Jay Bhattacharya

So I completely understand what they're trying to achieve, and I share their goal entirely.

How it's achieved, I think that's done in context with working with a broader set of people, including people in Congress, also who I have a tremendous respect for, right?

Short answer is no, because, I mean, I spend most of my time at the NIH.

All the hard problems come up to me.

So I spend a lot of time on sort of management challenges at the NIH, a lot of time at the White House, a lot of time at HHS, a lot of time in Congress.

That's my job, like to talk to people.

So the short answer is no.

But I will say like that criticism was interesting to me because it seemed to me like, like the reason I like podcasts is I can talk to the American public about what my ideas are for things that they presumably care about.

Like they care what the NIH does because it might produce cures and treatments, right?

So I can communicate those ideas.

It's kind of like the modern fireside chat that like FDR would have, right?

And the criticism from that Atlantic article is trying to get me to, like, feel bad about that public communication.

No, but the point is, like, they're trying to get me to, like, think twice about doing that kind of public communication in part because I think they don't want me talking to the public.

They're trying to, like, use name-calling in place of actually arguing.

in place of actually engaging.

If life expectancy in this country goes up over the next three or four years, if the healthcare system starts adopting

more effective ways to address the chronic health conditions of the country, but in ways that are less expensive than they currently are.

If the culture of science establishes replication as the core basis of truth and the scientific literature then becomes much more trustworthy as a result,

And if the kinds of frontier scientific ideas, especially the early career scientists tend to have, get funded more, and then some of those ideas pan out with fundamental changes that we think about biomedicine, resulting in treatments and cures, that's the measure of success.

All right.