Meet Jay Bhattacharya, Kolkata-born professor likely to head top US health agency

The NIH is a US$ 50 billion agency that is involved with biomedical research, gives funding grants to researchers, oversees clinical trials on its Maryland campus, and supports many different efforts to develop drugs and therapeutics.

Jay Bhattacharya is currently a professor of health policy at Stanford University, whose research focuses on the economics of health care around the world with a particular emphasis on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations.

Earlier this week, Bhattacharya met Robert F Kennedy, who has been selected by Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a major US health agency that manages NIH and other health agencies.

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Restructuring NIH

Kennedy, a noted environmental advocate and nephew of former President John F Kennedy, has long championed public health reforms. According to a report in The Washington Post, the Kolkata-born Bhattacharya impressed RFK Jr with his plans to restructure the NIH.

Bhattacharya reportedly recommended enhancing funding for innovative research projects, cutting back on the influence of some of its longest-serving career officials, among other ideas. However, there has been no official announcement on this posting.

According to media report, other candidates are also being considered to lead NIH. The decision of who will lead NIH will be finalised by the President-elect himself.

Support reform: Bhattacharya

Meanwhile, addressing reports on his appointment, Bhattarcharya posted on X: "That decision has not yet been made, as far as I know. No matter what happens, I will do my best in the coming years, in whatever role I have, to help support the reform of the American scientific and public health institutions after the Covid era fiasco so that they work for the benefit of the American people."

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So, who is Jay Bhattarcharya?

Born in Kolkata, in 1968, Jayanta "Jay" Bhattacharya is a professor at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research. He is also director of Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.

He has a MD and PhD in economics from Stanford University. According to Stanford's official website, Dr Bhattacharya's research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, with a particular emphasis on the role of government programmes, biomedical innovation, and economics.

The economist's broader research interests encompass the implications of population ageing for future population health and medical spending in developed countries, and the role played by biomedical innovation on health.

A critic of Covid-19 response

Bhattacharya had been at the forefront criticising the federal government's Covid-19 response. He had co-written an open letter in October 2020 known as the Great Barrington Declaration that advocated lifting coronavirus-related shutdowns and at the same time keeping "focused protections" for vulnerable populations, such as older Americans.

Some Republican politicians and some Americans supported him since they wanted normal life to resume quickly during COVID. But, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization called it 'unethical' and not feasible.

Early in the pandemic, Bhattacharya also co-authored an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?"

The piece noted that, "a 20,000- or 40,000-death epidemic is a far less severe problem than one that kills two million," and that a "universal quarantine may not be worth the costs it imposes on the economy, community, and individual mental and physical health."