COVID-19 at Three: Who Got the Pandemic Right?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

President, Barack, News, Politics, Wnyc, Obama, Lizza, Washington, Wickenden

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its fourth year, we can begin to gain some clarity on which countries, and which U.S. states, had the best outcomes over time. In a conversation with David Remnick, Dhruv Khullar, a contributing writer and a practicing physician in New York, explains some of the key factors. Robust testing was key for public-health authorities to make good decisions, unsurprisingly. What also seems clear from a distance, Khullar says, is that social cohesion was a decisive underlying condition. This helps explain why the United States did poorly in its pandemic response, despite a technologically advanced health-care system. Peer pressure, in other words, trumped mandates. Khullar also speaks to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about how misinformation and political polarization inhibit our country’s efforts on public health.

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0:44.0	Things people love.
0:49.3	This is the political scene, and I'm David Remnick.
1:01.7	One weekday morning, just about three years ago.
1:11.0	Our team on the radio hour and all of the New Yorker staff got an email right as we were heading to work, and it said, turn around and go home.
1:13.1	The lockdown had begun.
1:18.9	The pandemic reshaped all of our lives, and many did not survive it.
1:21.8	Well over a million people in the United States have died.
1:25.9	Around seven million globally, according to the World Health Organization.
1:31.2	The pandemic has eased considerably, but it is by no means over.
1:37.1	And we have yet to assess the consequences for long-term health, mental health, education,
1:38.6	politics, so many things.
1:44.4	Drew Kular began writing for the New Yorker during the pandemic's most terrifying days,
1:48.6	describing his experience as a physician in a New York City hospital.
	...

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