An Optimistic Outlook on 2021
The events of 2020 have caused precisely these sorts of setbacks in global collective human progress.
Tony Morley
· 7 min read
COVID-19
A collection of 126 posts
God and the Pandemic
For many established religious institutions, the pandemic threatens to exacerbate an ongoing retreat from organized religion.
Joel Kotkin
· 11 min read
The Fragility of Modern Education in the Time of COVID-19
The COVID-related disruptions of schooling have scattered hundreds of millions of children and adolescents across an archipelago of small islands that are not well-suited to fostering modern educational goals.
David C. Geary
· 15 min read
On the Cusp of a Vaccine—and a Historic Scientific Triumph
What is unique about our time is not “the awful spectacle of men dying like sheep,” as Thucydides put it, but the success of scientists in bringing many such spectacles to an end.
Quillette
· 11 min read
Totally Under Control—A Review
Totally Under Control is squarely focused on the bungling, mismanagement, and incoherence of the Trump administration.
Razib Khan
· 14 min read
It's Still Early Days. But Pfizer's Stunning Vaccine Results Could Be a Real Game-Changer
It is a sign that the end of the global pandemic may—may—soon be in sight.
Jeffrey S. Flier
· 8 min read
R.M. Vaughan (1965–2020): A Beautiful Mind Silently Extinguished in a Time of Fear
We were Oscar Wilde’s great-grand-nephews, dandy aesthetes obsessed as much with the curl of our hair as with art or politics.
Sky Gilbert
· 8 min read
The Coming Post-COVID Global Order
The pandemic crisis is rapidly becoming a civilizational crisis.
Joel Kotkin and Hügo Krüger
· 11 min read
Something is Rotten in the State of Victoria
Overly harsh enforcement of the law can paradoxically act to undermine it.
Katy Barnett
· 14 min read
The China Syndrome Part IV: Did China Fudge its Data?
Hatred of the Chinese regime has become so strong and pervasive in the West—especially in the US, where China is seen as its main geopolitical foe—that it creates incentives that allow unsubstantiated allegations to spread largely unchecked.
Philippe Lemoine
· 26 min read
The China Syndrome Part III: Wet Markets and BioLabs
In any case, the virus eventually reached Huanan Seafood Market, which served as a springboard from which the virus spread to the rest of Wuhan, and eventually across the entire world.
Philippe Lemoine
· 32 min read
The China Syndrome Part II: Transmission and Response
The human rights record of the Chinese Communist Party provides ample evidence of its capacity for repression and cruelty, and therefore ample opportunities for condemnation.
Philippe Lemoine
· 37 min read
The China Syndrome Part I: Outbreak
Bureaucratic inertia and incompetence are plentiful in China, and not just among local officials, even though apparatchiks in Beijing frequently use them as scapegoats for their own corruption.
Philippe Lemoine
· 30 min read
COVID-19 Will (Finally) Force American Universities to Reinvent Themselves
Polarization is baked into the current system, and no reform program will completely level the playing field.
Eric R. Terzuolo
· 6 min read
To Be Useful, Health Data Must Go Deeper Than ‘Black’ and ‘White’
In the case of COVID-19, we know that diabetes, hypertension, and obesity all are significant comorbidities.
Amr F. Hamour
· 5 min read