Trump’s Science Bureau chooses to say he won’t cut more staff

President Donald Trump leads the draft pick at the country’s top government biomedical research institute, saying he has no plans to lay off employees in departments that have been cut by budgets.

“I have no intention of cutting down anyone,” Jay Bhattacharya, a health economist and physician at Stanford University, said at a confirmation hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday. “I will understand the resources needed throughout the NIH and make sure scientists working at the NIH have the resources to do life-saving work.”

With nearly $50 billion in annual research spending, NIH is the focus of Elon Musk’s government’s efficiency ministry’s efforts to cut costs. About 1,000 NIH employees were terminated in the massive layoffs by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Bhattacharya cannot address his plan to target another important cost issue: the proposed cap on the proposed NIH payments for the researcher’s administrative expenses, which may include cleaning supplies and safety. While these indirect costs can range up to 80% of the grants associated with them, the upper limit limits it to 15%.

“Since the pandemic, trust in public health agencies has collapsed, which is very distrustful,” Bhattacharya told the Senate panel.

The proposed cap sparked lawsuits from 22 Democratic attorneys generals to prevent the move. Nevertheless, some researchers say they have not yet obtained allocated NIH funds.

Concerns about the ability of NIH to continue working under the Trump administration are high. Republican’s Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy called for help from the committee and began a hearing asking about the first death of measles reported last week. Cassidy, who has confidence in the vaccine, asked Bhattacharya if he would fund research to debate unproven theories that make the shooting cause autism.

“I don’t think there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism,” Bhattacharya said. The nominee declined to say whether the agency would look at any potential link between autism and the vaccine.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the HHS in charge of NIH, expressed doubts about the safety of the measles vaccine. During the Texas outbreak where nearly 160 people are sick in the state, Kennedy wrote in Fox News that the vaccine also prevents mumps and rubies, but still decides whether to think it is a “personal vaccine.”

Bhattacharya is best known as one of the three authors of the 2020 Declaration, which proposes alternatives to Covid Lockdowns. The great Barrington Declaration believes that the immunity of the herd can be achieved through exposure to the virus and restore normal life, while being protected by vulnerable people.

The statement was attacked by public health leaders, including Anthony Fauci, a former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who called it “very dangerous.” Bhattacharya said he was concerned about the side effects of the Covid vaccine in young people and that “lockdown did not save lives” at the Senate hearing.

A rescue committee votes on whether to nominate Batacharia’s nomination as a full Senate.

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