 |  |  |
| 0:00 | -1:04:27 |
Will Saletan of Slate returns to discuss the looming possibility of a political conflict between the Biden administration and the public sector teachers’ unions who nominally support him, the ways in which the pandemic has shifted labor back into the private sphere of the American household, why both parties should be aiming to present themselves as “the ‘not crazy’ party” (and why they both seem to be doing the opposite), and much more. Will also provides a useful thought experiment as to whether or not one is engaging in hypocrisy in political discussions: “Always try to ask, ‘Am I doing the same thing I’m accusing others of?’”
Show Notes:
-Will: “The Enemy isn’t Republicans. It’s Liars.”
-Biden now wants 1.5 million vaccinations a day
-Student suicides in Las Vegas
-Will with Charlie Sykes on The Bulwark podcast
-Jonah: “The Center is a Lonely Place to Be”
-Will: “Trump is the GOP’s warlord”
-Lucifer: “The very first radical”
-Tucker Carlson goes to bat for QAnon
-Newsweek edits 2015 story to conform to new attack on Tom Cotton
-Burke and the impeachment of Warren Hastings
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In re: Jonah's question about the virus and who needs the vaccine: Important point here, clearly stated by Dr John Campbell in today's daily update on the state of our global response to the virus (and vice versa), at 14:57 mins in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynyYvM7rzQ0
If you don't have time to listen, the brief summary is that everyone should have the vaccine, whether or not there has been previous infection with Sars-CoV-2, for the simple reason that we are seeing new mutations/variants and they can re-infect someone who was exposed to an earlier variant. In short, being infected might give you some immunity, but it does not give complete protection. Now, vaccines may have to be adjusted to be made more effective against more aggressive variants. The South African one, for instance, is more transmissible (like the UK variant) by about 55% over the original Western virion, and it also causes more severe illness. The benefit of the vaccine is that, even a single dose (in a two-dose vaccine) protects the body from illness severe enough to require hospitalization.
Also, while I'm at it, the evidence shows that the second dose provides even greater protection when it is given later rather than soon after the first dose. So if you have to wait for your second dose, don't worry about it: you've already got the essential protection you need, and what comes will only be better and more efficient at keeping you safe from this virus.
Enjoyed listening to this. Can we have Mr Saletan on more often? Have a great weekend, everybody.