There’s an avalanche of apocalyptic predictions regarding the global march of the Wuhan coronavirus. Nor are conspiracy theories hard to find. Richard Epstein charts a stubbornly independent but intellectually rigorous middle path in arguing that the dire predictions ignore key aspects of viral epidemiology. Writing on the Hoover Institution’s website, Epstein’s pandemic scenario is serious – but hopeful.
At Least He Paid his Losing Bet
Paul Ehrlich, author of the spectacularly incorrect 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, recently died at 93. Despite his longevity, Ronald Bailey points out in Reason, Ehrlich did not live to see even one of his numerous apocalyptic predictions come true. The world’s population certainly grew, but not merely larger, richer and fatter too. Most famously, Ehrlich once bet economist Julian Simon that the world was approaching economic collapse – but in 1990 had to mail Simon a cheque.


