Senior NIH official pushes MAHA strategy to skeptical ADA audience

Politics Senior NIH official pushes MAHA strategy to skeptical ADA audience ‘I could have written the MAHA agenda,’ adviser to Bhattacharya said Manage alerts for this article Email this article Share this article By Elizabeth CooneyJune 5, 2026 Cardiovascular Disease Reporter Elizabeth Cooney[email protected]Liz covers cardiovascular and metabolic disease, asking why we’re not doing better or even losing ground against the world’s leading killer. Send tips on Signal at LizC.22. NEW ORLEANS — A senior adviser to the leader of the National Institutes of Health opened his speech to a national gathering of diabetes researchers with a full-throated endorsement of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Then, during the fireside chat that followed, he withstood sustained cheers for criticism of deep funding cuts to the nation’s biomedical research enterprise that he was asked to explain. “I could have written the MAHA agenda,” Richard Woychik, who works closely with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, said Friday, recalling when he first learned last October of the policy embraced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Advertisement “The MAHA strategy, it really harnesses NIH-wide innovation, and it’s all about better understanding and focusing on preventing and reducing the burden of diabetes throughout the follow-up strategic approaches,” he said. “Diabetes is one of the clearest examples of why NIH needs an integrated approach to chronic diseases.” Former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Woychik delivered the keynote address to open the American Diabetes Association’s 2026 scientific sessions after Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, canceled his appearance. ADA cited a “last-minute, unexpected scheduling conflict” that required an in-person meeting with President Trump. Woychik repeatedly said he and Bhattacharya were closely aligned on NIH objectives. In the chat following his remarks, Rita Kalyani, ADA’s chief scientific officer, quoted Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who in a May Senate hearing described the “systematic dismantling of long-standing research programs and the deliberate erosion of research institutions that make America the global leader in biomedical innovation.”Advertisement “This is a sentiment that is shared by some in this room,” Kalyani said to applause from the hundreds of people gathered in the cavernous conference hall. She pressed him two other times, greeted each time with more clapping throughout the room. In response, Woychik laid the problem of grant funding at the feet of Congress and attributed painful cuts to grants, staff, and careers to “change.” “I think we all have to acknowledge that we’re in a very changing environment. We have a new administration. We have new NIH directors. Jay has his own priorities,” he said. “They’re different than past directors’ and, in fact, he was hired because he has different priorities. And so we just have to acknowledge that things are changing.” Unknown to the crowd, five ADA registrants had been escorted by local police out of the convention center earlier on Friday as they handed out copies of an editorial published in ADA’s Diabetes Care journal criticizing Trump administration changes to U.S. biomedical research, MedPage Today reported. Among them was Steven Kahn, lead author of the April 29 editorial titled “Misguided brushes of a pen continue to dismantle and destroy biomedical research in the United States: We can no longer afford complacency and fear. We must all act now!” In response, ADA said, “These attendees were escorted out by our onsite event security because they demonstrated behavior not consistent with this code of conduct. They were respectfully given the opportunity to cease this behavior and chose not to, which is why they were escorted out.” In his speech, Woychik did not shy away from topics that have proved controversial: fluoride in drinking water, autism, and vaccines. He praised efforts to determine the root causes of chronic diseases, including explorations of the “exposome” to capture environmental and social influences in addition to genetics. On autism, “I think it’s clear there is a wealth of genetics in autism, but there’s also an increasingly recognized role for the environment,” he said. Woychik did not relate autism to vaccines, a long-debunked connection embraced by Kennedy and other MAHA adherents, but he did endorse more study.Advertisement “If you read the MAHA Agenda, there’s a lot of discussion about vaccines,” he said. “It’s not arguing whether vaccines are good or bad or whether we should ban them. It’s just developing a better sense of when you’re treated with a vaccine, what are the biological responses, the molecular responses that happen as a consequence of the treatment with the vaccine?” During an epidemic, there is no option to test an individual’s genotype and customize the dose and type of vaccine, he said, arguing instead for a better understanding of immune mechanisms that will prove “incredibly important in how we actually deliver the vaccines.” On fluoridation of the water supply, Woychik invoked the problem of reproducibility in scientific studies. He recalled reviewing the literature on how fluoride might potentially influence children’s mental health when he was director of the NIEHS. A new study of past research is underway. “There were 58 different publications that have fallen all over the place. Some of them have high risk of bias, and it’s really difficult for scientists, much less judges and others in the community, to assess whether or not 7 parts per million is likely to cause an adverse health effect in children,” he said. On research in general, he said Bhattacharya has specific ideas on how to bring more rigor in terms of experimental design before it’s actually started. “From our point of view on the implementation of the MAHA agenda, it’s really about developing gold standard science. We’re really getting to the heart of things. What are the root causes of diabetes? What are things we can be doing to prevent the onset? So that’s what we’re focused on.” In the question-and-answer portion of the session, Kalyani pressed Woychik on peer review of scientific studies taking a backseat to political appointees’ decisions and on redefining the roles of high-level officials who oversee reviews and research grant disbursement from the NIH, again to long and loud applause.Advertisement “This administration’s recently proposed rule challenges the basic freedom of scientific inquiry in this country which has led to the evolution of so many scientific discoveries and advancements for our field,” Kalyani said about peer review. “Many in our community think the administration’s rule threatens our scientific future. Should this community be concerned, and if no, why? And how do you see NIH implementing this rule?” “Well, again, I can’t tell you what to do. It’s open for public comment,” he said about the proposal. “Any and all people who may be interested in making a comment on this are free and open to provide comments.” In closing Woychik returned to the role of change. “I don’t know if it’s clear, but I’m actually pretty excited about where we can be going,” he said. “There are bumps in the road, there’re changes that are happening. Change is never easy.” chronic disease, diabetes, Policy, research Submit a correction requestReprints Elizabeth Cooney Cardiovascular Disease Reporter Liz covers cardiovascular and metabolic disease, asking why we’re not doing better or even losing ground against the world’s leading killer. Send tips on Signal at LizC.22. Newsletter Stay on top of the latest developments coming out of the American Diabetes Association conference. 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