Dear ASF community,
We hope everyone had a good ANZAC Day weekend!
Two exciting upcoming opportunities to engage with the freedom community are coming up soon. On Sunday, May 16 from 6pm, ASF’s Vox Libera Salon series continues with a bring-a-plate dinner followed by a discussion on the predicaments facing boys and young men in today’s world. This engaging evening discussion will be hosted by educator and ASF co-director Jason Strecker and David Maywald, author of The Relentless War on Masculinity. Click here for more information and to secure your tickets. If you’re in or close to the Sydney area, don’t miss this intimate, ASF members-only salon-style exploration of this vital topic.
On May 26 at 6pm, John Ruddick from the Libertarian Party, Alexandra Marshall from Spectator Magazine, and academic researcher Luke Torrisi will host a thought-provoking roundtable discussion at Parliament House in Sydney titled: The Hollowing Out of Democracy: Managerial Elites, Popular Disaffection, and the Crisis of Representation. Speakers at this forum will examine how representative democracy can remain formally intact while becoming substantively thinner, and will explore the erosion of party loyalty, the rise of challenger movements, and the displacement of parliamentary and constitutional authority by managerial governance, executive workaround, international policy regimes, and commissions exercising quasi‑judicial power beyond direct electoral control.
Pfizer and BioNTech seem to have trouble finding volunteers for a planned covid vaccine efficacy, immune response and safety study, as demand for these substances has generally fallen sharply with only 18% of Americans receiving injections during the 2025/26 season. Indeed, this new study has found that taking more covid shots is associated with extended all-cause mortality risk amongst one of the core at-risk populations during the covid era: residents of nursing homes.
On the legal front with regard to covid matters, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court ruled in favour of the release of the unredacted purchasing agreements between the country’s government and covid vaccine manufacturers Moderna and Novavax. These documents are available here in English and have revealed that the government spent one million US dollars for far too many doses and provided full product indemnity protection to these two drug manufacturers. The contracts with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and two other manufacturers remain heavily redacted for now.
Investigative journalists Philippe Cariollo and Seba Terribilini are looking to produce a new film about Reiner Fuellmich’s persecution. The trailer is available here, and donations can be made here.
On health more broadly, the International Health Reform Project, co-chaired by David Bell and Ramesh Thakur (here interviewed by James Corbett), has produced a two-part report entitled The Right to Health Sovereignty. The report addresses the current crisis in public health and calls for “a new international health framework grounded in human rights and dignity, national sovereignty, and medical ethics.”
Finally, if you’re anywhere near Castlemaine, Victoria, in the second half of May, you might be interested in a new covid-informed theatre production, Camp Darwin, which explores “the struggles we face when caught between worlds, and the ways we seek connection and comfort to overcome those struggles.”
Remember that ASF’s 2026 Progress through Science and Freedom conference will be in Perth this year, with exciting plans in the works for speakers, topics, and networking opportunities. We hope to confirm dates and specific venue in our May newsletter.
Until next month,
Jörg Probst
