Did behavioral changes reduce COVID-19 deaths?

episode

Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity not yet transcribed

▲ 0

Transcript

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet Upvotes decide what gets transcribed next — 0 so far. Sign in to upvote

More from Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity

How can we improve noisy labor market data? 25 min · 11 Jun 2026

Why is the U.S. outpacing European countries in AI adoption? 23 min · 28 May 2026

All episodes from Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity →

Report any issue

Source

Recorded20 Jun 2024

Publisherfeeds.libsyn.com ↗

Handlerec:5609198

Show notes

As COVID-19 swept across the globe, many nations struggled to define a cohesive public health strategy to prevent the spread of the disease. However, in spite of the lack of a clear plan, improvised strategies of behavioral changes—e.g., masking, social distancing—slowed transmission until a vaccine could be developed. The new BPEA paper, "The impact of vaccines and behaviors on U.S. cumulative deaths from COVID-19," estimates that the ad hoc strategy prevented close to 800,000 deaths. On this episode, epidemiologist and paper co-author Stephen Kissler talks with Brookings Senior Fellow Carol Graham about the model they used to study COVID-19's impacts and what can be done to improve the government response to future pandemics. This is the final episode of season four of the podcast. Show notes and transcript The Brookings Podcast on Economic Activity is part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Subscribe and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Send feedback email to [email protected].

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.