Burning Down Medical Science at the NIH

People who know describe the National Institutes of Health as the crown jewels of American biomedical research. It is the biggest public funder of medical research in the world. It appears that our government is in the process of burning down a great deal of medical science at NIH. This is becoming obvious, even though the administration is threatening people who work there with the threat of immediate termination if they breathe a word about what is happening.

Much of this destruction has everything to do with politics and little to do with scientific merit.

“Chaos and Confusion”

In some ways, the unfolding events seem like a bizarre comedy sketch – extreme absurdity for the sake of humor. But it is not funny. Reporting for the New York Times, Gina Kolata describes the chaos:

“Rules change seemingly from day to day.

“Can scientists order necessary supplies to do their research? Yes. No. Maybe.

“Can they travel? A 30-day ban was put in place on Feb. 26. What happens next? No one knows.

“‘It really is quite chilling,’ one of the scientists said. ‘They are controlling information, causing chaos, disrupting everyone, keeping us off-balance.’

“‘Whatever people are reading in newspapers, it’s ten times worse,’ the scientist added.”

Careers Plans Canceled

As research grants are frozen or canceled and funding for training grants has been cut to a trickle, people who are pursuing an already-challenging track for a career in research find that doors are closing. At the National Science Foundation, Wired reports that grants for graduate STEM education and research have come to a near complete standstill.

Cancel culture in the current regime seems to be about canceling careers of scientific inquiry. Many people no longer see a viable career path in medical research that is the fuel for the most vibrant sector of our economy.

Chaotic Grant Terminations

Ordinarily, the cancelation of research grants for work that is underway is relatively rare, reports Katherine Wu for the Atlantic. But now, the terminations are numbering in the hundreds and climbing toward more than a thousand – perhaps to exceed in weeks the total number of grant cancelations NIH has executed for a decade.

Research programs take time to build and yield lifesaving innovation – medicines, cures, vaccines, and technology that save and enhance life. NIH funding has given us priceless insight into obesity and metabolic health that produced the amazing medicines we have today.

But right now at NIH, it seems that burning down that foundation of medical science is taking very little time or thought. Wu writes:

“If anything, the grant cancelations have become a game of whack-a-mole, in which political appointees take a mallet to any seemingly relevant research projects that pop into view – without regard to the damage they might do.”

This will definitely not make America great.

Click here for free access to Kolata’s reporting and here for access to the reporting by Wu.

House on Fire, photograph by Ted Kyle / ConscienHealth

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March 25, 2025