The Toxic Ideas Behind the Quest for 'Zero Covid'

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Ben Bayer and Dr. Amesh Adalja discuss the ethics of infectious disease and evaluate the continued push for stringent paternalistic measures to combat Covid, including the Chinese government’s push for “Zero Covid.”

Among the topics covered:

● Why Covid is now endemic, not a pandemic;
● How an individualized harm reduction framework can help us navigate a world in which infectious disease is an inescapable fact;
● The egalitarian moral ideal behind prominent arguments for paternalistic measures such as mask mandates;
● Why egalitarianism is wrong;
● The ideas motivating China’s push for “Zero Covid”;
● The flawed approach towards pandemic preparedness motivated by effective altruism;
● The roles of vaccines and natural immunity in bringing about widespread immunity to Covid.

Mentioned in the discussion are Dr. Adalja’s article “The Pernicious Folly of Pursuing Zero Covid,” his talk “COVID-19, mRNA and the Future of Vaccines,” and Onkar Ghate’s essay “A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease.”
This episode was recorded on November 30, 2022.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:36 Covid as endemic
0:10:37 Individualized harm reduction
0:19:54 Egalitarian moral ideal
0:27:22 Egalitarianism is wrong
0:36:55 China’s “Zero Covid”
0:40:22 Pandemic and effective altruism
0:46:40 Immunity to Covid

[Vanessakimphilosopher]

Brilliant interview! Such a precise analysis. I have been studying Rawls for my Master of Arts philosophy degree and just couldn’t put my finger on the problem with Rawls ‘veil of ignorance’ theory. I’m actually quite annoyed with myself for being so bamboozled. I wish I had thought more clearly and realised as Ben Bayer says per Ayn Rand that no man should make any decisions from a veil of ignorance. We are rational beings able to evaluate scenarios.

[Oldcoots]

Should China be required to pay reparations?

[RogerFusselman]

Excellent! Keep up Adalja's medical content. He knows how it overlaps with Objectivism.

[weav]

I would be nice for ARI to do more in connection with such fab content, including providing links to content qyoted

[Shozbt]

44:30
Andromeda Strain? There's a deep cut.