Scholars and scientists working with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said the Trump administration’s orders have significantly disrupted the work. It delayed the project and cast doubt on the future of research funding and work as a disruption to institutional governance.
The series of orders seek to fundamentally reconstruct the NIH, the world’s largest public funder of biomedical and behavioral research, in the image of the Trump administration. The institution’s work was a source of scientific advancement in the United States, and helped make the country a dominant force of health and science.
“They have a dramatic effect on us all. This is not an exaggeration. This is true,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors at Rutgers University, New Jersey and anthropologist. It’s there.
The order “kills” because progress has been slow in treating a variety of diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, Wolfson said.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are bringing Sledgehammers to the world’s largest biomedical infrastructure to extend tax cuts,” Wolfson said.
Basic or applied research on NIH funding has also contributed to 386 of the 387 Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs between 2000 and 2019, with more than 100 based on NIH-funded jobs. The Nobel Prize was awarded to scientists. NIH grants often fund basic research conducted at universities and universities across the country, touching every state and almost every legislative district.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has issued a large number of executive orders and administrative measures that seek to fundamentally change American health and science institutions. This is because it scrubbing information websites from the appointment of the country’s leading vaccine critics, from the head of the Ministry of Health and Human Services.
Trump’s executive order bans grant funding that includes a long list of words related to “diversity, equity and inclusion.” They seek to cut scientific research funding by $4 billion. Thousands of employees have been fired and recruitment has been suspended. A blackout of communication imposed. The committee blocked the meeting to evaluate new scientific research and effectively frozen funds.
Together, these orders own a sense of confusion and fear across agencies and academia, despite many being bound by court.
This leaves us with the most stringent proposal, the 15% cap for “indirect costs,” hanging more like Damocles’ sword than scientific research. The agency was forced to impose a cleaning freeze and question the future of the entire lab.
“As a professor, I have to decide whether to take new students to my lab or not. I don’t know if I can afford them,” says Anica, a biochemist at Rutgers University. Professor Barber said.
Barber added that she will be reviewing the NIH grant proposals at a legally mandatory review board on Thursday afternoon. The meeting was cancelled with 24 hours notice as the Trump administration pending filings to the federal registers. This is a legal requirement for future meetings.
“As of today, there is no longer a NIH research section. That means we are not funding grants scored last fall and we are not funding grants to score this spring. Hmm,” she said. “That means there’s a six-month funding gap…it’s going to close the small lab.”
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Other researchers compared the administration’s efforts to suspend funds in violation of court orders to effectively “pour cement” into the science funding pipeline.
Another tactic the administration used to reduce the federal workforce includes mass firing of “probation” employees. The highly indiscriminate layoffs accidentally fired workers on major projects, including the administration investigating a bird flu outbreak that raises egg prices.
“It’s hard to talk about because we’re scared, but we’re fighting,” said Haley Chatelaine, vice president of NIH Fellows United. “We gather together with collective power and we are against this.”
Chatraine commented at a press conference held by a coalition of unions known as Higher Educational Workers. The group brought together unions representing scientists such as Professors, Chateline, and brought together health workers to fight the cut.
“We’ll fight them in court. We’ll talk to our elected leaders and fight them on the streets,” Wolfson said. “That’s a guarantee.”
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