NIH and Its Agencies Are Being Smothered
February 14, 2025 11:36 a.m.
In recent days I have been inundated by reports out of HHS and particularly NIH (National Institutes of Health) and NCI (National Cancer Institute). I hope you will keep inundating me. You can find out how to contact me through encrypted channels in the footer of this post. Since it’s time consuming to dig in and confirm each individual thread of the story, which I’m in the process of doing, I want now to give you the broad picture. And the broad picture is bad. It’s nothing less than a very concerted attempt to shut down medical research across the United States.
It starts with what we know about — “freezes” of grant spending which in some cases have been blocked by the courts but in many of those cases have not yet restarted. Some of that seems to be intentional non-compliance, but a non-trivial amount of it is that when multiple things are intentionally broken at once things simply don’t snap back. In other cases, communication freezes have halted the grant-making and dispersement process because that process requires, by statute, various reviews and communications that are themselves frozen. In yet other cases, grant formulas are being altered in ways that threaten less direct breakdowns in the ecosystem of clinical research. What we discussed last week about “indirect” payments to institutions hosting research is part of that.
This is one of the points. Money is the essential factor in funding research. But if we imagine ten processes that are necessary for the money to flow, in many cases five or six have been disrupted even if the money, in theory, isn’t frozen. As you can see, I’m talking at a high level of generality here. That’s in part because the precise details are complicated and also because I know different parts of the puzzle with different levels of certainty. But I’ve communicated with enough people on the inside to have a pretty good read of the overall situation.
There’s another level of the situation that is more elusive and has received, at least in the mainstream press, much less attention. There appears to be a concerted attempt to paralyze the various institutes and centers from within. This includes things like directives that one department can’t communicate with another or various directives against internal communication. Outside speakers aren’t allowed to come to discuss their research and vice versa. It’s very hard to imagine any benign intent behind these actions. They seem to be a mix of creating multiple layers of directives to halt all activity whatsoever combined with an effort to prevent one part of the organization from knowing what political appointees are shutting down, or who they’re firing, in another. Perhaps in the spirit of human medical research, it looks like an attempt to shut down one organ system after another and then be able to say, “Welp, she died. Hard to say what happened.
One final, sobering note. Anyone who has been reporting on events in the executive branch over the last three weeks would, I suspect, agree to this general pattern. There was a first week when everyone was in shock, scared, had no idea what to do. Then the mood shifted to anger, small-r resistance and a kind of mutual aid. I was chatting with one civil servant and noted that acting in that way must be really outside the muscle memory of most civil servants since, notwithstanding eight years of concerted propaganda, what most civil servants are really in the habit of is getting clear direction and executing it. A lot must have changed, I said. “I don’t think we’ve ever felt hunted for sport before,” this person replied.
This is absolutely outrageous.
JUST GUTLESS
Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) posted at 6:12 PM on Wed, Feb 19, 2025:
“In private, Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions,” @gabrielsherman writes https://t.co/4sZLHtMiCv
(https://x.com/brianstelter/status/1892366742359302431?t=V83SNJq-kopSycMkgeDrRg&s=03)
Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) posted at 8:30 AM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
“He’s now attacking its elected leader as a dictator. His national security adviser is portraying Zelensky as the obstacle to peace…All of this is a prelude to blaming Zelensky for the failure to attain a negotiated peace, and to abandoning Ukraine.”
https://t.co/kboj3YIgZu
(https://x.com/BillKristol/status/1892582700185202944?t=C1v8cNiGZbYX2sdvsyT6vw&s=03)
Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) posted at 7:36 AM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz tells Fox & Friends, “We presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy invest in its natural resources and really become a partner in Ukraine’s future in a way that’s sustainable, but also would be I think the best security guarantee they could ever hope for–much more than another pallet of ammunition.”
(https://x.com/LucasFoxNews/status/1892569102503350749?t=C6Erc4geGPL4JQDy92UVzw&s=03)
Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) posted at 8:30 AM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
One of the most surprising, cruelest things about U.S. immigration is there’s no recognized right to counsel. Immigrants — including children – must face government trained lawyers alone.
There was a program to at least help children facing deportation. Trump just ended it. https://t.co/tFbagHqLae
(https://x.com/ScottHech/status/1892582690316075500?t=A2e79EVqdDSVtkcZrMnaUw&s=03)
The United States versus Elon R. Musk (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 7:45 AM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
Core classic Trumpers do actually feel the pressure of all the people that they hate openly hating them back and not giving a f—.
Believe it or not, it is beginning to have an effect. How much of an effect is yet to be determined.
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1892571397890715790?t=ro-ELw8lkczhqBMpSuK8Xw&s=03)
They truly are the stupidest muthaphuckas alive 😡 😡
LanaQuest aka RosaSparks (@LqLana) posted at 6:58 AM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
MAGA morons aren’t just destroying America with anti-democratic policies.
Their anti-vaccine movement is growing. More anti-vaccine lawmakers are being elected locally and now there’s one leading the Department of Health and Human Services.
MAGA morons are excited about the prospect of rolling back vaccine mandates.
This is the result of being undereducated. Let me start by saying, those same anti-vaccine lawmakers are not only vaccinating their children. They are sending them to private schools so that they are not with the unvaccinated population.
There is a reason there is an increase in measles outbreaks and deaths. The numbers are staggering.
But this is what happens when folks don’t get vaccinated. Soon all the diseases we thought had been eradicated will be back in full force.
Imagine choosing the possibility of cervical cancer instead of having your children get the HPV vaccine.
Fucking dimwits are gonna get us killed.
#DemsUnited
(https://x.com/LqLana/status/1892559420090913249?t=zTldCWsMPbflLXfFEnsjOA&s=03)
Ben Meiselas 🇺🇸🦅 (@meiselasb) posted at 11:48 AM on Wed, Feb 19, 2025:
Republicans are trying to normalize plane crashes now like school shootings
(https://x.com/meiselasb/status/1892270164567068799?t=Y3Fr33WTayUR_u3xGlU2WQ&s=03)
Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) posted at 11:11 AM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
🚨 BREAKING: Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown is on the list of officers submitted to Congress—signaling that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could fire him, officials say.
Are you surprised that Hegseth might target the highest-ranking Black officer in the military? I’m not. https://t.co/5S5tqXGAdU
(https://x.com/ChrisDJackson/status/1892623134039114032?t=pn4MzzimicpukXipsq40iQ&s=03)
Deborah Greenhouse (@greenhousemd) posted at 8:47 PM on Wed, Feb 19, 2025:
OK, I’m going to try to make this simple.
Measles is VERY, VERY contagious.
More contagious than flu. Or Covid. Or RSV.
When vaccination rates drop, measles can spread like wildfire.
Some children will get very sick.
A few will die.
That’s why it is important.
(https://x.com/greenhousemd/status/1892405618952024159?t=L1vhBDfV_-2gpMFKEz07nQ&s=03)
Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) posted at 4:33 PM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
Are Republicans in Washington paying attention to Musk’s CPAC spectacle? The guy can barely talk.
Do they realize they’ve handed their power and influence to a drug-addled billionaire man-baby?
How is this not a national security risk? https://t.co/xyYzd7j2FK
(https://x.com/ChrisDJackson/status/1892704265216344108?t=ix37gBgmuKMVYKZ0i5-OVg&s=03)
Propane Jane™ 🔥💣 (@docrocktex26) posted at 6:47 PM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
It’s really infuriating, especially when we’ve spent our whole lives on a quest for scientific breakthroughs and life saving/changing treatments only to have Idiocracy take hold and tear it all down in the name of tyranny, hatred and greed.
(https://x.com/docrocktex26/status/1892737917551812754?t=2MSf_hGrqhP9flr-c1jwIg&s=03)
Mark I Williams M.D. (@CameraGuyBakoCA) posted at 6:39 PM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
@docrocktex26 What hurts me the most is the knowledge U.S. Medical research is grinding to a halt in front of our eyes…
–With thunderous applause from the Right.
(https://x.com/CameraGuyBakoCA/status/1892735764766830844?t=CeOKrztZSnxZlJv-qGhoKw&s=03)
Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) posted at 9:03 AM on Wed, Feb 19, 2025:
New from me: Florida ended in-state tuition allowing undocumented students who completed three years of high school in FL to pay the same as U.S. citizens for a university degree. They refused an amendment allowing current students to finish their degrees.
https://t.co/08fCbpWPZo
(https://x.com/tomaskenn/status/1892228580479754278?t=yeG7OcTB04ZLAPXvTmoIdA&s=03)
Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) posted at 7:16 PM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
Not content with merely pricing out undocumented students out of their university degrees by ending in-state tuition, the Florida Legislature has a bill in the House and Senate that seeks to prohibit undocumented students from enrolling in state universities. https://t.co/6GHYo2Fi2f
(https://x.com/tomaskenn/status/1892745148179664903?t=Sj6ei4FPLozj2NDNJb-AUg&s=03)
Ossoff’s Office (@SenOssoff) posted at 10:30 PM on Thu, Feb 20, 2025:
WATCH: Senate Republicans just blocked Sen. Ossoff’s amendment to protect children’s and maternal health care through Medicaid. https://t.co/9ycjy1hWAp
(https://x.com/SenOssoff/status/1892793992594538948?t=B-cgEDbJ6NWnYN6MUXozaA&s=03)
Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) posted at 8:44 AM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
NEW: DoD has temporarily paused a plan to carry out mass firings of civilian probationary employees until SecDef Hegseth and the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel can carry out a more thorough review of the impacts such firings could have on US military readiness, two defense
(https://x.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1892948618690076888?t=EfwQfaz27AzDv-WyHtjS3g&s=03)
Kenny BooYah! 🖖🏾 (@KwikWarren) posted at 10:05 AM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
Two critical special elections2fill US House vacancies upcoming April 1. If Dems sweep them, we’ll have Speaker Jeffries&be positioned2stop some of this madness. Given GOP-heavy makeup of both districts, unlikely Dems win—but DNC&party’s big wigs need2pull out all the stops here!
(https://x.com/KwikWarren/status/1892968900389740931?t=cOfWWRlayFh-BcrwIQHM-A&s=03)
Must Love 🐶 (@RojoRurba002) posted at 0:10 PM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
The new golden age of America, sponsored by the GOP Tax Scam: the sick and the hungry suffer, while the billionaires on the front row of his inauguration gets the gold….
#DontCutMyMedicaid https://t.co/IkPB6XN4S3
(https://x.com/RojoRurba002/status/1893000360736010250?t=A5F6yaM8sBxPXawj4uHcWw&s=03)
Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) posted at 8:49 AM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
Scan down the replies to this tweet and you will see multiple examples of people whose biomedical research has been canceled. Research on cancer of the brain. Of the ovaries. Of the blood. Research on prosthetic limbs. Research on traumatic brain injury. All canceled.
(https://x.com/magi_jay/status/1892949792168271953?s=03)
Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) posted at 0:23 PM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
Press conference with elected officials and community leaders in Little Haiti right now to denounce moves by the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for 500,000 Haitians. https://t.co/tIq9MofrFP
(https://x.com/tomaskenn/status/1893003721518305694?t=UXjaoWHACRGU4y8_0YzywQ&s=03)
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) posted at 9:48 AM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
Rolling Stone is out with evidence that Musk’s people fired:
– Lawyers who keep drunk pilots out of the sky
– Staff who make sure flight routes account for new hazards like building cranes.
– Staff who make sure pilots are medically clear.
– Air traffic control support staff. https://t.co/BgQmkOMUlc
(https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1892964510102643147?t=nLiy9tGoquyb50dOuU2Qhw&s=03)
CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) posted at 0:16 PM on Fri, Feb 21, 2025:
Holy shit. Not only did Republicans in the Senate BLOCK a Bill protecting Medicaid, they also torpedoed Sen. Ossoff’s amendment to protect CHILDREN’S and MATERNAL health care through Medicaid.
This is pure EVIL.
Republicans are not here to help any person in America. They have blocked every single bill that would help Americans, they have approved every single bill to help corporations and 1%.
Why isn’t this a BIGGER story??
#DontCutMyMedicaid
https://t.co/x7AeT4qhpo
(https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1893001856705527852?t=Nng0znErSwOYO6CY5SKYTg&s=03)
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊