Tyler Cowen: evaluation

Transcript context

…That’s true. Let talk for a second about a possible upside of the story, a cheerier story. Is it irresponsible to have this conversation, Tyler? Are we risking that people will misunderstand this? I think not. I’m going to take a chance here and talk about what I think is a cheerier story. Is it possible that we’ve overestimated the death rate based on Italy and Seattle, Washington because they’re older populations that got infected? Is it possible that one of the things being tested right now for treatment will turn out to be fairly effective, that a vaccine will be here in not 18 months, but more like something shorter, but that the treatment will carry us over until that happens and that some of these more depressing or a cataclysmic economic changes will be much smaller than you’re worrying about? I think those are very good questions. I think any conversation about these matters has an irresponsible element, no matter how carefully you do it, and I take that very seriously. I think ultimately you have to compare what you are saying or writing to what you think the discourse will be like without you, but I don’t think it’s possible to have a completely responsible conversation. A number of the specific points you raised, a vaccine… Given that most people are not at all harmed by coronavirus, the safety of the vaccine has to really be very high. Right? Good point.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.