Senate Confirms NIH & FDA Directors; HHS Restructures to Cut Costs and Improve Efficiency

The Senate has confirmed that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will lead the NIH and Dr. Marty Makary will lead the FDA. Dr. Bhattacharya is most well-known for his contribution to the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter criticizing the COVID-19 pandemic response, lockdowns, and mask mandates.

After receiving the nomination to lead the NIH, Dr. Bhattacharya said, “We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy again!” Trust in public health and science in the United States has declined in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhattacharya and Makary have vowed to help reform the NIH and FDA with the help of HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Dr. Bhattacharya was called a “fringe epidemiologist” by previous NIH Director Francis Collins in a private email he wrote to Dr. Anthony Fauci. Collins said, “There needs to be a quick and devastating published takedown of its premises. I don’t see anything like that online yet – is it underway?”

Dr. Bhattacharya wrote an op-ed after Donald Trump won the election. He called out the  “massive suppression of scientific debate and research” under the guidance of Dr. Collins and Dr. Fauci. Bhattacharya explained that the status quo is no longer acceptable as trust in American physicians and hospitals declined from 71% to 40% between 2020 and 2024.

Bhattacharya and Makary have called out conflicts of interest within the federal health agencies and vowed to change the culture. Kennedy has frequently called out the revolving door between pharmaceutical companies and high-ranking positions within the federal health agencies.

While Kennedy was campaigning with President Trump, he talked about unhealthy food additives often added to food formulations sold in America. However, as The HighWire reported regarding food dyes, the corporations will create a version without some unhealthy food additives for the European market. Makary has also said that “Half of our nation’s children are sick” and “We are drugging our nation’s children at scale.”

 “Nobody has really been doing anything meaningful on this front until we have gotten new momentum and enthusiasm from Secretary Kennedy and President Trump,” Makary said. “We eat foods with a lot of molecules that do not appear in nature…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.”

Makary has also been openly opposed to vaccine mandates and blanket agency recommendations that don’t consider natural immunity. In a 2021 op-ed, Makary wrote “Vaccinate requirements that are flexible and consider natural immunity are reasonable for essential workers, such as health care workers and teachers. But we should allow people to tailor these recommendations with their physicians.”

In response to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Makary wrote, “The new vaccine mandates inexplicably ignore the overwhelming science on natural immunity.” He added, “Employers and schools requiring vaccination should recognize natural immunity if they want to be science-based.”

On March 10, Secretary Kennedy issued an order to “Explore Rulemaking to Eliminate Pathway for Companies to Self-Affirm Food Ingredients Are Safe.” These are ingredients that are Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) and allows food companies to bypass safety testing for certain food additives.

CBS reported earlier this month that there are at least 950 GRAS substances in American foods that are not allowed in European foods.

HHS announced that it will be cutting 10,000 additional administrative employees as a step to make the agency work more efficiently. This brings the total number of employee cuts to 20,000 within the agency for a total of 62,000 employees. The reorganization effort will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year according to the press release.

28 divisions within HHS will be restructured into just 15 divisions because many of the units are “redundant.” As part of the restructuring, the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) will be created and will absorb five existing divisions: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

In a video statement, Secretary Kennedy said the agency would increase the number of scientists and frontline health providers alongside downsizing administrative positions in HHS.

Kennedy said, “We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. This department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

The press release states that the agency will become “more responsive and efficient, while ensuring that Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential health services remain intact.”

In a video message, Kennedy explained “A few isolated divisions are neglecting public health altogether and seem only accountable to the industries that they’re supposed to be regulating. In one case, defiant bureaucrats impeded the secretary’s office from accessing the closely guarded databases that might reveal the dangers of certain drugs and medical interventions.”

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) will be transferred to the CDC “reinforcing its core mission to protect Americans from health threats.”

Kennedy said, “Over the past four years during the Biden administration, HHS’s budget increased by 38% and its staffing increased by 17%. But all of that money has failed to improve the health of Americans. In fact, the rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically as our department has grown. Our life spans have dropped. So now Americans live six years shorter than Europeans.

Kennedy continued, “We are the sickest nation in the world and we have the highest rate of chronic disease. The US ranks last among 40 developed nations in terms of health, but we spend two to three times more per capita than those nations. As secretary, I now understand why all this money is not improving our health. HHS is a sprawling bureaucracy that encompasses literally hundreds of departments, committees, and other offices.”