Nov 30, 2024 12:59 AM
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Trump picks Jay Bhattacharya, Covid lockdown critic who backed COVID herd immunity, to lead National Institutes of Health
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4yxmmg1zo
INTRO: US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a leading Covid lockdown sceptic Jay Bhattacharya to be the next director of a key US public health agency. Trump said he had selected the Stanford University-trained physician and economist to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s biggest government-funded biomedical research entity.
Bhattacharya became the face during the pandemic of a fiercely disputed open letter - known as the Great Barrington Declaration - that opposed widespread lockdowns. Tuesday's nomination rounds out Trump’s top public health team. He has already unveiled all 15 posts for his cabinet as he prepares to take office on 20 January.
Earlier this month Trump announced he wanted former rival Robert Kennedy Jr to run the US health department. Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism has alarmed the medical community, though his calls for stricter regulation of food ingredients have won praise.
In a statement Trump said Bhattacharya would work with Kennedy to "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".
Bhattacharya posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he was "humbled" to be picked. "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!" he wrote.
On Tuesday the president-elect also nominated Jim O’Neill - a former federal health official and close ally of conservative donor Peter Thiel - as deputy secretary of the health department... (MORE - details)
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The Washington Post (excerpt, 2 weeks ago): When three academics in October 2020 insisted it was time to roll back coronavirus lockdowns — writing an open letter known as the Great Barrington Declaration that attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures — public health leaders rebuked their proposal as premature. Francis S. Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health, privately dismissed the authors as “fringe” experts and called for a “take down” of their suggestions to reopen schools and businesses, according to emails subsequently released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Now, one of the authors of that declaration — Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and economist [...is poised for the...] top government health role...
[...] The rise of Bhattacharya — from being scorned by the nation’s NIH director to possibly occupying his office four years later — reflects how the backlash to coronavirus policies has helped reshape conservative politics and elevate new voices. While Collins and other public health experts maintain that the Great Barrington Declaration’s ideas were rash and would have put vulnerable people at risk, many Americans have come to believe that school shutdowns and other pandemic-related policies lasted too long.
Bhattacharya, who has said he was a victim of what felt like a “propaganda attack” led by public health experts after the Great Barrington Declaration, has testified in Congress, met with lawmakers in both parties, and offered advice to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® and other leaders navigating the pandemic. Republicans have hailed him as a truth-teller, contrasting the Stanford physician with government officials whom they blame for an overly stringent response to the health crisis.
“He is respected within the medical community and would ensure that public health returns to science-based solutions — not bureaucratic failed practices,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the House panel investigating the coronavirus response, said in a statement about Bhattacharya’s candidacy for a government role.
Bhattacharya has also won support from Trump allies and power brokers such as Kennedy, who has called for major changes to federal health agencies in the coming administration; Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who has helped shape GOP politics during the past decade; and Elon Musk, who has said Bhattacharya was wrongly suppressed by Twitter executives before Musk bought the social media service and overhauled it. His academic mentors include Alan Garber, now president of Harvard University. His media cheerleaders include popular podcaster Joe Rogan.
But his stances — and alliances — have also alienated him from many public health professionals, including on Bhattacharya’s own college campus.
“We need to have an honest conversation about how a handful of prominent contrarian academics backed by corporate interests continue to tank evidence-backed policy, including COVID-19 protections,” Mallory Harris, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland who received her PhD in biology from Stanford this year, wrote last month in the Stanford Daily, the university’s student newspaper.
Harris, who led a Stanford student group focused on combating scientific misinformation, said in an interview that she believed Bhattacharya’s supporters, who include libertarian and conservative think tanks, were pushing policies that favored business interests rather than public health — one reason she is opposed to his candidacy for a government role... (MORE - details)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg4yxmmg1zo
INTRO: US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a leading Covid lockdown sceptic Jay Bhattacharya to be the next director of a key US public health agency. Trump said he had selected the Stanford University-trained physician and economist to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s biggest government-funded biomedical research entity.
Bhattacharya became the face during the pandemic of a fiercely disputed open letter - known as the Great Barrington Declaration - that opposed widespread lockdowns. Tuesday's nomination rounds out Trump’s top public health team. He has already unveiled all 15 posts for his cabinet as he prepares to take office on 20 January.
Earlier this month Trump announced he wanted former rival Robert Kennedy Jr to run the US health department. Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism has alarmed the medical community, though his calls for stricter regulation of food ingredients have won praise.
In a statement Trump said Bhattacharya would work with Kennedy to "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".
Bhattacharya posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he was "humbled" to be picked. "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!" he wrote.
On Tuesday the president-elect also nominated Jim O’Neill - a former federal health official and close ally of conservative donor Peter Thiel - as deputy secretary of the health department... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Washington Post (excerpt, 2 weeks ago): When three academics in October 2020 insisted it was time to roll back coronavirus lockdowns — writing an open letter known as the Great Barrington Declaration that attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures — public health leaders rebuked their proposal as premature. Francis S. Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health, privately dismissed the authors as “fringe” experts and called for a “take down” of their suggestions to reopen schools and businesses, according to emails subsequently released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Now, one of the authors of that declaration — Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and economist [...is poised for the...] top government health role...
[...] The rise of Bhattacharya — from being scorned by the nation’s NIH director to possibly occupying his office four years later — reflects how the backlash to coronavirus policies has helped reshape conservative politics and elevate new voices. While Collins and other public health experts maintain that the Great Barrington Declaration’s ideas were rash and would have put vulnerable people at risk, many Americans have come to believe that school shutdowns and other pandemic-related policies lasted too long.
Bhattacharya, who has said he was a victim of what felt like a “propaganda attack” led by public health experts after the Great Barrington Declaration, has testified in Congress, met with lawmakers in both parties, and offered advice to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® and other leaders navigating the pandemic. Republicans have hailed him as a truth-teller, contrasting the Stanford physician with government officials whom they blame for an overly stringent response to the health crisis.
“He is respected within the medical community and would ensure that public health returns to science-based solutions — not bureaucratic failed practices,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the House panel investigating the coronavirus response, said in a statement about Bhattacharya’s candidacy for a government role.
Bhattacharya has also won support from Trump allies and power brokers such as Kennedy, who has called for major changes to federal health agencies in the coming administration; Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who has helped shape GOP politics during the past decade; and Elon Musk, who has said Bhattacharya was wrongly suppressed by Twitter executives before Musk bought the social media service and overhauled it. His academic mentors include Alan Garber, now president of Harvard University. His media cheerleaders include popular podcaster Joe Rogan.
But his stances — and alliances — have also alienated him from many public health professionals, including on Bhattacharya’s own college campus.
“We need to have an honest conversation about how a handful of prominent contrarian academics backed by corporate interests continue to tank evidence-backed policy, including COVID-19 protections,” Mallory Harris, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland who received her PhD in biology from Stanford this year, wrote last month in the Stanford Daily, the university’s student newspaper.
Harris, who led a Stanford student group focused on combating scientific misinformation, said in an interview that she believed Bhattacharya’s supporters, who include libertarian and conservative think tanks, were pushing policies that favored business interests rather than public health — one reason she is opposed to his candidacy for a government role... (MORE - details)