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Under hostile questioning from senators of both parties, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, said on Wednesday that he was “convinced” vaccines did not cause autism even as he urged more research on the question, which scientists say has long been settled. (Mueller and Gay Stolberg, 3/5)

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya promised to cut wasted research dollars and focus on funding studies to find the root causes of chronic diseases during his confirmation hearing to direct the $48 billion National Institutes of Health this morning. Every dollar wasted on a frivolous study, every dollar wasted on administrative costs that are not needed, is a dollar not spent on research,” Bhattacharya told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (Schumaker and Payne, 3/5)

The most telling signal from Jay Bhattacharya’s confirmation hearing as nominee to direct the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday lay in what he would not say. He would not say he’d restore funding to grants on LGBTQ issues canceled by the Trump administration — even as he said he didn’t think ideology should determine the direction of science. He would not say that there’s been enough research about the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism, even as a Republican senator declared it would be “pissing away money” on a question that has been extensively studied already. He would not say that he would object if President Trump gave him illegal directives, even as he vowed to follow the law. (Boodman, 3/5)

Jay Bhattacharya is about to get his chance to settle old Covid scores. The Stanford health economist became a celebrity among Americans chafing at Covid lockdowns and school closures when he co-authored an October 2020 letter calling out America’s public health leaders. On Wednesday, he’ll explain to senators why he was right and his critics were wrong — and why they should confirm him to lead the government’s preeminent health research agency, the National Institutes of Health. (Schumaker, 3/5)

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration is set to face the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday morning, and he’s likely to receive a flurry of questions ranging from recent firings at the agency to how he will advance Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. (DeGroot, 3/5)

Maine Senator Susan Collins said she has “areas of disagreement” with President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making the moderate Republican’s position key to the vote’s outcome. Collins expressed concern about physician Dave Weldon’s views on childhood vaccines. In his days as a former congressman, Weldon promoted the idea that a mercury-containing vaccine preservative caused children to become autistic. (Cohrs Zhang, 3/6)