A Children's Champion Prevails
Jay Bhattacharya’s Vindication: From Censored Dissenter to NIH Director
You can watch the confirmation hearing live today, March 5, 2025, at 10:00AM EST HERE.
Today is a day none of us could have foreseen five years ago.
In March 2020, New York City was descending into darkness.
Despite the lengthening days of spring, a shadow loomed larger as whispers of a “China virus” turned into a full-blown crisis. I remember the unease rippling through parents at my kids’ elementary school. We were told to trust the updates, but the murmurs grew louder.
Society as we knew it was shutting down—unprecedented in our lifetimes—with no clear path out.
Under President Trump’s administration, I—a lifelong Democrat—opposed the man on principle, even if I quietly agreed with some of his policies. When he locked down the country, it felt inevitable. At first, I didn’t question it.
But pulling my children out of school gnawed at me. How would they meet their milestones? How could childhood development pause for a virus? I hoped for a short break, though my gut told me otherwise.
Those early months of isolation were brutal. The internet, our only lifeline, was a poor substitute—seeing loved ones on a screen felt emptier than not seeing them at all. By summer, it was clear: schools needed to reopen.
The danger to children and teachers was minimal. Yet, the media and “consensus” insisted lockdowns were the only way to keep us “safe.” But safety became a narrow obsession—protection from COVID-19 alone. Not from loneliness, despair, or missing life’s milestones. Not from dying alone in a nursing home or hospital.
I didn’t know Jay Bhattacharya then.
I hadn’t heard of the Great Barrington Declaration, signed on October 4, 2020, or his Wall Street Journal op-ed from March 20, 2020, questioning blanket lockdowns. It wasn’t until after I voted for Biden in November 2020—swayed by his promise to reopen schools in 100 days—that I stumbled across Bhattacharya’s work. By then, I learned why his voice was silenced. Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci orchestrated a campaign to suppress him, pressuring social media to censor him and his co-authors, like Martin Kulldorff, while staging a “devastating takedown” of their measured dissent.
They crafted an illusion of consensus to justify draconian policies.
Five long years later, today is a triumph.
Jay Bhattacharya is being confirmed as Director of the National Institutes of Health, replacing Collins. It’s a poetic vindication for a man who dared to challenge the orthodoxy with science and reason. Who better to steer NIH’s research and champion free speech?
I wish I could be in Washington, D.C., to witness this historic moment, but family keeps me home. Still, I’ll be watching with awe as this kind, ethical national treasure takes the helm of one of our government’s most vital institutions.
Stay tuned for more of Jay’s story in 15 Days, coming soon, very soon!