Trump taps Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH, says he will work with RFK Jr. to ‘restore’ agency

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Jay Bhattacharya will serve as the director of the National Institutes of Health during his second term in the White House. 

Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor and staunch critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, will be tasked with leading the federal government’s medical research efforts and will work “in cooperation” with incoming Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president-elect said.

“Jay is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an alternative to lockdowns proposed in October 2020,” Trump noted in his announcement. 

“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges,” the 45th president added.

This is a developing story. Check back for more.