The Man Who Talked Back: Jay Bhattacharya On the Fight against COVID Lockdowns | Uncommon Knowledge

Recorded on April 24, 2023. Prior to spring 2020, Jay Bhattacharya was a well-respected but little-known epidemiologist and Stanford Medical School professor. But when the COVID pandemic broke out that March, Dr. Bhattacharya was thrust into a leadership role as coauthor of the groundbreaking Santa Clara Study, one of the first comprehensive looks at how the disease spread and impacted populations, and as one of the principals behind the Great Barrington Declaration, one of the first public declarations questioning the lockdown policies then being instituted worldwide. His public interrogation of these policies made him a target of public health officials in the US and abroad—including Dr. Anthony Fauci of the CDC and Dr. Francis Collins at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC—and placed him in a media spotlight. In this interview, Dr. Bhattacharya reflects on those battles, what we learned, and how we might better manage future pandemics. For further information: Interested in exclusive Uncommon Knowledge content? Check out Uncommon Knowledge on social media! Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: 0:00 Introduction 1:28 A Public Health Apology Owed to the U.S.? 7:41 Navigating the pandemic with Dr. Bhattacharya 17:03 Responses to the Great Barrington Declaration 29:06 Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it 32:18 A COVID Commission to investigate responses to the Pandemic 35:07 First Amendment rights to free speech on public health and the partisan divide 40:33 Responses to future pandemics? 45:21 Closing remarks 48:44 Insights for college students