While I work on a more involved post regarding New York Times’ consistent obsession with “red state science denialism” as the single causal explanation for Covid mortality, I wanted to share an important resource.
I consider it an honor to be listed among the other authors who have contributed to The Brownstone Institute. My work on this modest substack has found it’s way to this important organization through one of the founders, Jeffrey Tucker, who I am grateful to for supporting my work and in turn am grateful for the creation of this organization and the critical role they are playing in our ongoing public policy debate in our post-lockdown, post-pandemic world.
Brownstone’s Mission Statement:
“The mission of the Brownstone Institute – which is, in many ways, the spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration – is constructively to come to terms with what happened, understand why, discover and explain alternative paths, and seek reforms to prevent such events from happening again. Lockdowns and mandates have set a precedent in the modern world and without accountability, social and economic institutions will be shattered once again.
Brownstone Institute plays an essential role in preventing a recurrence by holding decision makers, media elites, technology companies, and intellectuals accountable. This is especially true given the ubiquity of tech censorship. In addition, the Brownstone Institute hopes to shed light on a path to recovery from the devastating collateral damage, while providing a vision for a different way to think about freedom, security, and public life.
Brownstone Institute looks to influence a post-lockdown world by generating new ideas in public health, philosophy, scientific discourse, economics, and social theory. It hopes to enlighten and mobilize public life to defend and promote the liberty that is critical for an enlightened society from which everyone benefits. The purpose is to point the way toward a better understanding of essential freedoms – including intellectual freedom and free speech – and the proper means to preserve essential rights even in times of crisis.
The research and content of the institute are sophisticated but accessible. Operationally, Brownstone’s mode is no fluff in the budget, no bureaucrats, no cronies, only a highly competent small team working to change the world. It will have media reach and call on scientists, intellectuals, and others who are dedicated to this task.
The Brownstone Institute is not about partisan attachments or exclusionary ideological labels.
Our content is neither left nor right, though our contributors have their own views. As an institution, Brownstone celebrates democratic institutions, freedom as the path to cultural and scientific progress, a trustworthy system of public administration, and economic prosperity. In accordance with these ideals, Brownstone airs a wide variety of perspectives and viewpoints, including contradictory views by different authors.”
Find my contributions at the below links
Contra CDC, School Masking Did Not Keep Kids In School (with Emily Burns)
https://brownstone.org/articles/contra-cdc-school-masking-did-not-keep-kids-in-school/
Math Proficiency Rates Show Impact of Prolonged School Closures
https://brownstone.org/articles/math-proficiency-rates-show-impact-of-prolonged-school-closures/
The Mask Studies You Should Know
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-mask-studies-you-should-know/
Congratulations Josh, scanning the authors it looks like you are in good company.
Looking forward to your long post on NYT obsession with Red State Science denialism. It's been really fascinating following their journalists (David Leonhardt seems to be the most devoted) cling to this unfalsifiable premise.
Especially considering science already had the answer all along why "red" states have higher mortality rates than "blue" states. It's not like this was a surprise. We just didn't care that West Virginia had an annual death rate of 127 per 100K while Colorado only had 69 per 100K pre Covid.
When West Virginia jumped to 143/100K and Colorado to 84/100K in 2020 we suddenly care? Now we decided that it was science denialism causing this disparity and not obesity, age, and rural healthcare access? The CDC wrote about this as recent as 2017 https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0112-rural-death-risk.html