Trump turns to critic of COVID mandates to run NIH

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NPR

November 26, 2024 9:27 PM ET


President-elect Donald Trump is tapping Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University health researcher, to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. "Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to the Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America's biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease. Together, they will work hard to Make American Healthy Again!" Trump wrote in a statement making the announcement.

Bhattacharya, a physician and health economist whose nomination requires Senate confirmation, would take charge of an agency that employs more than 18,000 workers and funds nearly $48 billion in scientific research through nearly 50,000 grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools and other institutions.

If confirmed, Bhattacharya could dramatically affect the future of medical science. The NIH is the world's largest public funder of biomedical research. But the NIH could be among the top targets for restructuring as the next administration tries to overhaul the federal government.

While the NIH has historically enjoyed bipartisan support, Trump proposed cutting the agency's budget during his first term. The NIH came under heavy criticism from some Republicans during the pandemic. That animosity has continued, especially towards some former long-serving NIH officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, and Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director from 2009 to 2021.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/11/26/nx-s1-5195168/nih-bhattacharya-trump-election-2024

[BootinUp]

1. Obviously this kind of appointment would be pretty devastating. But one point I would make is

that he isn't going to change how science works or thinks, and therefore, scientists of higher integrity and higher caliber will rebuild whatever he tears down and undo the wrongheaded policies he enacts. its going to be like gravity, they can't escape.

[LymphocyteLover]

2. Biomedical research is already underfunded and more cuts would be devastating

fucking Republicans

[Timeflyer]

3. Orange Shitstain wants to continue murdering Americans from a distance, like he did during COVID.

Lack of empathy is his superpower.

[wnylib]

4. Just in time for bird flu, which, for now, is NOT passed from human to human.

But if that changes, then we will have another Trump killing spree of Americans.

[underpants]

5. There's always more room in the clown car.

[Prairie Gates]

6. Closing schools for Spring 2020 made sense - any school closures after that were wrongheaded

and did more damage - perhaps even generational damage - than they prevented. The same probably goes for workplaces.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. The Omicron variant (which circulates today)

was multiple times WORSE than the variants in the spring of 2020, where children were impacted far worse than with previous variants.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. What could go wrong?