Speaker 1: It's nice eyes.
Speaker 2: I'm going Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm a great job. Thanks very much for that kind introduction.
Speaker 1: As we head off on a four hour flight of
Speaker 1: conversation here on night Side every Monday through Friday night,
Speaker 1: Rob Brooks the great producer back at the control room
Speaker 1: at the broadcast Center, and I basically throw some topics
Speaker 1: out for discussion and conversation, and most often you folks
Speaker 1: are interested in comply. We have four quick guests coming
Speaker 1: up here in the eight o'clock hour, just very briefly
Speaker 1: at nine, we're gonna give you every piece of information
Speaker 1: you will need to protect yourselves and your family against
Speaker 1: what will be the onslaught of ticks if you go
Speaker 1: outside in New England. This year, tick Man Dan joins
Speaker 1: us for one of his annual visits with just a
Speaker 1: lot of great information. And then we will celebrate the
Speaker 1: decision by the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, along
Speaker 1: with the Department of Health and Human Services to phase
Speaker 1: out all petroleum based artificial food dies in the nation's
Speaker 1: food supply. And I'll tell you many people thought Robert F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy Junior was a little different. Well on this one,
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with him more and he has done
Speaker 1: a great job, and we'll discuss that and give him
Speaker 1: the credit that he is due. But first let's get
Speaker 1: to our guests. We're going to start for off with
Speaker 1: Adriana o'conness. Adriana, Welcome to night Side.
Speaker 3: How are you hi, Ked'm good? How are you?
Speaker 1: You're just fine. You're a consumer credit card analyst for
Speaker 1: US News and World Report, and it looks as if
Speaker 1: we are wallowing we as a country, a wallowing in
Speaker 1: ignorance when it comes to the value of credit cards,
Speaker 1: how much we are spending on credit cards. And I
Speaker 1: guess more than half of us don't even know that
Speaker 1: there's something called a FYCO score, which is a really
Speaker 1: important thing to know about what's going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we since April is Financial Literacy Month, we
Speaker 3: wanted to do a survey kind of gauge consumers general
Speaker 3: financial knowledge, and we found about half of respondence, about
Speaker 3: fifty three percent didn't know that your FYCO score is
Speaker 3: what lenders look at to determine your credit worthiness. And
Speaker 3: actually over forty percent of people were confusing Fyco with
Speaker 3: one of the credit scoring heros, so they thought FICO
Speaker 3: was experience or equafax.
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny because I did not know what FYCO
Speaker 1: stood for. I know what it is, obviously, I get
Speaker 1: a member of these credit bureaus and trying to make
Speaker 1: sure that my credit stays in good shape. I'm somebody
Speaker 1: who goes over my credit card bill every month with
Speaker 1: a fine tooth comb to make sure that nothing else
Speaker 1: is on that credit that credit bill that I perhaps
Speaker 1: didn't pay for. Every once in a while, some you
Speaker 1: catch something. But the point is FIGO I've learned today,
Speaker 1: and I will admit I looked it up stands for
Speaker 1: fair Isaac and Company, which is just an acronym for
Speaker 1: a predecessor of one of the credit score companies.
Speaker 3: H Yeah, and it's it's fine because we don't expect
Speaker 3: consumers to know like what FYCO stands for. But it's
Speaker 3: just really important that consumers know that what their FYCO
Speaker 3: score is because so many either confuse it for one
Speaker 3: of the bureaus or didn't know outright that that's what
Speaker 3: lenders look at to determine their credit worthiness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what how do we solve this? I mean,
Speaker 1: I do believe last night we had well actually I
Speaker 1: think it was two nights ago. We had a high
Speaker 1: school teacher along with a student, a group of students
Speaker 1: who are going to a financial literacy competition the Massachusetts
Speaker 1: state champion. So there are schools. In this case, it
Speaker 1: was Lexington High School, famous town, you know, the Battle
Speaker 1: of Lexington and conquered or conquered in Lexington. Which order
Speaker 1: you put it in depends upon where you grow up
Speaker 1: or where you live, right, And so one school is
Speaker 1: doing a great job. They have these kids who were
Speaker 1: really savants and they they they would run circles around me.
Speaker 1: And I think I have some level of financial knowledge.
Speaker 1: But what's going on with the rest of the country.
Speaker 1: I mean all these people who are just blowing through
Speaker 1: their credit card schools. I mean this is dangerous stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and a lot of it just comes down to
Speaker 3: the blind leading the blind. Because we asked consumers like, hey,
Speaker 3: where do you get your financial advice? Where do you
Speaker 3: go when you've got your financial questions? And almost fifty
Speaker 3: percent of respondents said that they seek out their financial
Speaker 3: advice from friends and family, you know, and the as
Speaker 3: far as like reading online publications, you know, like US News,
Speaker 3: you know, only twenty five percent admitted to getting the
Speaker 3: information they needed from online publications, and we even found
Speaker 3: out over thirty percent don't seek out financial advice at all.
Speaker 1: Do they do? They get their medical advice and their
Speaker 1: legal advice from like their uncle Hubert? I mean you.
Speaker 2: Do?
Speaker 1: Actually do actually? Do they actually go to like a
Speaker 1: doctor or a lawyer if they if they have a medical.
Speaker 3: Legalist, you wouldn't go to uncle Hubert for a medical opinion,
Speaker 3: Like why would you go to aunt Carrol when you
Speaker 3: have a question about your finances?
Speaker 1: I guess it's convenient. I don't know what other other answer.
Speaker 1: I got a question about my finances. Here. One of
Speaker 1: the things that people do young people, they get credit
Speaker 1: cards and they think, who time to just buy? What?
Speaker 1: How big at a big screen TV? Can I buy?
Speaker 1: You know, I want one bit, say four hundred inches diagonally? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I could put it on the side of the house.
Speaker 3: But yeah, a lot of back, yeah, a lot of
Speaker 3: a lot of what we found is like when we
Speaker 3: asked consumers like, hey, like your first credit card, like,
Speaker 3: be honest, did you max it out? You know? And
Speaker 3: about forty percent of respondents were like, yeah, I maxed
Speaker 3: out my first credit card, And the reasons why are
Speaker 3: pretty much what you expect. You know that I was
Speaker 3: young and dumb. I had there were so many things
Speaker 3: to buy and I had so little income, so I
Speaker 3: just put it on my credit card, you know. So
Speaker 3: it's it makes sense. You know a lot of young
Speaker 3: consumers they get that first credit card and they don't
Speaker 3: have that guiding hand, so they end up over sending
Speaker 3: and as a result, they can end up maxing out
Speaker 3: that credit card.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the things I find out really early
Speaker 1: when I got my first credit card, which is a
Speaker 1: long time ago, I said, wait a, say, I'm being
Speaker 1: charged an annual fee by this company to have a card. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's not going to work. I called them up and
Speaker 1: I said, want to cancel the card? Cancel the card,
Speaker 1: And the nice person in the end Refluence, said well,
Speaker 1: why do you want to do that because you're charging
Speaker 1: me a fee. You're charging me a fee. Oh, we
Speaker 1: can remove that fee if you'd like, Okay, then don't
Speaker 1: cancel the don't cancel the.
Speaker 3: Card, ye make I always recommend to consumers and readers like, Hey,
Speaker 3: if you're you're struggling and you can't do that financial fee,
Speaker 3: call up your instrum and see how they can help you.
Speaker 3: If they can't waive the fee, they'll more than likely
Speaker 3: try and give you like some sort of credit so
Speaker 3: that way they can kind of help ease that financial burden.
Speaker 3: But honestly, it never hurts to call an ask.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that most of the credit crowd companies
Speaker 1: now have gotten away from charging the fee because they
Speaker 1: think that there are enough of us who are young
Speaker 1: and dumb or old and dumb who pay off. You know,
Speaker 1: the ten percent that you know your credit card bill
Speaker 1: of fourteen hundred dollars you only have to pay how
Speaker 1: forty that sounds like a great deal, right, yes? And
Speaker 1: then the twenty seven percent compounded interests daily or hourly
Speaker 1: adds up.
Speaker 3: Let's possibly go wrong?
Speaker 1: Hen Yep, absolutely, I take such pride at the end
Speaker 1: of the year in December because I love to look
Speaker 1: at the amount of interest that I haven't paid on
Speaker 1: my credit card bill. Pay it full, get rid of it,
Speaker 1: move past it. And if you find it's cost you
Speaker 1: do too much, then guess what, you know, just just
Speaker 1: back off a little bit. You sound to me like
Speaker 1: someone who really knows this subject. And how can people
Speaker 1: follow some of your your writing in your wisdom at
Speaker 1: US News and World Report.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Dan. They can head on over to
Speaker 3: money dot usnews dot com and there they'll be able
Speaker 3: to find all the information they need on credit cards, mortgages,
Speaker 3: personal loans. You know, don't let Aunt Carol talk you
Speaker 3: into a card with an annual fees, like come read
Speaker 3: our reviews first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and to get Uncle Hubert at all. I mean,
Speaker 1: the guy's been in the attic all these years. He
Speaker 1: knows nothing, he's never.
Speaker 4: Had a card.
Speaker 1: In fact, last guy you want to talk to, Hey,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. Thanks, Adriana, we'll talk again.
Speaker 4: I hope, thank you so much, so good, thank you.
Speaker 1: All Right, we come back with a look at a
Speaker 1: different sort of dilemma, and that is how strange, how
Speaker 1: strained female relationships either amended or ended. I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk with an author. She's a gender expert and best
Speaker 1: selling author, Susan Shapiro, And I guess female friendships, how
Speaker 1: would I know, are more difficult to sort of maintain,
Speaker 1: cultivate than guy friendships. Maybe we're just more transactional and
Speaker 1: probably not as as deep. I don't know. We'll figure
Speaker 1: it out, Susan Shapiro. Coming back on the other side,
Speaker 1: I also want to remind you, as I've done a
Speaker 1: couple of times already, that we have some big news
Speaker 1: from iHeart. iHeart has just been named the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five Podcast Company of the Year by the Webby Awards,
Speaker 1: also known as the Oscars of the Internet. iHeart snagged
Speaker 1: fourteen wins and we could not be prouder. Shout out
Speaker 1: to the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for
Speaker 1: bestowing this incredible honor and showing just such good judgment.
Speaker 1: You can find all these award winning podcasts on the
Speaker 1: free iHeartRadio app. You can go and check them out
Speaker 1: right now. Just download that new and improved app. You
Speaker 1: can make WBZ your first preset on the app too,
Speaker 1: by the way, which means you will never be more
Speaker 1: than a fingertip away from being in contact wherever you
Speaker 1: are in the world with WBZ. Three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: five days, twenty four seven, My name's Dan Ray. Were
Speaker 1: come on right back talking about the complexity of female friendships.
Speaker 2: If you're on Night Side with Dan Ray on wb Z,
Speaker 2: Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to talk about something that I know
Speaker 1: nothing about. There's a lot of things I know nothing about,
Speaker 1: and one of them, is the strain that exists in
Speaker 1: female friendships and how those friendships are either ended or mended.
Speaker 1: We're don to talk about the complexity of female friendships.
Speaker 1: I have friendships with a lot of females, but that's
Speaker 1: not the type of friendship we're talking about with us,
Speaker 1: is gender expert and best selling author Susan Shapiro. Susan,
Speaker 1: I guess I always assume that friendships between women were
Speaker 1: similar to friendships between men. Sometimes friendships last your entire life,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you get disappointed. But I guess it's a
Speaker 1: little different according to your research. Tell us about it.
Speaker 5: Oh, it's totally different. And women hold the bar so
Speaker 5: high in these female friendships, and we actually feel that
Speaker 5: husbands or partners come and go, and jobs change and
Speaker 5: you move from here to there. But the female friend,
Speaker 5: the best friend or the closest friend, that's you know, forever,
Speaker 5: and it's just not what it is and things are
Speaker 5: really changing based on my research.
Speaker 1: So how did you get interested in this issue in
Speaker 1: the first place. I mean, obviously there must have been
Speaker 1: something that prompted you to to get just you know,
Speaker 1: get down and dig a little deeper here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's true. This is my fourteenth nonfiction book, and
Speaker 5: for each of my studies, I'm looking at how women
Speaker 5: really feel versus the faces we wear, and how women
Speaker 5: are positioned in contemporary American society, which means a patriarchal culture.
Speaker 5: So female friendship is, you know, something we've been taught
Speaker 5: since we were young, that it's just forever, and yet
Speaker 5: women in real time are saying, you know, my friend
Speaker 5: betrayed me. My friend didn't respect me. It hasn't been
Speaker 5: an equal relationship. My friend has a drug problem, a
Speaker 5: drinking problem, and I can't be her enabler anymore. My
Speaker 5: friend let someone get between us. You know, everything must
Speaker 5: fine until I found a new partner. Now it's a
Speaker 5: triangle and doesn't treat me the same. So we're seeing
Speaker 5: lots of real stories where women from twenty to eighty
Speaker 5: concided that they're now doing something that has to happen
Speaker 5: before and that it's their estranging and they're feeling empowered
Speaker 5: by that act.
Speaker 1: Okay, probably empowered, but maybe a little guilty too. I
Speaker 1: guess it's difficult here. It sounds to me, so has
Speaker 1: this one.
Speaker 5: They always you're right. I mean, it's not like a
Speaker 5: slam dunk. I mean, it takes a while and miss
Speaker 5: the friend.
Speaker 1: So has this always existed amongst women, or have they
Speaker 1: all of a sudden as they have spent more time
Speaker 1: working and in the dog eat patriarchal world that you mentioned,
Speaker 1: has that added to the complexities for them? Or is
Speaker 1: it something that that is something women have been dealing
Speaker 1: with since the Stone Ages.
Speaker 5: Women have been dealing with it but not really facing
Speaker 5: it because we've all been told that these friendships have
Speaker 5: to last, and that that's our safety haven.
Speaker 1: But I who told you? I don't understand that. Who
Speaker 1: told them that? I'm a little confused on that point.
Speaker 5: Did they learn that in school little messaging? Our mothers,
Speaker 5: our aunts are teachers, female teachers, They've all, you know,
Speaker 5: just it's been the story that sure there. I did
Speaker 5: a whole study in two thousand and six on female
Speaker 5: competition and rivalry. It's called tripping the prom queen. So
Speaker 5: it isn't that women haven't always known that there can
Speaker 5: be jealousy or competition among us, but that we were
Speaker 5: also always told that the true friend and this book
Speaker 5: is about your closest friend. It's not just about an
Speaker 5: acquaintance or someone you're not that close with. And how
Speaker 5: that person is someone you can rely on and it's
Speaker 5: not always the case. And what's interesting is that in
Speaker 5: the last two elections, and with vaccines and with raising
Speaker 5: children with or without vaccines beyond the COVID vaccine, these
Speaker 5: decisions have been very divisive for women. So some of
Speaker 5: the younger women in the study have said, you know,
Speaker 5: my friend and I don't have the same values anymore,
Speaker 5: and I can't live with that. I'm not comfortable anymore.
Speaker 1: And women didn't do that, just so I understand what
Speaker 1: you're saying there. Okay, so you're saying that when you
Speaker 1: mentioned the elections, I assume you're talking about presidential elections.
Speaker 5: I am. I am the last soul where it was
Speaker 5: like a line in the sand.
Speaker 1: If your bestie, if your bestie for thirty years all
Speaker 1: of a sudden confides in you that they've decided to
Speaker 1: vote different than you have in this election. It's like
Speaker 1: when a husband tells a wife that you know they're
Speaker 1: going to vote differently. That destroys a thirty year relationship.
Speaker 5: Not always, but for some women it seemed to be
Speaker 5: a deal breaker that when their values weren't the same.
Speaker 5: It was in the last two years when I started
Speaker 5: this research, you know, on a deadline to get the
Speaker 5: book finished, and I was listening to so many women,
Speaker 5: and it was a very diverse group of women, and
Speaker 5: they kept saying that things seemed more black and white
Speaker 5: than it used to be, not so great, and that
Speaker 5: was just one of the deal breakers, which was interesting.
Speaker 1: I've done politics for a long time and it's it
Speaker 1: was always black and white in terms of Democrat and Republican.
Speaker 1: I know that everybody likes to say, let's go back
Speaker 1: to the good old days. Unfortunately, sadly, there were there
Speaker 1: have been elections throughout you know, our retireity street going
Speaker 1: back millennium, not millennium, but a couple of centuries where
Speaker 1: they've got a really, really nasty let me come back
Speaker 1: to So you've defined the problem for particularly women, and
Speaker 1: I suspect that there have been some men who decided
Speaker 1: that their best bowling buddy now is going to vote
Speaker 1: off from them, that that costs some male relationship some
Speaker 1: male friendships too. But I have no research like you have.
Speaker 1: So what do women have to do to to basically,
Speaker 1: I guess, get past this obstacle? Or is it just
Speaker 1: an obstacle that unfortunately is going to be there forever
Speaker 1: well in.
Speaker 5: Terms of having different values.
Speaker 1: It really in terms of not being able to say
Speaker 1: to a close friend, you know what. You and I
Speaker 1: disagree on this, Okay, I mean, but you're still my
Speaker 1: best friend and I'll vote this way, you vote that way.
Speaker 1: Let's go have a drink. How do you how do
Speaker 1: you get past? Now? I'm not just talking about the election,
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden you're going to lose a
Speaker 1: friend over something, I don't know what, whether it's an
Speaker 1: election or all of a sudden you find out that
Speaker 1: your friend is a closet Yankee fan. I've known you
Speaker 1: all these years, You've gone to be with you with
Speaker 1: Red Sox games, and now you have a picture of
Speaker 1: Derek Jeter in your apartment. Why didn't you tell me
Speaker 1: I'm never speaking to you again. I'm trying to write
Speaker 1: this up.
Speaker 5: A little bit, okay, but Dan, it doesn't really play
Speaker 5: out like that. I mean, it's that's just one section
Speaker 5: of the book. But in my study, women talked about
Speaker 5: being betrayed by a friend, feeling that the friend didn't
Speaker 5: respect them, they weren't treated equally. The friend had chosen
Speaker 5: a very different lifestyle.
Speaker 1: So what's the solution. Unfortunately, I'm getting close to my
Speaker 1: to the end of our time here, and I'm having
Speaker 1: fun with this. I'm really enjoying this conversation. I think
Speaker 1: you and I, if we have had dinner together, we
Speaker 1: would either be friends or would be screaming of each other.
Speaker 1: But so, what can women do? How do you? I
Speaker 1: know it must be horrible when you feel that a
Speaker 1: friend of thirty or thirty five years turns out to
Speaker 1: disappoint you, and I'm sure there's plenty of ways that
Speaker 1: can happen. How do you do you have to just
Speaker 1: kind of ignore it? Or do you have to say
Speaker 1: that's it, I'm finding a new bestie.
Speaker 5: Well, women aren't that good at confronting people. You know,
Speaker 5: that's not their favorite things, so they don't.
Speaker 1: Really met My wife Susan go ah, okay, well a
Speaker 1: lot of I'm teasy. I'm trying to or my daughter.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to lighten it up here at you what what? What?
Speaker 1: What advice? Well? Better yet, I think what women should do?
Speaker 1: So I think they should buy this book so that
Speaker 1: that we've we've outlined the problem, and I hope that
Speaker 1: that you've provided perhaps some solutions, potential solutions.
Speaker 5: There are solutions there and ideas. Just stranging and feeling
Speaker 5: okay about it is one of the solutions for sure.
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent, okay, Susan. When is the book out? Is it?
Speaker 1: Is it already out?
Speaker 5: Book is just out now?
Speaker 1: Good? Good? Great? Okay, So they can find it at
Speaker 1: I'm sure Amazon are great bookstores. It's simply called I believe.
Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, tell me estranged how strained female friendships
Speaker 1: are mended or ended?
Speaker 5: Perfect?
Speaker 1: Corrects? All right, thanks joined the conversation. I really did.
Speaker 1: I like to get into this stuff, even though it's
Speaker 1: a set relatively brief period of time. Uh uh. And
Speaker 1: I listen to everything you said, and I'm taking it
Speaker 1: into consideration and I really appreciate great.
Speaker 4: Thanks very much.
Speaker 1: Susan, You're very welcome. Okay. We got the news coming
Speaker 1: up at a thirty and then we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about a big team walk for cancer care involving the
Speaker 1: Lowell General Hospital up in Lowell, which is a great facility.
Speaker 1: And we'll also talk a little bit later on at
Speaker 1: eight forty five with the Center for Disease Control weighing
Speaker 1: some end options of universal COVID vaccine recommendations. Talking with
Speaker 1: doctor Shira Doron, who's been with us many times. We'll
Speaker 1: be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 2: You're on Nightside with Dan Ray on w b Z,
Speaker 2: Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you very much, Emma. As always as
Speaker 1: we will continue our conversations here in the eight o'clock hour.
Speaker 1: Like to introduce Bruce Robinson. Bruce, welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Dan, Thank you for inviting us.
Speaker 1: Bruce is on the board of trustees. He's also the
Speaker 1: development chair at Lowell General Hospital. And you folks have
Speaker 1: a big team walk for cancer Care coming up, not
Speaker 1: this Sunday, but the following Sunday. Tell us about this.
Speaker 1: Is this a new effort to pull your team together
Speaker 1: or is this an annual event that has been going
Speaker 1: on for some time at Lowell General.
Speaker 4: This is, in fact, Dan our twenty six annual Team
Speaker 4: Walk for Cancer Care. So this has been a long
Speaker 4: standing event that we do once a year, and over
Speaker 4: the twenty five years to date, we've raised over sixteen
Speaker 4: million dollars and we've been able to provide help for
Speaker 4: over forty two thousand patients who are fighting cancer.
Speaker 1: Wow, twenty five years, sixteen million dollars. So you folks
Speaker 1: raise quite a bit of money every year. It looks
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the flyer that you folks sent to us,
Speaker 1: and I guess you have a parking at the Songus Center,
Speaker 1: which makes it easier. This event goes rain or shine.
Speaker 1: It starts at eight o'clock on that Sunday morning, May fourth.
Speaker 1: It's a three mile walk, so that's a relatively easy route.
Speaker 1: You know, not for everybody, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: can do the three miles kind of circum navigates. Well,
Speaker 1: tell us about tell us where you how much of
Speaker 1: woe looks at me like your walkers are going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of the city of Lowell. Tell us
Speaker 1: about the well, you know, just the experience. First of all,
Speaker 1: we can talk about how.
Speaker 4: Is your.
Speaker 2: Absolutely it is.
Speaker 4: It is a great day. I can tell you, Dan,
Speaker 4: it's my favorite day of the year. My wife knows.
Speaker 4: It's not my anniversary, it's not my birthday, it's not
Speaker 4: the holidays. It is Teamwalk for Cancer Care because the
Speaker 4: money we raise is a little bit different than other
Speaker 4: cancer raising efforts. We're not looking to find a cure.
Speaker 4: Every dollar we raise stays here to help our patients
Speaker 4: in the Merrimack Valley fight this disease. There's all kinds
Speaker 4: of unknown expenses that happen as a result of this.
Speaker 4: So people need help with transportation getting back and forth
Speaker 4: for radiation or chemotherapy. People need wigs, they lose their
Speaker 4: jobs temporarily. We help pay bills, We buy medications, we
Speaker 4: buy prosses, whatever people need. They've got a big enough
Speaker 4: shore fighting cancer, and what we're trying to do is
Speaker 4: to make that fight a little bit easier in any
Speaker 4: way that we can.
Speaker 2: And as long as.
Speaker 4: You're being treated at our cancer center, that's what we do.
Speaker 4: The day itself, you are asking about seeing quite a
Speaker 4: bit of oil. The walk is absolutely gorgeous. We feature
Speaker 4: not only downtown l but we also walk a good
Speaker 4: part of the walks along the banks of the Merrimack
Speaker 4: River on the River Walk, and it is if you've
Speaker 4: never done that, it is really a showcase for the
Speaker 4: CEOL to see the rushing river and the mills and
Speaker 4: the rapids. It's really quite something. So people that come
Speaker 4: don't worry about the three miles. It's all flat. We
Speaker 4: have lots of people that come with baby carriages. We
Speaker 4: have people to come with their well behaved dogs, you know,
Speaker 4: it takes a little woe for an hour, and we
Speaker 4: have free coffee and donuts when you get there. We
Speaker 4: have face painting for the kids. We have a scavenger
Speaker 4: huts for the kids. It's very much an upbeat day.
Speaker 4: And my favorite part of the walk in is when
Speaker 4: the Canter patients come in. Their share givers are there
Speaker 4: at the finish line, putting metals on them, congratulating them
Speaker 4: for making the effort and completing their journey. So it's
Speaker 4: it is really a superior day. It is very very upbeat.
Speaker 4: It's not a down day. There's certainly a lot of
Speaker 4: remembrances of people that we lost, but more than that,
Speaker 4: there's so many hopes and encouragement of people that are
Speaker 4: fighting the fight and have beaten the disease. And that's
Speaker 4: the message people need to know that if you get
Speaker 4: the diagnosis, don't give up the ship. The fight's just beginning,
Speaker 4: and this walk celebrates that spirit.
Speaker 1: That's funny. I'm talking with a friend of mine today
Speaker 1: in South Dakota and got a pretty tough diagnosis last fall.
Speaker 1: And again, you don't think of South Dakota as being
Speaker 1: one of the medical meccas of the world, with all
Speaker 1: due respect to my friends in South Dakota, but he
Speaker 1: was told this week that you know, he went through
Speaker 1: everything he had to go through wasn't easy. Uh, but
Speaker 1: but he tells his doctors have told him, you know,
Speaker 1: he's free of cancer. And just to hear him express
Speaker 1: out on the phone today was was amazing. In terms
Speaker 1: of everything that you mentioned about the schedule and the
Speaker 1: flat walk, I want you to know you had me
Speaker 1: with the magic words for free coffee and donuts.
Speaker 4: Dunkin Donuts there They've been with us for so many years.
Speaker 2: And not just you know.
Speaker 4: Not just the Plaine Donuts. We have crawlers and sprinkles,
Speaker 4: the whole.
Speaker 1: I mean. My favorite is the glaze sticks. I mean
Speaker 1: the regular plain glaze sticks. I mean because so you know,
Speaker 1: and again, if if dunkin Donuts and playing blaze sticks
Speaker 1: were illegal, I would be you know, arrested for for
Speaker 1: a variety of reasons. You know, I probably would be
Speaker 1: you know, holding them or something. But look, it sounds
Speaker 1: like a great event. Let's talk about you welcome new folks.
Speaker 1: Obviously you've got a great cadri already. How can people participate?
Speaker 1: Can they just sign up the day off or do
Speaker 1: they have to join ahead of time. Is there a
Speaker 1: minimum to participate? What's the given? No, give us the details.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we want to make it as easy as possible
Speaker 4: because everyone is in a different phase of their life
Speaker 4: right now with all the turmoil going on.
Speaker 2: So this is easy.
Speaker 4: If you want to come that day and just walk,
Speaker 4: you can do it. But what we really would like
Speaker 4: people to do to help us raise funds is if
Speaker 4: you go to our website teamwalk dot org. You can
Speaker 4: go right there and you can make a donation. You
Speaker 4: can support a walker or a team, you can offer
Speaker 4: to volunteer at the event if you want onto, or
Speaker 4: or just once again, just make a donation online. So
Speaker 4: it couldn't be any easier. And you know, WBZ has
Speaker 4: a big part of this walk and has had for
Speaker 4: a number of years. Your traffic reporter in the morning,
Speaker 4: Lori Grandy is one of our co hosts along with
Speaker 4: Channel five Cindy Fitzgibbon. So they are there and they've
Speaker 4: been very strong partners for OZ and so thanks to
Speaker 4: WBZ for Laurie.
Speaker 1: Well, I know both of them, and you have somebody
Speaker 1: that can get you there safe and sound as a
Speaker 1: traffic reporter and someone who can make sure that the
Speaker 1: weather will be good that day. I mean, you got
Speaker 1: every continuency covered here, Bruce.
Speaker 4: If I had a leprechan I'd use that as well.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, and utilize the pot of gold that
Speaker 1: hopefully the leprechaun could lead you. If there any leprechauns
Speaker 1: out there have a pot of gold. Again, give us
Speaker 1: that website one more time so folks.
Speaker 4: Can get into it wwwteamwalk dot org. And it it's
Speaker 4: very simple, very easy. Even I can use it.
Speaker 1: So that's how I'm going to make it even simpler
Speaker 1: for you. You don't need the www dot anymore. It's just
Speaker 1: teamwalk dot org. Trust me, that www Dot thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, And I'm not like mister sophisticated when it
Speaker 1: goes to that stuff. Teamwalk dot org. Everybody be there
Speaker 1: a be square Sunday, May fourth, free parking at the
Speaker 1: Songa Center. Great cause they're not looking for a cure.
Speaker 1: They're looking for Their cause is to help people who
Speaker 1: are dealing with some form of cancer at Lowell General Hospital.
Speaker 1: And free coffee and donuts Dunkin Donuts. What more could anyone?
Speaker 4: And we all we say is just please give a
Speaker 4: little bit and guess what you'll be making a difference
Speaker 4: in the lives of so many of our friends and neighbors.
Speaker 1: Dan sounds great. Bruce Robinson, I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Your great sport. We talk about we talk during this
Speaker 1: hour of the program about some serious subjects. Theres nothing
Speaker 1: more series areus than cancer, obviously, and for you to
Speaker 1: have the spirit that you have and your walkers, it's inspirational.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to say thank you very much for what
Speaker 1: you do.
Speaker 4: Thank you, sir, We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All Right, we get back. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: a different issue, and that is universal COVID vaccine recommendations
Speaker 1: with doctor Shira Doron. We'll be back on Nightside right
Speaker 1: after this.
Speaker 2: Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, COVID is still around all appearances, sometimes to
Speaker 1: the contrary, and whenever we talk about COVID, we like
Speaker 1: to check in with doctor Shira Dorone, the chief infection
Speaker 1: control officer for Tough's Medical Medicine and the hospital epidemiologist
Speaker 1: at Tufts Medical Center. And we're talking tonight with doctor Dorone,
Speaker 1: who I must immediately say, great to have you back.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming back, doctor Dorone.
Speaker 6: Wonderful to be back with you, and.
Speaker 1: We are going to talk tonight. I guess the CDC,
Speaker 1: and I assume this is because there's a new leadership
Speaker 1: team at the cd to see are weighing some changes
Speaker 1: in the universal COVID vaccine recommendations that we have all
Speaker 1: become used to over recent years. Am I off too
Speaker 1: far off based on that?
Speaker 6: Well, no, I'm glad you said it that way, because
Speaker 6: I do want to clarify that the CDC's Advisory Committee
Speaker 6: on Immunization Practices did meet last week. They are an
Speaker 6: independent external advisory committee, and they discussed covid vaccines, but
Speaker 6: not you know, in this conversation, not under the influence
Speaker 6: of the new administration.
Speaker 1: Okay, So then it seems to me, and I'm looking
Speaker 1: to depoliticize this conversation, and I think you are as well.
Speaker 1: It seems to me that just because these recommendations might
Speaker 1: sound to be more comfortable to the Trump administration and
Speaker 1: people in leadership of the Trump administration than maybe the
Speaker 1: Biden administration, which might have been a little more strident
Speaker 1: on this, it's not their influence is not. This is
Speaker 1: this is an advisory committee that is a standing committee.
Speaker 1: I guess that maybe at some point in time President
Speaker 1: Trump will be able to appoint, but at this point
Speaker 1: it's a committee that's a holdover committee from the Biden years.
Speaker 6: Is that that's exactly right. The members are the same,
Speaker 6: and their meeting materials were generated before the new administration
Speaker 6: took over. The meeting was supposed to happen in February.
Speaker 6: It was postponed, but they actually shared a survey of
Speaker 6: the work group members on COVID vaccines, and the survey
Speaker 6: results show that they already had these opinions before the
Speaker 6: new administration place. So there is a lot of confusion
Speaker 6: about that because there are some new headlines today that
Speaker 6: might suggest otherwise.
Speaker 1: Well, as a journalist, and I'm a talk show host,
Speaker 1: but primarily I'm a journalist, I'd like to try to
Speaker 1: make sure we clarify that. So having done that, these
Speaker 1: new recommendations, if adopted, might make the advisories a little
Speaker 1: less stringent. If that's a word that I an aeducate
Speaker 1: that I could employ.
Speaker 4: Correct, that's right.
Speaker 6: And I wasn't actually expecting this conversation, but I agree
Speaker 6: with it. So the Advisory Committee discussed a pretty major
Speaker 6: change that they would vote on at the next meeting
Speaker 6: in June, and that change is to shift from a
Speaker 6: universal recommendation on COVID vaccination, so everyone over the age
Speaker 6: of six months gets an initial and an annual vaccine,
Speaker 6: to a risk strategy that is really focused on people
Speaker 6: at high risk with risk factors.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now I'm not a medical professional, noll I played
Speaker 1: one on the radio, but I was very sympathetic to
Speaker 1: young people, a group that I left many years ago,
Speaker 1: who were saying we're not sure, you know, particularly young
Speaker 1: people who were thinking about having a family, young women.
Speaker 1: There was a Massachusetts State Police trooper who, amongst others,
Speaker 1: a female trooper who they lost their jobs because they
Speaker 1: did not comply with the obligation to get a vaccination.
Speaker 1: They actually were given some consideration and they said, well,
Speaker 1: you don't have to get a vaccination. That's the good news,
Speaker 1: but the bad news is that since you're not getting
Speaker 1: a vaccination, we have no positions left and we're going
Speaker 1: to have to terminate you from the state police because
Speaker 1: we want to make sure everyone in the state place.
Speaker 1: I'm using them as an example because I'm aware of
Speaker 1: it interface with the public, and we cannot afford to
Speaker 1: allow you interface with the public unless you're vaccinated. So
Speaker 1: it was kind of a you know, ultimate catch twenty
Speaker 1: two if you hit my drift. So I was very
Speaker 1: empathetic to young people. I mean, COVID might be extremely
Speaker 1: I got all my vaccinations FRO. I'm vaccinated up. But
Speaker 1: is this the sort of flexibility you think that this
Speaker 1: advisory panel is talking about, that you don't treat a
Speaker 1: twenty nine year old woman the same as you do
Speaker 1: you treat an eighty five year old man, if you
Speaker 1: know what I'm trying to get.
Speaker 6: At exactly, so that you know, age would be one
Speaker 6: of the major risk factors that would be considered in
Speaker 6: the new recommendations. For sure, age is the number one
Speaker 6: risk factor for severe COVID and other things like being
Speaker 6: immuno compromised, having heart or lung disease. You know, those
Speaker 6: are some of the things. You know, it's too late
Speaker 6: to sort of go back and re litigate the concept
Speaker 6: of the vaccine mandate or the vaccine passport. As you
Speaker 6: recall when you couldn't go into certain restaurants and things
Speaker 6: were very different when we had overwhelmed hospitals full of COVID,
Speaker 6: which we don't have anymore. And we also had that
Speaker 6: early clinical trial data on COVID vaccines that showed that
Speaker 6: they were ninety five percent effective at preventing the infection.
Speaker 6: That unfortunately did not last. And now as we know,
Speaker 6: people who are vaccinated continue to get infected over and
Speaker 6: over again. It just hasn't been the kind of vaccine
Speaker 6: that provides that sort of long term, strong protection, unlike
Speaker 6: say the music vaccine, which is that way. And so
Speaker 6: it's time it's time to rethink that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think there were a lot of people
Speaker 1: back then who I remember when they said, you get
Speaker 1: the vaccine, you'd be all set, you won't get COVID.
Speaker 1: Then they said, well, if you get the vaccine, a
Speaker 1: likely event you get COVID, it won't be bad. And
Speaker 1: then they said, yeah, you might have to go to
Speaker 1: the hospital, you might have a bad case, but you
Speaker 1: won't die. But they were people who got vaccinated.
Speaker 6: Who died, that's right, And they weren't we And these
Speaker 6: weren't lies, right, they weren't lies. Things were changing, things
Speaker 6: were actually changing over time.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: And so one of the issues really is you know
Speaker 6: that I think is the most compelling reason to make
Speaker 6: this change in recommendation now is that those those feelings
Speaker 6: that people had about having, in some cases being forced
Speaker 6: to get the vaccine when they weren't ready, and seeing
Speaker 6: that people who were getting the vaccine did get infected,
Speaker 6: to get hospitalized, did die, some of that is contributing
Speaker 6: to today's vaccine skepticism about other vaccines. It's contributing to
Speaker 6: the decreased uptake in say, routine childhood back nation, which
Speaker 6: then in part is leading to outbreaks like the current
Speaker 6: measles outbreak that's really raging in Texas and surrounding states.
Speaker 6: And so if we can sort of pull back on
Speaker 6: some of the absolutism as it relates to co vaccine,
Speaker 6: the hope is that we could regain some of that
Speaker 6: public trust or trust in public health.
Speaker 1: We could agree with you Moore, and I also thought,
Speaker 1: again there was sort of the great unknown twenty nine
Speaker 1: year old woman who was hoping maybe at some point
Speaker 1: in her life to have children. There there was no
Speaker 1: indication as to what the implications of taking the vaccine
Speaker 1: would have been. So anyway, we lived and we learned.
Speaker 1: Let's put it like that, doctor Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: doctor Drone for coming on with us, because you always
Speaker 1: explain things so clearly, and I'm sorry if I stumbled
Speaker 1: a little bit in the beginning. I wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that we got it right from the start. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your for your cooperation.
Speaker 6: Tonight, and thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Your good nature. Thanks so much. All right, good night.
Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to tell you everything.
Speaker 1: Well I won't, but tick me and Dan will tell
Speaker 1: you everything you need to do about ticks, how to
Speaker 1: prevent being bitten by a tick, and what to do
Speaker 1: if you get a tick so you don't get lime disease.
Speaker 1: We got it all coming up for you, lots of
Speaker 1: good information and we'll take all questions for the next
Speaker 1: hour back on nightsight after this