CDC Under Fire: TB Monkey Crisis

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Live from the Unchained TV headquarters in Los Angeles, California, this is Truth Files

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with Jane Velez-Mitchell.

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Get in touch during the show on socials.

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the app to your phone, tablet, or smart TV.

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And now with the headlines, it's Jane Velez-Mitchell.

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Welcome to Truth Files with me, Jane Velez-Mitchell.

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Thank you for joining us.

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We are live on our streaming network as well as across social media.

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Please comment, share out.

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Together, we can solve, let's hope, this crisis.

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We've got some breaking news for you.

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This is truly shocking.

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In a dramatic press conference held in Washington, D.C., right outside the U.S. Department of

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Health and Human Services, PETA has been raising the alarm on a shocking and largely hidden

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public health threat, the importation of tuberculosis-infected monkeys into the United States for use in

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laboratories.

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The CDC's own data show that tuberculosis-infected monkeys imported from Southeast Asia and Mauritius

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made it through federal quarantine and into U.S. laboratories, carrying multiple strains

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of TB, including a strain that we have never seen before here in animals.

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A new peer-reviewed CDC paper, quietly published behind a paywall, confirms this.

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Tuberculosis sickens 10 million people and kills one in a quarter of them every year.

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It's the world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, according to the

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World Health Organization.

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This deadly disease is coming into the U.S. and, ironically, going into the laboratories

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that are supposed to be curing diseases.

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Wow.

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Honestly, watching your news conference, I became frightened straight out to Dr. Lisa

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Jones' angle of people for the ethical treatment of animals.

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This is horrifying.

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How did you find out about this?

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It's the company's own data.

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It's the importer's own data.

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It's the CDC's own data.

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It's the federal government's own data that PETA submitted public records for.

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We got the documents.

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We put the pieces together.

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This has always been out there, Jane, but it took kind of pulling all the spare pieces

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together to form this image or this picture of this pipeline that has been funneling

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disease, distress, TB-infected monkeys into the U.S. for years.

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The surge, the increase of TB-infected monkeys over the past few years, yeah, you have a

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right to be very afraid.

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Now, you had a very, very dramatic news conference out there, Lisa, where you spoke primarily,

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but there were a lot of people, as you can see here, holding these signs, tuberculosis,

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hepatitis, fevers, Ebola.

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Look at these folks in hazmat suits, and they are standing next to the very kinds of boxes

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these live animals are transported in.

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Let me ask you, these importations are being done with our taxpayer dollars.

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Did the CDC respond to this news conference?

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Did Health and Human Services respond to your news conference?

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Did anyone in the U.S. government, which has been so focused on getting rid of unnecessary

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spending, and this is many millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded importations, did any

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government agency respond to you?

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You know what the CDC told me when I first approached them?

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With their own paper, they said, hey, go talk to our press office.

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I asked for data.

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I asked for analysis.

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I asked for them to explain why our data showed so many more infected monkeys were coming

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in than their own publication that they just quietly slipped in behind a paywall.

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And that senior scientist's response was, ask your questions of our press office.

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You know, Jane, when scientists refuse to engage in science, you've got to wonder what's

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up or what is being covered up, I think is a better question.

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And since then, no, we've not heard directly from the CDC.

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Now, the CDC is in complete disarray.

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I understand that.

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But we have been going to the CDC since 2022 with these concerns about TB and all these

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other pathogens, and each time the CDC has come back and said, looks fine to us, looks

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okay to us, I have to believe that at the highest levels of government, they are seeing what's

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going on and that they are making decisions that will shut down this pipeline.

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Well, you know, I'm terrified as just a citizen.

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We all just went through the COVID pandemic.

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This morning, I read an article, oh, I live in L.A.

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COVID is coming back to L.A.

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Should we start wearing masks in stores?

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I mean, this is a nightmare, whether you believe it started in the Wuhan lab as a result of

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experiments where animals were being tortured or whether you believe it started in the Wuhan

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wet market where animals were being tortured for food, either way, it's because animals

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were being tortured that we had the pandemic, which nobody in the mainstream media discusses.

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And so now we have this other threat.

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And the irony to me, I mean, this is sort of I would call tragic irony.

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If you look at the CDC's mandate, it says our mission as the nation's health protection

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agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats.

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But you're saying that they're creating this health threat by bringing in monkeys who are

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infected with tuberculosis.

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I want to go straight out to Thomas Wade Jackson, who is a filmmaker and a musician who is from

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Bainbridge, Georgia.

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We also have somebody else who's from Bainbridge, Georgia.

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And Thomas, what I want to ask you is you are fighting a very insidious plan to put a

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laboratory monkey breeding facility in Bainbridge, Georgia, the largest apparently ever seen,

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many, many thousands of monkeys.

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When you hear now that some of these monkeys might be infected with tuberculosis, what

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runs through you?

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Man, you know, I listened to that press conference and I was really freaked out, especially

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knowing that what they're trying to do in Bainbridge, because, you know, we live next

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to a river.

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And from everything I was listening to the podcast with Dr. Lisa this morning, she talked

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about the shedding of the animals and how they shed these diseases.

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And so, you know, if they ended up in Bainbridge, it would be very easy for this to get

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transmitted into the river and then to the lake where me and my daughter swim and come

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all the way down into Florida, affect all of Apalachicola and go further.

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You know, it's not good news.

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It's definitely I mean, it might be good news in that if people wake up, they'll stop

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doing this monkey, you know, stealing them from the wild and they'll stop bringing them

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in and they'll stop the testing.

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That's the only good news I can find from it.

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But if and but yeah, it's a scary proposition.

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I'd like to go to Ivana Merritt.

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And I know you just joined us at the last second after hearing about this horror.

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You're also in Bainbridge.

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You're fighting the monkey facility.

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What's your reaction?

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And I hope you can hear me well.

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I hear you great.

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Okay.

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I am exhausted, tired, frustrated.

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And it's just it's a disgusting thing.

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I hate that they are hiding behind the idea of that.

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It's for the progress of medicine.

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I think that is just disgusting.

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And people are falling for it.

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Are you going to use this discovery of tuberculosis infected monkeys coming into the United States?

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Perhaps.

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Could that be the basis of another lawsuit against the facility?

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It should be.

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And I know that I will absolutely be talking about it.

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I've gotten on a lot of people's nerves talking about this, but I'm not going to stop.

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I will absolutely bring that to everyone's attention.

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We have a city meeting next Tuesday.

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I'll speak about it there, too.

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Do you think people know about this?

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The tuberculosis, the tuberculosis.

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There's no way they do.

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There's no way they and our local our citizens here.

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They're not just relaxed about it.

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I think they're scared to do something and say something about it.

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But this year, I don't think they do.

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There's no way they know how bad this really is.

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Well, I applaud you for fighting the good fight to stop this ginormous laboratory monkey breeding facility from coming into Bainbridge, Georgia.

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The people have united.

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And I want to play a clip of Thomas Wade Jackson speaking.

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He's from Bainbridge, Georgia, speaking about the battle to stop this laboratory monkey breeding facility.

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And then on the other side, we'll talk about whether this discovery of tuberculosis-infected monkeys going into laboratories could really be a game changer in this battle.

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You're not going to believe what they're doing in Bainbridge, man.

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This company's trying to come in and bring out, like, breed monkeys there.

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And I was like, what?

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He said, we're having a city council meeting tonight, man.

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You've got to come up.

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So I came up.

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I was blown away.

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I was totally amazed.

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In my life in Bainbridge, I had never seen that kind of people turn out like that.

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I was waiting in line to get in there.

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I never got past the doorway.

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And there were people behind me.

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I'm like, holy cow.

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To come here and to see animal rights activists standing next to animal farmers, next to Republicans, next to Democrats, next to whatever, all the ways they divided us, we were all there.

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And that didn't work for them.

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You know, we were on common ground.

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Like, you could see the fear in the councilman's eyes at how many people turned up.

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And when the PETA scientists got up there, Dr. Lisa, and she gave all this information, not only about animal testing, but about that company.

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And then V, man, that's the speech you gave.

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That right there, when you gave that speech, I was thinking, dude, I am so proud to be from Bainbridge, Georgia, if this is where Bainbridge, Georgia is going.

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Like, holy cow.

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I do feel, having covered many of these monkey issues, that this could be a game changer.

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I don't live anywhere near Bainbridge, Georgia, but if somebody told me they were going to put a laboratory, ginormous laboratory breeding facility right near my home.

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And by the way, tuberculosis infected monkeys could very well be in there spreading tuberculosis to humans that are then going to go to the local sandwich shop and spread it to me.

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I would be freaked out, Dr. Lisa Jones Engel.

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These communities are being asked to basically absorb the risk of this dirty monkey trade.

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And places like Bainbridge, places like Brazoria, Texas, they're saying, no, they are not going to put their health over the profit or under the profit of these big companies.

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We're just like, yeah, we just want monkeys.

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We're just going to keep bringing as many monkeys in.

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We don't care whether they have TB or hepatitis or Burkholderia.

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As long as we can bring them in, as long as we can get paid for using them, we do not care about the communities.

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That is going to stop.

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And I do believe that Bainbridge has drawn the line in the sand.

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This company is now, what, two years behind their plan, their timeline for when they were supposed to have their first monkeys coming out the doors?

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They're still tied up in knots in the courts.

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With people like Thomas and Veena, no.

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And then when you add the public health, the biosecurity, the national security risk that these imported animals represent, no one in their right minds would allow this to continue.

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Now, thank you.

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I'm going to go back to Vee.

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You were nodding your head up and down.

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Talk to us, Vee, about your reaction.

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I mean, this is a shocker.

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It is so outrageous.

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It's been a year and eight months that we've been fighting this.

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And every day I have to, like, pinch myself and say, is this real?

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Because it's so ridiculous.

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It's just I don't I can't believe I'm fighting something like this.

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There's no way this should have even made it through this far, you know, so it's just just hearing all these things.

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I don't know.

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It's ridiculous.

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But every now and then I say, you know, it's thank God it was monkeys because we wouldn't be paying attention.

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And like Thomas said, you know, I almost cried seeing that clip because that is so true.

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It brought people together.

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Everybody's fed up.

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Farmers, people who hunt on a daily basis.

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They're against it.

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It's a lot.

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It's a lot of people speaking out, speaking up and man, it's just it's sick.

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It's really sick.

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I've lost.

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I'm at a loss of words.

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I'm really disgusted.

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Well, also, there was a great point here.

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Why isn't this story getting more media attention?

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And I know Bainbridge has gotten a lot of media attention, but I want to go back to Dr.

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Lisa Jones Angle.

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You held this incredible news conference outside Health and Human Services.

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You have the CDC report to back it up.

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You've got it on paper.

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And yet it didn't seem to get the kind of media attention that it should have gotten.

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I mean, the idea of tuberculosis infected monkeys.

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Take it away.

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You're right.

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You know, C-SPAN streamed it, so I know that it was showing up in the halls of Congress

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and the Senate, and that's really, really important.

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But to your question, why?

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Why do we not dare?

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Why does the media not dare talk about it?

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Is it too complicated?

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I don't think so.

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You have imported monkeys infected with a pathogen that can cause disease in humans, in other

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monkeys, in other animals, in cattle that can be shed into the environment, that can

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make its way through water systems.

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How much more straightforward do I need to lay that out for you before you stop underestimating

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your readership, your viewership?

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People see these images.

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People know what tuberculosis is.

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People are astonished to realize we are still using primates in experimentation in the 21st

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century.

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The media needs to buck up and actually put this out there and then hold the big companies

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accountable, because you know what?

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I think that's actually what it is, Jane.

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This is a multibillion-dollar industry.

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You've got massive international companies who are saying, don't you dare try to take

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a single monkey out of our hands.

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Well, what I find also very interesting is what's happening at the CDC right now.

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And this is breaking news, so there I'll go with my breaking news banner.

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But I know that an award was going to be given to the new head of the National Institutes

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of Health, Jay Bhattacharya.

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And it was that dog on the right signed by thousands of people saying thank you for transitioning

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away from animal experimentation, which he had spoke about doing.

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There's videos of him talking about non-animal models and how it's much more modern, blah,

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blah, blah.

246
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And nonetheless, take a look at the amount of money going to universities from our tax

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dollars to torture animals.

248
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And I think that it's worth reading, because it's just so stupid.

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Almost half a million dollars to addict monkeys to cocaine, alcohol, nicotine, and various

250
00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:46,300
other things, forcing them to choose between drugs or food.

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Now, I just want to say, as a recovering alcoholic, 30 years sober, over 30 years sober, it's

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a spiritual problem with the spiritual solution, and torturing monkeys ain't going to get you

253
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to sobriety.

254
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And anybody who is a recovering addict or alcoholic can tell you that.

255
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This is a waste of money, and it's torture.

256
00:18:08,380 --> 00:18:13,300
And then you look at more than half a million dollars to inject menstrual tissues into the

257
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abdomens of baboons and mice purportedly to study endometriitis, which neither species

258
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experiences.

259
00:18:21,860 --> 00:18:26,440
Then there's more than half a million dollars to create hot flashes in monkeys by taking

260
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out their ovaries.

261
00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:33,140
Then there's almost a million dollars to force newborn monkeys to wear helmets that plunge

262
00:18:33,140 --> 00:18:39,140
them into darkness and distort their vision and subject them to multiple invasive surgeries,

263
00:18:39,500 --> 00:18:44,620
implanting a post into their skulls, inserting electrodes into their brains, affixing coils

264
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onto the outer white surface of their eyes.

265
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I could go on.

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Those are just some of the highlights.

267
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This is morally reprehensible, and I am disgusted that my tax dollars are going to that.

268
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And I got to say, you know, again, you're shaking your head.

269
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Does that enter the conversation?

270
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:14,400
Because I know Thomas had said this issue is bringing everybody together, conservatives,

271
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:19,720
liberals, like you said, hunters, vegans, everybody's coming together in Bainbridge,

272
00:19:19,900 --> 00:19:22,760
Georgia, to try to stop this monkey breeding facility.

273
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We live what they call the Bible.

274
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This is like the most Christian place you could imagine, like over, you know, overly

275
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hardcore Christian location.

276
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Reading that, I don't know how a person can think they can get to any pearly gates.

277
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And we are contributing, contributing to an industry that does that.

278
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If they even do it, because to me, I think it's just a money thing.

279
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I don't even know if they're really doing the research.

280
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But to hear that, that that is the plan, and that's what that money's for, I don't

281
00:19:55,900 --> 00:20:01,500
know anybody's religion, but I can't get to no peace after life knowing that I live

282
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in a place that contributes to that.

283
00:20:03,140 --> 00:20:04,480
That is madness to me.

284
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That is insane.

285
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I can cry just reading that.

286
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:07,620
That's sick.

287
00:20:07,620 --> 00:20:13,900
V, are you going to use this tuberculosis information to upscale the battle to stop

288
00:20:13,900 --> 00:20:15,480
the monkey breeding facility?

289
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:26,900
Well, I want to say, Thomas, you are not only a filmmaker and a musician, you are

290
00:20:26,900 --> 00:20:32,860
doing a documentary on the battle to stop the, and this is breaking news, people,

291
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:34,080
you're hearing it here first.

292
00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:40,200
A documentary is being produced by Thomas Wade Jackson, who is an award-winning filmmaker,

293
00:20:40,380 --> 00:20:45,480
and some of his films are on Unchained TV, our streaming network, to stop the laboratory

294
00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:47,560
monkey breeding facility in Bainbridge.

295
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And you even have written an anthem.

296
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Let's hear it.

297
00:20:51,500 --> 00:20:56,800
Don't believe the hate they sell, yeah, don't believe their lies.

298
00:20:57,300 --> 00:21:01,700
Because their whole plan is to separate, to conquer, and divide.

299
00:21:02,660 --> 00:21:10,660
Is there a way that if ever we were finally to unite, all their secret evil schemes would

300
00:21:10,660 --> 00:21:12,580
be defeated by the light?

301
00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:18,300
Hallelujah, now let's all get together, let's all sing a song.

302
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,700
Because if we can't find common ground, then we ain't got very long.

303
00:21:29,660 --> 00:21:31,740
I love that song.

304
00:21:32,220 --> 00:21:38,840
And, you know, I think it sums up everything about this battle, is that most Americans

305
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:44,680
are kind people who don't want to torture monkeys, and we don't want to see our hard-earned

306
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:48,780
tax dollars going to monkey torture, Thomas Wade Jackson.

307
00:21:49,700 --> 00:21:56,760
Well, you know, it was being in that first meeting that really made a big impact on me,

308
00:21:57,060 --> 00:22:03,040
that just stuck with me, because we were during the most divisive election time in our country,

309
00:22:03,140 --> 00:22:06,480
you know, and people from all sides of the aisle were coming together.

310
00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:11,800
And so it was a couple months after that meeting that I wrote that song, and I wasn't specifically

311
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:16,000
thinking about the meeting, but I was thinking about all the ways they're trying to get us

312
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:16,740
to hate each other.

313
00:22:17,340 --> 00:22:20,060
So I was inspired by that, that night.

314
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:25,920
And I was in the middle of finishing an album with the band I'm in, so I didn't really

315
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:27,160
want to make another documentary.

316
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:32,380
And being from Bainbridge, seeing the people that showed up, seeing the fear in the eyes

317
00:22:32,380 --> 00:22:34,480
of the councilmen, I said, this is going to blow over.

318
00:22:34,940 --> 00:22:38,860
There is no way this is going to last more than a month or whatever.

319
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:40,820
Like, they're going to be shamed out of town.

320
00:22:40,820 --> 00:22:42,220
Like, I could not imagine.

321
00:22:42,780 --> 00:22:44,440
Maybe it's just because I wanted to work on the album.

322
00:22:44,940 --> 00:22:50,300
But it was only like a year or so later, over a year later, at Mother's Day this year,

323
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:55,320
when I was at home and my mom said that Safer Human Medicine had just won this appeal,

324
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,200
and that they were still planning to go straight ahead.

325
00:22:58,320 --> 00:22:59,860
And I thought, what the heck?

326
00:23:00,660 --> 00:23:04,240
It was like I felt led when I was made a prayer for compassion.

327
00:23:04,380 --> 00:23:07,880
That same urgency and feeling came upon me that day.

328
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:09,440
And I felt, yeah.

329
00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:14,100
You know, I mean, for me, like the story, I really believe we're going to win, man.

330
00:23:14,140 --> 00:23:16,760
There's no way this is going to happen.

331
00:23:16,820 --> 00:23:17,980
I just cannot see it happening.

332
00:23:18,140 --> 00:23:23,780
But what I have witnessed in interviewing people and just watching it all unfold is

333
00:23:23,780 --> 00:23:27,460
that in the end, it will be such a blessing to Bainbridge.

334
00:23:27,780 --> 00:23:30,640
It has brought people together that would never have come together.

335
00:23:30,860 --> 00:23:35,540
It has created unity in a way and has created people that show up at meetings.

336
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,500
There's an election coming up.

337
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,740
They're having meetings about the election, you know.

338
00:23:41,100 --> 00:23:49,180
So I feel like this challenge that was placed upon the citizens of Bainbridge is going to bless them in the end,

339
00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:50,360
and Bainbridge will be blessed.

340
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:57,340
But right now, we're still in the fight because Safer Human Medicine has not said in any way that they're backing down.

341
00:23:58,270 --> 00:24:08,580
Well, let's listen to more of the news conference that was held outside the Department of Health and Human Services by PETA,

342
00:24:08,900 --> 00:24:12,200
because the details are truly terrifying to me.

343
00:24:12,900 --> 00:24:24,080
And I really believe upon hearing this news conference and then also thinking about the battle to stop this massive laboratory monkey breeding facility in Bainbridge,

344
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:33,180
that there's a convergence there because you make the point in your news conference that the states are not being informed of this threat,

345
00:24:33,540 --> 00:24:35,020
and Georgia is a state.

346
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:36,860
Let's listen and talk on the other side.

347
00:24:37,060 --> 00:24:46,360
Between 2021 and 2024, their own data showed that 69 infected monkeys arrived on 17 separate shipments.

348
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,960
Each year, the number of shipments increased with infected animals.

349
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:57,640
Even worse, the CDC's quarantine missed nearly one in five infected monkeys.

350
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Half of those missed animals came from shipments where another monkey had already tested positive.

351
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,660
You don't need to be an epidemiologist to see the recklessness of this.

352
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:17,200
In some cases, monkeys cleared from quarantine were diagnosed 27 months later

353
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:22,420
with the same strain that had already been detected in their original shipment.

354
00:25:23,460 --> 00:25:27,500
In other cases, new strains surfaced months down the line.

355
00:25:28,740 --> 00:25:33,080
And in many cases, no strain data were reported at all.

356
00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:37,540
I mean, we have no idea what type of mycobacteria tuberculosis those animals were carrying.

357
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:40,700
The implication is unavoidable.

358
00:25:40,700 --> 00:25:48,500
The CDC knowingly releases thousands of imported monkeys that have been exposed to TB during quarantine.

359
00:25:49,700 --> 00:25:55,400
And by releasing exposed monkeys, the CDC ceded reservoirs of TB in laboratories

360
00:25:55,400 --> 00:26:02,220
and breeding facilities across the nation that house tens of thousands of additional monkeys.

361
00:26:03,540 --> 00:26:04,340
Wow.

362
00:26:04,660 --> 00:26:07,780
I want to go back to Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel.

363
00:26:07,780 --> 00:26:13,240
How could this be used by the people of Bainbridge to stop the facility?

364
00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:18,180
Because, again, what you're saying is that it's seeded in there,

365
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:22,420
that the tuberculosis could pop up at any time.

366
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,640
And that's really terrifying.

367
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:27,760
Yeah, it is terrifying.

368
00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:32,360
And the thing is, Jane, we've known about this, again, for decades.

369
00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:40,860
We do not have, we, the biomedical community, does not have an effective test to detect tuberculosis in monkeys.

370
00:26:41,100 --> 00:26:41,640
We don't.

371
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:42,940
We've known that.

372
00:26:43,780 --> 00:26:48,500
And yet, we've continued to allow tens of thousands of these monkeys in.

373
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,760
And the seeding, let me just kind of explain that a little bit.

374
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:53,680
So a monkey comes in.

375
00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:59,140
He spends 31 days in quarantine, takes the tests that don't work, is released,

376
00:26:59,140 --> 00:27:07,740
and maybe they're sent to a facility in Georgia or a facility in Washington State or Texas or Ohio or Louisiana or wherever.

377
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:10,280
Or Georgia.

378
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:12,720
Let's hope not, but let's just hope.

379
00:27:12,780 --> 00:27:13,060
Let's hope not.

380
00:27:13,300 --> 00:27:18,640
But if they go there, you know, and there are already other animals in that facility that have been there.

381
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:23,000
And this monkey starts shedding this mycobacteria.

382
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:34,240
You know, TB is aerosolized, meaning that it's aerosolized droplets that are the primary route that allows it to move between monkey to monkey or human to human or human to monkey.

383
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:36,800
But it also can be shed in the feces.

384
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:38,100
It can be shed in the urine.

385
00:27:39,060 --> 00:27:44,360
These facilities, like the Bainbridge facility, they're proposing 30,000, 40,000 monkeys in that.

386
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,860
You take that incredible density of monkeys.

387
00:27:47,860 --> 00:27:58,940
You put in these animals who are actively shedding this pathogen, and I promise you, it is going to swirl in that facility.

388
00:27:59,100 --> 00:28:00,880
And you will have animals get infected.

389
00:28:01,420 --> 00:28:02,780
Some will be actively infected.

390
00:28:02,980 --> 00:28:04,380
Some will develop latent infection.

391
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,300
You will have workers exposed.

392
00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:11,600
You will have wildlife that comes wandering up to the outsides of these facilities, potentially exposed.

393
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:16,540
You could have the cattle in the area, potentially exposed.

394
00:28:17,220 --> 00:28:25,780
This is a recipe for allowing this pathogen to basically find its way out into the community.

395
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:32,660
And Bainbridge is the line that's going to say, no, not here, not now, not ever.

396
00:28:33,100 --> 00:28:38,800
And, you know, with people like Veena and Thomas, Safer Human Medicine, it's interesting.

397
00:28:38,940 --> 00:28:40,200
You notice how they haven't responded?

398
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:48,760
The industry does not respond to these questions of TB, because the only answer they could give is, yeah, we know it's a problem.

399
00:28:49,220 --> 00:28:51,540
We know our animals are an infectious disease threat.

400
00:28:52,020 --> 00:29:00,540
We know that the presence of TB in these animals makes any data that we get from them even more suspect.

401
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,040
Everything is wrong with this system.

402
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:11,100
I really feel like this is something that needs to be brought up at your next meeting.

403
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,300
And, V, you're shaking your head.

404
00:29:14,340 --> 00:29:16,680
I know you said there's a meeting coming up.

405
00:29:18,020 --> 00:29:24,140
I just have followed these kinds of battles for years.

406
00:29:24,940 --> 00:29:30,520
You know, there was an attempt, and by the way, we invite Safer Human Medicine, any of these companies on at any time.

407
00:29:30,580 --> 00:29:32,480
We would love to dialogue with you.

408
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:32,740
Absolutely.

409
00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:36,060
And, yes, PETA agrees.

410
00:29:36,260 --> 00:29:37,320
Let's have a dialogue.

411
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,420
Let's talk about it.

412
00:29:39,420 --> 00:29:57,940
But as far as the upcoming hearing that you're having or meeting you're having, V, how might you bring this into the conversation, given what you're hearing today and given the news conference PETA held with the documentation from the CDC itself?

413
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:03,680
We actually have a meeting tomorrow regarding a tax increase.

414
00:30:04,220 --> 00:30:16,780
So I would like to mention how taxes, you know, some of our officials have threatened citizens about basically if we fight this thing, our taxes are going to go up because they got to pay for legal fees or whatever.

415
00:30:17,260 --> 00:30:23,320
So I want to mention, you know, if you fight more, you know, you're raising taxes already.

416
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:39,520
But we have something going on that, you know, I'll tie that in some kind of way, but I want to do research on our local hospital because I know from, I want to say a fact, our local hospital cannot handle an outbreak.

417
00:30:40,220 --> 00:30:45,560
COVID was a nightmare for us, but even a common flu, our hospital is not equipped.

418
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:47,900
And what about tuberculosis?

419
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:49,800
Oh, you can forget about it.

420
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:50,760
You can forget about it.

421
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:52,380
Not equipped.

422
00:30:52,620 --> 00:30:54,660
Our hospital is not equipped for something like that.

423
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:56,220
Absolutely not.

424
00:30:56,700 --> 00:30:57,740
In no way.

425
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:02,720
And we brought this up because one of the city council members is on the hospital board.

426
00:31:03,020 --> 00:31:07,860
So we have brought up the, you know, the hospital not being equipped for any kind of outbreak from these monkeys.

427
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:10,560
It's been said, but now it's going to be said again.

428
00:31:11,460 --> 00:31:15,100
So I'm looking at, thank you for that, V.

429
00:31:15,300 --> 00:31:23,980
I'm looking at what PETA sent, biosecurity threat monkey imports are bringing tuberculosis into U.S. labs.

430
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:36,420
And latent TB continues to slip past outdated screening emerging months or years later in primate colonies and in some cases infecting workers.

431
00:31:36,420 --> 00:31:50,000
Because I went on the CDC and was bumping around the internet, and there is an acknowledgement by them in some of their writings that monkeys with TB have entered.

432
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:52,600
In other words, you can find it online.

433
00:31:52,940 --> 00:31:55,620
I know you have a report, but you can also find it online.

434
00:31:55,800 --> 00:32:00,300
But there's always this thing about, oh, it's low risk.

435
00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:01,520
It's low risk.

436
00:32:01,980 --> 00:32:05,160
What do you say to that, Dr. Lisa?

437
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:15,520
Yeah, the CDC, they often come back to me and say, hey, we have not had any worker during quarantine get infected with TB.

438
00:32:16,140 --> 00:32:18,520
And I'm like, well, that's not a big surprise.

439
00:32:18,580 --> 00:32:19,600
That's actually not true.

440
00:32:19,740 --> 00:32:23,800
Back in the 90s, you had workers get infected with TB and back in the 70s and 80s.

441
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:44,780
But, you know, when these facilities, once these animals leave the CDC quarantine, they're going into facilities where people are not dressed head to toe in Tyvek suits, where the biosecurity awareness and regulations are certainly not nearly as strict.

442
00:32:45,100 --> 00:32:46,620
But even beyond that.

443
00:32:46,620 --> 00:32:57,620
So epidemiologically, we may not see a massive TB outbreak from exposure to human, even though we have been infected humans actually in Michigan just a couple of years ago.

444
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:05,900
But when a monkey is infected with tuberculosis, that means that all these other infections that they have are amplified.

445
00:33:06,580 --> 00:33:23,840
So they are going to be shedding other pathogens like burkholderia, hepatitis, campylobacter, Shigella, Yersinia, Salmonella, potentially filoviruses, because TB is like an accelerator for these pathogens in these monkeys.

446
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:34,640
So you insert one TB infected monkey into a colony and you allow and you guarantee the rest of the animals going to get infected.

447
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,920
It's not just the TB that you have to worry about at that point.

448
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:47,680
You have to worry about every single other zoonotic and deadly pathogens that are present at that time because they will come out.

449
00:33:47,900 --> 00:33:48,860
They will come out the monkeys.

450
00:33:49,700 --> 00:33:50,920
They will come out of the facility.

451
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:52,600
They'll come out into the environment.

452
00:33:52,780 --> 00:33:54,040
They'll be picked up by wildlife.

453
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:55,600
They'll be picked up by domestic animals.

454
00:33:55,900 --> 00:33:59,860
They will be picked up and transmitted by the husbandry and care staffs themselves.

455
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:08,560
I would like to weigh in as a journalist, as a taxpayer, as a member of the human race.

456
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,159
This story makes me embarrassed once again to be a human being.

457
00:34:13,219 --> 00:34:24,159
It makes me embarrassed to be a human being, to see the torture inflicted on these highly social, intelligent, sensitive, and it doesn't matter how smart they are.

458
00:34:24,159 --> 00:34:29,900
If you have somebody who's suffering severe dementia, does that mean it's okay to torture them?

459
00:34:29,980 --> 00:34:30,239
No.

460
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:31,380
Okay.

461
00:34:31,780 --> 00:34:35,260
So this is medieval.

462
00:34:37,159 --> 00:34:40,840
And politics aside, because we don't get involved in partisan politics.

463
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:42,780
We're a 501C3 nonprofit.

464
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:51,199
But the fact is, we all know, anybody who's looked at a newspaper in the last several months, that there's been a lot of cutting of government waste, hypothetically.

465
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:53,780
Why the heck is this still going on?

466
00:34:53,780 --> 00:34:59,160
These nonsensical experiments should be the very first thing to be cut.

467
00:34:59,840 --> 00:35:01,420
The very first thing.

468
00:35:01,940 --> 00:35:05,170
Injecting menstrual tissue into the abdomen of baboons.

469
00:35:06,100 --> 00:35:10,280
Creating hot flashes in monkeys by taking out their ovaries.

470
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:14,100
Making newborn monkeys wear helmets that plunge them into darkness.

471
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,130
This is sick, sick stuff.

472
00:35:17,130 --> 00:35:24,030
And I think the people doing these experiments need to be tested for their mental health.

473
00:35:24,690 --> 00:35:26,130
Are they sociopaths?

474
00:35:27,530 --> 00:35:29,610
And it's all about the money.

475
00:35:30,110 --> 00:35:31,270
Follow the money.

476
00:35:31,450 --> 00:35:34,390
This is a huge, huge business.

477
00:35:34,930 --> 00:35:40,650
And that's why I always have, when I talk about this stuff, a little video of money.

478
00:35:40,650 --> 00:35:44,070
Because that's what it's all about at the end of the day.

479
00:35:44,070 --> 00:35:51,050
The universities conducting these horrific experiments, when they get grants from the government, they get a cut.

480
00:35:51,350 --> 00:35:54,730
They get a cut, so they don't want them to stop.

481
00:35:55,630 --> 00:36:00,370
And these horrific experiments are going on in universities around you.

482
00:36:00,970 --> 00:36:01,070
Okay?

483
00:36:01,790 --> 00:36:09,230
The universities you walk by, they're happening inside closed doors in these universities.

484
00:36:09,630 --> 00:36:11,270
And it's got to stop.

485
00:36:11,270 --> 00:36:28,970
And I know the National Institutes of Health recently showed some promise in saying that they wanted to stop a lot of these ridiculous experiments and go to non-animal models.

486
00:36:29,210 --> 00:36:31,130
This is the 21st century.

487
00:36:31,590 --> 00:36:33,230
We have organs on a chip.

488
00:36:33,390 --> 00:36:38,130
We're not taking horses and buggies across town to get from point A to point B.

489
00:36:38,130 --> 00:36:41,270
There is no need to be doing these experiments.

490
00:36:41,710 --> 00:36:43,370
It's a waste of taxpayer dollars.

491
00:36:43,530 --> 00:36:46,430
And now we know it's a threat to human health.

492
00:36:46,430 --> 00:36:57,570
So I certainly hope when you have your meeting tomorrow, V, and I hope Thomas goes, too, if you can, to bring this up as breaking news.

493
00:36:57,570 --> 00:37:19,310
Because as you showed, everybody in that town, which is a very, very conservative, religiously oriented town, whether you're young, old, black, white, liberal, conservative, male, female, everybody's getting together and saying, we don't want this.

494
00:37:19,570 --> 00:37:21,270
So let's have some final thoughts.

495
00:37:21,270 --> 00:37:23,110
I'll start with Thomas.

496
00:37:23,690 --> 00:37:39,210
Your final thought on how this horrific discovery about the tuberculosis-infected monkeys coming into the United States might impact, A, your documentary on your battle to stop the Bainbridge, Georgia, giant monkey breeding facility, and, B, the battle itself.

497
00:37:40,330 --> 00:37:47,010
You know, one could hope that, well, my documentary is based on the battle, so it's all connected.

498
00:37:47,570 --> 00:37:49,850
One would hope that this would affect it immediately.

499
00:37:51,890 --> 00:37:54,550
But I've come to see that we don't know.

500
00:37:54,870 --> 00:37:58,290
The main thing is to stay vigilant every day and keep our eyes open.

501
00:38:00,390 --> 00:38:07,250
And I just want to say one other thing, because we were talking earlier about the diversity of the town, and you were talking about it being a religious town.

502
00:38:07,250 --> 00:38:17,090
And what's really, from the first night when Dr. Lisa spoke and you saw all the people, like, they were trying to tell her she couldn't speak anymore.

503
00:38:17,190 --> 00:38:20,050
She was asking for one more minute, and everybody said, she can have my time.

504
00:38:20,150 --> 00:38:20,870
She can have my time.

505
00:38:20,930 --> 00:38:21,770
People were applauding.

506
00:38:22,090 --> 00:38:22,570
You know what I mean?

507
00:38:22,670 --> 00:38:29,610
And being an animal rights activist for, like, a decade or more and vegan for 20 years this year, I couldn't believe it.

508
00:38:29,650 --> 00:38:33,370
You know, this is my hometown, and people are, like, praising PETA.

509
00:38:33,370 --> 00:38:42,830
And so as I interview people, so many people have talked about how, if you see the trailer we made, you see the people say, you know, bless PETA.

510
00:38:42,990 --> 00:38:46,990
We're grateful for PETA, because without PETA, they would have already been in there.

511
00:38:47,170 --> 00:38:49,810
Like, PETA really is a main part of the story.

512
00:38:50,510 --> 00:38:56,210
And so I went to a prayer meeting, speaking of the religion, and they were praying for PETA.

513
00:38:56,850 --> 00:39:04,830
So, yeah, it's a sweet thing that's happening there, but it's a sad thing that they're having to go through this.

514
00:39:05,070 --> 00:39:10,330
But people are waking up, and I hope that this wakes us up to other things, too, because everything's connected.

515
00:39:10,570 --> 00:39:22,030
You know, like, let's just start getting rid of Safer Human Medicines and all the companies like that that want to exploit monkeys and torture them in any way and let the monkeys live their life.

516
00:39:23,670 --> 00:39:25,070
Thank you, Thomas.

517
00:39:25,550 --> 00:39:30,250
I just can't thank each one of you are heroes to me, so I just thank you all.

518
00:39:30,650 --> 00:39:31,590
Well, right back at you.

519
00:39:31,650 --> 00:39:38,910
Can't wait to stream that documentary on Unchained TV, where you have other documentaries as well that have won awards.

520
00:39:39,150 --> 00:39:39,510
All right.

521
00:39:40,550 --> 00:39:44,810
Lisa, I'm going to give you the second word here, the second to the last word.

522
00:39:47,170 --> 00:39:52,390
You know, the CDC has closed the pipeline down before, has closed the borders before.

523
00:39:52,630 --> 00:39:59,190
When rabies outbreaks back in the 2020 through 2024, they shut that pipeline down.

524
00:39:59,210 --> 00:40:04,210
With monkeypox, with African rodents, they shut it down.

525
00:40:05,250 --> 00:40:07,970
Why will they not shut it down for TB-infected monkeys?

526
00:40:08,290 --> 00:40:10,390
Maybe because CDC is also a client.

527
00:40:10,650 --> 00:40:13,470
They are buying these monkeys from the importers as well.

528
00:40:13,470 --> 00:40:16,470
So I think that's another piece of this puzzle.

529
00:40:17,230 --> 00:40:32,110
And to Davina and Thomas, I will never, ever forget that moment after speaking at that first meeting and turning around and having your entire community standing and applauding, because you're right.

530
00:40:32,510 --> 00:40:37,630
I walked in there as a PETA person, and I thought, what am I stepping into?

531
00:40:38,130 --> 00:40:47,830
And this entire community has stepped up, and you've embraced the science, you've embraced the monkeys, you've embraced each other, and you've embraced us.

532
00:40:47,970 --> 00:40:50,010
And I am forever grateful.

533
00:40:50,610 --> 00:40:55,730
PETA is forever grateful for what you are doing, because you are the boots on the ground on this one.

534
00:40:56,790 --> 00:40:58,130
Wow. So emotional.

535
00:40:58,570 --> 00:41:00,430
Vee, we're going to give you the last word.

536
00:41:01,590 --> 00:41:02,910
Man, it's so much.

537
00:41:02,950 --> 00:41:05,130
This has been a journey, and it's still a marathon.

538
00:41:05,130 --> 00:41:07,970
It's still a fight, because I'm not done until I'm done.

539
00:41:09,050 --> 00:41:17,010
But I think this tuberculosis update is going to be a positive change for this fight.

540
00:41:17,650 --> 00:41:23,250
Just like when the monkeys got out in South Carolina, that kind of awakened something in a lot of people.

541
00:41:23,390 --> 00:41:24,150
It made it real.

542
00:41:24,630 --> 00:41:29,570
So I think this here is going to help a lot.

543
00:41:29,790 --> 00:41:33,690
And I want to say thank you to Dr. Lisa, Thomas, Miss Jane.

544
00:41:34,370 --> 00:41:37,070
Thank y'all, because this is a fight.

545
00:41:37,410 --> 00:41:38,350
It is a fight.

546
00:41:39,330 --> 00:41:40,950
Let me say this.

547
00:41:41,810 --> 00:41:44,370
I said you were going to have the last word, but guess what?

548
00:41:44,430 --> 00:41:45,790
I'm going to have the last word.

549
00:41:46,370 --> 00:41:53,730
I have been following PETA's work since almost they started, pretty much, when I was just a cub reporter in Philadelphia.

550
00:41:53,970 --> 00:41:58,910
And somebody sent me video of some horrific head injury experiments being done on primates.

551
00:41:58,950 --> 00:42:00,070
And I said, this is sick.

552
00:42:00,110 --> 00:42:01,030
We've got to stop it.

553
00:42:01,030 --> 00:42:03,890
And that was many decades ago.

554
00:42:04,250 --> 00:42:07,410
And PETA has been relentless ever since.

555
00:42:07,570 --> 00:42:08,750
And I am a huge fan.

556
00:42:09,550 --> 00:42:17,770
I was in Puerto Rico for a journalist conference when two women walked up to me.

557
00:42:18,370 --> 00:42:20,130
And it was many years ago.

558
00:42:20,270 --> 00:42:22,610
It was right the day Michael Jackson died.

559
00:42:22,750 --> 00:42:25,090
And I remember it was my biggest story ever.

560
00:42:25,310 --> 00:42:27,970
I covered that case for many years.

561
00:42:28,190 --> 00:42:29,810
And I was totally out of pocket.

562
00:42:29,810 --> 00:42:41,790
And I said, why is this happening that I'm out of pocket on the biggest day of basically the career that I had covering very big cases?

563
00:42:42,090 --> 00:42:48,050
And these two women walked up to me and they said, we're from the Puerto Rican Bar Association Animal Rights Subcommittee.

564
00:42:48,410 --> 00:42:54,810
And you know that they've built a giant monkey breeding facility in Guayama, Puerto Rico.

565
00:42:54,810 --> 00:42:57,970
And we can't stop it because they already built it.

566
00:42:57,970 --> 00:43:01,570
But it's in violation of all these codes.

567
00:43:01,650 --> 00:43:02,930
And they just ignored everything.

568
00:43:03,010 --> 00:43:04,230
And they just built this facility.

569
00:43:04,370 --> 00:43:05,190
And we're distraught.

570
00:43:05,270 --> 00:43:06,250
But we can't do anything about it.

571
00:43:06,250 --> 00:43:09,950
I said, never say you can't do something before you've tried.

572
00:43:10,470 --> 00:43:16,430
And PETA got involved and fought it all the way up to the Puerto Rican Supreme Court.

573
00:43:16,730 --> 00:43:19,870
And mind you, this was a facility that was already built.

574
00:43:20,170 --> 00:43:22,310
And it did not open.

575
00:43:22,890 --> 00:43:29,910
And it was I knew the reason I was there was to talk to those two women and to learn about that.

576
00:43:30,490 --> 00:43:41,070
And, you know, I did my little part, but it was PETA's relentless fight legally taking it all the way to the Puerto Rican Supreme Court that stopped it.

577
00:43:41,670 --> 00:43:50,510
And so I say that to you in the sense that this has been going on for a long time and it will keep popping up here, there and everywhere.

578
00:43:50,510 --> 00:43:54,630
But I will stay on top of this story.

579
00:43:54,790 --> 00:43:57,490
Please let us know what happens at this next meeting.

580
00:43:58,230 --> 00:44:00,210
And I look forward to your documentary.

581
00:44:01,030 --> 00:44:02,070
Never give up.

582
00:44:02,910 --> 00:44:07,210
That story is proof that it can be stopped.

583
00:44:07,570 --> 00:44:10,650
So I appreciate everybody coming to this event.

584
00:44:11,350 --> 00:44:23,250
Please know that Unchained TV is a nonprofit streaming television network to encourage the compassionate lifestyle and fight for animal rights.

585
00:44:23,730 --> 00:44:24,670
And it's all free.

586
00:44:24,790 --> 00:44:28,870
You can watch it online at unchained.tv.

587
00:44:29,170 --> 00:44:31,030
So it's a vegan Netflix.

588
00:44:31,330 --> 00:44:33,210
OK, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

589
00:44:33,230 --> 00:44:34,430
I love Unchained TV.

590
00:44:34,710 --> 00:44:37,450
Unchained. Unchained TV. Your life will change.

591
00:44:37,590 --> 00:44:38,590
It's just that easy.

592
00:44:38,590 --> 00:44:41,950
Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody.

593
00:44:42,470 --> 00:44:44,390
Unchained TV changed my life.

594
00:44:44,730 --> 00:44:47,490
Unchained TV is crushing it.

595
00:44:47,650 --> 00:44:49,170
I love Unchained TV.

596
00:44:49,430 --> 00:44:51,190
Unchained TV is my go-to.

597
00:44:51,530 --> 00:44:53,270
Unchained TV. Who knew?

598
00:44:53,990 --> 00:44:55,190
Unchained, baby!