Nisha Acharya

Dr. Nisha Acharya is a clinician scientist and ophthalmologist at the University of California, San Francisco, specializing in inflammatory diseases of the eye. Her research focuses on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, particularly the shingles vaccine, which is recommended for adults aged 50 and older. Recently, she made headlines when the National Institutes of Health terminated her grant, which was aimed at studying the risks and benefits of the shingles vaccine, amid a broader policy shift under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite not studying vaccine hesitancy, her funding was caught in a wave of cancellations affecting researchers exploring vaccination issues, which she argues undermines vital safety research in the field.