Monday, hundreds of workers from the National Institute of Health, who were openly protesting the Trump administration’s reduction in the institution and the results of human life, wrote a rapid letter that the behavior is causing a “dramatic reduction in saving life.”
A June 9 letter NIH director Jay Bhattacharya told NIH workers that “we felt that our leadership should prioritize the political driving force for human safety and the faithful steward of public resources.”
“NIH (National Institute of Health) employees oppose administrative policies that undermine NIH mission, discard public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people around the world.”
This letter is a special reproach for the Trump administration’s actions against NIH. It supports hundreds of subsidy funding science and biological medicine research that includes the following: Disposal of more than 1,000 employees this year; And in order to end billions of dollars of funds for partner institutions abroad, the present and former NIH workers will harm the study of rare cancer and infectious diseases, and of course, aiming to use tobacco and minimize related chronic diseases.
Some NIH workers have publicly signed their names openly and are challenging to the bold and bold president. Others signed anonymously.
Jenna Norton, who works at the National Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disease Research Institute, one of NIH’s 27 research institutes, said, “This policy is about research participants and damage to the US public health and the world’s public health.” I understand that it helps to develop and helps the next person to come with the disease. “
“This policy is preventing us from conveying a promise to them and having to respect and be in danger.”
The workers wrote that Bhattacharya hoped to welcome his criticism. Pledge to prioritize “academic freedom” As a leader of NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, I respect opposition. The authors called it “Bethesda Declaration”. Bhattacharya is called the play of the “Great Barrington Declaration”, which is controversial in the covid-19 pandemic.
Bhattacharya’s declaration has advocated for locking measures and suggested that healthy people can achieve a wide range of exemptions for Covid by allowing healthy people to take protection for viruses and medical vulnerable people. He was criticized by Francis Collins, the director of NIH, who was called Bhattacharya and his co -author, “Fringe Epidemiologists.” According to the email The US Economic Research Institute was obtained from the request of freedom of freedom.
In the letter, NIH workers demanded Bhattacharya to restore subsidies that were “delayed or terminated for political reasons.” The subsidies have funded for various projects, including projects dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, how to increase vaccination rates, and efforts to counter health imbalances or health incorrect information.
NIH workers said, “Academic freedom should not be optionally applied based on political ideology. In order to achieve political goals, NIH aimed for a number of universities that won awards regardless of indiscriminate subsidies, freezing of ongoing research, quality of science, progress, or influence.
The financing of the funds said, “Over the years of effort and millions of dollars,” “Hard participants,” and “damaging the public’s trust in response to the specified goals to improve trust in NIH.”
Bhattacharya said in an email: “The Bethesda Declaration has a fundamental misunderstanding of the policy guidelines taken by NIH in recent months, including NIH’s continuous support for international cooperation.
NIH’s almost $ 48 billion budget is the world’s largest scientific research fund. This work has led to numerous scientific discoveries that help to improve health and save lives around the world. But it was not controversial including the case Research and It does not effectively monitor Award -related research.
Researchers and some states have sued NIH and HHS for subsidies. According to the deposit of NIH official Michelle Bulls on April 3, Rachel Riley, a senior advisor of HHS, a part of the government efficiency department created by administrative order, provided a list of subsidies for NIH officials to terminate the ended language. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, led the Doji until May.
Norton has worked as a federal employee or contractor for about 10 years in NIH. She said that the current administration’s policy is likely to be non -ethical and illegal, which lists a series of developments in recent months. This includes a study that is in danger of involving the participating patients in danger and historically underestimated minority and participants in medical studies, because they had to stop taking the drug suddenly.
Norton said, “They say that they are monopolized by black Americans and try to develop arbitration that is culturally tailored to the intervention of the population or the Hispanic-Latino population.
NIH workers also demanded that Bhattacharya recently restored workers who had recently been fired by mass launch and partnership with foreign institutions to “continued without confusion.” NIH is working with organizations around the world to fight major public health problems, including cancer types, tobacco -related diseases and HIV.
In addition to the dismissal of the protection workers, NIH dismissed 1,200 civil servants as part of a rapid “reduction in” forced reduction “in the federal health institution. Bhattacharya said at a viewing meeting on May 19 with NIH staff recorded by KFF Health News that “I got up before I arrived here. I have no transparency on how that decision was made.”
He started in NIH on April 1 and heard that many workers from NIH and other institutions were fired. After Bhattacharya took over, other workers were fired.
This letter is the latest flesh of the movement that scientists and others oppose the Trump administration’s actions. In addition to direct protests other than the HHS headquarters and other regions, some transfer staff organize patients.
Peter Garrett, which is leading the communication work of National Cancer Institute, has created an advocate non -profit organization called patient action for Cancer Research. In an interview, he said, “It is to participate in patients in dialogue, federal funds and science policy decisions.”
His group aims to talk about how patients and relatives directly affect federal cancer research, he said. Garrett said he retired early in the cancer lab because of concerns about political interference.
Career officials work routinely according to both Republicans and Democrats. When the new president, cabinet assistant, and other political nominations take over, the evolution of priorities and duties is the process of the process. In general, these changes occur without much protest.
This time, workers thought that the upheaval and damage to the NIH was too wide, so they had no choice but to protest.
Norton said in NIH in 11 years, “I have never seen coming near here.”
In a June 9th letter, workers said, “Many people have raised this concern about the NIH leadership, but they are under pressure to implement harmful measures.”
The NIH worker who signed anonymously to the letter is “not about our job.” It is about humanity. It is about the future. “
Senior correspondent Arthur Allen has contributed to this report.
We want to talk to the components that believe that the current and all employees of the Ministry of Health and Welfare should understand the effects of what happens in federal health bureaucracy. (415) 519-8778 or Contact here.
(Update: This article was amended on June 9, 2025 at 9:20 am in Eastern Standards and added the opinion of the National Institute of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya.)
