Between Christmas and New Years, The Daily Signal is looking back at the most popular interviews from the year. Enjoy episode two of our "Best of 2023" series!

Many COVID-19 restrictions and mandates have been rolled back, but the infrastructure remains in place, “ready and waiting for the next declared public health crisis,” Dr. Aaron Kheriaty says. 

Kheriaty, a psychiatrist who directs the Bioethics and American Democracy program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, chose to speak out against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, That decision cost him his job at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine.

Kheriaty says he is concerned that the "pretext of public health and safety has proven to be a good fulcrum, a good lever to get people to do things that otherwise they would be very reluctant to do."

"It's also been an occasion for the accumulation of power, mostly by the executive branch of government," he says.

In his new book "The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State,” Kheriaty details the ways in which governments past and present have used public health crises to gain power.

Kheriaty joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss how, unless placed in check, the government will use public health orders to further its own agenda, whether about COVID-19, climate change, or abortion. 

Enjoy the show!

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