Bhattacharya criticized U.S. public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, including lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He joins other notable pandemic policy critics whom Trump has nominated for medical-related leadership posts in his second administration: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services Department secretary, Johns Hopkins University surgeon Dr. Martin Makary for FDA commissioner, and former Columbia University surgeon and television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz for CMS administrator.
In a statement shared yesterday, Trump said that Bhattacharya would work with RFK Jr. to restore the NIH to a gold standard of medical research, tackling underlying causes and solutions for America’s biggest health challenges, including chronic diseases. “Together, they will work hard to Make America Healthy Again!”
Bhattacharya responded on social media that he was honored and humbled to be nominated. “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!”
On top of being a professor of medicine at Stanford University, Bhattacharya is the director of the university’s Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His research has not only included governments’ COVID-19 responses but also the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, according to his LinkedIn page.
In a post on X, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health who served as President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator, described Kennedy as a terrible choice but said Bhattacharya, Makary and Oz were all smart and experienced — even as he had policy disagreements with them. Said Jha: “We will need them to do well.”
