An Open Letter to Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary
Some Genuine Advice from a Place of Kindness
It didn't take a master’s degree to deduct that Donald J. Trump is a terrible leader, who surrounds himself with incompetent sycophants for surrogates. He proved this himself from the four years between Jan. 2017 and Jan. 2021. You don't need to be a management prodigy to theorize that a lawyer, with no medical or scientific credentials, would make a poor candidate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Yet, you both agreed to work for these people. Now? Americans overwhelmingly believe that the President you work for is a pedophile. When you look in the mirror before bed, try asking yourselves: Was it worth it?
Even if you sincerely believed in a mission to "Make America Healthy Again," you can't do it as part of a Presidential administration which is dead set on destroying any and all environmental regulations on industry, based upon pseudoscience which claims manmade climate collapse is a "hoax." More people will get needlessly sick, overall population health will decline, and you run the risk of sparking another pandemic disaster. As we saw with the ongoing measles outbreak, the current Medical Establishment you lead is not equipped to deal with such a crisis.
Understand that you will be blamed for the carnage that follows as you incompetently flail about, singing the praises of the virus on cable news for conservatives' amusement. Do you remember the doctors you smeared? Honorable men such as Anthony Fauci and Peter Hotez? Just as they and their families received horrific abuse and death threats, that you indirectly egged on, you will inevitably receive the same. Did you explain this risk to your family before accepting the role? Or were you so focused on being in the spotlight that it blinded you to reality?
The Mess You Made
On a near daily basis, there is an unyielding stream of embarrassing headlines showing chaos, incompetence, and instability at our federal public health agencies. Nobody has any faith in the institutions led by Jay Bhattacharya or Marty Makary, or any belief that the situation is going to improve in the future. Look at what just happened to your fellow traveler: Vinay Prasad once held multiple senior roles at the FDA until certain conservatives, such as Laura Loomer and the Wall Street Journal, demanded Vinay Prasad's firing on the basis that he was somehow some sort of Biden/Sanders aligned socialist sleeper agent saboteur of Trump's agenda. This led to Donald Trump personally giving Vinay Prasad the boot.
Now ask yourself: Are you next?
America's citizens are witnessing a historical crisis of institutional collapse, the consequences of which will haunt us for years after RFK Jr's handpicked squad of pandemic disinformation artists are long gone. By the end of it, nobody will have any respect for Jay Bhattacharya or Marty Makary, including many of the conservatives which once endorsed your COVID-19 fictions. Will another few years of constant reporting about your failures as federal agency leaders truly be worth the shame and disgrace that will haunt you for a lifetime? Knowing that you played a major role in destroying America's edge in science and medicine?
A Helping Hand
My mother, born on a Texas ranch, raised me to practice a certain level of respect, empathy, and yes, even grace. Instead of tossing out childish insults like "Covidian," I'm going to do the graceful thing and make an honest suggestion. If you happen to be the FDA Commissioner, the NIH Director, or one of their associates, consider this a favor. This is out of genuine concern, and I hope you take it seriously:
You should just quit.
You're already the scourge of the scientific research community. Hardly anyone in the medical field takes you seriously. The staff at your respective institutions have no respect for your leadership. How do you plan to turn this around? How much worse are you going to let things get under your tenure?
If you have no serious plans to rectify this, then the best course of action is to simply step away. You don't owe Trump or RFK Jr. your loyalty. As the conservatives who once celebrated your COVID-19 myths begin to turn on you, where do you plan to go next after you're inevitably forced out of the federal government, as Prasad was?
Crossing the Line
For years, you personally profited by telling people they shouldn't trust anything the government says regarding SARS-CoV-2. Now that you are the government, nobody's taking your words seriously. Marty Makary is insisting everything is fine while headline after headline shows a demoralized staff and chaos reigns at the FDA, as Makary rattles off unscientific anecdotes about the COVID-19 vaccine killing Americans. It's obvious that Jay Bhattacharya has no real authority at the NIH, persisting solely at the mercy of the White House.
How much longer do you plan on embarrassing yourselves like this?
At some point, you have to do the adult thing and admit you're woefully unqualified for the role you accepted. You accepted a paycheck funded by the American taxpayer to perform a task you could not do. Now, other countries are gleefully snatching up our best and brightest, and major medical institutions including the American Academy of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases Society of America are suing the federal government. Independent organizations are being formed to pick up the slack from compromised yet essential institutions such as the ACIP.
Your Historic Legacy
Even if you somehow manage to survive to the end of Trump's second term, then you'll be known for having accomplished nothing except the uncontrolled demolition of medicine and science in America. Is that truly the legacy you want to carve into history? At the end, your greatest achievement will have been uniting an entire country in despising you.
Even worse, think of your families. Your direct superior is a lecherous creep who drove his wife to suicide after she found his little black book, rating his affairs by the explicitness of the sex acts performed. You collect a paycheck as part of an administration led by a man the majority of the country is convinced is a pedophile rapist. Do you have no shame, much less dignity? Do you truly think your God approves of what you're doing?
You can just quit. The sooner, the better.
Follow us over at Bluesky and consider subscribing! We are entirely reader supported and need your help to make a stand against the government censorship of doctors and scientists.