WASHINGTON — A health economist who famously clashed with officials at the National Institutes of Health faces Senate questioning Wednesday on his .
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, was an outspoken critic of the government’s COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine policies. Now he’s poised to become director of the NIH, long called the government’s crown jewel, as it faces mass firings and .
He “has a vision to restore faith in medical research for the American people,” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the Senate health committee considering the nomination, wrote on X after meeting with Bhattacharya last month.
But he faces scrutiny from Democrats furious that turmoil at the nation’s largest funder of medical research threatens the development of cures and new treatments.
“It is incredibly important that we have a leader at NIH who will stand up for the agency’s role as a world leader in lifesaving research,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state.
Until recently, the $48 billion NIH had strong bipartisan support. NIH scientists conduct cutting-edge research at its 27 institutes specializing in diseases including cancer, chronic illnesses such as heart, lung and kidney disease, aging and Alzheimer’s. Most of the agency’s budget is dispersed to universities, hospitals and other research groups through highly competitive grants to conduct everything from basic research to clinical trials.
NIH-funded research has played a part in the development of .
Bhattacharya gained public attention as one of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 open letter maintaining that pandemic shutdowns were causing irreparable harm and argued that people at low risk of COVID-19 should live normally while building up immunity through infection.
At the time — before vaccinations had begun – that view was embraced by some in the first Trump administration but was widely denounced by infectious disease experts. Then- called it dangerous and “not mainstream science.”
Bhattacharya became a plaintiff in a Supreme Court case, arguing he was “unfairly censored” on social media as part of government efforts to combat misinformation. While the case gained national attention, it was ultimately unsuccessful in a 6-3 ruling.
Bhattacharya holds a medical degree but is not a practicing physician. His own research on the economics of health care has been funded by the NIH.
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