The 2024 Year-End Email

Thank you for supporting our work!

Dear reader:

It’s been a hell of a year, and I know it’s taken a lot of all of us. So, I just wanted to take this opportunity to personally thank you for subscribing to Important Context. Your support helps keep our work going.

When I started Important Context, I knew I wanted to cover underreported stories related to money-in-politics—but particularly those in the public health space as a continuation of work I had begun at The Lever.

I did not know how this project would be received and cannot tell you how many friends’ eyes glazed over when I told them that a large focus of mine would be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the emerging alliance between the anti-vaccine/medical freedom movement and the political right concerned me enough to proceed anyway.

Looking back, I think it’s a good thing I did because the individuals and groups this newsletter has been covering now for the last two years are poised to exert great influence over our nation’s public health system.

Stories You May Have Missed

One of those picks is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, whose rise we have tracked closer than perhaps any other outlet. He was chosen by President-Elect Donald Trump to lead the National Institutes of Health, which happens to be the largest funder of biomedical research in the world.

As our readers will recall, Bhattacharya was a prominent advocate for achieving COVID herd immunity through infection. He has cast doubt on the vaccines and spread conspiracy theories about ivermectin. When the announcement of his selection came, we were able to quickly respond with a primer piece detailing everything anyone new to him needed to know about his career (we have kept that article up-to-date as a resource for other outlets and readers).

We have also followed the career of Dr. Marty Makary, the pick to head up the Food and Drug Administration, producing a similar rundown about him.

We produced a similar piece about Trump’s surgeon general pick as well. While other outlets framed Jannette Nesheiwat as a less extreme pick than Bhattacharya or Robert Kennedy (Health and Human Services), we revealed her past support for unproven COVID treatments like hydroxychloroquine and statements casting doubt on the vaccines.

We have also kept tabs on the anti-science, anti-trans parents’ rights movement, tracking emerging groups.

One dark money operation that we have spent a ton of energy exposing is the Brownstone Institute, which has become a central hub for COVID-related misinformation and conspiracy theories. We have carefully mapped its ties to international groups and its growing influence in American politics. See our coverage of its recent 2024 annual conference:

Another major focus of ours has been encroachments on academia by right-wing dark money. This year, for example, we covered a health policy conference hosted by Stanford University that featured familiar faces like Bhattacharya.

We drilled down into the event and the dark money outfit that funded it, revealing its ties to anti-vaccine and COVID denial groups.

Relatedly, we teamed up with Dr. Bob Morris for an investigation into a new dark money group calling itself the “American Academy of Sciences and Letters,” which gave awards to a number of prominent academics as well as Bhattacharya and others affiliated with right-wing groups. We revealed how the organization is part of a larger effort to install right-wing beachheads on prestigious university campuses.

“Working Overtime”

I am extremely proud of this work—and not just my own reporting. This newsletter has featured articles from Dr. Allison Neitzel, a disinformation researcher, climate reporter Amanda Magnani, and others. We have become a go-to source of information for science communicators who combat online mis/disinformation.

Here are some examples:

“No one has done a better job at exposing the money behind advocates of herd immunity via mass infection than @walkerbragman.bsky.social. Read and support him, as I have.” — Dr. Jonathan Howard, author of the book “We Want Them Infected.”

”And speaking of big dollars and dark money @WalkerBragman has been working overtime to uncover its sources.” — Dr. Peter Hotez, named as TIME 100’s most important voices in global health.

“Some media outlets are already sane-washing Bhattacharya. To learn more about how he has spread disinformation that undermines public health, is widely discredit by real experts, and is funded by dark money, read this piece by @walkerbragman.bsky.social who has tracked him throughout the pandemic.”— Dr. Lucky Tran, Columbia University science communicator.

Even outside of public health, however, Important Context has had an impact. A piece we produced with Rolling Stone about the decision by Fidelity Charitable to cut off the U.S. arm of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from its donor-advised fund platform. Within two weeks of our report, the decision was reversed.

The New Year

As we look ahead to 2025, there is much work still to be done. The incoming administration promises to keep us on our toes. There will be no shortage of stories.

Our operation is small but thanks to you, our growth has been steady over time. Our subscriber base nearly doubled this past year. But I won’t lie: We still have a long way to go to be a truly sustainable news operation.

The OptOut Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit I co-founded in 2020 with award-winning money-in-politics reporter Alex Kotch that funds Important Context (as of last year), lost a major donor recently which has left us shy of where we need to be.

Before the end of the year, we are hoping to raise another $30,000, although any amount helps.

Please consider supporting us by upgrading your subscription to paid (if you are a free subscriber) or by making a one-time, tax-deductible charitable donation to OptOut. You can do that here.

In any case, thank you again for reading Important Context. You make our work possible. I hope you have a happy New Year!

- Walker Bragman