Freedom Wins: An Empirical Pandemic Analysis 3/2/23

A new empirical study co-authored by CEI’s Joel M. Zinberg M.D., J.D., Paragon Health Institute President Brian Blase, and other colleagues compares COVID-19 policy interventions state-by-state and analyzes their effects on health, economic, and education outcomes. In Freedom Wins: States with Less Restrictive COVID Policies Outperformed States with More Restrictive COVID Policies, the authors find that more severe lockdowns had little or no health benefits but led to serious, negative economic and education outcomes. In addition, the study concludes that the lockdowns influenced domestic migration patterns leading people to flee lockdown states and move to less restrictive ones. An in-depth comparison of the highly prohibitive approach taken in California and the less severe, common sense measures used in Florida illustrates the study’s key findings.

Please join CEI for an online discussion of COVID-19 policy responses and lessons for future policymakers with Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg and Paragon Health Institute President Brian Blase, in conversation with President Kent Lassman.
 
When: 12:00 – 1:00 pm EST Thursday, March 2, 2023
Register: https://cei-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5IyKxORtRyOGFMwmTV9ZZw

Sign up to join the conversation live and receive a link to the video archive following the event.
Registration confirmation and event reminder emails will be sent from CEI Events at [email protected]   

Questions: [email protected] or 202.331.2764​​​​

Joel M. Zinberg, M.D., J.D. is a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Director the Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative at Paragon Health Institute. A native New Yorker, he recently completed two years as General Counsel and Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President. Dr. Zinberg has practiced general and oncologic surgery in New York for nearly 30 years at the Mount Sinai Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine, where he remains an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery.

Brian C. Blase, PhD, is the president of Paragon Health Institute and director of its Private Health Reform Initiative. He is a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability. From 2017 through 2019, he was special assistant to the president for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council. He has a PhD in economics from George Mason. He lives in northern Florida with his wife and five children.

Kent Lassman hosts and moderates the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Online Event series. His day job as CEI president and CEO involves managing the organization’s operations and overseeing strategy for policy, communications, and development. Since CEI’s Online Event series began in early 2020, Lassman has interviewed policy makers and leading thinkers, including Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and Harvard’s Cass Sunstein.