David Hornbein

In response to the 2022 monkeypox outbreak, public health departments throughout the USA and Europe are offering free smallpox vaccines to the public. (The diseases are closely related and the same vaccine protects against both.) Demand for these vaccines was high when they first became available, but has since plummeted...

People around here sometimes reference the “Unilateralist’s Curse”, especially when they want to keep someone else from doing something that might cause harm. Briefly, the idea is that “unilateral” actions taken without the consent of society at large are especially likely to be harmful, because people who underestimate the resulting...