Senate confirms Bhattacharya and Makary to key health posts, sparking fears of radical shake-ups
The U.S. Senate has confirmed two of the Trump administration’s most controversial health appointees, placing critics of the medical establishment at the helm of the nation’s top health agencies.
In a narrow 56-44 vote, Dr. Martin A. Makary was confirmed as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), granting him sweeping regulatory power over medicines, vaccines, and food safety. Meanwhile, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya secured a 53-47 party-line confirmation as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), positioning him to oversee billions in medical research funding despite deep budget cuts.
Both figures have built reputations as outspoken skeptics of mainstream public health policies. Dr. Makary, a Johns Hopkins pancreatic surgeon and Fox News contributor, made headlines for wrongly predicting in 2021 that COVID-19 infections were nearing extinction. At his confirmation hearing, he hinted at rolling back expanded access to abortion pills while questioning the influence of FDA vaccine advisers.
Dr. Bhattacharya, a Stanford health economist, became a household name in 2020 as a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued for allowing COVID-19 to spread among younger populations while shielding the vulnerable. His appointment comes amid the Trump administration’s aggressive budget slashing at the NIH, with research funding and staffing facing deep cuts.
Bhattacharya has also reignited controversy by calling for more studies on vaccines and autism, a position long debunked by scientific consensus. His reluctance to clarify NIH’s stance on vaccine safety has fueled concerns, particularly as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself faces backlash for downplaying vaccinations during a deadly measles outbreak in Texas.
With both men now in power, the future of U.S. health policy is at a crossroads. Will their leadership usher in overdue reforms, or are America’s top health institutions on the brink of ideological upheaval?
