Who is India-born Dr Jay Bhattacharya, former CDC critic who will now head the top US health body?

The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director, Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who leads the agency tasked with medical research, will also take temporary charge of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The New York Times first reported the appointment on Wednesday (December 18). For months now, the CDC has been in the middle of a shake-up and removals of senior officials. It was a critical part of the US’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Bhattacharya was among the fiercest critics of the government’s mask mandates and lockdown rules at the time. As he now takes charge of the agency he once criticised, here is a look at Bhattacharya’s views on some key health issues, which have also gained political currency in the US in recent years. ## Who is Jay Bhattacharya? In 2025, Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya became the head of the NIH, equivalent to but with an exponentially larger budget than the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) based in New Delhi. “We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy again!” he wrote after his appointment. Born in Kolkata, Bhattacharya was a professor of health policy and economics at Stanford University, also the institute from which he completed his MD and PhD. He was also the director of Stanford’s Center on the Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. According to his Stanford profile, Bhattacharya’s research “focuses on the constraints that vulnerable populations face in making decisions that affect their health status, as well as the effects of government policies and programs designed to benefit vulnerable populations.” He has authored research papers on varied topics, from the prevalence and economic cost of dementia and frailty among the elderly in Japan, to whether reimbursements for novel drugs are linked to their performance. And why exactly did he oppose lockdowns and mask mandates? Bhattacharya was among the three authors of the ‘Great Barrington Declaration’, an open letter published in October 2020. The declaration criticised Covid-19 lockdowns for “damaging physical and mental health”, arguing that these were leading to lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings, and deteriorating mental health — all of which would lead to greater excess mortality in the years to come. Instead of lockdowns, the declaration called for “focused protection”, which specifically protected those at higher risk of severe disease and hospitalisation, while allowing younger people with lower risk to resume normal life. “We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity,” the declaration stated. However, it has since been demonstrated that Covid-19 does not generate lifelong immunity, with people repeatedly getting infections as newer variants of the virus emerge. Moreover, many individuals continue to battle what doctors refer to as “long Covid”, in which various symptoms persist or develop even after recovery from the initial infection. The Great Barrington Declaration also came before the delta wave, which killed many young people who, as per the declaration, did not need protection. Bhattacharya was also among the people who sued the Biden administration for allegedly pressuring social media companies to censor Covid-19 sceptics. ## CDC’s woes Bhattacharya will be the third leader of what the Associated Press described as the “embattled CDC, the nation’s top public health agency,” under Trump 2.0. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., fired Director Susan Monarez last August, about a month after her appointment. It later emerged that she disagreed with Kennedy over childhood vaccinations. During her confirmation hearing for the position, she said she had not seen evidence linking vaccines and autism, which is a disorder that can impact how a person socialises and perceives the world. Crucially, adequate care can help improve autistic people’s quality of life. However, autism and vaccines have increasingly become a rallying point for many parents in the US and Europe, despite there being no scientific evidence linking vaccines with autism. Monarez was followed by Jim O’Neill. Politico reported that with Kennedy’s “blessing,” he overhauled the vaccine schedule by “removing meningitis, flu, hepatitis A and rotavirus from the agency’s list of routinely recommended vaccines.” He may now be appointed to a different health or science agency. Bhattacharya recently said childhood measles vaccination was “the best way to address the measles epidemic in this country,” and testified that he’d seen no evidence linking any single vaccine to autism. Fear-mongering around linking the two has received a boost under RFK Jr, who has often advocated for controversial health practices with little data backing them. Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More