COVID-19

The Lab-Leak Illusion

The laboratory accident hypothesis of COVID-19’s origins is a bust, but the popular consensus is unwilling to accept it.

Jamie Palmer

19 Aug 2023 · 53 min read

Masking Uncertainty in Public Health

Had it actually been “following the science,” the CDC would have transparently communicated its uncertainty at every step.

Mark Alan Smith

18 Apr 2023 · 12 min read

The Months the Earth Stood Still

Did humanity defeat a potentially devastating plague with relatively modest losses, or did the greater devastation come from the victory itself?

George Case

19 Nov 2022 · 8 min read

Warp Speed: Inside the Operation that Beat COVID—A Review

While the overall U.S. response to the pandemic was tragically deficient, we can learn a lot from the public-private partnership that sped vaccine development.

Josh Morrison

28 Jun 2022 · 7 min read

We’re Still Waiting for a Great Post-COVID Pandemic Novel

Fiction writers are used to working in lonely isolation. Maybe that’s why the stories they’ve written about the pandemic seem so out of touch

Neal Pollack

30 May 2022 · 16 min read

Shanghai on the Edge of Madness

Starvation will push and pull human psychology in unusual directions—it is one of the few things that can overcome fear of the authorities. When famine came to China 400 years ago, it made Chinese peasants receptive to the preachers of class war. When the government failed to provide crucial

Aaron Sarin

18 Apr 2022 · 6 min read

On DarkHorse, Ivermectin, and Vaccine Hesitancy

The following transcript comes from an interview for Iconoclast: Ideas that have Shaped the Culture Wars [https://www.academicapress.com/node/500]. It was conducted by Mark Halloran with Eric Topol on October 14th, 2021. Mark Halloran is Editor of Iconoclast. He holds a PhD in biochemistry and a BA