"The NIH has been transformed this year. And most of the layoffs, policy changes, and politically motivated funding cuts-notably, to infectious-disease research-have happened under Bhattacharya's watch. But inside the agency, officials describe Bhattacharya as a largely ineffectual figurehead, often absent from leadership meetings, unresponsive to colleagues, and fixated more on cultivating his media image than on engaging with the turmoil at his own agency."
"Instead, Matthew Memoli, the agency's principal deputy director, "is the one wielding the axe,"the official said. This time last year, Memoli was a relatively low-ranking flu researcher at the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Then, in January, the Trump administration appointed him to be the agency's acting director. At the time, other NIH officials considered Memoli to be a placeholder, temporarily empowered to carry out the administration's orders."
Donald Trump nominated Jay Bhattacharya to be director of the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a health economist without specialized training in infectious disease who rose to prominence for heterodox COVID policy views. The NIH experienced major transformation with layoffs, policy changes, and politically motivated funding cuts, notably to infectious-disease research, occurring under Bhattacharya's tenure. Inside the agency, officials describe Bhattacharya as an ineffectual figurehead who is often absent from leadership meetings, unresponsive to colleagues, and more focused on cultivating a media image and podcasting than on agency affairs. Matthew Memoli, the principal deputy director, has carried out many of the agency's changes.
Read at The Atlantic
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