Researchers stand tall as Trump puts thumb on scales of science

In a time when silence often masquerades as prudence, more than 300 scientists, researchers and public servants, from across all 27 National Institutes of Health facilities and centers, have chosen a different path: courage. Their public statement, the Bethesda Declaration, is a principled act of dissent against an administration intent on turning the country’s most respected scientific institution into an ideology-driven arm of MAGA’s political extremism that will have deadly consequences in global health care.

These scientists did not leak anonymous complaints or whisper from the shadows. Ninety-two of them even put their careers and potentially even their safety on the line by signing their names.

The letter, addressed to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and congressional overseers, outlines a devastating portrait of scientific sabotage. It documents how, in just a few short months, 2,100 research grants, totaling about $9.5 billion, have been terminated under what the signers rightly describe as “indiscriminate” and politically motivated cuts. Scientific and medical value was not the issue in the cuts. Political posturing and anti-science ignorance was the impetus.

As best as anyone can tell, many of the grants were eliminated because, when describing the research, scientists discussed the importance of studying “diverse populations.” In scientific terms, this means that they thought it was important to study people of different ages, races, lifestyles, backgrounds and health-risk factors to ensure that the findings applied to the U.S. population generally and not just to one group of people. This is the gold standard of scientific research, yet it is now being used to justify the termination of billions in funding.

In some cases, as the funding was cut off, the medications for test subjects were cut off midtreatment. In others, patients were left with implanted experimental medical devices and no clinical monitoring. And in at least one case, funding was eliminated after all of the data had already been collected, leaving a data set with no one to analyze it.

The declaration warns: “Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million, it wastes $4 million.”

We agree.

Moreover, such politically motivated attacks strike at the foundations of scientific advancement: peer review and academic freedom. Canceling a research project because a word in the description might indicate a political distaste for a topic or group of people is not oversight, it’s discrimination and suppression paid for by the American public.

Perhaps worst of all, the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach to science doesn’t just squander taxpayer dollars, it puts lives at risk. Among the grants eliminated are those that supported studies on drug-resistant tuberculosis, promising treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s and strategies for combating vaccine hesitancy.

Consider that these cuts come while unvaccinated children are fueling one of the country’s largest measles outbreaks in decades. Simultaneously, pediatric deaths due to the common flu have reached a 15-year high. And cases of whooping cough — another vaccine-preventable disease — have more than doubled.

Yet Bhattacharya, Kennedy and Trump continue to peddle their conspiracy theories with little regard for human life and little reason to fear the consequences of their reckless conspiracies.

For his part, Bhattacharya told The Atlantic in an emailed statement that, “The Bethesda Declaration has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months. … Nevertheless, respectful dissent in science is productive. We all want the NIH to succeed.”

However, the reality is that the signers of the Bethesda Declaration are dissenting from within an administration that has turned retribution into routine. The Trump administration has made no secret of its desire to purge the federal bureaucracy of those deemed disloyal, and multiple NIH officials told The Atlantic that staff are working in a “culture of fear,” with those who are most outspoken about the policy changes being forcibly reassigned to irrelevant positions. One researcher even claimed that members of NIH leadership cautioned her that if she kept speaking out, she could be on the next list of firings.

While each of the officials interviewed by The Atlantic emphasized that they were speaking in their personal capacity and not on behalf of the NIH, the fact that they expressed such concerns shows that they view the possibility of retaliatory firings as a genuine possibility.

In such a climate, the signers of the Bethesda Declaration deserve not just our admiration, but our protection.

If the administration proceeds with retaliatory action such as removing scientists from their posts or eliminating even more funding for medical research, it will not just harm individuals, it will cede American leadership in biomedical research to rivals like China, which is second only the U.S. in the annual volume of published medical research and investment in medical research.

While diseases do not care about ideology, that does not mean that research cannot be twisted by an authoritarian government, either here or in China, for the benefit of those in power and the detriment of the working class or a political rival. Ask yourself, are you ready to trust your children’s health to the Chinese government?

Even with the best intentions, life-threatening diseases cannot be prevented or eliminated without an understanding of how those diseases spread and propagate. The rise in measles, the surge in whooping cough and the hundreds of pediatric flu deaths this season are real and rising threats that demand medical intervention. To confront them, America needs science. And science needs the freedom to ask difficult questions, even when those questions touch on politically sensitive issues.

The Bethesda Declaration is not an act of rebellion. It is an act of integrity. Congress and the courts should act to protect the courageous scientists who are shining a light on the Trump administration’s abuses. Public health demands nothing less and neither should the American people.