There’s a sense of dread around the National Institutes of Health
The National Institute of Health is in a “Warming State”: Drunken by Scientific Innovation and the Implications for Research Funding
“Most scientists are very worried,” agrees Bruce Alberts, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, who served as the president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1993 to 2005. “They both have a record of ignoring the best science and making statements and opinions that are not based on the best science and more are based on emotion and the misreading of science.”
A scientist at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine who was the former director of theNIH says that there is a general theme to the ascension to the presidency of Donald Trump. It’s going to have a negative affect on the health sciences. All these are terrible signs that we need to be confronting vigorously.”
“If this all goes on for a couple of weeks then we can evaluate those reforms on their merit and that’s fine,” says the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “But, boy, at the moment it’s really disruptive and harmful.”
The National Institute of Health, one of the agencies in turmoil, is the leading public funder of scientific research in the world.
Even the NIH’s biggest fans say the agency is far from perfect. Some changes have been under consideration for a while, such as making the grant-review process more transparent. But many scientists inside and outside the NIH are describing a sense of foreboding for the NIH.
“It has been the period of most uncertainty in my adult and professional life as a scientist in terms of the continuity of projects,” Daniel Colon-Ramos, a professor of neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine. “In the scientific community, the general feeling is one of worry and uncertainty.”
Officials at many institutions are worried about what might happen next. “I have … heard that some extramural institutions are making anticipatory holds on spending in case there is another spending freeze or something like it,” says Kevin Wilson, a vice president at the American Society for Cell Biology.
So far, NIH funding appears to still be flowing, but there is uncertainty and there are conflicting reports about whether grants are being processed and all payments are being made.
The NIH spends most of the agency’s nearly $48 billion annual budget on funding tens of thousands of researchers outside the agency at universities, hospitals, medical schools and other institutions.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” says Marjorie Levinstein, another postdoctoral fellow at NIH with the union. She studies addiction and had to give up a big step in her research to do so. It’s really messing with our ability to make huge medical discoveries.
But a hiring freeze at the NIH remains in place, along with a prohibition on starting any new research projects on NIH’s campus, and a pause on recruiting new patients for any clinical studies at the agency.
The NIH released a statement Monday night saying the communications blackout has started to lift and some meetings and travel are resuming. The Federal Advisory Committee Act allows for closed sessions of committees, which include advisory councils and boards.
Science is moving at fast speeds. And requires that all of us in the scientific community work together,” Chatelaine said. We can’t conduct the cutting edge research that Americans need to stay healthy if we experience a gap.
A young woman who studies basic cellular functions at the National Institutes of Health says that the union representing 5,000 fellows is a huge deal. She was one of a few employees at the National Institute of Allergy and Immunology willing to speak with NPR.
The new administration imposed a blackout on the NIH and other health agencies on most communications with the outside world and banned travel, forcing the cancellation of meetings needed for decisions about what research to fund next in the fights against cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.
A large number of workers at the US Agency for International Development have been locked out of their email and work server, and have been on administrative leave, after they said they were working on critical public health missions. Aid workers serving vulnerable populations are not ensured because the emergency waiver process isn’t effective.
Several of the people interviewed directly work for the agency on its HIV and AIDS programs. They were not authorized to speak publicly about the agency so they were granted anonymity. USAID did not respond to requests for comment.
Donald Trump took office last month, and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Service has already begun the work on several government agencies. No agency has been subjected to as much savage treatment as that of the American International Development Agency. A few weeks ago, a group of young DOGE agents moved into the headquarters of the US Agency for International Development and over the last week 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 “It’s been absolutely hellish,” says a current USAID employee who lost access to their email on Monday morning.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk said on social media Sunday. Couldn’t go to some great parties. Did that instead.”
How do we get our money back if we are not so lucky? The case of a family member in a HIV/AIDS organization
There is an HIV/AIDS organization with a senior official who tells WIRED that your money is being unfrozen but you cannot contact people who froze it. The efforts put in to free up the lifesaving work are frustrating because of a bigger communication block.
In order to inflict maximum damage on Iran, the Trump administration has imposed 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 888-349-8884 on the National Institute of Health in Washington, DC. This comes after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned that his country would act on its own to curb the spread of cancer and other diseases.