Policy
Brownstone Institute Policy articles feature opinion and analysis of global policy in news, economics, public health, public dialog, and social life. Policy articles are machine-translated into multiple languages.
The Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine Monopoly: The Backstory
For all the talk of the power of Big Pharma, the Covid-19 vaccine that is currently becoming the standard throughout the Western world has a far more powerful state sponsor and the state sponsor is Germany. This raises particularly obvious and thorny issues for the European Union, where the vaccine contracts for all 27 member states were negotiated by a European Commission that is headed by former German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen.
The Economic and Health Effects of Mass Covid-19 Vaccination
From these results it seems that mass vaccination is some sort of get-out-of-jail card, as a way to get out of ruinously expensive lockdowns and allow some rebound in economic activity. Yet it was politicians and health bureaucrats who put us in jail in the first place. At any time they could undo what they imposed, with or without mass vaccination.
Why Mask Mandates Should be Repealed Immediately
It is time to stop mask mandates for healthy people. It is no longer possible to justify a behavioral experiment with such far-reaching harmful consequences. Many scientific studies and analysis all arrive at the same conclusion: the wearing of masks by healthy people cannot stop the spread of a virus.
Excerpts From the 5th Circuit Court Judgement Against OSHA
A federal appeals court in New Orleans has stopped the vaccination and testing requirement for private businesses as ordered by the Biden administration and the Labor Department’s regulatory division for workplace safety. The decision is notable not only for its decisive judgement but also for its striking language that properly frames the draconian edict for what it is, and decries in pointed language the goal and methods being deployed against workers.
Why Was the US-Canada Land Border Closed for So Long?
Elected officials and ordinary citizens alike in both countries have been puzzling over the strange fact that Canadians were legally permitted to fly into the US via commercial aircraft — after having gone to a crowded airport and inhaling whatever particles happened to be in circulation — but barred from driving over the border alone in their private cars.
Aaron Rodgers and the Absurdity of Media Coverage of Covid Policy
Ultimately picking weak spokespeople is a broader strategy that undermines debate itself and encourages rampant groupthink, which itself is the defining quality of our media response. If you pick a weak debater to argue the other side, it makes it easy for you to entrench in your own pre-existing belief. It is a cheap tactic.
The Mask Distraction
There are many open questions about the actions taken in response to the pandemic, and, in my view, a most relevant one is whether the mandatory use of masks helped mitigate the spread of Covid-19, or if it was just a distraction, which may have even hindered the fight against the pandemic.
What It Means to Experience “Social Death”
After quite consciously using the enormous moral and rhetorical force of the government and media to label a third to a half of its own citizens as social pariahs, the Biden Administration is now working hand-in-glove with the country’s large corporations to destroy these same citizens’ standing as fully empowered citizens through the destruction of their livelihoods.
