"In Covid's Wake": Lying About Lockdowns
6/17/202558 min
Two political scientists look back at a deadly pandemic and ask, "could we have done even less?"Where to find us: Peter's newsletterPeter's other podcast, 5-4Mike's other podcast, Maintenance PhaseSources:Lawrence Wright’s “The Plague Year”The 2019 WHO report 30‐day mortality following COVID‐19COVID-19: examining the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventionsPolicy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the United StatesWhat we can learn from SwedenA review of the Swedish policy response to COVID-19How Sweden approached the COVID‐19 pandemicThe first eight months of Sweden’s COVID‐19 strategyThe Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Dis...
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsPeter Shamshiri· Host0:00
... I've been dealing with a very Hobbesian ailment lately. I believe that I have turf toe.
Michael Hobbes· Host0:06
Your feet are transphobic?
Peter Shamshiri· Host0:08
It's, uh, like a sprain of the big toe. Uh, they call it turf toe 'cause it, it happens in sports with, uh, AstroTurf a lot.
Michael Hobbes· Host0:14
How did you do that?
Peter Shamshiri· Host0:15
Probably just walking. Uh, you, basically it's like you overextend it or, like, a little too harshly or whatever.
Michael Hobbes· Host0:19
That is Hobbesian 'cause it's like my humors are out of balance. There's no, like, actual- (laughs) There's no, like, actual reason it's happening.
Peter Shamshiri· Host0:25
(laughs) We've been going on, uh, a lot of, like, walks around our local, like, reservoir and stuff for a few miles, and, uh- Look at you. ... it could have been, like, it could have been from work- workout stuff, I don't know.
Michael Hobbes· Host0:34
This is your 40s, dude. You're doing, like, CSI reconstructions- Yeah, exactly. ... and you figure out that your pillow was, like, half a centimeter too low and so your neck hurt for, like, two weeks.
Peter Shamshiri· Host0:43
(laughs) If my, if my neck is not, like, at, like, the angle that God chose when I'm watching television- (laughs) Yeah. ... it will hurt for three days.
Michael Hobbes· Host0:50
Same. (laughs) But it doesn't stop me from doing it anyway.
Peter Shamshiri· Host0:55
I've been lying in, on couches in various ways for 40 years.
Michael Hobbes· Host1:00
Yeah.
Peter Shamshiri· Host1:01
And suddenly it doesn't work?
Michael Hobbes· Host1:02
I know. I'm not gonna stop- What are you talking about? ... doing it just because it's literally killing me.
Peter Shamshiri· Host1:05
Absolutely not.
Michael Hobbes· Host1:06
Okay, what have you, zing-wise- Okay, yeah.
Peter Shamshiri· Host1:08
I can, I can do it. I can do it.
Michael Hobbes· Host1:09
Peter.
Peter Shamshiri· Host1:10
Michael.
Michael Hobbes· Host1:10
What do you know about In COVID's Wake?
Peter Shamshiri· Host1:13
All I know is that the only book about COVID that I wanna read is the one about why it turned every Republican insane.
Unknown speaker1:20
(Instrumental music)