Michael Lewis Is Asking the Right Question
b'Michael Lewis\\u2019s new book, \\u201cThe Premonition,\\u201d is about one of the most important questions of this moment: Why, despite having the most money, the brightest minds and the some of the most robust public health infrastructure in the world, did the United States fail so miserably at handling the Covid-19 pandemic? And what could we have done differently?\\n\\nThe villain of Lewis\\u2019s story is not Donald Trump; it\\u2019s the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The argument laced through the book is that the C.D.C. was too passive, too unwilling to act on uncertain information, too afraid of making mistakes, too interested in its public image. What we needed was earlier shutdowns, frank public messaging, a more decentralized testing regime, a public health bureaucracy more willing to stand up to the president.\\n\\nLewis is asking the right question, and I agree with much of his critique. But I\\u2019m skeptical of whether the kind of pandemic response he lionizes in the book was ever possible for America. Put another way: How much of a constraint is the public on public health?\\n\\nLewis and I discuss the trade-offs in pandemic prevention, why bureaucracies have such a difficult time managing catastrophic risk, the messy politics of pandemics, the lessons of the masking debate, and ultimately, what the United States needs to learn from this crisis to prepare for the next one. I\\u2019m not sure Lewis and I came to agreement, but I\\u2019m still thinking about the conversation weeks later.\\n\\nMentioned in this episode: \\n\\n\\u201cPublic policy and health in the Trump era,\\u201d The Lancet \\n\\nRecommendations: \\n\\n"Klara and the Sun" by Kazuo Ishiguro\\n\\n"Young Men and Fire" by Norman McLean \\n\\n"Furious Hours" by Casey Cep\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.'