COVID; And, The Assault On Liberalism

As of this weekend, the number of people in the U.S. infected with SARS-CoV-2 topped five million, just sixteen days after passing the four million mark on July 23. This weekend's motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota portends that those numbers will continue to rise. 

Three potential vaccines against the virus have entered phase III clinical trials, in which safety and effectiveness is tested on thousands of healthy people. 

This stage can take months or years depending on how quickly researchers can detect a difference between the two groups, but some doctors believe that we'll have a vaccine sooner than later. Are we expecting too much from a vaccine? And, what about the expanding group of people afraid to trust any vaccine developed at "warp speed"? 

Is it time for another lockdown to get things under control until a vaccine is ready?

Also this hour: Sending troops into U.S. cities and the recent changes at the U.S. Postal Service are two recent examples of what writer Adam Gopnik sees as an emboldened and authoritarian right encroaching on democratic premises. Meanwhile, he says the rage of an out-of-power left makes liberalism look indifferent. Incremental reform is not enough. 

GUESTS:

• Tim Schacker is an infectious disease physician and vice dean for research at the University of Minnesota Medical School  
• Adam Gopnik is an author and a staff writer for The New Yorker. The paperback edition of his most recent book, A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventures of Liberalism, was published in July. He is also a lyricist and libretto writer. With composer David Shire, he wrote the book and lyrics for the musical comedy TABLE, produced in 2016 at the Long Wharf Theater

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. 

Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show. 

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.