public health crisis

In mid-June, cases of monkeypox were in the double digits in the United States. There were drug treatments and vaccines against it. There didn’t seem to be any reason for alarm.

But in the weeks since, the virus has spread rapidly across the country, with some local and state officials declaring public health emergencies.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Longstanding weaknesses in the American public health system are giving monkeypox a chance to become entrenched.
• Here are answers to three pressing questions about how the virus spreads and how it can be treated.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Bret and Chris discuss medical tyranny, the rapidly unravelling public health narrative, and the upcoming anti-mandate march on Washington.
 

Find Chris Martenson on Twitter: @chrismartenson 

Find Chris at Peak Prosperity: https://www.peakprosperity.com/

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Find Bret Weinstein on Twitter: @BretWeinstein, and on Patreon. 

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Theme Music: Thank you to Martin Molin of Wintergatan for providing us the rights to use their excellent music.

As my colleague Ben Smith wrote in an August profile, sociologist Zeynep Tufekci has “made a habit of being right on the big things.” She saw the threat of the coronavirus early and clearly. She saw that the public health community was ignoring the evidence on masking, and raised the alarm persuasively enough that she tipped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toward new, lifesaving guidance. Before Tufekci was being prescient about the coronavirus, she was being prescient about disinformation online, about the way social media was changing political organizing, about what election forecasting models could actually tell us, about the rising threat of authoritarianism in America.

Tufekci attributes this track record to “systems thinking,” which she believes holds the key to forming a more accurate understanding of everything from pandemics to social media to the Republican Party. So I asked Tufekci to come on a podcast for a conversation about how she thinks, and what the rest of us can learn from it. 

In answering those questions, we discuss why public health experts were slow to change guidance on disruptive measures like masking and travel bans, the logic of authoritarian regimes, why Asian countries so decisively outperformed Western Europe and America in containing coronavirus, why Tufekci thinks media coverage of the vaccines is too pessimistic, the crisis of American democracy, whether a more competent demagogue will succeed Donald Trump, and much more.

Mentioned in this episode: 

 “How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right” by Ben Smith

“Why Telling People They Don’t Need Masks Backfired” by Zeynep Tufekci

“Can We Do Twice as Many Vaccinations as We Thought?” by Zeynep Tufekci and Michael Mina

“America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be Much More Competent” by Zeynep Tufekci

Recommendations: 

"Groundhog Day" (movie)

"Normal Accidents" by Charles Perrow

"The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Rogé Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.

Sam Harris speaks with Siddhartha Mukherjee about our ongoing failure to adequately respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss the significance of asymptomatic spread, the lack of Chinese cooperation, the failures of testing, travel restrictions, the missteps of the FDA and the CDC, controversy around masks, the lack of coordination among the states, conspiracy thinking about mortality statistics, the political contamination of public health information, electronic medical records, preparing for the next pandemic, the immunology of Covid-19, the long term consequences of the disease, concerns about a vaccine, the coming prospect of school openings, and other topics.

If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.

Note: This episode contains strong language.

The upheaval and anguish caused by the pandemic led to a series of actions that cost both the captain of an aircraft carrier and the head of the Navy their jobs. Today, we explore how the coronavirus has created a crisis inside the service.

Guest: Eric Schmitt, who covers terrorism and national security for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• In a letter that leaked to the news media, Capt. Brett E. Crozier described what he said were the Navy’s failures to provide the resources to combat the virus spreading aboard his aircraft carrier. Now the captain himself has tested positive for Covid-19.
• Thomas B. Modly, acting Navy secretary, condemned the ousted captain to his former crew on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt. Days later, Mr. Modly resigned.

Last week, President Trump called himself a “wartime president” as he faced up to the threat caused by the coronavirus. But only days later — and with the crisis escalating — he has abandoned that message. What changed?

Guest: Maggie Haberman, who covers the White House for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Despite the warnings, President Trump said he believed a crippled economy and forced social isolation would inflict more harm than the spread of the virus.
• Mr. Trump is now facing a personal dilemma as he responds to the crisis: How can he save his campaign for re-election when so much is suddenly going so wrong?
• The White House and Congress have reached a $2 trillion stimulus deal, the biggest such package in modern American history. The plan would offer jobless benefits to individuals and direct cash payments to taxpayers.

Fear about the coronavirus has gripped the world. While nearly all cases have been in China, that has not stopped people in other countries from worrying. This new illness certainly is frightening and needs attention, but it’s important to note that far more people die from an illness that’s all too familiar – the seasonal flu. Why are we so afraid of this novel coronavirus when we are much more likely to catch the flu? Our guest, Baruch Fischhoff, PhD, is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an expert on public perception of risk and human judgment and decision-making. He explains why we worry about new risks more than familiar ones, how to calm our anxiety and what are the psychological effects of being quarantined.

Listen to Part 2

Join us online August 6-8 for APA 2020 Virtual.