“The End of Free Speech is the End of Science”
Prior to obtaining power, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya made a grand display about the importance of “free speech”- at least his own. He gave grandiose talks such as The End of Free Speech is the End of Science and treated his Tweets and YouTube videos as the most consequential victims of the pandemic. Though he never showed sympathy for COVID’s victims, he produced an overwhelming amount of self-pitying material bemoaning the fate of his social media content. He even took a case about his supposed “censorship” to the Supreme Court. He lost because he “failed to show that the platforms acted in response to government request.”
A few samples of Dr. Bhattacharya speaking loudly about he’d been “silenced” are below.
“We’ll never us this agency to censor scientists who disagree.”
Had Dr. Bhattacharya truly been silenced, no one would know about him. However, his lamentations made him famous and powerful, and Dr. Bhattacharya repeatedly promised things would be different once he was in office. Finally, under his benevolent leadership, scientists would be able to Tweet freely, and a golden era of scientific discourse would emerge. Though I’ve never seen him engage with his critics in good faith, not even once, Dr. Bhattacharya made it clear that people could openly disagree with him without fear of reprisal. “We’ll never us this agency to censor scientists who disagree,” he said upon becoming NIH director.
“NIH Staff Lambaste Agency Head for Censorship of Science”
Things haven’t exactly turned out that way. It turns out his talk The End of Free Speech is the End of Science was really a preview of coming attractions, a mission statement for his leadership. Dr. Bhattacharya’s tenure at the NIH began with a headline that read ‘One of the Darkest Days’: NIH Purges Agency Leadership Amid Mass Lay-Offs. Shortly after that, renowned NIH nutritionist scientist Dr. Kevin Hall left because he was censored, and other scientists wrote the Bethesda Declaration. According to an article about the Bethesda Declaration titled NIH Staff Lambaste Agency Head for Censorship of Science:
Hundreds of staff at the National Institutes of Health are publicly condemning the agency’s actions in recent months, including firing thousands of workers and canceling research grants for projects that don’t align with the Trump administration’s ideologies.
In a letter sent Monday morning to Jay Bhattacharya, the Trump-appointed NIH director who gained notoriety for his criticism of the NIH’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 300 employees from across the agency called on him to deliver on his promise to embrace dissent, which he has called “the very essence of science.”
Since then, Dr. Bhattacharya has doubled down on his intimidation and censorship of dissident scientists. He’s repeatedly tried to summon social media mobs against scientists who disagree with him, refused to meet with disgruntled NIH staff, and has purged the most outspoken voices, such as Drs. Jenna Norton and Jeane Marrazzo. Other prominent scientists have been purged for no reason at all. According to a press release titled Statement on Sudden Departure of NINDS Director:
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) expresses significant concern over the abrupt decision by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to terminate its contract with the Director of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Walter Koroshetz, MD, FAAN, who has served in NINDS leadership for nearly two decades, is a highly respected leader whose tenure has been marked by numerous advancements in the treatment of neurological conditions. Dr. Koroshetz’s departure will be deeply felt by neurologists, researchers, and the many patients whose lives have been positively impacted by his leadership. This decision was made without consulting key neurology stakeholders, and there was no formal announcement nor a clear succession plan for NINDS leadership.
Over half of the 27 institutes of the NIH have no permanent director, though one director was hired after he officiated at the wedding of JD Vance.
More recently, Dr. Bhattacharya censored a CDC study because it showed what countless other studies have shown, the COVID vaccine reduces severe COVID outcomes. Dr. Bhattacharya has dunked on COVID vaccines for years and the mere existence of this study in 2026 demolishes his entire pandemic philosophy, that natural immunity would lead to herd immunity in 3-6 months. It’s no surprise that he censored this study.
Elsewhere, Dr. Bhattacharya has censored entire fields of research by calling them “DEI”, three letters he wields as a magic talisman to blithely dismiss his critics and cancel their research. Although Dr. Bhattacharya advanced his career by publishing papers titled Racial Disparities in Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Related to Covid-19 In The USA, Racial Disparities in Survival After Lung Transplantation, Persistent Racial Disparities in Survival After Heart Transplantation, today he is denying such opportunities to others. “We won’t renew them” in 2026, he said to a podcaster about his intentions to censor research that he now deems ideologically impure.
There has been no transparency in how DEI is defined and who decides which research to cancel. A federal judge overturned Dr. Bhattacharya’s attempts to censor such research, at least for now, for that reason. According to the article Hundreds of NIH Grant Terminations are ‘Void and Illegal,’ Federal Judge Rules:
At several points during the hearing, Judge William G. Young expressed frustration that the NIH had no formal definition of DEI despite terminating a wide swath of grants in that area… The plaintiffs did not accuse the NIH of racial discrimination, but Young raised the issue. “I have never seen racial discrimination by the government like this,” in his 40 years on the bench, he said, to which there was an audible gasp in the courtroom.
The article also quoted Heather Pierce, senior director of policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges, who said:
The research community isn’t dealing with just the terminations of grants — that alone would be unprecedented and incredibly disruptive. But when you add it to the cumulative effect of undercutting the funding infrastructure, slowing down funding opportunities, freezing funds, slowing the drawdowns of already awarded grants, the cumulative effect is staggering on the research enterprise.
Indeed, another way to censor science is to starve it of funding. STAT News ran a long series titled American Science, Shattered about how these cuts have silenced scientists, and Dr. Bhattacharya personally cut funding for mRNA research. Donald Trump, whom Dr. Bhattacharya literally “loves“, isn’t done yet. According to an article from earlier this month Trump Administration Seeks More Funding Cuts for NIH:
A budget proposal released last week by the Trump administration seeks to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The cuts listed in President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget are part of a $15.8 billion overall reduction the administration is seeking for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH. The document from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says the budget reductions will be achieved through reforms and elimination of several NIH centers, including the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which OMB said is “replete with DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] expenditures.”
“NIH broke the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health,” OMB said.
Other agencies slated for budget cuts the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (-$129 million), and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR, -$356 million). OMB said ASPR had been overextended by the COVID-19 pandemic and had moved away from its mission of coordinating the federal emergency response.
Dr. Bhattacharya previously refused to stand up for the NIH against these slurs and budget cuts and had to be reminded that he led the agency.
“Let’s have a debate. Science works best when we have an open debate.”
Even on Twitter, the core location of Dr. Bhattacharya’s supposed “censorship, he still post continually from his private account, where he has blocked countless private citizens from speaking their mind to him, a government official. However, back In 2021 when Dr. Bhattacharya was merely a social media celebrity who claimed the only problem with COVID was that anyone still feared it, YouTube, a private company, removed one of his countless videos. This became the seminal moment of the pandemic for him, the way I’ll never forget seeing a COVID kill a healthy 23-year-old 6 years ago. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis devoted an entire “roundtable” to mourn the loss of this single video and whine about “big tech censorship”, in which Dr. Bhattacharya indignantly said:
For science to work, you have to have an open exchange of ideas…If you’re going to make an argument that something is misinformation, you should provide an actual argument. You can’t just take it down and say, ‘Oh, it’s misinformation’ without actually giving a reason…Let’s hear the argument, let’s see the evidence that YouTube used to decide it was misinformation. Let’s have a debate. Science works best when we have an open debate.
All this from a powerful government agent whose name will be forever synonymous with scientific censorship.