Dr. Jay Will Restore Credibility and Integrity to the NIH

The Nationals Institutes for Health, once the crown jewel of the American medical research system, fell into well-earned disrepute in the COVID era.

Why Dr. Jay is the right man for the job

Disgraced former director Francis Collins frankly confessed:

If you’re a public health person and you’re trying to make a decision… you attach infinite value to stopping the disease… You attach a zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never quite recovered.

Consider that the NIH hitting rock bottom.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s nominee to take the helm at NIH, has his confirmation hearing today [March 5, 2025] before the Senate HELP Committee.  I expect him to shine.

There is poetic justice in this selection, because Dr. Jay (as he is affectionately known by his friends and supporters) was targeted by Collins for his role in co-authoring the Great Barrington Declaration, which rejected the Collins “zero value” approach in favor of a traditional public health paradigm of protecting the vulnerable to the extent possible while minimizing overreactions and keeping society well-functioning.

Early on, Dr. Jay also brought critical data to the pandemic debate by conducting serological surveys designed to improve estimates of morbidity and mortality and dispel undue fears based on miscalibrated computer models. On one of the most important aspects of lockdown – the school closures Dr. Collins cheered while Dr. Jay opposed – we are still grappling with the devastating consequences of society following Collins.

But despite the fact that prolonged lockdowns and school closures were horribly damaging – and were never part of pandemic plans – Dr. Jay was smeared by Collins as a “fringe epidemiologist,” against whom Collins directed what he described as a “devastating takedown” via a cabal of “mainstream” experts, the media, and after Biden was elected, an official censorship regime.

A well-rounded scholar

Dr. Jay co-authored a key amicus brief with my organization that helped defeat Biden’s vaccine mandates at the Supreme Court and he has been a plaintiff in First Amendment litigation against the Biden censorship regime.  He testified as an expert witness against forced child-masking, a practice that never had any strong evidentiary basis but nonetheless disrupted years of schooling even after closures eased.

Most remarkably, despite being the target of endless personal smears and attacks, Dr. Jay stayed calm and focused on data and evidence, almost never responding in-kind to the ad hominem attacks furiously lobbed at him.  He understands that science is a process of accumulating and integrating evidence, openly and from a wide array of sources, not of centralized authorities issuing proclamations and dictates.

Dr. Jay’s background is also uniquely suited to the challenges that NIH faces.  He is one of the only scholars to be published in both top medical and economics journals, and his expertise in health economics assures that the Collins “infinite value” blunder will not only be avoided but that due consideration to trade-offs will be woven into the fabric of the agency’s reforms.  He has impeccable teaching credentials and is clearly a gifted public communicator.

A steady hand

Dr. Jay is a reliable, steady hand that will restore credibility and transparency to NIH outputs, speed up grant review timelines, support diverse scientific views and speech, and tackle our country’s chronic disease epidemic.

One of the greatest risks to the health of Americans and all people is the risk of more lockdowns to combat viruses or climate change.  A smart, principled, data-driven leader like Dr. Jay at NIH is perhaps our best protection from that happening.

In better times Dr. Jay would be confirmed unanimously; I hope that even in our divided country he will receive well-deserved bipartisan support.

This article was originally published by RealClearHealth and made available via RealClearWire.