It’s been an especially tumultuous week for the Trump NIH amid alarming new reporting on multiple fronts – from promoting an anti-vax conspiracy embracer as head of its National Cancer Program while failing miserably to fill critical vacancies following a mass exodus of career staff and experts; a new lawsuit over an alleged illegal firing involving research cuts that will harm public health; and a new effort to claw back critical health research grants based on nothing but racism. The mounting chaos and disruption from within the agency that holds the purse to critical funding sources of life-saving biomedical and disease research is of its own making under the ‘leadership’ of HHS Secretary RFK Jr’s handpicked director, noted COVID death denier Jay Bhattacharya.
New reporting from The Atlantic pulls back more of the curtain on Bhattacharya’s incompetence and apathy: “[I]nside the agency, officials describe Bhattacharya as a largely ineffectual figurehead, often absent from leadership meetings, unresponsive to colleagues, and fixated more on cultivating his media image than on engaging with the turmoil at his own agency.”
Our public health will only continue to be undermined with Bhattacharya and RFK Jr. at the helm.
HEADLINE ROUNDUP OF CHAOS AT THE TRUMP NIH:
Associated Press: Former NIH scientist sues Trump administration, claims illegal firing over research cuts
- “Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo is a well-known HIV expert who led NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Last spring, Marrazzo was put on administrative leave after she challenged NIH officials about the cuts. Among her objections were that some cuts would endanger clinical trial participants while others curtailing infectious disease and vaccine research would harm public health, according to Tuesday’s lawsuit.”
Reuters: US NIH races to fill nearly half its top roles after wave of departures
- “The Trump administration inherited an NIH with three top-level vacancies. Since then, three more directors have retired, two left for other NIH roles, and six were fired or let go as part of the government’s mass layoffs in health agencies. It fired 1,200 of NIH’s 20,000-person workforce.”
- “The wide recruitment and short application window are described by former and current NIH officials as unprecedented, both in the number of simultaneous searches and the targeted speed, raising concerns over the integrity and effectiveness of the process.”
- “Speaking on condition of anonymity, two current and two former NIH officials said the expedited processes could signal an intent to favor candidates politically aligned with the administration.”
WIRED: New Head of Trump’s Cancer Panel Speculated About Links Between Vaccines and Cancer
- “An epidemiologist who has speculated about whether there is a connection between Covid-19 vaccines and “turbo cancer” in young people, and works as chief epidemiologist at a company that sells ivermectin alongside reviews that claim it has efficacy as a cancer treatment, has been appointed by president Donald Trump to a key position overseeing the National Cancer Program.”
- “As well as lending credibility to unproven treatments for Covid-19 like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin—he promoted the former in congressional testimony—Risch has more recently wondered whether the Covid-19 vaccines cause “turbo cancer” in some people. Now experts are worried that he could derail critical research into the causes and treatments for cancer.”
NOTUS: NIH Pauses New Funding for Grants That Include ‘Health Equity,’ ‘Structural Racism,’ Pending Review
- “The Trump administration is pausing new funding for National Institutes of Health grants that include terms like “health equity” and “structural racism,” pending review, according to new guidance sent to agency staff and obtained by NOTUS. What’s more, the review must be conducted first with a “computational text analysis tool” that scans for terms “that may potentially be associated with misalignment with the administration’s priorities,” per the guidance.”
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