"The rise of Bhattacharya — from being scorned by the nation’s NIH director to possibly occupying his office four years later..."

"... reflects how the backlash to coronavirus policies has helped reshape conservative politics and elevate new voices..... [W]hile many public health experts issued dire warnings about the need to shutter schools and businesses, Bhattacharya coauthored an April 2020 study that drew a different conclusion: The coronavirus was far more widespread than previously assumed, suggesting its risks were overstated.... [T]he study’s key contention — that many Americans were unknowingly infected and showing no symptoms — was hailed by some conservative leaders eager to end lockdowns.... Then came the Great Barrington Declaration, drafted with Martin Kulldorff, then a professor at Harvard Medical School, and Sunetra Gupta, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Oxford.... 'Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity,' the trio’s open letter read. Public health groups swiftly condemned Bhattacharya and the other authors, saying their proposal would imperil the most vulnerable Americans. While the declaration called for focused protections, such as delivering groceries to older Americans, it urged that younger Americans return to work, allowing them to slowly build immunity against the virus...."

From "Jay Bhattacharya, an NIH critic, emerges as a top candidate to lead the agency/The Stanford physician was excoriated by NIH’s director in 2020 for his 'fringe' ideas on covid. Four years later, he’s poised for power in Trump’s Washington" (WaPo).