Nominated by US President Donald Trump, Dr. J Bhattacharya is now the head of the nation’s major medical agency, the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Bhattacharya, who is an Indian -origin professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, was confirmed by the US Senate on 26 March as the director of NIH.

The US Republican Senator of Kentaki Mich McConel said, “Dr. J. J. J. J. was voted today to confirm Dr. J. Bhattacharya to lead the National Institute of Health. With a wide background in medical research, I hope that Dr. J Bhattacharya will provide sound leadership at NIH.”

Bhattacharya is a physician and economist, Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, a research colleague at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford Freeman Spogley Institute and a senior companion at Hoover Institute.

Bhattacharya was recognized to criticize other measures to wear masks during the 2020 Kovid -19 epidemic, closure schools and workplaces, and other measures to prevent the spread of virus.

He signed the Great Barrington announcement, a document signed by thousands of public health experts in late 2020, which pushed the argument of “herd immunity”. This means that the virus should be allowed to spread among young, low -risk people, who produce immune by giving additional protection to older, high -risk people.

Several officials, such as former NIH director Francis Collins and US Covid Advisor Anthony Faussi, called it dangerous and immoral, criticized the document.

According to a report by Reuters, Bhattacharya faces immediate challenges, including Trump’s proposed deduction to the legal battle for federal research funding.

Earlier in March, Bhattacharya faced questions about their plans for vaccine research in front of the US Senate, ideas to reduce drug prices, and recent firing and funding cuts in the agency.

Here are five takeaways:

Dissatisfaction in scientific research

During the hearing of his confirmation in early March, Bhattacharya said that he is planning to run NIH in such a way that welcomes different opinions, even on subjects where science is already clear – such as measles vaccine causes autism, Bhattacharya said during hearing confirmation.

“There is a lot of essence of dissatisfaction. I will promote a culture where the NIH leadership will actively encourage various approaches and create an environment where scientists – including early career scientists – can express disagreement with respect,” he said.

Supports research on vaccine-autism link

Bhattacharya clearly voiced that he supports research that argues principles on leading vaccines for autism in children. In fact, he said that he fully supports children being vaccinated against diseases like measles. He said that he was “confident” that NIH has “good data” that supports that MMR vaccine does not cause autism.

Cassidi said, “The more we show that we are an issue that we are as much children that we are dying of vaccine-pre-diseases.”

Nehh le-off

Currently, NIH, which is facing an amount of about $ 48 billion in scientific research through about 50,000 grants for more than 3,00,000 researchers in 2,500 universities, hospitals and other institutions.

At the National Institute of Health, 1,165 people, mostly probated employees, Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, after the leader of the Department of DE Factor Leader of the Government Efficiency (DOGE), decided to cut jobs in NIH and other departments.

When the senators questioned Bhattacharya about the firing and grant freeze of the employees, they denied participation and promised to support NIH scientists.

He also refrained from directly answering whether he had cut NIH Grant overhead funding.

Last month, the administration reduced these costs by 15%, which affects universities and hospitals, below 30%.

The senators warned that CAP would harm significant research on cancer and Alzheimer’s and violated the Congress’s funding rules.

On reducing the prices of medicine

When questioned to reduce the cost of American drug, Given that one of the four adults struggled to bear the expenses of the prescription, Bhattacharya suggested NIH Fund research on the use of off-labeled drugs to reduce prices.

The use of off-labeled drugs means taking a drug for some it was not officially approved to treat.

Doctors sometimes prescribe drugs in this way if they believe that it will help a patient, whether FDA or other officials have not specifically approved it for that situation.

Asked whether the drug manufacturers who have benefited from taxpayer-funded research should have a pricing limit, they did not give a clear answer, according to the hill report.

Abortion restoration

Bhattacharya said that he would support the restoration of a policy blocking the NIH fund from purchasing fetal tissue for research, which was implemented during Trump’s first term and then reversed under Biden.

Bhattacharya said that he would follow the leadership of the President and HHS Secretary to bring it back.

“We have options,” he said, saying that MRNA vaccines were developed using fetal stem cells and that science should be morally acceptable to all.

Reports suggest that many scientists consider fetal tissue research as important for medication including vaccines.

Previous vaccines like polio, fetal cells are used, and Covid -19 vaccines were tested using cell lines from decades old abortion.

Meanwhile, Trump’s nominated Martin Makeri, British-American Surgeon and Professor, were selected as the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).