Dennis Prager Show - Mac Donald: People in NYC Locked in for Weeks⎜The Dennis Prager Radio Show
Aired: 2020-04-28
Duration: 04:43


=== Reading MacDonald's Piece (02:57) ===

[00:00:00]  Heather MacDonald, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the most insightful writers and speakers in the U.S. She's a contributing editor for the arguably best journal, now written city journal, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
[00:00:18]  So, let's try to give a picture here.
[00:00:22]  Do you live in Manhattan?
[00:00:24]  I do.
[00:00:25]  I live in Manhattan.
[00:00:27]  Walking distance to Central Park.
[00:00:30]  And are you locked down on your own?
[00:00:35]  Well, I believe in exercise.
[00:00:37]  I'm not going to accept this idea.
[00:00:40]  People seem to be interpreting these lockdowns in as draconian a fashion as possible.
[00:00:49]  I go to the park early in the morning, and then I go out two more times a day.
[00:00:56]  To get exercise.
[00:00:57]  But there are people in my building who I don't think have been out for weeks of their apartment.
[00:01:05]  This is unfathomable to me.
[00:01:08]  Now, there's also a lot of people who have left the city entirely for their country homes because this place is a ghost town.
[00:01:16]  It's a tragedy to see every single day the city in a complete, static, moribund state.
[00:01:27]  So I have a question.
[00:01:28]  I read your wonderful piece in The Spectator.
[00:01:31]  I'm a subscriber to The Spectator because I like to keep everything conservative alive.
[00:01:36]  It's my little way.
[00:01:37]  It's a great, great journal.
[00:01:41]  And it's published in England, but they have an American edition.
[00:01:44]  We put up Heather MacDonald's piece, ladies and gentlemen, up at DennisPrager.com.
[00:01:50]  You and I think so similarly.
[00:01:53]  That it actually presents a challenge whenever I have an interview with you.
[00:01:58]  No, I'm totally serious.
[00:02:00]  It's eerie how similarly we think.
[00:02:04]  To this point, yesterday I did my weekly fireside chat.
[00:02:09]  And it goes up on Thursdays.
[00:02:13]  It's my 132nd edition.
[00:02:15]  I never miss a week.
[00:02:17]  And guess what I talked about?
[00:02:20]  The religion.
[00:02:22]  Of being safe.
[00:02:23]  And what did you do?
[00:02:25]  You gave the religion a name.
[00:02:28]  Safetyism.
[00:02:29]  I love it.
[00:02:32]  I refuse when I'm saying goodbye to somebody on the phone to say, be safe.
[00:02:38]  Because it presumes the opposite.
[00:02:41]  That we're not safe.

=== Voodoo Public Health (02:00) ===

[00:02:42]  And it's simply not a particularly relevant category as far as I'm concerned.
[00:02:48]  Now, obviously...
[00:02:49]  During this current moment, there are groups that are at extreme risk, and we should do everything we can to protect them.
[00:02:57]  But the idea that we're all going around to each other, perfectly healthy people, even though I guess I'm officially in an age category that has a higher level of risk, warning each other to be safe is just completely ridiculous.
[00:03:14]  How about be literate?
[00:03:17]  Be informed.
[00:03:18]  Be knowledgeable.
[00:03:19]  Be enlightened.
[00:03:21]  But be safe.
[00:03:22]  That's kind of the lowest common denominator.
[00:03:25]  And one that we don't otherwise live by.
[00:03:27]  I mean, that's what's so curious about this moment.
[00:03:30]  This came out of the university and has now engulfed everybody.
[00:03:35]  I mean, we're all looking for safe spaces.
[00:03:38]  When I see people...
[00:03:41]  Running in Central Park at 5.30 a.m.
[00:03:45]  or whizzing around the park 20 miles an hour on their bike wearing masks.
[00:03:50]  Oh, God bless you.
[00:03:52]  As if on a bicycle in 843 acres you're going to get infected.
[00:03:58]  Right.
[00:03:58]  It's absurd.
[00:04:00]  Well, you know, I've told my listeners, my realization that epidemiology is voodoo...
[00:04:09]  Some epidemiologists like John Ianides at Stanford are true scientists, but by and large it's voodoo.
[00:04:15]  And I knew it because of the secondhand smoke stuff.
[00:04:21]  And people actually...
[00:04:23]  Do you know that there are now articles in science journals of thirdhand smoke?
[00:04:27]  Yeah.
[00:04:29]  Public health has been politicized for a very long time, whether it ever was not.
[00:04:35]  I think that was definitely a case time.
[00:04:38]  Hold on, hold on there, Heather.
[00:04:40]  Forgive me.
[00:04:40]  I've got to break because these are the people who make this show possible.