Jay Bhattacharya on using 'science' to dictate how society should be ordered: warns against

In a September 2026 RealClear “Takeaway” interview with Maggie Miller, Bhattacharya argued that the public-health establishment wrongly believed science alone could dictate social ordering — presented here as his critique of pandemic-era decision-making. His stated reasoning is that questions like whether schools should close or businesses should shut involve values, tradeoffs, and liberty, not just epidemiology: treating them as purely scientific questions, in his view, launders policy choices through expert authority and shuts out democratic debate. The position reflects his broader philosophy that science informs but does not by itself settle what a society should do.

This page chronicles a stated position of the person above. It is not medical advice and not the site's own conclusion.