Long a ‘Crown Jewel’ of Government, N.I.H. Is Now a Target

The New York Times ^ | Dec. 1, 2024 Updated 4:10 p.m. ET | Teddy Rosenbluth and Emily Anthes

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The National Institutes of Health, the world’s leading public funder of biomedical research, has an enviable track record. Research supported by the agency has led more than 100 Nobel Prizes and has supported more than 99 percent of the drugs approved by federal regulators from 2010 to 2019.

No surprise, then, that the agency has been called “the crown jewel of the federal government.” But come January, when President-elect Donald J. Trump and congressional Republicans take charge, the N.I.H. may face a reckoning.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the new administration’s selection for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the N.I.H., routinely castigates federal scientists and is a staunch critic of conventional pharmaceuticals and vaccines, with a long record of spreading falsehoods about vaccine safety.

He has said that he would steer the agency into a yearslong “break” from infectious disease research, focusing instead on chronic diseases.

And Mr. Trump’s pick for N.I.H. director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford professor who gained notoriety during the pandemic for supporting the widely maligned idea that the coronavirus should be left to spread freely among healthy Americans, has called for a dramatic restructuring of the N.I.H., which he has said is led by small-minded bureaucrats.

While even the agency’s defenders acknowledge that the N.I.H. needs modernization, the radical reforms now proposed would be difficult, if not impossible, without years of legal wrangling and significant support from Congress, experts say.

But many fear that the next administration will nonetheless weaken the N.I.H., divesting from critical research with long-lasting consequences for science, innovation and public health.

A spokesman for the Trump transition team said Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks will “slash wasteful spending in our broken health care system that cripples our nation’s budget” and “return health care to the....”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Study shows NIH investment in new drug approvals is comparable to investment by pharmaceutical industry

[lastchance]

“And Mr. Trump’s pick for N.I.H. director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford professor who gained notoriety during the pandemic for supporting the widely maligned idea that the coronavirus should be left to spread freely among healthy Americans, has called for a dramatic restructuring of the N.I.H., which he has said is led by small-minded bureaucrats.”

I really don’t get why the NYT is trying so hard to sell us on Trump’s picks.

[wildcard_redneck]

"I really don’t get why the NYT is trying so hard to sell us on Trump’s picks."

Yeah, I am already convinced as well.

[metmom]

They must be better picks than I initially thought judging by how the NYT is demonizing them.

[ALPAPilot]

Oh man, no more gain of function research money for Peter Dazsak and EcoHealth Alliance to do gain of function research in Wuhan?? Say it’s not so!

[DSH]

Better still, the National Institutes of Health should be abolished entirely. Along with the CDC. Getting the federal government out of what passes today as “public health” is a necessary step in restoring basic American freedoms.

[cnsmom]

Shrink it and move it to PA.It is one of the Federal Government’s most prime campuses. Move it and sell off the land for a veterans village.

[Arcadian Empire]

It is a beautiful campus.

[Arcadian Empire]

The NIH is a tool of Big Pharma.

[lurk]

If you could see a flow chart of where the money goes.

[irv]

The first sentence of the article is an opinion. So we know this isn’t a news article from the get go.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

The NYT is correct, of course. The NIH is still the crown jewel of government. Of bad, tyrannical, out of control government.

[FES0844]

Fauci’s wife works at NIH.

[Nervous Tick]

>> ...Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford professor who gained notoriety during the pandemic for supporting the widely maligned idea that the coronavirus should be left to spread freely among healthy Americans...

No matter how much you think you hate the New York Times, you don’t hate them nearly enough.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Fauci’s wife works until January 2025 worked at NIH. ;-)

[NetAddicted]

All of a sudden, NYT is pro-science? Does this mean they are now against males competing against females in women’s sports?

[Robert357]

Once upon a time, decades ago, I was sent back to WA DC to do informational lobbying on behalf of a major engineering society. I was briefed, given material handouts and then appointments were made with my Senators and local House Representative. In visiting the Senators and the Representative, I explained that NSF grand funding had not kept up with inflation for many years, as had DOD R&D. I told them that Congress really needed to boost R&D for physical things, if US industry and manufacturing was to remain a leader in the world.

I explained how DOD military jet engine research had reduced maintenance, increased reliability, and dramatically increased fuel efficiency for the military. I also explained how that had dramatically changed the cost of electric power generation, as combined cycle combustion turbines (jet engines teamed with steam turbines) were now reliable and cost effective. This had lead to much cleaner (less air pollution), much lower electric cost, and better reliability for consumers (industry and residential) of electric power.

I further explained how other NSF research had spurred advances in many things that had practical impact on the general public and our leadership in world manufacturing.

I was told by one Senator that NIH would always get lots more funding and it was not on the basis of what was better for society, it was on the basis of getting elected. He told me that if a Senator or Representative sponsored a bill to give NIH money to research a specific disease (through ear-marks) that they instantly had an affinity group they could visit and speak to during their next campaign. Nobody was going to help them get re-elected if they gave money to DOD or to NSF for R&D. The reason that NIH got so much money was all about getting re-elected and while that might not be in the best interest of the public, it was in the “best” interest of those elected to Congress.

Oh, and the NYT is just trying to slime everything that Trump does, say he will do, etc. They are so biased as to be a laughing stock.

[Rockingham]

The NIH is primarily a collection of specialized, federally funded scientific and medical research agencies. The remedy for bad science by the NIH is not less science but putting good science in the place of bad science.

[SMARTY]

All the old stoner professors who LIVE on their gov’t grants are sitting there in panic

[servo1969]

The flak is heaviest directly above the target.