous job we did get fined because   a customer called and said one of the other  customers was not wearing a mask oh she showed   up a couple hours later and gave us a fine because  they actually found another customer not wearing a   mask and we weren't enforcing it because we were  afraid like it was seriously people were being   mean we've got threatened we were going to get  shot like there's how how do you enforce that how   how is that even so for me you know i'm a small  business owner i share a pretty large-sized office   with uh another gentleman that does a lot of the  same stuff that i do we uh we work well together   but we we decided early on that we were gonna  switch to an appointment only and mandate mass be   worn when they come in to uh to prevent that and  so our front door stays locked and they come in   we we don't offer a walk-in service currently and  so you can get a hold of us via phone via email to   the website to chat there there are enough ways in  today's day and age to communicate without walking   in and as sad as it is to say if we lose those two  or three customers that refuse to wear the mask   for my family i'm okay with that and so it's  uh that's that's how i handle it okay and   i'm 99 of my business is over the phone online  i i get maybe five people in my shop in a week   even though i'm right downtown um so i mean i'm in  a unique position where just i've got one employee   like it's not the same but there's a lot of other  businesses locally that it's it's frustrating when   the government wants something to happen and they  push the blame onto the business um where you   know like local businesses local dentist offices  they're going to have to let people go because   of the mandate even though it's the government  causing it they're going to be taking the blame   from the people who like why why are you firing  me you know they're passing the buck um i think   either you know mandated across the board and you  know fine individuals rather than businesses um   it's just a tough spot i mean you wish people  would take personal responsibility and just   do the right thing but for me they don't yeah i  don't agree with osha finding any establishment   for what a customer is doing i don't feel like  that's right if the employees are following the   mandate and they're masked up and they're social  distancing and they're sanitizing the way for osha   to levy a fine for an individual a patron that  chooses to come in that store or that business and   and operate i don't feel is right i mean there  are people that get tickets for jaywalking all the   time right and so it's uh i'm not saying ticket  the people that are not coming in but finding   the establishment when the employees are doing  what they're supposed to be doing is not right   i agree yeah like walmart's like the  hardest one i was i actually had to   go get milk for the baby the other night and  noticed a younger guy with a gun on his hip   arguing with the greeter at walmart about  the mask and she was just like in tears and   i'm like man this is ridiculous you know  you're being asked to do something that   it's it's impossible to enforce in this town right  and it's just it's heartbreaking just to see this   nice older lady just getting totally belittled  by some little punk with just thinks he knows   everything well i don't think it's our town  i think that this is a national problem i uh   i drove my son my oldest son's in the army and he  got stationed uh in maryland and his car was here   so we did a cross-country trip about a month  ago to get him moved there and so it's i got   to see a lot of the country that i've never seen  and it's it's a lot like it is here everywhere   and so you you have those believers you have those  non-believers and it's it's pretty obvious to tell   which side of the line that they're on  when you see and i know local business   uh owner out in ivy actually who just got his  booster shot because he is dealing with so many   people on a day-to-day basis he just wanted to  have every layer of protection he possibly could   yeah yeah sign me up when's my booster available  come on all right i called yesterday two months   anymore nick um no that's that's actually it  that's all the that's we we covered everything so   we could always do a fast five with these  guys real quick to mellow out the mood i   didn't come up with a fast five okay i'll do  it you guys are you guys ready for a little conversation yeah you're stuck on an island somehow and  there's all the food you can ever eat but   you can only take one dvd because somehow there's  electricity and a tv on this island what movie or   tv show are you bringing uh survivor man easy well  and maybe figure a way to get off that island too   yeah less drought lives locally all right what  about you jesse that one's easy friends yeah see   you my lady would get along just fine and normally  there's five of those questions but where i think   i want to save those for when you guys we have you  on dad cast and talk about being dads jesse brad   business owner councilman uh thank you so much  for uh taking time out of your day i guess now is   the time is there anything else you would like to  add before we uh we shut this one down for the day   actually i got one more just in closing brad jesse  what would you suggest our fellow citizens do to   stay safe get through this next few weeks that's  that's my last question i'd say hunker down just   visit with as few people as possible stay away  from crowds stay away from you know watch church   online um just sit tight for a little while  things don't do anything that's gonna break   your leg you know don't do some extreme sports  stuff right now um just try as seriously as you   ever took kovid if you ever took it seriously  take it that seriously right now if you live   in josephine county or jackson county it's it's  just it's really really bad out there right now mine would be to uh talk to your care providers  make educated decisions easy peasy and and and to   finish this my my thoughts i don't get why people  are so hesitant to hunker down to stay at home   man i got video games i've got a giant tv with  everything in the world i could possibly watch   i've got this amazing computer in front of me with  the world's information at my fingertips my kids   are home with me i can order food delivered  to me i don't need to go to the grocery store   it it ain't that bad you guys you want to  go outside fine step out your front lawn   do some jogging do some jumping jacks you can  go outside just two three weeks man that's all   we're asking it's not that bad it isn't that bad  we've done it before you can do it again right   exactly all right gentlemen you guys have been  amazing thank you so much for your time today   um who everyone watching this video thank you  of course for uh checking it out if you're uh   watching on the youtube platform please subscribe  like comment hit the bell all that good stuff   um and we will see you on another episode  a more lighthearted i know yes a more   lighthearted i messed that up last time a more  lighthearted episode of dad cast is coming   real soon gentlemen thank you have a kick ass rest  your day and thanks for coming on dad cast thanks you

2021-09-07 02:12

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