‘Chaos and Confusion’ at the Crown Jewel of American Science
The New York Times
Senior scientists at the National Institutes of Health fear that research on conditions like obesity, heart disease and cancer will be undermined by President Trump’s policies.
A week after Donald J. Trump was inaugurated, a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health was preparing to give an invited talk at a scientific meeting when an urgent call came in from an administrative assistant.
There is a total communications ban, the scientist was told, and you cannot give the speech.
As soon as the scientist got back to the office, another ban went into effect — one that prohibited researchers from submitting papers to journals for publication.
Seven senior investigators working in different parts of the National Institutes of Health described rules put in place on orders from the Department of Government Efficiency that risk hampering and undermining American medical science. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared for their jobs for speaking publicly.
One said that DOGE had begun a reign of “chaos and confusion.” The scientists warned that it had the potential to seriously weaken the N.I.H. — the crown jewel of American science, with a vast network of thousands of researchers in 27 centers dedicated to treating disease, improving health and funding medical research.
Rules change seemingly from day to day.
