It reduces the constant national health institutes of immediate confusion and anxiety in Chicago Medical Centers
The truth was examined by Catherine Giannaro
Health care and research institutions in Chicago continue to deal with the effects of the Trump administration restrictions on communications, grant review meetings, travel and employment. In January, the Trump administration suspended all general documents for health services and humanitarian services (HHS), communications, immediate comments and immediate and unspecified suspension of all travel.
The freezing began on a memo on January 22. It was supposed to be raised on the first of February, but the agencies remain in varying degrees, according to the restrictions. This includes the national health institutes – where the effects of Chicago institutions are more clear.
“There is a lot of uncertainty,” says Monica Beck, PhD in Medicine, Professor of Health Justice at the Faculty of Research at the University of Chicago University. “We are doing science because we are trying to improve the health of Americans and the lives of Americans,” says Beck. “All this progress is slow and can be reversed when the National Institutes of Health can no longer work.”
On the national level, the National Health Institutes supports more than 400,000 jobs, including 14225 jobs in Illinois. When scientists receive a grant from the National Institutes of Health, a percentage of the award goes to the institution in which the world works to pay the price of materials that support the research, such as laboratory equipment and disposal of dangerous waste and facilities. According to NIH, out of $ 35 billion in grants during 2023, about a quarter ($ 9 billion) went to these indirect costs.
New restrictions roof this financing by 15 %. The national health institutes in the guidance note said that reducing funding “is vital to ensure that the largest possible number of funds is heading towards direct scientific research costs instead of administrative expenditures.”
On February 10, 22 states filed a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health at the maximum of 15 %. The lawsuit claims that due to politics, life saving research “will stop.”
In an interview with Nature magazine, Julia Barnes, Doctorate, a cultural anthropologist funded by the National Foundation at Tennessee University, Noxfil, says that the management of the administration shows that “the United States is not a stable place to be a scientist.”
Thirteen section is under HHS umbrella, including:
Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Centers (CDC) for Medical Care and Medical Services (CMS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Indian Health Institutes (IHS) National Health (NIH)
The freezing not only affects the research, but also affects the way critical health agencies communicate with the public. For example, the report and death report at the Disease Control Center, for example, collects public health information and recommendations from government public health departments. A report published on February 6 was published, but before that, it has not been updated since January 16 – the first time in 60 years has not been published.
In addition, the Center for Disease Control told its scientists to stop or withdraw research manuscripts in view of all magazines – not only those produced by the Disease Control Center. Researchers must remove the signals of the fortified terminology now, including “sex, gay, and enemy between the anitors, a pregnant person or pregnant people, and transgender”, inside medicine and the Washington Post report.
“The chaos and fear are already guidance decisions,” said Jeremy Faust, a medical doctorate, an emergency doctor at Brigham Hospital and Women's Hospital, in the first edition of the newsletter, inside medicine. “Although policy only aims to apply for work that may be seen as conflicting with President Trump's executive orders, experts of the Disease Control Center do not know how to explain this. Do the papers that describe the discrepancies in health results fall into” an ideology that wakes up “Or not? No one knows, and everyone is afraid of their expulsion. This leads to what the German gehorsam calls, or” pre -emptive obedience, “as a CDC scholar commented.”
In this story, Chicago Health contacted more than ten local researchers. Only two agreed to speak in the record.
How freezing affects research in Illinois
Illinois institutions received $ 1.23 billion from the NIH Award in the 2023 fiscal year, which the researchers used to study issues such as heart disease, cancer and Covid-19. This financing also supported 14225 jobs in the state.
NIH Freeze canceled federal advisory committees and study departments, including meetings in which research prizes are awarded or subject to final evaluation research.
“The study departments are preparing and meeting throughout the year,” says Beck. People are preparing grants all the time. Thus, when there is an automatic freezing of communication and at all meetings, it stops all the sciences that occur on behalf of the National Institutes of Health. ”
Sheikh Jain, a professor of medical participation at the University of Illinois Cancer Center, says that even the temporary delay in the process of preparing and consenting scholarships, which may take years, is likely to have long -term effects on patients.
“It stopped the meetings that were prepared for months to cancel or reschedule,” says Jain. “Bringing the sections of the study of the National Institutes of Health, which is necessary to consider research proposals, can actually delay a research that would save lives. When you talk about stopping federal funding for clinical trials, these clinical trials are sensitive to time.”
This creates a position in which people who receive cancer treatments feel panic so that they cannot get chemotherapy or life -saving treatments. “Hinging of grant reviews can even affect cancer patients with their treatments. This not only stops the comprehensive scientific process – it also stops the care of patients directly.”
Initially, the clinical experiments managed by the National Health Institutes of Health were unable to recruit new participants or meet the patient groups, but a clarification note was sent on January 27 from the newly appointed representative manager of Nih Matthew Memoli told senior leaders that clinical trials will remain. The clarification note also allowed some purchases and suggested a return to grant and travel reviews.
The delay in the grant review process also means uncertainty for research scientists, whose salary is often supported through the National Health Institutes Awards.
“This is literally financing that pays the salaries of people,” says Jain. “I think there is something that many people do not understand when they say that federal financing has stopped, and they think it is only heading towards long money, but in reality, so the salaries of some people are paid.”
Peek notes that such delays in grant reviews may further affect early profession scientists, who are less likely to be funded than a wide range of sources.
Besides Grant's reviews, freezing on meetings also affects the work of committees that help NIH to think strategically in future research directions.
“I am in a committee at the present time, I am advising about diabetes research, and we have not been able to hold group meetings or a large sub -committee since the start of the freezing,” says Beck.
Jane says that disruption of meetings can also affect communications on emerging health crises.
“Bird flu is an emerging healthy threat that we had no updated information,” says Jain. “When you temporarily stop federal funding, you can stop financing to help us educate the public about what is happening when it comes to spread. The inability to hold these regular meetings at the state level and local health level, as well as training courses – teach people how to deal with these types From things – directly affects our ability to protect people and protect their health.
The lack of a clear timeline has strengthened. “It is not clear how long it will be freezing, the type of subsequent changes or other things that may occur inside the national health institutes, within the administration,” says Beck. “The important changes have already started to happen. It is not clear to what extent will things go.”
In response to the communications that stop at the National Health Institutes, the UIC Vice President, Joanna Groud, issued a statement directed at the UIC Research Society.
“We are actively working with our academic and governmental partners to understand how federal research policy changes, including modern executive orders, may affect our university campus.” “We are also watching changes in potential additional policy that may have traces on campus.”
UIC 75 % of its funding has received 2024 federal sponsors, including $ 205.4 million from the National Health Institutes.
“Like most organizations, we are reviewing the new federal guidance and evaluating any effect,” a spokesman for the University of Rush Medical Center said in a statement. “The decisions related to how to move forward with our mission will be to improve the health of individuals and the various societies that we serve.”
Rush 64,826,796 dollars from NIH Awards in the fiscal year 2024 received.
Northwestern University and Laurie Children's Hospital in Chicago did not respond to among the best institutions funded by the National Health Institutes in the state, for suspension requests.
The National Health Institutes also did not respond to the request for comment.
By Anushree Vashist
Anushree (ANU) Vashist continues a dual major in biological sciences and history at the University of Chicago. In addition to her work at Chicago Health, it works as an administrative editor of 2024-25 in Chicago Maron.
