‘I will establish a culture of respect for free speech in science and scientific dissent at NIH’
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, nominee for director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at his Senate confirmation hearing.
WHO COULD have predicted that a man demonised, deplatformed and cancelled by Anthony Fauci’s tyrannical ‘science’ regime during covid would, five years later, be taking his place at the helm of the National Institutes of Health with a commitment to transforming the agency’s research and restoring public trust in the institution? It is a wonderful testament to hope, truth and moral courage.
The physician and former Stanford University professor first drew public attention in 2020 for his criticism of Covid-19-era interventions such as mask mandates, lockdowns, and school closures.
Bhattacharya and others in the appallingly ignored Great Barrington Declaration called for ‘focused protection’ of vulnerable people while allowing low-risk groups to resume normal activities. For that, he was demonised and Twitter blacklisted, only returning to Twitter after Elon Musk bought it after all this was revealed.
He later sued the government, alleging that it pressured social media companies to censor his views. It was an inspired move by President Donald Trump to nominate him in November to lead NIH with its $50billion budget and staff of more than 25,000. He proved as good as his word.
On March 5, Bhattacharya faced two hours of questions from the Senate Committee on health, education, labor, and pensions, the full session of which you can view below.
Bhattacharya made immediate reference to the fact that the NIH had overseen ‘a culture of coverup, obfuscation, and a lack of tolerance for ideas that differed from theirs’. He went on to promise an agency that would tolerate and even encourage dissent.
On the subject of vaccines, over which his future boss – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – is now somewhat unfairly coming under attack for going soft on, he said, ‘I fully support children being vaccinated for diseases like measles’. He also indicated his sceptisim about a link with autism, ‘based on my reading of literature’.
He did say, however, that that the NIH should fund research on the issue, something which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already committed to doing and President Trump confirmed in his address Congress.
Asked about alleged misuse of taxpayer money, Dr Bhattacharya said that the broader problem was the ‘deep distrust by the American people of universities and the scientific establishment, earned during the pandemic. To address that, transparency is the key’.
According to Paul Thacker, this is already underway. He reported at the end of January that Trump transition team members were taking action, replacing NIH senior officials who had been caught politicizing science and misleading the public, and ‘shutting down private study sections that review scientific grant approvals, a move that seems designed to harass the incoming administration‘.
We have to hope first that he is confirmed, and second that he will clear the swamp that the NIH had become in the Fauci years.
