Trump nominates Jay Bhattacharya, COVID lockdown critic, as NIH director

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a health policy professor at Stanford University known for his criticism of COVID-19 lockdowns, as the director of the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya, who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration arguing against lockdown measures, would work in coordination with vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if confirmed by the Senate. Trump stated that Bhattacharya and Kennedy would restore the NIH as a “Gold Standard of Medical Research” to address America’s health challenges. However, Bhattacharya’s views on COVID-19 have been controversial, with him previously suggesting a much lower death toll from the virus compared to reality. Dr. Francis Collins, the former NIH director, has criticized Bhattacharya’s views as fringe epidemiology. Bhattacharya also holds positions at several prestigious institutions and has expressed his commitment to reforming scientific institutions in his statement regarding the nomination. In addition to Bhattacharya, Trump also named Jim O’Neill as the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under Kennedy. O’Neill has previous experience at HHS. The nominations of Bhattacharya and Kennedy are part of Trump’s efforts to prioritize public health decisions based on their views and strategies to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo credit
www.usatoday.com