House Arrest: The Draconian Lockdowns of Shanghai
My friend Lu and I were both confined to our apartments to be quarantined on 18 March 2022. I had been infected with coronavirus. Lu hadn’t. I was allowed to…
Share
Posts by tag
Pandemic
40 posts
Living Through the Plague: A Conversation with Nicholas Christakis
In the latest episode of our podcast, Two for Tea, editor-in-chief Iona Italia talks to epidemiologist, sociologist and doctor Nicholas Christakis about what he calls “the end of the beginning” of…
Share
Covid-19: The Serpent in a Globalized Paradise
It was once fashionable to speak of globalisation as an inexorable force. Given the promise of free trade, an unlimited labour market and, of course, McDonald’s hamburgers, it was the…
Share
The Delta Variant and the Censorship of Inconvenient Information
Did you know that beheading videos, pornography and mask effectiveness charts from journal articles are lumped into the same category of sensitive information by Twitter? Neither did I.
Share
Why Even the Vaccinated Need to Mask Up for a Little Longer
People understandably crave a return to normalcy. However, some recent decisions by the American Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have the potential to worsen the pandemic.
Share
What Boethius Can Teach Us About Enduring a Pandemic
The first lockdowns of the global pandemic were quickly followed by a spike in book sales. The successes of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year and Albert Camus’…
Share
Working from Home: A Neuroscientific Perspective
A recent study by the multinational PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) shows that many companies want their employees back in the office faster than staff members would prefer. While 75% of the companies surveyed anticipate…
Share
The Virus, Lockdown and the Right
Phil Shannon’s recent essay “The Virus, Lockdown and the Left,” eviscerates the left for supporting lockdowns, social distancing and mass vaccinations and, especially, for failing to protect the poor, who…
Share
On Covid, Boris Johnson is Fooling Himself, Again
Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured Britons that, come 21 June—at least, if all goes according to plan—we will “re-open everything up to and including nightclubs, and enable large…
Share
Why Easing Restrictions Will Lead to More, not Less, Collateral Damage
Any packaged medication will come with a leaflet that warns of possible side effects. Manufacturers have to err on the side of caution, so they report pretty much every symptom…
Share
Salvaging Mental Health Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
Mental health is health is an aphorism with which young Canadians have grown familiar over the past decade. The sentiment has been reiterated by high school teachers, professors, counsellors, family…
Share
The Impact of COVID-19 on Racism: Results From a National US Study
An Asian American woman has reported that, after she coughed while waiting in line, a man behind her told her, “Watch it, chink.” A Chinese American doctor reports being followed…
Share
Making Sense of 2020
We are currently experiencing the worst pandemic in a century and the most violent protests in fifty years, and potentially face the worst economic downturn in decades. What’s more, all…
Share
Those Who Want to Abolish the Police Are Playing with Fire
Image by Ryan Kosmides Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police.—The New York Times My hometown has made global headlines recently, after the publication of the video of what can—at…
Share
The Debate Over Psychology’s Covid-19 Response
Although each of us has experienced the Covid-19 pandemic differently—what is a mere inconvenience for some has been utter agony for others—underlying our unique experiences are shared cognitive tendencies that…
Share
The Curious Attacks on Bill Gates
In a widely viewed 2015 TED talk, Bill Gates warned of the risk of a global pandemic for which we were unprepared. Now that we’re actually in the midst of…
Share
The UK’s Pyrrhic Victory Over Covid-19
As any experienced applied scientist is well aware, it is folly to use loose analogies to describe complex processes, and subsequently rely on such analogies to develop real world policy.…
Share