World-wide rallies and a Brisbane book launch

Dear ,

I'm writing to you as one of the signatories of our open letter to let you know about two events. 

The first is that there are  major protests against mandatory vaccination planned in 40 countries and 150 cities for this weekend. With social media, and the mainstream media, suppressing this information I thought it important to get it out to you.

If you do not personally oppose vaccine mandates, that is fine, as our open letter did not address that issue. But I am sure that many of the signatories do, so I am passing this on as information. 

Jo Nova has conveniently summarised the information in this blog post.

If you are in Brisbane, you may also be interested in the Queensland launch of The Great COVID Panic: What Happened, Why, and What To Do with Professor Gigi Foster, one of the authors. I'm also hoping to have another author, Professo Paul Frijters, in attendance via the web.

The Australian Institute for Progress is a think tank, and while we do campaign from time to time, our primary role is to discuss and develop good policy. Government responses to COVID have shown us how fragile our democracies are, and how panic, policy tunnel-vision, ambition, and lack of scrutiny (including cowardice by opposition parties and others) can lead to the dismantling of long-accepted and good policies and institutions.

Putting the world back on the right path will not be easy, particularly as COVID policies provide a template and action research project for those determined that individual freedom and thought endanger, in some way that only they can see, civilisation. This is not the last time that governments will try to put us on a war footing to fight a mirage.

So the work of Gigi and Paul is particularly important. And their bravery is to be applauded. The risk of reputational suicide is high, with public health officials prepared to brand as conspiracy theories things which they know to be true. The most recent example of this is in the USA, where Republican Jim Jordan has obtained emails showing that a substantial number of advisors to the US government thought the lab leak theory the most plausible for the origins of COVID-19.

Yet knowing this Anthony Fauci, the US equivalent in terms of his authority with government and the public  of one of our Chief Medical Officers, not only called the academics publicly supporting this idea conspiracists, but he also seems to have subborned some of the government's medical advisors who agreed with the lab leak theory, into co-authoring a refereed paper with him contradicting that same theory.

Academics have a lot to lose by speaking truth to power.

If you're interested in this event it is on Friday February 11, 2022, 6:00 for 6:30 pm at 50 Logan Road, Woolloongabba. To book, click here. Copies of the book will be on sale, and Gigi will be available to answer questions, sign copies, and chat.

Regards,
GRAHAM YOUNG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR