Jay Bhattacharya Indian-American named Trump’s pick for top US health institute | World News
US President-elect Donald Trump has selected Indian-American scientist Jay Bhattacharya, a vocal critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates, to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the country’s top health research and funding institutions.
Trump in a statement released on Tuesday said, Bhattacharya will collaborate closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
This appointment marks a significant milestone, as Bhattacharya becomes the first Indian-American to be nominated by Trump for a senior administrative position.
“I am thrilled to nominate Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bhattacharya will work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to direct the Nation’s Medical Research and to make important discoveries that will improve Health, and save lives,” Trump posted on X.
“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,” he added.
Who is Jay Bhattacharya?
- Jay Bhattacharya, 56, is a professor of Health Policy at Stanford University and a prominent voice in public health policy debates.
- A Stanford graduate with both an MD and PhD in Economics, Bhattacharya has published extensively in various academic journals spanning Economics, Statistics, Legal, Medical, Public Health, and Health Policy sectors, according to Trump.
- Bhattacharya is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and Freeman Spogli Institute.
- Bhattacharya, a prominent academic and one of three co-authors of the
Great Barrington Declaration , an October 2020 open letter arguing that lockdowns caused significant and lasting harm. - As director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, Bhattacharya’s research centers on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, exploring the impact of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economic factors.
- Bhattacharya’s views on public health policies, particularly vaccine mandates, have sparked controversy. He has criticised mandates as eroding public trust and was a plaintiff in Murthy v. Missouri, a Supreme Court case challenging federal suppression of conservative views on social media.
- Although the court ruled in favor of the Biden administration, Bhattacharya’s stance gained attention, especially after Elon Musk invited him to Twitter’s (now X) headquarters in 2022 to investigate how his views were suppressed on the platform.
- Recently, he has criticised scientists moving from X to the alternative platform Bluesky, calling it “their own little echo chamber.”
Trump’s announcement included Jim O’Neill’s nomination as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, to collaborate with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During his previous role as principal associate deputy secretary of HHS, O’Neill spearheaded FDA reforms, particularly in Food Safety Regulations and implemented the FDA Amendments Act, enhancing Drug and Medical Device Safety protocols.
Previously, Trump appointed Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy alongside Tesla’s Elon Musk to lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency.
