Omicron and COVID-19 Groundhog Day

Let's get it right this time.

1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x

:15 :15

Download

Omicron and COVID-19 Groundhog Day

It's talk of lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccines this Monday with Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie. Deja vu? Nope, just the omicron variant. The editors also opine on school curriculum and Cyber Monday, all on today's Reason Roundtable.

2:18: How is the world reacting and how should the U.S. react to the new COVID-19 variant, omicron?

26:11: Weekly Listener Question: Starting this fall, students across the 23-campus California State University system are required to take an ethnic studies course in order to graduate. It's a result of A.B. 1460 which Gavin Newsom signed into law in August 2020. Students have a range of choices covering the historically disadvantaged points on the ethno-racial pentagon. However, all of these courses hew closely to a single state-defined model, so the course outcomes are largely the same. What's your take on a requirement that all graduates of a public university system take a specific course? Does your opinion depend on the content of the course, and if so, where do you draw the line? What's your opinion on the curriculum?

37:51: Reason Webathon details!

44:52: Thoughts on Cyber Monday, and the internet overall.

52:51: Media recommendations for the week.

This week's links:

• "Omicron Is Coming. The U.S. Must Act Now," by Zeynep Tufekci
• "California State University now requires ethnic studies," by Mikhail Zinshteyn
• "'Woke Racism' Has Betrayed Black America" (video)
• "A Worrisome New COVID-19 Variant Identified in South Africa," by Ronald Bailey

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsors:

• Imagine an app where you can get unlocked access to reliable news sites. An app that filters out fake news and clickbait but still shows you every story from multiple perspectives to counter bias. Where good news, as in positive stories, is highlighted—so you don't become despondent. And where journalists dig through news from around the world to find stories you wouldn't normally see. That's what an innovative Australian startup called Inkl has come up with. The service unlocks more than $12,000 of premium news for $100 a year. If you go now to inkl.com/podcast, they'll give you an additional 25 percent discount, so you can get a whole year's worth of headache-free news for just $75.
• If you feel something interfering with your happiness or holding you back from your goals, BetterHelp is an accessible and affordable source for professional counseling. BetterHelp assesses your needs and matches you with a licensed therapist you can start talking to in under 24 hours, all online.

Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Regan Taylor
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Matt Welch

• Watch the Beatles: Get Back

Peter Suderman

• Wheel of Time Series

Nick Gillespie

• The Lehman Trilogy

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Love, Death, & Robots: Volume 2

---

Comments

[JesseAz]

Does that mean Bailey won't be shilling for masks, tests, and maybe seeing if lockdowns work?

[Don't look at me!]

Two weeks , just two weeks.

[JudithAlfaro]

If you were Searching for a supplemental source of income? This is the easiest way I have found to earn $5000+ per week over the internet. Work for a few hours per week in your free time and get paid on a regular basis.NGr Only reliable internet connection and computer needed to get started…

Start today...........Earn-Opportunities

[Nardz]

Don't forget both mass and targeted surveillance

[Chumby]

Covid, the totalitarian gift that keeps on giving.

[HassieJohnston]

Start earning today from $600 to $754 easily by working online from home. Last month i have generate and received $19663 from this job by giving this only maximum 2 hours a day of my life. Easiest job in the world and earning from this job are just awesome.JBc Everybody can now get this job and start earning cash online right now by just follow instructions click on this site...

For more info here.........VISIT HERE

[Dillinger]

>>Let's get it right this time.

let's just stop the fucking train.

[Kungpowderfinger]

Nope, go get more shots or we’ll all get killed again

[Moonrocks]

This train only stops at Australian summer camps.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

As long as they run on time it should work this time.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Let's get it right this time.

Glad to see Reason getting on the correct side early, this time.

[JesseAz]

It took 2 weeks (22 months) to remember they were playing as libertarians.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"California State University now requires ethnic studies," by Mikhail Zinshteyn

Which just points out that Slavery and stuff happened. That's it. That's the extent of it. Academic freedom. Stop denying the scientism.

[Lefty Jeffy]

I’m glad I’ve convinced you of this.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Students have a range of choices covering the historically disadvantaged points on the ethno-racial pentagon. However, all of these courses hew closely to a single state-defined model, so the course outcomes are largely the same.

El... oh... el.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Build your own university system.

[JesseAz]

Build your own history.

[Utkonos]

“Build your own history.” Folks have been doing just that for quite a while now—it tends to be very much an off-campus activity mind you.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

Can I get away with pointing out that I'm irirsh and from Illinois. I had to deal with kkk members telling me I shouldn't be educated, and dealing with the institutionalized racism of police vans being called "paddy wagons". Not to mention the Truely horrific cultural appropriation that occurs every October 31st

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Wouldn't have guessed Kuckland was an Irish moniker but I'm also descended from drunken wife beaters and have had to face the debilitating racism that our people have somehow survived. I doubt these punks will learn much about our travails but I hope at least there will be a paragraph about our legendary culinary skills. I'm talking about boiled meat. We fucking invented it.

[Longtobefree]

It's a flu virus.
Some people will get it, most will not.
Of the people who get it, most will have mild to moderate cases, some will have severe cases.
Of the ones who have a severe case, most will recover, a few will die.
Just like all viruses. And all variants of all viruses.
Science.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

It's a flu virus.
Some people will get it, most will not.

I disagree. Most people will get it. According to the very people pushing the vaccines as "safe and effective", quite literally "everyone will get it eventually".

Of the people who get it, most will have mild to moderate cases, some will have severe cases.

Agreed.

[Syd Henderson]

It's not a *fucking* flu virus. Learn a little science.

[the phucko]

Maybe they can put "It could've been worse" on thier tombstones? It's NOT a vaccine. It doesn't stop u from "getting" it. It doesn't stop u from being "sick". It doesn't stop u from "spreading" it. It doesn't stop u from "dying" from it. Oh but wait.... It will make it "less of an ordeal". So please explain HOW one qualifies that? U r but another clown show of a human. Just another counted on pawn. Personally I find your gullibility to be disgusting in its WANTED ignorance.
The Phucko Knows

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

It was nice to hear Suderman say that masks were nothing more than a virtue signal with little to no science behind them.

Brett Weinstein and Heather Heying referred to them as nothing more than "symbols of compliance".

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

If people in hick states had just gotten the jab, this wouldn't be happening.

WHO warns that new virus variant poses ‘very high’ risk

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization warned Monday that the global risk from the omicron variant is “very high” based on the early evidence, saying the mutated coronavirus could lead to surges with “severe consequences.”

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The omicron infections have underscored the difficulty in keeping the virus in check in a globalized world of jet travel and open borders. Yet many countries are trying to do just that, against the urging of the WHO, which noted that border closings often have limited effect and can wreak havoc on lives and livelihoods.

Fact, the virus is difficult to keep in check with open borders.

Fact.

[Don't look at me!]

Fact, the virus is difficult to keep in check with open borders.

[A Thinking Mind]

This new version seems boring. I'm holding out for the tau variant. Give us some real action.

[MT-Man]

I get it we are just simple dumb backwoods folk! 😛

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

As omicron emerges, a tired public has little appetite for new restrictions

Cold weather is driving more Americans indoors. The holiday season has prompted a wave of travel, generating new lines of covid transmission. And the delta variant is pushing up hospitalizations.

Now, adding to the potentially bad news, an ominous new variant has emerged: omicron.

But after nearly 21 months of covid-19 restrictions, there is little appetite in the country for the kinds of school closures, indoor-gathering bans and restaurant restrictions that defined the early days of the pandemic, according to health officials, who say the political will to push for unpopular – but effective – mitigation measures is waning.

People don't travel for the summer season... only Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Lockdowns and keeping people indoors were necessary to restrict covid.

People going indoors causes covid to spread, therefore indoor gathering bans were necessary.

“It is very exhausting,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a physician and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who was on President Joe Biden’s covid advisory team during the transition. “The American public is rightfully exhausted, and therefore the amount of risk we’re willing to take goes up. People are willing to take more risks and accept more challenges, but they’re not willing to accept more restrictions.”

But he suggested that a resistance to such limitations, which some European countries have begun to reimpose, carries its own dangers.

“How often do you hear people say, ‘I’m done with covid?’ Well, your being done with it does not mean the pandemic is over,” Emanuel said.

'Why can't we be more like Europe', a Bioethicists asks.

[Don't look at me!]

who say the political will to push for unpopular – but effective – mitigation measures is waning.
Yet to be proven that any measures have been effective.

[Eeyore]

To be effective indoor bans need to also ban roommates and families. You can only live alone and you can only work if you can use zoom.

Somehow I think the virus will still find a way to survive.

[ElvisIsReal]

Very very very early in the pandemic, Cuomo showed a graphic stating where people were getting infected. 81% of them were 'home' or 'hospital'. If you can't prevent 81% of the cases, how are lockdowns going to help?

[TangoDelta]

In other news, it really does turn out that Chris Cuomo actively covered for his now disgraced brother.

[Don't look at me!]

My shocked face….

[rbike]

Stupid seeking advice from stupid.

[liamjonh225]

Perhaps they should etch "It could have been worse" on their gravestones? NOT a vaccination, though. Nothing prevents you from "getting" it. It doesn't make you any less "ill." You can continue "spreading" it despite this. It still causes you to "die" from it. Oh, but wait, it will "make the ordeal less of it." Would you kindly clarify HOW one qualifies that? You're just another clown in a human show. Just another pawn in the game. Your gullibility disgusts me because it shows a desire for ignorance.
They Know, The Phucko
Author:: Dental Billing Company