The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Indian-origin Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford School of Medicine, as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to the official website of the US Senate, Bhattacharya won the vote 53-47 during the first session of the roll call vote in the 119th Congress.

An earlier nomination statement from former US President Donald Trump described Bhattacharya as a professor of health policy at Stanford University, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a senior fellow at multiple institutions, including the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Hoover Institution.

He also serves as the director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, with research focusing on government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics.

Bhattacharya is well known as a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an alternative approach to lockdowns proposed in October 2020. His peer-reviewed research has been published in journals covering economics, statistics, law, medicine, public health, and health policy.

The statement further mentioned that Bhattacharya and newly appointed US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will collaborate to restore the NIH to a “Gold Standard of Medical Research.”

Following Bhattacharya’s confirmation as NIH Director, US Republican Senator from Kentucky Mitch McConnell congratulated him, expressing confidence in his leadership.

“Voted today to confirm Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. With an extensive background in medical research, I expect Dr. Bhattacharya to provide sound leadership at the NIH,” McConnell wrote on X.

Earlier in February, the US Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, as US Health and Human Services Secretary with a vote of 52-48.

ANI