Bay Area health experts react to Stanford doctor's nomination by President-elect Trump to lead NIH
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a professor at Stanford University; nominee to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health
PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- President-Elect Donald Trump has turned to the Bay Area for his choice to head the nation's leading medical research agency.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of health policy at Stanford University and now the nominee to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health.
In a statement on X, he said: "I am honored and humbled by President @realDonaldTrump's nomination of me to be the next @NIH director. 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!"
Bhattacharya has made national news long before this nomination.
In 2020, he openly opposed the COVID lockdown restrictions going on at the time.
In October that year, he was one of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration.
An open letter that promoted "herd immunity," or that people at low risk should live normally to build immunity and those at higher risk should be protected.
Fast forward more than four years later and some in the local medical community are looking back at his views differently.
"I think no one got the pandemic right, but there was a lot in his approach that in retrospect actually made sense," Gandhi.
RELATED: Trump picks Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who backed COVID herd immunity, to lead N.I.H.
Monica Gandhi is a professor of medicine and infectious disease doctor at UCSF. She said the university is funded by the NIH.
Gandhi said she'll be closely watching how the Trump administration handles infectious disease research.
"I can't say I'm not nervous because our universities not only depend on this money, but it's not the time to, stop HIV research. We have a lot of work to do," Dr. Gandhi said, "On the other hand, I think Dr. Bhattacharya is kind. He is gentle. He has had a complete reputation of being respectful of listening to others and I think that gives me a lot of hope about his leadership."
Menlo College Political Science professor Dr. Melissa Michelson says Dr. Bhattacharya's nomination has many in Bay Area higher education circles questioning his experience and ability to run the large agency.
"He's well known for being a controversial figure and I think the, the response I'm hearing most often about the nomination of Jay to head the NIH is, 'Wow, this is a huge job and, his experience doesn't really seem to predict that he'd be able to manage such a large agency'".
She said his nomination along with Trump's nominations of Robert F. Kennedy Junior and Dr. Mehmet Oz could indicate future public health policy will look like.
"President -elect Trump is bringing people into his administration with a pretty consistent perspective on what happened during the COVID pandemic, on the role of public health, on the role of federal government mandates and regulations during a public health emergency," Dr. Micheson said.
Dr. Bhattacharya's nomination will need to be approved by the U.S. Senate.
