Over 1,200 NIH scientists signed a letter sent to Director Jay Bhattacharya MD, PhD, saying that they collectively dissent on Trump administration “policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.”
The researchers say they issued their statement—The Bethesda Declaration: A Call for NIH and HHS Leadership to Deliver on Promises for Academic Freedom and Scientific Excellence—because they blame the administration for halting peer reviewed grants and contracts and censoring programs focusing on health disparities, COVID-19, long COVID, and immunization, the health impacts of climate change, gender identity, sexual health, and the needs of intersex people in the U.S.
“We urge you as NIH Director to restore grants delayed or terminated for political reasons so that life-saving science can continue,” they write.
Other concerns raised over the administration’s policies are that they interrupted global collaboration, undermined peer review, enacted an arbitrary 15% cap on indirect costs, and cut essential NIH staff.
“Combined, these actions have resulted in an unprecedented reduction in NIH spending that does not reflect efficiency but rather a dramatic reduction in life-saving research,” write the scientists. “Some may use the false impression that NIH funding is not needed to justify the draconian cuts proposed in the President’s Budget. This spending slowdown reflects a failure of your legal duty to use congressionally appropriated funds for critical NIH research. Each day that NIH continues to disrupt research, your ability to deliver on this duty narrows.”
Click here to read the entire declaration.
