Lessons from the Pandemic

True Health Revealed

In this episode of True Health Revealed, Dr. Tom Rifai interviewed two nationally prominent physicians, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. David Katz, to discuss US and global lessons learned from the pandemic.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration that strongly advocated for focused population protection, particularly of the elderly, in order to avoid total population lockdown measures from harming the population, including strong advocacy for keeping schools open. Dr. Bhattacharya has been a prominent expert figure throughout the pandemic, often sacrificing his own personal interests in favor of his integrity and sincere concern for the welfare of the US and world population.

Dr. David Katz, our hybrid guest/cohost was the founding director of the Yale Griffin Prevention Research Center and a past president of American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He is also the founding president of the non-profit True Health Initiative that supports the True Health Revealed podcast. Like Dr. Bhattacharya, Dr. Katz, from the beginning of the pandemic (March 13, 2020), recommended a public policy approach that would focus on total harm minimization, called DCISEV (pronounced decisive): Directing Crisis Intervention Services to the Especially Vulnerable, including intensive focus of protecting the elderly in nursing homes.

In this episode they discuss:

How the US and world may have looked if the Great Barrington Declaration and DCISEV were the basis of pandemic management policies

The worldwide ramifications of the pandemic lockdown policies that did take place in lieu of the Great Barrington Declaration and DCISEV

The mental and physical damage from fear-based media reporting

What would’ve happened if nutrition and lifestyle based public policies (including produce trucks delivering healthy food into food deserts) were implemented from early on in the pandemic, as recommended in the American Journal of Health Promotion, June 2020

The sad degradation of respect for the previously highly regarded US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Which countries Drs. Bhattacharya and Katz believe best managed the pandemic

Misinterpretations of the vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS)

How the Federal CARES Act played a role in hospitals’ recording COVID associated deaths

Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis’ call to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya in September 2020 to help the state guide pandemic management in Florida

Dr. Rifai’s perspective on how history will judge public policies both for and against long term lockdowns, and risk-stratified protection of those at highest risk for severe COVID and death