‘Wrong,’ ‘misleading,’ and ‘reasonable’: How Jay Bhattacharya became, for some, the least bad option to run NIH Eric Boodman By Eric Boodman March 4, 2025

https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/04/jay-bhattacharya-trump-nih-director-nominee-profile-of-credentials-contradictions/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9BSABYas8PmeO1WBu5R9KdKTOe5gduL9iM1hBqHgZbna1pEOBzAsFXHF9bVYvJ5h_YvhoWFiP8XJXbI5wb50eF5grCFA&_hsmi=349955347&utm_content=349955347&utm_source=hs_email Trump’s pick to lead NIH brings contradictions to Senate hearing room NIH nominee Jay Bhattacharya does not fit easily into one box. The Stanford academic and Covid contrarian has sparked condemnation along with grudging encouragement. With what seem like as many credentials as contradictions, he inspired a Tennessee judge to write this about his expert testimony in 2021: “... the Court is simply unwilling to trust Dr. Bhattacharya." A colleague recently delivered this damning-with-faint-praise assessment: “I would rather see him appointed than not, because I think if he is not appointed, then whoever else is appointed will probably be worse.” Bhattacharya will face a Senate confirmation hearing tomorrow, a long journey from early childhood in what he calls a slum near Kolkata, India. With dual degrees in medicine and economics, he has carved out a career parsing health statistics, rocketing into public awareness after the Great Barrington Declaration. Drafted by Bhattacharya and two other Covid-contrarian professors in October 2020, it suggested natural infection, not vaccination, would be a good thing for the healthy majority. He’s criticized Anthony Fauci, defended Joe Rogan, and won praise from RFK Jr. STAT’s Eric Boodman deciphers what the nominee might bring to the world’s biggest (for now) funder of biomedical research.