1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I am outraged and heartbroken by the Trump administration’s actions to destroy the NIH. Yesterday with no warning all study sections currently underway and scheduled were cancelled with no explanation and no clarity regarding rescheduling. Because HHS is currently barred from making public communications until February 1st there have been no statements or guidance, just waves of reviewers and researchers receiving emails from program officers, or in some cases yesterday, terminated zoom links. One of the things that makes America truly great is the quality of our federally funded research. It is what gets young people excited to study science. It is why so many people want to come to study legally in the United States and contribute to the research endeavor to make lives better as well as contribute to the economy. The loss of DEIA initiatives also includes the loss of NIH Diversity Supplements - a mechanism that provides funding for underrepresented high school, undergraduate, graduate, and clinical students to participate in research. So many aspiring American scientists have received support that otherwise would have been out of reach. Please intervene to reinstate the essential processes of scientific review and funding.