{"id":63,"date":"2025-06-10T13:29:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T13:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/10\/nih-employees-publish-bethesda-declaration-in-dissent-of-trump-administration-policies\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T13:29:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T13:29:31","slug":"nih-employees-publish-bethesda-declaration-in-dissent-of-trump-administration-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/10\/nih-employees-publish-bethesda-declaration-in-dissent-of-trump-administration-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"NIH employees publish \u2018Bethesda Declaration\u2019 in dissent of Trump administration policies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/action-bar\/instances\/cmbock49z00m427o02um6hvfk@published\" data-label-id-prefix=\"action-bar-start-of-article\" class=\"action-bar\" 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two months before Covid-19 vaccines would become available in the US, Stanford health policy professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and two colleagues published an open letter calling for a contrarian approach to managing the risks of the pandemic: protecting the most vulnerable while allowing others largely to resume normal life, aiming to obtain herd immunity through infection with the virus.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth50005356mdyxehy00@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            They called it the Great Barrington Declaration, for the Massachusetts town where they signed it. Backlash to it was swift, with the director-general of the World Health Organization calling the idea of allowing a dangerous new virus to sweep through unprotected populations \u201cunethical.\u201d Bhattacharya later testified before Congress that it \u2013 and he \u2013 immediately became targets of suppression and censorship by those leading scientific agencies.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth60006356meip2k3nw@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Now, Bhattacharya is the one in charge, and staffers at the agency he leads, the US National Institutes of Health, published their own letter of dissent, taking issue with what they see as the politicization of research and destruction of scientific progress under the Trump administration. They called it the Bethesda Declaration, for the location of the NIH.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth60007356mpah4a6ha@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cWe hope you will welcome this dissent, which we modeled after your Great Barrington Declaration,\u201d the staffers wrote. The letter was signed by more than 300 employees across the biomedical research agency, according to the non-profit organization Stand Up for Science, which also posted it; while many employees signed anonymously because of fears of retaliation, nearly 100 &#8211; from graduate students to division chiefs &#8211; signed by name.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth60008356mgl8q80ox@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            It comes the day before Bhattacharya is due to testify before Congress once more, in a budget hearing to be held Tuesday by the Senate appropriations committee. It\u2019s just the latest sign of strife from inside the NIH, where some staff last month staged a walkout of a townhall with Bhattacharya to protest working conditions and an inability to discuss them with the director.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth60009356mk2g1buyf@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cIf we don\u2019t speak up, we allow continued harm to research participants and public health in America and across the globe,\u201d said Dr. Jenna Norton, a program officer at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and a lead organizer of the Declaration, in a news release from Stand Up for Science. She emphasized she was speaking in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the NIH.    <\/p>\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/related-content\/instances\/cmboysxht00023b6m6hex6ap2@published\" data-component-name=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content-elevate related-content--article\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n<header class=\"related-content__title related-content__title-text\" data-editable=\"content.title\">Related article<\/header>\n<section class=\"related-content__body\">\n<div class=\"related-content__image image__related-content\">\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/image\/instances\/cmb3vvrca006627p15yhl1zz6@published\" class=\"image-elevate image__hide-placeholder\" data-image-variation=\"image\" data-name=\"02_Screen-Shot-2025-05-25-at-8.00.20-PM.jpg\" data-component-name=\"image\" data-observe-resizes=\"\" data-breakpoints=\"{&quot;image--eq-extra-small&quot;: 115, &quot;image--eq-small&quot;: 300, &quot;image--eq-large&quot;: 660}\" data-original-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-original-height=\"900\" data-original-width=\"1600\" data-url=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/02-screen-shot-2025-05-25-at-8-00-20-pm.jpg?c=original\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<div class=\"image__container \" data-image-variation=\"image\" data-breakpoints=\"{&quot;image--eq-extra-small&quot;: 115, &quot;image--eq-small&quot;: 300, &quot;image--show-credits&quot;: 525}\">       <picture class=\"image__picture\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(max-width: 479px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/02-screen-shot-2025-05-25-at-8-00-20-pm.jpg?c=1x1&amp;q=h_479,w_479,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/02-screen-shot-2025-05-25-at-8-00-20-pm.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_270,w_480,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/02-screen-shot-2025-05-25-at-8-00-20-pm.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_540,w_960,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/02-screen-shot-2025-05-25-at-8-00-20-pm.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/02-screen-shot-2025-05-25-at-8-00-20-pm.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><\/picture>    <\/div>\n<div class=\"image__metadata-container media__metadata-container\">\n<div class=\"image__metadata media__metadata\">\n<div itemprop=\"caption\" class=\"image__caption attribution\">    <span data-editable=\"metaCaption\" class=\"inline-placeholder\">A still from a video obtained by CNN shows NIH staffers leaving the auditorium during a town hall with US National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.<\/span>  <\/div><figcaption class=\"image__credit\">Obtained by CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"related-content__headline\">        <span class=\"related-content__headline-text\" data-editable=\"content.headline\">NIH staff stage walkout during director\u2019s town hall as tensions persist over research cuts, ideology<\/span>      <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000a356mnsiq9zj0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The letter, which the staffers said they also sent to US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and members of Congress who oversee the NIH, urged Bhattacharya to \u201crestore grants delayed or terminated for political reasons so that life-saving science can continue,\u201d citing work in areas including health disparities, Covid-19, health impacts of climate change and others.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000b356m23v0a3eb@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            They cited findings by two scientists that said about 2,100 NIH grants for about $9.5 billion have been terminated since the second Trump administration began. The NIH budget had been about $48 billion annually, and the Trump administration has proposed cutting it next year by about 40%.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000c356m3tu9yhcu@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The research terminations \u201cthrow away years of hard work and millions of dollars,\u201d the NIH staffers wrote. \u201cEnding a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million, it wastes $4 million.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000d356mll3k6e25@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            They also urged Bhattacharya to reverse a policy that aims to implement a new, and lower, flat 15% rate for paying for indirect costs of research at universities, which supports shared lab space, buildings, instruments and other infrastructure, as well as the firing of essential NIH staff and what they called disruptions to collaboration with foreign partners.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbp5kdlz0000356m8vsj0cr6@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cThe Bethesda Declaration has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months, including the continuing support of the NIH for international collaboration,\u201d Bhattacharya said in a statement Monday. \u201cNevertheless, respectful dissent in science is productive. We all want the NIH to succeed.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbp6eexc0000356mrmhlocaj@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            An HHS spokesperson added that the agency is \u201cactively working to remove ideological influence from the scientific process,\u201d and \u201cwhen projects have failed to meet these standards, they have been discontinued so we can redirect resources to rigorous, impactful science.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbp6j7hz0004356macketha5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The spokesperson said \u201cthere has been no halt to legitimate international collaborations,\u201d questioned why some universities receive more than 15% for indirect costs from the NIH when funders like the Gates Foundation cap rates there, and noted HHS is reviewing cases of staff terminations and reinstating some. \u201cStill, as NIH priorities evolve, so must our staffing model to ensure alignment with our central mission and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars,\u201d the spokesperson added.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000e356mqauu9ytl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Those who wrote the Bethesda Declaration were joined Monday by outside supporters, in a second letter posted by Stand Up for Science and signed by members of the public, including more than a dozen Nobel Prize-winning scientists.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000f356mh0uxja8u@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cWe urge NIH and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leadership to work with NIH staff to return the NIH to its mission and to abandon the strategy of using NIH as a tool for achieving political goals unrelated to that mission,\u201d they wrote.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000g356m1anm1dvl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            The letter called for the grant-making process to be conducted by scientifically trained NIH staff, guided by rigorous peer review, not by \u201canonymous individuals outside of NIH.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000h356m5nnr9zlk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            It also challenged assertions put forward by Kennedy, who often compares today\u2019s health outcomes with those around the time his uncle John F. Kennedy was president, in the early 1960s.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000i356mnf8gpjwe@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cSince 1960, the death rate due to heart disease has been cut in half, going from 560 deaths per 100,000 people to approximately 230 deaths per 100,000 today,\u201d they wrote. \u201cFrom 1960 to the present day, the five-year survival rate for childhood leukemia has increased nearly 10-fold, to over 90% for some forms. In 1960, the rate of measles infection was approximately 250 cases per 100,000 people compared with a near zero rate now (at least until recently).\u201d    <\/p>\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/related-content\/instances\/cmboytrcw00083b6mmcl0ph1o@published\" data-component-name=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content-elevate related-content--article\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n<header class=\"related-content__title related-content__title-text\" data-editable=\"content.title\">Related article<\/header>\n<section class=\"related-content__body\">\n<div class=\"related-content__image image__related-content\">\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/image\/instances\/cmbbns2of007726nn4qla8tp9@published\" class=\"image-elevate image__hide-placeholder\" data-image-variation=\"image\" data-name=\"GettyImages-2213974207.jpg\" data-component-name=\"image\" data-observe-resizes=\"\" data-breakpoints=\"{&quot;image--eq-extra-small&quot;: 115, &quot;image--eq-small&quot;: 300, &quot;image--eq-large&quot;: 660}\" data-original-ratio=\"0.6666666666666666\" data-original-height=\"1600\" data-original-width=\"2400\" data-url=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2213974207.jpg?c=original\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<div class=\"image__container \" data-image-variation=\"image\" data-breakpoints=\"{&quot;image--eq-extra-small&quot;: 115, &quot;image--eq-small&quot;: 300, &quot;image--show-credits&quot;: 525}\">       <picture class=\"image__picture\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(max-width: 479px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2213974207.jpg?c=1x1&amp;q=h_479,w_479,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 480px) and (max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2213974207.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_270,w_480,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2213974207.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_540,w_960,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2213974207.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source height=\"undefined\" width=\"256\" media=\"(min-width: 1280px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2213974207.jpg?c=16x9&amp;q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill\/w_256,f_webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><\/picture>    <\/div>\n<div class=\"image__metadata-container media__metadata-container\">\n<div class=\"image__metadata media__metadata\">\n<div itemprop=\"caption\" class=\"image__caption attribution\">    <span data-editable=\"metaCaption\" class=\"inline-placeholder\">People attend a rally, led by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, outside the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 10, 2025.<\/span>  <\/div><figcaption class=\"image__credit\">Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"related-content__headline\">        <span class=\"related-content__headline-text\" data-editable=\"content.headline\">HHS budget proposal details significant cuts to National Institutes of Health, other agencies<\/span>      <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000j356mmv9kpbg7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            They acknowledged there\u2019s still much work to do, including addressing obesity, diabetes and opioid dependency, \u201cbut,\u201d they wrote, \u201cglamorizing a mythical past while ignoring important progress made through biomedical research does not enhance the health of the American people.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000k356me356okvl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Support from the NIH, they argued, made the US \u201cthe internationally recognized hub for biomedical research and training,\u201d leading to major advances in improving human health.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmbocoth6000l356mmyd8hknr@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cI\u2019ve never heard anybody say, \u2018I\u2019m just so frustrated that the government is spending so much money on cancer research, or trying to address Alzheimer\u2019s,\u2019 \u201d said Dr. Jeremy Berg, who organized the letter of outside support and previously served as director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH.    <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Link Copied! Follow In October 2020, two months before Covid-19 vaccines would become available in the US, Stanford health policy professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and two colleagues published an open letter calling for a contrarian approach to managing the risks of the pandemic: protecting the most vulnerable while allowing others largely to resume normal life, aiming to obtain herd immunity through infection with the virus. They called it the Great Barrington Declaration, for the Massachusetts town where they signed it. Backlash to it was swift, with the director-general of the World Health Organization [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purethichealth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}