When Stanford epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya challenged COVID lockdown orthodoxy in 2020, critics glued posters of his face across the campus — which he saw as an incitement to violence — and colleagues tried to marginalize him for spreading misinformation.
Sure, the laptop class could work from home, but many essential workers could not. Trump wanted America to get back to work.
It didn’t matter that he was right.
But it matters now. President Donald Trump chose Bhattacharya to head the National Institutes of Health. Wednesday, Bhattacharya spoke at his Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing. I was there to watch a man who had become a friend finally get the recognition he deserved.
As Democrats and some Republicans tried to get Bhattacharya to renounce Trump’s budget and personnel cuts, Bhattacharya stayed focused on his goal of not suppressing research that questions orthodoxies.
When Chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana pushed him to declare categorically that there is no link between vaccines and autism, Bhattacharya called for more research and letting “good data” speak for itself. (Maybe because such absolutist pronouncements often beget skepticism.)
Bhattacharya and I first spoke in March 2020, when COVID-19 entered the political scene and Trump had to steer the public through a great unknown threat. Prompted by a mutual friend, I called Bhattacharya to get his take on a phenomenon I never imagined covering.
As Beltway insiders panicked and hid in their basements, Jay had an informed, commonsense view of the way forward. He thought about not only the death toll from COVID but also the negative, and often severe, health consequences of shutdowns.
“There’s mortality on both sides of this,” he told me at the time. There was no need for all Americans to isolate; he advocated “a focused strategy” to protect the elderly and other vulnerable populations.
Months later, Bhattacharya and two fellow epidemiologists from top universities — Harvard’s Martin Kulldorff and Oxford’s Sunetra Gupta — released the Great Barrington Declaration, which was co-signed by thousands of doctors and health scientists.
The one-page document noted, “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health — leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.”
The fallout of school lockdowns will be felt for decades. But the Beltway establishment, in a frenzy, wanted to keep America at home.
Then-NIH Director Francis S. Collins dismissed the declaration’s authors as “fringe epidemiologists” deserving of a “quick and devastating published takedown.” News organizations got the signal and branded Jay as “polarizing” and a spreader of dangerous disinformation.
Bhattacharya has a more humble approach, because he knows the medical establishment’s arrogance has real consequences. Health care workers, police, firefighters, the military, grocery store workers, pharmacists, delivery truck drivers, bus drivers, and food processors who did not bow to vaccine mandates lost their jobs, even after many had worked at great personal risk before the COVID vaccine was available.
Bhattacharya told the committee that he is vaccinated but he does not believe the government should coerce those who do not want to take the jab. Smart. It was the misplaced certainty and zeal to excoriate skeptics that soured many on the medical establishment’s edicts.
Bhattacharya Stuck to His Guns on COVID
I am not the only one who believes that COVID hurt Trump’s reelection bid in 2020. But it is a huge reason he won in 2024. President Joe Biden’s America gave in to fear. School shutdowns shortchanged America’s children. Work-from-home policies proved poisonous for downtowns, restaurants, and the hospitality industry. Las Vegas lost an estimated 26,000 jobs.
Sure, the laptop class could work from home, but many essential workers could not. Trump wanted America to get back to work. Politico dismissed Bhattacharya as a “health-care disruptor” who airs “pandemic grievances.” He’s right, but many in the media want to brand him as a crank. Which shows how desperate they are, because, as anyone who has met Jay knows, he’s very likable. As the hearing went on, Democrats seemed to let up because they couldn’t crack him. Maybe a couple will vote with Republicans for him on March 13.
Of course, it shouldn’t matter that Bhattacharya is highly likable. What matters is that he was right about COVID. And that when the Beltway health care establishment went after him, he didn’t buckle.
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Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.
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