Jay Bhattacharya

Can I just start with where I came from into the COVID era?

I was a professor at Stanford for, I think, 20-some years up to that point, up to 2020.

I'd written what I thought were provocative papers.

I mean, I read them, obviously.

Obviously.

Like five other people have.

But the COVID era to me represented a fundamental break in my understanding of how science and public health operated.

I mean, I guess I was naive before the pandemic.

I would tell my students, don't join Twitter.

It was Twitter back then.

Just publish your papers in scientific journals.

That's how you make the big difference in the world.

I thought public health had the best interests of the working class, the poor in mind.

And the COVID era shattered my illusions on all of those fronts.

And in particular, what happened in March of 2020 represented a fundamental break that public health authorities had with the public.

And I can understand why it happened.

I mean, you have a virus floating around that's new.

You get reports out of China, essentially, that it's a 3%, 4%, 5% mortality rate.

You have videos of people collapsing on the street.

Collapsing on the streets.