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Senate confirms Trump nominees Bhattacharya, Makary to lead NIH, FDA – LifeSite

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump’s nominees to lead two of the country’s major health organizations who are onboard with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s goal to make America healthy again (MAHA) were confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.  

Following a 53-47 party-line vote, Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya is the new head of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and Marty Makary is at the helm of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after being confirmed by a slightly larger margin, 56-44, with help of three Democrat votes.   

Both men are Washington outsiders who shot to prominence as outspoken critics of the government, medical, and pharmaceutical industry’s heavy handling of the COVID-19 crisis.  

Their installations as head of the NIH and the FDA are made more noteworthy because of their strong criticisms of the agencies from the start of the COVID outbreak five years ago. 

Dr. Bhattacharya promises to restore free speech, halt use of use aborted babies in research  

In May 2020, Bhattacharya, a physician and health economist from Stanford University, conducted a study that concluded that the lockdowns instituted across much of the nation and the world were more dangerous than they are helpful.  

The lockdown strategy is “doomed to fail,” warned Bhattacharya, “and it’s also going to be counterproductive.”  

In October 2020, he co-authored The Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the harmful lockdown policies.   

During his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, Bhattacharya said that, under his leadership, the NIH would no longer use aborted babies’ tissue in research.   

Before Tuesday’s Senate vote confirming him as head of the NIH, Bhattacharya outlined for senators “five concrete goals” for the agency.  

He promised that NIH research would focus on research that solves the American chronic disease crisis, which is “severe, with hundreds of millions of Americans – children and adults – suffering from obesity, heart disease, cancer and more.”  

He also vowed to “establish a culture of respect for free speech in science and scientific dissent at the NIH.”  

“Over the last few years, top NIH officials oversaw a culture of cover-up, obfuscation, and a lack of tolerance for ideas that differ from theirs,” explained Bhattacharya.  

In what was likely intended as a sharp criticism of former NIH official Anthony Fauci, he said that “NIH must ensure that it never supports work that might cause harm,” citing “risky research that has the possibility of causing a pandemic.” 

“This is a huge win for MAHA and medical freedom,” declared MAHA advocate Holden Culotta of Bhattacharya’s confirmation.  

“How it started: Disgraced NIH Director Francis Collins demands a ‘devastating takedown’ of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s Great Barrington Declaration that called for covid lockdowns to end,” wrote journalist Greg Price on X, displaying Collin’s hyperbolic derogatory October 2020 memo next to a photo Bhattacharya’s confirmation sailing through the Senate.. 

“How it’s going: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is officially on his way to his old office,” noted Price. 

“4 years ago, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was on a COVID blacklist on Twitter.  Today, he was confirmed for Director of the NIH,” said End Wokeness.   

Pro-life Dr. Makary pledges to end the poisoning of our children, revisit abortion pills   

Like Bhattacharya, the new FDA head has vowed to restore public trust in government oversight of the food and pharmaceutical industries, pledging to address the “cozy relationship between industry and the regulators that are supposed to be regulating the products.”  

Over the years, Makary has also spoken out about the horrors of abortion, noting in a 2022 interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that “somewhere between 15 and 20 weeks, babies will actually resist the instruments of abortion.”   

“THIS IS HUGE,” declared Seth Gruber, CEO/founder of the White Rose Resistance.  

“The [S]enate just confirmed Pro-Life Doctor Marty Makary will head the FDA!!! Having a Pro-Life Doctor in charge will be HUGE in the fight against the abortion pill! 

“We need to review the ethics policy [of the FDA] because people see things that appear to be a cozy relationship between industry and the regulators that are supposed to be regulating the products,” said Makary. “I want life sciences companies to thrive, but we need to call balls and strikes and to keep that independent scientific review process free of any conflicts.” 

Makary has promised impartial, science-based reviews on everything from abortion pills to vaccine policy to food chemicals which may be poisoning children.  

“Half of our nation’s children are sick,” said Makary in advance of the Senate vote, “and nobody has really been doing anything meaningful on this front until we have gotten new momentum and enthusiasm from Secretary Kennedy and President Trump to finally address the root causes of these diseases: general body inflammation and generalized insulin resistance.”

Makary said that food plays a big role in those trends.   

“We eat foods with a lot of molecules that do not appear in nature,” said Makary, “There’s a body of research now that suggests concern with some of these ingredients.” 

“We have to look at those ingredients, and you have my commitment to do so if confirmed as FDA commissioner,” he promised. 

He said that chemicals in our food supply trigger an inflammatory response in the gastrointestinal tract – a chronic low grade reaction – causing kids to feel sick. 

“We are drugging our nation’s children at scale,” said Makary. “We have to reassess what we’re doing because we’re not on a good path.” 

Makary said that the American public wants to see “an FDA that is independent of corporate influence.” 

“One of my goals is to ensure that the FDA maintains its scientific integrity and that we can do what we can to contribute to the Make America Healthy Again spirit.”  


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