President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a health policy professor and economist at Stanford University, as the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Bhattacharya is known for his criticism of COVID-19 lockdowns and co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued against lockdown measures during the pandemic. Trump also nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Both nominations are subject to Senate confirmation.
If confirmed, Bhattacharya would take over the NIH, which has a $47.7 billion budget and 27 different institutes and centers. In the Great Barrington Declaration, Bhattacharya and others argued for achieving herd immunity by allowing the virus to spread naturally in younger Americans while older Americans take protective measures.
Dr. Francis Collins, former NIH director, criticized the Great Barrington Declaration as “a fringe component of epidemiology” that fits certain political views. Bhattacharya is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research and a senior fellow at Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
In response to his nomination, Bhattacharya said he is “honored and humbled” and aims to reform American scientific institutions to regain trust and improve public health. Trump also named Jim O’Neill as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services under Kennedy, who previously worked at HHS.
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