Tuesday the Senate confirmed Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health, installing a Contrrianian who has committed himself to reforming scientific financing practices as the leader of the main medical research agency in the world.
The confirmation of Dr. Bhattacharya-With a party vote from 53 to 47-arriva when the Nih, with a budget of $ 48 billion, was beaten by recent cuts to staff and orders to pause or cancel vast research funding.
Dr. Bhattacharya, an economist of health and medicine professor in Stanford, has largely taken questions about these cuts during a confirmation hearing at the beginning of March.
He escaped in the public spotlight in 2020, when he was among the writers of an anti-blocco treaty, the great declaration of Barrington, who supported for the protection of older people and more vulnerable by Covid, letting the virus spread among the youngest and most healthy people.
Questioned by the legislators of this month on the safety of vaccines, dr. Bhattacharya said to support the inoculation of children against diseases such as measles, but also that scientists should conduct more research on autism and vaccines, a position in contrast with extensive tests that do not show any link between the two.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health, who has faced criticism for his reluctance to explicitly recommend vaccinations in the middle of a fatal burst of measles in western Texas, supervises Nih