Jay Bhattacharya is Not the NIH Director
Seventy-Five Days of Embarrassing Ineptitude
Allow me to repeat myself: Jay Bhattacharya is not the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Bold claims such as this require strong evidence, contrary to what Jay Bhattacharya, former Standford University health economist, would mislead the American public into believing.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I stand before you today to prosecute a case of fraud perpetuated against the American taxpayer. In the following arguments, I will present an indisputable body of evidence which substantiates such a strong accusation of betrayal. A betrayal, not only to the oath that Jay Bhattacharya swore when he accepted the responsibilities of Director of what was once the world's leading hub for medical and scientific research, but to his Christian God, who in the Ten Commandments as handed down to Moses declared that thou shalt not lie.
Article I: Mr. Bhattacharya is neither Doctor nor Scientist
Jay Bhattacharya has, without a shadow of a doubt, lied to all of us. Bhattacharya is simply following the same pattern of behavior he has personally profited from since the early months of 2020. Now? He is pocketing your tax dollars. While this moment may be traumatic for many of you, I humbly ask that you dig deep into your memories, and ask yourselves, just where was Jay Bhattacharya in the early days of 2020? While Mr. Bhattacharya has a medical degree, he did not pursue residency or ever attempt to attain a medical license, so he has never treated a patient with COVID-19.
I present a June 2023 statement from Dr. Claire Taylor (@drclairetaylor) from the United Kingdom, in response to Jay Bhattacharya's claim that "In the UK, politicians rewrite history to pretend they were always against lockdown:"
"You were not in the UK in March 2020. You were not working here. You did not see the amount of work that went into transforming operating theatres into intensive care units. The wards full of people who died from Covid. I honestly don't know why you think you know what was best."
So just what was "Doctor" Bhattacharya doing in Spring 2020 as hospitals were overwhelmed, as he is unlicensed and unable to treat patients? The answer is that Bhattacharya was commissioned to produce fraudulent evidence to "prove" that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was a harmless and benevolent friend. I'd like to call my first expert witness, a Dr. Bob Morris. In the following two-part analysis, you will find that Mr. Bhattacharya, either incompetently or dishonestly, bastardized his "findings" to suggest COVID-19 had a mere "0.17%" Infection Fatality Rate (IFR), in contrast to direct evidence from New York City which found a 0.7% IFR, not adjusting for reinfections which are now commonplace:
Months later, at the behest of the American Institute for Economic Research (a propaganda outlet funded by fossil fuel and tobacco companies), Mr. Bhattacharya and his fellow travelers would clink champagne glasses and publish a useless online petition titled "The Great Barrington Declaration," which was immediately and overwhelmingly debunked by the overwhelming majority of actual scientists and doctors; of which Bhattacharya had already proven he was clearly neither. Regardless, wealthy interests astroturfed Mr. Bhattacharya into a media darling of contrarianism, of which he shamelessly exploited while neglecting his obligations and responsibilities as a professor of Stanford University. Stanford Administration rewarded him for this misconduct with his own "Pandemic Policy" conference in 2024, padded with numerous anti-vaccine cranks. (PAI)
Mr. Bhattacharya would go on to appear on a wide spectrum of media outlets, hosted by a gradient of contrarianism from Max Blumenthal to comedian Jimmy Dore, to insurrectionist Simone Gold, to the infamous Fox News. He also enjoyed pretending to be an "expert" in various conspiracy theory "documentaries." There was no unscientific anti-vaccine myth Mr. Bhattacharya was unafraid to lend the credibility of not only his name, but the prestige of Stanford University to. When called to testify as an "expert" witness in various legal matters, judges of various courts found Mr. Bhattacharya to be dishonest and unreliable. Even with the advantage of a 6-3 conservative majority, Jay Bhattacharya's claims of being a victim of government censorship were soundly laughed out of the halls of the Supreme Court.
Mr. Bhattacharya spent the past five years refusing to acknowledge when he got basic facts wrong, instead basking in the adoration of his incredibly partisan social media fanbase. As actual scientists and doctors pointed out his numerous basic errors, Mr. Bhattacharya would respond by childishly calling those with real-world responsibility and accomplishments "lockdowners" and "Covidians." As over a million Americans died of COVID-19, and millions more were disabled, Mr. Bhattacharya did little more but mug in front of the closest camera he could find.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have established that Jay Bhattacharya is neither "Doctor" nor "Scientist," at least in the traditional sense of the terms. What you may wish to refer to him as, I leave up to you. Let us fast-forward to 2025, when Jay Bhattacharya was handpicked by anti-vaccine grifter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - now Health and Human Services Secretary - to service as the National Institutes of Health Director, after Mr. Bhattacharya previously endorsed RFK Jr. for President at a 2024 campaign event - long after RFK Jr. got dozens of children killed. (Protect Our Care)
Article II. The Present State of the NIH, June 2025
"The National Institute of Health limps along on invisible crutches, its significance on life support, its staff feeling diminished, dazed and confused." -Federal News Network
In the long history of the National Institutes of Health, the organization has always been led by a medical doctor or accomplished scientist. It is a completely unprecedented shift to appoint a mere economist, whose main priority in life from 2020-2025 seems to be podcasting, to serve as Director of the NIH. After online conspiracy theories falsely blamed the NIH for causing the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIH became a direct target of the Trump Administration, even going so far to humor proposals to eradicate the agency in its entirety.
With the help of a "generative AI" spambot, "Grok," the NIH was besieged with over a thousand layoffs and thousands of grants killed by a completely unqualified, politically extremist organization hellbent on compromising the federal government's regulatory authority. This slash-and-burn continues even after Mr. Bhattacharya was sworn in as NIH director, who has already proven that he is completely unaware of the senior management decisions being made in the organization he is now the figurehead of. Possibly worst of all is the end of collaboration with international partners, which is rooted in pure xenophobia. This compromising of the NIH and it's grant funding accomplishes nothing except destroying tens of thousands of American jobs, and billions of dollars of lost revenue, year after year:
The humiliation and censorship of the world's leading scientists and doctors, destroying research grants on a completely arbitrary collection of buzzwords linked to an imagined "woke mind virus," is a pathetically childish temper tantrum with utterly criminal impacts on the nation in a multitude of ways. After falsely portraying himself a victim of government censorship, debunked by the Supreme Court, Mr. Bhattacharya foolishly thinks his priority as NIH Director is to make excuses and cover for the depraved irrationality of his bosses instead of standing up for the bright minds that remain employed by the National Institutes of Health. There is one simple reason for this:
Jay Bhattacharya is not the Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Even when dragged before United States Congress, the supposed NIH Director cannot answer basic questions from Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) regarding proposed future cuts amounting to a 40% reduction of the NIH Budget. If Bhattacharya was the actual NIH Director making these decisions, he would not be blubbering excuses.
Article III. Jay Bhattacharya as NIH Director
"The attacks we are seeing on science, on the media, and on academic institutions are a classic part of the fascism playbook." -Jenna Norton, PhD, MPH, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases program officer, for AJI
After not even three months as Director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya's organization is in open revolt. Hundreds of NIH employees signed a "Bethesda Declaration," (NPR) not on behalf of a deadly and disabling virus, but to protect "academic freedom and scientific evidence." They make it clear that Mr. Bhattacharya is not talking to NIH staff or taking their concerns seriously, Mr. Bhattacharya blames the NIH for causing the COVID-19 pandemic, and that Mr. Bhattacharya lacks the basic understandings of how the NIH operates. I would like to call my next expert witness, journalist Walker Bragman of Important Context:
Mr. Bhattacharya would hurriedly issue a response to the Bethesda Declaration on Twitter, instead of meeting with the signees privately and respectfully taking their concerns seriously. In his statement, the one "decision" Mr. Bhattacharya claims to take credit for is “moving away” from "politicized science" and “ideological influence.” This is hilarious, as we have already established that Mr. Bhattacharya does not know what science is, and instead of pursuing a medical license, went into the purely political act of writing conservative policy after graduating university.
According to the NIH subreddit, Jay Bhattacharya has also been relatively absent from the campus of the National Institutes of Health. From one anonymous commenter:
“He appears to work from home a good bit of the time…He seems to be very scared of potential violence directed towards him. The NIH townhall where no backpacks were allowed inside and leading his talk with a photo of his children’s uncensored faces in order to garner sympathy. All the while with security trailing him wherever he goes when he is on campus.”
While this explains Mr. Bhattacharya's distance from the scientists and doctors trying to do actual work at the NIH, it is in direct defiance of the Trump Administration's hard ban on remote work for federal employees. Even as Mr. Bhattacharya has frequently displayed his ignorance about the NIH's essential functions; he has instead elected to spend the past 75 days relatively distant from the organization and its day-to-day operations. It's clear that Mr. Bhattacharya is not interested in taking his responsibilities seriously and instead enjoys pretending to be a very important person that needs a taxpayer funded private security detail.
The American taxpayer must ask themselves: Just what has Jay Bhattacharya been doing these past ten weeks, collecting a salary we’re all paying into?
As it turns out, the same exact thing Jay Bhattacharya has been doing for the last five years. On top of getting his fellow anti-vaccine cranks, like Aseem Malhotra and Kevin Bardosh, jobs in the Trump Administration - Mr. Bhattacharya has been neglecting his real-world responsibility to instead go on parade in the media. This is completely unprecedented and only furthers the argument that Mr. Bhattacharya is not the actual Director of the National Institutes of Health.
On the first day of his new job, Mr. Bhattacharya appeared on Bari Weiss' The Free Press podcast "Honesty" before engaging in a dishonest campaign of censorship of NIH scientists. Bhattacharya would record a 4.5 hour podcast with Andrew Huberman, an abusive wellness grifter who spread HPV amongst his partners. On an hour-long Twitter space with depraved Twitter racist Bill Ackman, Bhattacharya inadvertently admits that he's unaware of the NIH's own research grant programs dedicated to supporting new Primary Investigators and Early Stage Investigators.
So yes, Jay Bhattacharya is back to rambling in front of a camera and microphone, spewing ignorance about topics he arrogantly knows very little about. Now Mr. Bhattacharya is doing it while collecting a paycheck funded by you, the American taxpayer. Even worse, Mr. Bhattacharya has grown even bolder in his obsession with mugging in front of a camera: converting a piece of the NIH campus into a podcast studio, launching his own program generically named: "The Director's Desk."
As the National Institutes of Health crumble into irrelevancy, Jay Bhattacharya's top priority is producing even more worthless podcasts. There is no doubt that Bhattacharya has no actual interest in what the National Institutes of Health does in the pursuit of saving lives, instead is enjoying the benefits and prestige of his position as a purely political figurehead - lending credibility to the government’s censorship of scientists, a total admission that he never took “censorship” seriously. This is a clear case of fraud being perpetuated against the American taxpayer.
Article IV. Closing Remarks
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the facts of this case should be clear. We have established that Jay Bhattacharya is not a licensed medical doctor or accomplished scientist. We have established that Mr. Bhattacharya is a serial liar who frequently lashes out with immature insults. We have established that Mr. Bhattacharya is a craven narcissist who has exploited a global pandemic to promote himself into political stardom. All of these are inherently disqualifying characteristics rendering him unable to serve as the Director of the National Institutes of Health, yet he was rewarded with the role for his loyalty to Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
This is because his appointment is purely symbolic, as the organization is now compromised and the staff openly rebelling against Mr. Bhattacharya's politicized censorship. While Mr. Bhattacharya rambles on in podcasts and parades in front of cameras, his incompetence as NIH Director is getting Americans killed. Disruptions to in-progress clinical trials, sweeping cancellations of research grants, and mass firings mean that the NIH can't do the work necessary for developing and improving lifesaving drugs and treatments. A completely arbitrary set of politicized, utterly unscientific guidelines are being deployed to sabotage critical research, as neuroscientist Danielle Beckman (@DaniBeckman) explains:
"Our grant was pulled before review at NIH because we used the words 'women's health.' We want to understand how menopause makes the brain more vulnerable to [Alzheimer's Disease]. 2/3 of those diagnosed are women. All my background and past research are no longer interesting to the U.S."
While this very article is being finalized, federal judge William Young has ruled that many of the NIH cuts that Jay Bhattacharya defended as “moving away from politicized science” and “ideological influence:" are to be reversed:
"This represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America's LGBTQ community. That's what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out. And I do so." -Federal Judge William Young, June 16th, 2025
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has, yet again, been publicly humiliated by the court of law. There is not a single courtroom in which Jay Bhattacharya has not been humiliated in, and it’s clear that he is simply incapable of handling any sort of real-world responsibility. Judge William Young continues, summing up the past 75 days of Jay Bhattacharya’s tenure of NIH Director as a whole:
“Is it true of our society as a whole, have we fallen so low, have we no shame?”
Other prime targets of NIH cuts are HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, vaccines, emerging infectious diseases, and neural disorders - not at the behest of NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, but an unaccountable external organization whose logo shares traits with a similar "efficiency" focused group from Nazi Germany:
This is because Mr. Bhattacharya is not the Director of the National Institutes of Health, but merely a political appointee running cover for the decisions the Trump Administration has already made. No number of hours wasted blubbering falsehoods on podcasts, collecting a salary paid for by hardworking American families, can obfuscate the fact that Mr. Bhattacharya has no autonomy.
The fact that Jay Bhattacharya is drawing a paycheck funded by the American taxpayer is a craven insult to every working American who, aware of it or not, relies upon the critical work the National Institutes of Health perform to safeguard their health. Mr. Bhattacharya is clearly a fraudulent NIH Director. Mr. Bhattacharya should have every last penny collected from his government salary seized and returned, preferably donated to care for the countless Americans disabled by the SARS-CoV-2 virus Mr. Bhattacharya exploited for personal profit. On top of this, Mr. Bhattacharya should also be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, including both criminal and civil charges.
There must be severe consequences to ensure that this catastrophe can never happen again, if America is to ever regain its place in the world as a leader of science and medicine. Nobody should be allowed to think that Jay Bhattacharya's path to power is a model anyone should emulate. The administration of Stanford Medicine, who previously congratulated Mr. Bhattacharya on his nomination, must also issue a public condemnation of his many failures.
Jay Bhattacharya will go down in history as a useless, unscientific podcaster that was handpicked to serve as a slimy political stooge. Mr. Bhattacharya cannot be trusted, not even by Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., with any actual responsibility or independence. Mr. Bhattacharya has no power to make decisions at the institution he’s supposedly Director of - even after hours and hours of publicly sucking up to Trump and RFK Jr. Every last one of his critics have been completely validated in less than three months, and every single pundit who endorsed Mr. Bhattacharya - including the New York Times’ Zeynep Tufekci and Washington Post’s Leana Wen - proved themselves to be a terrible judge of character.
If Jay Bhattacharya had any self-respect, he would be tendering his resignation and issuing a public apology to the countless doctors and scientists of America.
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