Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump's (Likely) NIH Pick

[Nevilledog]

https://www.importantcontext.news/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about

On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that a top contender for Donald Trump’s new National Institutes of Health director was Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a health economist known for his pro-infection advocacy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. If confirmed, the controversial professor will oversee the largest funder of biomedical and behavioral research on the planet.

As the new Trump administration takes shape, each appointment has been seemingly more fraught than the last. For example, on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, who had previously been caught up in a Department of Justice sex trafficking investigation, was announced as the choice for Attorney General. The next day, anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr. was announced for Health and Human Services Secretary. Kennedy, who has mused that COVID-19 was genetically engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews, suggested that chemicals in water are turning children gay or transgender, and falsely claimed vaccines cause autism, is an ally of Bhattacharya.

The Stanford professor is likely among the most extreme of the lot. While, as The Post noted, Bhattacharya has never held a position managing any position overseeing a large bureaucratic organization, he has been a central figure in an organized, well-funded campaign by the political right to undermine public health in America that has been raging since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhattacharya has spent years arguing in favor of “natural,” or infection-acquired, immunity and casting doubt on vaccines and government efforts to control the worst public health crisis in a century, bolstering the position of GOP politicians and right-wing dark money groups. He has even spread conspiracy theories about the very agency he is on the verge of leading, alleging that a small number of top bureaucrats have been using funding to stifle dissent.

Should he be confirmed, Bhattacharya will surely inject unscientific right-wing ideology into the very heart of the agency responsible for leading the fight against infectious diseases.

*snip*

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Let Grandma die for the Dow 2.0

Survival of the fittest at supernova levels

[flamingdem]

2. Recommend everyone to fill a prescription of

Paxlovid. After Thanksgiving there will likely be a spike due to a new variant.

There is no immunity gained from getting Covid that lasts more than 3-6 weeks
from what I've learned.

Wear a mask without shame starting in December in crowded spaces.

We need to survive to fight back!!

[cachukis]

3. Bad news.

[Solly Mack]

4. I'm remembering something about so small it can be drowned in a bathtub.

Destruction from within.

[Hekate]

5. The American Right Wing -- repealing the entire 20th century....

Taking us back to the Dark Ages as fast as they can.

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. A professor. At Stanford.

I'm really starting to wonder who is doing the hiring at all these gilt-edged universities.