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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

TBD | Decoding the Flood of COVID Data

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Every week, it feels like some new piece of coronavirus information dominates the headlines. Mysterious symptoms, changing government directives. This constant trickle of updates can quickly turn into a flood. How should normal people interpret this deluge of data? Guest: Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown University and co-founder of COVID-Explained.  Host Lizzie O’Leary     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Knock, knock, who's there? It's the land of same day. What?

0:02.7

Iceland.co.uk? It's only been two hours. That's right. With

0:06.3

St. Dave Leverie, we'll have your shopping with you in no time.

0:09.0

Shop online today at Iceland.co.uk. Delivery from £2 minimum

0:12.9

of £25 to your restrictions in terms of life.

0:19.5

I'm pregnant right now in my third trimester. And when I first got pregnant,

0:24.8

I wanted to understand all the information that was coming my way.

0:28.8

How much caffeine was okay? Is delineate really dangerous?

0:32.9

Should I get that invasive test? I wanted data, not judgment or old

0:37.5

wives' tales, which is how I got to know Emily Oster's work.

0:42.0

Oster is an economist at Brown University and she made her name with two

0:45.9

books, Expecting Better and Crib Sheet. They basically teach

0:49.9

laypeople who are expecting kids or have them. How to think like

0:54.3

economists to examine the underlying data and then make the best

0:58.5

most informed decisions for their own families. And lately,

1:02.7

Oster's been applying that same talent for interpreting data to COVID-19.

1:09.5

The pandemic in a weird way is not entirely unlike having a new board.

1:13.7

It's scary, confusing, and there is so much information to sort through.

1:19.1

I think it's fair to draw a parallel. I think an important difference is that

1:23.2

when you are experiencing the chaos and fear of new parenting,

1:26.7

there are often people around who can be like, hey, I've done this before and it's going to be okay.

1:31.5

And let me help you and like I got through it. But with COVID, Emily points out,

...

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