--- title: What to Know About Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's Pick to Lead NIH description: Trump's pick to head the National Institutes of Health has been famously critical of the U.S. COVID-19 response. canonical: https://time.com/7264361/jay-bhattacharya-nih-trump-pick/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-03-05T15:15:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:10.358Z article:section: Health og:title: What to Know About Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's Pick to Lead the NIH og:description: Trump's pick to head the National Institutes of Health has been famously critical of the U.S.'s COVID-19 response. og:url: https://time.com/7264361/jay-bhattacharya-nih-trump-pick/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2cf5ff0fddeb6197/6998c498c8dcb4d701b4fec6/Jay-Bhattacharya.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: jay-bhattacharya og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's Pick to Lead the NIH twitter:description: Trump's pick to head the National Institutes of Health has been famously critical of the U.S.'s COVID-19 response. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2cf5ff0fddeb6197/6998c498c8dcb4d701b4fec6/Jay-Bhattacharya.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's Pick to Lead the NIH > Sponsored content. 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A federal judge on Friday extended a temporary block of the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in medical research funding that many scientists say will endanger patients and delay new lifesaving discoveries._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 5, 2025 3:15 PM UTC  Dr. Jay Bhattacharya speaks during a roundtable discussion with members of the House Freedom Caucus on the COVID-19 pandemic at The Heritage Foundation on Nov. 10, 2022. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya speaks during a roundtable discussion with members of the House Freedom Caucus on the COVID-19 pandemic at The Heritage Foundation on Nov. 10, 2022. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 5, 2025 3:15 PM UTC Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is President Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has traditionally been the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. On March 5, the Stanford University professor of health policy will face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee as he attempts to get confirmed to lead one of the country’s most powerful health agencies. Here’s what to know about Bhattacharya. ## He's the son of immigrants Bhattacharya was born in Kolkata, India and said in a [podcast interview](https://www.hoover.org/research/jay-bhattacharya-covid-19-pandemic-and-public-health-response) that his mother came from a slum, while his father, an electrical engineer, was part of the country’s middle class. In the 1970s, his family immigrated to the U.S., settling first in Massachusetts and then in California, outside of Los Angeles. When he was 18, Bhattacharya converted from Hinduism to become a Presbyterian. ## He's interested in health economics Bhattacharya earned four degrees at Stanford: a bachelor's degree, master's, MD, and PhD. He worked as an economist at the RAND Corporation before returning to Stanford to join the faculty. Bhattacharya has researched health economics and studied the the U.S.'s vulnerable populations, analyzing how the country's health care system and government policies affect the health of these groups. ## He holds controversial views on COVID-19 During the pandemic, Bhattacharya became a familiar and contrarian expert on the disease, conducting numerous interviews and publishing op-eds on what he felt was public health officials’ overreaction to the virus. Based on data he was seeing, he believed that COVID-19 was far milder than health experts—including those in the government—were making it out to be, and claimed that COVID-19 tests were only picking up severe cases and people who developed symptoms, while far more people were infected but didn’t have symptoms. “There are many people walking around with evidence of COVID infection that we’re not going to count because they don’t show up to the doctor; they have relatively mild infections,” he said in a 2020 [podcast](https://freopp.org/whitepapers/jay-bhattacharya-on-understanding-the-covid-19-virus/). In March 2020, he co-authored a controversial [op-ed](https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/id/documents/COVID/Is%20the%20Coronavirus%20as%20Deadly%20as%20They%20Say%5F%20-%20WSJ.pdf) in the _Wall Street Journa_l that questioned lockdowns. “A universal quarantine may not be worth the costs it imposes on the economy, community and individual mental and physical health,” he wrote. “We should undertake immediate steps to evaluate the empirical basis of the current lockdowns.” **Read More**: [_RFK Jr. Acknowledges the Measles Vaccine Amid a Worsening Outbreak_](https://time.com/7263882/measles-vaccine-rfk-jr-vitamin-a/) He also co-wrote the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, an open letter that argued to stop lockdowns. The letter instead favored allowing people at low risk of COVID-19 infection to go about their daily lives, on the assumption that if they became infected, they would experience mild disease and contribute to building the herd immunity that would eventually protect the population. Critics of the policy pointed out that the strategy would still endanger those most vulnerable to developing complications from the disease, such as the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. He also [opposed](https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/mandatory-masking-of-school-children-is-a-bad-idea/) mask mandates in schools. In 2021, he co-wrote an article arguing that “the benefits of masks in preventing serious illness of death from COVID-19 among children are infinitesimally small,” and that “COVID-19 is less of a threat to children than accidents or the common flu.” His views conflicted with those of many public health officials, and he said at the time he [received death threats](https://www.hoover.org/research/jay-bhattacharya-covid-19-pandemic-and-public-health-response) for voicing them. ## His challenge at NIH If confirmed, Bhattacharya will head an agency at a crossroads. Under the Trump Administration, the NIH has [changed its policy in issuing research grants](https://time.com/7216299/nih-budget-cuts-science-research-funding/) to institutions, capping the amount they'll pay for overhead costs at just 15% of the grant total (as opposed to 30-70% or more). The new policy has been temporarily stayed by a federal judge, but Bhattacharya would be responsible for navigating any shifts in the agency’s grant-making policies and reforms (which many scientists agree are needed) to make the NIH more efficient. His medical degree and understanding of health data should be a strength in leading the venerable research institute, some experts say, but, as STAT [reports](https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/04/jay-bhattacharya-trump-nih-director-nominee-profile-of-credentials-contradictions/), some are concerned about his interpretation of that data, which they believe can lead to misleading conclusions. “ I would rather see him appointed than not, because I think if he is not appointed, then whoever else is appointed will probably be worse,” Jason Abaluck, professor of economics at Yale School of Management, [told STAT](https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/04/jay-bhattacharya-trump-nih-director-nominee-profile-of-credentials-contradictions/). ## Transcript The judge, um, is essentially kicked the can down the road, but for now, um, she's blocked. Um, the Trump administration's unilateral reduction of the NIH indirect rates capped at 15%. Um, and she's going to decide whether to make it a permanent injunction. But whatever she decides, it's not going to be the end of the story. Um, it's going to be appealed, probably all the way up to the Supreme Court, um, because it's of enormous consequence, um, to the United States and to the rule of law. The United States, through Congress, um, developed the these close partnerships with universities around the country, um, to build up their scientific enterprise. Um, and they need indirect rates to be able to develop laboratories, a career young career scientists and training. Um, and to to do all of the things that keeps the computers humming and the lights on. I think, uh, the Trump administration and NIH don't really have a legal leg to stand on. Um, for many, many reasons. Um, to begin with. Um, it applies to contracts we've already signed with universities around the country. Congress itself, um, understands why this is so important to American innovation and our economy and have required the NIH, um, to do these kind of individualized negotiations with universities for indirect rates. 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