On Christmas Eve 2020, my father was admitted to the hospital with sudden weakness. My mother was not allowed to join him. She begged the officials. My father needed help making medical decisions, she said, but that was no exception during the horrific times of the coronavirus pandemic. I contemplated traveling from Maryland to New Jersey to see if, as a doctor, Will I receive special treatment? Until I realized that state and employer travel rules might mean waiting for COVID test results. and may face quarantine upon my return. In the end, my father spent some time in the hospital alone. suffering from illness and double loneliness.
These events still irritate me years later. I have a hard time believing that restrictions on hospital visits and interstate travel helped people more than they hurt. Many Americans remain angry about the pandemic for other reasons as well, such as anger over losing their jobs. Being bullied into getting vaccinated or watching children Falling behind in the virtual classroom That legacy of bitterness and distrust became a major political force. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was on the precipice of leading our nation’s health care system as health secretary. and Johns Hopkins Human Services Professor Marty Makary has been tapped to lead the Food and Drug Administration. and Professor Jay Bhattacharya from Stanford University is expected Selected to run the National Institutes of Health There are these men too. support for change To the public health system and structure But what unites them all is And what legitimizes them in the eyes of the next administration is their enduring anger over COVID.
To understand this group’s rise to power And what that might mean for America. We must consider their perception of the past five years, the world, as Kennedy, Makary, Bhattacharya and their compatriots well understood. It’s terrifying: SARS-CoV-2 was likely created in a lab in Wuhan, China; US officials tried to conceal That truth; And the government responded to the virus by ignoring scientific evidence. violation of civil rights and suppress conflict In the face of this modernityDark Ages” As Bhattacharn calls this. Only a few brave dissidents were willing to turn on the lights.
Makary, Trump’s choice for FDA, shows himself to be a true-to-power, surgeon, policy researcher. and my academic colleagues which reveals complete information He has gained a loyal following during the pandemic as a public health critic. Through various media such as fox news and at Wall Street JournalMacari supports more reserved use of the COVID vaccine: He recommends that adults who have I have recovered. from Covid infection as well child In general, some quantities may be forgotten. He also wondered. booster shock For everyone and vaccines mandate– So did Margaree. Think public health officials are lying to Americans: “The biggest perpetrator of misinformation during the pandemic is the U.S. government,” he said. told parliament Last year, it referred to public health advice that focused on the spread of Covid on surfaces. Ignoring natural immunity Promote stimulation in young people and promote the effectiveness of wearing masks
Bhattacharya, physician and health economist Famous in October 2020 as co-author of Barrington’s Great Declarationwhich supports the guidelines “Focused protection” against the epidemic The idea is to isolate vulnerable elderly people. At the same time allowing low-risk individuals to return to their normal lives. A lot of the public health community is proactive. criticize This strategy at the time and—as would be revealed later—NIH Director Francis Collins personally. called in order to erase the evidence “Fast and Devastating” Twitter places Bhattacharya on “trend blacklist” which reduced the reach of his posts accordingly. Internal documents Released to journalist Bari Weiss in 2022, among conservatives and lockdown skeptics, Bhattacharya is viewed as Brave truth teller that has been silenced by the federal government and Big Tech (In fact, despite the fact that he often resentmentThe monks were not neglected. He has met with the Trump administration and is in contact with the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis–
in response to their neglect by polite scientific society—and before they were lined up for important positions. in government—Makari and Bhattacharya both sought public consideration. both called for the medical establishment to apologize to the American people Makari demanded.”fresh leadership” at the FDA, which has made serious mistakes regarding COVID drugs and vaccines, and Bhattacharya has asked for it to be established. Covid commission It is considered a necessary first step in “Restores public trust in scientific experts.” They have also worked together at Norfolk Groupa group of like-minded scientists and doctors who laid out what they consider to be the most important questions to be asked of the nation’s public health leaders. The gist of some of these Namely: Why don’t they listen to their supporters? “Protection-oriented” such as Bhattacharya and Makari? The report wondered why Deborah Birx, a member of the White House Coronary Task Force, avoid meetings Along with anti-lockdown advocates including Bhattacharya in the summer of 2020 (“They are a marginalized group with no background in pandemics, public health, or common sense experience on the ground,” Birx wrote in an email to the deputy’s boss president of employees at that time)
This COVID anger will be a standard in the next Trump administration. Choose a general surgeonDoctor and Fox News personality Janette Nesheiwat called the prolonged isolation caused by the shutdown ” They described the crimes as “cruel and inhumane” and said the collateral damage caused by the government’s actions was “Worse than the plague” For most Americans Nominee for Secretary of Defense: Pete Hegseth Push for herd immunity In May 2020 and Promote anti-lockdown protests–
At least Bhattacharya denies being interested in revenge. Last year he helped write an op-ed that warned against starting “Nuremberg 2.0” and instead presents scientists such as himself and Makari as He is described as an “apostle of evidence-based science” who simply “calls for the restoration of evidence-based medicine to the pride of public health.”
I am sympathetic to that goal in itself. I consider myself a member of the movement. “Evidence-based medicine,” which values high-quality information over blind loyalty to authority. I still belong to similar minds As Makary on the FDA’s longstanding dysfunction, COVID skeptics are correct that in some domains The pandemic has led to too little knowledge and too much chatter. We still don’t know how many social distancing measures will be implemented. How effective is it? What is the best vaccination policy? Or what is the true origin of the virus? I remember following discussions about these issues on Twitter, which served as a town square for doctors. scientist and public health leaders during the pandemic year. Mainstream experts often defend unproven public health measures with self-righteousness and absolutism: You either support saving lives, or you’re one of those skeptics trying to kill grandma. Nuanced conversations are rare. Allegations about “Misinformation” abounds.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is really spreading misinformation with a fire hose. (For example, he falsely said that the COVID shock was “The most dangerous vaccine ever.”) Bhattacharya and Makary are much more grounded in reality. But they’ve all made their share of mistakes during the pandemic. And they didn’t spend much time renovating it, so let me reflect on their behalf: In March 2020, Bhattacharya dispute that the death rate of Covid should be lower than what anyone thinks We talked a lot at that time. Even though it is one-tenth as high as influenza. “If we are correct about the limited size of the epidemic,” he wrote, “then measures focused on aging populations and hospitals make sense.” Bhattacharya continues to be wrong on important matters. A central premise of the Great Barrington Declaration is that as more healthy people get sick and recover, The residual risk of new infection would also be reduced low enough to allow vulnerable people to safely leave isolation. The process should take his group three to six months. explain– However, SARS-CoV-2 is still circulating at high levels nearly five years later. At least 1.2 million Americans have died from Covid. If an effective vaccine doesn’t arrive soon after the 2020 announcement, seniors could remain in hiding until this day.
For Makary, his most famous event is related to February 2021. Prediction that the United States will achieve herd immunity within two months “Scientists should not attempt to distort public information by hiding the truth,” he wrote. Wall Street Journal– Delta and Omicron waves follow. It cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
When I contacted Bhattacharya, he said that his early guesses about Covid death rates were intended to help explain it. We only refer to “multiple possible outcomes” and any characterization of that outcome would be false. (Makary did not respond to my questions for this story.)
The new administration’s COVID skeptics also expressed sympathy for unproven theories about the pandemic’s origins. If you want to be an apostle to the evidence you believe SARS-CoV-2 came from. Leaks at NIH-funded labs It seems to be part of the deal– Kennedy wrote Many items book It claims to specifically link Anthony Fauci to the creation of the virus. So does Macari. appears In the new documentary Thank you Dr. Fauci.which describes “The biological weapons competition with China and what may be the biggest cover-up in modern history” (Fawcimi. reject these claims many times, including in Parliamentary testimony– He called out the idea that he was complicit in covering up the origins of Covid.”Absolutely false and extremely bizarre.–
Sympathy for the Alliance’s idiosyncratic elements is also common. Makari and Bhattacharya both praised Kennedy in lavish words. Although he has repeatedly lied: “He wrote a 500-page book about Dr. Fauci and the Medical Industrial Complex It’s one hundred percent true.” Macari say The book discusses several chapters to clarify the doubt that HIV is the cause of AIDS. Earlier this month, Bhattacharn called Kennedy was a “disruptor” whose views on vaccines and AIDS were merely “abnormality” (Battachan also has recommend that conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic Robert Malone would be “Incredible leader” for the country’s health agency)
Anger over the government’s response to the pandemic has swept anti-COVID activists to power. Dissatisfaction spreads to Washington They will now have the opportunity to address some real and systematic problems with the nation’s public health establishment. They also have the ability to settle points.
