Trump’s candidate for the National Institutes of Health, the head of the frozen talks and the strengthening of “scientific opposition”

On Wednesday he was committed to ensuring that scientists at the National Health Institutes and those who receive the granting of national health institutes have funding to do their work – but it was mysterious on how to achieve this.

During his confirmation session before the Senate, Bhhatsharia, an economist at Stanford University in California, appeared that he is sending himself the recent turmoil in the agency. The granting of grants has stopped significantly, and nearly 1,200 employees of the National Health Institutes of Health were launched in mid -February. He said, when asked about the shooting: “I was not involved in employee decisions yet.” But he did not commit to nominating those who lost their jobs.

“I thought he happened to be very reasonable,” said Carroll Labon, a biologist at the Northwestern University of North and Evinston University. She said that the exception was a discussion of Bhavid-19-the subject of his section from many scholars because of his views on the locks and Covid-19 vaccines.

Labon added: “The most discomfort she felt during the session is that the main issue of science did not appear.” She said that this negligence led her to worry that the economist does not understand its importance.

Turbulent times

If confirmed, Bhattacharlya will form an agency with a budget of about $ 47 billion, making it the largest fun in the world for biomedical research.

But since Trump, a Republican, took office in January, there was a sharp decrease in granting the new research granted, leaving many scholars in forgetting. Trump officials also used procedural maneuvers to prevent grant review meetings from occurrence, and the agency announced on February 7 that the research “indirect cost”, which is a key to universities ’work throughout the country, will be directed, and effectively effectively. The courts have developed many of these measures.

Bhattacharlya has gained general importance after co -authored an open message called the Great Barrington Declaration. It was published in October 2020, and it argued against Kovid -19 in favor of normal life to allow the “herd immunity” to learn -a proposal that was removed by many scientists and officials of the National Health Institutes. “Hundreds of thousands of people would have ever followed this strategy,” Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health at that time.

New priorities

In his confirmation session, BHATTACHAYA has set his five priorities for chronic diseases research, reproduction, encouraging the culture of “scientific opposition”, financing advanced research and organizing “the research fraught with risks that have the possibility of causing a pandemic.”

“He commits to ensure that all scientists in the National Institutes of Health and all those supported by the national health institutes have the resources they need to do their job,” said Bhattacharlya again and again. When asked if he was immediately restarting grant review meetings, he replied, “Certainly. My job is to ensure the occurrence of these basic scientific meetings and other activities.” He also stressed the need to finance the national health institutes to meet the health needs of “minority groups” and long long research.

But he was not explicitly obligated to allow new grants to start flowing again, or to re -employ the national health institutes who have been separated. Both Democratic Senate and Republican members raised the maximum of 15 % of the cost that the National Institutes of Health tried to impose on universities. Bhattacharlya agreed that this money is paid for important things. But he also said that “there is a lot of confidence” on how to spend this money and make the indirect cost scrutiny of the cost.

Correspondence to the vaccine

Bhattacharlya occurs carefully when discussing infectious diseases: If it is confirmed, its future president will be Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the Minister of the US Department of Health and Humanitarian Services, who has a long history of the Anti -Qazi Activity. When asked about the RFK statement at a combat -combating conference in 2023, the National Institutes of Health should give infectious pathology “a break for approximately 8 years”, Bahtasharia replied that RFK “is fully committed” to treating the health needs of the nation, including infectious diseases.