Articles

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

War Was Always the Wrong Metaphor

By / / , , / 11 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

With two full years of hindsight, it’s clear that lockdowns were a disaster and that mandated measures caused more harm than benefit, yet this has not prevented leaders from declaring victory, crediting their own brave and resolute leadership for saving millions of lives and routing the viral enemy. However, SARS-CoV-2 isn’t a real enemy—it doesn’t have an intention other than to exist and spread, and it won’t agree to an armistice. Instead, we will have to live with the virus forever in an endemic state, and skip the victory parades.

War Was Always the Wrong Metaphor Read More

Vaccine Fanaticism Fuels Vaccine Skepticism

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

The federal government went further, using its vast regulatory powers to mandate vaccines as a condition of employment. These coercive actions effectively cast the unvaccinated into second-class citizenship. As they watched the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike contract COVID-19, they undoubtedly began to wonder whether public health truly had their best interests at heart.

Vaccine Fanaticism Fuels Vaccine Skepticism Read More

Travel Blocked from Europe: The Second Anniversary

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

This was a turning point not only in the Trump administration. Pollsters agree that the Covid response not only cost him the Presidency but his party also lost the Senate and secured minority status in the House. It was a turning point for American liberty and the general stability of the world economy. It set in motion all that we currently endure, including emergency powers, egregious mandates, inflation, stagnation, demographic upheaval, ill-health, cultural disorientation, and arguably war too. 

Travel Blocked from Europe: The Second Anniversary Read More

What the Truckers Want

What the Truckers Want: An Explanation for the Confused

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

These truckers and others drove from California to Hagerstown, MD, over a week and a half – and all across the country, from overpasses, at evening rallies, and all along the highways, Americans turned out to cheer them on. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Americans turned out to show their support for the truckers, and hundreds of thousands if not millions more cheered them on from their homes, unable to be there in person. 

What the Truckers Want: An Explanation for the Confused Read More

What Happens When Cases Rise?

What Happens When Cases Rise?

By / / , , / 4 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

Covid-19 cases will eventually rise. I don’t know when, but we are extremely vulnerable to an ill-formed and schizophrenic response. As we near midterm elections, politicians will be more volatile, and seek to control news that is seen as a threat to political fortunes. That’s the territory for bad decision making.

What Happens When Cases Rise? Read More

It's Time to Talk about Elephants

It’s Time to Talk about Elephants

By / / , , / 7 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

As we step into year three, we urgently need to widen the lens beyond Covid metrics, beyond epidemiology, beyond even science itself. With Covid easing into endemicity, we need to grapple with big-picture concepts like costs, benefits and tradeoffs. We need to ask the tough questions. We need to name the hulking elephants in the room, to lift up their trunks and see what lies beneath.

It’s Time to Talk about Elephants Read More

Freedom Is Our Birthright

Freedom Is Our Birthright, Not Dependent On Medical Status

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

On occasion the majority may need to swallow a risk for a time. Sometimes respecting the freedom of others will seem to cost us, but codifying human rights, and insisting on process, legalism, and law gives wisdom time to overcome fear. It is the insurance that keeps the members of a free society free.

Freedom Is Our Birthright, Not Dependent On Medical Status Read More

It’s All in Good Fun

Drs. Walensky and Offit: It’s All in Good Fun

By / / , , / 9 minute read / Articles
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

Did you ever think of the cruelty bordering on sadism of forcing millions of people who, thanks to natural immunity posed no infectious threat to anyone, were having to choose between taking a medication that can do them little good and might do them considerable harm, and losing their livelihood? 

Drs. Walensky and Offit: It’s All in Good Fun Read More

Stay Informed with Brownstone Institute