President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his selection of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor and outspoken critic of COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates, to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Bhattacharya’s nomination comes amid a series of controversial health appointments by Trump, including anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Collaboration with Kennedy on Health Reform
Trump emphasized the collaborative efforts Bhattacharya and Kennedy will undertake to reshape U.S. public health policy.
“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,” Trump said in a statement.
Bhattacharya expressed his gratitude on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy,” he wrote.
A Controversial Figure in Public Health
Bhattacharya is best known for co-authoring the Great Barrington Declaration, a widely criticized 2020 open letter advocating for herd immunity through widespread exposure to COVID-19 among lower-risk populations while shielding vulnerable groups. Public health experts, including the World Health Organization, denounced the approach as unethical and impractical.
