This is an archived version of one of Gigi Foster’s email missives. Some links may no longer be current.
Dear all,
In this period of transition in Australian policy, we are witnessing a pivot from wholesale lockdowns in the name of protection from covid towards state-sanctioned segregation of society in the name of protection from covid. Many have noticed the sobering parallels between the stories and images demonstrating racial, ethnic, and religious segregation decades ago here and elsewhere in the world, and the stories and images illustrating medically-based segregation being promoted today in the West. People in our midst are losing their jobs, their freedom of movement, and their right to frequent business establishments – not to mention, sometimes, the respect of their friends and family – for having the audacity to decline a vaccine that does not prevent infection or transmission and about which knowledge of longer-term efficacy and side effects is still accumulating, against an illness with a survival rate of over 99.9% (higher for healthy young people, lower for the old and sick, and higher for everyone when appropriate early treatment is given) and for which they may already have acquired enduring natural immunity. (For further discussion of the medical dimensions of these issues, see the Rome Declaration page here and petition here, Dr Peter McCullough’s recent presentation at the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons here, and his advice for Australia here; and email jenny.beth@teapartypatriots.org if you want to be added to Dr McCullough’s email distribution list.)
This Voices Against Lockdowns newsletter, ongoing for approximately 15 months and built on the premise that lockdowns were the wrong response to covid, is coming to a crossroads as Australia begins to emerge, blinking, from the catastrophe of population-wide lockdowns. Being right about the foolhardiness of covid lockdowns, however, is little consolation when we continue to see the withholding of choices that only two years ago we took for granted in Australia as being ours to make. Damage continues to be caused by Australian covid policy, not only through what we hope are the last gasps of wholesale lockdowns (with condolences to our long-suffering Victorians), but through new ways of withholding liberties via governmental and organisational edict.
Following the pivot of Australian policy, in future editions of this newsletter I will pivot its content to support dissent about restrictions of freedoms in the name of covid that extend beyond lockdowns. I will also reduce the frequency of the newsletter as the various nascent groups I have mentioned and linked to that are fighting for the restoration of freedoms, and which I encourage you to consider joining forces with, gain strength and influence far beyond what I or anyone can offer as an individual. I will not use this newsletter to pass on lengthy information regarding the vaccines, early treatments, or other medical information about the disease, but will retain focus on the core purpose that initially compelled me to start this mailing list: to help people who are alarmed at and wish to fight against the removal of their rights and freedoms in the name of covid. As always, I welcome and will act promptly on any requests for removal from this mailing list.
Now onto more content. I’ll start by sharing some of my recent and imminently forthcoming appearances speaking about my co-authored book The Great Covid Panic, published last month and which has already sold about 3000 copies worldwide:
- On The Leighton Smith podcast: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/podcasts/the-leighton-smith-podcast/leighton-smith-podcast-episode-132-october-13th-2021/?utm_source=edm&utm_campaign=CE-RS-NL-EDM&utm_medium=email
- With Ron Barshop on the Primary Care Cures podcast: https://www.primarycarecures.com/2021/09/24/episode-137-gigi-foster-is-an-award-winning-economist-and-professor-who-co-authored-an-important-new-book-the-great-covid-panic-what-happened-why-and-what-to-do-next/
- With the Sydney Institute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao5cxDWPgf4
- With the Ramsay Centre (video to be released tomorrow): https://www.ramsaycentre.org/news-and-media/announcements/gigi-foster-the-great-covid-panic/
- I am honoured and delighted to announce to this group an in-person book launch this coming Friday evening of The Great Covid Panic at the private home, in Mosman, of one amongst us named Ditta – after the first launch she generously hosted last Friday sold out. There are a few spots left for the event this Friday the 29th, starting at 6 PM. If you’re interested in attending (and having your copy of the book signed by me, and/or buying copies directly from me at the event), please email Ditta promptly on d.bartels@iinet.net.au.
To follow my co-author Michael Baker’s Twitter feed about the book, visit https://twitter.com/GreatCovidPanic (@greatcovidpanic).
The publisher of The Great Covid Panic, the Brownstone Institute established in May 2021 and led by Jeffrey Tucker, has been putting out article upon article of excellent reading on different aspects of the crisis of freedom we face: https://brownstone.org/articles/. Jeffrey is soon to release an interview that he and I recorded just this morning.
Some musings about what has happened to the “libertarian left”: http://www.andrewdobson.com/blog—notes-from-a-cliff-edge/where-is-the-libertarian-left; thoughts from a psychologist about what has made and sustained the covid crowds: https://jermwarfare.com/blog/mattias-desmet; and a retrospective on how lockdowns got taken up by the West, offered here caveat emptor: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/masked-ball-cowardice
More on Sweden, everyone’s favourite punching bag last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZRR5zZ0I0s; https://www.headsupster.com/forumthread?shortId=103
Work by the servants of justice amongst us to fight for medical and other personal freedoms continues, with mixed success:
- Recently, an appeal heard by the Fair Work Commission considering dismissal of an employee who did not have the flu vaccine was rejected. However, the dissenting opinion penned by Deputy President Dean lays out arguments that may be of use in future cases involving covid vaccine-related wrongful dismissal suits. In Dean’s words, “Never have I more strenuously disagreed with an outcome in an unfair dismissal application. The Decision manifest a serious injustice to Ms Kimber that required remedy. More egregious, however, is that the Majority Decision has denied Ms Kimber the protections afforded by the Fair Work Act in part because of ‘an inference that she holds a general anti-vaccination position’. Had I been able to do so, I would have granted permission to appeal, upheld the appeal and quashed the Decision. In re-determining the application, I would have found that Ms Kimber was unfairly dismissed and would have reinstated her to her former position.” Read the full decision, and the full dissenting opinion, here: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisionssigned/html/2021fwcfb6015.htm?fbclid=IwAR2jWd9bmZ6xrbcYWwZ86VdOyA7_qp67yBEblcgF3IRkHbFKSCAM3IjTxJw
- Tony Nikolic being interviewed by Monica Smit about his recent unsuccessful attempt to challenge vaccine mandates in the Supreme Court of NSW: https://www.reignitedemocracyaustralia.com.au/tony-nikolic/
- Musings by a team of legal professionals about the legality or otherwise of lockdown orders: https://www.acfl.com.au/police-lockdown-powers-unlawful/
- Solicitor Peter Fam’s musings on the legality of vaccine mandates: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-employers-mandate-medical-interventions-peter-fam/?trackingId=yeVRij8h5JoM2K9ZdJpnNA%3D%3D
- News of a legal challenge to vax mandates in Queensland: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-28/qld-police-sue-commissioner-carroll-covid-vaccination-mandate/100498750
- Police officers speak out against what they are witnessing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRMEbN7jk3s; https://cmnnews.org/story/an-australian-police-officer-speaks-out-TH4fnlJd806DmuUU2zncy
- Politicians will be politicians, but that doesn’t mean they can never be right on an important issue: https://www.senatorhanson.com.au/2021/10/21/hanson-acts-to-end-pandemic-of-discrimination/; https://timesnewsexpress.com/news/world/australia/dominic-perrottet-says-sydney-is-australias-truly-only-global-city/; https://www.facebook.com/tanyadaviesmulgoa/videos/3881075938658921; https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=391547645855854
- How to make a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission: https://humanrights.gov.au/complaints/make-complaint
Popular writing about the corrosive divisions that are being thrust upon us: https://spectator.com.au/2021/10/covids-lepers/; and more, with an artistic flair: https://spectator.com.au/2021/09/covid-an-alternate-interpretation/
From the academy, thoughts about how to move towards better models of policy-making (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3599939) and how to cope with the devastation that lockdowns have wrought (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577740/full)
Thoughts on why so many in my own profession failed in their duty to speak out against lockdowns: https://dailysceptic.org/2021/09/27/why-did-so-few-economists-speak-out-against-lockdown/. Still, not all have failed; see attached evaluation of New Zealand’s covid policies by economist Ian Harrison.
Some sense that has made it into the mainstream press: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/covid-hysteria-based-on-lies-propaganda-and-ignorance/news-story/b95a651fc3b98e76235621ecfdfe936a; broadcast journalism of the sort we need more of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ItkYhFiGBI; and journalism illustrating the damage to our country’s image that has been created by our covid policies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qf5l2nmWOY
Some channels/organisations/movements speaking out for freedom and sanity – many of them new – in case you’ve not already come across them:
- https://voicesforfreedom.co.nz/
- https://www.canadiancovidcarealliance.org/
- https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/launch-with-publication-of-at-home-treatment-guide/
- https://www.australianssayno.com/
- https://anchor.fm/matt-wong (also see this interview of an Australian policewoman by Matt Wong)
- https://www.cafelockedout.com/
- https://votenoconfidence.co/
- https://www.hoodyshelpers.com.au/
A grassroots movement against discrimination, #NotOurBusiness:
Good sources on facts about covid: https://swprs.org/fakten-zu-covid-19/; https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/shining-a-light-on-the-elephants-in-the-covid-room/
And finally, resistance art to make you laugh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPUuOXVF-Pg&t=4s) and a moving message thanking those responsible for the disastrous policies we have witnessed during this period (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9FA6_t5Zp4).
The fight to restore normal freedoms in Australia and the rest of the developed West is far from over. You are directly helping Australia and the world when raising your voice, where and how you are able, in service to this worthy cause.
gigi
Attachment
Harrison Paper: Go hard, go early, go forever? (September 2021)
