Victor Davis Hanson on Corona, California, and the Classical World

 

Victor Davis Hanson is both a classical scholar at the Hoover Institution and a farmer in the San Joaquin Valley of California. He’s also a defender of the President, (his book The Case For Trump spent weeks on the best seller lists in 2019), and a close observer of the scientific and medical communities. These disparate interests and fields of study give him very unique perspectives and insights on the current COVID-19 crisis. We discuss the current situation with him in great detail, including the difficulties encountered by farmers, by research scientists and doctors, why some areas of the country are affected more than others, his theories about when the virus actually appeared in the U.S. and finally, what plagues of the ancient world can teach us about how to best manage and get past the situation the entire world finds itself in.

Recorded on April 23, 2020

Published in Domestic Policy, Economics, Healthcare, Immigration
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  1. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Just an inane comment so I get myself back here to listen to this. Better today than five years from now on Youtube.

    • #1
  2. Snirtler Inactive
    Snirtler
    @Snirtler

    Is VDH still peddling the Santa Clara study slammed by statisticians for its sloppy methods? The authors were the same folks behind the USC Los Angeles seroprevalence study. Has anyone actually seen that paper? They’ve been better at working the media than actually publishing their paper, methods, or data.

    • #2
  3. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Snirtler (View Comment):

    Is VDH still peddling the Santa Clara study slammed by statisticians for its sloppy methods? The authors were the same folks behind the USC Los Angeles seroprevalence study. Has anyone actually seen that paper? They’ve been better at working the media than actually publishing their paper, methods, or data.

    Which statisticians, if I may ask that of you?

    On edit: BTW one of the statisticians of the “Crappy Survey” is someone that Peter Robinson has on his show to explain COVID to us. (His last name is something like Ionadinas, sorry abt the spelling.)

    On some fronts, ending the lockdowns soon is gonna be tragic. The supporters of the coming Commie transformation of California would be grievously disappointed if the lockdowns do not continue.

    Also as well  there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth for all the investment money crowd, who have been busy shorting many industries based on Bill Gates’ 18 months of lockdown, as well as investing in medical equipment companies and what not.

    And more data is bubbling up as I type this: https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/coronavirus/accelerated-urgent-care-provides-statistical-update-on-covid-19

    • #3
  4. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    His suggestion that the President should have a medical advisor, national security advisor, and economic advisor at every press conference is right on point. There would be more trust of government’s medical reports if other considerations were more clearly present in balance.

    • #4
  5. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    I’m no expert on herd immunity, but suspect laymen are oversimplifying the process.

    If young healthy people are out and about, and so exposed, they continue to pass germs to elderly people. That’s because elders, like anyone, rely on physical interactions to manage daily life. They can receive mail, packages, and food from the infected. Their medical needs — more numerous and more severe than those of younger people — do not disappear, and so require treatments or medications from the potentially infected. The most vulnerable in many cases probably require more regular physical interactions (nursing, therapy, etc). 

    Eventually, yes, sufficient antibodies in a strong majority of the general population would hinder transmission of the virus. But until that point elders would be infected at a higher rate than during a general lockdown. 

    That isn’t an argument for a general lockdown; just a premise. 

    On the other hand, it’s reasonable to argue that grocery and pharmacy workers are probably already infected at high rates. If so, the risk of lifting the general lockdowns might be no worse than the current situation. Those populations should be tested. 

    • #5
  6. Snirtler Inactive
    Snirtler
    @Snirtler

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):

    Snirtler (View Comment):

    Is VDH still peddling the Santa Clara study slammed by statisticians for its sloppy methods? The authors were the same folks behind the USC Los Angeles seroprevalence study. Has anyone actually seen that paper? They’ve been better at working the media than actually publishing their paper, methods, or data.

    Which statisticians, if I may ask that of you?

    Polite critique here. Way less gracious one here.

    And more data is bubbling up as I type this: https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/coronavirus/accelerated-urgent-care-provides-statistical-update-on-covid-19

    If it’s more data from good work, great.

     

    • #6
  7. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    https://www.facebook.com/poleverisor/videos/10158078338767980/?t=8

    This one woman can explain everything you need to know about COVID in a few minutes: “Stores are closed, and need to remain closed, unless the stores need to be open.”

    “Surfaces can be contaminated for up to 2 hours or 4 hours, except for when we tell you  the surfaces  might be contaminated for days.”

    “Do not be out and about and get infected, except when we tell you that it might be better to get it soon as many people have it already and only have a mild case of it. If we all get it soon, we will have herd immunity which would be good. But again, do not get infected.”

    #### It is that simple!

    • #7
  8. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):

    His suggestion that the President should have a medical advisor, national security advisor, and economic advisor at every press conference is right on point. There would be more trust of government’s medical reports if other considerations were more clearly present in balance.

    But  who does he trust? I mean, the president nailed it when he selected Gen Mike Flynn for his Security Adviser, He truly trusted Flynn.  So while we Walkaways were being told that Trump was gonna put all LGBT people in camps and to save those people from that fate, it would be good to join in Women’s Marches with vagina hats on our heads, Trump used the distraction to his advantage. He then did something no other president in recent times has done: he got Flynn inserted into the National Security Council.

    So then the Left got Flynn removed – even though Flynn had been a lifelong Dem! Then the Left started screaming that Trump was not quickly and ably filling up the various empty positions in government – but really and truly: who is gonna work for a man whose first major appointment got taken down, indicted and bankrupted  by the Dems?

     

    • #8
  9. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Always appreciate VHD’s take on any situation. My county resembles his in many ways, except from late Spring to late summer we get tourists. Often businesses just about go belly up by March or April. Then spring hits by late March and tourism saves those businesses from being bankrupted.

    This year we don’t have any tourists – they are mandated to stay away. His description of the area being as though a neutron bomb hit is so apt I could cry.

    • #9
  10. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    VDH is a national treasure.

    • #10
  11. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    The part around 20:00 where he talks about prosperity and technological progress not netting out for big periods reminds me of Kondratiev waves.  Possibly everything going to be cyclical in some brutal way, no matter what. I’m not sure it’s a very serious academic subject, but it’s pretty interesting.

    Even if it is real, it’s made way worse by the way our financial system and central bank system is set up. Just in time inventory. People that lived through the depression would never set up such a poorly capitalized, nonresilient system. I just watched a couple videos behind a paywall on real vision that were just brutal in their analysis.

    • #11
  12. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    We have to radically overhaul our education system. Everything that isn’t related to human capital development (and I mean that broadly) or productivity needs to be gone. 

    • #12
  13. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    This is Tom Cotton on Maria Bartaromo’s show this morning. Very congruent with VDH. Click into it to see all of the clips. 

    I remember Never Trumper’s and the left were jumping down his throat about this stuff and he turned out to be 100% right. He’s rarely wrong about anything.

     

     

     

    • #13
  14. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    “Monolithic, racist, xenophobic society.” What a quote about China. We need to do a U-turn with these guys as fast as we can. 

    • #14
  15. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    We have to radically overhaul our education system. Everything that isn’t related to human capital development (and I mean that broadly) or productivity needs to be gone.

    The bigger problem with education is that it has been nationalized and regulated. Localized, independent schools would be subject to market forces and reflect interests other than those of national organizations.

    That’s not a theory. It’s history. Education has generally gotten worse since the Department of Education was established. Repeal it entirely. 

    Then tort reforms would be necessary to undo the normalization of college degrees as a semblance of guaranteed competence. Remove the relevance of lawsuits. Then onus would be on employers and parents to stop treating college like elementary school. Colleges only make sense as an uncommon pursuit of privilege or specialization, not as a universal stage in prolonged adolescence. 

    • #15
  16. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):
    Then tort reforms would be necessary to undo the normalization of college degrees as a semblance of guaranteed competence. Remove the relevance of lawsuits. Then onus would be on employers and parents to stop treating college like elementary school. Colleges only make sense as an uncommon pursuit of privilege or specialization, not as a universal stage in prolonged adolescence. 

    The accreditation system needs to be exposed. It’s just a cartel or whatever. I don’t see how anything good comes from it. Employers need to figure out how employees need to be certified. People should be allowed to pursue whatever they want to define as higher education, and then leave it to them to pass certifications and get jobs. 

     

    • #16
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