A Scientific Way to Assess Pandemic Threats

As science reporter Kayt Sukel writes for Forge, life now feels like a game of Would You Rather:

This summer, my husband and I asked ourselves: Would we rather send our kids back to school where they’ll benefit from traditional instruction and social interactions — but also potentially pick up and bring home a viral infection? Or would we rather keep them safe at home, knowing they will be miserable — and, thus, in true teen fashion, do their best to make us miserable, too? Talk about lose-lose.

A helpful way to approach these near-constant difficult decisions is to create a risk budget and weigh which risks are most valuable to you that you’re willing to spend on them and which risks you can do without. Read more below.

Life Is Now a Dark Game of Would You Rather