Niall Ferguson on What History Teaches Us About Covid-19

Niall Ferguson in conversation with Rana Mitter on Covid-19 and history.

Since early March Niall Ferguson has been meticulously collating and analysing data about Covid 19 pandemic we are facing now – tracking how the coronavirus pandemic began, how we got to where we are today and extrapolating what the future is likely to hold.

In this special Intelligence Squared video with host Rana Mitter, Niall Ferguson will tackle the most pressing questions we all want answers to. Which of the world’s governments got their reaction to the virus right – those with the more or the less stringent measures? What chances are there of a strong economic recovery in the foreseeable future? Will we find a vaccine soon and enter the ‘post-Covid world’ or are we likely to be living (and dying) with the virus for years to come? Will tensions between China and the US escalate still further, leading us into a Cold War II?

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[Intelligence-Squared]

What did you find the most interesting in this discussion between Niall Ferguson and Rana Mitter?

[lowrydan]

Imagine if people realized through COVID-19 that staying healthy is the best risk mitigation for surviving pandemics. Global lifestyle changes (by each person, ) such as daily exercise, plant-centered diets, smoking/excess drinking cessation create strong populations that make pandemics much less lethal. No control/fear/freakouts required. Not gonna happen.

[frkrZd]

There I was watching my ads - And bang! - somebody inserted an interesting discussion on COVID into them.

[PaulJakma]

Niall, recent studies, including one published recently in Nature, have shown that T-cell immunity to SARS-CoV-1 has persisted in subjects to date, i.e. 17 years. So the point that immunity is only short-lived like other coronoviruses is incorrect. Antibodies are relatively short-lived in SARS, but they are but one mechanism, but T-cell immunity last.

[sgordon]

The UK population just want to go to the beach? Not quite. But after a terrible experience in lockdown seeing DIRE daily press conferences and even the PM very sick they have had a lot of time to think about what matters in life. That changes things. Not having horrible commutes. Who wants to go back? Realising some things are more important than money. Lots has changed.

[davidanderson]

Niall - Maybe some of our gvt dpts failed b/c of the Republican long game for 40 years of strangling the "administrative state". When you starve and degrade and defame a bureaucracy eventually it'll fail you. So, unusual for you, you've got it ass-backwards. Respectfully, D.A., J.D. NYC (writer/atty).

[stevenwiederholt]

In 1918 all the young men from Lisbon ND went off to the Great War. They got as far as NYC, and died. This presented my father Peter Wiederholt 17 at the time with a Target Rich Environment, for finding a wife (IMO chose the Cream Of The Crop!). Here I am today, thanks to the "Spanish Flu".

[calevy]

Appears we’ve already exceeded 200K US deaths. And it’s only September.

[sifridbassoon]

Niall, who is the cello player, you or Ayaan? Very cool.

[appliance]

Pretty disappointing discussion, the comparison with 1957-58 Flu Epidemic an exception. Far too much time spent talking about current global politics. Our greatest defence against COVID-19 is our immune system, yet it's hardly discussed at all, including this one. No mention of the relationship between, poor diet, vitamin deficiency, obesity, diabetes etc.

[davidanderson]

Too many ads, can't even finish. Bye bye 1 Sq., you greedy time wasters. Never experienced a more disruptive podcast. D.A., J.D., NYC

[theskeptic]

“Resist much, obey little. Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved. Once fully enslaved no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resume its liberty.” Walt Whitman

[rogerscottcathey]

IQ^2 idea of word count for: "hello, let's get started"
= 1, 000, 000 words.

[celestialteapot]

The chattering elite invariably has vested interests, especially when they're not scientifically educated. Note the jibe about people wanting to get back to the beach on a nice sunny day; straight out of the Norman Tebbitt book on industrial diplomacy.

[mrdiavel]

Not sure I would hang my hat on that immunity doesn’t last . The Iceland research shows that antibodies are still present 5 months down the line and you don’t address the bigger immune response which up to 50% of the populous have already. SAR1 is still around after 17 years but it’s very rare for people get infected anymore. Taiwan never had a lockdown and hardly any deaths and it wasn’t masks or social distancing that did it (because they never had those measures), we have a factory there and they never stopped production, kept working flat out throughout and not one infection in 600 people over 5 months, there’s more at play there and several other Asian countries that theory may have had previous corona virus exposure that never made it to the west .

[Gemans]

Too many distracting ads. Nearly turned off when he mentioned the”quality press”. Meaning mainstream centrally controlled media.

[kieransinclair]

That was a really interesting advert.

Just a shame two people kept interrupting to talk about Covid.

[anialiandr]

There was no mention of history. What’s the relationship between lockdowns and infections as judged by the history of other pandemics?

[julianshepherd]

Ask him why the BBC prefers Neil Oliver as an historian even though he isn't an historian

[szainmujtaba]

200, 000 dead by year end? Niall might want to reconsider that prediction! The way things are going he’s likely to off by 25%+!