Clinical research carried out at the National Institutes of Health Campus in Bethesda, Md., Following, but the recruitment of new patients is suspended.
National Health Institutes
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National Health Institutes
While President Trump takes the reins of the federal government, one of the turmoil agencies is the National Institutes of Health – the first world public funder for biomedical research.
The new administration imposed a power failure on NIH And other health agencies on most communications with the outside world and prohibited trips, forcing the cancellation of the necessary meetings for research decisions to be financed in cancer fights, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.
These movements, among others, have generated a generalized confusion, anxiety and fear among scientists and doctors on the NIH Tratacean campus outside of Washington, DC, and in institutions that depend on the financing of the agency .
“It’s a huge matter,” said Haley ChatelaineA postdoctoral scholarship holder studying basic cellular functions at the NIH which contributes to negotiating the union representing 5,000 NIH scholarship holders. She was one of the few NIH employees ready to speak to the file with NPR.
“Science moves to frightened speeds and demands that all of us in the scientific community work together,” said Chatelaine. “Any gap that we know brings us back in terms of being able to carry out the advanced biomedical research that Americans need to stay healthy.”
Communications ralonds, but signs of a thaw
The NIH published on Monday evening a statement saying that the communication failure began to raise and that certain meetings and travel resume. The NIH has restarted the closing sessions of the committees subject to the law on the Federal Advisory Committee, which includes advisory councils and boards of directors and scientific examination groups.
In addition, the NIH has lifted a block on the submissions to Federal registerofficial correspondence to civil servants and trips “to support internal NIH affairs for monitoring and / or conduct of science”, according to the press release.
But a hiring freeze at NIH remains in place, as well as a ban on starting new research projects on the NIH campus and a break on the recruitment of new patients for all clinical studies of the agency.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” said Marjorie LevinsteinAnother postdoctoral scholarship holder at NIH with the Union. She studies dependence among others and says that she had to put aside a big step in her research. “It really affects our ability to make huge medical breakthroughs.”
The NIH spends most of the annual budget of nearly $ 48 billion from the agency to finance tens of thousands of researchers outside the universities agency, hospitals, medical schools and other institutions.
Until now, the financing of the NIH still seems to flow, but the status of new grants and renewals of existing subsidies remains unclear. Thus, managers of many institutions are concerned about what could happen next.
“I have … heard that certain extramural institutions take early deductions from expenses in the event of a expenses of expenses or something like that,” explains Kevin Wilson, vice-president of the American Society for Cell Biology.
Uncertainty and a feeling of concern
“This is the period of most of uncertainty in my adult and professional life as a scientist in terms of project continuity,” explains Daniel Colón-RamosProfessor of neuroscience at the Yale School of Medicine. “At the moment in the scientific community, the general feeling is that of uncertainty and concern.”
Even the biggest NIH fans say that the agency is far from perfect. A few Changes have been being studied for some timeas to make the process of revising subsidy more transparent. But many scientists inside and outside the NIH describe a feeling of feeling for the NIH.
“There was a general theme in the ascent of Mr. Trump as a result that this new administration will somehow wage a war against health agencies,” said Dr. Harold VarmusA scientist from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York who directed the NIH for six years in the 1990s. “And that will have an extremely harmful effect on the health sciences. All these are terrible signs that we have to face vigorously. “”
Trump tried to reduce the NIH budget the last time he was president and wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr.A long -standing critic of the NIH, to lead the Ministry of Health and Social Services, which oversees the NIH. Doctor Jay BhattacharyaA researcher from the University of Stanford who criticized the NIH during and after the Cavid-19 pandemic, is the choice of Trump to take over as the next director of the NIH. Its confirmation hearing has not yet been planned.
“I have serious concerns,” said Keith YamamotoSpecial Advisor to the Chancellor for Scientific Policy and Strategy at the University of California in San Francisco, which presides over the Coalition for life scienceswho recommends American health agencies. “People are dismayed by chaos and sown confusion and don’t really know what to do.”
“Most scientists are very worried,” accepts Bruce AlbertsA Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, who Served as the President of the National Academy of Sciences from 1993 to 2005. Kennedy and Bhattacharya “Both Have a Record of igning the Best Science and Making Statements and Opinions that are not based on the best science and more are based on emotion and bad reading of science.
But many people also say that if the prohibitions are temporary, the long -term impact could be modest.
“If all this lasts a few more days or a few weeks, then is lifted with certain potential reforms, we can assess these reforms on their merit and that’s good,” explains Dr. Ashish JhaThe dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “But, my boy, for the moment, is really disruptive and harmful.”