There are countless think tanks in the United States seeking to influence local, state and national policies. A relatively new institute is making its mark on President Donald Trump's Washington: the Texas-based Brownstone Institute.
Libertarian writer Jeffrey Tucker created the institute in 2021, encouraged by Response to Covid lockdown and other pandemic-era policies. Opponents of his Covid Institute seek to limit the government's role in protecting people from disease. In recent months, people associated with the group have been catapulted to the highest levels of the US government.
At least eight people associated with the Brownstone Institute hold or recently held senior positions in federal health agencies or key positions advising the government, including the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and a key vaccine panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
These people are already changing the direction of US public health policy. For example, people associated with the institute have sowed doubt about coronavirus vaccines and routine childhood immunizations, rejecting widespread evidence that they are safe and that their benefits outweigh the risks.
“They have successfully injected their ideology into the machinery that drives U.S. vaccine policy,” said Jake Scott, a doctor at Stanford University School of Medicine who specializes in infectious diseases. “It's very, very worrying.”
This was reported on the website of the Brownstone Institute. it works “To support writers, lawyers, scientists, economists and other brave people who have been professionally purged and driven out during the turmoil of our times.”
“There is a danger associated with government-imposed orthodoxy,” Tucker told KFF Health News. “I think Brownstone has a moral obligation to look after dissidents and create an environment where they can test their ideas on people they disagree with.”
Brownstone's critics say his colleagues are making extreme statements about vaccines and promoting anti-vaccination ideas.
“They were willing to publish articles by some very vocal anti-vaxxers,” said Dorit Reiss, a UCLA professor who specializes in legal and policy issues related to vaccines.
The nonprofit reported nearly $7.4 million in contributions, grants and other payments between 2021 and 2024.
Despite the predominance of those associated with his group, Tucker said that “anyone who thinks that Brownstone is somehow some big conspiracy, that's crazy.” He said he is not in regular contact with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department oversees the CDC, FDA and NIH.
“I have no influence,” Tucker said.
