2. When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason. The conversation reviews the governors' initial promise of two-week lockdowns, noting that centralized power is rarely relinquished. The economic crisis deepened as epidemiologists and experts supplanted the collective knowledge of the marketplace, resulting in central planning, mass unemployment, and debt. John Tamny contrasts the COVID-19 response with the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemic, which caused the equivalent of 250,000 modern deaths but elicited virtually no political or market reaction. The difference lies in technology: 50 years ago, without Zoom or delivery services, lockdowns would have caused mass discomfort and riots, preventing politicians from acting. Lockdowns happened because they could, not because they had to.