Steps Forward, Steps Back
Since our last email, there has been great news and terrible news.
BY BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE
Since our last email, there has been great news and terrible news.
On the plus side, the Covid shot imposed on the public in 2021 and then stuck on the routine childhood schedule – likely for reasons of blocking liability for harms – has been removed from the schedule. Obviously, kids were never at high risk and the shot did not work to stop infection or transmission in any case.
The shot is still available of course, but with conditions: only for the immunocompromised. It’s not a perfect solution but it is also the first time a shot for a disease has been removed from the schedule absent eradication or replacement.
This is worthy of a cheer. It’s a serious attempt to roll back one of the more egregious policies of the last five years. This is backed by a flat-out cancellation of a $700 million contract to Moderna for a Bird flu shot.
Even as we celebrate this progress, there is bad news. The FDA quietly announced approval for Moderna’s new generation Covid shot, implausibly called NexSpike. It’s been in development since 2023 perhaps. True, it comes with restrictions and expectations for trial data but this is not what most people were hoping.
Why could the new managers not just stop this? Well, they are dealing with a ferocious machinery in place, one that has resisted attempts by political managers to reform the system for decades if not a century.
Clearly, serious change is going to require more than good appointees. It is going to require a vast culture-wide change in opinion on the essential matter of freedom vs tyranny. There will not be any shortcuts, sadly.
Elections can make a dent but cannot overthrow and replace. That is the reality we confront today.
Meanwhile, there are ways we can in our own lives make a big difference. Brownstone is addressing this subject in its September 12-13 retreat at Polyface Farm in Virginia. The response has surpassed our expectations. It’s early for registrations to be this high so we expect it will sell out.
The Greater Boston Supper Club welcomes founder and Executive Director of Health Action, MA Candice Edwards and Attorney Advocate Vanessa Pompeii-Britt on Tuesday, June 3rd. Their talk will cover several high-impact proposals such as eliminating the religious exemption for K–12 school attendance and undermining parental rights in medical decision-making. Get tickets here.
The Midwest Supper Club welcomes Brownstone Institute Fellow Bret Swanson on Monday, June 9th. Bret will talk about how the Internet unleashed expertise and scrambled the brains of the experts, as well as how artificial intelligence will amplify the Internet’s power for good and ill. Get tickets here.
The West Hartford Supper Club welcomes reporter and famed star of Epoch TV Jan Jakielek, who will share insights on what it is like to be in his position as a voice of clarity with independent media, and what he has learned over the last several years in his role. Get tickets here.
Here is some content since our last email.
The Limits of Hospitality By Bert Olivier. I wonder if anyone has looked at the crisis surrounding illegal, virtually unchecked immigration in the US, UK, and European Union, as well as a country like South Africa, from the perspective of the notion of ‘hospitality.’
My Dad, a ‘Good’ Death, and the Unforgivable Covid Era By Scott Morefield. What happened to countless families who suffered during that time is unforgivable. The husband of 60 years who sat outside his wife’s hospital window holding signs of love and watching her die, and countless more.
David Zweig’s New Covid Book Is a Must-Read By Scott Morefield. In a just society, all of them would be put on trial. If that ever happens, Zweig’s devastating, meticulously researched account would be all the prosecution would need to obtain a conviction. That’s the strongest endorsement I could possibly give.
A Cancelled Keynote Lecture for Cardiothoracic Surgeons By Peter Gotzsche. EACTS is so corrupt that they will not allow me to speak about what this corruption means for the survival of patients. Money comes first, patient survival later, if at all.
King Squatters By Bobbie Anne Flower Cox. Elections have consequences. What do I mean? Well, there is a bill being proposed here in New York that would make squatting a crime, and make it more difficult for squatters to gain so many rights against the property owners.
The Long Knives Are Out for Brownstone By Brownstone Institute. What seems like victory is exceedingly fragile. Let’s not make this moment a brief pause between one totalitarianism and another. Let’s dream together of a new freedom, one that applies the lessons we’ve all learned.
Smell the Roses: Positive Trends and Western Accomplishments By Gigi Foster, Paul Frijters, and Michael Baker. The world as a whole is doing fine, in sum. To widen our smile, let us name and acknowledge five Great Accomplishments of the West that we are proud of, and feel honoured to cherish and defend in these times.
The Narcissism Of Tribalism By Sofia Karstens. If we allow the powers that be to make enemies out of each other…we’ve lost. We will splinter off into smaller and smaller factions, become weaker and more diluted, confirm and engrain our tribalism. It makes narcissists of us all.
The Gross Fiscal Negligence of the GOP By David Stockman. In short, the main impact of the TCJA was to bury the US electorate even deeper in debt—a condition that the GOP shows no interest in ameliorating. And now in its Trumpified fiscal stupor, not even in the slightest.
How the US Government Built the Anti-Disinformation Field By Andrew Lowenthal. Today, liber-net is launching a searchable database of almost 900 U.S. federal government awards to counter mis-, dis-, and malinformation (MDM) and other content moderation initiatives, covering the period from 2010 to 2025.
To Die Fishing By David Bell. I reserve the right to go rock fishing, and for my children to do so. It is on me to ensure we are careful – but it will not be entirely risk-free. Medical freedom means granting others the same right.
How Lies and Hubris Caused an Awakening By Pat Fidopiastis. Their lies and hubris caused an awakening, reminiscent of The Matrix. I just hope the people I trust who are now running the major institutions will allocate all resources to programs that will actually improve human health.
Long Post-Vaccination Censorship By Eyal Shahar. The paper shows evidence of vaccine-related deaths—from Covid—within two weeks of an injection in people who were previously infected. The evidence is at least as good as the paper’s evidence for vaccine effectiveness against Covid death in fall 2021.