Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, blasted California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) over COVID lockdowns that kept children out of school for a year and a half, asserting “his record on education is the worst in the country.”

“Gov. @GavinNewsom kept my kids out of their public schools for nearly a year and a half with no good scientific or epidemiological justification. His record on education is the worst in the country,” he angrily tweeted on Sunday.

Newsom implemented some of the most stringent lockdowns in the country, prompting fierce criticism from parents and education proponents.

Bhattacharya’s tweet was in response to one from the governor’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who sent out photos of herself with her husband while visiting public schools, saying, “By focusing on the whole child, these schools build on CA’s commitment to giving ALL children the best start in life.”

Gov. @GavinNewsom kept my kids out of their public schools for nearly a year and a half with no good scientific or epidemiological justification. His record on education is the worst in the country. https://t.co/4xH8uALdGG

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) February 19, 2023

The professor is a staunch critic of Newsom. He is the director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.

The Stanford University professor, physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert recently discussed the history of the “Great Barrington Declaration” which he co-authored, advocating stridently against lockdowns. During the interview, he recounted his meeting with Elon Musk at Twitter headquarters and spoke on the subject of Big Tech censorship.

(Video Credit: The Spectator)

Many on Twitter agreed with the professor’s comments regarding Newsom and his wife, calling their actions concerning COVID and lockdowns hypocritical:

He transformed education into an abject catastrophe. Except for his own kids who went to in person private school in 2020.

The nerve of @JenSiebelNewsom posting something like this.

— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) February 20, 2023

For an entire school year, California’s public schools were shut while private schools were open. Of course, Governor Newsom’s children were attending in-person private school. His hypocrisy knows no bounds.

— Daniel Kotzin (@danielkotzin) February 20, 2023

They make me so sick with how fake they both are. Every event they do is their audition for president and First Lady. They care only about power and climbing no matter who they step on and crush. Reject these people.

— Scorpius2023 (@scorpius2023) February 19, 2023

As far as comments on Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s tweet – they aren’t allowed by her unless you are mentioned in the conversation or she follows you. In other words, comments are censored.

The Newsoms send their children to a private school in Sacramento County, according to Politico. They were not subjected to the harsh lockdowns that the leftist governor mandated for public schools. His children returned to the classroom just months after the pandemic broke out.

Lockdowns in California remained in place months after most other states started easing up on them. For that, Newsom has been the subject of withering criticism.

Some students in California were still required to wear masks through March of 2022, two years after the pandemic began, according to the Daily Mail. As of February 21, California’s state of emergency which was first put into place in March 2020 has yet to formally expire. Newsom announced in October that the order would end on February 28, three years after it was implemented.

“The State of Emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state, and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it,” Newsom proclaimed at the time.

“With the operational preparedness that we’ve built up and the measures that we’ll continue to employ moving forward, California is ready to phase out this tool,” he added.

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