That fireside chat with Jay Bhattacharya: a view from across the pond

On Friday I attended (virtually) a workshop organised by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine on Enhancing Scientific Integrity: Progress and Opportunities in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.On social media, the workshop attracted a lot of critical commentary, mainly because it included a "fireside chat" with Jay Bhattacharya, who is currently the Director of the National Institutes of Health, and acting Director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. The chat was hosted by Emily Oster. As a Brit I had not come across her before; she has had a distinguished career in health economics and is the author of popular books, but is controversial for questioning school shut-downs during COVID, and for questioning the use of COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Numerous commentators on BlueSky questioned the decision to include the fireside chat on the programme, arguing that it gave a platform to Bhattacharya, one of the authors of the Great Barrington…