Trump Picks Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Lockdown Critic and Great Barrington Declaration Co-Author, as NIH Director

Nov 27, 2024, 01:56 AM

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine and health economist, to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees the nation's biomedical research with a budget of approximately $47.3 billion. Dr. Bhattacharya, who holds both an MD and a PhD in economics, was a vocal critic of COVID-19 lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates, calling the lockdowns 'the biggest public health mistake we've ever made.' He co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration advocating for targeted protection during the pandemic. Bhattacharya is expected to work alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reform the NIH and restore it to what Trump described as a 'Gold Standard of Medical Research.' His nomination follows criticism of prior NIH leadership under Dr. Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci.