An Abundance of Caution

American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions

De: David Zweig

Narrado por: Jonathan Yen

An Abundance of Caution is a devastating account of the decision-making process behind one of the worst American policy failures in a century—the extended closures of public schools during the pandemic. David Zweig shows how some of the most trusted members of society repeatedly made fundamental errors in their assessment and presentation of evidence.

All along, kids throughout Europe had been learning in person since the spring of 2020. Even many peers at home—in private schools, and public schools in mostly "red" states—were in class full time from fall 2020 onward. Whatever inequities that existed among American children before the pandemic, the selective school closures exacerbated them, disproportionately affecting the underprivileged. Deep mental, physical, and academic harms were endured for no discernible benefit. As the Europeans had shown very early, after they had sent kids back to class, there was never any evidence that long-term school closures would reduce overall cases or deaths in any meaningful way. The story of American schools during the pandemic serves as a prism through which to approach fundamental questions about why and how individuals, bureaucracies, governments, and societies act as they do in times of crisis and uncertainty. Ultimately, this book is not about Covid; it's about a country ill-equipped to act sensibly under duress.

©2025 David Zweig (P)2025 Tantor Media

Reality is hard to listen to

I'm an architect, so data and facts are critical to what I do. This book sent me on my own fact finding search and it's even worse than the book states. Why we NEVER ask the most important question is mind boggling..."Why were we not prepared for this ". Even Hollywood assumes it in every virus or zombie movie you watch. There is some pre-planned response. It scares me to death what could happen to a bio/ virus attack let loose in NYC.

We knew

So much we already knew, but even still there was so much we didn't really know. Excellent info for anyone not afraid of honesty.

The world needs this book

4 years ago today I should have had my graduate school graduation, but instead I was forced to spend the prior 15 months of school at home online for no reason SCIENTIFICALLY CREDIBLE REASON. This book is nothing but kryptonite to the CoroNAZI narrative pushed today by those who “lead” us during our COVID imprisonment. David Zweig BRINGS the read receipts and takes the medical and political establishments to task over their purposeful neglect of the science and stats for political games. It’s a fantastic Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn level piece of testimonial literature bringing to light the lies and revisionism. This should be a must read for anyone who claim to have lead during covid. 10/10 💯🔥

Important. True. Too long.

An informative reminder of what happened in real time. if anything it will be a marker to disallow people to remember things different and continue to wash away their obvious errors by saying "we didn't know better." I was there. I followed this. The author captured everything accurately. My only issue is that it was advertised, solely focused on school closures. I wish that the author had gotten into the plethora of other well-intentioned yet unforgiveable errors that occurred. Also, while the story is well-written, it could have been shorter by more than half and accomplish the same ends. This is an important read for those predisposed to write off what happened as being due to a lack of knowledge.

Reminding of what happened

I had to stop listening to this book a few times because it stirred up memories of this time period. For me I had a toddler turning pre-schooler when the daycares closed and I was expected (or felt expected) to accomplish work at home in a tiny urban townhouse. Those memories led to anger and I would have to stop and calm down.

This book tells why I no longer trust the public school system. What those in leadership did has been done and there are no take backese. Real science is not a belief system. And experts are suppose to show that expertise by coming up with solutions. What we got were tribalists who made up 6 ft out of thin air, kept and closed daycares and other businesses, and probably killed off hundreds (death of despair, ignored non-covid health issues, addictions, etc) to "save just one life". Teachers and their unions did not come up with solutions suitable for different age ranges. My toddler/pre-schooler had no interest in looking at a screen unless there were singing cartoon characters on it. Zweig points out the problem with schools were trying to force a technological 'solution' while the practical solution of opening the schools was fought.

The narration was fine. Not amazing and not distracting once you get into it.

Good information, too bad it wasn't listened to 5 years ago

Great research, documentation, and quotes. Not surprising for those of us who paid attention to the disparate voices. But,it's great to have all this compiled in one volune.

Worth the read

This is a well researched, well written and informative book that everyone in America should read so we never make this mistake again

Necessary Reckoning

David Zweig's analysis of the impacts of COVID policies on American school children is required reading for everyone regardless of whether or not you have children. His in-depth reporting on the lack of evidence, shifting of the burden of proof, ideological bias exposes the harmful impacts of the 'following the science' mentality which was anything but scientific. Hopefully, the public (myself included) will bring a healthy dose of skepticism during the next disease outbreak.

THIS BOOK PISSED ME OFF !!

Yep, we knew it when we were enduring the ridiculous COVID lockdowns, but David Zweig has given us all the receipts. A book that had to be written, and Mr. Zweig must be highly praised for doing so; for his extensive research, for his attention to detail, and for writing a study that must be kept for this, and the next, generation. As The Who - the rock band, not the governmental organization - encouraged us in song: let’s NOT get fooled again.

Finally! Real facts and the data to back it up.

This was a thorough account of what was happening to our kids during Covid. Here in California, the struggle to understand the thought process of our leaders was beyond frustrating. Our kids are the future, but were treated like a nonentity. Governor Newsom had his parties and made sure his kids didn’t miss a beat, but most kids suffered from noninteractive education and social isolation. For schools, they pulled a “guilty until proven innocent” scenario. This book confirmed my thoughts that there was no actual science to support a lot of the decisions made during the pandemic. Hopefully everyone will learn from these mistakes. Thank you for bringing the facts to the light.