Jay Bhattacharya came to prominence arguing that the nation shouldn’t trust the National Institutes of Health’s leaders.
He was one of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for lifting most pandemic restrictions in October 2020, before COVID-19 vaccines were available. The declaration said these restrictions, many of which NIH leaders supported, were producing “lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health,” among other harms. Former NIH Director Francis Collins called the trio “fringe epidemiologists.”
But in his second term, President Trump made Bhattacharya central when he picked the health economics researcher to lead the NIH, starting in April 2025. The critic, lauded by conservative opponents of pandemic policies as a brave truth teller, became the chief.
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