Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Decries Vaccine Mandates, Says Science Should Be 'Force For Freedom'

2 days ago

At his confirmation hearing last week, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was asked about COVID-19 lockdowns by Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN).

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00:00Chairman, Doctor, congratulations again on your nomination. As I've said before,

00:05your nomination is one of the most exciting picks of the entire Trump administration.

00:10You showed incredible courage in speaking the truth about COVID-19 when much of the rest of

00:15the world stayed silent about it. And free-thinking people everywhere have not forgotten that,

00:21what you stood for then. And it's remarkable to see that you're nominated to be the head of the

00:27very institution whose leaders persecuted you because of what you believed during that period.

00:32I want to start by asking you about COVID. Lockdowns caused irreparable harm to our nation,

00:38and they are still harming us five years later. What is NIH's proper role in a pandemic?

00:46And how did Director Francis Collins overstep that role during his time?

00:50Senator, the proper role of scientists in a pandemic is to answer basic questions that

00:56policymakers have about what the right policy should be. Our role isn't to make decisions to

01:01say you shouldn't be saying goodbye to your grandfather as he's dying in a hospital.

01:08It shouldn't be to say you can't have a funeral because it's too dangerous. The scientists

01:14should say, here's what the risks are, and then you decide whether you take it.

01:18The role of the scientists shouldn't be to say you can't send your kids to school for two years,

01:24that you can't, you should close hospitals so that they can't treat heart attack patients,

01:30that you should not, the role of scientists should be to address those problems by

01:35giving good data and then let people make the, science should be an engine for freedom,

01:40knowledge and freedom, not something where it stands on top of society and says you must do

01:45this, this, and this or else. It shouldn't be pushing mandates for vaccines that have been,

01:51like the COVID vaccines that were tested for a relatively short period of time. I took the COVID

01:56vaccine myself, but I think that the mandates that many scientists push have led to the lack

02:02of confidence that so many of the public has in science. If science is a force for freedom

02:09and for knowledge, it will have universal support. That's what the role of science is.

02:13Very well put. You were demonized for co-authoring the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020.

02:20Dr. Fauci called it total nonsense. Rochelle Walensky called it wrong and unsafe.

02:28Your opponents who wrote the John Snow memorandum said it could harm a half a million people.

02:34Reading what you wrote in the declaration, you were undeniably right about all of it.

02:40You wrote, quote, current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short

02:46and long-term public health. Doctor, what does the public health data tell us

02:51today in the aftermath of COVID-19 in 2023 and 2024? What does that data tell us today?

03:00Well, Senator, first, millions of children were out of school for years.

03:04Their rates of suicidality and depression are through the roof. Learning loss will have

03:09consequences throughout their entire life. There were people who skipped their cancer screening,

03:17who have late-stage cancer now that should have been picked up earlier. There's the trillions of

03:22dollars we spent that actually caused the inflation that we still suffer from. The UN,

03:29early in the pandemic, estimated almost 100 million people would face starvation as a consequence of

03:34the economic dislocation caused by the lockdowns. This is devastating. This is devastating policy

03:41that didn't need to happen. The Swedish example, for instance, where there's lower death rates,

03:50all-cause excess death rates in Sweden relative to their neighbors, including Norway, including

03:54Germany, which locked down more, is an example that we didn't need to do the lockdowns. Florida

04:01having lower all-cause excess deaths rates in California, again, is an example where the lockdowns

04:05did not save lives, but had tremendous consequences on the well-being of the poor, the working class,

04:10on children, and the vulnerable. Yeah, I want to read a little bit more. You said in the declaration

04:15that, quote, keeping students out of school is a grave injustice. Now, today, we see student

04:20achievement and grades well below the pre-pandemic levels. You also wrote that, quote, young,

04:26low-risk adults should work normally rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should

04:31be open. Arts, music, sports, and other cultural activities should resume, end quote. Now, we see

04:38many communities and cities are unsafe today and have been dramatically changed because of

04:43the lockdowns during COVID. In a nutshell, doctor, what would you have done, what would you do

04:48differently now than what these obviously ill-advised leaders at NIH and otherwise in

04:56other places do? How would you have done it differently in a nutshell? Well, I still would

05:00have opposed the lockdowns, but if I'm confirmed as an NIH director, the kind of thing I would have

05:03done is I would have allowed there to be scientific debate and discussion. There's tremendous

05:08uncertainty what to do during pandemic. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Decries Vaccine Mandates, Says Science Should Be 'Force For Freedom'

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