1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Restore the NIH grants terminated by this administration that are gutting critical Alzheimer's research — including the 15-year Phresh study in Pittsburgh and the Cobra study at the University of Pittsburgh, which together represent tens of millions in canceled science that cannot simply be restarted. Black Americans face nearly double the risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia compared to white Americans, yet over 87% of participants in studies that report race at all are white. The Phresh study was directly addressing that gap — using a randomly selected, majority-Black cohort in Pittsburgh to understand how neighborhood divestment, trauma, and discrimination drive cognitive decline. Researchers had just completed their second round of cognitive assessments on roughly 600 participants and were weeks away from delivering results when termination letters arrived. Those participants were promised feedback. Now they won't get it — and some may have early signs of dementia that go undetected. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya dismissed decades of validated research linking trauma and deprivation to health outcomes as not "scientifically valid." That claim is false, and researchers know it. The University of Pittsburgh has had 90 grants canceled totaling $33 million. Emory has lost $92 million. This isn't a budget decision — it's political censorship of science whose conclusions the administration disfavors. Restore this funding and push back on the NIH's politically driven grant terminations before irreplaceable data is destroyed and more communities are left without answers.