Particle.news
Download on the App Store
9 ARTICLES
·
last wk.

NIH Researchers Challenge Trump Administration Over Public Health Cuts

The declaration denounces the termination of over $12 billion in research grants, warning of jeopardized safety for clinical trial participants

Image
On Monday, NIH staffers published a letter of dissent they called the "Great Bethesda Declaration."
Image
Jenna Norton, an employee at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, sits for a portrait in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Overview

  • More than 90 NIH researchers and 250 anonymous staff signed the Bethesda Declaration challenging policies that undermine the institute’s mission, waste public resources and harm global health
  • Signatories cite the abrupt termination of 2,100 grants valued at more than $12 billion, with trials stopped mid-course leaving participants without treatments or device monitoring
  • Signatories warn that eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs and cutting university funding reflect political interference in research priorities
  • The letter is addressed to Director Jay Bhattacharya, was also sent to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and delivered to congressional overseers
  • This unified protest marks the first agency-wide action by NIH scientists and could intensify legal challenges to the administration’s restructuring of the institute