Local opinion: The danger to US health science research does not stop at RFK Jr.

Over the past two months a deluge of articles by thousands of scientists and healthcare professionals outlined the dangers of installing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), yet the Senate confirmed him. This means that the country will be subjected to myriad adverse outcomes arising from Kennedy’s anti-vaccine positions, his conspiracy theories and fringe beliefs. However, the threat to US health sciences research does not stop with Kennedy. Two other nominations, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Dr. Dave Weldon as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are gravely concerning to the future of U.S. health science research and public health.

The NIH supports the majority of life science and disease research in the US through grant funding of research projects at universities, institutes and companies in every state. In 2024, $37,433,000,000 was allotted for scientific research throughout the US, creating jobs and economic growth in every state. The Director of NIH should be a respected scientist who will support researchers and shepherd the NIH’s research mission. But Bhattacharya, a physician and economist from Stanford University, has a deep disdain for scientists. During the pandemic he referred to those working on the front lines as “mad-scientist virologists, hypochondriacal epidemiologists, and megalomaniacal science bureaucrats.” These were people who, in record time, obtained critical knowledge of the virus, prepared effective vaccines and drugs, and delivered them to the American people. Bhattacharya’s disrespect for scientists disqualifies him as director of NIH.

But there is more. Bhattacharya is a purveyor of bad science and misinformation. He was an author of the Great Barrington Declaration, a widely criticized proposal from October 2020, before vaccines were available. The proposal showed a lack of understanding of pathogen biology, advising that COVID19 mitigation strategies should be removed in favor of the mass infection of Americans that would purportedly usher in herd immunity. It would be virtually impossible for such a “let it rip” approach to ever contain SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, because the virus changes so rapidly. If this strategy had been followed, there would have been many additional COVID-19 deaths.

After the vaccine became available, Bhattacharya spread misleading information about COVID19 boosters, claiming that the bivalent booster had not been tested in humans. This is incorrect and undermines the system of approval of vaccines that has been successfully and safely applied to the vaccines used in the US.

Given his disdain for scientists, his lack of knowledge of pathogen biology and his willful dissemination of misinformation about vaccines, Jay Bhattacharya would be a disastrously inappropriate director of NIH. He would severely damage and debilitate the most preeminent disease and public health research infrastructures in the world.

Another dangerous nominee is Dr. Dave Weldon to head the CDC. The CDC conducts disease research, develops health policy, provides the public with critical science-driven information about disease outbreaks, food contamination and public health problems. It increases the health security of our nation through science. Dr. Weldon, a physician, served in the Florida House of Representatives. In contrast to the mission of the CDC, he has actively spread misinformation about vaccines, including appearing in an anti-vaccine documentary in 2019. This film was found to be so wildly inaccurate and harmful to the public that it was pulled from several platforms, including YouTube and Amazon. Dr. Weldon promotes the disproven claim that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. He has cast doubt on the safety of the human papillomavirus vaccines, which have been shown both to be safe and to reduce the risk of cervical cancer by 90%. It is difficult to imagine the science and fact-driven mission of CDC surviving under an individual who holds entrenched anti-science beliefs.

Make no mistake, the Trump administration has declared war on the health sciences by nominating Bhattacharya and Weldon. They will damage US disease and vaccine research in irreparable ways. If you care about health, especially that of young children, write to your Senators and demand that these anti-science, anti-vaccine nominees not be confirmed.