Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who was an outspoken critic of measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, gained Senate confirmation to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a vote of 53–47 on March 25.
Bhattacharya is aligned on multiple issues with his new boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including addressing the nation’s chronic disease epidemic.
A physician and former Stanford University professor, Bhattacharya first drew public attention in 2020 for his criticism of COVID-19-era interventions such as mask mandates, lockdowns, and school closures.
In their Great Barrington Declaration, Bhattacharya and others argued for “focused protection” of vulnerable people while allowing low-risk groups to resume normal activities.
He later sued the government, alleging that it pressured social media companies to censor his views.
One of the 13 agencies managed by HHS, the NIH is the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world. It funds around $50 billion in scientific research via grants to hundreds of thousands of researchers at academic institutions and hospitals.
It has a staff of more than 25,000.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, offered praise for Bhattacharya and Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s nominee to lead the FDA earlier this month at their confirmation hearings.
“We need public health leaders committed to transparency and finding unbiased solutions to Americans’ most challenging health problems. Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Makary have demonstrated that they are ready to take on this responsibility,” said Cassidy, who is also a physician.
Cassidy added that Bhattacharya, if confirmed, “is committed to promoting free and open debate” at the NIH and has “discussed modernizing the NIH, empowering scientists to find the next life-saving medical breakthrough.”
Trump nominated Bhattacharya in November 2024 to lead NIH.
During the nominee’s confirmation hearing earlier this month, Cassidy opened the session by pointing to what he called a widespread loss of trust in public health and scientific institutions.
Bhattacharya said he has seen “tremendous distrust in medicine and science coming out of the pandemic.”
The NIH, located in Bethesda, Maryland, includes 27 institutes focused on various aspects of health, including the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Dr. Anthony Fauci headed up.
Bhattacharya said a key to restoring trust is to make NIH research more rigorous.
“NIH-supported science should be replicable, reproducible, and generalizable,” he said, recalling a recent research integrity scandal within the agency that called into question the validity of some studies on Alzheimer’s disease.
“NIH can and must solve the crisis of scientific data reliability.”
At the March 5 confirmation hearing, Cassidy said that NIH research grants are too narrowly concentrated on favored viewpoints and subject areas.
Bhattacharya said he would change that.
“NIH must recommit to its mission to fund the most innovative biomedical research agenda possible to improve American health,” he said.
That means funding more cutting-edge research that might produce a major discovery rather than incremental research building on already established ideas.
Bhattacharya said he also intends to reorient the agency’s work to “focus on research that solves the American chronic disease crisis.”
Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) questioned Bhattacharya during his confirmation hearing about his support for changes already implemented at the NIH by the Trump administration.
“We’ve had grant freezes, pauses on advisory meetings, pauses on clinical trials, mass firings being carried out,” Murray said.
Both senators inquired if the nominee would reverse any of those actions, which Murray contested have threatened to upend the treatment of childhood cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and women’s health issues.
“Do you support the recent researcher firings and grant freezes that have been implemented by Trump and DOGE?” Murray asked.
“I was not involved in those decisions,” Bhattacharya responded.
Baldwin later said: “This administration has halted funding for so far 14 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers. Do you agree with that decision?”
Bhattacharya responded, “I don’t have access to that information from outside.”
Bhattacharya consistently explained that he had no intention of cutting staff at the agency and was determined to see that it has the resources needed for its mission, which he defined as “to do research to make America healthy.”
