Thomas B. Pepinsky on Pandemic Politics

Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI Radio in New York

(10/21/22) According to Thomas B. Pepinsky, COVID-19 has killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history, but the scale and grim human toll of the pandemic were not inevitable. "Pandemic Politics" examines how Donald Trump politicized COVID-19, shedding new light on how his administration tied the pandemic to the president’s political fate in an election year and chose partisanship over public health, with disastrous consequences for all. At a time when solidarity and bipartisan unity were sorely needed, Americans came to see the pandemic in partisan terms, adopting behaviors and attitudes that continue to divide us today. Join us when Professor of Government and Public Policy at Cornell University, Thomas B. Pepinsky shares a uniquely American tragedy, in which Pandemic Politics reveals how the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic had profound and troubling implications for public health and the future of democracy itself on this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large