In this 153rd in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we discuss the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.

This week, we discuss the committee newly empaneled by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to explore Covid policy and treatment, in which Bret is a part. It has been roundly mocked in the media, who cite a truly remarkable piece of non-research that contains no new data, no references, and methods and results that cannot be assessed. We discuss Science magazine’s editorial that deifies Fauci, Nature magazine’s editorial claiming that science is hard and we’ll never know what happened during Covid, and the White House’s Summit on Equity and Excellence in STEMM, which threatens to create Harrison Bergeron University. Finally: do female snakes experience sexual pleasure? Tune in to find out all about hemiclitores.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds an accountability roundtable for mRNA shots: https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1602683363994705920

Fauci responds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuXUelJezeM&t=291s

Stephen Colbert responds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBzD14v1g8U&t=81s

Fitzpatrick et al 2022. Two years of U.S. Covid-19 Vaccines have Prevented Millions of Hospitalizations and Deaths. The Commonwealth Fund: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/two-years-covid-vaccines-prevented-millions-deaths-hospitalizations

Thank you, Tony! Editorial in Science, by the editor-in-chief of Science:

https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.org/sciencemagazine/library/item/09_december_2022/4063695/ 

Missing data mean we’ll probably never know how many people died of COVID. Nature editorial:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04422-9

Msemburi et al 2022. The WHO estimates of excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Nature (12-14-22): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05522-2

White House Summit on Equity and Excellence in STEMM, livestreamed 12-12-22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6l4ynrYnUTg

Folwell et al 2022. First Evidence of Hemiclitores in Snakes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1702