The 2026 Disinvitation Dinner Speaker: National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya
When the Buckley Institute expresses concern about the one-sided ideological orthodoxy at Yale, we point to the negative impact on the university and its members. Students come to New Haven to hear challenging ideas after all, not to be force-fed the same ideology in class after class.
But, on occasion, the danger of censorship extends well beyond the Yale mission or the quality of the Yale education. Sometimes, that unwillingness to hear opposing viewpoints actually costs lives.
There are few who understand this better than this year’s Disinvitation Dinner speaker, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.
Bhattacharya currently serves as the 18th overall and first Indian American director of the NIH, the nation’s medical research agency. Bhattacharya’s U.S. Senate confirmation in March 2025 followed a decades-long career as a renowned doctor, researcher, health economist, and professor at Stanford University’s medical school.
Notwithstanding his stellar credentials, Bhattacharya found himself at the wrong end of the censor’s pen when his voice mattered most.
In October 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, Bhattacharya joined with two other respected epidemiologists to publish the Great Barrington Declaration. In the short statement of principles, Bhattacharya and his colleagues argued that draconian lockdowns were harmful to public health and the economy. Instead, the strictest COVID measures should be targeted to the most vulnerable, leaving children and young people to live as normally as they felt comfortable.
The backlash to Bhattacharya’s Great Barrington Declaration was swift. Then-NIH Director Francis Collins called for a “quick and devastating published take down of its premise.” Twitter added Bhattacharya to its “blacklist,” Facebook deleted the Great Barrington Declaration Facebook page, and Google suppressed the Declaration website, part of censorship efforts coordinated with or following pressure from the federal government.
Bhattacharya’s story shows how censorship can actually cost human lives. And not only that, Bhattacharya demonstrates that those who stand up for what’s right, and refuse to give up the fight, can win in the long run.
Our over 820 Buckley Fellows face the same challenge Bhattacharya faced in October 2020 every day. As they progress through their time at Yale, students with dissenting perspectives consider whether to risk their social lives, grades, and future careers to challenge prevailing assumptions. Even turning to Buckley to hear debates on gender, speakers like Ben Shapiro on the campus reaction to October 7, and the country’s top thinkers on the future of conservatism is no simple task.
Our Tenth Annual Disinvitation Dinner celebrates those students who take a risk for what they believe. The gala event brings together Buckley Fellows who challenge the campus orthodoxy and the people who make our efforts to support them possible. And it highlights speakers like NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya who exemplify the rewards for standing up for what’s right.
We look forward to a wonderful evening celebrating free speech and those who sacrifice themselves to defend it.
Save the date and stay tuned for more details!