Trump's NIH pickmade a big mistake on Covid

Jay Bhattacharya , a professor of economics and health policy at Stanford , was a fierce critic of Covid vaccine mandates and other anti-pandemic measures, such as lockdowns and mask mandates.

Julian Zelizer : Bhattachery was hailed by conservatives, MAGA -ites for his defiance, but public health experts noted he had not presented a workable plan to achieve herd immunity while protecting at-risk Americans .

Zelizer says Bhattachedarya got it wrong and now won't admit he was off the mark by a factor of at least 25 .

Bhattacharya and his supporters, including Musk , cannot acknowledge his big error.

He is probably prepared to stick to this misleading CYA spin during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Such disingenuous defensiveness is not a good trait for the top appointment at the federal agency in charge of biomedical and public health research.