I remember seeing this article in Newsweek, and thinking to myself, "This is good, alternative opinions are actually getting into regular mainstream media. Things will get better".
As a medical student and researcher, I staunchly supported the efforts of the public health authorities when it came to COVID-19. I believed that the authorities responded to the largest public health crisis of our lives with compassion, diligence, and scientific expertise. I was with them when they called for lockdowns, vaccines, and boosters.
I was wrong. We in the scientific community were wrong. And it cost lives.
But it turns out that it didn't work out so well for Kevin Bass, an MD/PhD student and author of the Newsweek article. He was fired from his job, and subject to constant harassment. Oddly, he was living and working at Texas Tech university in Lubbock, Texas. I never would have that that a university in a place like Lubbock, Texas (known for being conservative) would have persecuted someone for these views.
Here's a quote from his substack (https://kevinbass.substack.com/p/its-time-for-war)
I was dismissed from medical school at Texas Tech for criticizing the Covid response. My criticism, which landed me a high-profile op-ed in Newsweek, and a segment on Tucker Carlson, triggered a massive, daily, relentless campaign of libel conducted by thousands of doctors on Twitter—as well as by students and even former friends and colleagues (I have all the receipts)—that led the administration at my school to throw me under the bus and destroy my career to avoid what it believed was bad publicity.
After my dismissal, faculty spread even more outrageous rumors about me, including that I serially sexually harassed nurses, was arrested and thrown in jail, screamed at people, made multiple patient families uncomfortable, slept with patients, threatened faculty members, and the list goes on.
Prior to writing about Covid, I never had a single disciplinary complaint filed against me in my entire eight years at my institution. I completed my PhD and MS at this institution. After writing about Covid, however, I had 14 complaints filed in 6 months. I was subjected to Kafka Traps and Soviet-style hearings, and I have the documentation to prove it. Administrators conceded bias but were powerless to stop it because it was coming from a high level. I know that even the President was involved, including at critical junctures where I was willfully deprived of my due process rights under the Texas Education Code.
My school continues to require I call the police and have a police escort because they claim that I represent a physical threat. They refuse to provide evidence for this claim.