Indian-Origin Jay Bhattacharya Confirmed As Head Of US Health Agency

The US Senate on Tuesday (local time) confirmed the appointment of Indian-origin Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford School of Medicine, as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to the official website of the US Senate, Mr Bhattacharya won the vote 53-47 during the first session of the roll call vote in the 119th Congress.

According to an earlier nomination statement from US President Donald Trump, Mr Bhattacharya is a professor of health policy at Stanford University, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Hoover Institution.

He also directs Stanford’s Centre for Demography and Economics of Health and Ageing, and his research emphasises the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics.

Jay is a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an alternative to lockdowns proposed in October 2020. His peer-reviewed research has been published in economics, statistics, legal, medical, public health, and health policy journals.

The statement further added that Mr Bhattacharya and newly appointed US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr will be working together to restore the NIH to a “Gold Standard of Medical Research.”

Following his confirmation as the head of the NIH, US Republican Senator from Kentucky Mitch McConnell congratulated Mr Bhattacharya, stating that he would provide “sound leadership” to the institution.

“Voted today to confirm Dr Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. With an extensive background in medical research, I expect Dr J Bhattacharya to provide sound leadership at the NIH,” Mr McConnell said, taking to X.

Earlier in February, the US Senate voted to confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist, as US Health and Human Services Secretary. He was confirmed as US Health and Human Services Secretary with a vote of 52-48.

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