BREAKING: Dr Jay Bhattacharya confirmed as NIH Director

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's nominee for the Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Jay Bhattacharya was confirmed by the Senate in a vote of 54 to 46. Bhattacharya was one of the main doctors who crafted the Great Barrington Declaration, which opposed lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The White House Rapid Response team posted to celebrate the confirmation, writing, "CONFIRMED: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as Director of the NIH."

When Trump announced Bhattacharya's nomination, he wrote, "I am thrilled to nominate Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bhattacharya will work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to direct the Nation’s Medical Research, and to make important discoveries that will improve Health, and save lives."

Trump added, ""Jay is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research, and a Senior Fellow by courtesy at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Hoover Institution."

"He directs Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. His Research focuses on the Health and Well-Being of vulnerable populations, emphasizing 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. He holds an MD and PhD in Economics from Stanford University," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at the time. 

Dr. Bhattacharya's posts on then-Twitter were revealed to be limited in their reach, according to documents obtained in the Twitter files reports. Bhattacharya was vocal about concerns that lockdowns would harm children early on in the pandemic.