Scores of National Institutes of Health researchers and staffers have come forward to send their Trump-appointed leader a letter challenging policies they say undermine the NIH mission.
Punishment phase to start for Harris Co. Pct. 5 Corporal’s killer5 hours agoCostco 1-Year Gold Star Membership + $20 Digital Costco Shop Card It’s still only $65 to get a 1-year Costco Gold Star Membership, but now it comes with a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card Read full article: It’s still only $65 to get a 1-year Costco Gold Star Membership, but now it comes with a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card Jenna Norton ,who works as a researcher at the NIH, poses for a photograph during an interview with the Associated Press in Bethesda, Md.
, Friday, June 6, 2025. Jenna Norton, who works at the NIH as a researcher, poses for a photograph during an interview with the Associated Press in Bethesda, Md., Friday, June 6, 2025. This photo obtained by The Associated Press shows cardboard tombstones symbolizing canceled research grants at the NIH Visitors Center in Bethesda, Md., Saturday, on June 7, 2025. This photo obtained by The Associated Press shows cardboard tombstones symbolizing canceled research grants at the NIH Visitors Center in Bethesda, Md., Saturday, on June 7, 2025. This photo obtained by The Associated Press shows cardboard tombstones symbolizing canceled research grants at the NIH Visitors Center in Bethesda, Md., Saturday, on June 7, 2025. Jenna Norton ,who works as a researcher at the NIH, poses for a photograph during an interview with the Associated Press in Bethesda, Md., Friday, June 6, 2025. to lead the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya pledged his openness to views that might conflict with his own. “Dissent," he said, ”is the very essence of science.”In a capital where insiders often insist on anonymity to say such things publicly, 92 NIH researchers, program directors, branch chiefs and scientific review officers put their signatures on the letter — and their careers on the line. Another 250 of their colleagues across the agency endorsed the declaration without using their names.and members of Congress who oversee the NIH. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.The signers went public in the face of a “culture of fear and suppression” they say President Donald Trump's administration has spread through the federal civil service. “We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources,” the declaration says. 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.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.Bhattacharya’s Great Barrington Declaration His declaration drew together likeminded infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists who dissented from what they saw as excessive COVID-19 lockdown policies and felt ostracized by the larger public health community that pushed those policies, including the NIH. “He is proud of his statement, and we are proud of ours," said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the NIH's National Cancer Institute who signed the Bethesda Declaration.As chief of the Health Systems and Interventions Research Branch, Kobrin provides scientific oversight of researchers across the country who've been funded by the cancer institute or want to be. Cuts in personnel and money have shifted her work from improving cancer care research to what she sees as minimizing its destruction."So much of it is gone — my work,” she said. The 21-year NIH veteran said she signed because she didn't want to be"a collaborator” in the political manipulation of biomedical science. Ian Morgan, a postdoctoral fellow with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, also signed the declaration. “We have a saying in basic science,” he said. “You go and become a physician if you want to treat thousands of patients. You go and become a researcher if you want to save billions of patients. “We are doing the research that is going to go and create the cures of the future,” he added. But that won’t happen, he said, if Trump's Republican administration prevails with its searing grant cuts. The NIH employees interviewed by the AP emphasized they were speaking for themselves and not for their institutes nor the NIH.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 Trump administration has gone at public health research on several fronts, both directly, as part of its broad effort to root outThis has forced “indiscriminate grant terminations, payment freezes for ongoing research, and blanket holds on awards regardless of the quality, progress, or impact of the science,” the declaration says. Some NIH employees have previously come forward in televised protests to air grievances, and many walked out of Bhattacharya's town hall with staff. The declaration is the first cohesive effort to register agency-wide dismay with the NIH's direction. The dissenters remind Bhattacharya in their letter of his oft-stated ethic that academic freedom must be a lynchpin in science.in April, “NIH scientists can be certain they are afforded the ability to engage in open, academic discourse as part of their official duties and in their personal capacities without risk of official interference, professional disadvantage or workplace retaliation." Now it will be seen whether that's enough to protect those NIH employees challenging the Trump administration and him. “There's a book I read to my kids, and it talks about how you can't be brave if you're not scared,” said Norton, who has three young children."I am so scared about doing this, but I am trying to be brave for my kids because it's only going to get harder to speak up. “Maybe I'm putting my kids at risk by doing this," she added."And I'm doing it anyway because I couldn't live with myself otherwise.”Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ian Morgan Washington News Donald Trump Health Jenna Norton Jay Bhattacharya Politics Angela Alsobrooks
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NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump's deep cuts in public health researchScores of National Institutes of Health researchers and staffers have come forward to send their Trump-appointed leader a letter challenging policies they say undermine the NIH mission.
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