Noam RossFolks, while much of the attention is on Harvard and Columbia's response to the Trump/Musk/RFK Jr. administration, I'd like to point out how #NIH terminations and funding cuts go far beyond this war with the nations' elite universities. 🧵🧪
Just one example: In the past 2 weeks, NIH has terminated dozens of programs to support students pursuing scientific careers. These MARC or U-RISE (T34) grants provide rising undergraduates with opportunities and stipends to participate in science. Where are these programs? Not in the Ivy league:
On average 45% of students qualify for Pell grants at these schools. They're minority-serving and rural institutions, many in red states and counties. In terminating these grants, the regime is choking off opportunity for a generation new scientists from the middle and working class. More details:
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It's hard to think of a better investment in the future of our nation's scientific workforce. These programs increase graduation rates. They give students stipends so they can pursue studies in a lab rather than have to take other after-school jobs.
Many of the MARC and U-RISE grants provide support for students with disabilities. One program that HHS appears to have terminated provided support for *deaf students* interested in scientific careers. 💔 The cruelty, it seems, again, is the point.
"Government efficiency" certainly isn't the point. These programs are cheap! The typical school gets $310,000 to run a U-RISE program. You could fund more than 10 of them for the cost of what we pay for Trump to golf for a week in Florida.
Importantly, HHS has *not* been reporting these publicly in its weekly dump of terminations that it calls "wasteful" spending. We only know about cancellations via diligent self-reporting from professors and by noticing quiet changes to the grant dates and accounting in NIH's databases.
The idea that a government program could be a helping hand for students is scary to these small, weak men. It is so contrary to their demonizing of science that they scrubbed it from the NIH web site. They want to hide the damage they are doing to our future.
web.archive.org/web/20250216...
I'm volcanic with anger about this theft because I know what these opportunities mean. I went to a high school with a science mentorship program that changed the lives of many students by showing them the joy of science and that they could compete with students from richer, less diverse towns.
If this outrages you as it does me, tell your representatives and senators that you want the NIH back in the business of giving opportunities for young, diverse students to become the scientists of the future:
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RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bcen47iol6hccqoufvtk7wt6/post/3lms5sivsas2v
Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves.bsky.social)
For the next 2 weeks, @defendpublichealth.bsky.social is asking for everyone to call their members of Congress about the cuts to and political interference at NIH by the Trump White House. 1/ https://5calls.org/issue/national-institutes-of-health-nih-research-cuts/
If you know about an NIH grant termination anywhere, please encourage them to report it so we can track and fight the administration's war on science: bsky.app/profile/scot...
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You can explore our database of health training and research programs cancelled by the regime here, and see how these terminations affect your states, cities and towns: airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJ...
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