Free Republic

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...

At first, it seemed odd when an unfamiliar customer bought ivermectin, an animal dewormer. At Nashua Farmers’ Exchange – surrounded for several miles by concrete and cityscape – the drug meant for treating large animals wasn’t in high demand, but the store regularly kept it in stock. Judy Rata-Harrington, an assistant at the shop, couldn’t imagine another use for the product. When a couple more customers came in asking for the same animal dewormer, Rata-Harrington knew something was awry. She and her husband, the manager at the store, decided to stop selling ivermectin. “I just don’t want to get involved...