The Stanford professor was appointed Tuesday to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya has previously made controversial critiques of lockdowns and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON — President elect Donald J. Trump announced on Tuesday night that he would nominate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor of health policy and outspoken critic of the nation’s public health system, to lead the National Institutes of Health.

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Stanford University physician and economist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health on Tuesday, a move that would hand the reigns of the country’s premier medical research agency to a noted critic of COVID-19 lockdown measures and a proponent of “herd immunity