WASHINGTON–When Stanford epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya challenged COVID-19 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.
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…
