How cuts at the National Institutes of Health could impact Americans’ health

When President Trump tok’s office in January, Hey took advantage of the Government Efficiency DepartmentKnown as Doge, to reduce the federal government. He National Health InstitutesThe largest biomedical research financier in the world, has since dismissed 1,300 employees and canceled more than $ 2 billion in federal research grants.

Dr. Francis Collins, who led the agency for 12 years under three administrations, says this Reduction of aggressive personnel It could affect the health of Americans for coming generations.

“When you talk about medical research, when he talks about people’s lives, when he talks about clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease or cancer that can take three or four years, they cannot,” i’l Itse, “i’l” i’l “i’l” i’l “i’l”.

According to NIH employees, work in childhood cancer, dementia and stroke therapies have slowed or detained because the critical laboratory and support personnel were fired.

NIH the greatest defender of biomedical research in the world

NIH is a massive agency with a budget of $ 47 billion. The agency is composed of 27 institutes and centers and is located on a 300 acres campus in Bethesda, Maryland. As the largest financier in the world of biomedical research, NIH has contributed to mass biomedical advances.

According to Dr. Collins, deaths due to heart disease decreased by 75% in the last 40 years due to NIH. The agency is also behind the antiretrovirals that save lives that treat HIV and AIDS and treatments for stroke.

“It is estimated that every dollar that NiH cools in 2024 to a subsidy returned $ 2.46 only in one year. That is a very good return on investment,” Collins said.

A 2023 magazine of the American Association of Medicine found that 99% of the medicines approved by the Food and Medicines Administration between 2010 and 2019 had links with the research or work founded by the NIH.

More than 80% NIH’s budget goes to universities and research institutes outside the NIH, Collins said.

“They are the ones who do the work, but obtain NIH funds writing applications for very convincing subsidies that pass through the most rigorous peer review system in the world,” Collins said.

What happened in NiH after President Trump returned to the White House

In the week after the inauguration, the Trump administration moved quickly to reduce federal expenditure. In the NIH, Dr. Collins said that workers were not told to start new projects and the ability to order supplies was temporarily cut.

“But then, they put a limit of $ 1 in what I could ask. There is not much that I can ask for $ 1,” Collins said.

NiH experts said 60 minutes that also after a six -week expense at the agency was raised, some shelves and refrigerators were built that the heroes supply for the trials and the patients remained empty concern supplies.

Some agency workers, including a scientific doctor who asked to remain anonymous, fear losing their jobs if they spoke.

“You cannot direct an organization as complicated as NIH without a support system. Doctors, nurses and scientists cannot work without many other resources,” said NIH’s privileged information. “They need a full support infrastructure. And that has now decimated the legs.”

The moral in the NIH fell from February, when more than 1,000 probability employees were placed on license, said NIH employee. Immediately after that, the workers began to try to evaluate the damage and determine if they could still take care of the patients and the research participants.

“This did not come from within NiH, Outide came, they don’t know what these people do,” said NIH worker.

Some of the dismissed employees have their leg back. Others are still paid, but they are not allowed to work.

Earlier this month, a Trump administration plan was leaked to the press to reduce NIH’s budget by more than 40%, or $ 20 billion, to the press. The preliminary budget sent shock waves through the NIH and the broader scientific community that is based on NIH to finance research.

It is the largest budget cut for a NIH administration, but not the first. More recently, presidents GW Bush and Obama made small cuts to the agency.

Dr. Jay BhattacharyaA former Stanford teacher whose research focused on the economy of medical care, and who opposed broad locks and mandates of the pandemic, was confirmed as the new NIH director at the end of last month. He rejected a 60 -minute request for an interview, but at his Senate confirmation hearing, he described his vision for NIH.

“If confirmed, I will carry out the agenda of President Trump and Secretary Kennedy to commit the NIH to address the serious chronic health needs of the country with standard gold science and innovation,” the audience of duration said.

A way in which NIH will carry out that the agenda, says Bhattacharya, is to create a new comprehensive database to study chronic disease. The NIH also, in response to a request by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, will invest $ 50 million to study autism, a topic that Kennedy has faced scientists for years.

“The scientific progress in this has been slow because scientists are afraid to ask the question,” Bhatacharya said a press conference. “The objective of my leadership, Nih will do it so that these questions are no longer taboo among scientists.”

He recently told the agency advisors that he is working hard to undo some of the recent “interruptions” in the NIH. He called the proposal to reduce the agency’s budget by more than 40% “the beginning of a negotiation.”

The draft filtered budget includes plans for Consolidate the institutes and centers In eight, and eliminate another four.

The potential “brain drainage”

The doctoral candidate of the University of Washington, Kristin Weinstein, lives in Seattle with her husband and 10 month old son. She studied cancer and autoimmunity during the last 10 years and expected to continue her research in the United States after graduation. But now, Weinstein and his family are considering leaving the United States

“It’s bleak somehow,” said Weinstein. “At the national level there is a freezing of hiring in Virtualy at each important academic university.”

She is not alone; A nature The 1,600 scientists survey discovered that 75% is considering letting the United States work international. Australia, Europe and China have already promoted recruitment efforts with the hope of capitalizing the possible brain leakage.

Researchers hit in the United States

The confusion in the NIH has paralyzed many of the 2,500 universities and institutes that depend on NIH to finance their research.

Scientists say that projects on HIV and AIDS, trans health and research related to COVID-19 were completed after researchers were notified that their work “no longer affects the priorities of the agency.”

Last week, the NIH said that more cut could come, announcing that any university that has a Dei or Boicotea program to an Israeli company not to receive new nih subsidies, and could finish existing subsidies.

Beth Humphrey, a 68 -year -old grandmother, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last year. He joined a study funded by NIH led by the University of Duke and the University of North Carolina.

“It has made me feel a little more empowered against the disease,” he said. “It’s my way of defending me.”

But now, that study could be in danger. In an effort to reduce waste, the Trump administration wants to limit the amount of money from the subsidy that high education institutions can use for “indirect costs” or general expenses, which include articles such as administrative and facilities expenses. Critics say that indirect costs are an aquanieve fund for universities. But universities say that the funds are crucial, used to pay facilities such as brain banks and workers who monitor them.

Universities warn that the proposed cut will cost them billions of dollars, and will have a “serious impact” on essays and the “salvation of life” investigation. Twenty -two states, including North Carolina, are challenging the policy proposed in the Court. For now, Shackupe in NIH is leaving some patients as Humphrey worried.

“When that hope of a possible treatment is away, you have nothing left but the disease,” Humphrey said. “And there really must be hope.”