First hour: Understanding COVID-19 vaccines and protection against severe illness
Second hour: Why has the Libertarian party had trouble attracting more people?COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, preventing severe disease and death from the virus and the variants that cause COVID-19. But, as medical experts point out, vaccines providing complete immunity to COVID -- and to any infection -- is unachievable. The notion of sterilizing immunity is a myth. This hour, we're joined by medical experts who weigh in on the purpose of vaccines, how infections work, and what they think the public should understand about protection against severe illness. Our guests:
- Stephen Cook, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, and pediatrician at Golisano Children's Hospital
- Elizabeth Murray, D.O., assistant professor of pediatrics, and pediatrician at Golisano Children's Hospital
- Deborah Pierce, M.D., clinical associate professor of family medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center
Then in our second hour, the editors of Reason Magazine recently joined a conversation about whether Libertarians have been mostly right about the big issues of the past twenty years. Since 9/11, Libertarians have opposed the war in Iraq; opposed the occupation of Afghanistan; opposed torture; supported same-sex marriage; supported marijuana legalization; and supported aggressive access to COVID vaccines, even before trials were complete. Why, they wonder, have the Libertarian party and movement had trouble attracting more people... if they've been on the right side of history so often? Critics would argue that Libertarians have been wrong more often than they'll admit. We find out with our guests:
- Kevin Wilson, host of the "A Free Solution" radio program and former Congressional candidate
- Lauren Hall, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at RIT
- Phil Ricci, former senior advisor for Sharpe for Governor in 2015, media director for the Johnson-Weld campaign in 2016, and former vice chair of the NYLP