‘A case study in groupthink’: were liberals wrong about the pandemic?

US political scientists' book argues aggressive Covid policies such as mask mandates were in some cases misguided

Were conservatives right to question Covid lockdowns? Were the liberals who defended them less grounded in science than they believed? And did liberal dismissiveness of the other side come at a cost that Americans will continue to pay for many years?

A new book by two political scientists argues yes to all three questions, making the case that the aggressive policies that the US and other countries adopted to fight Covid - including school shutdowns, business closures, mask mandates and social distancing - were in some cases misguided and in many cases deserved more rigorous public debate.