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What Jay Bhattacharya Discovered at Twitter HQ

by Toby Young
17 December 2022 12:08 PM

UnHerd has published an interview between Freddie Sayers and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in which the Stanford Professor reveals what he found when Elon Musk invited him to Twitter HQ – that he was shadow banned by the social media company for criticising the lockdown policy, as was Dr. Martin Kulldorff. You can watch the interview in full here and read an edited transcript here. Here is Dr. Bhattacharya on why censorship of this kind causes harm.

Do you think the pandemic response might have gone differently if voices such as yours were not suppressed?

Yes… I do really believe censorship kills, and censorship killed during this pandemic. The policies could have been so much better… The policies that were adopted were incredibly damaging to the lives and livelihoods of so many people. 100million people thrown into poverty worldwide: that’s the estimate from the World Bank. Just the consequences of that itself are going to have tremendous effects on the lives and livelihoods of people going forward. And of course, all these children were robbed of an education for years. Those are absolutely monumental outcomes of the policies we adopted during the pandemic, and they should have been freely discussed. My view of the scientific evidence is that it was so clear, even at the time, that we should not have been closing schools. And if we had been allowed to have a free and fair discussion, I think the schools would not have closed – if there hadn’t been this sort of demerit system for people who spoke up against these kinds of policies.

At the end of the interview, Dr. Bhattacharya is asked whether Elon Musk is harming the cause of free speech by sometimes behaving in a Trump-like manner – and he makes more or less the same point I made in the most recent episode of the Weekly Sceptic, which is that it would be nice if he went about prosecuting this war in a more grown-up way, but on balance he’s a very good thing.

Do you worry that, with Twitter messages like “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci”, Elon Musk is going too far and will imperil his project?

It’s not what I would do were I in his position. But on the other hand, I don’t have $44 billion to buy the company. The ideal person for this may not exist… we have to deal with the people we have in front of us. And Elon is, I think, a big step up from the previous ownership, who obviously weren’t that committed to free speech… I agree that it’s not the wisest use of his power. I think it would have been wiser to be more temperate in talking about, for instance, Tony Fauci. I think that Fauci made tremendous mistakes: he abused his power during the pandemic. And it’s led to a lot of problems. But I think the right redress is not to prosecute him, but for history to remember him having made those mistakes, and that in fact, although he may have committed his life to healing, the prescriptions he gave during the pandemic made the lives of so many people worse.

Jay is a copper-bottomed hero and this interview is worth watching in full.

Stop Press: Elon Musk has now restored the Twitter accounts of several journalists whom he suspended because they’d posted links to an account called ElonJet which tracked his comings and goings via private jet in real time. MailOnline has more.

Stop Press 2: Andrew Bridgen MP gave an interview on the Irreverend Podcast following his speech in the House of Commons drawing attention to vaccine harms. Listen here.

Tags: CensorshipElon MuskFreddie SayersShadow BanningUnHerd

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29 Comments
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Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago

When people were telling me on Twitter that our breath had suddenly become deadly dangerous and that we should therefore protect others from our breath, I replied that they should put plastic bags over their heads to be absolutely safe. Obviously, I got banned from Twitter for that.

Algorithms designed to police human nature (whether designed by “good” or “bad” people) will never have good outcomes. Computer programs can’t do context and they don’t have imagination.

Then again, most of my fellow humans seem to have become incapable of understanding context and are lacking imagination, too…

Last edited 2 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
127
0
EileenD
EileenD
2 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

I kid you not, thats what a fellow member of a slimming club did to see her grandchildren (put a plastic bag over her head), then posted the picture.

38
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago
Reply to  EileenD

It makes us view all the significants events of the past (recent and not so recent) in a very different light, doesn’t it?!

30
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

Too right MAk.

I now find myself questioning every single bit of this country’s history. Every single event. Sometimes I think I am going mad. Just how much of this country’s history which I was taught, loved and dug into was actually the real, the true version of events?

I question everything now. Some will say that is good but how could our history be so corrupted? Is it corrupted?

31
-1
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  EileenD

Is the slimming club lady still with us or has she slimmed off, finally?

15
-1
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
2 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

And there’s a masive lack of a sense of humour, a key component of understanding context

5
0
Jane G
Jane G
2 years ago

Still can’t understand why the GBD authors and the likes of Malone consented to dodgy drugs in the first place when they are uniquely placed to comprehend the dangers.

Nevertheless they are back, have their voice and let’s see how the COVID saga progresses as a result.

52
0
TheGreenAcres
TheGreenAcres
2 years ago
Reply to  Jane G

If they consented then what’s the problem? They should never have been approved beyond the vulnerable in the first place, but my issue after that is that adults where not given the information they needed to provide informed consent.

35
0
EileenD
EileenD
2 years ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

I think even given informed consent, the masses would still have proceeded with their jabs, just like they are now.

22
0
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
2 years ago
Reply to  EileenD

I’m honestly not so sure about that. Virtually nobody at the time of their first injection knew that they were having experimental gene therapy, not a vaccine. I posted on many comment threads at the time telling people to understand what it is they are having injected into their bodies. Nobody believed me, the abuse was off the charts. I’m sure everyone on here had the same experience – trying to help people and beng abused in return. After they’d had that first one though, much of our word starting seeping through – yes, these were indeed experimental ‘vaccines’ that used novel technology. But by then it was too late, they’d committed and couldn’t admit to themselves that they’d been taken for a fool, so, unbelievably, they hunkered down. If there had been proper informed consent from the start, which must include that this was novel gene therapy, and the virus risk relative to age group, then I think the take up would have been small. But of course, they knew that, which is why there was no informed consent.

39
0
Chris P
Chris P
2 years ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

Yes, I think the CEO of Bayer would agree with you: –

https://www.bitchute.com/video/hwVtteGWNQ30/

8
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  Jane G

Seconded.

8
-1
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago

I don’t like to be picky but he keeps referring to a pandemic.

60
-1
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Incredible, isn’t it…

27
-1
TheGreenAcres
TheGreenAcres
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

The Pandemic of Ignorance.

45
-1
JXB
JXB
2 years ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

… of evil.

19
-1
JXB
JXB
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

It’s the scientific pronunciation of shamdemic, alternative pronunciation scamdemic.

18
-1
stewart
stewart
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

It’s like climate change. Even most sceptics don’t dare claim the climate isn’t really changing. They focus on arguing its natural, or there is nothing qe can do about it. Or the cost of doing something about it is too high.

When actually the climate isn’t really changing in any noticeavle way. It changes, but way too slowly for us to notice it.

Same with covid. If this guy were to question the existence of a pandemic in the first place, even the people of Unherd would shift around uncomfortably in their seats.

27
-1
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

What pandemic?

10
-1
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

We know what he means and it’s awkward but worth making the effort not to use the language of the enemy. I tend to say “during covid”.

I still think the first point in the debate should probably be that lockdowns and forced medical treatment are always wrong, and the second should be that there was no pandemic. In some ways, everything else is a potential rabbit hole.

17
0
JXB
JXB
2 years ago

People ‘made mistakes’, people acted under ‘duress’… so legally and morally they are not accountable.

Those arguments didn’t wash at Nuremberg nor now.

Fauci made ‘mistakes’… how naïve is that?

46
-1
TheBasicMind
TheBasicMind
2 years ago
Reply to  JXB

I agree with you nevertheless I’m very pleased there are people like Jay Bhattacharya in this world. I completely respect his desire to show temperance. Yes revenge would be sweet, but there is no doubt it would be a better world if there were more like Bhattacharya, because then there would have been reasonable discussion and no need for revenge in the first place.

24
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  TheBasicMind

Punishment for a crime after due process of law is not revenge

33
0
stewart
stewart
2 years ago
Reply to  JXB

He’s all in on the lawsuit against the federal government, which is going to be a landmark case one way or the other after it finally gets to the Supreme Court.

It will define whether there continues to be freedom of speech going forward or not. If the federal government win this and are in essence allowed to censor the public through third party entities, then freedom of speech in America will be finished. It will be the death blow of the constitution and the America we’ve all known.

With that basically at stake, I understand Jay Battacharya wanting to lay as much of the blame at the feet of Fauci and the federal government and argue that the Twitter guys were forced to do it.

20
0
TheBasicMind
TheBasicMind
2 years ago

Jay Bhattacharya is reasonable and mild mannered to a fault. He has quite rightly built a solid reputation for diligence and care in his work and also quite rightly became a pillar of the academic community. I think therefore, the cognitive dissonance of being singled out as some kind of quack and conspiracy theorist by the likes of Fauci and Hancock hit him really hard. It seems the experience has transformed him into this campaigning animal doing every interview and show he can, suing the American government and generally showing he is a gentleman to be reckoned with. Truly a great example of a quiet man roused.

Last edited 2 years ago by TheBasicMind
52
0
Hugh
Hugh
2 years ago

“A lot of… untrue articles in the MSM [about Andrew Bridgen since he started raising ‘vaccine’ concerns]”. (Irreverend Podcast interview).

I’ve been saying for months how the Times muppets are behaving like anti-truthers (re. Oliver Wright*). Now finally here is corroborating evidence from one of our MPs. I believe in free speech. I don’t however believe in telling lies about people and products – lies that are costing lives, and are especially egregious coming from a large and trusted media organisation. I repeat, I want to see people (such as these Times muppets) in jail over this.

****************************************************************************************************

*Oliver Wright articles from a previous era before he worked for the Times muppets (refresh page to reveal whole article?).

Revealed: Big Pharma’s hidden links to NHS policy, with senior MPs saying medical industry uses ‘wealth to influence government’ | The Independent | The Independent

Big Pharma lobbyists exploit patients and doctors | The Independent | The Independent

Last edited 2 years ago by Hugh
22
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago

It’s about time the twitter account of Kathy Gyngell / TCW was restored.

13
-1
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Yes. I got a direct response from Elon Musk on Twitter once, when pointing out all the corruption at Tesla (that he knew – and knows – all about, being the man in charge of all the corruption)… Can’t promise he’ll notice me these days, tho… But I’ll try!

Last edited 2 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
8
0
SomersetHoops
SomersetHoops
2 years ago

Fauci encouraged and arranged finance for the gain of function research which led to Covid. Perhaps he was instructed by the American military to do that to find a new biological weapon. We will never know because all the force of the American government and its secret service has been focussed on hiding the truth behind what really happened, but in reality Fauci is responsible to some extent for the death of millions both from covid and the stupid restrictions that were used.

1
0

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