The Man With the Plan to Beat the Pandemic

The Man With the Plan to Beat the Pandemic

I’ve never covered a moment that simultaneously merits so much despair and so much hope. It’s dizzying. The Biden administration takes office with over 25 million Covid-19 cases nationwide, over 420,000 Americans dead, and new, highly contagious variants of the virus stalking our future. It’s as grim a situation as I’ve seen.

But for the first time, we can do more than hide. We can immunize. Getting a population of 330 million to herd immunity is a hellishly difficult undertaking in the best of circumstances, and these are not the best of circumstances. Still, speed matters: Getting to herd immunity a few months faster could save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Dr. Vivek Murthy was surgeon general under Barack Obama, and is Joe Biden’s nominee for the same position. He’s also co-chair of Biden’s coronavirus task force.

In this episode, Murthy walks me through the Biden administration’s plan to beat the coronavirus. We discuss America’s botched vaccine rollout efforts, what the choke points are now, whether the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be approved, why the U.S. government should be shipping out free masks, what’s blocking 24/7 vaccination sites, the F.D.A.’s overly conservative approach to at-home testing kits, what we can and can’t do after getting the vaccine, the vaccine failures in blue states, how to change the minds of the nearly third of Americans who are vaccine-skeptical, why persuasion is as much about listening as talking, the new coronavirus variants, and much more.

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Rogé Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(485)

The Case for Prosecuting Trump

The Case for Prosecuting Trump

The Jan. 6 hearings have made it clear that Donald Trump led a concerted, monthslong effort to overturn a democratic election. The extensive interviews — over 1,000 — that the House select committee c...

24 Jun 20221h 10min

Two Years Later, We Still Don’t Understand Long Covid. Why?

Two Years Later, We Still Don’t Understand Long Covid. Why?

Depending on the data you look at, between 10 and 40 percent of people who get Covid will still have symptoms months later. For some, those symptoms will be modest. A cough, some fatigue. For others, ...

21 Jun 202257min

The End of 'The Everything Bubble'

The End of 'The Everything Bubble'

This week, the S&P 500 entered what analysts refer to as a bear market. The index has plunged around 22 percent from its most recent peak in January. Many growth stocks and crypto assets have crashed ...

17 Jun 20221h 11min

Is Climate Change a Reason to Avoid Having Children? and Other Listener Questions Answered

Is Climate Change a Reason to Avoid Having Children? and Other Listener Questions Answered

It’s that time of year, when we invite listeners to send in questions, and I answer them on the air. And as usual, you delivered. I’m joined by my producer Annie Galvin, who asks me some of the most i...

14 Jun 20221h 15min

Socialism Is Supposed to Be a Working-Class Movement. Why Isn’t It?

Socialism Is Supposed to Be a Working-Class Movement. Why Isn’t It?

American socialists today find themselves in a tenuous position. Over the past decade, the left has become a powerful force in American politics. Bernie Sanders seriously contested two presidential pr...

10 Jun 20221h 11min

Thomas Piketty’s Case For ‘Participatory Socialism’

Thomas Piketty’s Case For ‘Participatory Socialism’

The French economist Thomas Piketty is arguably the world’s greatest chronicler of economic inequality. For decades now, he has collected huge data sets documenting the share of income and wealth that...

7 Jun 20221h 1min

A Conservative's View on Democrats' Biggest Weakness

A Conservative's View on Democrats' Biggest Weakness

“There is definitely a contest for the future of the center right,” says Reihan Salam, the president of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. In his telling, one side in this contest is ...

3 Jun 20221h 16min

Sex, Abortion and Feminism, as Seen From the Right

Sex, Abortion and Feminism, as Seen From the Right

For decades, the conservative position on abortion has been simple: Appoint justices who will overturn Roe V. Wade. That aspiration is now likely to become reality. The question of abortion rights wil...

31 Mai 20221h 25min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
i-retten
forklart
aftenpodden-usa
stopp-verden
popradet
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
det-store-bildet
fotballpodden-2
rss-gukild-johaug
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-ness
hanna-de-heldige
nokon-ma-ga
aftenbla-bla
e24-podden
frokostshowet-pa-p5
bt-dokumentar-2
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk