Heading to Phoenix for #SER2026, my first trip since joining the Bursky School of Public Health at WashU. Excited to connect and re-connect, see you all soon!

It seems that only the science community is noticing that NIH and NSF budgets are cut 40% and 55% in the budget bill, respectively. If you live in Maine, West Va, Pennsylvania, Alabama, or Louisiana, CALL YOUR SENATOR as they could make a difference. See below. prospect.org/politics/202...

Will the Senate Save NIH?

Rescuing biomedical research is every bit as important as saving Medicaid.

prospect.org

BREAKING: A federal judge reversed National Institutes of Health's terminations of hundreds of critical research grants that were canceled because of their alleged connection to disfavored topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity. This is a major win for public health.

📢BREAKING: Just left the courthouse for our NIH grant termination case Judge ruled terminations are “VOID & ILLEGAL” As a plaintiff, I felt a wave of relief & hope; he acknowledged the discrimination & harm Closed by asking, ‘Have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?’

After issuing his rulings, Judge Young has some absolutely stark words for the Trump administration. "This represents racial discrimination and discrimination against America's LGBTQ community. That's what this is. I would be blind to not to call it out. My duty is to call it out."

Measles infection during pregnancy is dangerous! It’s linked to early pregnancy loss, preterm labor and other pregnancy complications, increased risk of stillbirth, and neonatal mortality. In this recent case, a newborn with congenital measles has died.

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦@helenbranswell.bsky.social · last yr.

Ontario’s large #measles outbreak claims the life of a child. If you let measles spread, preventable harms will happen. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Who's calling the shots at NIH? Sworn testimonies and internal e-mails reveal for the first time the breadth of DOGE's control over the world's largest public biomedical funder. DOGE has provided lists of hundreds of grants to cut, and DOGE is now reviewing ALL NIH awards before they're released

NIH killed grants on orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE

Court documents and internal correspondence show the cost-cutting force has broad control over the world’s largest public biomedical funder.

nature.com

If by “paying” you mean a $400 honorarium which works out to less than minimum wage but ok - tell me more about how you have no idea how this works 🙄

Max Kozlov@maxkozlov.bsky.social · last yr.

A White House spokesperson framed DOGE's involvement as a positive: “Paying so-called ‘experts’ to deliberate bad ideas for hundreds of hours is exactly the kind of waste that DOGE is eliminating.”

The grant that funded a large part of my doctoral work - a 40 year cohort study which has been running successfully and learning all sorts of things about disease and wellbeing - was just terminated. Surreal.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health@hsph.harvard.edu · last yr.

With nearly all of Harvard Chan School’s direct federal grants terminated, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programs. Every gift, regardless of size, advances our vision of health, dignity, and justice for every human. Support our work: hsph.me/whygive

… and Molly is not alone. More than $2.6B of ongoing research has been canceled (with much more this week, at Harvard). With each cancellation: We are losing so much knowledge. Losing the next generation of scientists. Losing our ability to protect our health, both now & for the future. 🧪🩺😷

Molly Franke@mollyfranke.bsky.social · last yr.

All 4 of my NIH research grants are terminated. These were grants on MDR-TB treatment & strategies for supporting adolescents living w/ HIV. This is a massive waste of resources. I am heartbroken for my Harvard team, my partners in Peru, the next generation of scientists & our country. Shame.

They told me graduation is a formal event, I’m ready. #vaccinescauseadults

2.7Billion in NIH research funding cuts in the first three months of 2025. This is not abstract No NIH funding = fewer new treatments for cancer, fewer new vaccines, fewer discoveries for chronic diseases, lower retention of scientific talent, more brain drain. www.cnn.com/2025/05/13/h...

First on CNN: Trump administration cut $2.7 billion in NIH research funding through March, Senate committee minority report says | CNN

A Senate committee report by minority staff, and obtained by CNN, slams the Trump administration for terminating some funding for research, firing thousands of federal workers and removing certain sci...

cnn.com

An enslaved man, Onesimus, was very likely the person who introduced the lifesaving procedure of inoculation to the US. www.history.com/articles/sma...

How an Enslaved African Man in Boston Helped Save Generations from Smallpox | HISTORY

In the early 1700s, Onesimus shared a revolutionary way to prevent smallpox.

history.com

Insane is exactly the phrase I would have used! ‘This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage www.science.org/content/arti...

‘This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage

Agency will make researchers outside United States seek grants of their own rather than “subawards” from U.S. scientists

science.org

I have an 8th percentile R01 that cleared council in Sept 2024 in limbo but has a foreign sub so dead in the water now. Not spending seems to be the point.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last yr.

Bluetorial: Timing of getting grants out the door at NIH The pauses and low rate of releasing awards may be a problem in terms of getting the NIH appropriation spent by September 30, 2025

More insanity. 1. Collaborative research gave us vaccines for Ebola 2. Drugs for HIV 3. Malaria vaccines 4. Researched and enhanced tracking of emerging infectious disease threats. And much more This is another damaging own goal. www.statnews.com/2025/05/01/n...

NIH halts funding for new projects with foreign collaborators, citing national security concerns

NIH announced it will no longer allow subawards to foreign institutions, as part of a national security-minded overhaul to how it manages research funding

statnews.com

This is a disaster for global public health. I think moving to a model where the IC funds directly could be a not-bad thing, esp if it allows for capacity building re: admin for NIH grants and empowering institutions to lead them, but destroying everything first is not how you achieve that.

Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last yr.

New NIH Guide Notice about foreign subawards grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🧵1/N New study published in @jama.com on re-emergence of vaccine-eliminated infectious diseases under declining vaccination in the US. We model long-term risk and conditions for return to endemicity for measles, rubella, polio, & diphtheria. Collab w/ @Mathewkiang.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

They’re destroying federal science capacity & California needs to step up & expand science capacity at the state level. I introduced SB 829 to create the California Institute for Scientific Research & authorize the State of California to produce vaccines. It just passed the Senate Health Committee.

Vaccines save lives by the millions, this is not a point of debate.

Do not normalize children dying from measles. Measles was previously eliminated in the US, thanks to vaccines. When children die from measles, it means that adults have catastrophically failed to protect them because they have rejected basic science.

Today I lost an NIH grant training clinicians to do research about intimate partner violence with perinatal women. More women are murdered in the perinatal period than die of obstetric complications. I didn't just lose a grant. We lost an entire cohort of people building careers to prevent that.

We've been tracking unlawful NIH grant terminations for 3 weeks. Spread the word👇! Fellow PIs: what can you do upon termination? ✅ Email PO + document questions ✅ Submit FOIA ✅ Advocate to your OCG/OSP for appeal + litigation ✅ Consider outside litigation ✅ Donate to state AGs + legal orgs 1/🧵

Cancelled NIH grant information submission form

Please use this form to submit information identifying specific NIH grants that have been cancelled for any reason after January 20, 2025. Data from this form will be used to update the Rescinded NIH...

docs.google.com

13. And anyone who has been part of this grand humanist tradition is someone who will not lie down and cower before these sad bullies. I don't know what happens to science in the US over the next four years, but I have no doubt as to where the arc of history bends. We aren't going anywhere. fin

I just want to do my work, man. That’s all any of us want to do.

UCSF is the 2nd largest employer in San Francisco.

Yuen Huo, Ph.D.@yuenhuo.bsky.social · last yr.

University of California announced a systemwide hiring freeze. This affects not 1 but 10 campuses (including UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC San Diego among others) plus 3 national labs with impact on medical and scientific research and local economies. www.reuters.com/world/us/uni...

I’m so grateful for silly dogs.

The foreign aid cuts left partially-excavated, exposed pits of dioxin, a poison, left by the American military. Now, rainy season is coming & hundreds of thousands of people live right around the base. Worse, less than 1,500 ft away is a major river that flows into Ho Chi Minh City, pop. 9 million.

ProPublica@propublica.org · last yr.

THREAD: There’s a dire situation in Vietnam, at the largest Agent Orange spill in the country. When Trump and Marco Rubio cancelled foreign aid, froze funding and began dismantling USAID, those who were cleaning up the Bien Hoa air base had to halt work. 1/

THIS: The Best Investment You Didn’t Know You Made: How NIH Funding Fuels Innovation and Economic Growth www.amfar.org/news/how-nih...

The Best Investment You Didn’t Know You Made: How NIH Funding Fuels Innovation and Economic Growth

Continued investment in the NIH is essential to fighting current and emerging health threats and to ensuring the U.S. remains a global leader in medical innovation.

amfar.org

Last week, a colleague who studies how the shingles vaccine affects the eye had her R01 terminated. She mentioned “physicians are hesitant” to recommend the vaccine to those who had a previous shingles infection. This is extraordinarily bad. www.msn.com/en-us/health...