Jan 21, 2022
In this week's episode, we were joined by our friend Aaron Sibarium, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon. Aaron recently reported a piece showing how three states were rationing COVID drugs on race-based criteria. The article made a splash. Fox News covered the story, Trump referenced it in a speech (sloppily as always), and Twitter tried to rebrand it as a right-wing talking point.
Prioritizing woke ideology over medical realities can cost lives. But we tried to stay true to the Wisdom of Crowds ethos and made our best faith effort to ask whether race-based triage can ever be justified on practical or philosophical grounds. Is this the result of good intentions going off the rails, or is something more sinister at work?
Part 2 of our conversation is available here. With Aaron playing referee, Damir tries to use "wokeness" to get Shadi to denounce leftism. While explaining how his affinity for Bernie intersects with his views on cultural progressivism, Shadi slips up and uses one of Damir's trigger words–progress. Chaos ensues.
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Required Reading:
- "Food and Drug Administration Guidance Drives Racial Rationing of COVID Drugs" by Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)
- "Hospital System Backs Off Race-Based Treatment Policy After Legal Threat" by Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)
- "Hospitalization and Mortality among Black Patients and White Patients with Covid-19" (New England Journal of Medicine)