Stanford University professor who challenged covid lockdowns says ‘academic freedom is dead’

A professor of medicine at Stanford University who challenged COVID-19 lockdowns said ‘academic freedom is dead’ and his life is now a ‘living hell.’

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya spoke out in an interview about the criticism he has received since questioning the rationale behind US lockdown orders by Dr. Anthony Fauci and masking in schools.

Bhattacharya is a tenured professor at the university that previously co-authored a letter in 2020, The Great Barrington, that declared the lockdowns were damaging. The release of the letter left him with no support from his colleagues.

‘The basic premise is that if you don’t have protection and academic freedom in the hard cases, when a faculty member has an idea that’s unpopular among some of the other faculty – powerful faculty, or even administration… if they don’t protect it in that case then you don’t have academic freedom at all,’ Bhattacharya told Fox News.

The Stanford professor received death threats about his letter and said the results could’ve turned out differently if the university was open to offering a debate about COVID-19 topics.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, said his life has become a ‘living hell’ after he openly criticized COVID-19 restrictions

The tenured professor said that his opinions about the pandemic have led him to receive death threats and other hateful mail. He also said his views have led to a ‘hostile’ workplace

Bhattacharya has argued against the US COVID restrictions pushed by Dr. Anthony Fauci 

Bhattacharya, who called the call for ‘herd immunity’ as harmful and inefficient, said that there was a lack of debate at the school to challenge the popular views – leaving him to be an outsider.

‘The policy of the university, when push comes to shove, is to permit this kind of hostile work environment,’ he said. ‘What if there had been open scientific debate on campus, sponsored by the university of this? So that people could know there were legitimate alternate views?’ 

He later told the news outlet: ‘If Stanford really truly were committed to academic freedom, they would have… worked to make sure that there were debates and discussions, seminars, where these ideas were discussed among faculty.’ 

If the school would’ve offered a debate to challenge Bhattacharya’s letter, then perhaps it would’ve lessened the ‘hostile environment,’ he said. 

‘When you take a position that is at odds with the scientific clerisy, your life becomes a living hell,’ Bhattacharya said at the Academic Freedom Conference at Stanford earlier this month. 

Bhattacharya also previously appeared in a round table with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year, praising the Republican’s more relaxed approach to economic restrictions. 

Deplatforming potential speakers who stray from the liberal mainstream remains popular, researchers found

Abortion, racial inequality, and Covid-19 vaccine mandates were the three most controversial subjects, researchers found in a nationwide survey

Columbia University was ranked as the worst in the nation for free speech. Conservative and liberal students frequently said they felt debate was stifled in class 

Free speech debates on campus’ have been a contentious topic as some schools refuse to tolerate alternative viewpoints. 

Cancel culture on campuses was especially up during the pandemic as some students sought to deplatform those who didn’t agree with the popular opinion.

Columbia University was ranked the worst in the nation for tolerating different viewpoints on campus and received an ‘abysmal’ score in September. 

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) monitoring group also awarded low scores to the University of Pennsylvania, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgetown University, and Skidmore College.

Meanwhile, the University of Chicago came first for campus free speech, scoring 77.9 out of 100 points. Kansas State University, Purdue University, Mississippi State University and Oklahoma State University rounded out the top five. 

Schools were graded on their formal free speech policies, incidents of deplatforming, the number of academics sanctioned and on the opinions expressed by students in a survey, which collected responses from 45,000 nationwide. 

Columbia was awarded only 9.9 out of 100 points. Its score was dragged down for being the ‘most egregious offender’ in sanctioning seven scholars, including two terminations, one of whom was a tenured faculty member.