Topic: Science

The Catastrophic Impact of Covid Forced Societal Lockdowns

– January 30, 2021

“Why would we impose more catastrophic restrictive policies when they have not worked? We even have government leaders now enacting harder and even more draconian lockdowns after admitting that the prior ones have failed. Lockdowns are not an acceptable long-term strategy and have severely impacted populations socially, economically, psychologically, and health wise.” ~ AIER Contributing Authors

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

Two Years to Stop the Spread: Some Countries will Close Borders until at least 2022

– January 27, 2021

“Still, many American ‘public health experts’ have urged legislators to adopt the Australia and New Zealand rights-restricting model for ‘stopping the spread.’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long time government health bureaucrat, has applauded Australia and New Zealand, claiming they have ‘done quite well’ in their draconian policy response to COVID-19.” ~ Jordan Schachtel

Crisis, Economic Education, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Too Many Experts, Too Little Knowledge

– January 27, 2021

“The kind of information people acquire in their myriad interactions with others is often undervalued as a means of preventative behavior. As helpful as science is for understanding causal mechanisms — and it is — it should not be the only source of knowledge that informs your behavior, let alone policy.” ~ Byron B. Carson III & David Waugh

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

What Is the Alternative to Lockdowns? A Symposium

– January 26, 2021

Preserving the normal functioning society must be the priority in order to maximize the health of the community, and not by focusing on just one pathogen but all aspects of public health.

Books, Crisis, Science

The Question of Masks

– January 26, 2021

“Until a substantial portion of us stand up and make clear that we will not tolerate being stripped of life, liberty, property, and dignity, our governments will continue to inflict these repressive measures.” ~ Jenin Younes

Crisis, Government, Science

What Does It Mean for a Virus to Become ‘Endemic?’

– January 25, 2021

“The sooner we recognize Covid as endemic, the sooner we can overcome this unfettered hysteria. By comparison to the previous year’s headlines, the media would no longer be able to act as a foghorn of fear-mongering. Citizens could become increasingly tolerant of the virus, and responsibility for personal risk and decisions to access medical care will once again belong to individuals.” ~ Micha Gartz

Crisis, Media, Science

About the Coronavirus, the New York Times Argues With the New York Times

– January 25, 2021

“Readers can decide on their own why the sidelining of ‘science’ in states like Georgia and Florida resulted in much better virus outcomes than for the science-reverent states. But even then they’d probably be wasting their time. A more useful approach would be for people to read the Times in full. Deep inside the newspaper, they’ll continue to find what’s obscured by alarmism on the front page.” ~ John Tamny

Crisis, Science

Invidious Comparisons

– January 25, 2021

“Let’s stop comparing Covid deaths to 9/11 deaths, to death tolls from hypothetical jetliner crashes, to Vietnam or World War I casualties, or to other non-pathogen-related calamities. Keeping clear the facts about Covid is difficult enough amidst the ongoing hysteria and willful misinterpretation of life’s realities. We don’t need to further thicken the fog with invidious comparisons.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Books, Crisis, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

Don’t Fear the Reaper: A Review of The Plague Cycle by Charles Kenny

– January 21, 2021

“The Plague Cycle is an excellent treatment on the history of infectious diseases and the complex relationship with human societies, and it offers new ways to think about disease prevention going forward. Do pick it up with those reasons in mind, not just because of the implications for Covid-19.” ~ Byron B. Carson III

Crisis, Government, Public Choice and Public Policy, Science

The Empirical Case for a Mask Mandate Lacks Scientific Grounding

– January 19, 2021

“Americans rapidly adopted masks last summer and have continued to use them at consistently high rates ever since. Adding a new national mask mandate on top of this practice will bring little if any additional benefit to what voluntary adoption already achieved, though it may foster a false hope in the exaggerated claims of an obsolete and erroneous model.” ~ Phillip W. Magness

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Science

New Study Indicates Lockdowns Didn’t Slow the Spread of Covid-19

– January 19, 2021

“Perhaps there is a sort of heroic romanticism about flexing the muscles of the state to stop a fearsome enemy that makes lockdowns so attractive. The only problem with this is that we are dealing with reality, and society is not a playset.” ~ Ethan Yang

Books, Crisis, Science

A Pandemic Reading List for Left, Right, and Libertarians

– January 14, 2021

“Pandemic responses will continue to serve as a convenient rationale for government interventions in the future. Anyone who has a concern for human liberty and prosperity should armed with intellectual ammunition to combat this huge increase in government power. We need more than ideological instincts here; to fully understand, we need to be aware of the sciences of infectious disease and the discipline of public health.” ~ Jeffrey A. Tucker