Trump names nominee to lead NIH, again picking a critic of federal health policy

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health, choosing another critic of federal health leaders to a top post.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford University, to lead the National Institutes of Health.

Bhattacharya, MD, a professor of health policy at Stanford University, spoke out against the COVID-19 lockdowns. He also suggested early in the pandemic that generally healthy people should build immunity to COVID-19, while efforts should focus on protecting vulnerable populations.

With a budget of nearly $48 billion, the NIH is the federal government’s largest source of funding for medical research. The NIH has generally enjoyed strong support from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, but the agency has taken more criticism from GOP lawmakers since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In announcing his choice of Bhattacharya late Tuesday, Trump said he will work in step with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NIH falls within the Health Department.

“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,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Trump also wrote that Bhattacharya and Kennedy would “restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research.”

Bhattacharya said he was “humbled” and “honored” to be nominated to lead the NIH.

In a post on X, Bhattacharya wrote, “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!”

The choice of Bhattacharya comes after Trump has named other surprising picks for key health positions in the federal government. Trump has also nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Dave Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both bring credentials as physicians, but like Kennedy, they haven’t run a large health agency previously.

Many healthcare leaders have criticized Trump’s nomination of Kennedy to lead the health department, with critics citing his spread of misinformation about their safety. Kennedy has said he has no plans to take away any vaccines, but opponents cite his many statements doubting their safety as alarming.

Kennedy lauded Trump’s choice of Bhattacharya. The NIH director must be confirmed by the Senate.

“I'm so grateful to President Trump for this spectacular appointment. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is the ideal leader to restore NIH as the international template for gold-standard science and evidence-based medicine,” Kennedy wrote in a post on X.

Trump also pointed to Bhattacharya co-writing what is known as The Great Barrington Declaration, a document in October 2020 that argued against lockdowns. The document was published before the production of COVID-19 vaccines.

Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that Bhattacharya is “a good scientist.”

“He's not one of those classic basic lab scientists. He is more of a social scientist and an economist,” Benjamin says. And if he’s confirmed by the Senate, Bhattacharya could bring more of that background to NIH, which would be a positive, Benjamin says.

Benjamin also voices some concerns. Noting Bhattacharya’s criticism of the agency in the past, Benjamin says he should get to know the NIH.

“You always find out more about the organization once you get behind the doors than before when you're looking in,” Benjamin says.

Benjamin also pointed out that he and many other healthcare leaders opposed the Great Barrington Declaration and the idea that it would be acceptable for most people to develop herd immunity through exposure to the virus.

“Many of us thought that would be very harmful to do. I believe that, in retrospect, we were correct and they were not,” Benjamin says.

Still, Benjamin says he didn’t think Bhattacharya’s views should be stifled. “That's how science progresses, when we have these debates between our scientists,” Benjamin says.

Bhattacharya faced restrictions on social media platforms because of his views, as the Associated Press reports. He filed a legal challenge that ended up before the Supreme Court, and Elon Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter) later invited Bhattacharya to the company’s headquarters to talk about his views.

At a 2021 forum convened by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Bhattacharya said, “I think the lockdowns were the single biggest public health mistake,” the AP reported.

Kennedy has said the NIH should focus more on chronic diseases and suggests less attention should be spent on infectious diseases.

During his campaign for president before dropping out and endorsing Trump, Kennedy spoke at an anti-vaccine conference in November 2023, according to NBC News. At that event, Kennedy said if he oversaw the NIH, “We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years,” NBC News reported.

Benjamin says the idea that infectious diseases can take a back seat is illogical, given the spread of diseases such as whooping cough, measles and H5N1.

“When someone says infectious diseases are going to be put aside, they're fooling themselves,” Benjamin says. “They’re not going to get put aside. They're going to be dealing with that on day one.”

The NIH, which includes 27 institutes and centers, finances medical research at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools and other institutions. The NIH also employs nearly 6,000 scientists.

Also Tuesday, Trump said that he is nominating Jim O’Neill to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the second-highest ranking post in the agency.

O’Neill has experience in the department, previously serving as principal associate deputy secretary. Trump hailed O’Neill’s work to revamp the FDA’s food safety regulation and work to improve the safety of drugs and medical devices.