Yes, in times of crisis, our experienced leaders should all hand their jobs over to...
*checks notes*
...random mathematicians.
*checks notes*
...random mathematicians.
I can see it. Terence Tao shows up in Washington to head the FDA in a pandemic. Spends a few weeks learning the key rules and procedures. Gets really interested in chemistry and pharmacology. In four months he has revolutionized the field...
...After four months, of course, a million are dead, but on the plus side we have totally reinvented the math of the statistics that we use to validate new drugs...
...Meanwhile, Ed Witten at the CDC has created a grand unified theory of disease spread. Unfortunately it has no closed-form representation and makes no testable predictions. YET.
Don't even get me started on what Shinichi Mochizuki is going to do at Health and Human Services.
