Wellness Unmasked: MAHA, Vaccine Trust & Iran Threats: Dr. Josh McConkey on Health Policy, Military Readiness & Leadership

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show — "Wellness Unmasked: MAHA, Vaccine Trust & Iran Threats"

Date: March 3, 2026
Host: Dr. Nicole Saphier (guest hosting on the Clay & Buck platform)
Guest: Dr. Josh McConkey (Emergency Physician, Air Force Colonel, Author)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Wellness Unmasked features Dr. Nicole Saphier in conversation with Dr. Josh McConkey, focusing on the intersection of health policy, military readiness, vaccine trust, and national security. They analyze recent public health controversies—including COVID-19 vaccine messaging and mandates, military impacts, the "MAHA" movement (“Make America Healthy Again”), the State of the Union health omissions, and current international threats, especially from Iran. The conversation is candid, informed, and often pointed, offering insider perspectives on medicine, leadership, and defense.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. State of the Union: Health Policy Omissions

[03:48]

• Dr. Nicole Saphier opens by asking for Dr. McConkey’s State of the Union reaction, focusing on health, not politics.
• Dr. McConkey notes what wasn’t mentioned: no reference to the “MAHA” movement (Making America Healthy Again), no front-and-center role for Secretary Kennedy, and little on medical research or advances.

  “The big notable things are what were not mentioned.” — Dr. Josh McConkey [04:56]

• Reasons speculated: controversies around vaccine messaging, a perceived drift from evidence-based medicine for more espoused beliefs by leadership; perhaps presidential distancing from these topics.

2. Vaccine Policy Controversies & Senate Confirmation

[05:37 – 12:00]

• Discussion about Dr. Casey’s Surgeon General confirmation hearing:
  • Debate over Hepatitis B universal newborn vaccination.
  • Curiously, COVID-19 vaccines were not discussed in the hearing despite their prominence.
• Dr. Saphier details Dr. Means’ (another nominee’s) credentials and controversies: incomplete residency, lack of unsupervised clinical practice, “functional medicine” claims, non-disclosure of social media earnings, and her political alignment.

  “There’s a lot of question marks for me on there.” — Dr. Nicole Saphier [10:50]

• Dr. McConkey, not a pediatrician but ER doctor, worries about rhetoric politicizing vaccines:

  “They try to put a blanket anti vaccine rhetoric out there. I don’t think that’s truly the case, but…it’s controversial enough.” [07:25]

3. Public Trust in Health Authorities

[12:01 – 14:25]

• Dr. Saphier: “We’re at an all-time low in terms of trust.”
• Dr. McConkey: COVID vaccine research helped the vulnerable, but messaging was overly broad—especially regarding transmission.

  “I did feel that they could have been more honest…They came out with their blanket statement…unless you had really, especially in children, it didn’t prevent the spread of disease.” [12:28]

  • The messaging, in his view, backfired and fueled anti-vaccine sentiment.

  “You give that population just an inch…the government being dishonest, they just latch onto that.” [13:19]

4. The Pandemic Experience: Transparency, Trauma, and Mandates

[17:33 – 23:56]

• Decline in vaccine trust predated RFK Jr.; COVID “shot pusher” accusations, public confusion.
• The trauma of frontline work:

  “As an emergency physician, it sucked your will to live…just the stories…truckloads of bodies just thrown into refrigerated trucks.” — Dr. McConkey [18:47]

• Frustration with authorities denying evidence of natural immunity, and with heavy-handed mandates.
• Both grappled with being labeled “anti-vax” or “shot-pusher” from different sides due to nuanced stances.
• Military angle (Dr. McConkey’s experience as colonel):
  • COVID vaccine seen to increase pericarditis/myocarditis in young men, especially in the military. Israeli data highlighting these issues was ignored early by US officials.

  “In young healthy 20 year old guys you see a 600 increase in like pericarditis, myocarditis. I wonder what it could have been.” [22:51]

5. Military Readiness and Policy Shifts

[24:12 – 28:14]

• Presented challenges from COVID mandates for military readiness; rollback and compensation under new Secretary Hegseth.
• Dr. McConkey laments focus under Biden era on DEI and “checkbox” exercises at the expense of mission combat readiness.
• Media handling of national security:

  “The night before the interview, during the Biden administration, I got a list of things that I could not talk about. And number one, front and center, like this four-page document. I kept it. Don’t say the word China. Can’t say China.” [26:37]

• Praises the Trump administration’s focus on transparency and directness, resulting in a “massive increase in recruiting”.

6. Escalating Iran Threat & Geopolitical Risks

[31:23 – 34:11]

• Dr. McConkey contextualizes Iran as a longstanding and now heightened threat, compounded by past US withdrawals from Iraq and cascading destabilization.

  “Iran is a very, very bad group of leadership…hell bent on destroying the world, nuking Israel…if some of these reports are accurate…as little as one week away…you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon…World War III…we can’t let it happen under any circumstance.” [33:34]

• Operation Midnight Hammer’s effectiveness is “conflicting” in reports; urgency expressed about nuclear risk.

7. Inspiring Leadership: Dr. McConkey’s Book for Children

[34:36 – 36:05]

• Dr. McConkey introduces his “Be the Weight” leadership series for children (“The Heart of a Leader”), aiming to instill resilience and accountability from a young age.

  “Our best resource we have in this country, it’s teachers, coaches, volunteers, and families. That is what sets America apart.” [34:36]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On health policy silence:

  “There was a lot of things not mentioned. There was a lot that was mentioned with immigration…But I think the big notable things are what were not mentioned.”
  — Dr. Josh McConkey [04:56]

• On functional medicine credentials:

  "He made a face... For people who are listening. He made a face. And the thing is, I make the same face because I'm like, I don't know what that means."
  — Dr. Nicole Saphier [09:34]

• On COVID vaccine messaging fallout:

  “If you give that population just an inch of like, 'Oh, here’s the government being dishonest,'…they just latch onto that.…Now we had 500, 600 cases of measles.…What is this, the 1800s?”
  — Dr. Josh McConkey [13:19]

• On military censorship:

  "The night before the interview...I got a list of things that I could not talk about. And number one...Don't say the word China."
  — Dr. Josh McConkey [26:37]

• On leadership for children:

  "Our best resource...it's teachers, coaches, volunteers, and families. That is what sets America apart."
  — Dr. Josh McConkey [34:36]

• On Iran's nuclear threat:

  "If some of these reports are accurate...they may be as little as one week away from having that 90% enriched uranium, enough to have a nuclear weapon....we can’t let it happen under any circumstance."
  — Dr. Josh McConkey [33:34]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:48: State of the Union analysis (health policy focus)
• 05:37: Surgeon General hearing and vaccine controversies
• 12:01: Restoring public trust in the health system
• 18:47: Personal toll of the pandemic on medical workers
• 21:28: Vaccine mandates for children/military, inflammatory risks
• 24:12: Post-pandemic military readiness and policy
• 26:37: Military media restrictions — “Don’t say China”
• 31:23: Iran as an imminent nuclear threat
• 34:36: Dr. McConkey’s children’s leadership book
• 36:17: Closing reflections

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Tone & Style

The episode is frank, passionate, and sometimes skeptical—both hosts balance medical expertise with concern for public trust and readiness. The conversation is critical of recent health messaging and political censorship, supportive of transparency and American values, and ultimately ends on a hopeful, actionable note about teaching resilience.

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This summary covers all critical topics, direct quotes, and key moments as discussed by Dr. Saphier and Dr. McConkey. Structured for easy review and rich in insight, it is intended for those who want a comprehensive understanding without listening to the full episode.

Transcript

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[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Welcome to Wellness Unmasked. Today I am joined by Josh McConkey, who is a doctor and he's a military colonel. And we are going to discuss several topics that sits at the intersection of medicine policy and national security. We actually talk about COVID vaccination policy, how it helped people, but also how it hurt our military and its implications for military readiness. We're also going to talk about how some of the mandates affected service members, what we know about health outcomes, and the broader question, how do we balance protection with individual medical risk, but also national defense. We also dive into the State of the Union. What he thought was good, what he thought was missing the Maha movement, what we even talk about pending military relations with Iran. We cover a lot of it. Well, it has certainly been a busy time talking about health policy. We had the State of the Union. We have Senate confirmation hearings. So I'm very happy that we have Dr. McConkey on with us today to kind of help break it all down. Board certified physician. He was a professor and he also is an author. So he has a lot to say about these topics. Dr. McConkie, thanks so much for being with us today.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Thank you for having me on the show.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

So, obviously, the State of the Union, a lot of people tuned in. There were a lot of applauses. There were some outbursts. But I kind of want to get away from the political side of things because there were some very important things that were talked about. You know, from, you know, a big view from you. What was your take on the State of the Union?

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Well, I think from the healthcare side of things, I think some of the biggest notable points was what was not mentioned. And so in the previous State of the Union speech, when you talk about that Maha movement, making America healthy again, and, you know, had previously put, you know, Secretary Kennedy more front and center, there was basically no mention in this at all. And then most presidential administrations and prior addresses have talked about some type of medical advances. You know, they didn't mention anything as far as kind of research and those things. So there was a lot of things not mentioned. There was a lot that was mentioned with immigration, and there was a brief mention of how many people they were removing from the Medicaid scrolls. But I think the big notable things are what were not mentioned.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

So why do you think that is? I mean, I have my opinions, but let's hear yours first.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

You know, I've been reading some articles and some reviews on that, and I think a lot of the issues with the vaccine, you Know, specifically, you know, the hepatitis B and Covid vaccines. And, you know, that what. The perception being that, you know, that Kennedy and his administration are kind of moving away from evidence based studies and interjecting more of their personal beliefs into some of those recommendations. I think it's, it's causing a lot of issues and the President may be distancing himself from that. So it may have been intentional or maybe he just ran out of time. I guess that will be determined here shortly.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

You know, we have heard a little bit about, I don't know if you tuned in at all to the Senate confirmation hearing for Surgeon General Casey.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Me, Dr. Casey, I watched some clips.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Yeah. So I am someone who actually tuned in for the whole thing. I tend to do that in between seeing patients. It's, it's always fun, but I thought it was very interesting and a lot of the things that you just mentioned got brought up and it is controversial. And so I think that's probably why it could have been. He just didn't have enough time. But I think because it's controversial and it isn't very favorable with a lot of American people is maybe why it didn't get brought up in the State of the Union. But specifically the questions that were asked were hepatitis B vaccines, should it be universally recommended in newborns? And also interestingly for me though, the Surgeon General confirmation hearing, they didn't bring up the COVID vaccine. They didn't bring up Covid at all. And I found that a little surprising.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Wow.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Yeah. So I guess, I guess from my standpoint is when we talk about the Maha movement, I am able to, you know, I think it's kind of divided. I think you can talk about the health, you know, the wellness point, the making food healthy, healthier, and trying to get some of the stuff, you know, the artificial dyes and some of the stuff that already has been banned in other countries that we still have here in the United States.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Kind of nowhere else on the planet can you get those. Only in America. It's. That is quite, quite ridiculous. So I'm glad to see that being addressed as well.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Yeah, I think that, you know, there's no way you can't champion and cheer for that a little bit. I think unfortunately, some of that gets muddied by some of the vaccine talk. And what's your overall take on the Maha vaccine talking points?

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

You know, when you kind of lump it all together, you see so many people just dismiss it all and just want to throw the whole baby out with the bathwater. Them asking Some questions, you know, with the food dyes and just food security and addressing those issues, I think are a very positive thing. Those questions should have been asked and really addressed decades ago with the vaccines. You know, I certainly have some concerns that they try to put a blanket anti vaccine rhetoric out there. I don't think that's truly the case, but I think that it's controversial enough. I mean, I'm a physician, I practiced for 20 years. I certainly believe in vaccines. They've saved thousands and thousands of lives. You know, I certainly had some concerns with the COVID vaccine specifically, but the hepatitis B vaccine, I felt like it's a little bit more of a reach on their part to really almost politicize that. And I'm not a pediatrician, I don't do immunizations. I'm an emergency doctor. I see the repercussions of people who don't get those vaccines coming into my emergency department. But you know, as far as that, specifically with the hepatitis vaccine, I think there were a lot of valid concerns. Concerns. And with doctor Means, my understanding is that she hasn't clinically practiced medicine in quite some time. Did they address that there? I had seen just some clips, but when did she last practice?

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

So interesting. And I am not an expert in doctor Means credentials by any stretch of the imagination, but I can tell you from what I have gathered is very smart, bright woman. She went to Stanford Medical. Not very many people can say that. I certainly can't. Graduated in good standing, had a lot of research experience, had a head and neck surgical fellowship, or not fellowship, I'm sorry, residency, I think somewhere in the Northwest. And hard fellowship, hard residency to get. And she got it, but she went on a leave of absence and we don't necessarily know why. And she ended up not finishing her residency. And so as you know, you can become get your medical license, we have to, while you're a resident. So she does have a medical license, but she never completed residency. And I think that is where a lot of people are criticizing her because in terms of, you know, what she was trained to do, she's never actually practiced medicine unsupervised. She's always been a medical student or a resident who again, didn't finish residency. She then went on to start a company. I think she has a device company that sells like glucose monitors, which is interesting because obviously Secretary Kennedy, that's one of his big pushes is for people to have these glucose monitors. And I think, you know, I've heard that she practiced functional medicine, which is kind of, yeah, exactly. That's. He made a face. For people who are listening. He made a face. And the thing is, I make the same face because I'm like, I don't know what that means. I think that means that you focus on metabolic health. But, you know, it wasn't that she, you know, completed a residency and then did a fellowship or advanced training in this. I think she just. I don't know. I actually don't know what that means. And she doesn't have an active medical license right now, so she's certainly not seeing patients right now. And I don't know when the last time she was. And I actually don't know if she ever really saw and treated patients outside of residency. So there's a lot of question marks for me on there. It didn't come up as much as you would think. Yeah.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Does that mean she's not board certified then? In anything with the American Board of Medical Specialties?

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

I would say I don't believe so because she didn't finish residency.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

So I don't know. Again, I am not an expert in her credentials. I'm surprised it didn't come up as much as you would have thought, mainly because the doctors on the panel were Republican, and so maybe they were a little lighter on her. But for me, you know, that's one thing that has me kind of scratching my head there. Some things that did get brought up was, I guess she didn't disclose in some of she's an influencer. Right. So she makes money by posting on social media. And so she didn't disclose that she had financial gains from some of her posts, I guess. I mean, I'm not an influencer, so I don't really know how all that works. And then they asked her a lot of questions about the vaccines and birth control, basically about statements that she's made in the past, which, you know, she kind of did a little bit of an about turn with her responses in the Senate hearing. So. But I think you have to do that, right, if you're wanting to get confirmed.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah. Very, very interesting. So I've just seen some of those clips, so maybe if I get some time, I'll go back and watch that. But they're certainly. Those are notable, notable things.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Yeah. You know, I think it's very likely she will get confirmed. Obviously, she has the support of Secretary Kennedy, President Trump, and she's definitely aligned with the Maha agenda. I kind of would have liked to see someone to reach across the aisle a little bit more, maybe a little Bit involved with Maha because public health, I mean, as you know, I mean, think about since COVID I mean, we're at an all time low in terms of trust. Like what do you think it would take to bring back trust to the medical establishment?

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

You know, for me, I think the biggest concern, I mean, just talk about the COVID vaccine, you know, the research was there, it certainly saved a ton of lives. If you had risks, you know, if you were elderly population or youth with some, you know, medical problems, you know, diabetes, asthma, especially the respiratory issues. But I think what concerned me with the COVID vaccine itself is that I did feel that they could have been more honest. So when they came out with their blanket statement, hey, we want to immunize everybody, it's going to prevent the spread of the disease and we should give it to all these kids, you know, I had concerns there that unless you had really, especially in children, it didn't prevent the spread of disease.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Do you think they knew that the, that the transmission wasn't able to be stopped by the vaccine when they recommended universally?

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah, I don't think they knew that. And so they shouldn't have come out so hard with that messaging. And maybe it was the media that just caught onto it and pushed that narrative, but they really pushed like, you know, you have to get this, it's going to prevent the spread of the disease. And it didn't. And you know, there's both sides of the debate on that. But what it did is that just gave, just put fuel on the fire for the anti vaxxers. So the people that were looking for a reason to not want vaccines, where you push all those crazy autism links and they just were, they're clearly not there. The evidence does not support that. But if you give that population just an inch of like, oh, here's the government being dishonest, I don't think they really knew that it wouldn't prevent the spread of the disease. But when you came out so hard saying, hey, you have to take it to prevent the spread of disease, they just latch onto that. And now we had 500, 600 cases of measles in Texas a few months ago. And we're just, what is this, the 1800s? Like we're going to dial back the clock now on vaccines. So, you know, it's. That was my concern.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

You're listening to Wellness En Masse. We'll be right back with More Amazon

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[Dr. Nicole Safire]

It's pretty disappointing that we are on the brink of losing our eradication status for measles. I mean, it's not just the United States, to be fair. You have Canada, you have some areas in Europe, obviously Mexico and other places that are also having measles outbreaks right now. But I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, we started seeing a decline in vaccination rates Pre Covid, like 2019, a little bit of a dip. But since then, obviously it's gone down. People like to point fingers saying it's RFK Jr. But reality is it was happening before then. It all has to do with a lack of trust. And I'm 100% with you. They just needed to be more transparent. When it came to the COVID vaccine, I was one of the biggest things that people criticize me for is they say that, oh, I was a shot pusher, vaccine pusher, whatever they want to say about me on social media. And the reality is, yes, I was reporting on air many times a day, every single day since starting January 2020. And when we had operation Warp Speed, it was very exciting. Like, oh my gosh, we're potentially going to have a vaccine and maybe the hospitals won't be overrun. I think anyone who didn't work in a hospital during COVID they're the only ones who can say Covid wasn't real. Right. All you had to do was actually step foot into the hospital and know it was real.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

As an emergency physician, it sucked your will to live. I'm telling you, just seeing just the fallout of that and the patient deaths and the stories. You know, I've spent time in Australia and New Zealand as well. So I did spend some time in Australia during COVID and right after I had arrived there, you just hear the stories in Texas because I was in Texas previously and as well as North Carolina, where I'm at now. And I mean, just truckloads of bodies just thrown into refrigerated trucks because they didn't even have a place to put them all. And just, just the stories that were coming out, it was, boy, it's something I hope to never see repeated. They say it was one of those 100 year events like the Spanish influenza of 1918, I, you know, I've been practicing 20 years. I hope to never see anything like that again.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Yeah, and. But it was exciting for the COVID vaccine to come out because life as we knew it had really stopped. Businesses shuttered, children were suffering, adults were suffering. It was, I mean, being a coronavirus, you know, I had my suspicions that it's probably not going to stop transmission dead in its track. But they were saying it probably would. That's what they were saying was in that short term study, that it did

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

stop transition and just the conferred immunity. Once you have a disease, you generally will build those antibodies. Early on they were just pushing that. Oh, there's no confirmed immunity. And for me, I'm a biologist, I have a degree in biology, practiced medicine for 20 years. So you're telling me that in the history of disease, in the thousands of years of mankind, this is like the one disease where you don't build some natural antibodies to that. And I questioned that early on, but don't say anything or you get crucified.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

We know is untrue.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Obviously we know now, but they were pushing that early on as well. And I think people were scared. They just didn't know what they didn't know. And we had not in our lifetimes had not seen a pandemic like this before. So I think everyone was just scared. And fear kind of ruled the day rather than actual science.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

We.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

When I went to Australia, I was locked in a hotel room for two weeks.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

They were very harsh in Australia. I mean, people in and out of the country.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah, with my wife and three children. We were locked in a hotel room. As soon as we were checked in, we couldn't open the door, the windows were bolted shut. You couldn't even go out on the patio. And we're up on the seventh or eighth floor and you know, just. I'm.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

So you're getting all the circulating air, but you can't.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Oh yeah, you can get the circulating air and spread that all over. But what if I stepped outside and I coughed and a particle fell on someone seven floors below? You know, it's just, it was so bizarre. Just the complete. Just ignoring like science and germ theory and how everything works. I lived it. It was bizarre.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

I mean, really, common sense went out the window. And anytime you actually tried to mention common sense, things that we had been taught 20 years ago, all of a sudden you were turning into a conspiracy theorist. And for me, you know, the idea of trying to get back to normalcy with the COVID vaccine, I'M like, yes, I'm all for it. Weight should do it. Obviously high risk should do it first and you know, anybody else who wants it should do it. But then when they started mandating the kids to do it, that is when I took a pause. Being a mother of three, I had concerns because of the sense that one, we already knew overwhelmingly that healthy kids were extremely low risk. But we were also seeing those cases of mis c in kids which was that ant that inflammatory response from the virus. My concern was if kids are getting this weird inflammatory response from the virus, we're now going to give them a dose that's higher than the virus in this vaccine. Are they going to get an even higher inflammatory response to the vaccine? I wrote about it a lot, I talked to a lot of people about it and everyone really kind of just kept saying, shh, shh, no, we're not saying this, there's no evidence to suggest this. And so then I started saying, I am not for this. And then I turned into an anti vaxxer. So half of the population were like, you're pushing the clot shot as people like to call it, quote unquote. And then the other half is like, oh, you're an anti vaxxer. I'm like, well I can't be both, so choose.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah, I mean, so in the military population, I'm a colonel in the Air Force reserves, I was military commander. And in young healthy 20 year old guys you see a 600 increase in like pericarditis, myocarditis. I wonder what it could have been. You know, I mean there's no doubt, but I mean if you talk about it like woo, you know, they want to crucify you.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

But yeah, if you talk about it. Israel even tried to alert us with data early on about young men, adolescents, early 20s, and it was really pushed aside by our public health officials for months. And you know, this isn't necessarily supposed to be a talk about COVID and the vaccine, but it's just these moments are what took us so far away from being trusted in the public's eye. And now we have a new administration, which I was very happy for because this is an administration who wanted, allowed us to have these conversations, wanted to roll back a lot of the mandates. But my concern is that we're not necessarily making the moves to regain public health and we actually may be going a little farther from that.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah, definitely concerning and I think you probably saw that reflected. That's why he didn't talk about that specifically. That's My feeling in the State of the Union address, and we'll kind of see where the administration goes from here, but I think he senses that as well and it concerns a lot of people.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

So what is your take? You know, pivoting a little bit. We now have Secretary Hegseth. We're kind of coming out of COVID They're trying to roll back those mandates. They're paying back people who maybe, you know, were removed from the military, lost some of their funding from like a national security and readiness standpoint. Where do you feel like we're at with recruitment? From the health of the military, physical health, but also just having a robust military.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

So for me, I've always been very supportive of the administration's stance that the military has a terrible, terrible job to do. So when we're called on, we unleash lethality. And I've served in combat. I have carried body bags of American heroes in Iraq. In 2007, I was there when they were shooting down helicopters. I arrived the day I landed in theater. They shot down one helicopter, one of ours. It was about eight helicopters in a two week span. I was there. They killed the flight surgeon, Colonel Allgood, just before I got there. And when you start taking the attention of the military and putting out on things that don't really add to that ability to deliver lethality and train as a military commander, I will tell you that an ordinate amount of my time was spent on DEI things and cbt, computer based training and, you know, diversity and inclusion, they can be great things. That's what I love about America. My squadron had people from all walks of life, ethnicities, religions, colors, just everything. It was wonderful. But when you make that your singular focus, instead of focusing on the absolute mission, we did a big exercise in the Pacific Northwest. So this was AAB's cadusa. So ultimate caduceus. This is a big military exercise where they're planning on patient movement in like the Pacific theater. It was clearly in response to military aggression of China against Taiwan. And I did an NBC interview. This is involving the national disaster medical system, the Department of Defense, the va, all the civilian hospitals. And this was at joint base Lewis McCord in Seattle, Tacoma area. And the night before the interview, during the Biden administration, I got a list of things that I could not talk about. And number one, front and center, like this four page document. I kept it. Don't say the word China. Can't say China.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Who's who from who the do.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah, yeah. So there's Department of Defense and Then there's the public affairs who get their marching orders from, you know, whatever matchcom who get their orders from. So somewhere along the line, the public affairs officer, he sits down. These are the things I can't talk about, cannot say the word China. So sure enough, the very first question that the embassy anchor asks is this exercise in response to Chinese aggression against Taiwan. And in my mind, my mind is just exploding. I'm like, you've got to know this is an annual exercise that we do every year. This year just happens to be in the Pacific theater because we were exercising all the way from Guam and like Okinawa, all the way to Seattle and then Elmendorf up in Alaska, like, and we actually flew aircraft. We flew aircraft with simulated patients and then farmed them out on helicopters to Spokane and Boise and very big exercise. And just don't say the word China. And that concerned me in that knowing what the national security objectives are and what we were preparing for, but you don't want to upset the Chinese, so don't say China on national tv.

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[Dr. Josh McConkey]

we follow orders. You know, we have a civilian led military. I'm very strong believer in that. I had some much differing opinions than leadership at that time, but I followed orders. And I'm very happy to see the Trump administration have that much different approach and the focus now being put on the right things. And I think you're seeing that reflected in a massive increase in our recruiting. It was very, very hard to recruit during the Biden administration for some very obvious reasons.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

More coming up on Wellness unmasked with

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[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Heading into, I mean we all over the media right now is the conflicts going on with Iran. What is your take on that?

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

So Iran has been one of our largest national security threats for decades. Having served in Iraq and then seeing after the withdrawal, Even specifically in 2011, us going into, you know, the Middle east and then you disrupt that government. That check that we had on Iran, Saddam Hussein was a very, very bad dude, but taking him down let Iran just run completely wild. So we removed the big force, the big check against Iran and then when we bailed in 2011, which I also thought was, was a mistake. When I was there in 2007, it was the largest air base and then second in traffic only to London Heathrow. And, you know, you're there to take care of the men and women that are serving this country. Politics aside, we serve for those men and women. And I carried those body bags, I took care of those men and women, those real heroes. And I thought, you know, we're going to be here for the long term. This will keep that check on Iran. And then as soon as we left in 2011, you had Iran come in there and just set up the whole isis, you know, state and really gave everything exploded, I mean, all the way to like Syria and, and then, you know, what happened in Israel, you know, October 7th in 2023. I mean, these cascading effects of just bad decisions. So Iran is a very, very bad group of leadership. You know, the Iranian people, they're just no different than anyone else. They want education, they want food for their families. But I mean, the leadership there is horrific. They are hell bent on destroying the world, nuking Israel. You know, you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. And if some of these reports are accurate that I'm hearing, they may be as little as one week away from having that 90% enriched uranium, enough to have a nuclear weapon that.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

What about Operation Midnight Hammer? I mean, we were told that that was supposed to have taken most of it out.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

There's conflicting reports there, depending who you talk with in the administration, but the most recent reports, and I think why you're seeing these talks that we're having right now getting so heated and so focused on if they get that capability, it will be extremely bad. I don't want to be hyperbolistic, but if they get a nuclear weapon, I mean, World War III is going to be, it's going to be horrific. Like just we can't let it happen under any circumstance, under any administration. That cannot happen. So whatever we need to do to prevent that is what needs to happen.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Well, I think President Trump, if anyone's going to be forthcoming with doing what needs to happen there, I believe it would be him. So I guess that gives me some sort of peace in a very, very dangerous time. Yeah, I wanted to get this in. I know you're a very, very busy person, but you actually wrote a book that was a Pulitzer pry nominated book, obviously is very good. And it's turned into something even bigger than that now in a children's series. Can you just tell us quickly about that?

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Yeah, thank you very much. So my personal leadership ethos, be the weight behind the spear. That's my call to action for people to engage their communities. Because our best resource we have in this country, it's teachers, coaches, volunteers and families. That is what sets America apart. And as a military commander, as an emergency physician, I had just seen an entire generation that lacked leadership skills, they lacked resiliency. I mean, as an emergency doctor, I see the anxiety, the depression, the suicide. And as a military commander, just we have a long way to go to teach this generation, you know, some of these skills. It's really hard to do when they're 20 years old. So there's a lot of push ups and there's a lot of yelling and physical fitness and just we need to start earlier. So getting involved at five, six years old, I've now turned that into a children's book series, the Be the Weight series. And our first book, the Heart of a Leader, behind me here, we've won the, the gold seal from the Mom's Choice Awards as well, as well as several other awards. But this is how you teach kids about leadership. So the sub. The next books are going to be about resiliency and just some of those really important skills and accountability. So when you ask, how do you teach a five year old these skills? Well, we got a fantastic book with Joe Yakovetic, a world renowned illustrator, had done a lot of Disney illustrations, Lilo and Stitch and Little Mermaid, like legit. So I was very blessed to have him jump on board and we're pretty excited about the series.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Well, I love that. Maybe fewer drag queen storytime hours at the local libraries and more children's books on resilience. Thank you so much, Colonel and Dr. Josh McConkey, so appreciate your time.

[Dr. Josh McConkey]

Thank you very much.

[Dr. Nicole Safire]

Well, we covered a lot there, so let me figure out how I'm going to wrap all of that up. First and foremost, I really appreciated his insight and time when it came to discussing the COVID vaccine and how we just didn't know a lot in the beginning. You know, I personally, you've heard me say it over and over again. I didn't like the way it was handled from a public health standpoint. I didn't think they were very transparent on things, but I don't think a lot of it was nefarious. I think it was just rapidly moving information. And while their ultimate goal was to save lives, they definitely muddied it and took us far away from trust in public health. It's going to take a really long time to get back to it. I have my concerns. Whether or not the Maha movement is actually helping us regain public trust or taking us farther away, there are a lot of good things coming out of the Maha movement also some things that are a little frustrating as a physician to watch. I also thought it was very interesting to talk about military readiness, how the COVID vaccine obviously negatively impacted a lot of young, healthy men because that's what we like to see in the military and how we had recruitment efforts were very hard during the Biden administration. And how about that? How about the fact that he was told he can't even talk about China when talking about national security? I mean, that's, that's concerning. I'm glad that we find ourselves now where we're able to be more transparent and we are not afraid to talk about some of our foes across the world and have a little bit more of an American first mentality. Whether we're talking about our physical health, mental health, or national security, everything is aligned. Thank you so much for listening to Wellness and Mass. I'm Dr. Nicole Safire. Be sure to tune in every week to Wellness unmasked on iHeartRadio Apple Podcasts, wherever you eat your podcasts and we'll see you next time. To remind you that 60% of sales on Amazon come from independent sellers, here's Jess from Planetary Design.

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[Dr. Nicole Safire]

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