# Followup on "Jay Bhattacharya at the NIH… one year on"
**URL:** https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978
**Category:** Conversation
**Tags:** Comments, Science, Society
**Created:** [August 12, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978 "2026-08-12T19:27:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Argon](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Argon)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2026, 7:27pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/1 "2026-08-12T19:27:05Z")
Continuing on an earlier observation ..
Dr. Bhattacharya bravely stood silently behind Trump as the President demonized the MMR vaccine, multiple other vaccines and the vaccine schedule that were developed to balance & optimize overall public health goals in the US. All changes prioritizing the fantasies of anti-vaccine obsessives. He also continued the false claim that COVID vaccinations increased miscarriages in other interviews.
Pace Monty Python’s Holy Grail:
> Brave Sir Robin ran away.
> Bravely ran away, away!
> When danger reared its ugly head,
> He bravely turned his tail and fled.
> Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
> And gallantly he chickened out.
> Bravely taking to his feet
> He beat a very brave retreat,
> Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!
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### Author:  [@Giltil](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Giltil)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/2 "2026-08-13T16:59:33Z")
> [@Argon](#):
>
> He also continued the false claim that COVID vaccinations increased miscarriages in other interviews.
A false claim? Not sure…
> **[Observed-to-Expected Fetal Losses Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination in...](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.18.25329352v1)**
>
> Background The clinical trials used to approve COVID-19 vaccines excluded pregnant women, and existing safety assessments of COVID-19 vaccination, particularly during early stages of pregnancy, are limited to observational studies prone to various...
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### Author:  [@AllenWitmerMiller](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/AllenWitmerMiller)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 8:10pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/3 "2026-08-13T20:10:35Z")
> [@Giltil](#):
>
> A false claim? Not sure…
My first thought is that this is–and I double checked as a second thought–a non-peer-reviewed preprint. And I don’t think it’s message got picked up much further (outside of conspiracy theory influencers and websites) because it stands in direct opposition to much larger scale and vastly superior studies. I can’t speak as someone within the field but it sounds like this stands in direct opposition to the general consensus of the broader scientific community. (And even with my very limited familiarity with the structuring of medical studies, I can see a lot of questionable methodology here.)
In a quick search I found much larger scale studies which aggregated data from over a million pregnancies. And they found no such patterns. A small observational study like this distributed outside of peer-review doesn’t impress me.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 itself definitely poses significant risks of preterm birth and various other pregnancy complications. That sounds to me like a vastly greater set of risks to be avoided.
Nobody claims that vaccines (or most any other medical intervention) comes with zero risks. Isn’t everything ultimately a risk-versus-reward ratio analysis?
From what I can tell the study compared observed versus expected fetal loss rates using a regression model trained exclusively on historical data from 2016-2018. Isn’t this a classic temporal confounding? (Is that the standard term in biostatistics? My last relevant grad course was in 1983, I think.)
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### Author:  [@Giltil](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Giltil)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/4 "2026-08-13T22:37:47Z")
> [@AllenWitmerMiller](#):
>
> I can’t speak as someone within the field but it sounds like this stands in direct opposition to the general consensus of the broader scientific community.
The history of sciences is full of examples where the general consensus of the scientific community turned out to be false.
> [@AllenWitmerMiller](#):
>
> In a quick search I found much larger scale studies which aggregated data from over a million pregnancies. And they found no such patterns
Do you have the reference ?
> [@AllenWitmerMiller](#):
>
> Meanwhile, COVID-19 itself definitely poses significant risks of preterm birth
What are the evidence for this claim?
> [@AllenWitmerMiller](#):
>
> Nobody claims that vaccines (or most any other medical intervention) comes with zero risks. Isn’t everything ultimately a risk-versus-reward ratio analysis?
Agree. But where is the benefit /risk ratio analysis of the covid vaccine for pregnant women in their first trimester?
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### Author:  [@Argon](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Argon)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/5 "2026-08-14T17:27:45Z")
> [@Giltil](#):
>
> The history of sciences is full of examples where the general consensus of the scientific community turned out to be false.
Using real data and analysis. Not unpublished preprints.
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### Author:  [@Argon](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/Argon)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/6 "2026-08-16T17:34:24Z")
Oh my. Jon Howard at “Science Based Medicine” casually discussing the time warp and alternate reality Dr. Bhattacharya prefers.
> **[“I’m Not Talking About 2020. I’m Talking About 2026.”](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/maha-maga-miss2020/)**
>
> 2020 is more than just a security blanket for MAHA/MAGA disinformation superspreaders, it's an indispensable tool for them. It is a distraction and a reflexive excuse for their current failures.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/followup-on-jay-bhattacharya-at-the-nih-one-year-on/17978/7 "2026-08-23T17:34:30Z")
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