Chris and Jonathan discuss Australia’s COVID-19 response with epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz and compare it to Canada’s. Do lockdowns work? Are school closures necessary? Have we learned anything about how to manage a pandemic? The answers often turn out to be, “It depends….”

 

1:47 Gid in the eye of the European storm

3:45 Australia’s immediate response to COVID-19

5:52 Canada’s jet-lagged mandate to quarantine travellers

8:00 Was Australia lucky?

10:33 The May 2020 outbreak

14:58 Australians do love their laws / Right-wing liberals

20:00 Contact tracing in Quebec and Australia

25:45 The best approach to contain a pandemic

29:25 Did we learn anything?

35:12 Do lockdowns work?

38:30 Do lockdowns cause more benefits or harm?

40:45 Are school closures necessary?

44:55 The problem with the news

49:04 Predictions

 

 

* Theme music: “Fall of the Ocean Queen“ by Joseph Hackl.

 

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Links:

1) Gid M-K on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GidMK

2) Gid M-K’s blog on Medium: https://gidmk.medium.com/

3) Gid M-K’s podcast, Sensationalist Science: https://soundcloud.com/senscipod