Top Covid professor targeted on campus
A PROFESSOR at one of the world’s most prestigious universities has revealed how he feared for his safety on campus after being targeted for his views on pandemic restrictions.
Professor Jay Bhattacharya, who has called for focused protection rather than universal lockdowns, said he was afraid to walk openly around Stanford, where he has studied and taught for 35 years.
He said that a “secret” petition calling for him to be censored for his views on masks had been circulated and his picture put on posters at the California university.
The professor of medicine was one of the three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, along with Professor Sunetra Gupta, of Oxford, and Professor Martin Kulldorff, of Harvard. It argues for focused protection of those most at risk.
However, the approach attracted criticism, with then-health Secretary Matt Hancock saying it was not possible to “segregate the old and the vulnerable”.
Speaking to podcast Sketch Notes On A Pandemic, Prof Bhattacharya, 53, who has advised Florida governor Ron Desantis on Covid policy, said a petition calling for him to be “censored” had been making the rounds of Stanford over his opinion that children should not be forced to wear masks. It was accompanied by posters of him around campus.
Kolkata-born Prof Bhattacharya said: “I was for a few days scared to walk on campus because it seemed like targeted harassment or potentially a call to violence. I called the campus police. Basically, no action was taken. So I decided I’m not going to be intimidated.”