Trump picks COVID-19 lockdown skeptic for N.H.O.

A scientist who rebelled against lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic has been named as the next head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees public health and biomedical research in the United States.

The New York Times reported on the 26th local time that President-elect Donald Trump nominated Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya as the head of the National Health Agency.

The National Institute of Health is a medical research institute under the Ministry of Health and Welfare that directs and supports biomedical research related to the treatment and prevention of various diseases.

Professor Bhattacharya opposed lockdown measures and forced wearing of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and published an open letter with fellow researchers in 2020 arguing for combating COVID-19 through herd immunity.

At the time, the World Health Organization (WHO) and others criticized Professor Bhattacharya's claims for not helping to overcome the pandemic.

Born in India, Professor Bhattacharya earned a PhD in economics with a PhD in medicine at Stanford University and taught at his alma mater.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that his name became known globally for continuing to study the country's health policy from an economic perspective.

In recent years, side effects such as the economic fallout caused by uniform lockdown measures during the pandemic and the traumas of students following school closures have been highlighted, leading to a re-evaluation of Professor Bhattacharya's claims.

"He will do his best to make America healthy again with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee for secretary of health and human services," Trump said in announcing the nomination of Professor Bhattacharya on his Truth Social account.

Even before the pandemic, Kennedy Jr. has argued for conspiracy theories that vaccine use causes autism and others.