Paul Frijters interviewed by Andrew Hilton, Centre for Study of Financial Innovation, September 22, 2021
The Great Covid Panic
The Great Covid Panic
In the Great Panic of early 2020, nearly every government in the world restricted the movement of its population, disrupted the education of its children, suspended normal individual liberties, hijacked its health care system for a single purpose and in other ways increased its direct control of people’s lives.
Attempts to control the new coronavirus in most countries made the number of deaths from the virus and other health problems higher. Some countries and regions within countries snapped out of the madness in early 2021 or even before. Yet many governments, even in mid-2021, were equally or more determined to cling to the extraordinary powers they had granted themselves.
Why did 2020-21 become, so suddenly and with such fanaticism, a time of global panic over a virus that for most people is barely more dangerous than a standard-issue flu bug? Open this book to discover how the madness started, what kept it going and how it might end. Join Jane the complier, James the decider and Jasmine the doubter, the three core protagonists of The Great Panic. Their experiences illustrate what happened to individuals, and through them to whole societies, telling us - if we care to listen - how to avoid a repeat.