Hygiene Theater and Absolutism

How do we fight the pandemic without losing everything we're fighting for? Co-hosts Jeff Sackmann and Carl Bialik discuss how to focus the fight on what works best, how to avoid an absolutist stand with impossibly high standards, and whether we can abandon the measures that are more like the performance of safety.

Episode reading list:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/briefing/trump-covid-chick-corea-olympics-president.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/americas-bipartisan-covid-19-illiteracy/617368/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/upshot/epidemiologists-virus-survey-.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/pandemic-restrictions-no-logic/617204/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/hygiene-theater-still-waste/617939/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/scourge-hygiene-theater/614599/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/wear-your-mask-and-stop-talking/615796/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/world/asia/covid-cleaning.html

https://nypost.com/2021/01/19/3-out-of-4-riders-say-mta-cleaning-for-covid-makes-them-feel-safer/