Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump's nominee for NIH director, expressed his commitment to supporting NIH scientists at his confirmation hearing. However, he lacked specific strategies and appeared detached from recent controversies, including staff firings and grant processing delays. His discussion of COVID-19 raised concerns among some scientists, who feel his views on lockdowns and vaccines are divisive and not reflective of a comprehensive understanding of biomedical research. The importance of basic science was notably absent from the hearing, further raising alarms about his suitability for leading the $47 billion agency tasked with biomedical research funding.
"I thought that he came across as very reasonable," said Carole LaBonne, a stem cell biologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The exception, she said, was Bhattacharya's discussion of COVID-19 ― a topic that has divided him from many scientists because of his views on lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines.
"What I was most disturbed by during the hearing was that the topic of basic science didn't come up," LaBonne added. That omission led her to worry that the economist does not understand its importance, she said.
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