The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe with Jay Richards

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

For the first time in history, the world shut itself down — by choice — fearful of a virus that wasn’t well understood. The government ordered the closure of countless businesses — many never to return. Schools sent students home to be taught in front of a computer. Churches canceled worship services. “Social distancing” went from a non-word to a moral obligation overnight. We need to know what happened—to keep it from ever happening again. Jay Richards joins Hank Hanegraaff, the host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, to discuss his new book The Price of Panic, examining one of the most unprecedented global events in a generation — the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-cri2012hup/
Topics discussed include: Are there similarities between the way that Y2K was covered and the coverage of Covid-19? (8:45); contrasting the Covid-19 pandemic with other historical pandemics (11:45); why have different populations fared better than others with handling the pandemic? (14:45); The Great Barrington Declaration (17:20); did the lockdowns make a difference? (20:50); the media and political investment in the Covid-19 pandemic panic (27:00); public health bureaucracy and the tyranny of experts (31:00); how Jay Richards and his colleagues dealt with accusations of being conspiracy theorists and/or hoaxers (33:20); is there any evidence to suggest that Covid-19 was manmade? (35:35); the science of social distancing (37:05); vaccines and herd immunity (39:55); why would the government shut down churches, but keep strip clubs open? (42:10); how to interpret mixed messages about the pandemic (43:45); is there any place for civil disobedience during the pandemic? (49:40); the impact of the Covid-19 vaccine (52:25); is the cure worse than the disease? (55:40); hospital capacity to handle Covid-19 cases (57:35); the relationship between testing and spikes (1:00:25); nursing home deaths and failed government policies (1:02:30); the impact of isolation during the pandemic (1:05:30); the use and misuse of predictive models (1:08:00); what is the tyranny of experts? (1:10:50); the role of big tech companies like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. played during the pandemic (1:16:45); political theater of public officials (1:19:50); learning to ask the right questions in the right order (1:24:30); how should we think about the Covid-19 vaccine? (1:26:00); criticism of The Price of Panic (1:28:20).