Video summary
The video explores one of history's most sinister hypothetical bioweapons: a genetically modified strain of *Yersinia pestis* engineered by Soviet scientists to induce euphoria in its victims before causing illness and death. This unique modification was designed not only to make the disease more contagious but also to trick people into gathering at social events like discos, thereby accelerating transmission rates exponentially once their high spirits faded and they collapsed from infection. The speaker highlights how this concept of a "happy plague" represents pure evil because it weaponizes human psychology alongside biology, creating a scenario where infected individuals unknowingly become vectors for mass spread before succumbing to the disease.
The narrative then shifts to examine why such an outbreak would be particularly devastating in modern urban environments like Los Angeles, specifically within homeless encampments which act as dangerous super-spreader events due to poor air circulation and high population density. The speaker explains that despite advanced surveillance systems like BioSense designed to detect outbreaks early across thousands of hospitals, the millions of Americans without access to healthcare or integrated into these monitoring networks create a critical blind spot for public health officials. When an infected individual from such a vulnerable community travels back to populated areas, they can inadvertently trigger a rapid chain reaction that overwhelms containment efforts before authorities even realize the severity of the situation.
Ultimately, the transcript reveals a disturbing reality about how governments might respond when faced with an uncontrollable biological threat: once the outbreak escalates beyond initial warning stages, strategic priorities shift from protecting human lives to safeguarding critical infrastructure such as power plants, water systems, and military facilities. The speaker notes that in war-gaming scenarios involving fast-moving pathogens like plague, society can devolve into chaos within just six days, at which point emergency forces are deployed not to save the population but to secure essential resources against anarchy. This conclusion underscores a profound lack of trust in current systems and suggests that without immediate transparency and containment from host nations, even well-prepared military units may arrive too late to prevent civilizational collapse.
Read the full video transcript
Why did I choose plague? I chose it for
an incredibly sinister reason that is
based in science because I I am a
non-fiction author. Biological warfare
scenario is sold in the non-fiction
section.
The Soviets, and this is what Dr. Heim
told me.
Part of the Soviets super plague weapon
they were working on
is they engineered into
the the Yersinia pestis bacteria
a gene for euphoria.
Stay with me here.
Eupho- You get plague, you get flu, you
get sick, you go home and you get under
the covers.
And you do not infect as many people as
you would because
>> Lassitude. Yeah.
>> [gasps and sighs]
>> They infected a gene for euphoria
because they wanted people to be if you
have euphoria, you might you want to go
to a disco.
>> Wow.
>> And when what Heim told me that that
really sort of freaked out these Soviet
doctors and scientists and said, "That
is straight-up evil that you would
actually think that through." And that's
why I chose that because I wanted it to
have an analogy in the real world.
>> So does yours have the euphoria thing in
it?
>> Absolutely. It is genetically modified
to have euphoria. So the first 24 hours
people are spent euphoric and they only
essentially collapse into the disease
when the euphoria wears off and now
they're shedding
>> Mhm.
>> [clears throat]
>> bacteria. They're infecting people like
nobody's business and they've been at
places like discos.
>> Mhm.
Okay, so you got a bunch of happy people
dancing around. How does that
transmission chain begin in your book?
>> The transmission chain begins I'm I'm
not going to totally spoiler alert all
my plot points but outbreak in in in
Siberia.
You happen to have a group of
international hunters
who come across a scientist
when they get on their planes
to go home to five or six of the seven
continents
>> in a great mood
>> in a fantastic mood
one of them shot a wolf
you know
and
there begins the spreading
>> Mhm.
>> I also have a scientist that goes to a
priest to confess what he's done.
and
a person there
gets infected who is a student at UCLA,
gets on a plane and is immediately in
Los Angeles. So the outbreak
spoiler alert here but this you learn
this pretty much in the beginning. The
outbreak happens in Los Angeles
in a homeless camp because I learned
from all the epidemiologist that I work
with
that
the homeless population is so incredibly
dangerous to public health epidemics.
>> Why?
>> [snorts]
>> After 9/11, the CDC created a nationwide
syndromic surveillance system called
BioSense.
So you have 7,000 more than 7,000
hospitals, urgent care facilities,
emergency rooms ex
feeding information to the CDC in real
time
about an outbreak so that an outbreak
stops before it becomes an epidemic,
before it becomes a pandemic.
>> Mhm.
>> America's 800,000 homeless people
are not part of that system.
All of the epidemiologist I talked to
spoke of their great fear about
transmission occurring in that kind of a
situation.
>> And
Los Angeles is kind of ground zero for
that.
>> We have 75,000 homeless people.
We have 4,000 homeless people on Skid
Row
with no health care, with no
facilities.
>> We're way past
the time where America could have just
nuked the host country.
>> We're at hour 24:36.
Absolutely. I mean, you know,
containment is possible. You could if
you had if you had transparency from the
host nation, right? If Russia had asked
in my scenario.
>> by them, though. There's no time. You
can't even get to Russia in the amount
of time you need to contain it.
>> Well, you can. We have people in Russia.
>> I Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fair, but you know,
you don't have You're right. The
resources to be able to galvanize
100,000 hazmat suit-wearing special
forces people to go and say hey stay in
this area and a ba ba ba ba ba, you
know, set up barricades and and sentry
checkpoints and all that sort of stuff.
>> Although, we actually do. Like, if you
could contain something before it
balloons and becomes huge. And this is
the same in the United States. I take
the reader through Once the outbreak
happens, you learn. You know, we have a
a force or
it's called a CBRN response force here
in the United States. Chem Those are
That's the WMD. Chemical, biological,
radiological, nuclear. They all train
the same We have 18,000
individuals that are ready to go at all
times.
>> But, they wouldn't that 18,000 people
are in America.
>> Yes.
>> So, it is on the host nation.
>> Yes.
>> It is on the host nation.
>> And Russia has those same Their troops
are called Arkabaza. They have those
troops, too, and they could deploy them.
And they do, and that's what happens in
this scenario. Once we see they've
deployed those troops, we know. But now
it's too late.
>> Right. Right.
>> Now the cat's out of the bag.
>> Right. So, speed from a containment
perspective from a from a
restriction of how lethal this could be,
speed of containment is
>> everything.
>> paramount, most important.
>> Everything. Everything. Everything, and
it could be stopped. And then you have
the same situation in the United States
where it could be stopped. But this is
where we get into your brilliant
analogy, which is that no one trusts the
system.
And that's where you see in the scenario
that I write everything breaks down. And
to have learned as I did that what
really
makes the Defense Department
extremely uneasy is not necessarily the
original outbreak but the secondary
effect of anarchy and insurrection that
happens in response.
>> When does devolution happen?
>> So,
in the scenario I write because we're
dealing with plague which is fast. It's
a fast killer.
I take the reader from outbreak
to anarchy in 6 days.
That is how fast it happens. And on day
six we have devolution. Devolution
>> Okay, okay. Well, we'll get In that case
we'll get to that. Uh so, homeless
encampment LA student get UCLA student
goes back.
LA's not great, densely populated.
>> He's a pre-med student and he does pro
bono work
there at the at Skid Row.
>> Which is literally the worst place for
him to be.
>> And he gives, you know, that's a super
spreader event. Those homeless camps are
super spreader events. And that's what
happens.
>> What What are the
contributing elements or the
characteristics of a super spreader
event? High density
>> Yeah. Poor poor
poor air flow.
>> Right.
>> So, you got you know, tens
>> good air flow if you're in a
>> tents
>> outdoor environment, if you're under
[clears throat] a bridge.
>> No, it's tents. It's inside tents. But
more than anything what you have as a
very serious problem. First of all, you
know, you've got free clinics. I mean, I
spent quite a bit of time down on Skid
Row interviewing people about this. Um
and you've got you know, no public
health care. You've got long lines for
these free clinics.
And you have first responders. You have
these brilliant nurses and doctors who
work down there, a lot of them pro bono
also,
diagnosing people. You're trying to
differentiate between fentanyl
overdosing, you know, tuberculosis,
flu acute flu real serious problems that
almost every homeless person has
physical health problems with what looks
like a bad cold.
And you know, coughing up blood
another, you know, mistaken for
alcoholism. So, I take the reader
through the science of this so that you
can really see the close proximity of
alarmism and there's nothing wrong here.
>> Which everybody wants to do. They want
to reassure the populace. They want to
try and stave off the anarchy and the
civilizational
citizenry collapse.
But also by doing that, you
don't galvanize the sort of response
that you need to stop it from happening.
>> And when you do galvanize it, what was
really the most surprising to me was
that once
once so the once the Defense Department
goes from what's called warnord, that's
a warning order,
to exord, which is execution order,
right? That's like get ready to go and
go with guys in biohazard suits
to try to mitigate damage, it's too
late.
It's too late and I was really stunned
to learn that at that point the pivot is
not let's try and protect the
population, it's let's we need to
protect critical infrastructure.
>> What does critical infrastructure
consist of?
>> Everything that keeps society running,
roads, water systems,
um of course nuclear power plant, every
single DOD facility. And that's where
those initially the 18,000
CBRN forces in their suits and their gas
masks go and then the entire Defense
Department gets deployed. And what's
really shocking is again, this is not
Annie's imagination. These are war
gaming
situations that are gamed out.
>> Most people don't realize how much being
dehydrated impacts their performance,
which is why for the last 5 years I've
started pretty much every morning with
element. Element is a tasty electrolyte
drink mix with everything that you need
and nothing that you don't. This orange
salt in a cold glass of water is like a
sweet salty orangey nectar and I really
tell the difference when I take it
versus when I don't. It plays a critical
role in reducing muscle cramps and
fatigue, helps to optimize brain health
and regulate your appetite while also
curbing cravings. Best of all, they have
a no questions asked refund policy with
an unlimited duration, so you can buy it
and try it for as long as you want and
if you don't like it for any reason,
I'll just give you your money back.
Plus, they offer free shipping in the
US. Right now, you can get a free sample
pack of elements most popular flavors
with your first purchase by going to the
link in the description below or heading
to drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom.
That's drinklmnt.com/
modern wisdom.
Congratulations, you made it to the end
of a clip and the full length episode is
available
right here.
Come on.