Breaking: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Marty Makary Confirmed to Lead NIH and FDA, Respectively

By Adam Garrie, Breaking News Reporter, The Kennedy Beacon

On Tuesday, March 25, in quick succession, the Senate voted to confirm Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as the new Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The 53-47 vote followed party lines with all Republicans voting to confirm and all Democrats voting in opposition.

Photo by Associated Press

Moments later, the Senate also voted to confirm Dr. Marty Makary as the nation’s new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner. In a 56-44 vote, GOP Senators were joined by three Democrats who supported the confirmation, including Senator Durbin of Illinois and Senators Hassan and Shaheen of New Hampshire.

Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, issued a statement following the Senate vote: “Americans—and, in many cases, the world—depend on the FDA’s gold standard of determining the safety and effectiveness of medicines and medical products for patients. I’m confident that Dr. Makary’s medical and research experience, coupled with his thoughtfulness, will help strengthen the FDA. I congratulate him on his confirmation and look forward to working together to better serve the American people.”

Makary has published multiple books on public health. He practices surgical oncology and gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he serves as the Mark Ravitch Chair in Gastrointestinal Surgery and the chief of Islet Transplant Surgery. He opposed COVID mandates imposed by the Biden administration.

Photo by Greg Nash

During his confirmation hearing, Makary joined the HHS Secretary Kennedy in stating that he will prioritize the nations’ chronic health epidemic at the FDA.

Bhattacharya is a professor of Health Policy at Stanford University and one of authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document written and signed by multiple doctors and scientists opposing lockdowns in the early days of COVID-19.

The new NIH director is known for a joint focus on public health and macroeconomics. He has long stressed the integral relationship between a healthy population and a strong economy. As part of his work, he has helped low income Americans to gain access to high quality healthcare and nutrition.

Earlier this month, The Kennedy Beacon reported, “Bhattacharya’s research into a wide array of public health issues further led him to conclude that the mRNA Covid vaccines could risk myocarditis, a sometimes deadly inflammation of the heart muscle. He also said young men who took the mRNA vaccine were particularly vulnerable to the Covid shot, two narratives that ran directly counter to the official lines coming from the White House and legacy media. Bhattacharya further said that the lack of honesty among public health officials during the pandemic contributed to the erosion of public trust in the scientific community.”

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Bhattacharya promised to oversee public health in a manner that prioritizes objective and non-invasive solutions over politicized and overtly interventionist methods that he said had led to the public losing trust in the scientific community and medical establishment.

Bhattacharya also told Senators that his priority will be a laser-like focus on ending the nation’s spiralling chronic health epidemic, a priority he shares with Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

He also promised a “culture of respect for free speech in science and scientific dissent at the NIH”, as reported by the Beacon’s Jennifer Galardi.

Dr. Bhattacharya’s approach to public health bends toward transparency, skepticism and objectivity. His confirmation has been celebrated by members of the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement.