President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to take over as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Announcing the new appointment, Trump wrote in a statement: “Together Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to the gold standard of medical research as they address the root causes of America’s greatest health challenges and their Let’s examine solutions, including our chronic disease crisis. Together, we’ll work hard to make America healthy again.
Bhattacharya, a health researcher at Stanford University, is known for criticizing widespread lockdowns when COVID-19 made its rounds in the US. NPR.
They co-authored the “Great Barrington Declaration”, an outspoken statement opposing widespread lockdowns and calling for a focus on vulnerable groups such as the elderly.
His nomination requires Senate confirmation, and if he gets it, he will take charge of an institution with more than 18,000 employees and more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 academic institutions. Fund nearly $48 billion in scientific research through more than 50,000 grants.
It is clear that Bhattacharya will hold significant power and influence the future of medical science. His nomination has been condemned by several public health experts, including Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
“I don’t think Jay Bhattacharya belongs anywhere near NIH, much less in the director’s office,” he said.
“It would be absolutely devastating to the health and well-being of the American people and indeed the world,” he added.
The NIH is also under threat from Trump because he proposed cuts to the agency’s budget during his first term in the White House. It faced fierce opposition during the COVID pandemic from some Republicans and long-serving NIH officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, who were NIH directors from 2009 to 2021.