The speed and radicality with which President Trump dismisses American science leaves researchers with a shock and worried worldwide. According to Trump, “billions” must be cut on biomedical science alone. Subsidy applications are stopped, scientists are told that they are not allowed to visit congresses abroad until further notice, thousands of research applications are screened on ‘problematic language use’ and websites go on black. According to Trumps plans, the annual budgets of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center of Disease Control (CDC) will have to shrink with almost one fifth.
Dutch researchers who work a lot with colleagues in the United States, or who receive research money from US government funds, are worried. Much is still unclear – as the question of whether these are permanent changes, or a temporary interruption – but already there are publications here too on hold, Is communication with colleagues in the US hardly possible and American databases are unreachable.
Small drama
Malaria researcher Teun Bousema from Radboud University in Nijmegen notes major changes due to Trump’s decrees. Bousema conducts a large part of his research in East Africa, often with the support of American colleagues and subsidies. Much has been put in loose screws, he says.
“In Uganda, for example, I work on a project that receives financing from the American National Institutes of Health. It is a fair for five years. We are just now at the end of year one, and every year that budget has to be approved again. That was always a hammer piece, we know, because we have had such a fair before. But now it has suddenly become uncertain. We take it a bit into account that this may not be a five -year project, which is a small drama for all involved. ”
Bousema had also submitted another NIH project that was very well assessed, and would therefore be financed in principle. “But because the decisive meetings have been postponed, that is now all a bit uncertain. A bit of a delay is not immediately very worrying, but we also take into account that a full stop of American financing of infectious disease research, and that only American money goes to diseases within national borders. That would really be very disastrous for a lot of malaria research. “
Normal cooperation with American colleagues has also been compromised, says Bousema. “We had written a scientific article with a number of authors connected to the American Centers for Disease Control, CDC. Those colleagues had already approved the manuscript – the wait was on the official letter from CDC that we could send it to a magazine. And now we are no longer allowed to communicate with CDC people. In other words: they are not allowed to communicate with us. That is a striking situation. “
Completely uncertain
Adri Minnaard, professor of Chemistry at the University of Groningen, recognizes the uncertainty. He conducts research into tuberculosis, currently the most deadly infectious disease, with an estimated 1.25 million deaths per year. “We are involved in research into new diagnostics and vaccines,” says Minnaard.
NIH subsidizes a lot of international tuberculosis research. At the end of January, Minnaard would go to an important conference in New York. But suddenly he was told that, like other foreign researchers, he was not welcome. The flight ticket would not be reimbursed, as is normally the case. “Ultimately, the conference continued, online.”
But it is now “completely uncertain” whether the financing of the investigation will continue. Of the eight people who work in the Minnaard group, “on average two are paid by NIH”. In the meantime, says Minnaard, the American chemical association has clearly announced in an e-mail that it will continue to work. With ‘Including’, according to Minnaard, the association refers to both the international aspect, as well as gender, and minorities, such as the original American population. “It’s a opposition. But the uncertainty remains great. ”
Rudeness
Scientists at Viroscience at Erasmus University in Rotterdam have various NIH fairs that are now suddenly on hold have been set, says virologist Marion Koopmans, head of that department. She has also been surprised by the abrupt stopping of all USAID programs. “This is the rudeness at its best!” She says, “the Oekaze that the government institutions got over them is also unprecedented. Scientists who work there had to check their website for wrong words and their communication with the outside world was flattened. “
Essential information has not yet been cut off. “For example, it does not mean that we no longer know what the outbreaks of bird flu in the US,” says Koopmans. “Fortunately, there are also expert networks that are not all affiliated with the government.”
Koopmans expects the interruptions to be temporary, because the judge can still intervene and reverse things. “You first have the blow, then the swell and then the lawsuits come. But when I see who will lead the National Health Services and National Institutes of Health, I seriously take into account that there will be a lot of cuts in the budget for research into infectious diseases. ”
Forbidden words
That unrest and uncertainty about what is still happening is also felt in the corner of gender medicine, says professor and internist Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, specialized in gender and gender-specific healthcare. The National Science Foundation, an important subsidy provider with money from the federal government, already came up with a list of terms that will be used in the future to assess subsidy applications for studies. “That list is very broad,” says Oertelt-Prigione, “from gender and diversity to equity and Victims. The words female and women are also on that list, but mare or men not.”
The consequence of that glossary is not yet known, says Oertelt-Prigione. “The judge has now made the prohibition on granting subsidies for investigations with these words on a break for a week, but there is a good chance that a lot less money will be available for such subjects. I spoke to scientists from the US who already think they know that they can whistle for subsidy for their research, because the word gender states in the application. ”
The list is not only about studies for, for example, transgender care and women’s health, she says, but excludes many more topics. “This glossary puts a stop on research into approximately all social determinants of health, from origin to education level and socio-economic status.”
Rumbling in databases
Oertelt-Prigione works in a “fairly small science field”, which makes cooperation between scientists from different countries of extra importance. According to its leader, the United States are in the field of research into sex differences and conducting including research in medicine. Many databases and websites that are run from federal American institutes are of great importance for knowledge and division between colleagues worldwide. But many of those websites went black in recent weeks.
“We see that there is a mess in important databases, that information is removed from websites. All kinds of guidelines that come from the US, such as about how women and minorities should be included in clinical studies, are no longer available. The speed with which all that information disappears is horrifying. “
Oertelt-Prigione calls the Office for Research on Womens Health, a website of the NIH about gender-specific sexual health. According to Oertelt-Prigione, that website was first removed from the air and then re-launched, with only fifteen to twenty percent of the information originally on the website.
PubMed, a huge database for biomedical scientific literature, is also managed by the NIH. “All researchers in our field use that database,” says Oertelt-Prigione. “But how reliable is that if certain terminology may no longer be used? Can we no longer find all those investigations? ” According to the physician professor, it is not yet that far, “but there is a fear.”