The ongoing news cycle surrounding American politics has been inundated with stories regarding Donald Trump’s cabinet picks for his upcoming term. The returning president (and 34-time convicted felon) has made waves for near-exclusively choosing candidates that many political insiders consider unqualified, unfit to serve or just downright baffling. The latest in his growing list of concerning picks is Indian-born physician and economist Jay Bhattacharya, who currently works as a professor of medicine at Stanford University. There, he heads departments including health research and the economics of health and aging.
At a glance, Bhattacharya may seem like an uncharacteristically straightforward choice for the new Trump administration, though a brief look under the surface reveals that he fits right in. His public comments regarding the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 have drawn widespread scrutiny over the years, and his apparent vaccine skepticism has caused some peers to condemn his rhetoric at large. To understand who Jay Bhattacharya is, and why his expected appointment to lead the National Institutes of Health is alarming to some, it’s important to look into his past, present and national notoriety. Stick around if you’re interested in learning more about Bhattacharya’s views on public health, his body of work and what his appointment could mean for the future of the NIH.
Jay Bhattacharya’s Thoughts on COVID
Though Bhattacharya is a well-educated doctor (holding both an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the Stanford School of Medicine), his public health record leaves a lot to be desired. In March of 2020, he penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that argues against quarantine orders outlined by the CDC. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged on throughout the 2020 calendar year, Bhattacharya continued to double down on his assertion that vaccines were not a necessary solution, lockdown orders should be relaxed and the primary focus of the public should be to achieve herd immunity by means of exposure therapy. The doctor even conducted private studies with a team out of Santa Clara, California to better understand COVID and its side effects, though the studies were ultimately lambasted by the scientific community, including the World Health Organization.
Bhattacharya’s study, which downplayed the severity of the novel coronavirus, was reported to be rife with misleading stats and methodological errors, according to peer reviewers. It also failed to disclose financial backing from airline executive David Neeleman, resulting in a significant conflict of interest. Despite receiving these critiques, the professor maintained his controversial claims in an October 2020 letter known as the “Great Barrington Declaration.” This again drew criticism from the scientific community for its advocacy of herd immunity; it was called dangerously unethical by some and scientifically problematic by others.
Though researchers and specialists of science and medicine around the globe disagreed with Jay Bhattacharya vehemently, his status as a vocal anti-lockdown advocate made him a prime target for the Trump campaign. The former POTUS had been echoing similar sentiments at the time, in stark contrast to the CDC. It’s worth noting that October 2020 saw COVID deaths rise to nearly 1,000 Americans per day as Bhattacharya championed his herd immunity idea.
Bhattacharya’s Additional Controversies
While his pandemic comments make up the bulk of his public controversies, Jay Bhattacharya has a long history of conduct that some may call unethical. The doctor wrote an opinion piece in 2021 that argued against offering vaccinations to the population of India, just as the COVID death toll reached new highs of over 250,000 in the heavily populated country. He was subsequently criticized by school boards across the United States for his position on pediatric masking, which he fought against while serving on the board of a conservative-funded think tank called the Brownstone Institute. From there, Bhattacharya continued racking up ethical mishaps by working alongside partisan lines to spread conservative-backed misinformation about health, further insulating himself to the Trump administration.
Just this past Summer, Jay Bhattacharya appeared before the Supreme Court as part of the landmark Murthy v. Missouri decision, which involved government regulation of free speech on social platforms such as X and Facebook. His name was previously revealed to have been blacklisted from the former platform’s trending page due to numerous reports of misinformation and disinformation stemming from his account. The doctor future NIH head and his constituents ultimately lost their case against the state due to a lack of concrete evidence to support their claims that they had been silenced. Ultimately, the entire fiasco only made Bhattacharya more of a hard-right conservative icon.
What Are the National Institutes of Health?
Whether you’re familiar with the Stanford researcher’s comments or not, you may find yourself wondering how his appointment to the NIH could impact public health moving forward – especially if another pandemic happens to sweep the nation. For those not in the know, the National Institutes of Health are the United States government’s primary agency in health research. The facilities operate under the umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services, which means that Jay Bhattacharya would be working under the supervision of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once Trump is inaugurated. RFK himself stands as one of Trump’s first highly controversial appointees, as the former presidential candidate previously ran on a platform of gutting the public health sector. RFK has also drawn massive controversy for his explicitly anti-vaccine sentiments, propensity for eating roadkill and his comments which suggested that he has a worm inside his head eating his brain.
Currently, the NIH oversees over two dozen biomedical institutes that are instrumental in fighting disease, mitigating public health risks and offering life-saving vaccines and preventative medicine to millions of U.S. citizens. The office has been ranked second only to Harvard University in worldwide health studies and has single-handedly been credited with vaccine development to fight against viruses including HPV and certain kinds of hepatitis. Only time will tell how Bhattacharya’s appointment will go, but we’d love to hear your predictions in the comments!
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