Covid-19 was initially thought to be extremely virulent and many governments worldwide locked-down their countries. But more complete data suggest the contagion isn’t nearly as lethal as originally predicted. Lionel Shriver, writing in The Spectator U.K., argues the coronavirus has been grossly oversold by a witches’ brew of bad science, a hyperbolic media and cowed politicians.
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.
