Trump names leading COVID skeptic Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as head of the NIH

Donald Trump has nominated prominent lockdown critic and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

On November 26, Trump released a statement expressing his excitement that “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.”

Bhattacharya was one of the earliest and most notable critics of the draconian COVID response by most governments around the world. In October 2020 he co-authored The Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the harmful lockdown policies. Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University in California and the director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging...

“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard 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!” Trump’s statement said.

“I am honored and humbled by President @realDonaldTrump’s nomination of me to be the next @NIH director,” Bhattacharya wrote on X. “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 again!”

Designated United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) RFK Jr. and tech mogul Elon Musk both congratulated Bhattacharya on his nomination on X.

The NIH is an important agency under the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), responsible for biomedical and public health research...

With Bhattacharya, Trump has nominated another well-known critic of the draconian COVID regulations to his health policy team. RFK Jr. has been picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, with a particular focus on chronic illnesses and nutrition. The president-elect picked pro-life vaccine skeptic David Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Dr. Marty Makary, a skeptic of widespread lockdowns and pediatric COVID shots, to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, he also nominated pro-vaccine Dr. Janette Neishewat to the position of Surgeon General.