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The Michael Shermer Show

Thinking Critically About COVID: Conspiracies vs. Nuance and Facts (Jay Bhattacharya)

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Natural Sciences, Science

4.31K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2024

⏱️ 87 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jay Bhattacharya is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research. He directs Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His work focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics. His recent research is on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic.

Shermer and Bhattacharya discuss: loss of trust in medical and scientific institutions • how well did lockdowns and masks really work • Lab Leak vs. Zoonomic hypothesis • hydroxychloroquine & ivermectin • debating anti-vaxxers, RFK, Jr., and conspiracy theories • myocarditis, Robert Malone, mRNA vaccines, Joe Rogan, Peter Hotez • The Great Barrington Declaration • the cost to the economy and education • which countries and states did better or worse.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show. The Michael Sherber Show Hey everybody it's time for that episode of the Michael Sherman show brought to you by

0:28.4

as usual the Skeptic Society at 501c3 nonprofit Science Education Organization if you want to give us a little support

0:34.9

you can go to skeptic.com slash donate we also publish skeptic magazine here's the new

0:40.4

issue on culture wars you may have heard that there are a few of those. We're still in print.

0:45.0

30 years later, look at that, four color throughout, available in every fine bookstore in North America, or you can just go to skeptic.com slash magazine and

0:54.3

order it right there we'll ship it to you from our offices here in Santa Barbara

0:58.2

or you can subscribe. All right enough for the commercials my guest today is

1:02.4

none other than Jay Batacharya.

1:04.6

He's a professor of health policy at Stanford University

1:07.2

and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research.

1:11.3

He directs Stanford Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.

1:16.8

Dr. Badacharya's research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations

1:21.8

with a particular emphasis on the role of government programs,

1:25.2

biomedical innovation, and economics. His recent research focuses on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses

1:35.8

to the epidemic. Now that's probably where you're thinking what is this guy

1:39.4

doing on this show? Oh here it is. He became famous or infamous in some circles for his co-author ship.

1:45.0

Wasuntra Gupta of the University of Oxford and Martin Koldorf of Harvard University

1:50.0

of the Great Barrington Declaration which advocated lifting COVID-19 restrictions,

1:55.0

this is back in 2020, on lower risk groups to develop herd immunity through

2:00.0

widespread infection, quote, here I'm quoting from Wikipedia, while promoting the fringe

2:05.6

notion that vulnerable people could be simultaneously protected from the virus.

2:10.6

In a private email to Anthony Fauchy, obviously no longer private,

...

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