Highways, Health, and Hypocrisy (Hour 1)

Transcript

Highways, Health, and Hypocrisy (Hour 1)

John & Gordy · Tue Sep 9, 2025

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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In a world filled with chaos and confusion, in an echo chamber filled with lies and deceptions, comes a ray of light.

Live from Madison, Wisconsin, it's John and Gordy in the morning on 92.7

WMDX.

92.7, it's John and Gordy in the morning, Dom at the controls, and another day of watching the country just tear apart.

That's something I'm looking forward to.

Well, good morning.

Yeah.

Rise and shine, shake a leg, up and Adam, top of the morning to you.

Just one thing after the next.

Off to a good start.

I just, yeah.

Yeah, I just want to throw up my hands and just say, you know, that's it.

You know, it's all over.

Really?

It's all over, but for the fat lady singing, right?

Okay, that's what they say.

That's what they say.

Good morning, Dom, how are you?

Okay.

Oh, just okay.

There's a reason why I'm just okay.

As I said yesterday, or a couple days ago, I was a Bears fan, and they lost.

And yeah, that's right.

I had last night on Monday night football and had way too much pizza and this morning My stomach is killing.

What the hell did you have on the damn pizza pepperoni?

That's it.

That's it.

I had the whole Oh, yeah, oh, no, really.

Oh

my what kind of pizza like

a

frozen

frozen pizza from

Aldi, yep

And they have

a good pizza.

You know the here.

Here's the thing I have to say you guys you Gen Zers, you know

Like I told you earlier on another show, my son gets these boxes of instant pudding.

And it's four or five servings, you know.

It's the whole damn thing at once.

You

know, you really have to.

moderation you can't have leftovers it's too good it's too good

all right so the Vikings beat the bear I went to bed before halftime

it was very close score it was it was and we were doing good for the majority of the game then we just we just we lost it we lost it yeah it's too bad yeah it's too bad yeah it made me go in a pizza coma well

good

It's kind of cloudy out there this morning, but not as chilly as it was yesterday morning.

We're in the mid 50s, 54 degrees currently highs today in the mid 70s, low to mid 70s.

A little bit later on, we're going to talk to Jim Conway.

He's an expert in infectious diseases and vaccinations.

He's a professor of pediatrics and we'll talk to him later this hour.

And what else?

Oh, we have, I think Brittany Merleau will be returning.

Today, believe so.

Yeah, that's the plan, I think.

So we'll get the latest on what's happening weather-wise.

All right.

And yeah, today, I think, is the first day that Willy Street, the parking is back on, on Willy Street.

They've changed things over there.

You know, they wanted to get the traffic a little bit more situated so people didn't keep running into the buildings.

So, you know, put cars there instead, bring the cars back in.

And that'll keep people from weaving

off the road into the buildings.

I think it's a great idea.

I never understood taking the parking away.

Because there's always be a straggler.

There'll always be a car there in some way shape or form John Nolan dumps out with two lanes onto that one Normally on Willy Street, but then they open it up for two lanes which confuses a lot of drivers.

They don't know how to drive that area There's a right there's a right hand turn there, but you can't turn there Only buses can turn there.

It's just a it's just a nightmare.

Just you know tampering with this confuses people

And, and this is the way to

go.

Well, just wait till they start working on John Nolan drive.

That that's in the mix too.

That's going to happen in just a few weeks.

Going to shut down parts of John Nolan

for the next two years.

Yeah, let's get into this.

I know.

I mean, they've got they've got real work coming up there.

They've got to re-change the the shoreline just a little bit, you know, add some land, make a longer and wider bike path.

It's just right.

You know, what we do for bicyclists and then, you know, I just want to, I just want to say, you know, go away, you know, let's not do these things for the bicyclist.

I, I'm sorry, but you know, you have enough trails already.

Go away.

Well, okay, regardless

of- Get off my lawn.

Okay.

Regardless of the bicyclists, they still have to remodel John Nolan

Drive.

They do, they do, and it's going to be- It's been a long time coming.

Tragedy trying to get through there.

I mean it really is kind of a shortcut for a lot of people.

Yes, you know a major artery That's that's not the only controversy that's out there I found this yesterday, and I thought wow.

This is that one time.

We're really talk local stuff here.

What is changing Stoughton Road?

What you know?

Yeah, they want to change Stoughton Road from let's say highway 30.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah

South to the Belt Line.

They have too many traffic accidents.

I'm trying to wrap my head around where do you have the traffic accidents on

this part of the road?

It's a

straight stretch.

You're right.

Where are the accidents?

What are you talking about?

Why do they have to change it?

What needs to be changed there?

Because there are too many accidents, that's why I want to change it.

I don't see any real reason for traffic accidents there.

Here's the thing.

It's beautiful.

Shutton Road is beautiful north of Highway 30, right?

Right.

It's like four or five lanes.

It's beautiful.

You can drive 55 miles per hour.

So what do they want to do?

They want to.

You know, it's always the local crazy people that want you to go maybe 25 miles per hour in Stoughton Road.

We've already proven the fact that we need Stoughton Road for very high speed traffic that can't make it onto I-94, right?

Right.

So here we are, these people.

I took some of the story down.

After the summer's public meeting with the Department of Transportation, resident Gabriel Hill voiced frustration with the state's response to community feedback.

No, no.

Really?

Hill said residents and elders have been clear about wanting safer crossings, less noise, more walkability.

I got so mad.

And streets that felt like neighborhoods again.

What in the... Where are you living?

What's wrong with you?

Oh, God.

Now they have frontage roads all along there.

I know there are frontage roads.

You can go slow as you want.

You can walk along the frontage roads, right?

Nobody wants to walk on Stoughton Road.

No, no one does.

But here's the thing, they want people to cross safely on Stoughton Road.

That's always a problem, right?

I mean, it's

a

very fast road and you have people crossing Stoughton Road to get to maybe a quick trip across the street.

Sure, okay.

Yeah.

Right?

I guess.

I'm trying to recall if there are any quick trips on Stoughton Road.

There aren't any on Stoughton Road.

There is on, and I'm trying to...

Not it's not flam.

It's the next one up Yeah, yeah, but I wrote right it's but guy so anyway

They're worried about students and people walking in that area.

Yeah, and I mean

this

is this is Stoughton Road It's a highway really it's super speed You know for most of the way and all of a sudden you get in your Buckeye Road and that's where it's still it slows not in fact I'll be honest.

It doesn't even slow down at that point No, not really it's still 55 all the way through yes, and and there's there's

Like you say, frontage roads, you don't have to worry about it.

People get off on the frontage roads and they go as slow as they want.

Everybody speeds through there.

This is the way to get from one side of town to the next.

So anybody, so they want, they want to feel like neighborhoods again and they want a rockability and

less noise?

What are you talking about?

I can't imagine a lot of pedestrian traffic crossing Stoughton Road to get, to get where?

I mean, you've got, there's convenience stores on either side, eventually.

You know, no?

I don't think there are around Blaine's Firm and Fleet.

Okay.

I don't think so.

Maybe not.

I don't know.

And it says here, however, when Wisconsin DOT talked about improvements, they often mean adding a lane, which is great at a lane.

The current speed along Stoughton Road's southern section is 55 miles per hour.

In every plan being considered, the limit would be lowered to 45 miles per hour with options for some stretches of the road to be reduced to 35.

Yeah, let's

let's make it even

more dangerous, you know, slowing people down from 55 to 45 and then to 35.

What are you thinking?

Alderman Sean O'Brien represents the neighborhood bordering much of the southern stretch of the South Stoughton Road.

He supports remaking the road into a bull.

Boulevard like East Washington Avenue, which might also be a good idea.

But if you need an extra lane, why are you going to put more grass between the two roads?

I wonder if they are planning on

putting more bus stops there or something.

Well, I don't like East Wash.

And I didn't include this in the story, but I did read that the DOT, by the way, is thinking their main plan

was to add the lanes, keep the 55, but the local businesses around there with the frontage roads were worried that it would obscure their businesses.

The highway would obscure their businesses somehow and people wouldn't be able to see the stores along Stoughton Road.

So the local people canceled that.

And that was the best solution of all.

You know, keep it the same from the north to the south.

That's what it is.

It's a through way.

It is.

My God.

Oh, you know, we have all this traffic information.

Well, there are a lot of cars.

Well,

you know, people are moving here in those cities growing.

Yeah.

And what do they want to do?

They want to make it into a neighborhood.

Oh, how nice, how nice, you know, walkability.

I want walkability along Stoughton Road because, you know, 55 miles per hour is OK.

I don't feel endangered.

You know, I.

They're going to have to put some pedestrian overpasses, like on the Belt Line.

That's what you have to do.

Stoughton Road is a highway.

It's not a road.

It's a highway.

It's a throughway.

And in one of the best examples, Gordy, I think you'll probably recognize this too.

It's 151 Verona Road, going to Verona from the Belt Line to Verona.

And along the way up to PD, the Key Road, it's

Beautiful.

It's like four lanes.

It's, it's gorgeous.

You can go very fast along there.

Well, you shouldn't, but you can go very fast.

And they're going to turn off to get to where you want to go.

Yeah.

They remodeled that.

It's perfect, right?

It's great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

so it must be a little tough for the pedestrian to get across no they can go under the bridge oh

that's right they can yeah yeah why don't they do something like that on stone yeah walk around Bennett's you know maybe stop by for some eggs and porn and then all

right but

Well, that's traffic talk this morning.

Well, I think we solved the whole problem.

We wanted to be local.

This is local.

Well, this is local, but people

have got

to grow up.

Just get with the actor.

This

is the

city that's growing and we need the speed to get from one side to the other.

We don't need neighborhood traffic and pedestrian comfort and no noise, you know?

Well, if you don't want noise, then go to EV.

Everybody should buy EVs.

Wait, when we were driving to the Brewers game, there was the EV, it was silent.

See, the whole way, the whole way, even in Milwaukee, you know?

Yeah.

It's great.

I know.

The space car.

The space car.

I always thought that, you know, if they had demonstrations of EVs all around the country, people would buy more EVs.

Just let people drive.

Test them out.

Why

not?

They

would be

impressed.

Love it.

Okay.

We're just getting started on this Tuesday morning.

When we come back, would you rather or would you rather not?

I would rather not.

I would rather.

You would rather do, would you rather?

Okay, it's called coming up on John and Gordy, WMDX.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

What's the matter 92.7 I'm watching kettle marine heating again their ads Are on the station script snooze and they've got a lot of heads They just killed a dinosaur that attacked them I Guess you know they're attacking heat with air conditioning.

Okay, that was the point But they're cute ads.

I have to say that very

cute

It's 23 minutes past the hour.

It's John Peterson, Gordy Young, along with Dominic Lee.

And now it's time for Would You Rather, right?

Is it?

I think so.

Oh, yeah.

OK.

OK.

All right.

These standing by, would you rather?

This is.

Oh, this

is.

Would you rather?

OK.

All right.

It takes forever to start.

Alright, first question.

Would you rather have access to classified government documents or the ability to influence global stock markets?

This one, you know.

Global markets.

Really?

I want to control the world.

Oh man.

I kind of agree.

I think I'm going to go global stock markets there.

I'd go with the classified documents.

I think there's

a lot

of

interesting reading

there.

Find out who that big paycheck was made out to, huh?

You know, my wife thinks it was Melania.

Which paycheck are you talking about?

Where they released the picture of Epstein holding this gigantic fake cardboard paycheck.

Cardboard paycheck?

Yeah.

The black dot the name of the person it was made out to but I I didn't say it and said that That's more on me up at that.

That's how much you

paid

paid Melania

could be So you're gonna switch your answer then maybe classified government documents you want to know no, okay.

No, that's not interesting This whole administration is not interesting.

Hmm.

All right second question

Would you rather have to approve every highway billboard, personally, or wave at every car that passes by when you are driving?

Every single one.

Oh man, that would be terrible.

Billboards.

Yeah, I would do billboards too.

Yeah, but there's a lot of billboards.

Actually, I'd like to see more imaginative billboards.

And more electronic ones.

I agree.

Okay, yeah, I think we're

all

in the

same boat on that.

All right as well.

There you go.

There we

go.

Yeah,

okay, and that's all I got for today Really, that's it.

Weren't you told by one of our listeners that you needed at least a number of options here?

Like like three or four

options.

No, I'm that Gordy's neighbors gave me

that

never said that they just gave me an option yesterday, which I already did it on the

air.

Okay, and

you know you need to

You should workshop a closing thing for this, a closer.

Like an outro?

You have an

intro, you need an outro.

Yeah, yeah,

that's true.

This

has been Would

You Rather.

Oh god, you guys really want to hear that?

I do, I do.

I want to see where you go with this.

I'll go with

that.

All right, all right, yeah.

How much reverb you could use?

Well, I can do a lot.

Here we go.

I know.

I know.

We didn't even know what that intro meant for the first two weeks.

Oh

boy.

So, um, yeah, a little bit later on, we're going to talk to Jim Conway just in about 20 minutes, right?

Yeah.

He's, uh, you know, there's

been a lot

of talk about RFK junior going up in front of Congress and them questioning him and.

about infectious diseases and vaccinations and everything else.

And hopefully Jim Conway will help straighten some of that out, although it's a tangled

mess.

It's

a mess.

What can you say?

But he's a professor of pediatrics and knows a lot about that

kind of stuff.

Oh yeah, definitely.

Schoolist.

I'm just interested in this Donald Trump solicitation for money.

$15 donations from supporters for what he wants to raise some money for himself.

So he says he wants to try and get to heaven.

And he thinks that somehow you have to pay at the door.

I don't know.

I don't know why he's using that as an excuse to raise money.

I want to go to heaven.

Well, you don't have to pay to get in.

If you're really

going into heaven.

You know, they may even actually trick them, you know, it may look like heaven.

All right, come on in, come on

in.

You know, it's

$300,000.

It

gets in here, it's a little

warm.

Here's his letter.

He says, I want to try and get to heaven.

It's got his picture on the top of it.

Last year, I came millimeters from death when that bullet pierced through my skin.

My triumph return to the White House was never supposed to happen But I believe that God saved me for one reason to make America great again.

I wasn't supposed to be crooked Hillary in 2016, but I did Yep, I wasn't supposed to uh You know secure the border, but I did I certainly wasn't supposed to survive an assassin's bullet, but by the grace of the Almighty God

I did.

So now I have no other choice but to answer the call to duty.

But I can't do it alone.

Again, he wants to try to get to heaven.

Send $15.

Remember, we use asking for $15 and he says, but you know what?

If you can't afford it, don't worry about it.

You won't have to worry about elections anymore.

Oh,

yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So anyway, this is an attempt to go to heaven.

You know,

Don't send him a penny

boy

That's

is that brand new is

that his latest grift?

Yes latest.

Yeah, I think he's been doing this for a couple of weeks now.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Yeah All right.

It is time for Midwest food and farm report and when we come back idiocracy on John and Gordy for a Tuesday morning

WMDX

a package of the sunshine and flowers because if you want the things you love you must have the showers so if you hear it then don't run under a tree

As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point.

Intelligence continued to decline until humanity was incapable of solving even its most basic problems.

The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma.

No!

You dense, irritating miniature beast of burden!

Idiocracy!

For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.

Oh, man.

There's so much stuff.

You know, when I doom scrolled last night, I was like, oh my god, every one of these stories we could talk about.

this morning, and it's that bad.

All right, WMDX 92.7, maybe it's good that we don't have every story on

this program.

It's 6.35, it's cloudy in some places this morning, some of it's clearing out as well already.

Temperatures in the mid 50s, we'll get into the low 70s later on, a mix of clouds and some sun.

All right.

Okay.

Well, you know, I always thought that the Trump administration, this time around,

is pretty much like the apprentice, you know?

You win, you lose, some of the people don't work out, you know, what do they become?

Ambassadors, right?

And they don't get kicked off completely, you're not.

I heard nobody's been fired because the last time he did that, everybody wrote books about him.

So this time around, you know, he's giving him ambassadorships so they don't write books and tell tales.

OK, that's what they're doing.

But I thought this comment was pretty fitting for all of this.

We are currently living under a regime that employs over 30 people who used to work for a TV station.

that was fined $787 million for lying to its viewers.

So maybe it's something we should all consider, keeping the back of our minds.

They're talking about what, the Fox thing with the voting machines?

Yeah, the voting machines, right.

Yeah.

And they lied through their teeth.

They knew they were lying.

Right.

But you know, this is one way of passing the loyalty test.

And they have passed, and now they're part of the administration.

Again, 30 people from TV stations.

One, really.

Fox News.

Network.

Oh my gosh.

All right, here's one health-related.

RFK Junior believes the health advisory panel is woke.

Now, that can be dangerous, right?

I mean, you know, they're putting off the panel's recommendations because they're a little afraid of what might come out.

In fact, we're watching RFK on their monitor here in

the

studio right now.

New polling on vaccine policies, no kidding.

You think people are form?

Anyway, his advisory panel is responsible for creating recommendations for preventive care, including mammograms and colonoscopies.

That health insurance plans must cover at no cost.

That's the importance of this advisory panel.

If they don't recommend this stuff, it's not covered.

In fact, there was a lawsuit at the Supreme Court level that tried to get all of these preventive care services taken off, because they didn't want to pay for somebody else's checkups.

Well, thank gosh the Supreme Court threw that one out.

But anyway, critics accused the panel of being influenced by left-wing ideology for considering factors like systemic racism in its recommendations.

I don't, you know, it's just, it's this paranoia about being taken advantage

of, right?

This is

the problem with Trump and RFK Jr.

They think everybody's trying to game the system like they would.

They think other people are like them and that's not true.

But you know what, they wanted to get rid of mammograms.

They wanted to get rid of that checkup.

Really?

Yes, yes.

That's right.

So, uh, you know, it's a it There there are so many Smaller stories to the big stories that we've been talking about here on the show and that's why I was doom-scrolling and feeling horrible because they're just if you go at the micro level you'll see all the other things

that we're not talking about, we can't talk about because it's just too much of this stuff.

It's going on in the system all over the place.

So, yeah, we've got a lot of surprises coming

up in this administration, my God.

I want to know what Jim Conway thinks of that as well, especially since we talked to him this next segment.

Be along in 10 minutes or

so.

Everybody's familiar with the James Bond villain.

Sebastian Gorka, right?

Somehow he

escaped the movie screen and

he's off

there.

He's a piece of work.

With the administration.

Oh my gosh.

Well, he melted down after getting fact checked for blaming the transgender community for mass shootings.

There's no evidence gender identity had any influence on Robin Westman's decision to shoot children at the Catholic school.

Let's listen to cut number four here.

You know, 96% of attackers in, when you're looking at the US Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, looking at 172 mass attacks in the US between 2016 and 2020, 96% were non-trans men.

So I know you're focusing on this shooter being trans.

The shooter was trans, and that is certainly of note.

But are you missing the bigger picture here?

when you zero in on that instead of more broadly these school shooters as an epidemic and you perhaps miss the through line that connects them all.

Well, no, because your facts obfuscate two things.

You are using data based upon the predominant gun violence, which is gang on gang violence with zero ideological content.

If you remove all of that, then you come down to a much smaller data set.

So let's concentrate on mass shootings at schools specifically

Christian or Catholic schools, then the dataset is wholly different.

So don't conflate different datasets just to make a political point.

There was an ideological content to this attack.

That's what terrorism is.

It's not because somebody didn't get the drug deal they wanted.

It is an ideological message, whether it was anti-Israel, as in this case, whether it targeted President Trump in its rhetoric, as we saw on one of the magazines written by

the perpetrator on that YouTube video or whether we saw the fact that it was anti-Christian and targeting children.

That has nothing to do with gang violence.

So let's narrow it down then because by CNN's count when you look at 32 school shootings since 2020 in which you have four or more people who have been killed.

So

these are the larger school shootings.

Only three of 32 of those shootings were committed.

by transgender shooters.

Yeah, forgive me if I don't go with CNN stats, okay?

Oh, yeah.

CNN has proven itself to be wholly inaccurate.

Oh, that makes it convenient.

For the last 10 years.

All

right, it's simple math.

Two of 32 shootings.

No, it's not.

It's distortions.

No, you are distorting the facts.

Let me be clear.

In just a couple of years, we have seen seven mass shootings involving people of transgender

nature, or who are confused in their agenda.

Seven, in just the last couple of years.

I saw what you tweeted.

I see your list of seven.

I see your list of seven.

Two of them are... I'm gonna stick to not CNN's pseudo-facts.

We can't stick with your facts because they're not accurate.

In fact, in two of them,

one of the ones you quoted... Let's talk about CNN's reputation for accuracy.

In one of the ones in which you posted, there was no evidence that

he was trans in another...

The individual

is known within his family by

male pronouns and used anti-LGBG

rhetoric.

You have an

agenda.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Well, I have a point to make.

And you don't.

You know, maybe this blowback because of mega vilification of gender dysphoria is coming back to haunt them now.

You

know,

maybe he can't defend himself because he didn't expect something like this.

The shooter was involved with online scripture that worships mass shooters.

That was also a major factor in all of this stuff.

And the fact that

the shooter was not exactly transgender, had considered maybe different ways of describing himself.

That doesn't mean he's...

transgender individual.

This is crazy stuff.

I mean, you know, Sebastian Garka is, you know, truly one of those crazy people.

Where did he come from?

Like I said, I think he stepped out of the movie screen, you know, it's like, it's like the movie Last Action Hero, you know, which is really a fantastically great movie.

But yeah, I think you just stepped out with an accent like that.

I know seriously.

But it's it's soothing.

It's a soothing voice Michael Jensen research director at the National Consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism has identified more than 1,000 mass casualty plots When the perpetrator clearly intended to kill or injure as many people as possible since the start of 2023 he wrote

You can count on less than one hand how many of those were perpetrated by transgender individuals.

So Sebastian Gorka is wrong.

The CNN host was right.

I can't remember her name.

Brianna Taylor.

Brianna.

I don't know.

Yeah.

All right.

Anyway, that's that's the big story there.

Always like listening to Sebastian Gorka.

Really, he

should be an action, you know, a villain

in action movie.

In a movie, yeah.

All right, let's get to some commentary.

This is fantastic stuff.

We've been trying to get to this a long time.

John Stuart on Israel, he says he feels like he's watching something that is so self evidentiary, inhumane, and horrific.

Let's listen to cut number two.

This has rocked my, I feel like a crazy person.

I feel like I'm watching something that is so self.

evidently inhumane and horrific.

And to be told that I have to shut up because I risk the Jewish state by speaking out, I would say the opposite.

I think they're putting the likelihood of a surviving Jewish state much more at risk with this type of action.

I think they're the ones that are

that are being anti, if you wanted to find Netanyahu, the definition of anti-Semitism would probably have to bomb himself.

That's right.

And, you know, it was described one way, saying, well, which is worse?

You know, starving Palestinians, as they are doing, or not treating the sick from the injuries that they get from trying to get the food.

Seriously.

Right.

Mehdi Hasan wrote about Bibi.

Who posted absolute BS the other day he wrote guy indicate indicted rather by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity including using starvation as a weapon of war endorses the cover-up of his starvation by the free press this is Benjamin Netanyahu posted this and this is this is from the free press sadly

They didn't do well covering this.

Let's listen.

$199.

So

you've probably seen these photos of skeletal kids in Gaza on front pages, all over social media, even in a UNICEF ad.

They've become the symbols of famine.

But we decided to look into these photos and the stories behind them.

And what we found is that in case after case, these kids were sick, but not just with malnutrition.

In every instance, they were suffering with other conditions or illnesses like cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, and even traumatic head injuries.

Treat them.

A few weeks ago, I started to notice that the same kids were appearing over and over again in coverage about Gaza, and they were being photographed by different photographers, which suggests some element of coordination.

Something else, huh?

Again, the question, starving Palestinians or not treating them if they're sick or injured?

Yeah.

which is worth the choice.

Yeah, that's it's outrageous.

And you know, the free press is getting, you know, lambasted for this particular coverage.

And well, they should.

And it's just so outrageous what's going on in Gaza that, you know, it's it's still because of what Trump is doing.

It's off the front pages.

But really, truly, this is

Humanitarian disaster.

It's awful.

Yeah, it is 648 coming up right around the corner here and next Jim Conway.

He's a professor of pediatrics.

We're going to be talking about vaccinations and infectious diseases.

That's next on John and Gordy in the morning.

WM DX.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Okay, time now to have Jim Conway join us.

He is a professor of pediatrics and an expert on infectious diseases and vaccinations.

Jim, good morning to you.

Welcome back.

Good to have you with us.

Great to be back.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

There's so much in the news.

It really is

about vaccines, and that's one of the things that's confusing a lot of people.

What we've seen in Florida with the Surgeon General's decree that they want to remove mandates for vaccines for everybody in the state, but including, of course, children in schools.

It's scaring a lot of people in Florida.

We saw a little screenshot of DeSantis addressing the issue, a lot of concern.

parents are wondering what's going on and how all of this is going to unwind.

And of course, this still needs approval from the legislature in Florida.

What do you think of something like this?

I don't believe there's any state in the country that doesn't mandate some form of vaccine for children at least.

Yeah, it's held up in court.

decisions now for for centuries really that you know when we put kids into these places where we ask them to work and play together and share unfortunately one of the things that they're going to share is microbes and so there is sort of a social obligation to keep kids safe in those settings and one of the ways that we do that is to exclude them when they have illnesses but as part of that you can also then require them to have vaccines

that'll protect them against these diseases, but also protect the other kids by having these kids not able to bring those diseases into the schools.

And so that's held up now for literally centuries.

And it is one of those things that parents have come to expect, and teachers have come to expect as well, that they're gonna be protected if we're gonna essentially have these sort of mass congregation

settings.

Well, you know, the confusion over the vaccines, whether they work or not, we're finding out, of course, you know, from RFK Junior, who says they don't work.

They're really not effective.

And that, of course, creates a lot of questions for the public.

Now, they don't know whether the CDC is actually telling them the truth.

It creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the public.

And this is really doing horrible.

I guess public health concerns

for everybody in the country.

Consequences.

We have a cut here for this.

Let me see here.

I think

I have

something here.

Oh, here.

Let's go to CNN stats on vaccines.

Do you have that at all?

Let's look for that.

Yeah, 25.

Yes.

There we go.

Let's play that.

These agencies, the FDA, USDA, CDC, all of them are controlled by giant for-profit corporations.

75% of the FDA's funding doesn't come from taxpayer, it comes from pharma.

And pharma executives and consultants and lobbyists cycle in and out of these agencies with President Trump's backing.

I'm going to change that.

We're going to staff these agencies with honest scientists.

And doctors were free from industry funding.

All right.

Let's stop it right there Jim.

What do you think of something like that that kind of accusation?

Yeah, it's just a misplaced and misunderstanding of really how things work.

I mean certainly, you know when pharmaceutical companies have to

put their packets together to submit for review and approval of a drug, you know, they have to pay for that process.

But that doesn't mean that that's being used to then impact the decisions that are being made.

You know, I think one of the things that we all have to recognize is that science to happen has to be funded.

And, you know, that's a combination.

It can't all fall on the...

backs of the taxpayers in the government.

And so we know that the pharmaceutical industry funds a lot of the research that goes on because they obviously have a vested interest in creating products.

But that's also how much of the best stuff works.

And many scientists, many universities, many organizations work with those organizations to create the best drugs that we can get.

And so it's really sort of a twisting of the reality to say that then that's

exactly what's happening when the decisions get made on what gets approved.

So, you know, while it may sound good in a sound clip, you know, really it's undermining the whole basis of how we get things done in this country and how science marches forward.

I've always heard that a lot of this research is actually funded by the public.

The NIH, colleges, of course, have done a lot of research and then it goes from the NIH into the FDA and they

dole out who gets these drugs to, you know, continue the research and refine the product.

Is that how it works?

It's complicated because it really depends on what the product is and, you know, how the process works.

I mean, certainly a lot of the basic science around the idea for vaccines comes out of just basic science.

And you're right, you know, for years it's been funded by CDC and NIH and the others.

and certainly universities fund a lot of that as well.

But it's really sort of a give and take process.

It depends on where you are in discovering and understanding the disease, discovering then what are the drivers of the disease and how do you protect against that disease.

And the pharmaceutical industry, we wouldn't have any of these drugs if they weren't involved and weren't interested in helping us actually fix these things because somebody's got to have the manufacturing capacity.

But by definition in our country,

got to have some output in a capitalist society.

The U.S.

pharmaceutical industry really in many ways has driven globally all of the scientific developments that we've seen and that's certainly going to be hopefully going forward the way we see things still unfolding.

Yeah, it's very tenuous at this point.

Jim, that's all the time we have at this point.

We appreciate you being with us.

Of course.

It's Jim Conway, Professor of Pediatrics.

We appreciate it.

We have so much more to talk about.

We'll get you back on the program.

No

worries.

You know where to find me.

Okay.

Very good.

We're back with more of John and Gordy in the morning, our seven o'clock hour just around the corner.

Stay with us.

Kathryn Lake

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