NIH scientists call on the director to protect biomedical research

Hundreds of scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have made a call for action that they have the Bethesda statement On Monday to press back against cuts and changes at the Biomedical Research Agency.

Organizers say that more than 340 employees on the vast campus of the NIH in Bethesda, MD., Just outside Washington, DC, have sent the document to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya Attractive for him to protect the desk. They say that the Trump government places politics above academic freedom.

Before he took over from the NIH, Bhattacharya was known for helping to write the controversial Great Barrington statementHe questioned lockdowns and other public health measures at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemie.

In Bethesda’s statement, the scientists say that the Trump government has forced NIH, under [Bhattacharya’s] View “Politize” research “Stigmatize” Studies on health differences “, and reduces research into COVID-19, Long Covid, the health effects of climate change and medical issues related to gender and intersekse people, among other things.

“For staff in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we do not agree for the policy of the administration that undermines NIH mission, waste public resources and harm the health of Americans and people around the world,” says the statement. “The life and death of our work requires that changes are attentive and throughout. We are forced to speak when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human security and loyal stewardship of public resources.”

The document is remarkable because most NIH employees are afraid to publicly criticize the new administration for fear of losing their job or their financing – a situation that calls the explanation a ‘culture of fear and oppression’. The document was signed by 92 employees who unveiled their names.

“Getting up in this way is a risk, but I am much more concerned about the risks not to argue,” said a statement by Jenna Norton, one of the main organizers of the statement and a program employee at the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Nidney Diseases. “If we do not speak, we allow continuous damage to research participants and public health in America and all over the world. If we do not speak, we allow our government to limit free speech, a fundamental American value.”

In a written response, Bhattacharya said that Bethesda’s statement “has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions that the NIH has taken in recent months, including the continuous support of the NIH for international cooperation. Nevertheless, respectful different opinion in science is productive. We all want the NIH to succeed.”

More than 40 scientists from outside the NIH, including 21 Nobel Prize winners, initially also signed one separate letter Support for the Bethesda statement. Moreover, more than 500 signed the letter on Monday morning after the document was made public.

“We praise the NIH employees who have come with the ‘Bethesda statement’ to share concern in the spirit of academic freedom, for the well -being of everything,” the letter states.

“We insist on the leadership of NIH and the Ministry of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collaborate with NIH employees to bring NIH back to her mission and to leave the strategy to use NIH as a tool to achieve political goals that are not related to that mission.”

Both documents were released a day before Bhattacharya is that planned for witnesses For the congress on the budget of the NIH. The Trump Government has suggested reducing the NIH budget With almost 40% to $ 27.5 billion of $ 44.5 billion.