Jaya Bhattacharya Instant

That is his weakness, and his strength. He is an idealist in a cynical field. He believes that if you give people the truth about risk—that a 7-year-old is safer at a birthday party than a 75-year-old is at a bingo hall—they will make the right choice.

When COVID hit, Bhattacharya did the math. While the world saw a linear curve of infections, he saw the shadow of a depression: canceled cancer surgeries, a generation of children losing literacy, nursing home lockdowns that turned into death sentences. jaya bhattacharya

He clicks "Send." The Great Barrington Declaration is live. That is his weakness, and his strength

He looks out the window at the Palo Alto sun. "I regret that we stopped talking to each other. We built a firewall between 'safe' science and 'dangerous' science. That firewall is still standing. And the next virus is coming." When COVID hit, Bhattacharya did the math

When I press him on the failures of the "Great Barrington" model—specifically, the logistical impossibility of perfectly isolating the elderly in a multi-generational household—he grows quiet.

Now, the wheel has turned. With a new administration in Washington, Bhattacharya is rumored to be on the shortlist to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH).