Who is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya? Trump’s pick to lead the NIH faces Senate confirmation hearing
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who opposed Covid lockdowns, is set to appear at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday for his nomination by President Donald Trump to lead the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, whose opposition to Covid lockdowns made him a polarizing figure during the pandemic, is set to appear at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday to lead the National Institutes of Health.
As director, Bhattacharya would oversee an agency with a nearly $50 billion budget that’s set to undergo drastic changes, with the Trump administration pushing for job cuts across the federal government and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looking to shift the agency’s focus away from infectious disease research and toward chronic diseases.
The NIH is made up of 27 research institutes, each focused on their own areas, including cancer, infectious diseases and mental health.
In February, the administration suspended NIH reviews of new grant applications, preventing it from funding new research. The administration is also in a legal battle over an NIH policy that reduced indirect funding to universities — a move, experts say, that could stall progress for developing lifesaving treatments.
Bhattacharya himself is also pushing for reforms, including taking on so-called cancel culture by linking a university’s likelihood of receiving research grants to some measure of “academic freedom” on their campuses, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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