Dangerous Exponents: A Covid-19 Podcast Carl Bialik

How do we fight the pandemic without losing everything we're fighting for? Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik discuss how to focus the fight on what works best, how to avoid an absolutist stand with impossibly high standards, and whether we can abandon the measures that are more like the performance of safety.
Episode reading list:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/briefing/trump-covid-chick-corea-olympics-president.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/americas-bipartisan-covid-19-illiteracy/617368/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/upshot/epidemiologists-virus-survey-.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/pandemic-restrictions-no-logic/617204/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/hygiene-theater-still-waste/617939/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/wear-your-mask-and-stop-talking/615796/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/world/asia/covid-cleaning.html
https://nypost.com/2021/01/19/3-out-of-4-riders-say-mta-cleaning-for-covid-makes-them-feel-safer/

The U.S. and Europe have grown accustomed to hearing about vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. How about vaccines developed in Russia, China, and India that have been administered for weeks or months and are being given to millions of people in dozens of countries? Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik consider the varied approaches to vaccination and ask whether there's a better way.
Episode reading list:
https://zeynep.substack.com/p/why-you-should-take-any-vaccine
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/08/the-sputnik-v-vaccine-and-russias-race-to-immunity
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-coronavirus-vaccinations/2021/01/15/342a7282-55c9-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/argentina-is-a-testing-ground-for-moscows-global-vaccine-drive-11610965529
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-06/putin-s-once-scorned-vaccine-is-now-a-favorite-in-pandemic-fight
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-coronavirus-vaccine-sputnik/2020/11/25/8ebb62fe-186d-11eb-8bda-814ca56e138b_story.html?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_23
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/9/russia-china-seek-to-expand-mena-influence-through-vaccines

Before the novel coronavirus emerged, we had rankings of countries' readiness. Now we have rankings of countries' responses, using all kinds of measures. Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik consider the rankings. Do we know enough to say how well people and their governments have responded? How much does luck play a role? Is it too early for a true assessment?
Please let us know what you think of this and other episodes, and what you want us to cover next, in our feedback form:
https://forms.gle/ik7Mifxq7HMrg2nL8
Episode reading list:
https://news.yahoo.com/brazils-covid-19-response-worst-023523992.html
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/07/which-country-has-had-the-best-response-to-the-coronavirus.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02596-8
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-03/singapore-s-covid-success-isn-t-easily-replicated
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/03/swedish-model-failed-covid-19
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/22/sweden-coronavirus-covid-response/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-22/how-winter-california-covid-19-surge-got-so-bad
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/01/15/ireland-has-one-of-the-worlds-highest-covid-19-infection-rates
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/business/coronavirus-vaccines-global-economy.html

Are masks truly the lowest-cost major measure we can take to curb the pandemic? Why do some people refuse to wear them? And why do most people in many countries still not have high-quality masks? Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik dive into the data and confusing messaging around masks.
Please let us know what you think of this and other episodes, and what you want us to cover next, in our feedback form:
https://forms.gle/ik7Mifxq7HMrg2nL8
Episode reading list:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/nyregion/nyc-face-masks.html
https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-masks-and-the-experts
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/01/why-arent-we-wearing-better-masks/617656/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-was-consuming-india-until-nearly-everyone-started-wearing-masks-11609329603
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/31/21198132/coronavirus-covid-face-masks-n95-respirator-ppe-shortage
https://www.aier.org/article/the-question-of-masks/

From lockdowns to research spending to vaccine prioritization, every pandemic decision involves tradeoffs. Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik ask for better data to decide on tradeoffs, and clearer communication from leaders about how they decided what to trade.
Please let us know what you think of this and other episodes, and what you want us to cover next, in our feedback form:
https://forms.gle/ik7Mifxq7HMrg2nL8
Episode reading list:
https://www.wired.com/story/group-house-covid-risk-points/
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1350416428025962498.html
 

Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik ask how well we're doing in administering the Covid-19 vaccine, what we can learn from the country at the top of the scoreboard, and whether it's such a bad idea to use a popular tech platform to schedule inoculations.
As always, there are caveats.
Please let us know what you think of this and other episodes, and what you want us to cover next, in our feedback form:
https://forms.gle/ik7Mifxq7HMrg2nL8
Episode reading list:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-vaccine-slow-rollout/2021/01/11/2e804898-5100-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1348599933650296832.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vaccine-roll-out-israels-circumstances-arent-special-zvi-schreiber/?trackingId=eEZAhJjV98AQo5Zyz7GHnA%3D%3D