Trump chooses Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH

Kolkata-born Stanford University professor is the first Indian American chosen by Trump for a key role in his second term

By Arun Kumar

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Kolkata-born Stanford University professor Jayanta ‘Jay’ Bhattacharya, a leading Covid lockdown sceptic to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is the first Indian American chosen by Trump to lead the world’s biggest government-funded biomedical research entity with a budget of some $47.3 billion.

In a statement Trump said Bhattacharya would work with Robert Kennedy Jr, his pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, 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.”

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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.

The NIH director oversees 27 institutes and centers that conduct early-stage research on everything from vaccines for emerging pandemic threats to targets for new drugs.

Bhattacharya has a large extended family, including cousins, uncles, and aunts, still living in India. “My mother and father are both children of India’s partition, and my mother grew up in a slum area of Kidderpore, Kolkata,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of India in an earlier interview.

“When I was little, my family regularly visited Kolkata, and I heard the stories of all my cousins and relatives. This background and my connection to India have shaped me and continues to inspire me,” he added.

Bhattacharya became the face during the pandemic of a fiercely disputed open letter – known as the Great Barrington Declaration – that challenged the public health establishment’s response to the Covid outbreak four years ago. He remains a vocal critic of how Anthony Fauci – a former director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of NIH – handled the pandemic.

A Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research, Bhattacharya directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, according to his resume.

His research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics. Bhattacharya’s recent research focuses on the epidemiology of Covid -19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic.

His broader research interests encompass the implications of population aging for future population health and medical spending in developed countries, the measurement of physician performance tied to physician payment by insurers, and the role played by biomedical innovation on health.

He has published 135 articles in top peer-reviewed scientific journals in medicine, economics, health policy, epidemiology, statistics, law, and public health among other fields. He holds an MD and PhD in economics, both earned at Stanford University.