Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus (Berlin Family Lectures) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

Before buying a book I always ask, why am I motivated to read it now? In this case, it’s because Our Great American Experiment is struggling under some serious threats. I’d like to help reduce them. Too many are generated here in America itself. Enter Danielle Allen, with her new book, Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus. In just 104 pages, I got a real education.You can, too, if you seek answers to one or more of the following questions.What is making it so hard to have a constructive conversation about political issues now?What have we lost that threatens Our Great American Experiment?What did we learn from our experience with the Coronavirus pandemic?How could we have approached it to avoid the worst health and economic impacts?Faced with another pandemic, how could we handle it better?Why are the experts we depend on failing to come up with optimum answers?What election system changes would make the most positive difference?If we wanted things to work better, what actions would be essential?What components of a revived social contract between Americans are crucial?If you really care about America and its future, spend some time with Danielle Allen.I even sent a copy to our grandchildren. They deserve better than a broken heritage. Many young Americans no longer believe a democracy is particularly desirable. Our Great American Experiment is losing ground and it needs all the help it can get.Here is some help.

Initially, Dr. Allen's book intimidated me. I was unfamiliar with terms such as negative and positive liberties/rights. Her analysis is superb. But it took this old GI awhile to grasp her style of writing. That's my issue; certainly not Dr. Allen's. My only knock is the lack of info on how to implement fixes. This shortcoming is not unique to Dr. Allen's book. It's common to most writings on defending our democracy. That aside, this is an excellent book and well worth the time it takes to read it.

One great merit of Dr. Danielle Allen’s book "Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus" is that it spells out briefly, in clear, concise language what a competent, effective, “integrative” response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States would have looked like, and why we failed to achieve it.Another great merit is that she shows that this failure of governance was inevitable, and doesn’t follow from any lack of policy expertise (which, her book makes clear, is available in abundance from clear thinking people like herself and her colleagues). It follows, instead, from the collapse of our social contract, and lack of trust in our political system. The pandemic did not produce these problems, but it casts a harsh new light on what lies in store if we don’t address them.A third great merit is that, at 104 pages in the print edition, "Democracy in the Time of Corona Virus" is no longer than it should be. I'm pretty sick of books that are padded to satisfy the bean counters in the publishing industry. Dr. Allen does not waste our time!To sum up: I think it’s clear from Dr. Allen’s conclusions that the point of address must be, not tinkering with policy on the margins, but strengthening our democracy across the board. A rebuilt social contract is inseparable from building the new, inclusive social and political institutions that can create it -- which will, in turn, be empowered and strengthened by the process of creation. There are many ideas about how to do this, but this is where we have to start.

“Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus” by Danielle Allen; University of Chicago Press; © February 16, 2022; 121 pages, softcover.I am careful to note the exact publication date because this book was released barely halfway into the recent pandemic. The author dedicates the book to “…the more than six hundred thousand Americans dead from COVID-19.” The actual death toll would become over 1.1 million, and if it included the excess deaths resulting indirectly from the pandemic, that number would exceed 2 million. This is by far the worst death rate of any nation, but in a developed country that erroneously touts a superior health system.As I write this review in February 2025, the Kansas Legislature is currently considering a bill that would take away the state health department’s authority to require lockdowns under pandemic conditions.On page 16, Allen notes that “the work of public education should precede the taking of the decision” when government acts to curb a pandemic. Her discussion is completely about current public “education” via media and never considers that the underlying public science literacy that should have been built up in K-12 science education completely determines the effectiveness of public understanding of any pandemic education via media. Simply, the “germ theory” breakthrough of the late 1800s changed medical training and effectiveness of doctors, but would be useless if the general population maintained ideas of “miasmas” and sickness as god’s penalty for being bad. Compared to other developed countries, science literacy and the ability to teach in the U.S. is abysmal. The V-Dem Institute managed by universities in Sweden and France produces the Academic Freedom Index, based on five indicators. Out of a total of 179 countries, the U.S. ranks near the middle with 87 countries above the U.S. The U.S. is among 26 countries that “...have undergone significant and substantial declines in academic freedom in the last decade.” With U.S. governors, legislators and court judges now restricting medical professionals and scientists and returning anti-evolution intelligent design to the classrooms, it is very likely that the AFI score for the United States for the next years will more rapidly descend further into the bottom half of countries worldwide.Science education of citizens is totally ignored despite admiration of Germany’s response to the (pages 45, 86) pandemic. But Germany provides three times more science in K-12 including a specific course in human anatomy and physiology and diseases that allows citizens who begin to feel ill to self-report to a specialist.One very important factor in the ability of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea to keep transmission super-low was contact tracing by way of ubiquitous cell phone apps. They early-on utilized very accurate PCR tests to confirm those with COVID-19, and their phones went “red” while they were sent home to isolate (unless sick and into a hospital). But the app also revealed all other cell phones that had come in close proximity with the infected person and went “yellow” which restricted their movement and sent them home until they could get a test and show they were not infected (back to green). A green cell phone was required to then enter into crowded public areas. This author states (page 18) that “the level of data surveillance being conducted in these countries violates fundamental commitments to privacy that serve to protect autonomy in constitutional democracies.” But South Korea and Taiwan are considered democracies; they saved many lives while the U.S, failure to use such apps cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The U.S. system of contact tracing based on your remembering every person who came within ten feet of you in the prior several days did not work. The May 8 issue of the journal "Science" ran a research article “Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Suggests Epidemic Control with Digital Contact Tracing” where nine researchers at Oxford University in England calculated the rates of transmission comparing people’s memory with the cell phone app, and found that interviewing new patients to track down their recent contacts was inadequate, and only the use of cell phone apps can slow the epidemic. This was released in May 2020 and well before this book was printed! This would clearly indicate that an interpretation that these democracies were flawed would likewise confirm that democracies could not save lives! The author’s statement on page 44 that “shoe leather contact tracing is a tried-and-true technique…” is wrong, and especially for individuals who are asymptomatic carriers.A major theme through this book is the value of the U.S. system of federated state governments. Indeed, there is a massive amount of early history in this book discussing the various limitations on the national government, and the wonderful ability to coordinate with the federated states that are able to handle the pandemic measures in accordance with their local situations. But that is not what the pandemic showed. Indeed, the CDC was virtually helpless since health was not in the U.S/ Constitution, and according to the 10th Amendment, all things not specified in the Constitution belong to the states.And that is exactly where much anti-science nonsense is being put into law today. This was also found to be a central problem in “Lessons From the COVID War: An Investigative Report” by The COVID Crisis Group published by Public Affairs in 2023. In Chapter 11 titled “America the Competent?,” they point out the total ineffectiveness of the federal efforts and that the only partially effective actions were those taken by the military, if based on science. This report clearly documents how many of the unique U.S. problems managing the pandemic reside in our federated form of government.This author asks if there is a tool for handling the pandemic besides stay-at-home orders? The answer is “No!” This virus was unusual in infecting many people but without providing any symptoms in some cases, allowing them to be “innocent” carriers. And it is here that the book’s lack of understanding of different cultures comes into play. The U.S. is one of the most extreme in promoting “individualism” which is usually heard in Western societies as a positive-to-neutral term. But in Confucian-based Asian countries, there is no equivalent term and it translates into “selfishness.” In the winter in Asian cities, everyone wears a face mask in order to prevent the spread of influenza and other seasonal infections. This concern for others is less recognized in the U.S. and is often disparaged. If I wear a mask, it is to protect me from others. Yet the science again shows that the advantage of masking is greatest in preventing the wearer from infecting others. But massive public science ignorance prevents that understanding and asymptomatic people who do not wear a mask will never realize the others that they made sick, or even killed---and most do not apparently care.There is no indication that the author understands that the Asian culture of stay-at-home and mask-up was tremendously effective in China and other countries. By the end of February 2020, the isolation of the infected and the temporary halt to contact spreading had completely eliminated the original strain in China, and schools went back to normal. They reclaimed the two months lost by extending school by two months. But China kept getting re-introductions of new variant strains from Europe and elsewhere in the world as it was brought back at major airports and across borders. Those local re-introductions required local lockdowns that did prevent further spread. Yet with 4.4 times more people, China's deaths were dramatically lower than in Europe and especially the U.S.The author correctly notes that the school curriculum on civics education has been drastically cut, and she argues for a substantial increase in civics courses that will allow the next generations to understand how our government (and others) work. This is certainly a correct position. She totally ignores the widespread science ignorance that has been underway for 40 years, and left the U.S. without science literate citizens. Asian and some EU countries have much higher percentages of science majors as undergraduates in college, with Singapore and China exceeding 50 percent! This means that they not only do not have a scientist shortage, but also that the majority of their Politboro (China’s top governing council) and mayors and governors and business leaders are also science literate. When the major of Wuhan did not recognize the early warnings from his doctors, both the mayor and province governor were rapidly fired. In the U.S. barely 16 percent of college undergraduates major in STEM, too few to fill science positions.The increasing number of science-ignorant decisions being made by state leaders and legislatures are guaranteeing the U.S. will be subject to many anti-science and non-science actions, a movement already underway. This book is little help.

An excellent overview on how democracy can work to the benefit of the populace in the face of a pandemic. The author looks at how the US government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and makes suggestions for the future.