
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
216216 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.
8,486 Listeners
32,087 Listeners
2,384 Listeners
59,017 Listeners
86,591 Listeners
4,096 Listeners
9,641 Listeners
570 Listeners
8,020 Listeners
14,279 Listeners
5,060 Listeners
404 Listeners
74 Listeners
4,448 Listeners
80 Listeners
385 Listeners
15,481 Listeners
1,215 Listeners
232 Listeners
2,185 Listeners
259 Listeners
433 Listeners
147 Listeners
369 Listeners
332 Listeners
96 Listeners
81 Listeners
145 Listeners
95 Listeners
379 Listeners
254 Listeners
535 Listeners
58 Listeners