More than 300 scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) signed a Open letter On Monday morning to the director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, criticized Trump’s administration for this new movement.
The letter, including 92 names signed and 250 signing of anonymous but verified, shared concerns that research was being politicized, global collaboration was disrupted and that budget and staff cuts had hampered the ability to conduct important research.
“[W]Disent against administrative policies that damage the mission, waste public resources, and endanger the health of Americans and people around the world, “the letter reads.” We are forced to speak when our leadership prioritizes political momentum rather than human safety and loyal management of public resources. “
Some scientists who signed the letter, spoke in their personal capacity and not on behalf of the agency, told ABC News that they and their colleagues had tried to cause internal concerns – and repeatedly – but were unsuccessful.
They say now there is an urgency to speak, especially like Bhattacharya arranged to testify On Tuesday at the hearing before the Senate Allocation Committee on the budget proposed for the upcoming fiscal year.
“There are many risks to speak, and I am still very scared, even after that it has been completed, even after that it has been said,” Jenna Norton, a program officer at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestion and Kidney Diseases and one of the main organizations of the letter, told ABC News. “I think many people focus on the risk of speaking, but we also need to think about the risk of not speaking.”
Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya held a copy of the Maha Health Report during the Maha Commission (Make America Healthy Again) in the White House, May 22, 2025.
Jim Watson/AFP Via Getty Images
The letter, called the Bethesda Declaration – is based on the central office in Bethesda, Maryland – modeled after Great Barrington DeclarationWhere Bhattacharya is a colleague of the author.
Published in October 2020 and named after the city of Massachusetts in which he was recruited, a severe barrington declaration called on Covid-19 locks to be avoided and new plans to deal with Pandemi by protecting the most vulnerable people but allowed most of them to continue normal activities, achieving very vulnerable immunity.
At that time, it was widely criticized by public health professionals, including Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of World Health Organizations, Yang said Allowing the virus “We don’t fully understand to run freely only unethical.” During testimony before the congress In March 2023, Bhattacharya said the declaration was targeted for “oppression” by federal health officials.
“We model the Bethesda declaration after the great Barrington declaration … because we want him to see himself in our actions,” Norton said. “He talked a lot about his commitment to academic freedom and for disagreement. If Jay Bhattacharya is a person he claims to be openly, and if he is truly responsible, our hope is that this will move him to act.
The letter asked Bhattacharya to reverse grants that have been postponed or ended for “political reasons” and to allow work with foreign collaborators.
The signing also asked Bhattacharya to reverse policies that limit indirect costs for research by 15% and to return important staff who are fired at here.
“The Bethesda Declaration has several fundamental misunderstandings about the directions of policies that have been taken in recent months, including sustainable support from international collaboration,” Bhattacharya said in a statement to ABC News. “However, respectful differences of opinion in science are productive. We all want to succeed.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health & Human Services told ABC News that the agency had not yet stopped collaboration “SAH” with international partners. In addition, the spokesperson said that other funds, such as the Gates Foundation, covered an indirect fee of 15% and that each case of termination was being reviewed.
Ian Morgan, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences whose work focused on antimicrobial resistance, told ABC News to see that changes in the agency had become “traumatic experience.”
He said when Trump’s government came to the office, he was prevented from conducting research in his lab because he could not buy important goods and he was not allowed to attend a conference in February to speak with potential collaborators. He also saw that many of his colleagues were stopped accidentally and then restored.
“This is really traumatic and very disturbing for researchers in here,” said Morgan, who signed the letter. “We discussed this not because we tried to make money, not because of our own profits. We discussed this because we wanted to serve the public. We want to do lives that save lives.”
Sarah Kobrin, a branch head at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) who also signed the letter, said before the new government, he worked with researchers who were interested in receiving funds from NCI or who already had funds and had asked for help from NCI.
However, with more than 2,100 research grants with a total of around $ 9.5 billion ended in Nih – according to the letter – he said some of his daily tasks had changed.
The Center for the Gateway of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seen in the rain in Bethesda, MD., June 8, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
“I spend my time on the phone now talking to people who have just learned that their projects have been cut and have been given false reasons, pseudo-scientific to say their work is worthless, it is not important for public health for America, and that is not true,” Kobrin told ABC News.
The researchers told ABC News that there were public letters that people could do a sign to express their support Or they can contact their congress representatives to express their concerns.
Morgan, antimicrobial researcher, said he did not want the letter only about detailing all the changes that occurred in NIH since Trump served.
“We stood up and showed that not all of them were lost, and of course there were damage that could not be repaired, but we still had time to repair the ship and carry it in the right direction,” he said. “I need to leave people with the message of hope because, if not, they can feel nothing they can do, and that we are helpless, but we are all strong.”
Trump’s administration did not immediately respond to ABC News comments requests.