Ex-NIH Workers Detail Grim Reality Of Crippled Agency In ‘Constant Chaos’
The former leaders and a researcher tracking the effects of funding cuts lament the loss of research critical to their mission and fear up-and-coming scientists won't seek government work. They also fear things haven't "bottomed out" yet. Plus: The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is on hiatus, despite being published during previous shutdowns.
Jeremy Berg walked on stage sporting a curious look: a red tie patterned with a word cloud drawn from the applications of 197 researchers who vied to be part of a National Institutes of Health initiative aimed at accelerating junior scientists鈥 academic careers. (Broderick, 10/16)
After a week of chaos and confusion, as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees described it, the fates of more than 600 workers hang in the balance now that a federal judge has temporarily blocked their terminations. (Bendix and Edwards, 10/16)
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) isn't publishing during the federal government shutdown, a departure from the past, according to sources. CDC's flagship scientific publication "was published during every previous shutdown back into the 1990s, at least," Charlotte Kent, PhD, MPH, the most recent former editor of the journal, told MedPage Today. (Fiore, 10/16)
More on RFK Jr. 鈥
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said if he was a woman he wouldn鈥檛 take medical advice from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., citing recent claims the secretary made that President Trump endorsed. MSNOW鈥檚 senior Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitali asked Thune in a Thursday interview whether the GOP was becoming a 鈥減arty of no dissent,鈥 noting that lawmakers like Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.) and Susan Collins (Maine) 鈥 who are up for reelection 鈥 are among the few who have publicly disagreed with party leadership and the White House on some issues. (Choi, 10/16)
Joe Kennedy III has 鈥済reat memories鈥 of growing up with his uncle, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But the younger Kennedy鈥檚 鈥済rave concerns about the safety and integrity of our health system鈥 have moved him to condemn his uncle鈥檚 leadership as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, he said at the STAT Summit in Boston on Thursday.聽Those concerns prompted Kennedy, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, to call on his uncle to resign last month. He elaborated on his thinking in his most extensive comments on his uncle since the elder Kennedy took office. (Todd, 10/17)
On vaccines and funding cuts 鈥
In the latest attempt to push back on changing federal health policy under President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration, Colorado has joined with 13 other states and one territory to form a new group called the Governors Public Health Alliance. (Ingold, 10/17)
In its latest financial report, Harvard said its endowment grew even bigger in the last fiscal year. But it still faces financial problems because of federal cuts. (Blinder, 10/16)
