Latest news with #BethesdaDeclaration
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump's deep cuts in public health research
[Source] Scientists at the National Institutes of Health released a rare internal protest letter known as the 'Bethesda Declaration' on Monday to publicly condemn the Trump administration's sweeping cuts to biomedical research. The declaration, signed by 92 current and former NIH staff members and endorsed anonymously by 250 others, accuses NIH leadership of political interference, abrupt grant terminations and undermining the agency's core mission of safeguarding public health. Scientists allege political interference The declaration outlines a sharp critique of budget reductions and administrative decisions that scientists say have crippled the agency's research capabilities. Among the most significant allegations are the abrupt termination of more than 2,100 research grants, valued between $9.5 billion and $12 billion. These grants included clinical trials and long-term projects deemed essential for public health innovation. Contracts worth an additional $2.6 billion were reportedly suspended without warning, forcing several trials to stop mid-course — including tuberculosis treatment studies in Haiti — raising ethical concerns about participant safety. The letter, distributed to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and multiple congressional oversight committees, claims the agency is abandoning its commitment to evidence-based research. It accuses leadership of placing political pressure over scientific integrity. Trending on NextShark: 'The life-and-death nature of our work demands that changes be thoughtful and vetted,' the declaration states. 'We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources. Many have raised these concerns to NIH leadership, yet we remain pressured to implement harmful measures. Today, we come directly to you.' Growing unrest within the agency The public release of the letter comes amid broader tensions within federal science agencies under the Trump administration. The NIH is facing proposed budget cuts of up to 40% for fiscal year 2026 — equating to an $18 billion reduction — while the Department of Health and Human Services is reportedly moving ahead with plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs across agencies including the CDC and FDA. These developments have fueled widespread concern about the country's ability to respond to future health emergencies and maintain global leadership in science. Trending on NextShark: The declaration details what it calls a 'culture of fear and suppression,' in which staff feel unable to question politically driven decisions without risking their careers. The authors argue that halting clinical trials at 80% completion represents not only a loss of scientific opportunity but also a profound waste of taxpayer money. 'Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million — it wastes $4 million,' the letter states. Political and legal response Bhattacharya, a Trump appointee and co-author of the 2020 Great Barrington Declaration, responded by calling the letter 'productive' but said it misrepresented the agency's strategic direction. He defended the consolidation of programs and reallocation of funds, arguing that reforms were necessary to modernize NIH operations and align them with national priorities. Trending on NextShark: Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) has called for hearings to examine the impact of NIH cuts and the agency's management practices. Bhattacharya is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee later this week and the letter's revelations are expected to feature prominently in questioning. Scientists unite The Bethesda Declaration has also drawn support from the broader scientific community, with over 40 scientists from outside the NIH, including 21 Nobel laureates, signing a separate letter supporting the declaration. In addition, more than 500 individuals signed the letter Monday morning after the document was made public. Trending on NextShark: In March, more than 1,900 scientists signed another open letter warning that deep federal cuts would cripple the nation's research infrastructure, accelerate brain drain and compromise future public health responses. Legal challenges have already succeeded in blocking certain HHS initiatives — including a broad freeze on grants — suggesting that further pushback may come through the courts. This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Trending on NextShark: Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Subscribe here now! Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
The Hindu
13-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
US restores some medical research grants, says top Trump official
- A senior US health official on 10 June 2025 admitted President Donald Trump's administration had gone too far in slashing biomedical research grants worth billions of dollars, and said efforts were underway to restore some of the funding. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), made the remarks during a Senate committee hearing examining both recent cuts to his agency and deeper reductions proposed by the White House in next year's budget. Bhattachartya said he had created an appeals process for scientists and laboratories whose research was impacted, and that the NIH had already "reversed many" of the cuts. "I didn't take this job to terminate grants," said the physician and health economist who left a professorship at Stanford University to join the Trump administration. "I took this job to make sure that we do the research that advances the health needs of the American people." The hearing came a day after more than 60 NIH employees sent an open letter to Bhattacharya condemning policies they said undermined the agency's mission and the health of Americans. They dubbed it the "Bethesda Declaration" -- a nod both to the NIH's suburban Washington headquarters and to Bhattacharya's role as a prominent signatory of the 2020 "Great Barrington Declaration," which opposed Covid lockdowns. Since Trump's January 20 inauguration, the NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling around $9.5 billion and $2.6 billion in contracts, according to an independent database called Grant Watch. Affected projects include studies on gender, the health effects of global warming, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. Trump has launched a sweeping overhaul of the US scientific establishment early in his second term -- cutting billions in funding, attacking universities, and overseeing mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies.
Scientific American
11-06-2025
- Health
- Scientific American
Planned NIH Cuts Threaten Americans' Health, Senators Charge in Tense Hearing
U.S. senators grilled National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jayanta Bhattacharya at a hearing on 10 June about how his professed support for science squares with unprecedented funding delays and research-grant terminations at the agency this year, as well as enormous cuts that have been proposed for its 2026 budget. What would normally be a routine hearing about government spending was anything but: hundreds of scientists and advocates for Alzheimer's disease research packed into a cramped room on Capitol Hill to denounce US President Donald Trump's 2026 budget request, which calls for cutting the NIH's budget by about 40% and collapsing its 27 institutes and centres into 8. Such a cut 'would stop critical Alzheimer's research in its tracks,' Tonya Maurer, an advocate for the Alzheimer's Association, a non-profit group based in Chicago, Illinois, told Nature at the hearing. 'We've worked too damn hard to see this happen.' On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Bhattacharya defended his leadership at the agency — the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world — noting that there is a 'need for reform at the NIH' and that to restore its reputation, the NIH 'cannot return to business as usual.' (The NIH has been accused by Trump and his Republican allies of funding 'woke' science and research on coronaviruses that they say could have sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.) To help fix the agency, Bhattacharya told the senators that he wants to focus on increasing reproducibility in biomedical research, upholding academic freedom and studying the cause of autism, which US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has pledged to find an answer to by September. Letters of dissent The hearing comes the day after more than 300 NIH staff members sent Bhattacharya a fiery letter decrying the mass termination of jobs at the agency and its cancellation of thousands of research projects on a growing list of topics that the Trump team has said are 'politicized', including those investigating the biology of COVID-19, the health of sexual and gender minorities (LGBT+) and reasons that people might be hesitant to receive a vaccine. 'We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources,' the staff members wrote. They named their letter the 'Bethesda Declaration,' after the Maryland community and Washington DC suburb where most of the NIH is located. The title also alludes to the 'Great Barrington Declaration', an open letter that Bhattacharya co-signed in October 2020 that argued against COVID-19 lockdowns except for the most vulnerable citizens, instead allowing for children and others to be infected so that 'herd immunity' could be reached ― a proposal that numerous scientists and NIH officials called dangerous at the time. At the hearing, Patty Murray, a Democratic senator from Washington, implored Bhattacharya to 'heed their warning,' and said that she expects that 'none of them face retaliation for raising those concerns.' Bhattacharya didn't respond to this comment at the hearing but said in a statement on 9 June that the Bethesda Declaration 'has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months,' but that 'respectful dissent in science is productive.' Gavin Yamey, a global-health researcher at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who signed the latest declaration, said, 'he can talk about freedom, but his own staff are decrying his censorship. How he's actually acting and what he says are not one in the same.' Taking ownership Several senators, including Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, questioned who was in charge at the NIH, given reports that billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency ordered agency employees to cut hundreds of specific grants. 'The changes in priorities, the move away from politicized science, I've made those decisions,' Bhattacharya responded. The mass terminations of awards at institutions such as Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 'that's joint with the administration', he said. (The Trump administration has alleged that universities such as Harvard have allowed discrimination, including antisemitism, on their campuses, and has cut or frozen research funding as a result.) The drastic 40% cut to the NIH's budget proposed for the fiscal year 2026 is not yet set in stone: the US Congress has the ultimate say over government spending, and during Trump's first presidency, when he proposed a huge cut to the biomedical agency in 2017, it instead approved a slight increase. Nevertheless, the composition of the body has changed significantly since then — far more of its members are now loyal to Trump. Comments made at the hearing by the senators weren't entirely divided down party lines. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who voted to confirm both Bhattacharya and RFK Jr, said she was disturbed by the budget proposal. 'It would undo years of congressional investment in the NIH,' she said.
The Hindu
11-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
NIH scientists publish declaration criticising Trump's deep cuts in public health research
In his confirmation hearings 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.' That commitment is being put to the test. On Monday, scores of scientists at the agency sent their Trump-appointed leader a letter titled the Bethesda Declaration, challenging 'policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.' It says: "We dissent." In a capital where insiders often insist on anonymity to say such things publicly, 92 NIH researchers, programme directors, branch chiefs and scientific review officers put their signatures on the letter — and their careers on the line. An additional 250 of their colleagues across the agency endorsed the declaration without using their names. Core demands and scientific concerns The letter, addressed to Bhattacharya, also was sent to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and members of Congress who oversee the NIH. White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the administration's approach to federal research and said President Donald Trump is focused on restoring a 'Gold Standard' of science, not 'ideological activism.' The letter came out a day before Bhattacharya is to testify to a Senate committee about Trump's proposed budget, opening him to questions about the broadside from declaration signers, and it stirred Democrats on a House panel to ask the Republican chair for hearings on the matter. The signers went public in the face of a 'culture of fear and suppression' they say Trump's administration has spread through the federal civil service. 'We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritises political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources,' the declaration says. Bhattacharya responded to the declaration by saying it 'has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months," such as suggestions that NIH has ended international collaboration. 'Nevertheless, respectful dissent in science is productive,' he said in a statement. "We all want the NIH to succeed.' 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. Health disparities, broken trials and rising dissent 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 analyse 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 organiser of the declaration. 'I want people to know how bad things are at NIH," Norton told The Associated Press. The signers said they modeled their indictment after Bhattacharya's Great Barrington Declaration in 2020, when he was a professor at Stanford University Medical School. 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 ostracised 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 minimising 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 emphasised 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.' Political context and DEI backlash The Trump administration has gone at public health research on several fronts, both directly, as part of its broad effort to root out diversity, equity and inclusion values throughout the bureaucracy, and as part of its drive to starve some universities of federal money. At the White House, Desai said Americans 'have lost confidence in our increasingly politicised healthcare and research apparatus that has been obsessed with DEI and COVID, which the majority of Americans moved on from years ago.' This 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. With that in place, he said in a statement 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.'
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
US restores some medical research grants, says top Trump official
Washington: A senior US health official on Tuesday admitted President Donald Trump's administration had gone too far in slashing biomedical research grants worth billions of dollars, and said efforts were underway to restore some of the funding. Jay Bhattacharya , director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), made the remarks during a Senate committee hearing examining both recent cuts to his agency and deeper reductions proposed by the White House in next year's budget. Bhattachartya said he had created an appeals process for scientists and laboratories whose research was impacted, and that the NIH had already "reversed many" of the cuts. "I didn't take this job to terminate grants," said the physician and health economist who left a professorship at Stanford University to join the Trump administration. "I took this job to make sure that we do the research that advances the health needs of the American people." The hearing came a day after more than 60 NIH employees sent an open letter to Bhattacharya condemning policies they said undermined the agency's mission and the health of Americans. They dubbed it the " Bethesda Declaration " -- a nod both to the NIH's suburban Washington headquarters and to Bhattacharya's role as a prominent signatory of the 2020 "Great Barrington Declaration," which opposed Covid lockdowns. Since Trump's January 20 inauguration, the NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling around $9.5 billion and $2.6 billion in contracts, according to an independent database called Grant Watch. Affected projects include studies on gender, the health effects of global warming, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. Trump has launched a sweeping overhaul of the US scientific establishment early in his second term -- cutting billions in funding, attacking universities, and overseeing mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies.
