This episode examines the political debates around public health and public health policy. It is a perfect case study to illustrate so many of the principles covered in earlier podcasts, such as capitalism, externalities, risk, paranoia, and the dumbing down of America.
Public health policy is a particularly odd political topic, because in a completely rational world there wouldn’t be much debate. Of course, scientific knowledge continually evolves, but unlike many other issues that we discuss (e.g. immigration, abortion, gun rights, etc), public health is one where we actually do have so many facts that aren’t really debatable. Yet, for for many reasons – political power, economic incentives, and psychological phenomena – we’ve transformed what should be anthe “easy” political discussion in politics into one that is incredibly contentious and one which denigrates experts and known facts. This is all tied to our poor ability to assess risk and to balance individual freedoms and rights with those of the community rules we need to get the most value out of our freedoms and rights.
Unfortunately, in the public health sphere, the ramifications of our collective stupidity has a direct – and often deadly – effect on us individually and collectively. We need to look no further than how poorly the U.S. fared when it came to excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this is a long-term problem that maywill take literally generations of work to reverse the trend and to Make America Smart Again!
Key Terms Used
Boiling Frog, Cognitive Dissonance, Dunning-Kruger Effect, Externality, Groupthink, Herd Mentality, Kakistocracy, Laissez Faire, Public Good, Risk, Tautological Externality
Related Resources
Mortality Risk of COVID-19 – Our World in Data
Mortality Analyses – Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
Myth or Fact? An Analysis of COVID-19 Deaths in Red or Blue States of America