More on Niall Ferguson’s recent history book Doom
Of course a recently published book about disasters will eventually turn to Covid-19, and this one does. From the text on [age 294:
“The problem in the summer of 2020 is that Americans all over the country acted in ways that simply ignored what was known by that time about the virus and the disease.”
No, disagree. Americans, especially the CDC and Anthony Fauci, hugely over-reacted, not under-reacted to the virus. I consider the virus similar to second-hand tobacco smoking risks: you are only at risk, at least mortally, if you are already badly ill. But, yes, vaccines when available, washing your hands, and not directly breathing on or being breathed from people you don’t know are good ideas.
I may be biased on this subject because I feel my personal life was badly damaged by the virus travel lockdown. Sometimes, as the old cliché goes, the cure is worse than the disease.