I graduated from the University of Washington, which is a major research institution, with lots of NIH money usually flowing through it. Usually. Everything changed this year.
Universities are reeling. The Trump administration has executed a flurry of research grant terminations at large, private institutions like Johns Hopkins and Princeton University. In a recent court case against NIH, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the administration targeted cuts to grants about topics it disfavors like diversity, LGBTQ issues and gender identity.
Among public universities, the University of Washington is one of the hardest hit, and researchers and students have said the fallout from the cuts has upended their careers and forced some to consider leaving the U.S.
“We’re going to have a big brain drain in the U.S. of these really talented folks,” said Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, the vice dean of research and graduate education at UW Medicine. “It’s not just a switch that you flip, right? If people move out into another direction with their careers, they often don’t come back.”
In a statement to NBC News, NIH said it was dedicated to restoring “gold-standard, evidence-based science.”
That last bit sounds like something Jay Bhattacharya would say, and it’s a lie. We had “gold-standard, evidence-based science” before the fringe pseudoscience kooks took over, and whatever it is they’re restoring, it isn’t evidence-based science.
Several institutions out there around Puget Sound are important centers of Alzheimer’s research — I guess that disease doesn’t fall under MAHA’s list of good research, which mainly seems to center on denying vaccines and peddling pointless supplements and killing the scientific establishment.
“Many of us are in the same boat” as the University of Washington, said Dr. Helena Chui, the principal investigator at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of Southern California. “It’s a very strong network, and it would be easy to wreck, but it took years to build.”
All this destruction in the name of making the government more “efficient” and reducing deficits, all while the Trump administration is burning money at a furious rate.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of daily financial statements issued by the Treasury Department found that government spending since the inauguration in January is $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the Biden administration.
I have to ask where that $154 billion went…
IMO it is likely that amidst the chaos the money has been wildly stolen and the people who might be able to catch this have been fired.
Perhaps Elon siphoned it off to help finance his Mars colony delusions.
Don’t forget the War on Fluoridated water.
Which the fascists are winning right now.
Anything from our past that was a crackpot idea is suddenly in favor at NIH and the CDC.
I’m sure there will be some serious studies of Ivermectin as an antiviral and all around miracle cure any day now,.
It’s not just U. of Washington that is being attacked by the Trump maladministration.
It is all the research universities.
They are all having major problems right now.
It is a lot worse than PZ explains above.
More Cruelty Theatre.
The Trump regime is also attacking foreign grad students at our universities.
This is a major problem because there are 1.1 million foreign students in the USA and they pay full tuition. My old research university is 12% international students, half from China.
Their latest tactic is going into the incoming databases and just changing the visa status of some foreign students, Without telling them and without any obvious reasons.
That creates a crime our of nothing.
These students are now illegal residents because they don’t have their visa any more.
Odd fact.
The founder of the current trillion dollar AI industry leader is a foreign migrant. Jensen Huang isn’t a real American. He is from Taiwan and ran the border by…graduating from an American university, Oregon State U.
The current regime has one goal: wholesale robbery.
“I have to ask where that $154 billion went…”
Trump and his Administration is reeling in all the money they can, bringing it back to a central control (The US Government). Trump, because he is president, thinks America is his business and therefore it is his money to do with as he sees fit. He has always had people in his employ who can manipulate the numbers. Large scale money laundering is a more apt description for what is going on. Some of it will end up in his pocket, some will end up in his businesses, a lucky few of his closest associates will get some and Trump make sure they donate some of it to his campaign.