Jay Bhattacharya

I want reform of the public health authorities so that they become worthy of trust.

And I pointed to, I think it was like a Pew poll in 2024, that 25% of Americans don't believe that scientists have the best interest of the public at heart, one in four.

And then people will come back to me, scientists will come, well, look, 75% trust us.

That's too low a bar, Ross.

It needs to be 100.

It's not politics where if I get 50 plus one, I've succeeded.

If I'm at 75% of our scientific work, where the public thinks that the work that the NIH does benefits them, it's an utter failure.

Right.

So three big things.

And they're all designed or aimed at establishing a trustworthy scientific establishment in the United States for biomedicine.

I'm going to step back.

The mission of the NIH is that we do research that advances the health and longevity of people, specifically American people.

If we achieve that mission, we've gone a long way to achieving trust.

And if you look at the last 15 years, from 2010 to now,

Life expectancy has been flat.

There was a collapse that lasted almost three or four years.

And in 2024, I think we have roughly... It's just started growing again.

It's just back to where it was in 2019, which was roughly where it was in 2010.

All these amazing advances in science, which I just marvel at.

A cure for sickle cell anemia, which I would have thought was science fiction if you told me in med school in the mid-90s.