Nih Head Quarrels With Cbs Host Over Loss In Public Trust On Health Issues

Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health, on Sunday appeared to blame a growing number of national health concerns on the media and the Biden administration.

In a sometimes tense interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Bhattacharya argued that public trust in health officials has dropped due to steps taken by former President Joe Biden’s administration during the Covid-19 pandemic and the way in which the media covered the deadly virus.

“The key thing is, there's a loss of public trust in public health that happened in part because of — frankly even on this network and on other networks, there was a particular single point of view put across during the Covid pandemic about, you know, that led to things that really did cause harm to people,” Bhattacharya told host Margaret Brennan.

Brennan interrupted, replying, “This is not a productive line of claims. We covered Covid in depth on this program, like no other Sunday show did.”

Bhattacharya appeared to slightly walk back the claims, telling Brennan he wasn’t blaming her specifically, but said decisions made by public health officials led people to lose trust in the face of public health. Brennan questioned if he was referring to Trump administration officials, to which Bhattacharya replied, “No, like Biden.” He added that Biden had “censored” him.

It is the second week in a row in which health officials under the Trump administration have become embroiled with reporters over misinformation surrounding the pandemic, which arrived in the United States in early 2020, and ongoing effects of misinformation. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash last week, launching attacks against Anthony Fauci and arguing that protecting constitutional rights must take priority during future public health crises.

“The pandemic began under the Trump administration,” Brennan said Sunday. “RFK Jr. called the Covid vaccine the deadliest vaccine ever made. That is misinformation, and we're not being clear about that.”

Brennan went on to ask Bhattacharya, whose stint as acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ends this week, about the deadly shooting that took place at the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta one year ago.

“His father said he was brainwashed about the Covid vaccine and thought it was making him suicidal,” Brennan said of the shooter as she continued to press Bhattacharya on the topic of misinformation.

“That distrust was not caused by President Trump. It wasn't caused by Bobby,” Bhattacharya replied. “It was caused by a lot of sort of misinformation, often spread by the government itself, spread by mask mandates. So if you want to talk about public trust, you have to embrace that fully, right? You can't just talk about it in a narrow political way.”

Brennan tried to regain control of the interview, telling Bhattacharya she was discussing the role of misinformation, but he interrupted her.

“Just to be blunt, what you're talking about — what you're talking about is, you're trying to blame the shooting on Bobby,” Bhattacharya said.

“No, I'm not. I'm reading you what his father said!” a visibly shocked Brennan replied. As Bhattacharya attempted to speak over her, Brennan pivoted to ask about reporting that Trump is gearing up to sign an executive order directing health officials to investigate a link between autism and vaccines.

“Do you think that's restoring trust in vaccines?” Brennan asked.

“You can ask the president about the executive order,” Bhattacharya answered. “I won't be able to tell you specifically what's on it because I don't think it's done yet. You can ask the president about it.”

“Should parents trust that they can go vaccinate their kids when their doctor tells them to do so for them to go back to school?” Brennan pressed.

Bhattacharya once again attempted to speak on the pandemic, pointing to school closures and stating, “It was a tremendous mistake to cause parents to fear sending their kids to school during the Covid pandemic. The kids were better off in school.”

A frustrated Brennan replied, “I'm talking about what people do now. It's August, about to be September. I'm not talking about 2020. I'm talking about 2026. Can these parents trust you and the recommendation that they should go get their kids vaccinated to go back to school?”

“I'm giving my recommendation, I vaccinated my kids,” Bhattacharya said. “If you want to protect your kids from these sort of parental diseases, yes, you should vaccinate your kids. But it is even more important that these kids go to school.”