Brownstone Journal

Articles, News, Research, and Commentary on public health, science, economics, & social theory

Enough With These Dangerous Calculations

Enough With These Dangerous Calculations

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All of which underscores the more general point: government and its connected scientists simply cannot be trusted with this kind of power. The last experience illustrates why people like Barry, and many others besides, cannot and should not be trusted with power. We have laws and guaranteed liberties that can never be taken away, not even during a pandemic. It is never worth ruining lives to fulfill anyone’s abstract vision of what constitutes the greater good.

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Six Explanations for Rising Vaccine Hesitancy

Six Explanations for Rising Vaccine Hesitancy

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In April last year, UNICEF reported that vaccination coverage had decreased in 112 countries and 67 million children had missed out on at least one vaccination over 2020–23 because of lockdown-caused disruptions and diminished confidence in vaccines. Measles rates had doubled globally in 2022 compared to 2021 and polio was up by 16 percent. Overall, UNICEF recorded “the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunisation in 30 years.”

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A View of Kant from the East

A View of Kant from the East

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Kant literally changed the way we think about ourselves; what Copernicus achieved for astronomy – altering the assumptions of the place of planet Earth in what we now understand as our solar system – Kant did for philosophy, which is why he thought of himself as bringing about a Copernican revolution in philosophy. In brief: Kant demonstrated, with thorough argumentation, that instead of humans experiencing the world ‘passively’ by merely registering on their senses the impressions of external ‘reality,’ we actually contribute to the way the world appears to us.

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Preferred Pronouns Are Now Mandatory

Preferred Pronouns Are Now Mandatory

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Personally, I blame Neil Gorsuch, the supposedly conservative originalist Justice who joined with the liberals in Bostock (he actually wrote the majority opinion) in arguing that constitutional protections for sex applied equally to gender identity. His facile logic? That it is impossible for an employer to make an adverse employment decision based on “transgender status” without thereby discriminating “because of sex”, since a man who suffers adverse treatment because he “identifies” as a woman is treated differently than he would be if he were a woman who “identifies” as a woman. Er, yes, Neil. But the point is he isn’t a woman. This point of mere biological fact was lost on such a lofty legal mind, unfortunately – and now a country of 350 million is living with the idiotic and tyrannical consequences.

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The Mundane Can Protect Us

The Mundane Can Protect Us

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Maybe if people had embraced mundanity, those dull little businesses would have survived, ordinary child neurological development would have progressed, schooling would have happened in normal, mundane fashion, and the world would have come through the latest crisis as…normal, mundane, ordinary. Maybe embrace isn’t a strong enough suggestion. Maybe we should actually celebrate the mundane. If we do, in the next crisis, we’ll be better off.

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Musk Wins Latest Censorship Battle in Australia

Musk Wins Latest Censorship Battle in Australia

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Can Australia’s eSafety Commissioner block content globally on demand? Not today, ruled the Australian Federal Court, in a win for Elon Musk’s social media platform X. In a decision on Monday, Justice Geoffrey Kennett refused to extend a temporary injunction obtained by eSafety last month, which forced X to remove footage of the Wakeley church stabbing, an alleged religiously motivated terror attack.

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Money's Grim Future

Money’s Grim Future

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Viewing the importance of money through this lens of freedom and impact on the future, we could easily see that those with truly the most to lose were largely not present at the workshop. The young adults – whose lives will be impacted the most gravely should the economic stranglehold ensue – will not make their financial decisions freely according to their own obligations, their own goals, and their own dreams.

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REPPARE University of Leeds - Brownstone Institute

The True Costs of Pandemic Prevention and Response

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Given the poor evidence underlying pandemic cost and financing estimates, it is prudent not to rush into new pandemic initiatives until underlying assumptions and broad claims of a return on investment are properly assessed. These must be based on robust evidence, recognized need, and realistic measures of risk. WHO Member States will be better served by having transparent estimates that reflect reality and risk before they engage in such an uncertain and high-cost endeavour.

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Is There Hope for International Rule of Law?

Is There Hope for International Rule of Law?

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Have governments realized that they have been misled by repetitive G20, WHO, and the World Bank’s messages that there would be more harmful pandemics to come and that the world urgently needs new pandemic agreements? If they return to their senses, there may still be time for them to use Article 56(5) IHR to raise disagreement with the WHO’s interpretation of Article 55(2) to the coming WHA, demanding a deferral of the vote until legal requirements are fulfilled.

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The WHO’s Proposed Pandemic Agreements Worsen Public Health

The WHO’s Proposed Pandemic Agreements Worsen Public Health

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To summarize, while it’s sensible to prepare for outbreaks and pandemics, it’s even more sensible to improve health. This involves directing resources to where the problems are and using them in a way that does more good than harm. When people’s salaries and careers become dependent on changing reality, reality gets warped. The new pandemic proposals are very warped. They are a business strategy, not a public health strategy. It is the business of wealth concentration and colonialism – as old as humanity itself.

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