"The NYU Law professor who famously predicted that only 500 Americans would die of COVID-19 and then adjusted his estimate to 5000 when that didn't pan out and then just shrugged and stopped talking about it when his amateurish dabbling in public health theory ended up being off by hundreds of thousands more. The intellectual gadfly just flitted on to another subject rather than grapple with being profoundly and embarrassingly wrong."
"Tragically, the White House reportedly took Epstein's baseless ramblings at face value, delaying a proper response to COVID on the pseudoscientific ramblings of a neophyte. A few years later, Epstein enthusiastically applauded the death of Chevron, allowing judges to use their law school degrees to second-guess scientists and engineers. Truly inspiring to see how much someone can achieve without a sense of irony. Or shame as the case may be."
"To be clear, Epstein's not an expert in this field, but he views his own law degree as a sort of academic "stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night" allowing him to weigh in and enjoy presumptive credibility without any of the heavy lifting involved in going out and engaging with experts."
Richard Epstein made overly confident public-health predictions early in the COVID-19 pandemic, revising estimates and then ceasing commentary after outcomes diverged dramatically. The White House reportedly treated Epstein's mistaken pronouncements as authoritative, which contributed to delays in the COVID response. Epstein later praised curtailing Chevron deference, endorsing judicial second-guessing of technical experts and engineers. Epstein has submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court challenging birthright citizenship while lacking demonstrated expertise in the relevant historical and common-law scholarship. Epstein relies on his law degree to claim authority without engaging domain specialists.
Read at Above the Law
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