Tag: Jay Bhattacharya

Science Based Satire: What I Would Have Done

A man who experienced the pandemic entirely from his laptop, explains what he would have done had he actually done anything.

/ February 4, 2024
The Great Barrington Declaration

The Great Barrington Declaration and “natural herd immunity” versus public health three years later

Over the weekend, Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute, crowed about how the Great Barrington Declaration and its recommendation of a "natural herd immunity" approach to the pandemic changed everything three years ago. Unfortunately, as the John Snow Project pointed out last week, the "natural herd immunity" approach has done what could be irreparable damage to public health science and, more...

/ November 13, 2023

When Did “Herd Immunity” Become a Taboo Phrase?

Doctors who repeatedly predicted herd immunity in 2020 and 2021, mocking and berating those who disagreed, now treat herd immunity as a taboo phrase.

/ September 12, 2023
The Great Barrington Trio

Brownstone Institute admits that the Great Barrington Declaration was wrong (without actually admitting it was wrong)

The Brownstone Institute's Gabrielle Bauer claims vindication for the Great Barrington Declaration, the October 2020 document that advocated a "natural herd immunity" pandemic strategy, with an ill-defined "focused protection" strategy to protect those most at risk of death. In the fine print, however, Bauer tacitly admits that its core assumption was badly mistaken, minimizing it as not getting all the "details" right.

/ February 20, 2023
Ducks quack

The making of COVID-19 “contrarian” doctors

In 2009, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become quacks and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me that an update to that post is massively overdue.

/ October 24, 2022

Jay Bhattacharya errs on excess mortality in New Zealand

Jay Bhattacharya claims that New Zealand COVID policy was “a grand failure” based on flawed logic and a misinterpretation of the data. He should retract.

/ September 12, 2022

Did New Zealand Let Too Few People Die of COVID?

Doctors used to agree mass death was a bad thing. Not anymore.

/ September 9, 2022

Lockdowns “Postponed the Inevitable”. Is That a Bad Thing?

Lockdowns postponed COVID for millions of people until after they were vaccinated. Some doctors feel that's a bad thing.

/ August 28, 2022
Figure 1

Science denial, overconfidence, and persuasion

The pandemic has brought scientists who have rejected science with respect to COVID-19 public health measures a disturbing level of influence. Recent research suggests reasons why and who among the public susceptible to such misinformation remains persuadable.

/ August 22, 2022