Thanks. By the way a new paper discussing this topic:
Its modest conclusion:
It appears clear from evidence to date that government interventions, even more restrictive ones such as stay-at-home orders, are beneficial in some circumstances and unlikely to be causing harms more extreme than the pandemic itself.
I knew that Brazil has been hard hit, but I hadn’t seen this statistic:
That’s not 10% mortality amongst COVID cases in the 85+ demographic, but 10% of the entire 85+ population in Manaus, Brazil died of COVID.
India also serves as example of what happens when nothing is done to stop the spread.
Did you read the book or just the review on Pharyngula?
Haven’t read the book…have you read it?
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When your main endeavor depends on undermining confidence in consensus science, you might as well try to weaken as many areas of confidence in expertise as you can. It all supports the “institutional scientists and academics can’t be trusted” narrative.
I now have a copy and I’m reading it. I can confirm that it is NOT an anti-vax book. I will assume that you got your information from an unreliable source.
Perhaps not, but it’s anti-science nevertheless.
Do you acknowledge that your claim that it was anti-vax was incorrect?
I don’t know. I left a comment on PZ Myers’s blog asking for clarification. (If you are a Discovery Tuter You shouldn’t be talking about unreliable sources of information.)
Since I don’t know what a Tuter is I’m sure I’m not one.
And since I’m reading the book I can give a first hand assessment.
“The Price of Panic” is a rational assessment of the Covid-19 response based on current and historic data. I recommend it to all Biologos readers and thank you for drawing my attention to it.
All I can say, because I’ll never read the book since it’s from DI or connected to them or whatever. In general of something is put out or supported by AIG or DI I don’t waste my time on it. If a decent books slips by me because of that, I imagine that someone from a more informed group of acquaintances, such as here at BL, will draw positive attention to it.
It seems that the book in general is outlining the path we took handling this virus was wrong. Those things are:
I can’t imagine any of those things were worse than doing them.
Do you have a particular point from the book that you think they did a particularly good job at? I went through the hour-long video they did on it found a lot of very poor analyses like the one that I highlighted above.. You might note that I also wondered how the book was anti-vaccine so your zealous frustration about that was maybe not so necessary.
I’m pretty sure that is a fallacious argument and your confidence not logically founded. 
(You don’t want me to give counterexamples. 
)
I’m now at page 208 of 306. I can confirm the book is a sober assessment of the available evidence. The only problem with it is that it was written last year and the additional data since then might result in different conclusions; or they might confirm them.
I see no evidence that the book is anti-vax or anti-science, and it appears I’m the only person in this thread who has actually read the book.
Since I consider neither PZ Myers nor the DI reliable a reliable source of information, I am unable to form an opinion on the book.
Or perhaps the book chooses not to discuss data that might contradict the conclusion they want to push you towards. I do not presume this happened; I mention as a possibility that you appear not to have considered.
For example, many high-quality studies on the effectiveness of certain kinds of social distancing and the effectiveness of mask wearing had become available as of October 2020. But the book might have chosen (I do not know, this is hypothetical at the moment) to exclude those studies and to instead include lower quality studies that lead to the opposite conclusion.
Since I do not have the time to read the book at the moment, what can you tell me about whether high-quality studies demonstrating the effectiveness of social distancing and mask wearing were included in the book?
Thanks,
Chris Falter
Neither author is a doctor or a public health professional.
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