Jonathan Gruber discussed his forthcoming editorial on how the U.S. government might want to use a lottery system to incentivize tracking for Americans who get vaccinated for COVID-19 and to gain insight on vaccine effectiveness. Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics at MIT. He was instrumental in creating both the Massachusetts health-care reform and the Affordable Care Act. His latest book is " Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth And The American Dream.”
Next, we turned to listeners to talk about “pandemic stomach” amid a spike in Americans buying antacids.
Brenda Cassellius called in to talk about the decision making process behind the reopening of 28 public schools in Boston and evolving attitudes around whether schools ought to remain open during the pandemic. She also responded to a range of questions and comments from listeners who phoned in. Casseillus is the superintendent of Boston Public Schools.
Art Caplan discussed news on COVID-19 vaccines, from reports of allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine in the U.K., to updates on a newly-announced treatment out of China, to the expected timeline for FDA approval of vaccines here in the U.S. Caplan is director of the division of medical ethics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
Andy Ihnatko discussed the latest headlines from the world of tech, including Washington Post reporting on a forthcoming antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, news that Samsung will no longer include chargers with their phones and NordPass' list of the most-used passwords of 2020. Ihnatko is a tech writer and blogger at Ihnatko.com.
We closed out Wednesday’s show by returning to listeners to talk about finding ways to laugh through the coronavirus pandemic.
