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The Michael Shermer Show · 2025-09-27 · 65 min · 12,797 words

COVID-19: What We Learned (and Didn't) About Masks, Lockdowns, and Vaccines

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You're listening to The Michael Shermer Show. All right, hey everybody, it's Michael Shermer, it's time for another episode of the Michael Shermer Show. My guest today is Dr. Michael Osterohm. Regents Professor McKnight, Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health and the founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, SIDRAP, at the University of Minnesota.

An internationally renowned epidemiologist, he has been at the forefront of public health preparedness, has led many outbreak investigations of international importance. Oh, could one of those be COVID-19 by any chance? And he advises world leaders on the ever-growing list of microbial threats. He's the author of the New York Times bestseller Living Terrors. And his podcast series, Osterome Update, COVID-19 has been downloaded by more than 8 million listeners.

His new book, here it is, The Big One, How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics. Uh, are you telling me that this five-year thing we just went through was not the big one? I wish it were, but it's not. Oh my god. Unfortunately, we have other viruses out there that uh could kill much more effectively and could be transmitted likely as efficiently as we saw with uh COVID.

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