We talk with Arto Bendiken about the political reactions to the ongoing pandemic and their long term effects on: Economy, free speech, mass gatherings, biodefense, cash, infection control, and identity. The is also a higher quality version of the MP3. Subscribe Pocket Casts Spotify Stitcher Apple Podcasts Overcast Google Podcasts PlayerFM YouTube Show Notes Introduction 00:01:05 Two show participients verified they are either asymptomatic, or not infected. 00:02:55 Increase of pandemics in the future. SOURCE: Three seconds until midnight. Zoonotic transmissions. Avian flu pandemic (30% death rate). Increased air travel, population density. 00:06:14 MERS, SARS, swine flu, Ebola in the last 15-20 years. (It’s not the “once in a 100 years” frequency, or “three pandemics a century”) Wolfe, Nathan (2011): The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age Various books from Laurie Garrett 00:07:32 Death Rates will increase because of age of poulation. immune system gets faster with age, but overreaction is also more likely (cytokine storm) exporsure rates are higher (travel) Political Reactions 00:09:14 Don’t test, don’t tell “The disaster that befell the citizens of Wuhan and so many other cities throughout China is not primarily a virus. The disaster is having a political regime that cares more about short-term public and economic concerns than it cares about saving the lives of its citizens.” smuggler: matches most reactions in the West. Frank: in politics, it means that any candidate cannot win against the pandemic, and their opponents can always say afterwards “we could have done better”. So, the US solution for Trump might be to let it burn as quick as possible through the population, and be over and done with it before the elections. Maximizing Re-Election is key. smuggler: “Politicians don’t get elected by being really smart people when it comes to dealing with complex problems.” More important: Ability to backstab, put on good face, and select experts. “All of our systems, especially in the West, are not meant to deal with crisis, they are meant to deal with normalcy.” Arto: Some Asian countries have dealt with it pretty well. 00:14:55 Finance minister of Hesse, Germany committed suicide, probably because of COVID19-crisis: (Thomas Schäfer) NY Post: