What Do You Think Accounts for This Pestilence?

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The idea that we are dealing with something akin to the chinese communist party here, and that all cove related policies have been implemented merely to abridge our freedom politically does strike me as patently insane. Part of the answer has to do with the what happens during time a plague, and and a typical human response. It's difficult to accept that your,. your life is changing, and and that this, this,this, there. But part of me is also enraged by it because it is so unscientific and unnecessary. We could had much better response that would have saved lives, and, i think even spared our economy more.

Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the lessons of the COVID pandemic. They discuss our failures to coordinate an effective response, the politics surrounding vaccination, vaccine efficacy, vaccine safety, how to think about scientific controversies, the epidemiology of excess deaths, transmission among the vaccinated, natural immunity, selection pressures and new variants, the failure of institutions, the lab-leak hypothesis, the efficacy of lockdowns, vaccine mandates, boosters, what would happen in a worse pandemic, 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.

Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.