Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have signed a declaration protesting the deep cuts in public health research and sent it to their boss Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the NIH, as well as to RFK, Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services, the cabinet office that oversees the NIH.
Named for the agency’s headquarters location in Maryland, the Bethesda Declaration details upheaval in the world’s premier public health research institution over the course of mere months.
It addresses the termination of 2,100 research grants valued at more than $12 billion and some of the human costs that have resulted, such as cutting off medication regimens to participants in clinical trials or leaving them with unmonitored device implants.
In one case, an NIH-supported study of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in Haiti had to be stopped, ceasing antibiotic treatment mid-course for patients.
In a number of cases, trials that were mostly completed were rendered useless without the money to finish and analyze the work, the letter says. “Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million,” it says, “it wastes $4 million.”
Jenna Norton, who oversees health disparity research at the agency’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, recently appeared at a forum by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., to talk about what’s happening at the NIH.
At the event, she masked to conceal her identity. Now the mask is off. She was a lead organizer of the declaration.
“I want people to know how bad things are at NIH,” Norton told The Associated Press.
…Employees from all 27 NIH institutes and centers gave their support to the declaration. Most who signed are intimately involved with evaluating and overseeing extramural research grants.
The letter asserts “NIH trials are being halted without regard to participant safety” and the agency is shirking commitments to trial participants who “braved personal risk to give the incredible gift of biological samples, understanding that their generosity would fuel scientific discovery and improve health.”
The Declaration goes point-by point into the details of the damage done. You can read the full Bethesda Declaration (so named because the NIH is located in the DC suburb of Bethesda) here as well as the names of the signatories.
Sixty one NIH scientists have publicly put their names to the document. This is an act of courage since this vindictive administration may well decide to fire all of them. Some of the are senior people but others are postdoctoral researchers or even more junior. Many more have chosen not to make their names public.
In addition, nearly 7,000 scientists have added their names in support of the NIH scientists with more coming in. Another 1,900 have added their support but privately. I too added my name to the list
We will now have to see what Bhattacharya will do. He was a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University before becoming head of NIH. The question is whether he will defend the rights of the NIH scientists to voice their concerns or whether he is a craven Trump lickspittle who will take his orders from him and fire them. Since he is a Trump nominee, I am betting on him being craven. He is scheduled to testify before Congress tomorrow (Tuesday) and you can be sure that at least the Democratic members will grill him about his views on this Declaration.
Meanwhile, RFK, Jr, has removed all 17 members of panel of vaccine experts, presumably to replace them with loyalists who will support his crank views.
The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is getting rid of all members sitting on a key US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of vaccine experts and reconstituting the committee, he said on Monday.
Kennedy is retiring and replacing all 17 members of the CDC’s advisory committee for immunization practices, he wrote in piece published in the Wall Street Journal.
…Dr Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called Kennedy’s mass ouster “a coup”.
“It’s not how democracies work. It’s not good for the health of the nation,” Benjamin told the Associated Press. Benjamin said the move raises real concerns about whether future committee members will be viewed as impartial. He added that Kennedy is going against what he told lawmakers and the public, and the public health association plans to watch Kennedy “like a hawk”.
“Without removing the current members, the current Trump administration would not have been able to appoint a majority of new members until 2028,” Kennedy wrote.
…Kennedy recently took the unusual step of changing Covid-19 recommendations without first consulting the panel.
So the Trump war on science, research, and public health is going at full speed.
surprised there are no comments on this. thx to all the fighters!
Perhaps there were no comments because the main post says everything that needs to be said.
When the US does get another democratic government they are going to have to make a point of reminding people just how much damage Trump did. Entire groups of experts and swaths of institutional organization are being wiped out, it’s going to take decades to rebuild. Somebody is going to have to remind the public of this because people are going to expect these organizations to just work again after 4 years and it isn’t all going to work. I can already see the Republicans complaining that the Democrats didn’t fix everything in 4 years.
As of now, I’d say the odds are against it ever happening. And although prediction is notoriously difficult -- especially about the future -- I’d say it’s difficult to envisage it happening and the Republican Party then continuing to exist. At this stage, it’s clearly just a fascist party, and needs to be banned and its leaders prosecuted if democracy is ever restored.