The Senate confirms Bhattachary and Makary to HHS positions

On Tuesday, the Senate was confirmed by Dr. Martin A. Makary as a commissioner for Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as the director of the National Institutes of Health, installing two critics of medical establishment to influential positions in connection with Trump’s administrative campaign in order to reduce expenses in health agencies.

In voting 56 to 44, Dr. Makary confirmed that he was conducting an agency with a wide regulatory body over products, including drugs and vaccines, putting him in the center of debates on the safety of the abortion pill and a wide range of vaccination.

Confirmation of Dr. Bhattachary-53–47, in voting on the party line-aside him at the head of the world’s most crucial medical research agencies, which has recently been tired by the cuts of staff and orders to stop or cancel extensive funds for research.

Dr. Makary, a surgeon of pancreatic cancer and health policy researcher from Johns Hopkins University, pointed out the attention of the Trump band as the personality of Fox News and commentator Covid, who in 2021 incorrectly anticipated that the nation “raced towards an extremely low level of infection.”

At the hearing confirming this month, Dr. Makary signaled that he had shared republican fears of extended access to the abortion pill, which Biden administration made available to people without a personal medical meeting.

He also expressed support for vaccines, even when he suggested that FDA had to review the role of vaccine experts to which the agency was asking for advice.

Legislators warned that the staff of cutting and employing freezing by the Trump administration could weaken FDA efforts to ensure the safety of food supply.

Nih, which has $ 48 billion in budget and funds for medical research on diseases such as cancer and diabetes, has also been compacted by Trump’s exemptions and administration to block key parts of the subsidy creation process and simply scramble some subsidies.

Dr. Bhattacharya, a health economist and medical professor in Stanford, largely avoided questions about these decisions at the hearing confirming at the beginning of March.

In 2020 he appeared at the Public attention center, when he was among the authors of the Anti -Blocked Treaty, The Great Barrington Declaration, which argued for the protection of older and more sensitive people against Covid, while allowing the virus to spread among younger, healthier people.

He also argued about the reform of scientific financing practices, including a greater analysis of research results, which are not incurred by subsequent research and directing money to the most far -reaching and novel research, not incremental research.

This month, Dr. Bhattacharya, challenged by legislators, said that he supported the instruction of children towards diseases such as Odra, but also that scientists should conduct more testing of autism and vaccines, the position in contradictory evidence shows no relationship between them.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health, who met with criticism for his reluctance to a clear recommendation of vaccination during the deadly explosion of the Odra in Western Texas, is supervised by both FDA and Nih