The Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump’s nominee to run the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Bhattacharya secured the nomination in a party-line 53 to 47 vote. CONFIRMED: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as Director of the NIH. pic.twitter.com/DEBbpJQ0lU — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 25, 2025 Fox News reports: A physician, Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bhattacharya was a leading voice during the COVID-19 pandemic against lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. He was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 by a group of scientists advocating against widespread COVID lockdowns and promoting the efficacy of natural immunity for low-risk individuals as opposed to vaccination. Bhattacharya was probed by the Senate HELP Committee earlier this month over various issues related to his potential role as NIH director. However, for much of the hearing, he was forced to defend the president’s decision to cut certain research funds at NIH, including a 15% cap on indirect research costs, also known as facilities and administrative costs, dispersed by the NIH. Bhattacharya would not explicitly say he disagreed with the cuts, or that, if confirmed, he would step in to stop them. Rather, he said he would “follow the law,” while also investigating the effect of the cuts and ensuring every NIH researcher doing work that advances the health outcomes of Americans has the resources necessary. “I think transparency regarding indirect costs is absolutely worthwhile. It’s something that universities can fix by working together to make sure that where that money goes is made clear,” Bhattacharya said of the indirect costs going to universities, hospitals and research clinics from the NIH. BREAKING: Jay Bhattacharya was just confirmed as NIH Director by the Senate, 53-47. pic.twitter.com/Vcpn6HsxfJ — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 25, 2025 The Senate voted to confirm Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University health economist and physician, to lead the National Institutes of Health https://t.co/0xF22ODN68 — Bloomberg (@business) March 25, 2025 From The Hill: He will take the reins of the largest funder of biomedical research in the world. The NIH funds almost $48 billion in scientific research through roughly 50,000 grants to more than 300,000 researchers across 2,500 universities, hospitals and other institutions. But the agency is reeling from actions by the Trump administration, including recent mass firings of agency staff, grant restrictions and other funding freezes and cuts. The White House is effectively waging a war on private universities, slashing their grants by $4 billion and defunding work on racial inequities and transgender care. Bhattacharya during his hearing said he understands science and public health have become politicized, and many in the public no longer trust health officials or experts. The NIH should support science that is “replicable, reproducible, and generalizable,” Bhattacharya said. “Unfortunately, much of modern biomedical science fails this basic test.” He also committed to following Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal to dial back work on infectious diseases and focus on chronic illness instead.