Dr. Jay Glides Through Confirmation Hearing

Bhattacharya expected to head The National Institutes of Health

Great Barrington Declaration co-author and general covid response skeptic Jay Bhattacharya faced his Senate confirmation hearing this morning. In stark contrast to the RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard hearings, it was mostly smooth sailing for Dr. Jay today. (It turns out he also likes being called Dr. Jay.)

Although I was expecting a little bit of pushback from Bhattacharya’s covid views, Democrats mostly ignored Bhattacharya himself and attacked (who else?) Donald Trump and Elon Musk for cutting the NIH budget. Senator Bernie Sanders (D I-VT) went so far as to suggest that Bhattacharya wouldn’t actually be in charge of NIH — this job would actually fall to Elon Musk:

Here’s Dr. Jay’s full opening statement:

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) wanted to hear Bhattacharya’s plan to build his team and restore trust in science after covid. It’s here that Bhattacharya delivers perhaps the line of the day (2:19): “The NIH, I don’t think, should be doing any research that has the potential to cause a pandemic.”

Later, Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL) discussed how she worked with Bhattacharya during covid and how the state was attacked for implementing regulations counter to The Science:

Along the same line, Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) wanted to know what the proper role of scientists during a pandemic. Bhattacharya nails the answer — advise but don’t compel. (Related article!) He also delivers one of the most devastating rants against lockdowns I’ve ever seen.

In today’s last video, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MI) ripped into the Proximal Origins paper and how it was used as the basis for government censorship:

I especially liked how Dr. Jay said all the activities of the agency would be transparent, backward and forward. We’re inching a little closer to covid accountability (which is needed to earn public trust in the first place).

I realize these clips are almost all Republicans, but most of the Democrats decried the cutting of NIH funds and tried to make Bhattacharya promise to restore all funding. Obviously, Bhattacharya can’t do that until he actually sees what’s going on after he’s confirmed. (The official vote isn’t scheduled yet.)

If you’d like to watch Democrats bang their head against that wall anyway, here’s the full confirmation hearing. Enjoy!

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