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Brownstone Journal

Brownstone Journal features in-depth articles, news, research, and commentary on public health, science, economics, social theory, and related policy issues — offering critical perspectives on institutional failures, government interventions, and threats to liberty.

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US Government Officials Dumped Stocks Prior to Lockdowns, Report Shows

In an explosive new report from the Wall Street Journal, leading health officials began offloading stocks at truly unprecedented rates in January 2020—well before the COVID-19 emergency was declared—with officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services selling 60% more stocks in January 2020 than average over the previous 12 months.

US Government Officials Dumped Stocks Prior to Lockdowns, Report Shows Continue Reading

exploited covid crisis

Agree with Us or Hold your Tongue

Every crisis, they say, is an opportunity. Governments, health bureaucrats and drug regulators all over the world have exploited the Covid-19 crisis to grab power and gain control over our lives. Predictably, rather than to most people’s surprise, many are proving singularly resistant to relinquishing their extraordinary powers, instead extending the emergency and broadening its scope to embrace other issues.

Agree with Us or Hold your Tongue Continue Reading

The Macroeconomic Consequences of Lockdowns and the Aftermath

Washington compensated one and all for the resulting harm and then some by unleashing a $6 trillion spending bacchanalia in less than 14 months, which was accomplished with barely a dissent from either party to the Washington duopoly because interest rates on government debt had plunged to an all-time low. In turn, that was enabled by the most reckless spurt of money printing and debt monetization in recorded history.

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Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s New Chancellor of the Exchequer, Strongly Backed Zero Covid and Lockdowns

Part of the reason Hunt’s 2022 bid imploded is that testimony and video surfaced of his praising China’s draconian “Zero Covid” and quarantine measures and advocating for the UK to emulate them. Hunt had likewise been a vocal proponent of lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s New Chancellor of the Exchequer, Strongly Backed Zero Covid and Lockdowns Continue Reading

Supreme Court Decided to Keep Torture A Secret

Why, then, was this decision not widely reported? It, of course, did not see a total media blackout, but it received far less attention than the abortion case that has now captured the attention of the press and the population. Why is this? Is the official suppression of torture via the Court not newsworthy? How much of this is due to the decision not aligning with how the Court is typically characterized: that of an institutional battle between the ideological left versus the ideological right?

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college-mandates-shattered-dreams

How College Mandates Shattered My Dreams

When I was canceled from UConn, I was in the middle of writing a neurosurgery research journal article and my participation was abruptly stopped. I was planning to study abroad in my junior year, which would have been this year. I looked forward to entering dental school and eventually opening a dental practice. I made a choice for my body – and my college life was interrupted indefinitely. 

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How deadly is Covid

How Deadly Is Covid? A Major Study Defies Conventional Wisdom

In the new study, which is currently undergoing peer-review, Prof. Ioannidis and colleagues found that across 31 national seroprevalence studies in the pre-vaccination era, the average (median) infection fatality rate of COVID-19 was estimated to be just 0.035% for people aged 0-59 years and 0.095% for those aged 0-69 years.

How Deadly Is Covid? A Major Study Defies Conventional Wisdom Continue Reading

How Can Severe Mental Illness be the Deadliest Covid Comorbidity?

It is not remotely plausible that “learning disabilities” have a physiological connection or influence on the pathological course of covid infection or disease, certainly not en masse that would show up as a stronger safety signal than both age and obesity. The proposition that an otherwise perfectly healthy individual with a learning disability is at a higher risk from covid than your 83-year-old grandma is so absurd that it should call the entire study into doubt.

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Small Steps Toward Truth and Justice

Did anyone really believe on the eve of the sixth lockdown that it would last only as announced? Or did we all suspect another lie? This is a much harder lesson to take – it opens up uncomfortable lines of enquiry such as “what else did /do they lie about?”  From there it is a short step to demanding that there be accountability for the lies – and further, that every future announcement is challenged. 

Small Steps Toward Truth and Justice Continue Reading