Episode 506 - RFK's CDC WTF (w/ David Wallace-Wells & Gabrielle Perry)
Bad Faith
Bad Faith
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 117 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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NYT journalist and author of Uninhabitable Earth David Wallace-Wells returns to Bad Faith to talk about his ongoing coverage of public health and RFK Jr.'s recent upsets at the CDC. He's joined by epidemiologist Gabrielle Perry. We debate the root cause of public mistrust in public health and whether Democrats are failing again as they attempt to respond to the CDC fiasco.
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Produced by Armand Aviram.
Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The virus stops with every vaccinated person. |
| 0:03.0 | Do it so you stop spreading a terrible disease. |
| 0:05.5 | And that vaccine, a key goal is to stop the transmission so that you get almost no, almost |
| 0:11.0 | no infection going on whatsoever. |
| 0:14.0 | Expectation for vaccines is not to get infected. |
| 0:16.0 | A vaccinated person gets exposed to the virus. |
| 0:19.0 | The virus does not infect them. |
| 0:20.0 | When the virus gets to you, you stop it. You're not going to catch it. You're not going to get sick. You're not going to transmit it. The vaccine is absolutely bulletproof. Vaccines block you from getting and giving the virus. 100% effective in preventing COVID. The vaccine prevents you from getting infected. It is to keep you from getting it and then spreading it. We have the ability to stop COVID in its traps. You're not going to get COVID. Vaccine prevents you from getting infected. It is to keep you from getting it and then spreading it. |
| 0:37.8 | We have the ability to stop COVID in its tracks. |
| 0:40.3 | You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations. |
| 1:13.4 | We're not going to get COVID. I'm thrilled to have returning to Bad Faith podcast, David Wallace Wells. |
| 1:18.1 | You know him as a journalist, a reporter at the New York Times, an author of Uninhabitable Earth. |
| 1:21.8 | What I just saw was one of the most read articles ever. |
| 1:24.4 | Is that true at the time? |
| 1:25.8 | You mean at New York Magazine? |
| 1:34.6 | It was originally, then it got passed by when we did an excerpt of Michael Wolfe's Iron Theory that became the number one read. |
| 1:39.6 | Well, for a time, for a time, it's a pretty incredible title to have held. |
| 1:48.2 | And also someone who has been doing a lot of really great coverage on the COVID pandemic throughout the last five years or so. |
| 1:59.0 | And coming back to Bad Faith podcast for the first time in her professional capacity and outside the context of one of our much appreciated dating shows is Gabrielle Perry. She is an epidemiologist, founder of the Thurman Perry Foundation. |
| 2:03.5 | Welcome back, Gabrielle. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I have both of you here in large part because it seems |
| 2:10.1 | that after COVID being a real focal point of our national politics, I mean, there was a moment where almost every day |
| 2:19.6 | on rising, we were having really fulsome debates about COVID. It was considered to be |
... |
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