"On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic 's David Frum opens with reflections on President Donald Trump's repeated delays to enforce the congressionally mandated TikTok ban. He explains how Trump's pattern of ignoring laws, whether by inventing tariffs, bypassing Congress on spending, or granting de facto immunity to allies, erodes the foundation of our constitutional government. Then Frum is joined by the historian Kyle Harper, author of Plagues Upon the Earth, for a conversation about infectious disease and the politics of vaccination."
"They trace humanity's long struggle against killers like smallpox, polio, and measles, and the scientific breakthroughs that transformed life expectancy. Harper explains how mistrust, misinformation, and polarization have fueled a resurgence of measles in the 2020s, even after it had been eradicated in the United States. Harper and Frum also discuss what Rome can teach us about living with plagues, why public trust is essential to public health, and why the next pandemic will find us less prepared than we were for COVID-19."
"David Frum: Hello, and welcome back to The David Frum Show. I'm David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic. My guest this week will be Kyle Harper, one of our leading historians, if not our very leading historian, of infectious disease. I'll be talking to him about the rise of anti-vaccination sentiment in the United States and the new threat we face from diseases that, a generation ago, we thought had been overcome forever."
President Donald Trump's repeated delays to enforce the congressionally mandated TikTok ban exemplify a pattern of ignoring laws through invented tariffs, bypassing Congress on spending, and granting de facto immunity to allies, eroding constitutional foundations. Historian Kyle Harper traces humanity's struggle against smallpox, polio, and measles and highlights scientific breakthroughs that transformed life expectancy. Mistrust, misinformation, and polarization have fueled a 2020s measles resurgence in the United States after prior eradication. Historical lessons from Rome emphasize living with plagues and the necessity of public trust for effective health measures. Political theorist Carl Schmitt's friend-enemy framework informs modern authoritarian thought.
Read at The Atlantic
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