The Trump administration’s first-week moves include tying up the National Institutes of Health, the country’s primary biomedical research funding organization, and tossing it into the basement until the administration gets its way.
Intramural spending at NIH runs to $10 billion; of that $5.15 billion is specifically earmarked for “intramural research,” with another $2.47 billion for “research management and support.” The intramural research program is wide-ranging, covering everything from cancer biology and epidemiology to virology and behavioral science.
Per the source, the purchasing freeze covers basically everything needed to do all that scientific work — gloves, reagents and chemicals, anything. This, the source said, “will do a lot to stop ongoing work.” Much lab work can’t just be stopped and restarted — if an ongoing experiment runs out of one need or another, it might just have to be scrapped. There could very well be exceptions, but what happens if the food used to feed model organisms like fruit flies or mice runs out? Or the liquid nitrogen needed to keep things frozen?
This is, of course, tough to confirm right now — communications blackouts are fun that way. An email asking for clarification to NIH’s press team has yet to be answered, shockingly. For what it’s worth, a spokesperson told Nature that the gag order is temporary only until they can sort out their new priorities; but if the purchasing freeze is even partially true and lasts for any length of time, it will set back NIH research for far longer than it lasts.
It is unclear, at the moment, if there is a time frame on the freeze, but there is apparently a rumor inside NIH that it will last until walking conspiracy theory Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is confirmed by the Senate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Again, there is no independent confirmation of this, but if so, this is a hostage situation: confirm our deeply unqualified, manifestly dangerous anti-vax nutjob to run the place, or we will let your lab rats die.
Update, Friday 6 PM ET: Per another source with knowledge of what’s happening at NIH, the purchasing freeze may not be limited to just intramural spending. In fact, though it isn’t yet clear if this extends across all of the agency’s sub-institutes, administrators have been told they cannot approve any purchasing.
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