Trump picks Indian-American doc to head top health institute

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Indian-American scientist Jay Bhattacharya as the director of the National Institutes of Health, the country’s top health research and funding institutions.

With this, Bhattacharya becomes the first Indian-American to be nominated by Trump for a top administrative position.

Earlier, Trump picked Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency along with Tesla owner Elon Musk. However, that is a voluntary position and does not need confirmation from the US Senate.

“I am thrilled to nominate Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health. 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 said.

“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will 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. Together, they will work hard to Make America Healthy Again,” he said.

Was a critic of covid lockdown

Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford health policy professor, was an outspoken critic of the US government’s Covid-19 policies during the pandemic. Along with two other academics, he published the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, which called for a return to life as normal for those who were not vulnerable to the virus. He sued the government afterwards, alleging that it pressured social media platforms to censor his opinions.