President-elect Donald Trump has decided to nominate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as the next director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Announcing the new appointment, Trump wrote in a statement: “Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore NIH to the Gold Standard of Medical Research as they address the underlying causes and solutions to America’s greatest health challenges, including of chronic disease. and Disease, they will work hard to make America healthy again!”
A health researcher at Stanford University, Bhattacharya is widely known for his opposition to lockdowns when COVID-19 hit the US, according to NPR.
He authored the “Great Barrington Declaration,” an open statement of opposition to extended lockdowns and called for focused protections for vulnerable groups such as the elderly.
His nomination requires Senate confirmation, and if he wins it, he will take over an institution that has more than 18,000 employees and funds nearly $48 billion in scientific research through more than 50,000 grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 educational institutions.
It is clear that Bhattacharya will have considerable power and could influence the future of medical science. His candidacy has been denounced by several public health experts, including virologist Angela Rasmussen at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
“I don’t think Jay Bhattacharya belongs anywhere near NIH, let alone in the director’s office,” he said.
“This would be absolutely devastating to the health and well-being of the American public and indeed the world,” he added.
The NIH is also threatened by Trump as during his first term in the White House he had proposed cutting the agency’s budget. He also faced strong backlash during the COVID pandemic from some Republicans to longtime NIH officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, who served as NIH director from 2009 to 2021.
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