Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health has a long history of criticism towards the agency.
The Washington Post reports that Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist at Stanford University, was described as “fringe” by the head of the NIH in October 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic for being one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which stated that it was time for coronavirus lockdowns to end.
Trump announced Bhattacharya as his choice to lead the agency Tuesday night, drawing on the suggestion from his adviser and pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy. The department oversees the NIH.
Bhattacharya is a favorite of many Covid-skeptical Republicans, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis taking his advice during the pandemic. The Stanford academic also has the support of powerful figures among Trump supporters, including Silicon Valley billionaire and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel; Elon Musk, who claims Twitter suppressed Bhattacharya’s views before the tech CEO bought the platform; and podcaster Joe Rogan.
Bhattacharya claims that the NIH is shutting down alternative perspectives, claiming figures in the agency such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, were too powerful.
“I would restructure the NIH to allow there to be many more centers of power, so that you couldn’t have a small number of scientific bureaucrats, dominating a field for a very long time,” Bhattacharya said in a January interview.
Trump’s choice of Bhattacharya seems to be a nod not only towards Covid and lockdown skeptics, but also to those who might place economic concerns over public health. This, coupled with the appointments of people like Kennedy, suggests that if a second pandemic breaks out (which is increasingly likely), the Trump administration may handle it even worse than last time.
Donald Trump is shirking decades-old norms intended to make the transfer of power smoother, according to The New York Times.
After weeks of delays, the president-elect’s team has finally signed a standard transition agreement with the White House to start briefing staff members. But they are still refusing to sign two other key documents. One is a Justice Department agreement to let the F.B.I. perform security clearances for transition team members. This means that the Biden administration still isn’t able to share classified information with anyone from Trump’s transition team. The Trump team also won’t sign the General Services Administration agreement, which provides secure office space and government email accounts.
Top Trump aide Susan Wiles explained the reasoning behind this refusal, stating that Trump wants his team to “operate as a self-sufficient organization. This organizational autonomy means a streamlined process that guarantees the Trump Administration is ready on Day 1.”
“The transition already has existing security and information protections built in, which means we will not require additional government and bureaucratic oversight,” Wiles continued.
But Biden officials say this refusal will just make information sharing harder, as they will have to find other ways to share important, unclassified information with the incoming administration—meaning in-person only briefings and more restrictions on how said information will be shared. The Trump team has not commented on whether they do intend to sign the agreement sometime in the near future.
One of Canada’s leading right-wing politicians was taken aback by Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on America’s northern neighbor.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a member of Canada’s Conservative Party, said to the press Tuesday that Trump’s threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods entering the United States is “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.”
“It’s the biggest threat we’ve ever seen.… It’s unfortunate, it’s very, very hurtful to Canadians and Americans on both sides,” Ford said.
Like Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Tuesday, Ford said that Canada would have “no choice” but to retaliate with tariffs of its own, pointing out that such a move would hurt the $500 billion in annual trade between the United States and the province of Ontario, as well as the country’s entire economy. Trump attacked Canada, Mexico, and China in Truth Social posts on Monday, accusing the North American countries of not doing enough to restrict migrants and drugs from crossing U.S. borders.
If the province of Ontario was a........