PATIENT BEWARE: Aseem Malhotra, NIH Director Bhattacharya's BFF
Just Who is Influencing America's Public Health Policy?
On May 4th, Aseem Malhotra shared a selfie with National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, who has been in the news lately blaming everyone else for his failures as the head of what was once the world's leading hub for medical research. As science journalist Melody Schreiber wrote on Bluesky:
"Bhattacharya insisted that the report not 'write about rumors' because 'it spreads panic' Hours later, those very leads were confirmed."
What a triumph over government censorship! Jay would also whine that the past few months have been hard on him especially, while countless scientists who have had their careers upended or are being censored by Bhattacharya's tenure as NIH Director. Thus, Smilin' Jay needed to run away to a safe space with one of his most beloved colleagues, British cardiologist Aseem Malhotra. Aseem tweets:
"Wonderful to catch up, as awlays for an enlightening chat over lunch with my great friend [Jay Bhattacharya] in Washington DC. Definitely the right man at the right time to restire scientific integrity and evidence based public policy to the heart of medicine [fire emoji]. More to come... #MAHA"
Just who is Aseem Malhotra, and should we be concerned that NIH Director Bhattacharya considers him a "great friend?"
Peeling the Layers of a Rotted Onion
Well, for about $10-20,000 dollars, Aseem will come and speak at your "Live Event" as a "Cardiologist, Sunday Times Bestselling Author, Researcher & Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, and President of the Public Health Collaboration." Sounds legit, right? It's good that the Director of the NIH is spending time with experts with such impressive credentials...but let's dig a little deeper.
Hey, now just wait a minute! Why is this serious medical expert appearing on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' InfoWars?! Have we been bamboozled?!
From his Twitter bio, Malhotra claims he is "on a mission to save lives with REAL evidence based medicine...Tweets personal opinion, NOT medical advice." In reality, Malhotra is yet another wannabe celebrity who has exploited a once-in-a-century pandemic disaster to cash in, regardless of who suffers as a result. He gleefully gives "medical advice" on social media, no matter how uninformed his "personal opinion" is. Let's review some of these... "opinions."
Aseem Malhotra has long exploited social media and the COVID-19 pandemic to promote himself in the hopes of becoming a household name. He first got a taste of the forbidden fruit of contrarian quackery by selling a book titled "The 21-Day Immunity Plan," in which he claimed a 3-week fad diet would confer protection against COVID-19. This was debunked by Dr. David Gorksi in 2020.
Later on, he would assign blame for his father's death from cardiac arrest to the COVID-19 vaccine. This would be the spark that would rocket him to stardom in the anti-vaccine echo chamber, in Malhotra's hopes of becoming a household name.
In Aseem's own words: "First step was hitting mainstream news Australia (1.4 million views Sky News). Now invited to speak and meet senators in the Australian parliament. The great global awakening to Big Pharma psycopathic tyranny continues. Let's do this *fist emojis*"
For the past several months following the 2024 US election, Malhotra has been lobbying for a role in the Trump Administration, which John Bye (_johnbye) has followed extensively via Twitter. On an April 19th, 2025 appearance on InfoWars, Malhotra now claims he is a "Top Medical Advisor to HHS Secretary RFK Jr." Would any reporter like to ask NIH Director Bhattacharya to clarify his "great friend's" employment status in the federal government?
Aseem has met with Jay Bhattacharya in the past when promoting his anti-vax propaganda film: "Great to catch up with my good friend [Jay Bhattacharya] ahead of Stanford screening of First Do No Pharm tomorrow. So much to discuss but one thing is for sure, if Jay was in charge of public health advice during the pandemic instead of Fauci we'd be in a much healthier position." How strange, that this British cardiologist is blaming Fauci for public health guidance coming out of London, and that Stanford University yet again gave a platform to anti-vaccine propaganda after an embarrassment of a "Pandemic Policy" conference.
So, what does Malhotra actually believe when it comes to COVID-19?
Aseem Malhotra's Absurd COVID-19 Proclamations
Malhotra argues that there was no COVID-19 pandemic, but instead "A pandemic of fear was deliberately created to for the purpose of compliance. Compliance with lockdowns, face masks & with a jab which has the worst efficacy & most horrific side effects of any pharma intervention in the history of medicine. If we don't wake up now we never will"
Malhotra has previously compared "anti-vaxxer" to the n-word: "We need to stop using the term 'anti-vaxxer' and treat it in the same way as using racist terminology. It's derogatory, it's divisive and is used by Big Pharma and bent scientists to deflect from their own fraud & research misconduct."
Aseem has doubled down since on this ridiculous claim that "anti-vaxxer" is the equivalent of a racial slur: "If you're called an 'anti-vaxxer' (an offensive term that should be treated like using racist language) ask them 3 questions. Why are you a corruption denier? Why are you giving the benefit of the doubt to the pyschopathic entity that is Big Pharma? What does that make you?" (typo his)
Malhotra also thinks PPE "is a complete waste of time and only exacerbates fear and anxiety." Of course, no mention of the fear and anxiety caused by finding out that you've been disabled by a "mild" bout with COVID-19 and have lost your ability to work and pay bills as a result. Aseem blames "the jab" for this. Viruses? Harmless. Vaccines? Deadly!
Malhotra also makes the outlandish claim, "The masks don't work, they just make you worse but I know I'll see your face again" when sharing a fraudulent paper claiming PPE causes "chronic carbon dioxide exposure." This was an open-access paper that was not subject to peer review, authored by five anti-vaccine German cranks, including a veterinarian. Just what would a veterinarian know about PPE?
Y’know…I’m starting to think Assem Malhotra isn’t concerned much with this “evidence-based medicine” business at all! Yet, this hasn’t stopped him from smearing his face across the media in the pursuit of wealth and fame.
Aseem Malhotra's Tour Across the COVID Contrarian Media Sphere
Aseem Malhotra would frequently appear in the tabloid "Daily Mail," a frequent source for unscientific propaganda which claimed PPE "may raise risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline," that N95s "may expose wearers to dangerous level of toxic compounds linked to seizures and cancer," and most infamously in 2022 that the "Omicron outbreak could be over in just two weeks."
Malhotra would also appear on right-wing propaganda channel GB News, claiming "Re-analysis of mRNA vaccine data suggests one serious side effect is Psychosis. Many people who took the jab may be suffering from 'delusion of benefit' says cardiologist. Overwhelming evidence to be presented in [South African] court that jab is 'not safe & NOT effective.'"
Needless to say, there is no evidence for claims that the vaccine causes psychosis. However, there is a growing body of evidence showing COVID-19's impacts on the brain. This fact conflicts with Aseem's narrative, so he conceals this from his audience.
Aseem Malhotra has also appeared on Russell Brand’s show to spew anti-vaccine propaganda and cheerlead for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - except Brand was recently charged with rape and sexual assault, very serious charges. This is the sort of upstanding moral character that Aseem associates with, in his pursuit of becoming a household name, only showing the levels of depravity he's willing to sink to.
Aseem Malhotra also managed to lobby his way onto Joe Rogan's podcast to promote himself and fearmonger about the COVID-19 vaccine, joining a long roster of anti-vaccine cranks that have exploited Rogan's platform. There is no level of depravity that Malhotra is above when it comes to spreading his anti-vaccine propaganda.
Aseem Malhotra Debunked
Aseem Malhotra became an award-winning cardiologist in 2023, when he won The Rusty Razor for "spreading Covid vaccine misinformation," according to The Skeptic. Michael Marshall writes:
“In 2022, Dr Malhotra released a paper claiming that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines posed a serious risk to cardiovascular health and that the vaccines were “at best a reckless gamble”. The paper was published in the Journal of Insulin Resistance – where Dr Malhotra sits on the editorial board…Dr Malhotra has been an incredibly prolific promoter of pseudoscience throughout the pandemic, including spreading the false notion that vaccines are responsible for thousands of excess deaths. Dr Malhotra’s media career has given him a very large platform, from which he spreads misinformation that undermines confidence in a health intervention that has saved the lives of countless people across the world. In doing so, he stokes the flames of conspiracy, paranoia and mistrust of medical consensus.”
Incredibly well said, Michael! Sadly, Malhotra did not quietly retire in shame from his disgusting, exploitative antics.
Remember the terrible "First Do No Pharm" propaganda film Aseem Malhotra produced? Dr. Frank Han did a thorough dismantling of this slop on his own website, in which he writes:
“As is common in the health influencer ecosystem, their talking points start with kernels of truth which morph into outright misrepresentations, lies, lack of understanding of the topic they are opining on, or failure to disclose significant financial conflicts of interest.”
It’s well worth reading the entire review to see just how dishonest Malhotra is about issues he claims to be an expert on. Thanks, Dr. Han!
Aseem Malhotra's claim that COVID vaccines cause heart attacks was debunked time and time again by actual experts, including by Dr. Jonathan Laxton on Science Based Medicine. He writes:
“Malhotra has brought one primary skill to the anti-vax community: prolific self-promotion. This characteristic has resulted in several incidents where official organisations had to correct grandiose claims by Malhotra and reaffirm that they do not support his views…I want to address his primary claim, which he also recently pushed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast: COVID-19 mRNA vaccines cause ischaemic heart disease (heart attacks and strokes)…Malhotra had included in this claim the death of a 15-year-old girl who died from complications of COVID-19 before she received any vaccine doses.”
I also recommend reading Laxton’s piece in its entirety.
Just like his hero Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, it seems Aseem Malhotra also enjoys exploiting pediatric deaths and falsely blaming them on the COVID-19 vaccine. This is the sort of upstanding moral character that Jay Bhattacharya enjoys spending his lunchtime with - which certainly brings Jay Bhattacharya’s ability to make scientific decisions into question.
Malhotra has never apologized for his senseless fearmongering about a lifesaving vaccine, nor acknowledged how his claims have been rigorously debunked in extensive detail. This is the same narcissistic dishonesty that Jay Bhattacharya has practiced in the past 5 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's not surprising that these two quacks are "great friends."
Jay Bhattacharya’s Choice of Friends
Instead of the actual scientists are being censored and fired en masse, Jay Bhattacharya prefers to spend his leisure time consulting with fellow social media grifters that personally profit from fearmongering about lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines - while upholding the dangerous myth that SARS-CoV-2 is a harmless and benevolent virus, even after it's killed and disabled countless millions.
This is not science, nor medicine, and certainly isn't based on any real evidence. Jay Bhattacharya should own up to the undeniable reality that he is clearly unqualified to serve as NIH Director and tender his resignation alongside a public apology to the American public. The Democrats need to plan for a Congressional inquiry into just how much damage Bhattacharya has done and how we may possibly rebuild.
Zeynep Tufekci, Ashish Jha, and Leana Wen should all make public apologies for misleading the American public about Bhattacharya's qualifications, when his loyalty is clearly to anti-vaccine sensationalism over science and medicine. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson should retract their "Abundance" tripe which quotes Jay Bhattacharya favorably when talking about the National Institute of Health that he has now compromised.
Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee of Princeton should also issue a public apology for public endorsing an anti-vaccine saboteur to lead the National Institute of Health. None of these people were correct about Jay and the damage he has done to science.
Every last one of you credentialed public figures was completely, utterly wrong endorsing a brazen anti-vaccine social media grifter, who censors actual scientists and befriends fellow anti-vaccine grifters. Don't you have any shame for such a ridiculous misstep, completely destroying whatever credibility you once had?
EDIT - UPDATE: As of May 14th, Aseem Malhotra has now joined the federal government as “Chief Medical Advisor” to anti-vax scam artist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - who also falsely blamed deaths on the COVID-19 vaccine with zero evidence.
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