"Has a Far-Reaching Influence Thanks to the Right-Wing Legal Network That Has Nurtured His Entire Career"

"The idea that the medical establishment is overreacting to the pandemic continues to be strong in some segments of the political right, especially among libertarians. As The Washington Post reported on March 23, 'Conservatives close to Trump and numerous administration officials have been circulating an article by Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution, titled "Coronavirus Perspective," that plays down the extent of the spread and the threat.'
"Trump wavers back and forth on coronavirus policy because he sometimes listens to medical experts and sometimes to aides who are offering distillations of Epstein's argument."

Jeet Heer at The Nation writes that "delusional views on the coronavirus resonate in the Trump White House because Republicans have been acting on Epstein's ideas for decades."