Biden COVID response coordinator: Trump picks for FDA, NIH 'pretty reasonable'

Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and former White House coronavirus coordinator under President Biden, said President-elect Trump’s picks to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are “pretty reasonable.”

Trump in recent days has built out his health team, tapping Johns Hopkins’s surgeon Marty Makary to lead the FDA, television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the CMS, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Stanford University-trained physician and economist Jay Bhattacharya is rumored to be the top pick for the NIH.

“While RFK Jr is an absolutely terrible choice for HHS Secretary, I think Marty Makary at FDA, Dr. Oz at CMS and Jay Bhattacharya at NIH are all pretty reasonable,” Jha posted Sunday morning on social platform X. “I have plenty of policy disagreements with them. They are smart and experienced. We will need them to do well.”

Trump has faced considerable backlash to his nominees for a number of administration positions.

Kennedy has been the most controversial choice for the health team, as he has peddled anti-vaccine views and vowed to purge entire departments at the Food and Drug Administration to root out corruption.

Jha also briefly commented on Trump’s decision to choose former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon (R) to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying it was a “critically important role,” but he knows “almost nothing about Dr. Weldon.”

“He will be key to protecting the health of the American people,” Jha posted. “Will be important to see what we learn in his hearings.”