Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who has been selected by President-Elect Donald Trump as the head of the National Institute of Health, credits his faith for sustaining him amidst attacks from critics. Bhattacharya was one of the three main authors of the Great Berrington Declaration, which criticized the international reaction to COVID-19 and received over 940,000 signatures.
The Dr. said that penning this document completely overturned his life. Bhattacharya said that he“ couldn’t eat or sleep for months,” and lost over 30 lbs. He also described death threats and pressure from government officials. The head of the NIH at the time, called Bhattacharya and his colleagues “fringe epidemiologists” in an email to Anthony Fauci, and called for “a quick and devastating published takedown.”
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya credited his strong scientific backing but also his Christian faith for his bravery under fire. While he was born a Hindu, he became a Presbyterian as a senior at his Southern California High School. In a recent interview, he explained “I’m a Christian. That definitely played a role in giving me strength.” Bhattacharya explained that this was not always how he viewed the world.
The Dr said that he used to believe that “what made someone important, what gave them moral worth.. was how smart they were.” Now he sees “how evil that idea was. This kind of “hubris around your accomplishments, your intelligence, is immoral. Sinful even.” He thinks this is the attitude that let him defy existing scientific consensus and oppose Fauci.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, responding to Bhattacharya and other critics, said “They’re really criticizing science because I represent science.” Trump’s nominee, says that Fauci’s arrogance, as well as that shown by other members of the scientific community, fostered “denial of basic scientific facts like immunity” and “denial of basic human rights — the rights to bodily autonomy, to informed consent, to free speech.”
Bhattacharya was exonerated in court after a federal court ruled that the Center for Disease Control, as well as the Biden White House, had violated his First Amendment rights. After the verdict was reached he explained that ” “The government had a vast censorship enterprise,” he said. “It was systematically used to threaten and coerce and jawbone and tell all these social media companies, ‘You better listen to us: Censor these people, censor these ideas, or else.’”
The Doctor is shocked by how fast things have changed. “I had the head of the NIH . . . try to destroy me, and now I have the opportunity to lead this organization,” says Bhattacharya. “I think the main thing is that I know what abuse of power in this position looks like, having been exposed to it, and I will never do that.” He also wants to make sure the NIH works for the American People.
Bhattacharya says that government scientists “need to remember that they are servants of the American people,…[who] are the ones paying the bills.” Bhattacharya said that ” the scientific establishment as essentially an authoritarian power sitting over them, rather than as a force for good” As the NIH director, the Dr. wants to restore the trust in the National Institute of Health, which according to him, was squandered during the pandemic.