It used to be progressives who distrusted the experts. What happened? “Citing evidence, ignoring appeals to authority, reserving judgment, demanding more research—these are potentially exhausting traits in a conversational partner, but they’re also marks of a scientific mind. Rather than being “anti-science,” [Robert F] Kennedy [Junior] seems enchanted by it. His accusatory book “The Real Anthony Fauci” (2021) is packed with discussions of clinical studies, and it bears a blurb from a Nobel-winning virologist. (Anyone worried about the lack of public appetite for complex writing should contemplate the fact that this nearly five-hundred-page, data-drenched work of nonfiction has sold more … Read More
All posts in COVID-19
“There were 26.4 deaths per 100,000 people from diabetes, according to early death certificate data for the third quarter of 2024 published this month by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Death rates from diabetes peaked in 2021, according to CDC figures, at 31.1 deaths per 100,000 people for that year. Diabetes was the eighth leading cause of death in 2021. The CDC says the link between COVID-19 and diabetes may be to blame for that increase. “Data show an increase in mortality rates for all people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and research shows that people with underlying conditions, … Read More
“[Introduction] Despite spending more than any country in the world on health care, life expectancy in the US is comparably worse than that of most other high-income countries and declining both in absolute value and relative rank. However, life expectancy across US states varies just as markedly as it does across high-income countries, from 81.8 years in Hawaiʻi to 74.7 years in Mississippi in 2019—a divergence that has been increasing over time. US states vary considerably on policy decisions related to the spending, regulation, and provision of health care; reproductive health; tax policy; social welfare programs; and in relation to … Read More
“Adam Kucharski, mathematical modeller and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in London, UK, was one of the most reliable expert sources for many reporters wrestling with the scientific debates and dilemmas [around COVID-19]. He has now distilled his experience from working on both the pandemic and the epidemiology of other disease outbreaks, such as Zika virus disease and Ebola virus disease, into Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty, an exceptionally clear and engaging account of how scientists demonstrate truth and falsity. By showing that the matter often requires us to accept uncertainty … Read More
Have American elites—influential journalists, powerful policymakers and other cultural arbiters—learned the lessons of 2020-21? Do they want to? “by 2020, in response to a global pandemic, the dominant part of America’s political and media class had turned the imperative to “follow the science” into an expression of almost religious reverence for the judgment of experts. Many educated and otherwise intelligent Americans, meanwhile, made a single, bespectacled government scientist their idol: “In Fauci We Trust” read their lawn signs and bumper stickers. Their faith was misplaced. Credentialed experts, especially those in the fields of epidemiology and public health, had tied themselves … Read More
A plan was set in motion with no idea of how to stop it. “While federal public-health officials made recommendations regarding schools, the actual closures were carried out at the state and local levels, in response to misplaced public fears and aggressive campaigning by teachers’ unions. Randi Weingarten, the high-profile head of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a February 8, 2021, New York Times article that she hoped things would be “as normal as possible” by the following fall. Class-action lawsuits in multiple states had been filed on behalf of children with special needs on the claim that … Read More
“Nearly 1 in 7 working-age US adults had experienced long COVID by late 2023, and socially disadvantaged adults were over 150% more likely to have persistent symptoms, two new studies find. [..] [First study] An age- and sex-adjusted model of 2022 data from 154,430 participants estimated that those vaccinated against COVID-19 had a 14% lower risk of protracted symptoms than their unvaccinated peers, but a fully adjusted model found no difference in risk. In comparison, a fully adjusted model of 2023 data from 220,664 respondents found a higher risk of long COVID among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. Risk factors … Read More
[NYT’s David Wallace-Wells]: [..] The way most people think about a virus like, say, RSV, or chickenpox, is that a single exposure, while potentially worrisome, does deliver lifelong protection. Is it really the case that, as babies, we are fighting off those viruses hundreds of times? [Immunologist and epidemiologist Michael Mina]:The short answer is yeah. We start seeing viruses when we’re 2 months old, when we’re a month old. And a lot of these viruses we’ve seen literally tens, if not hundreds of times for some people by the time we’re adults. People tend to think that immunity is binary … Read More
“Many countries and organizations are taking stock of what can be learned from the Covid experience. In Singapore, the office of the prime minister recently issued an assessment of that country’s response to determine what worked and what didn’t. Such honest reflection is essential to ensure that the response to the next pandemic is better. Unfortunately, efforts stalled in Congress to create a national commission to render a nonpartisan assessment of how the country responded to a contagion that so far has killed some 1.1 million people. [..] we offer 13 lessons, many of which are not yet fully appreciated or integrated … Read More
“Three years into the Covid pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is still with us. As the virus evolves, it continues to pose a health threat in terms of both acute infections (or reinfections) and postacute sequelae. In regard to the former, there is evidence that several pharmacologic interventions reduce the severity of infections, lessen morbidity, and lower mortality. Prevention programs have also been successful in reducing overall infection rates. These efforts can be traced in part to colossal federal support for work ranging from vaccine development to clinical trials to nationwide educational endeavors. Such impressive support is all the more striking in contrast … Read More