5 Things to Know About Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s Choice for NIH Director

The physician, who holds multiple doctoral degrees and has been a vocal critic of COVID-19 lockdowns, was chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a health policy professor at Stanford University, will work with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to direct the nation’s medical research. Bhattacharya co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, advocating for low-risk Americans to resume normal life and build up immunity to the virus. He has also been a frequent critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s COVID policies and has sued the Biden administration for alleged COVID censorship. Bhattacharya holds multiple doctoral degrees from Stanford and is a senior fellow at various institutes at the university. The physician expressed his thoughts on media/social media suppression in a post on X in December 2022. He was involved in a lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging that it influenced social media companies to censor COVID-19 and vaccine-related content. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the federal government in Murthy v. Missouri. Justice Amy Coney Barrett stated that the platforms had independent reasons for moderating content. The physician received the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom from the American Academy of Science and Letters for his courage in expressing views during the pandemic. The award is named after mathematician Robert J. Zimmer. Bhattacharya expressed his gratitude for the honor and acknowledged the challenges faced by scientists and intellectuals during that time.

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