US President-elect Donald Trump picked Stanford academic and US Covid policy critic Jay Bhattacharya as the Director of the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday.
An official statement from Trump read, “I am thrilled to nominate Jay Bhattacharya, Md, PhD, to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bhattacharya will work in coordination with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to direct the Nation’s Medical Research, and to make important discoveries that will improve Health, and save lives.
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease. Together they will work hard to Make America Healthy Again!”.
🚨 NEW: President Trump announces the nomination of @DrJBhattacharya to Director of the National Institutes of Health. pic.twitter.com/gAweeO8jBC
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 27, 2024
Bhattacharya, an economist from Kolkata with medical studies at Stanford University, was a critic of US COVID policy. He will now lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary US public funder of medical research, overseeing a budget of $47.3 billion.
Taking to X, Bhattacharya wrote this team would “reform American scientific institutions” to make the country healthy again.
“I am honored and humbled by President Donald Trump’s nomination of me to be the next National Institutes of Health director. We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy again!” he wrote.
I am honored and humbled by President @realDonaldTrump‘s nomination of me to be the next @NIH director. We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy again! https://t.co/FrLmYznhfw
— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) November 27, 2024
Who is Jay Bhattacharya?
Together with two other scholars, Bhattacharya co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for resuming normal life for those not at high risk of the virus.
He later sued the government, alleging it pressured social media platforms to censor his views.
Bhattacharya graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1997 and earned his PhD in economics from Stanford in 2000, as stated in his resume. Dr. Bhattacharya’s recent research focuses on the epidemiology of Covid-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic.
Dr Jay Bhattacharya has published 135 articles in top peer-reviewed scientific journals in medicine, economics, health policy, epidemiology, statistics, law, and public health among other fields.
During the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Trump’s coronavirus task force, faced frequent Republican criticism for contradicting Trump’s policies and recommendations, leading to calls for his dismissal.
