Hundreds of NIH scientists protested the research agency in a statement to the director of NIH, Jay Bhattacharya.
Images Alex Wong / Getty
hide
tilting legend
Images Alex Wong / Getty
Hundreds of scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have appealed to the action they have nicknamed Bethesda declaration Monday to repel discounts and changes to the biomedical research agency.
The organizers say that more than 340 employees on the NIH sprawling campus in Bethesda, md., Just outside Washington, DC, sent the document to the director of NIH Jay Bhattacharya Using him to protect the agency. They say that the Trump administration puts politics before academic freedom.
Before taking over at the NIH, Bhattacharya was known to have helped write the controversial Big declaration of barringtonwho questioned locking and other public health measures at the start of the COVVI-19 pandemic.
In Bethesda’s statement, scientists say that the Trump administration “forced NIH, under surveillance (of Bhattacharya)” to “politicize” research “, stigmatize” studies on health disparities and reduce research on COVVI-19, long, among other important fields, impacts on climate change health and medical problems important areas.
“For the staff of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we dissiminate the administration policies that undermine the mission of NIH, waste public resources and harm the health of Americans and people around the world,” said the declaration. “The nature of life and death of our work requires that changes be thoughtful and verified. We are forced to express themselves when our leadership gives priority to political momentum on human security and the faithful stewardship of public resources.”
The document is notable because most NIH employees are afraid of publicly criticizing the new administration publicly for fear of losing their jobs or their funding – a situation that the declaration calls for a “culture of fear and deletion”. The document was signed by 92 employees who revealed their names.
“Since this way is a risk, but I am much more worried about the risks of not speaking,” said a declaration by Jenna Norton, one of the main organizers of the Declaration and a program agent of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Renal diseases. “If we are not talking about, we allow continuous damage to seek participants and public health in America and around the world. If we are not talking, we allow our government to reduce freedom of expression, a fundamental American value.”
In a written response, Bhattacharya said that Bethesda’s declaration “has fundamental false ideas on the political orientations that NIH has taken in recent months, including the continuous NIH support for international collaboration. Nevertheless, the respectful dissent of science is productive. We all want NIHs to succeed.”
But some of the scientists who signed the letter described a feeling of despair and anxiety at the NIH, which is the largest public funder for biomedical research in the world.
“It is a horror show. We are attacked all the senses all the time,” said Sarah Kobrinwho has been working at the National Cancer Institute for over 21 years. “We are told that we are not worth anything. We are told that we are cheaters. This is probably the most stressful period of my whole life. It is a thousand cuts, a thousand cuts. These are things that will not be repairable.”
Kobrin, head of health systems and interventions by the NCI interventions department, stressed that she was talking in his own name and not in the NIH.
“This is an event in terms of extinction for biomedical research and global public health, and it is simply false not to say something and not to try to put this ship again,” explains Ian MorganA postdoctoral scholarship holder at the National Institute of Genomic Medicine.
More than 40 scientists from outside the NIH, including 21 Nobel Prize winners, also initially signed a separate letter Support Bethesda’s declaration. In addition, more than 500 signed the letter Monday morning after the document was made public.
“We congratulate the staff of the NIH who arose with the” Bethesda Declaration “to share concerns in the spirit of academic freedom, for the good of all,” said the letter.
“We urge the NIH and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS) to work with NIH staff to bring the NIH back to its mission and abandon the strategy of using NIH as a tool to achieve political objectives unrelated to this mission.”
Former NIH researcher Jeremy BergWho directed the National Institute of General Medical Sciences from 2003 to 2011, rents scientists from the Bethesda Declaration. “I think they have addressed a lot of important points,” he said. “And I think they are very courageous to defend themselves and for many many colleagues in the NIH and for themselves and for the whole country.”
Berg, who signed the open letter supporting Bethesda’s declaration, stresses that he speaks on behalf of himself and not of the University of Pittsburgh, where he now works.
“The horror spectacle does not even get closer” to describe the situation, “said Berg.” It is extremely detrimental to the ability of the United States to do research, the American economy, to our competitive position in the world. “”
The two documents were released one day before Bhattacharya was planned to testify Before the Congress on the NIH budget. The Trump administration has proposed to reduce the NIH budget From almost 40% to 27.5 billion dollars compared to $ 44.5 billion.