The Senate on Tuesday confirmed health researcher Jay Bhatacharya as the next leader of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Bhattacharya was confirmed in 53-47 party-affiliated votes.
Bhattacharya has become a celebrity among many Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic, criticizing masking orders, school closures and other measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Bhattacharya was one of the leading authors of the great Barrington Declaration, who pushed forward the debate of “flock immunity” signed by thousands of public health experts in the second half of 2020. It will allow the virus to spread among young people at low risk, boosting immunity while providing “focused protection” to older, high-risk people.
Federal governments, including former NIH director Francis Collins and top covid advisor Anthony Forsey, have criticized the letter as dangerous and unethical.
Stanford economists and doctors say he became a pariah within the scientific facility for his views, indicating that science will run the NIH in a way that embraces science.
“Objection is the essence of science. I nurture a culture in which NIH leadership actively encourages a variety of perspectives and creates an environment where scientists, including early career scientists, can express their views respectfully.”
He takes the reins of the world's largest funder of biomedical research. NIH funds approximately $48 billion in scientific research through grants of approximately 50,000 people to over 300,000 researchers from 2,500 universities, hospitals and other institutions.
However, the agency has been shaken by actions by the Trump administration, including recent mass shootings on agency staff, grant restrictions and freezing and cutting other funding. The White House is effectively fighting a war at private universities, cutting grants by $4 billion and cutting reimbursement jobs on racial inequality and transgender care.
Bhattacharya said at the hearing that science and public health are being politicized, and that many of the public no longer trust health authorities and experts.
The NIH needs to support a science that is “replicatable, reproducible, generalizable,” Bhattacharya said. “Unfortunately, many modern biomedicine fail this basic test.”
He also pledged to follow the goal of Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy to set back his infectious disease work and instead focus on chronic disease.
“If confirmed, it means that I will make President Trump and Kennedy's Secretary of Kennedy America health again and commit the NIH to address the country's dire chronic health needs with gold standard science and innovation,” Batacharya said.
