Trumps NIH pick recounts censorship by Biden for views on COVID: Science needs free speech
President Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health delighted Republican lawmakers Wednesday by vowing to defend freedom of speech in scientific research while fending off an onslaught of questions about Elon Musk and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr.Dr.
Jayanta Bhattacharya, who came to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic for his opposition to widespread lockdowns and mask mandates, recounted his own experience with having his dissent throttled by the Biden administration.“The root problem was that people who had alternative ideas were suppressed,” Bhattacharya reflected during an exchange with Sen.
Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) “I personally was subject to censorship by the actions of the Biden administration during the pandemic.”“Science, to succeed, needs free speech,” he added.“It needs an environment where there’s tolerance for dissent.”During the thick of the pandemic, the Biden administration exerted pressure on social media companies to target certain posts and users that it claimed were spreading information detrimental to public health.The so-called “Twitter Files,” which Musk pushed the company to release after taking over the platform in late 2022, revealed that Bhattacharya’s account was one of those marked on the “trends blacklist.”Bhattacharya, an epidemiologist at Stanford University, later joined a lawsuit against the Biden administration alleging that it trampled on free speech by colluding with Big Tech companies and pressing them to censor content.
The US Supreme Court has since rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing.The NIH nominee also stressed the importance of scientists showing humility and deferring to policymakers when it comes to key issues.“Science should be an engine for freedom,” Bhattacharya said.
“Not something where it stands on top of society and says, ‘You must do this, this or this, or else.'”Bhattacharya noted that he to...