Category Archives: Pandemic

Buyers’ Strike? Mortgage Applications Drop 8% Below 2019, as Home Buyers Get Second Thoughts about “Raging Mania”

Falling mortgage applications and rising home inventories signal a coming housing market pullback.

The UK Is Running a Dangerous Covid Experiment That Represents a Threat to the Rest of the World

The Covid infection rates in the UK, despite higher vaccination rates than America, are a danger in and of itself and a warning to the US.

Without Enough Boots on the Ground, California’s Vaccination Efforts Falter

As it turns out, bribing people to get vaccinated with lottery tickets isn’t a comprehensive approach.

How Policies Affect Beliefs and Preferences: The Example of Covid-19 Vaccination Willingness

Covid and other major political challenges show that devising policies isn’t the hard part: it’s getting the public to go along.

Inflation Is Not What We Need to Worry About: the Risk of Major Collapse in the Private Sector Is What Should Be Troubling Us Right Now

Inflation may have you freaked out, but there are bigger threats on the horizon.

Covid Vaccine Whack-a-Mole?

Vaccine enthusiasm has blinded people who should know better to Covid downside risks. And as Taleb warned, tails are fat.

J & J Agrees to Pay New York $230 Million to Settle Opioids Lawsuit; Global Settlement Soon?

New York State and J & J Agree on an opioids settlement, which should increase pressure for a global, multi-state settlement with the opioids industry.

A Report from Sierra Leone: Covid-19 Has Helped People Understand the Vital Connection Between Energy and Health

Sierra Leone so far has had some Covid success despite low vaccination rates, and it illustrates the challenges poor countries face.

The Politics of ‘Follow the Science’

How the ralllying cry of “Follow the science” is looking more and more like sloganeernig as opposed to best practice.

How the Covid Pandemic Could Save Us

The Covid pandemic has created a hinge moment of change, in which governments and citizens have demonstrated their ability to undertake reforms which would have been impossible before the pandemic.

The Pandemic Is Us (But Now Mostly Them)

The pandemic is largely to be over in the Global North, at least among the vaccinated…or so it seems.

Fun with DIY Box Fans (and Protection from Covid through Filtration and Better Ventilation)

If you can’t afford a fancy air purifier, here is a low-cost DIY alternative.

Delta Force: Notes on Our Newest Covid Variant of Concern

The increasingly dominant Delta variant: Vaccines and transmissibility (especially through children) during “Vaccine Summer.”

The Health Externalities of Downsizing

This column finds a significant increase in drug prescriptions and hospitalizations following mass layoffs, driven primarily by mental and cardiovascular conditions

CDC Continues on Form: Suppressing Aerosol Transmission in Covid FAQ, “See No Evil” Testing for Breakthrough Cases

Romanov-like efficiency…