The science world is in disarray. In just the last 10 days, the Trump administration has paused external communication and most travel for staffers within the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); froze NIH grant review panels—and therefore, new funding; and instructed employees across the federal government to report their colleagues for attempting to “disguise” DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—programs, sparking confusion. International HIV/AIDS aid was also put on hold, and then reinstated, at least in part. The result, researchers say, has been a chilling effect on science, both inside and out of federal agencies.
This week, Robert F Kennedy Jr., the founder of anti-vaccine non-profit Children’s Health Defense, is up for Senate confirmation to lead HHS. To get a better sense of what his nomination and the Trump administration’s crackdown on science mean for federal researchers—and by extension, the health of all US residents—I thought it’d be helpful to hear straight from one of those scientists themselves. Agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity, one NIH researcher described the “chaos” of the Trump administration’s first days. Here’s what they’ve seen, in their own words, below.—Jackie Flynn Mogensen
There are few places like the NIH. It’s unique because clinical care is tied in with research. Independently, the two things are great, but when you put them together, it’s something completely different. We sometimes say, “Our cells have faces”—we know who they are. It’s special to be able to take things from the patient’s bedside to the [lab] bench—and from the bench to the bedside.
Before the election, it was hard to predict what would happen. After Trump got elected and RFK Jr. was announced as the potential HHS director, there was a quote that I remember seeing—my jaw just dropped—where he had said something like, “We’re going to take a break from infectious disease research for the next few years.” And I thought, what an irresponsible thing for somebody to say who would be in charge of keeping us safe and healthy.
Infectious diseases like COVID and HIV, they don’t care what your political party is. They’re not going to wait for us to figure things out. They’re just going to keep killing people.
“Infectious diseases like COVID and HIV, they don’t care what your political party is.”
Last week, I got an email that said something like, “All travel is canceled. We’re awaiting further information.” And that was pretty much it. And so we’re like, Okay, does this apply to patient travel? Can patients still come to clinic today? There was essentially no information beyond that.
I got another email indicating all communication with the public had been cut off. There weren’t any instructions on what that meant either. So everyone had a different interpretation. We didn’t even know if we could communicate to others that the communication pause was happening. They have since clarified that we are allowed to publish original research, but we’re not supposed to publish any reviews or commentary. But even this week, people were still confused: “Can we submit manuscripts for publication right now, or is that forbidden?”
We also got an email that said all purchasing has been halted. That caused so much panic. People were like, “Can we order food for [lab] animals?” Is the pharmacy able to place orders with suppliers for medications?”
Matt Memoli, a vaccine researcher, was named the acting director of the NIH. We’ve since been told that on February 1, there will be new guidance regarding travel. Current travel restrictions do not apply to research participants traveling to NIH, and spending is not frozen for keeping people and animals alive.
But between banning travel, banning communication, and banning spending, it felt like all functions of our job had just been completely stripped away, like the system had been completely crippled. There was no central, clear message. It felt a little bit like that was part of the plan.
“There was no central, clear message. It felt a little bit like that was part of the plan.”
People are scared. It’s palpable. Normally, for the most part, people at NIH are cheerful. And for the past week, when you ask how people are doing, nobody’s saying, “I’m good.” They’re just like, “Oh, I’m okay, I’m here.” I think a lot of people are scared about their jobs.
On top of feeling scared, I think people feel underappreciated and almost villainized. Everyone at the NIH is so different than what has been portrayed as the “lazy government worker.” I honestly have never met more hard-working people in my life.
I think some of it is on us—we have done a poor job of communicating to people what we do. It’s not just pushing around papers and meetings about grants. There is true patient care that occurs here. There’s both basic science and clinical research. NIH worked on the Covid vaccine in collaboration with Moderna, for instance. We’re able to study things that aren’t feasible to study elsewhere due to a lack of funding, like rare diseases—inborn errors of immunity, chronic granulomatous disease, lymphangioleiomyomatosis—and undiagnosed diseases.
It’s not completely unheard of for there to be communication pauses like this. But with no clear guidance, everything has just been complete chaos. Every day there’s something new, some new curveball. The NIH produces incredible research, and I know a lot of people want to continue that work. But I think a lot of people are worrying, what is my backup plan?
This story has been edited and condensed for clarity.
