Episode 40: COVID-19 Containment and the “Freedom-Loving” Backlash

Joining the co-hosts are Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a London physician active in the fight against COVID; John Gillott, a British sociologist of science and author of Bioscience, Governance and Politics; and Ravi Bali of Marxist-Humanist Initiative. They discuss governmental efforts to contain the pandemic, the backlash against these efforts—often justified by invocations of “freedom”––in the United Kingdom as well as the United States, and how opponents of containment efforts have spread misinformation. Some of the discussion focuses on recent articles, by Fitzpatrick and by Gillott, which criticize the “lockdown-skeptical” line taken by Spiked, a British online publication that emerged out of the revolutionary left. In the discussion, reference is also made to the Great Barrington Declaration and to Amanda Marcotte’s article, “The NRA way of life is ruining our nation.” In the episode’s current-events segment, Brendan and Andrew discuss Georgia’s new voter-suppression law and the fightback against it. Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.