THE GREAT BARRINGTON DECLARATION: STANFORD PROFESSOR WHO CHALLENGED LOCKDOWNS DECLARES ACADEMIC FREEDOM DEAD

Stanford professor who challenged lockdowns and ‘scientific clerisy’ declares academic freedom ‘dead’---A Stanford University professor of medicine says “academic freedom is dead” after his life became a “living hell” for challenging coronavirus lockdown orders and the “scientific clerisy” during the pandemic.

“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 the administration … If they don’t protect it in that case, then you don’t have academic freedom at all,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.

Bhattacharya is a tenured professor of medicine at Stanford University and also an economist who serves as director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.

He came under fire during the pandemic after co-authoring the Great Barrington Declaration, which was an open letter signed by thousands of doctors and scientists in 2020 denouncing lockdowns as harmful. Bhattacharya was joined by Harvard professor of medicine Dr. Martin Kulldorff and Oxford professor Dr. Sunetra Gupta in co-authoring the document. MORE AT Stanford professor who challenged lockdowns declares academic freedom 'dead' (nypost.com)