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Science & Nature

How Epidemics End

Contrary to hopes for a tidy conclusion to the COVID-19 pandemic, history shows that outbreaks of infectious disease often have much murkier outcomes—including simply being forgotten about, or dismissed as someone else’s problem.

Jeremy A. Greene, Dora Vargha

Science & Nature

The Shape of Epidemics

Waves have taken pride of place in the COVID-19 crisis, serving not just to predict but also to persuade. Their special blend of mathematical and moral messaging will shape the future of the pandemic.

David S. Jones, Stefan Helmreich

Philosophy & Religion, Science & Nature

From Pandemic Facts to Pandemic Policies

In the debate over COVID-19 responses, it is not only the scientific facts—including the grim death toll—that are at issue, but also the less often discussed relationship between science and decision-making, where values inevitably play a role.

Jonathan Fuller

Science & Nature

Will Evidence-Based Medicine Survive COVID-19?

The UK government’s ultra-cautious approach to “evidence-based” policy has helped cast doubt on public health interventions. The definition of good medical and public health practice must be urgently updated.

Trisha Greenhalgh

Class & Inequality, Science & Nature

What Would Health Security Look Like?

Nineteenth-century reformers understood the deep connections between public health and environmental protection. That's why struggles for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal are two sides of the same coin.

Sunaura Taylor

Science & Nature

The Totality of the Evidence

As policymakers debate the right response to COVID-19, they must take seriously the harms of pandemic policies, not just their benefits.

John P. A. Ioannidis

Science & Nature

The Case Against Mars

Contrary to the boosterism of billionaires, the need for space colonization must be argued for, not assumed. And the arguments aren’t good.

Byron Williston

Politics

In Toronto, Google’s Attempt to Privatize Government Fails—For Now

Sidewalk Labs would have turned a large plot of Toronto’s public land into a private lab for data collection. Cities need better digital governance to protect against such attempts.

Bianca Wylie

Science & Nature

Good Science Is Good Science

For the sake of both science and action in the COVID-19 pandemic, we need collaboration among specialists, not sects.

Marc Lipsitch

Class & Inequality, Science & Nature

COVID-19 Crisis Capitalism Comes to Real Estate

Proptech is leading to new forms of housing injustice in ways that increase the power of landlords and further disempower tenants and those seeking shelter.

Erin McElroy, Meredith Whittaker, Genevieve Fried

Science & Nature

Models v. Evidence

COVID-19 has revealed a contest between two competing philosophies of scientific knowledge. To manage the crisis, we must draw on both.

Jonathan Fuller

Politics, Science & Nature

Hydroxychloroquine and the Political Polarization of Science

How a drug became an object lesson in political tribalism.

Cailin O'Connor, James Owen Weatherall

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THINKING IN A PANDEMIC

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