Stanford University Professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya may not be a household name. But he should be. His increasingly vindicated work on the epidemiology of COVID and policy responses to the epidemic made him a target for personal and professional attack by elites who did not want their policy advice called into question. As a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Bhattacharya and two eminent colleagues called early on for authorities to rethink lockdown strategies that were already doing more harm than good. The declaration would eventually be signed by tens of thousands of medical professionals and scientists and would be censored on social media.
Having survived a wave of public attack and censorship orchestrated by the highest public health authorities, Dr. Bhattacharya now has a platform, and he is using it. “Jay is a visionary who stands for the integrity of scientific debate and the promotion of sound public policy,” said Bradley Foundation president Rick Graber. “During the most challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, he defended Americans’ abilities to make informed choices in the face of immense pressure. He did not conform to the prevailing orthodoxies about aspects of the pandemic that we now know were often fostered without full access to or analysis of data. Jay’s relentless pursuit of scientific freedom has benefitted millions.”
For his part, Dr. Bhattacharya dedicated his award to “many brilliant scientists, politicians, public servants, teachers, lawyers, firefighters, small business owners, CEOs, and people from every walk of life who risked their jobs, their reputations, or their family bliss to oppose COVID tyranny.”
Tyranny may seem like too strong a word for some, especially since our elites have decided that it’s time to put the excesses of the pandemic behind us. A few of those most responsible for the censoring of opposing views and extended lockdowns have released “mistakes were made”-type statements, hoping that we can all just move on. But Dr. Bhattacharya is better qualified than most to level the charge and continue fighting for accountability from our public health leaders and institutions.
Once the Great Barrington Declaration started gaining traction in the media in October 2020, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins labeled Dr. Bhattacharya and his co-authors “fringe epidemiologists” in The Washington Post. Our friends at AIER, who published the Declaration and helped lead the charge against lockdowns, summarized what happened next:
The Director of the National Institutes of Health [Francis Collins] all but ordered the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases [Anthony Fauci] to put together a smear campaign aimed at [the GBD authors], each from an elite institution (Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford if you are keeping track at home), who were simply going where the science took them.
Among the consequences of the campaign against inconvenient science and scientists were the further extension of destructive lockdowns, widespread censorship of Dr. Bhattacharya and other critics of the pandemic strategy, and a collapse in confidence in “science” itself according to some polls. This newly-recognized champion of free expression is committed to the fight for freedom and accountability, since, as he concluded in his Bradley Prize address:
The whole scientific community and the public need to understand the stakes, because I do not believe the suppression of scientific ideas and debate will die with the pandemic. (Watch Speech Here)
An old friend of the Bradley Impact Fund community, Dr. Samuel Gregg has written seventeen books and more than 700 essays, articles, reviews, and opinion pieces on politics, Western civilization, classical liberalism, and natural law theory.
Speaking for many in the Bradley Foundation community, Mr. Graber credited Dr. Gregg with contributing “immensely to the defense of free enterprise, particularly at a time when it is being significantly challenged. Sam’s work reflects the values of the Foundation’s namesakes, who were unquestionably committed to ensuring that future generations have the ability to innovate and grow a business, just as they did.”
In his remarks, Dr. Gregg traced his own intellectual mission back to Adam Smith, F.A. Hayek, and Michael Novak, reminding those present at the awards ceremony that:
[K]ey Founders believed that America’s future was to be one in which dynamic trade, entrepreneurial spiritedness, and commercial audacity would define society—not aristocratic priorities. The ‘republic’ side of the equation was that these market freedoms would be grounded upon institutions and virtues derived from those same classical, religious, and Enlightenment sources: virtues that don’t just grease the wheels of commerce, but which, as Adam Smith wrote, are nothing less than ‘excellence, something uncommonly great and beautiful.’ (Watch Speech Here)
Noting how far today’s America has drifted from the great ideas upon which America is founded, Dr. Gregg surveyed the territory.
Our fiscal house is a shambles. Our economy is riddled with regulation, welfarism, bureaucracy, and cronyism. And those who Adam Smith called “men of system” have emerged across the political spectrum to demand even more power to direct that economy from the top-down. From left to right, interventionist hubris is in, and economic humility is out.
Demonstrating the sober optimism that characterizes the Bradley Foundation community, Dr. Gregg counseled against despair: “Bad ideas are powerful, but good ideas are difficult to keep down. Good ideas, however, need good people with the courage to articulate them. . .” Indeed, he believes that the age of America’s (as inscribed on our Great Seal) Novus ordo seclorum “remains within our grasp, if only we have the imagination and the courage to embrace the right ideas that will make it so.”
Eminent scholar, historian, and author William Barclay Allen’s commitment to liberal education and public service began with a college job of selling the Great Books; continued with his many national appointments, including serving on the National Council for the Humanities and the United States Commission on Civil Rights; and endured through his decades of leadership and service in academia. His scholarly career is one of astounding breadth and impact, as Mr. Graber noted in his introduction:
William has contributed deeply to scholarship on the American founders and the revered constitutional republic they created. His life’s work has helped sustain and advance our understanding of the cherished ideals that underscore our freedom. At a time when the need to pass on those ideals to future generations has taken on greater urgency, William continues to influence and shape young minds.
True to form, Dr. Allen challenged those in attendance to give credit where it’s due when it comes to forming America’s national character:
While our nation boasts a long succession of heroes, it remains the curious fact that it does not receive its dynamic thrust from its heroes. The dynamic thrust of the United States derives from those ordinary souls whose extraordinary patience and self-confidence constitute the foundation of such longevity as we have enjoyed. This was manifested most dramatically in the great struggle to end the scourge of slavery, but it has been a recurrent theme from the origins of American civilization. (Watch Speech Here)
Such social and historical humility is vital. But a nation needs heroes, too. This is no less true today than it was at the founding. Honoring the likes of the 2024 Bradley Prize winners is an occasion to remember that such courage may be rare, but over the long run no nation can long survive without its heroes.