Articles

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

Focused Protection: Jay Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta, and Martin Kulldorff

Focused Protection: Jay Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta, and Martin Kulldorff

By / / , / 14 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

In the early months of the pandemic, scientists concerned about lockdowns feared “coming out” in public. The GBD partners took one for the B team and did the dirty work. They paid a heavy price for it, including the loss of some personal friendships, but they held their ground. In print, on air, and on social media, Bhattacharya continues to describe lockdowns as “the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 years,” with catastrophic health and psychological harms that will play out for a generation.

Focused Protection: Jay Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta, and Martin Kulldorff Read More

unmask the audience

Unmask the Audiences Already!

By / / , / 12 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

People no longer have an emotional connection while speaking when wearing masks. And we can no longer understand each other’s speech. A venue full of masked people is a place lacking in humanity. It is an artificial world based on virtue-signaling and the elevation of appearance over reality, rather than actual human connection. 

Unmask the Audiences Already! Read More

wartime-parallels-iraq-and-covid

Wartime Parallels: Iraq and Covid

By / / , , / 6 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

First, the resort to emotional arguments and moral blackmail generally implies that they have little reasoned argument and evidence to support their case and are deflecting to bluster instead. Second, whenever we are presented with excitable exclamation marks (Saddam Hussein already has weapons of mass destruction (WMD)! He can hit us with WMD in just 45 minutes! Coronavirus could be more cataclysmic than the Spanish flu! The sky is falling!), it is a very good idea to substitute sceptical question marks instead:

Wartime Parallels: Iraq and Covid Read More

lockdowns did nothing

Three Years In, How Did the Lockdowns Go?

By / / , / 6 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The lockdowns did not improve health outcomes. They did devastate economic outcomes. And economics is part of health which in turn is a reflection of the quality of life. The same results pertain however we shuffle the data: adjusting by age, adjusting by population, adjusting by population density. The conclusion is completely undeniable. Lockdowns were a disaster and they achieved nothing in terms of their stated purpose. 

Three Years In, How Did the Lockdowns Go? Read More

uk fantasy

The UK Fantasy of 510,000 Lives Lost 

By / / , / 5 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The 510,000 figure, which turned the world on its head, was a fantasy number churned out by absurd modeling of a zero-probability event. The main way in which Mr Cummings, and in this respect he is a significantly representative figure, is going dreadfully wrong is that, when judging government policy as a response to emergency, he does not see that the reason why the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak escalated into the public policy catastrophe that it became was the fundamentally flawed Imperial College London modeling on which the government based its response. 

The UK Fantasy of 510,000 Lives Lost  Read More

covidian archetype vs hero

Covidianism Inverts the Heroic Archetype 

By / / / 20 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The myth of the hero does not teach us to eradicate life’s pains and risks in pursuit of only comfort and safety. That is the doctrine of the animal. Rather, the myth of the hero shows us that it is necessary to embrace suffering and risk in order to experience life’s miracle; and that, for such a transcendent reward — for such excellence — that is a price worth paying. 

Covidianism Inverts the Heroic Archetype  Read More

fact check this Facebook

Fact-Check This, Facebook

By / / / 12 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The censorious warnings that are now slapped over posts that contain my original article, How the “Unvaccinated” Got It Right would seem to imply that Facebook is so determined that information presented on its platform does not “mislead” for “lack of context” that it is willing to engage in illegal collusion with the government to satisfy that goal. 

Fact-Check This, Facebook Read More

thank god for dogs

The Criminalization of the Ordinary

By / / , , / 5 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

How can we go back to living in just one world? Was it all an illusion in the first place? Is it just that the veil has been drawn back, and now we (or I) see the true horror of reality? What took me so long? How I long for a reconciliation of those two worlds, where there is a shared understanding of truth, where we can at least confront problems together, on the same side. Until something changes, I must try to be a citizen of these two mutually exclusive worlds.

The Criminalization of the Ordinary Read More

covid coup right to travel

The Covid Coup Attacked the Right to Travel

By / / , , , / 5 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

There was a coup d’état in this country that presented itself under the innocuous banner of “public health.” Our country’s most powerful forces – including information centers, unelected officials, and multinational corporations – worked together to unravel the protections of the Constitution. Among them was the longstanding precedent of the right to travel and its replacement by tyrannical house arrests.

The Covid Coup Attacked the Right to Travel Read More

end of laughter

The Tragic End of Laughter 

By / / / 8 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

It’s pretty hard to laugh when you’ve been inoculated with fear and isolation. Paralyzing gaslighting was the starting point. But the constant and continuing drumbeat of fear and necessary isolation transcend simple gaslighting. Fear and isolation were beneath the plunger being pushed down hard in the first needle forcibly stabbed into the world’s arms. And, that original fear-and-isolation inoculation of stress provided the opportunity for more tangible inoculations. Denial of natural immunity amplified any justification for, if not providing an outright blessing on many of these outrages. 

The Tragic End of Laughter  Read More

public school

American Public Schools, RIP

By / / / 8 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

We could all look back and observe that March 2020 marked the beginning of the end of the great Progressive experiment in public education. Something else is emerging now. This is not a story that any responsible person would have scripted but the end result, and despite all the carnage along the way, might be a better overall system for the next generation of students, parents, and teachers. 

American Public Schools, RIP Read More

Stay Informed with Brownstone Institute