Dr. Bhattacharya may be intelligent and personally ethical, but that misses the point. He was chosen not for scientific leadership but because his views align with the Trump and RFK Jr. agenda. His calm tone should not distract from the fact that his record includes advocating herd immunity by infection, minimizing the role of vaccination, and undermining mitigation strategies that saved lives.
This is not a case of reasonable people disagreeing. His defenses often rely on logical fallacies such as false equivalence, straw man arguments, and appeals to consequence, while dismissing legitimate criticism as censorship or misunderstanding. His recent response to the Bethesda Declaration was condescending and evasive, sidestepping the actual substance of the concerns raised.
Academic freedom does not mean freedom from scientific standards, and public health policy should not be driven by ideology. Dr. Rasmussen is absolutely right to call this out. We need to keep documenting not just what Dr. Bhattacharya says, but how he says it and the dangerous implications of what he is trying to dismantle.
Dr. Bhattacharya may be intelligent and personally ethical, but that misses the point. He was chosen not for scientific leadership but because his views align with the Trump and RFK Jr. agenda. His calm tone should not distract from the fact that his record includes advocating herd immunity by infection, minimizing the role of vaccination, and undermining mitigation strategies that saved lives.
This is not a case of reasonable people disagreeing. His defenses often rely on logical fallacies such as false equivalence, straw man arguments, and appeals to consequence, while dismissing legitimate criticism as censorship or misunderstanding. His recent response to the Bethesda Declaration was condescending and evasive, sidestepping the actual substance of the concerns raised.
Academic freedom does not mean freedom from scientific standards, and public health policy should not be driven by ideology. Dr. Rasmussen is absolutely right to call this out. We need to keep documenting not just what Dr. Bhattacharya says, but how he says it and the dangerous implications of what he is trying to dismantle.
The term of the day is “Epistemic Trespassing”.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-165648288
That guy is one to talk about epistemic trespassing considering that’s describes most of what I’ve seen him do
"...and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who epistemically trespass against us..." 😇
Great work! Keep on using foul language. I love it. I’m behind you 100%.