The Price of Panic

How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe

Jay W. Richards, William M. Briggs, Douglas Axe

• Publisher: Regnery
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781684511419
• eBook ISBN:
  9781684511426
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Infectious Diseases
• Index: Politics & International Relations

WHAT JUST HAPPENED? The human cost of the emergency response to COVID-19 has far outweighed the benefits. That's the sobering verdict of a trio of scholars—a biologist, a statistician, and a philosopher— in this comprehensive assessment of the worst panic-induced disaster in history.As the media fanned the flames of panic, government officials and a new elite of scientific experts ignored the established protocols for mitigating a dangerous disease. Instead, they shut down the world economy, closed every school, confined citizens to their homes, and threatened to enforce a regime of extreme social distancing indefinitely.And the American public—amazingly enough—complied without protest. Modestly but relentlessly focused on what we know and don't know about the coronavirus, Douglas Axe, William M. Briggs, and Jay W. Richards demonstrate in this eye-opening study what real experts can contribute when a pandemic strikes.In the early spring of 2020, the panic of government officials, the hysteria of the media, and the hubris of suddenly powerful scientists produced a worldwide calamity. The Price of Panic is the essential book for understanding what happened and how to avoid repeating our deadly mistakes.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Where Did the Pandemic Start?
• Chapter 2: WHO Started the Panic?
• Chapter 3: How It Spread
• Chapter 4: Social Manias and the Cult of Expertise
• Chapter 5: Rush to Lockdown
• Chapter 6: Untangling the Numbers
• Chapter 7: Blind Models
• Chapter 8: Why Did We Believe Lockdowns Would Work?
• Chapter 9: Did the Lockdowns Work?
• Chapter 10: The Human Cost
• Chapter 11: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Happiness
• Chapter 12: Through a Glass Darkly: Balancing Costs with Benefits When We Don’t Know the Future
• Chapter 13: Who Got It Right?
• Chapter 14: Lessons Learned
• Conclusion: Against the Brave New Normal
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright