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David Friedberg's COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy | "We need to go win the war."

January 08, 2021 / 05:00

This episode discusses vaccine rollout strategies, prioritization issues, and the need for centralized planning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conversation highlights the challenges posed by disincentives in the vaccination process, particularly the million-dollar fines imposed by Governor Cuomo for incorrect vaccine distribution. The speakers argue that these penalties create fear among healthcare providers, hindering the overall vaccination effort.

Key points include the importance of group immunity and the need for a military-style operation to efficiently distribute vaccines. The speakers suggest utilizing gymnasiums and sports facilities for mass vaccination sites, prioritizing older populations initially.

The episode also critiques the political motivations behind vaccine prioritization, emphasizing that essential workers should not overshadow the needs of vulnerable populations, particularly those over 85 years old.

Finally, the speakers advocate for a federally coordinated effort, drawing parallels to historical examples like the Manhattan Project, to ensure a successful and timely vaccine rollout.

TLDR

The episode critiques vaccine rollout strategies and advocates for centralized planning to improve efficiency and prioritization.

Episode

5:00
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it is a wartime scenario when war is happening you  don't go home at 5 00 p.m and wake up at 9 00 a.m
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and clock out for an hour for lunch and you know  you don't uh oh well don't run too fast you know
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you might trip you don't do any of that we've  created incredible disincentives in the system
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by in fact cuomo put out a million dollar fine  if uh if you get your vaccine out of line i mean
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think about the disincentive that creates now  people are more scared about giving the vaccine
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to the wrong person than they are incentivized  to give the vaccine to the right person
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and the reality is this is a group game this  isn't an individual game it's not about who
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gets vaccinated first and you'll live and you'll  die we all need to get vaccinated as a group so
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that we all have immunity so that this virus stops  spreading it doesn't matter if you're individually
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vaccinated it matters if we're all vaccinated  because that's the only way we're all going to get
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out of the economic slump that is truly damaging  this country right now and so the first step
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is create a military-style operation figure out  how many feet on the ground you know it's all a
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rate-based system right how many are you running  per day and then how do you achieve that objective
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and over time you have your target rate per day  you would scale it up over 75 days or whatever
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your rollout time frame needs to be and you would  say this is how we're going to get there we need
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this number of people giving shots this many  minutes apart and then you go figure out where
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you're going to give the shots and who's going  to give them get the vaccines to where they need
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to get to take over all the gymnasiums and all the  stadiums and all the open sports facilities around
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the country people can drive up stand in line get  a freaking shot and 65 year olds get priority for
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the first 30 days and then after 30 days your 65  and over crowd loses their priority and it's open
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season for who wants to get a shot you stand in  line you get a shot walk in you got 3.8 million
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nurses in the united states you go contract 500  000 of them you give them a huge friggin one-time
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bonus to come and run this program you run 24-hour  shifts in the gymnasiums around the country
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people come in they get shots they get out takes  three minutes if you're feeling weird if you have
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risk of allergies you go sit in the other room  you wait for two hours and there's a bunch of
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roaming nurses keep an eye on you and you get this  thing done that's it this is not that complicated
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and we can leverage the national guard to create  the infrastructure to support these lines and get
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these things done we can go recruit there are  plenty of nurses associations you can go people
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can work overnight shifts and get paid triple  overtime get extra bonuses for doing this is a
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great way to kind of create an economic stimulus  around this we can get this entire country
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vaccinated in 90 days and the way that israel is  doing it is a great model you know when they run
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out describe that yeah so at the end of the day  if uh you know when you open when you take these
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things out of deep freeze you're at risk of them  spoiling at that point because the mrna is very um
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you know can break and so it needs to be really  cold and then you gotta give the vaccine very
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quickly otherwise the mrna can degrade and it's  not effective and you have to defrost it in order
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to give it yes you defrost it then it's sitting  there now you gotta give it within a couple hours
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and if you've got extra doses sitting at the end  of the day what they're doing in israel is they're
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looking outside they grab the pizza guy that's  on the bicycle truck on the bicycle cruising by
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they're like do you want a shot come on in they  give them a shot they grab the next guy you do
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not need to track everyone that gets a shot you do  not need everyone to show their id to get a shot
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you do not need to x y and z all the disincentives  that create friction in the system of rolling out
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the vaccine need to be completely eliminated  there's no qualifying criteria except maybe
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being 65 and over for the first 30 days and we've  prioritized politics over health and safety we
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have made it the case that the teachers should get  the shot first because the teachers unions created
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an uproar in california and said they're not going  to go to work unless they so now the teachers
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are going to get it and the essential workers  are going to get it which are people that are
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working in stores and warehouses and other stuff  and meanwhile the people that can actually die
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from this 15 likelihood of death if you're over 85  are not getting it because they're not technically
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an essential worker so the prioritization where  we've tried to create these artificial politically
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motivated systems for defining who gets the  vaccine and who doesn't is absolutely killing
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us and literally killing us 4 000 people died  yesterday in the united states and so this system
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has [ __ ] up the incentives we've and don't  bleep that out because that's exactly what it is
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the disincentives we've created are destroying um  the rollout um the the governor's getting involved
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in creating models of prioritization that are  politically motivated or killing us and and we
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should centrally plan this thing ward production  act make a shit-ton of the stuff grab it all get a
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hundred million doses distributed into gymnasiums  around the country get the nurses in there get the
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national guard it should have been federal i mean  that's the key this should have been a federal
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effort central planning is sometimes needed to  get [ __ ] done we did it with the war production
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board during world war ii we did it with the  manhattan project we there have been countless
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examples where we've had to centralize planning  for a massive short-term event and this is one of
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those events and this needs to be um prioritized  and organized centrally and it needs to have the
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right-minded people on this not kind of people  that are you know political operatives and not
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people that are working five um and this is this  is a war and we need to go win the [ __ ] war

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Episode Highlights

  • Collective Vaccination Responsibility
    Vaccination is a group effort; individual actions alone won't stop the virus.
    “We all need to get vaccinated as a group.”
    @ 00m 36s
    January 08, 2021
  • Urgent Call for Central Planning
    Centralized planning is crucial for effective vaccine distribution, akin to wartime efforts.
    “This needs to be prioritized and organized centrally.”
    @ 04m 50s
    January 08, 2021

Episode Quotes

  • This is a group game, not an individual game.
    David Friedberg's COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy | "We need to go win the war."
  • The disincentives we've created are destroying the rollout.
    David Friedberg's COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy | "We need to go win the war."

Key Moments

  • Vaccine Disincentives00:12
  • Group Immunity00:36
  • Urgent Rollout Plan00:55
  • Political Prioritization Issues03:21
  • Central Planning Needed04:50

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