The us has a tendency to treat everything as political, says Peter Bergen. Public health issues that weren't politicized in the 19 fifties are now being politicized. In some parts of liberal america there was almost an over compliance with vaccination and mask-wearing advice because it became a kind of badge of one's liberalism. Some Americans who probably most need to get vaccinated may not be ready at this time - which means we'll have another pandemic soon.
Disasters are inherently hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises, and wars, are not normally distributed; there is no cycle of history to help us anticipate the next catastrophe. In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with one of the world’s most renowned historians, Niall Ferguson, who explains why our ever more bureaucratic and complex systems are making us worse, not better, at handling disasters.