The Trump administration’s cuts to health research will shorten life expectancy and threaten the lives of all Americans, according to university union leaders and scientists. Lab leaders and researchers said they’re already seeing PhD students not getting admitted, research being delayed or cancelled, and longtime colleagues getting fired as President Donald Trump executes his promised cuts to government spending.
U.S. taxpayers fund an estimated $81 billion in academic scientific research and development annually, more than twice the next-highest country, according to the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
A group of universities last week won a temporary restraining order blocking the federal National Institutes of Health from halting some of the funding, but scientists and union leaders say the impacts are still being felt via job losses, cancelled scientific reviews and delayed basic research. How much has been cut or halted remains unclear. The Trump administration has not released a comprehensive, reliable accounting of job cuts or funding halts. To read the full story.