Jay Bhattacharya, the Indian-American whom US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Director of National Institutes of Health | @DrJBhattacharya
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday (November 27) appointed Dr Jay Bhattacharya, a person of Indian origin as the director of the country’s National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH is America’s medical research agency. It is also world’s largest source of medical research funding. Being Director of NIH is indeed a big thing and an achievement for Jay Bhattacharya. Notably, Bhattacharya has been critic of COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He position in this regard was comparable to that of Trump during his presidency. Bhattacharya also opposed mask mandates during the pandemic.
In his statement announcing Bhattacharya’s appointment, Trump said that he was ‘thrilled’ to appoint him as the director of NIH and that Bhattacharya, along with Robert F Kennedy Jr. will ‘make America healthy again’.
Who Is Jay Bhattacharya?
Jay or Jayanta Bhattacharya is professor at Stanford School of Medicine. He holds MD as well as PhD degree.
Bhattacharya was born in Kolkata in 1968. He attended Stanford University for Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in 1990. He was member of Phi Beta Kappa, the prestigious society which counts 17 US presidents and more than 100 Nobel laureates as its members.
In 1997, he received a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from Stanford University.
In the year 2000, Bhattacharya received PhD from Stanford University School of Hum.ties and Sciences.
Jay Bhattacharya Career
Bhattacharya worked as an economist at RAND Corporation. From 2006 to 2008 he was at Hoover Institution as a research fellow.
In addition to being professor of medicine at Stanford, Bhattacharya also holds various other posts like director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, senior fellow at Stanford Institute For Economic Policy Research, research associate at National Bureau of Economic Research and more.
Jay Bhattacharya Controversy
Bhattacharya’s opinion on COVID pandemic drew a lot of criticism including from Director-General of World Health Org.sation (WHO).
Bhattacharya was opposed to lockdowns, mask and vaccine compulsions. During the pandemic, he was reportedly of the opinion that instead of lockdowns, focus should be on developing herd immunity. And this involved allowing people get infected with the virus.
