
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Early in the COVID pandemic, the US closed schools and sent kids home. And then, the schools stayed closed—even as they began to reopen in other parts of the world. Experts and officials claimed that these measures sprang from “an abundance of caution.” But what was the evidence on the necessity of keeping kids home? And, looking back, did the benefits of prolonged school closures outweigh the costs?
This week, Nate interviews author and journalist David Zweig about his book examining COVID policies and school closure decisions during the pandemic. They get into why we tend to find cost-benefit analysis so difficult, how political polarization shaped decision-making during the pandemic, and how the COVID models failed.
Further Reading:
David Zweig’s book is An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions
For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:
The Leap from Maria Konnikova
Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
3.7
218218 ratings
Early in the COVID pandemic, the US closed schools and sent kids home. And then, the schools stayed closed—even as they began to reopen in other parts of the world. Experts and officials claimed that these measures sprang from “an abundance of caution.” But what was the evidence on the necessity of keeping kids home? And, looking back, did the benefits of prolonged school closures outweigh the costs?
This week, Nate interviews author and journalist David Zweig about his book examining COVID policies and school closure decisions during the pandemic. They get into why we tend to find cost-benefit analysis so difficult, how political polarization shaped decision-making during the pandemic, and how the COVID models failed.
Further Reading:
David Zweig’s book is An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions
For more from Nate and Maria, subscribe to their newsletters:
The Leap from Maria Konnikova
Silver Bulletin from Nate Silver
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
30,736 Listeners
32,106 Listeners
2,424 Listeners
1,919 Listeners
59,007 Listeners
4,111 Listeners
6,889 Listeners
9,512 Listeners
567 Listeners
14,392 Listeners
5,097 Listeners
404 Listeners
73 Listeners
4,370 Listeners
2,133 Listeners
80 Listeners
394 Listeners
15,510 Listeners
1,212 Listeners
232 Listeners
257 Listeners
434 Listeners
147 Listeners
374 Listeners
332 Listeners
96 Listeners
1,624 Listeners
79 Listeners
94 Listeners
377 Listeners
253 Listeners
541 Listeners
69 Listeners