Doctors take an oath to “do no harm.” That sadly doesn’t apply to the Trump administration officials who have thrown America’s medical research into chaos by freezing funds, halting grants and banning travel.
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A half-dozen research doctors I contacted on Tuesday all expressed deep concern about the sudden paralysis of the system that supports public health: Faculty are baffled about what rules will apply; young researchers are frightened for their careers; and doctors in some cases have been forced to halt projects that could help save lives.
It’s as if the electricity suddenly failed in a hospital: Doctors and nurses are scrambling to keep patients alive, and the power will eventually be restored, surely — but nobody seems to know when or how, or which medical services will flatline in the interim.
The National Institutes of Health, whose grants enable America’s astonishing medical innovation, have been paralyzed this week by President Donald Trump’s political commissars. One NIH website abruptly informed researchers around the country: “At the present time, all NIH-sponsored meetings are cancelled.”