#1762 - Josh Szeps

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

Hello, Josh.

Josh Szeps (0:15)

I'm free.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Good to see you, Matt.

Josh Szeps (0:16)

They let me out.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

They let you out of your prison colony.

Josh Szeps (0:19)

Oh, my goodness.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

Isn't it strange how Australia is reverting back to what it originally was?

Josh Szeps (0:23)

Supposedly.

But now, Omicron's gone crazy there now. Now we're open.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

But it's a cold.

Josh Szeps (0:30)

It's...

Joe Rogan (0:30)

Omicron is a cold.

Josh Szeps (0:32)

Yeah, it is now.

Joe Rogan (0:33)

It's not the Delta. It's not this dangerous one.

Josh Szeps (0:35)

Well, we're embracing it wholeheartedly. We've got like... I mean, we can talk about all the numbers and stuff, but like this whole like kind of theory that Australia has become a prison colony and there were definite excesses over the past couple of years in the way that some Australian states dealt with it.

But since the first of November, when the biggest state, New South Wales, where Sydney is, where I'm from, basically was like, all right, we're open. We're letting people come in from abroad. We're not going to have quarantine anymore. You're allowed to do whatever you want. We're not going to have any restrictions and stuff. It's been... I mean, I was looking at the numbers this morning just before I came here. We've got...

There were like 1200 new cases a day in November, and now there are between 60 to 100,000 cases a day in a state of 8 million people. So it's about...

Joe Rogan (1:22)

100,000 cases a day.

Josh Szeps (1:24)

Well, it's about the equivalent of... if I adjusted it for the US population, it's about 800,000 to 1.3 million a day in the US which is about, I think, what it is.

Joe Rogan (1:33)

Probably right now.

Josh Szeps (1:34)

But for Australians, it's like, what the hell is going on?

Joe Rogan (1:38)

Completely different virus. If it was that many of the Delta, it would be very scary, because a lot of people would be dying.

Josh Szeps (1:44)

Well, also, I mean, timing-wise, a lot of people are vaccinated, you know? New South Wales is 95-plus percent vaccinated, so...

Joe Rogan (1:50)

But the vaccine isn't working for Omicron.

Josh Szeps (1:52)

Well, for hospitalization and death, it is. It's not...

Joe Rogan (1:55)

You're still test positive. Hospitalization and death, people aren't getting hospitalized and dying off Omicron.

It's not the same disease.

Josh Szeps (2:03)

It's not the same, but it would still be a very different situation if no one in Australia was vaccinated than if 95 percent of them were vaccinated.

Joe Rogan (2:08)

If it's an escape variant, which is what some biologists believe, then no, because it doesn't have the protection. The vaccine doesn't provide the protection from this particular variant.

Josh Szeps (2:18)

Yes, it does.

Joe Rogan (2:20)

From Omicron?

Josh Szeps (2:20)

Yeah, yeah. In terms of hospitalisation and death, it does.

Joe Rogan (2:23)

Hospitalisation and death is not an issue with this variant. It's not causing people to be hospitalised and dying on large scale.

Josh Szeps (2:31)

Well not the same. It is though. It is. I mean, like if it's half as, the way the epidemiologist put it is, like if it's half as bad, but 10 times as many people get it, then you've still got five times as many people in hospital.

Joe Rogan (2:46)

It depends on who, what you're talking about. If you're talking about people with massive comorbidities, yeah, but that any cold could do that to people.

So are we going to vaccinate for colds? Because that's literally what this is. Like my friend who just got it had no idea, he had a scratchy throat and then he got tested. Turned out that he had it and he said, I felt nothing the next day, but I'm still positive for a couple of days and I have to lay low. But this is not like the Delta. This is not even like the original version.

Josh Szeps (3:16)

Even the vast majority of people who got Delta didn't die from it and weren't hospitalized from it. I mean, it's all a numbers game, isn't it?

Joe Rogan (3:21)

Yes, it is, but it's a rougher disease. It's quite a much rougher experience for people that got the Delta.

Josh Szeps (3:29)

I mean, the problem is if you don't need something to be very deadly, if 330 million people all get it, then...

Joe Rogan (3:35)

I want to know if this is true because I was reading this paper, they were saying that the vaccine is not protecting people from Omicron. See what you can find on that.