Berkeley, sweet! I’ll be there with the half dozen or so other Bay Areans who thought never ending lockdowns and school closures and masking toddlers was maybe not totally awesome or evidence-based.
In all seriousness, I’m glad you took your time with this book. I look forward to reading it and hope it reaches a broad audience.
The last time I passed out Covid books was Laura Dodsworth’s excellent “A State of Fear”. It was NOT received well by friends or family, who looked like I’d handed them the Taliban Manifesto or something equivalent.
Hopefully your entry point of kids + schools feels safe enough for my good liberal kinsfolk to actually engage with.
Interesting. I like Jesse, but he was pretty... credulous(?) on Covid and public health "policy". Which always struck me as strange, given his criticism of epistemic standards in other scientific areas.
I have already pre-ordered, but this sounds like a great event to get the book out there as well!
There will be several different journalists and other professionals in conversation with me at my upcoming book events. I don't necessarily agree with them entirely on a variety of issues, including the Covid response, which I think will make for a more lively event than someone who is in lockstep with me.
No worries! And I agree that disagreement can breed good conversation. I'm sure it will be great.
I am just reflexively responding a bit, perhaps out of conditioning, because I know we were all browbeat in 2020-2023 by people who disagreed with us but also believed with unquestioning certainty false information (Sonia Sotomayor claiming in oral arguments at the Supreme Court that there were over 100,000 children in serious condition in 2022 -- effectively implying the attorney arguing before her simply didn't care about children enough when arguing against vaccine mandates as a civil rights issue -- remains one of the most egregious examples in my mind).
I think most people have softened in 2025. But others (my Yale-educated coworkers, for example) have only hardened in their "why couldn't people just isolate for 14 days and we could have avoided everything" mindsets. I'm not implying Jesse is that. It's just such a sore subject for a lot of us.
Good timing! It appears that the NYT has just given its readers permission to say that covid measures were (at best) useless and that the virus came from a lab.
Absolutely. I've tried over the last five years to reach everyone, not just those in agreement with me. And that's certainly the intention with the book. Alas, Politics & Prose and the rest of the establishment book biz have largely ignored me. So we're taking the mission off the normal grid.
Berkeley, sweet! I’ll be there with the half dozen or so other Bay Areans who thought never ending lockdowns and school closures and masking toddlers was maybe not totally awesome or evidence-based.
In all seriousness, I’m glad you took your time with this book. I look forward to reading it and hope it reaches a broad audience.
The last time I passed out Covid books was Laura Dodsworth’s excellent “A State of Fear”. It was NOT received well by friends or family, who looked like I’d handed them the Taliban Manifesto or something equivalent.
Hopefully your entry point of kids + schools feels safe enough for my good liberal kinsfolk to actually engage with.
Interesting. I like Jesse, but he was pretty... credulous(?) on Covid and public health "policy". Which always struck me as strange, given his criticism of epistemic standards in other scientific areas.
I have already pre-ordered, but this sounds like a great event to get the book out there as well!
There will be several different journalists and other professionals in conversation with me at my upcoming book events. I don't necessarily agree with them entirely on a variety of issues, including the Covid response, which I think will make for a more lively event than someone who is in lockstep with me.
And thank you so much for your support!
No worries! And I agree that disagreement can breed good conversation. I'm sure it will be great.
I am just reflexively responding a bit, perhaps out of conditioning, because I know we were all browbeat in 2020-2023 by people who disagreed with us but also believed with unquestioning certainty false information (Sonia Sotomayor claiming in oral arguments at the Supreme Court that there were over 100,000 children in serious condition in 2022 -- effectively implying the attorney arguing before her simply didn't care about children enough when arguing against vaccine mandates as a civil rights issue -- remains one of the most egregious examples in my mind).
I think most people have softened in 2025. But others (my Yale-educated coworkers, for example) have only hardened in their "why couldn't people just isolate for 14 days and we could have avoided everything" mindsets. I'm not implying Jesse is that. It's just such a sore subject for a lot of us.
Looking forward to this!
Good timing! It appears that the NYT has just given its readers permission to say that covid measures were (at best) useless and that the virus came from a lab.
I'll come either way, but I started to say extra points if you find a good venue other than the Sixth and I Synagogue or Politics and Prose bookstore.
But actually, those are the people who need to hear from you most, so see if they will host you. Please.
Absolutely. I've tried over the last five years to reach everyone, not just those in agreement with me. And that's certainly the intention with the book. Alas, Politics & Prose and the rest of the establishment book biz have largely ignored me. So we're taking the mission off the normal grid.
And thank you so much for your support!