Barely a day goes by without a controversial personnel decision in Donald Trump’s future administration team. And the next such decision will be made in the health sector on Wednesday: Trump sees Corona extremist and Drosten opponent Jay Bhattacharya as the future head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Bhattacharya rose to international prominence in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when he strongly spoke out against the lockdowns imposed by many governments. His ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ in particular caused a stir when he and other researchers warned about the consequences of the Corona restrictions. The demand: instead of homeschooling and business closures, attention must be paid to the protection of risk groups.
Drosten: “Group of pseudo-experts”
At the time, Bhattacharya’s criticism was particularly loud in one direction: against German star virologist and corona explainer Christian Drosten of the Berlin Charité. The researcher never tired of emphasizing the importance of tough measures in the situation and also warned of schools as trouble spots. At the time, he described the critics simply as a “group of pseudo-experts.”
Much to the annoyance of the American, who then ultimately targeted the German via X (formerly Twitter). “Drosten lacks the expertise to decide a country’s response to COVID,” he complained. And further: “It is a shame for the German people that the German authorities have given him so much power.”
Did Drosten want to discredit him?
While he also praised Drosten as a “fantastic virologist,” he also claimed that Drosten had deliberately tried to discredit him, “perhaps to avoid the debate about the collateral health harms of lockdowns,” Bhattacharya said.
The controversial American nomination apparently hit the German virologist early in the morning: “You know, there are some who positioned themselves at the time with gross misjudgments and were unable to correct themselves later. This is psychology. This personality is politics,” Drosten responded via X.
“I’m not going to let him rewrite history.”
And substantiated his position in the debate with a contribution from British doctor Neil Stone. This, too, hardly leaves a good impression on Bhattacharya: while people were dying and intensive care units were overloaded, the American spoke smugly about “targeted protection,” he recalled. “I remember and I won’t let him rewrite history.”
Virologist: Does not want reforms, but wants to ‘destroy’ the system
American virologist Angela Rasmussen put it even more drastically: “Bhattacharya is a selfish extremist who supports the anti-vaccine crowd and promotes policies that will kill people,” she also said on X.
“He will set American health care, innovation and science back by a generation.” His goal is not to reform the NIH, but “to destroy it,” is their drastic conclusion.
Trump’s dangerous game with health
Bhattacharya’s new job has many implications. The NIH is considered the premier authority for biomedical research in the US. The authority has a research funding budget worth billions and more than 20,000 employees.
This is Trump’s second controversial appointment, especially in the sensitive area of healthcare. Recently, the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the future Minister of Health for a stir: he is not only considered a conspiracy theorist, but also a fierce opponent of vaccination.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
