CBS News Host Tried to Push the Vaccine Misinformation Talking Point. It Didn't Go Well.

Director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, was invited on CBS News’ Face the Nation, where Margaret Brennan tried to press him on vaccines and health. She brought up the CDC shooting in August 2025, where a police officer was killed, to push the vaccine misinformation talking point. It was also a debate about trust in public health. Brennan essentially attacked Bhattacharya, as she could see the good doctor might undermine her narrative with ease. 

Newsbusters’ Jorge Bonilla clipped and transcribed the exchange:

WATCH: CBS's Margaret Brennan tries to run the "vaccine misinformation" talking point past Great Barrington signatory and NIH Director @DrJBhattacharya, gets COOKED

MARGARET BRENNAN: You were down in Atlanta this past week. This is one year since that horrific shooting at CDC… pic.twitter.com/rpWg8OyiWm

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 10, 2026

MARGARET BRENNAN: You were down in Atlanta this past week. This is one year since that horrific shooting at CDC headquarters.

JAY BHATTACHARYA: Yes.

BRENNAN: Officer David Rose was honored this past week. He was killed last year protecting CDC employees from a gunman. And we should note, he was a combat veteran, a United States Marine, who had just graduated five months prior from the police academy. Three kids left behind. The shooter was motivated by misinformation about the Covid vaccine. That is why he shot over 100 bullets into the windows of the CDC.

BHATTACHARYA: And, you know, I–

BRENNAN: Is enough being done to counter this kind of misinformation?

BHATTACHARYA: I mean, I should start with, I got to talk with Officer Rose's wife a few months back. One of the first things I did is I– you know, to honor him and his sacrifice in protecting the people that work at the CDC, the amazing people that work at the CDC, was we– you know, we renamed the street that leads into the CDC after him. And it was a really nice event.

I'll tell you, the thing is, I want to focus on attention on Officer Rose because I don't– I think what the shooter did was horrific. And I think that, you know, if you talk about why shooters do things, the really fundamentally–

BRENNAN: Well, his father said he was brainwashed about the Covid vaccine and thought it was making him suicidal. That's what he's– the vengeance was when he said he was going to shoot up the CDC.

BHATTACHARYA: I mean, Margaret, I mean the thing is just like, to talk about the shooter puts the emphasis on somebody who's– I mean I think we shouldn't be putting our emphasis on the shooter.

BRENNAN: No, I am on misinformation about–

BHATTACHARYA: Yes. I mean I think the key– the key thing is, there's a loss of public trust in public health that happened in part because of a lot of– frankly, even on this network, and on other networks, there was a particular single point of view put across during the Covid pandemic about how– you know, that led to things that really did cause harm to people. The school closure is probably the number one thing that left the–

BRENNAN: This is not a productive line of claims. We covered Covid in depth on this program, like no other Sunday show did.

BHATTACHARYA: I'm not blaming you specifically. What I'm saying is, you want to talk about misinformation, the kinds of decisions and sort of the public sort of face of public health during the pandemic led to many people losing trust in public health–

BRENNAN: The Trump administration officials?

BHATTACHARYA: No, I mean, I mean like Biden. So, Biden, for instance, censored me–

BRENNAN: The pandemic began under the Trump administration.

BHATTACHARYA: But during the– but during the– but during the–

BRENNAN: And we put those officials on our air.

BHATTACHARYA: Just so we're clear, the Biden administration censored me, right? They censored– they sent out direct attacks on people who disagreed on the Covid– on sort of whether the Covid vaccine stopped it-

BRENNAN: RFK Jr. called the Covid vaccine "the deadliest vaccine ever made."

BHATTACHARYA: I– no, I– you should talk to Bobby. But I can tell you what–

BRENNAN: That is misinformation. And we're not being clear about that. And I think that is dangerous, wouldn't you agree?

BHATTACHARYA: People lost their jobs, Margaret, because the Biden administration censored people and said, look, you can't even talk about the Covid vaccine harms.

BRENNAN: We're talking about a shooting.

BHATTACHARYA: Yes, and I'm talking about why you have the kind of distrust that's led to the kind of– sort of problems that you're talking– were talking about earlier in public health. That distrust was not caused by President Trump. And it wasn't caused by Bobby. It was caused by a lot of sort of really fundamentally–

BRENNAN: Misinformation–

BHATTACHARYA: Yes, but often spread by the government itself regarding natural immunity, closing of schools, closures of mask mandates. People lost their jobs because of these vaccine mandates that didn't make any public health sense.

So, if you want to talk about public trust, you have to embrace that fully, right? You can't just talk about it in a narrow, political way.

BRENNAN: I'm talking about a shooting at the CDC and an officer you said you just went to honor.

BHATTACHARYA: Yes.

BRENNAN: That's what I was talking about. You're talking about something else entirely.

BHATTACHARYA: No, no, you're trying– you're talking about, Margaret -

BRENNAN: I also asked you about shoring up public health in vaccines.

BHATTACHARYA: Margaret, just to be blunt, you're– what you're talking about is– what you're talking about is, you're trying to blame the shooting on Bobby.

BRENNAN: No, I'm not. I'm reading you what his father (ph) said.

BHATTACHARYA: No, what you're reading– what you're– what you're saying– what you're implying is that somehow the lack of public trust, right? So–

BRENNAN: I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about your visit.

BHATTACHARYA: Yes, and my visit–

BRENNAN: And is enough being done?

BHATTACHARYA: And I– this was a year– I think it's really unfortunate, Margaret.

[…]

Margaret Brennan tries to run the same playbook on @DrJBhattacharya that Dana Bash ran last week on RFK Jr; avoiding any honest discussion of 2020 when talking about the crisis of confidence in public health.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Should parents trust that they can go vaccinate… pic.twitter.com/OL9C6KZMkk

— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) August 10, 2026

MARGARET BRENNAN: Should parents trust that they can go vaccinate their kids when their doctor tells them to do so for them to go back to school?

JAY BHATTACHARYA: Yeah, I think– I think that the– that parents, for most kids, especially for the measles vaccines, the DTP, all the standard childhood vaccines, it's very important that parents vaccinate their kids. As far as can- they feel confident sending them back to school? You know, I just– just to push back some. It was a tremendous mistake to cause parents to fear that– about sending their kids to school during the Covid pandemic. The kids were better off in school. We shouldn't be scaring the public–

BRENNAN: I'm talking about what people do now. It's August. About to be September. Kids are going back to school. I'm not talking about 2020. I'm talking about 2026.

BHATTACHARYA: Yes, but, Margaret, you're talking about the– you're talking about– we're talking about the why people have–

BRENNAN: Clarity from the federal government and the top health official.

BHATTACHARYA: Yes, OK, just so we're clear. If you want clarity, let me give you some clarity.

BRENNAN: Please.

BHATTACHARYA: The reason why you have this problem in public trust is because what happened in 2020 has not yet been addressed. To be–

BRENNAN: Can these parents trust you and the recommendation that they should go get their kids vaccinated to go back to school?

BHATTACHARYA: Yes. I mean, I think– I mean the parents, should they trust me? I mean I'm giving my recommendation. I vaccinated my kids. I don't think that it is a– it's– I think if you want to protect your kids from these sort of parental diseases, yes, you should vaccinate your kids. But it is even more important that these kids go to school. That they, in no way, shape, or form should this show or any other show like it perpetuate the idea that sending their kids to school is worse because there are going to be some health risks there when it's just not true, right?

If you want to protect your kids from those preventable diseases, vaccinate your kids. I've been very, very clear about that. But it is a– it is a mistake, and it contributes to the lack of public trust if you sort of fearmonger around, oh, if you send your kids to school, well, you might be around unvaccinated kids. That's a tremendous mistake, right? If you vaccinate your kids, you can protect your kids from those risks, whatever they are.

And in any case, it's better to send the kids to school, because that's how you keep kids healthy.

BRENNAN: Yes. We want to send our kids to school.

BHATTACHARYA: I'm not– but now addressing what happened in 2020 is part of that.

BRENNAN: OK.

BHATTACHARYA: If you want to say why there's this loss of public trust, you have to really wrap your arms around that.

BRENNAN: But you trust the science and the health workers and the vaccines now is what I understand you were saying. And so that is the message that I think we can–

BHATTACHARYA: I mean, trust the science. I mean I've looked at the scientific evidence and there's lots– I mean I personally have made decisions for my family around those lines too.

BRENNAN: OK.

BHATTACHARYA: So, yes.

BRENNAN: That's good to know. Thank you. We're going to leave it there, because I know we're running out of time. We'll be back in a moment.

It’s just sad at this point. First, this is what CNN’s Dana Bash tried to do with RFK Jr., and it didn’t go well either. The media really wants to bury their panic peddling during the pandemic — CNN had a kill clock for months. People who questioned the science were labeled as quacks and selfish, when that’s exactly what you should do. If you cannot accept that, you’re anti-science, which is why Democrats can’t claim that anymore. You need to subject your ideas to scrutiny. That’s part of the process. They won’t, because they know their ideas are garbage. 

Children were not the main drivers of the pandemic, even Fauci acknowledged this. In fact, his diaries dealt a blow to public trust in health experts, as he replaced logical analysis of the science behind his policy recommendations with what those who stroked his ego wanted him to say. 

It’s as if these people don’t know the whole game was exposed a few weeks ago. 

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