Aaron Ginn
| Aaron Ginn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1987/1988 (age 35–36)[1] |
| 💼 Occupation |
|
| Known for | Conservative political activities in California |
Aaron Ginn is a Silicon Valley product manager[3] known for publishing an essay during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on Medium that attracted widespread criticism, including from epidemiologists,[4] and was subsequently taken down[5] by the platform for violating its policy.
Previously, he worked on Mitt Romney's 2012 US presidential campaign and was also one of the co-founders of Lincoln Initiative, a network for conservatives in the technology industry.[6] He has been acknowledged in the media for helping spark the growth hacking movement.[7]
COVID-19 Controversy[edit]
In March 2020, during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, Ginn published a detailed contrarian-view[8] essay on the blogging platform Medium called "Evidence over hysteria—COVID-19" which presented an exhaustive and optimistic case about the coronavirus.[5] Citing his marketing expertise in “understanding virality,” Ginn gathered publicly available epidemiological data to argue that the COVID-19 threat to the United States did not warrant the dramatic response.[8] The essay highlighted hopeful estimates of COVID-19’s transmissibility, severity, and responsiveness to warmer weather.[5]
The essay argued, “Shuttering the local economy is a distraction and arbitrary with limited accretive gain outside of greatly annoying millions and bankrupting hundreds of businesses.”[8] The piece was shared by influential Fox News host Laura Ingraham and others,[4] garnering millions of views.[5]
The essay attracted criticism that Ginn, who had no background in epidemiology or any other relevant field, was misinterpreting and cherry-picking scientific data.[9]
Ginn wrote in his essay that he was "quite experienced at understanding virality, how things grow, and data.” However many felt that conflating marketing "virality" with actual epidemiological virality was a sleight of hand.[8]
In addition, Ginn wrote, "Data is data. Our focus here isn’t treatments but numbers. You don’t need a special degree to understand what the data says and doesn’t say. Numbers are universal.”[8] Subsequent examination by epidemiologists revealed that his calculations had inconsistencies and entry-level errors.[8] In addition, critics argued that numbers actually need context to be fully understood.[8]
Ginn's essay was considered emblematic of the phenomenon of "armchair epidemiology" during the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Medium subsequently took down Ginn's post, with readers being directed to a page that read, “this post is under investigation or was found in violation of the Medium Rules.”[5] The removal of Ginn's work was framed by The Wall Street Journal's editorial board as an attempt by Silicon Valley platforms to "tamp out the free debate that helped alert Americans to the threat of the virus in the first place."[5] Other outlets considered the removal was a bad and dangerous precedent to handle an active public debate about how to handle disease.[10]
The essay was subsequently reposted on the website Zero Hedge.[10]
Political Career[edit]
Ginn previously worked as part of the digital team for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, where he grew frustrated at the lack of coordination between the policy and digital side.[11] He subsequently wrote a 13-page memo that was sent to Republican party leaders.[12] Following Romney's defeat, Ginn, Garrett Johnson, and Chris Abrams formed Lincoln Labs, an organization which arranged informal gatherings for conservatives in Silicon Valley, and aimed to improve the Republican party's use of technology and social media. The organization also organized hackathons, at least one of them funded by the Charles Koch Institute.[1] Prior to the 2016 presidential election, the group changed its name to "Lincoln Initiative" and then the "Lincoln Network".[6][2]
Ginn was listed as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in the "Law and Policy" category in 2017.[13]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Garofoli, Joe (29 May 2013). "Conservative techies help GOP go digital". SFGate. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "About us | Lincoln Network". joinlincoln.org.
- ↑ "Forbes 30 under 30 Law and Policy: Aaron Ginn, 28". Forbes. 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Gabbatt, Adam (27 March 2020). "Did a New York Times article inspire Trump's 'back to work' plan?". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Editorial Board (22 March 2020). "Controlling the Virus Narrative". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Meet the 20 Tech Insiders Defining the 2016 Campaign". Wired. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- ↑ "Forbes 30 under 30 Law and Policy: Aaron Ginn, 28". Forbes. 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Requarth, Tim (26 March 2020). "Please, Let's Stop the Epidemic of Armchair Epidemiology". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ Young, Cathy (March 24, 2020). "No, we are not overreacting to COVID-19". Newsday. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 McLaughlin, Dan (22 March 2020). "The Lockdown Debate Requires Transparent Disagreement". National Review. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ Garofoli, Joe (29 May 2013). "Conservative techies help GOP go digital". SFGate. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ↑ Daniel Kreiss (2016), Prototype Politics: Technology-intensive Campaigning and the Data of Democracy, Oxford University Press, pp. 31–32, ISBN 9780199350254
- ↑ "30 Under 30 2017: Law & Policy". Forbes.
External links[edit]
- Official website
- Lincoln Network - Ginn's political project.
This article "Aaron Ginn" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Aaron Ginn. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
