Latest news with #NASEM
The Age
11-08-2025
- Health
- The Age
Blue Mountains residents could reduce PFAS by donating blood, GPs told
A NSW Health webinar on PFAS for general practitioners painted the forever chemicals as low risk for human health and discussed whether patients should reduce exposure by donating blood, while researchers have found 21 new PFAS types in Sydney tap water, on top of what was previously known. Ahead of its own expert panel reporting on the latest evidence on PFAS and public health, which is expected imminently, Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant hosted an hour-long webinar with six other experts in late July to guide GPs and health practitioners in the Blue Mountains in 'supporting patients with concerns about PFAS exposure'. Professor Nick Buckley, an expert in clinical pharmacology at the University of Sydney and one of six presenters besides Chant in the webinar, said the levels of PFAS exposure in humans were mostly 'tiny traces' and there was limited or no evidence for a strong link with human disease, including cancer and high cholesterol. 'People should not be getting terribly worried about PFAS – I know that's a really hard thing,' Buckley said. 'There's a lot of reasons to think that we're spending a lot of time on something that actually isn't very important for people's health.' The webinar presented a case study of a 60-year-old woman who wanted to know if her high cholesterol was due to her high PFAS levels, measured at 19 nanograms per millilitre of blood for PFOS, 2 ng/ml for PFOA , and 11 ng/ml for PFHxS. If she were in the US, her total PFAS levels of 32 would be above the threshold of 20 set by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) and she would be given further testing and screening. Professor Alison Jones, executive director at the Sunshine Coast Health Institute, told the webinar that she would focus on the patient's cholesterol and cardiovascular risk. 'I would not be doing anything about the PFOS, PFOA or any other thing that starts with P and has F to follow – because of relative risk,' Jones said. PFAS – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a family of synthetic chemicals prized for their resistance to heat, grease and water, and used in a wide range of everyday products such as stain-resistant fabrics, cleaning products and firefighting foams. They are often dubbed 'forever chemicals' because they don't break down naturally, and can persist in the environment and human body for decades. NASEM has conducted a systematic review of the evidence and found that certain PFAS, specifically PFOA, are carcinogenic to humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified PFOA as carcinogenic to humans and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic. However, Buckley said the NASEM guidelines on sensible screening for an individual were 'pretty terrible' and amounted to a recommendation that patients should have cholesterol testing, which was already routine. He noted that the 'strongest conclusions' that PFAS was carcinogenic came from IARC, but said this was 'just some subgroup of the WHO', not WHO itself.
Sydney Morning Herald
11-08-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
PFAS: New forever chemicals found in Sydney Water
In 2018, Buckley chaired the expert health panel for PFAS for the Australian government. He told the webinar he had looked over the state of research since then, and 'not much' had changed. Loading Dr Nicholas Chartres, a senior research fellow in the school of pharmacy at the University of Sydney, told this masthead it would have been most appropriate for the NSW Health webinar to present the findings of the US Environmental Protection Agency and NASEM reviews alongside the IARC evaluations. 'Government advice should not rely on individual experts, but rather rigorous, transparent reviews that reflect the most current science, when available,' he said. NASEM took a similar approach to the Australian panel in 2018, Chartres said, but was more rigorous and up to date, taking in the 139 human studies that had been published since then. A NSW Health spokesperson said it had convened an expert panel to report to the chief health officer on a range of clinical matters relating to PFAS. The webinar was to support local clinicians to provide information and give them a chance to share case studies and ask questions, the spokesperson said. STOP PFAS convener Jon Dee in Leura. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong Jon Dee, from Blue Mountains community group STOP PFAS, said: 'The PFAS in our drinking water was an Erin Brockovich-level contamination, yet NSW Health is downplaying this and ignoring a huge amount of international evidence about PFAS health risks.' Blood donations Buckley told the webinar about a third of PFAS in a human body would be in the blood stream, and if individuals were concerned about their PFAS levels and wanted to be proactive in lowering it, they could consider donating blood. 'You'd be getting rid of 3 per cent of your PFAS in your body every time you gave 500ml of blood,' Buckley said. Loading 'If you quietly said 'you're welcome to give blood and you will get rid of 3 per cent of the PFAS in your body every time you give blood', I actually think it's not a bad idea.' A randomised clinical trial of 285 Victorian firefighters in 2019 found donating blood lowered PFAS levels, while the PFAS Health Study at the Australian National University has identified menstruation as one of the reasons why PFAS levels are lower in Australian women than men at population level. Jones told the webinar she disagreed with blood donation to lower PFAS because it could cause persistent anaemia and there was 'no proven causality between PFASes and adverse health effects'. Buckley responded that it was 'a futile exercise in getting rid of PFAS at one level – you're not expecting health benefits', but as long as it was in the guidelines for blood donation, he did not see any huge problems with it. Sydney tap water Residents in the Blue Mountains have been exposed to high levels of PFAS, especially PFOS from firefighting foam, in drinking water for at least 17 years and possibly up to 32 years. Water with PFAS levels above safe limits had been supplying 78,000 residents from Mount Victoria to Glenbrook, according to Sydney Water, until the pipeline to a contaminated dam was disconnected last year. Last week, the NSW Environment Protection Authority put out a warning that people should limit their consumption of fish from Wentworth Falls Lake to one serve of redfin perch per week and all other fish species to two serves a week because of the results of testing of surface water and fish for PFAS. Peter Morse, a master fly casting instructor, was out at Wentworth Falls Lake on Monday honing his skills. He said he never catches fish in the lake mainly because of concerns about urban run-off from nearby houses, but noted the lake was stocked with trout annually and they were always fished out by the end of the season. 'It's a popular spot for kids in the mountains to go fishing, and I suspect if they catch a trout, they're going to take it home for mum to cook,' Morse said. On Tuesday, it emerged that University of NSW researchers have found a total of 31 PFAS types in Sydney tap water, including one never before found in tap water anywhere in the world, publishing their findings in the journal Chemosphere overnight. The samples were analysed per drinking water catchment and found to be highest around North Richmond, with potential contamination from the air base. The detected PFAS included 3:3 FTCA, thought to be only the second global detection in any drinking water supply, and 6:2 diPAP, previously found in bottled water and now detected in tap water for the first time. Lead researcher Professor William Alexander Donald said the health effects of 3:3 FTCA were unknown, but there was some evidence to suggest that 6:2 diPAP caused thyroid and reproductive issues. PFOS was found at 6 parts per trillion (ppt), which is 2 ppt below Australian drinking water guidelines of 8 ppt, but higher than the Trump-era US EPA's advisory limit of 4 ppt. Donald said one of the most interesting findings was that Sydney tap water had high levels of PFBA, a short-chain PFAS that is being used as a replacement for the banned substances, PFOS and PFOA. 'It's more mobile in the environment, so it shouldn't persist as long, but across all the samples it has the highest average concentration,' Donald said. 'It shows this idea that you can make tweaks to these chemicals to get around using the banned substances, but then … it ends up in our tap water.' The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council covers five main types of PFAS: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX chemicals. A Sydney Water spokesperson said drinking water from all nine of its water filtration plants was safe to drink and met the guidelines. Get to the heart of what's happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.
Medscape
10-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Chronic Lyme Illness Needs Symptom-Targeted Treatments
Lyme infection-associated chronic illness (IACI) is real, often debilitating and long-lasting, and in urgent need of research that prioritizes treatments to improve symptoms affecting patients' function and quality of life — rather than waiting for certainty about cause, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) concluded in a new report on Lyme IACI. An estimated tens of thousands of people in the US each year develop what the NASEM is calling Lyme IACI, often presenting with chronic fatigue, recurring pain, cognitive dysfunction and/or sleep disturbances despite receiving recommended antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease, the Academy's Committee on the Evidence Base for Lyme IACI Treatment wrote. These symptoms are distinct from known complications of Lyme disease such as arthritis and carditis. 'Testing interventions that act on symptoms as opposed to [waiting for an understanding of] pathogenic mechanisms is the most efficient approach to identifying treatments [that can] help patients living with Lyme IACI find relief,' NASEM Committee Chair Kent Kester, MD, said in a webinar held last month about the report. Mechanism studies should be conducted in parallel to guide future treatment studies, said Kester, an internist and infectious disease specialist who is currently the executive director of Vaccine Research and Development at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. The report also emphasizes the 'unrealized opportunity' for the sharing of knowledge about other IACIes — such as long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) — to better understand potentially common mechanistic pathways and treatments. It calls for the US Department of Health and Human Services to develop an integrated strategic plan for IACI research broadly, as well as a standardized research definition for Lyme IACI, and it recommends that a Lyme IACI research data coordinating center be developed to improve research efforts on Lyme IACI that currently are 'decentralized and uncoordinated.' 'This vision [for research] is terrific because basically it's saying that we need to view Lyme disease similarly to the way we view other illnesses that have chronic persistent symptoms…and that we can learn a lot from sharing knowledge…The time is now,' said Brian A. Fallon, MD, MPH, professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the 17-year-old Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York City, who was not on the NASEM Lyme IACI committee. 'Clinicians have been struggling for a long time because they see patients with persistent symptoms and sometimes the Lyme disease has been really well diagnosed, and sometimes it is likely or possibly Lyme disease, but they're not really sure,' he said in an interview, 'and they're not sure how to treat these patients.' A scoping review of the literature conducted for the NASEM committee covered treatment, pathogenesis, and diagnosis of Lyme IACI, and it documented both the sparsity of randomized controlled treatment trials over the past 20 years and the poor understanding of mechanisms. Regarding diagnostic methods, research 'remains in the early stages of discovery,' the report said. 'No single candidate [test or method] stands out.' The broad recognition of long COVID has galvanized acceptance of Lyme IACI and of chronic disease states with potential infectious triggers, the committee wrote. However, in a statement about the report, physician leaders of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) expressed ongoing concern. The National Academies report 'rightly identifies that many people with Lyme IACI experience…symptoms strikingly similar to those found in long COVID and ME/CFS,' their statement said. 'Yet unlike these conditions, where progress toward treatment development is accelerating, patients with Lyme IACI still face stigma, dismissal, and inconsistent care.' ILADS is a nonprofit membership organization representing physicians, scientists, and other healthcare professionals that focuses on Lyme disease and other vector-borne illnesses. The 'State of Evidence' on Treatment Of 85 published peer-reviewed articles identified in the scoping review and published from 1988 to 2024, 19 evaluated treatments, and only six of these were randomized trials. Five of the six trials — all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reported between 2001 and 2008 — evaluated extended courses of antibiotics (up to 3 months) and did not demonstrate sustained benefit in primary outcome measures. One study did not report safety monitoring, and the other five reported adverse effects, the report said. 'The lack of demonstrated effectiveness of various extended antibiotic regimens in these randomized trials suggests that pathogen persistence is not a primary driver of Lyme IACI,' the report said. 'However, the current evidence is insufficient to rule out the possibility that bacterial persistence might occur in a subset of patients living with Lyme IACI.' The role of antibiotic treatment and the question of persistence of Borrelia burgdorferi have been among the most controversial topics in what the NASEM calls Lyme IACI, with treatment guidelines issued by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in 2006 and 2020 and ILADS in 2014 taking different stances and offering differing recommendations. Asked about the NASEM report, Elizabeth L. Maloney, MD, education director of VectorWise CME, said 'it's important that [the NASEM] kept the door open to persistent infection' as a potential mechanism for further research. (VectorWise CME, which maintains accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education [CME], provides virtual free courses on Lyme disease and other vector-borne diseases. All courses are accredited by the American Academy of Family Physicians.) Case reports have reported detection of B burgdorferi in post-mortem human samples and in primate models that simulate delayed treatment of Lyme disease, the report noted. Regarding the antibiotic treatment trials, Maloney said important lessons have been overlooked. One of the trials of IV ceftriaxone, for instance, reported sustained improvement in severe fatigue, which was one of its primary outcome measures. Another trial of patients with chronic cognitive impairment— this one from Fallon's group at Columbia — reported sustained improvement in secondary measures of pain and physical functioning after a 10-week course of intravenous ceftriaxone. (Patients in the Columbia study had improvement in cognition, the primary outcome, at 12 weeks — 2 weeks after treatment ended — but lost that improvement by week 24.) 'So there is some randomized controlled trial evidence — small numbers but real evidence — that ceftriaxone helped [some] patients,' said Maloney, who was a co-author of the ILADS treatment guideline. The NASEM report gave a nod to debated issues, noting 'there remains ongoing debate over the trial designs and outcomes [of the antibiotic trials], as discussed through extensive re-analyses of the available data,' including a 2012 paper co-authored by Fallon, 'A reappraisal of the US Clinical Trials of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome.' The sixth RCT identified in the scoping review looked at yoga and found insufficient evidence of benefit for fatigue and pain, the report said. With geographic differences in mind, the NASEM committee limited its scoping review to studies of Lyme IACI in the US, which it considered to be 'Lyme-associated chronic illness with otherwise unexplained symptoms that persist for at least 6 months following antibiotic treatment for either proved or presumed infection with B spp that cause Lyme disease.' (That definition is less stringent than the IDSA's 2006 research case definition of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS), which requires an initial Lyme disease diagnosis meeting the surveillance case definition used by the CDC.) European studies are not always generalizable to the US because borrelial species associated with Lyme disease in Europe — and the clinical features of Lyme disease — can differ from those found in the US, said Maloney, who lives and has practiced in a Lyme-endemic area of Minnesota. Maloney, a family physician, became involved in CME in 2007 after treating patients 'who didn't always present as a Lyme patient was supposed to present,' such as patients with arthritis but no history of an erythema migrans rash. 'I read the medical literature and found that things that were presented as black and white and well worked out were not,' she said, 'and had many shades of gray.' The NASEM report only briefly discussed tick-borne coinfections, noting that little is known about how they do or do not affect the development, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of Lyme IACI — and that research is needed. Evidence on Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, Incidence The committee's scoping review identified 23 articles addressing potential mechanisms of disease, most of which were not evaluated in prospective studies. In addition to pathogen persistence — and persistence of bacterial remnants — proposed mechanisms for Lyme IACI include immune dysregulation and autoimmunity, central nervous system dysfunction, metabolomic changes, and gut dysbiosis. All are important to consider, Fallon and Maloney emphasized in interviews. Another 27 studies covered the diagnosis of Lyme IACI. Four described direct detection methods that need to be replicated and developed into clinically useful assays; 15 described indirect detection methods using a wide range of potential biomarkers (eg, autoantibodies and other immune markers, metabolite or microbiome signatures, and CNS imaging); and the remaining eight evaluated clinical questionnaires or evaluation scales. (Only two of the eight questionnaires and scales were validated but for monitoring disease progress and not for diagnostic purposes.) Pediatric patients have been scarce in Lyme IACI research, according to the report. Only one of the 27 papers covering diagnosis focused on the pediatric population, for instance, and only three included children along with adults. Moving Forward Lyme IACI is a broad and inclusive name, NASEM experts believe, that encompasses different terms used over the years to describe persistent symptoms (including chronic Lyme and persistent Lyme). The name also acknowledges the heterogeneity and different diagnostic histories of patients, they said, including those with missed and delayed diagnoses. The development of formal consensus research definitions that 'address the different strata of the broad range of people living with Lyme IACI,' the report noted, will make it possible to more accurately determine population prevalence and to conduct impactful research. The PTLDS definition has provided standardization but is a 'subset' of Lyme IACI and excludes many individuals, Kester said in the webinar. Thus far, limited research has suggested that 10%-20% of the approximately 476,000 patients who contract Lyme disease each year develop persistent symptoms after standard antibiotic treatment, the NASEM report said. In addition to its call for consensus definitions, the NASEM report called on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and CDC to define standard tools and metrics — including patient-focused outcome measures — and said that patient registries and biobanks are valuable and have been underutilized thus far. Clinical studies, it emphasized, should be 'well-designed, randomized trials with appropriate control groups.' Maloney said possible reliance on RCTs is concerning, considering the heterogeneity of the Lyme IACI population and the need for subgroup analyses. 'I worry that [researchers] will not be able to amass the number of patients necessary, even with an expanded definition,' she said in the interview, adding that evidence-based medicine encompasses more than RCTs. She also worries that 'with NIH funding being slashed, tick-borne disease research is not going to get the attention it needs.' NIH funding for Lyme disease research has increased in recent years, but according to a per-patient funding analysis by the Center for Lyme Action, research on West Nile (with an estimated 2566 new diagnoses in the US in 2023) has been funded at 75 times the rate of Lyme disease. In another comparison, the $50 million granted for the study of Lyme disease in 2022 represented < 2% of the public funds invested in HIV/AIDS, according to the Center. Understanding persistent symptomatology was part of a strategic tick-borne disease research plan that was developed by the NIH in 2019. In 2023, NIAID funded seven projects addressing persistent symptoms slated to run through 2028, with first-year funding of $3.2 million. (The NIH did not respond to a query from Medscape Medical News about the future of these and other projects relating to Lyme IACI.) With private funding from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, the Clinical Trials Network for Lyme and other Tick-Borne Diseases, coordinated by Fallon, has a slate of small studies underway of therapies that address potential mechanisms of Lyme IACI: tetracycline, transcranial direct current stimulation with cognitive retraining, vagus nerve stimulation, mast cell treatment, and pulse-dosed ceftriaxone). (Network researchers have been using research classification criteria for Lyme disease that are intended to allow for more inclusive and generalizable studies. In a paper published this year, they describe their proposed research classification system, with criteria for Lyme disease at different levels of diagnostic certainty: Well-defined, probable, possible, and uncertain.) Fallon said he is hopeful that the NASEM's recommendations can be implemented. 'Everyone's committed to reducing tick-borne illnesses, and there's a strong interest in [the Administration] in addressing chronic illness,' he said, noting 'it's not just Lyme disease — the coinfections are causing major problems.' Practice Today In practice, meanwhile, Fallon said he and others can help patients by utilizing approaches and therapies 'in our current armamentarium, drawing upon rheumatology, neurology, psychiatry' and other fields. 'I tend to see patients who have had chronic [neuropsychiatric] symptoms for a long time and have received quite a lot of courses of antibiotics,' he said. 'I focus on some of the treatments we know are helpful for people with neuropsychiatric symptoms. For example, there are some psychiatric medications that can help reduce arthritis pain, reduce neuropathies, help improve energy.' Physicians trained in integrative medicine and functional medicine bring 'a broad, comprehensive approach to examination' that can be helpful in Lyme IACI, said Fallon, whose team at Columbia's Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center includes an integrative medicine physician. 'They may look at some of the other organisms that may be complicating the course of illness, for instance. They may look for other causes of persistent symptoms such as endocrine problems or mold problems…that can complicate recovery,' he said. 'And they frequently use herbals, which can be helpful.' In its statement, ILADS urged adoption of 'a dual-path strategy [of investing] in long-term research while also expanding access to care based on current best practices.' This includes treatments 'with emerging or empirical evidence that have shown benefit in some patient populations and carry an acceptable risk profile when monitored responsibly.' Many patients improve, the statement said, 'with tailored therapies, including antimicrobial, immune-modulating, and symptom-targeted treatments, especially when the treatments are guided by a clinician who listens to the patient and tracks outcomes over time.' The NASEM committee, comprised of 14 experts from various disciplines, including one patient, heard from over 35 invited speakers representing patients, clinicians, researchers, funders and more. Their work was sponsored by the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and was recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services Tick-Borne Diseases Working Group (TBDWG) that was established by Congress in 2016. (Maloney was a member of this group.) The TBDWG produced three reports that addressed persistent symptomatology, among many other issues, before concluding its work in 2022.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Structural racism': Top taxpayer-funded academy rife with DEI programs, hefty executive salaries
FIRST ON FOX: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds in recent years while doling out hefty salaries to its top brass and bankrolling a variety of left-wing initiatives. NASEM, which the New York Times reported in 2023 derives 70% of its budget from federal funds, received $200,616,000 in taxpayer funding from grants and contracts in 2023, according to its own Treasurer's Report. That budget includes several salaries for top-level positions at NASEM that exceed $1 million per year, according to the organization's 990 forms reviewed by Fox News Digital. National Academy of Medicine President Victor Dzau receives a salary of $1,026,973 per year, National Academy of Engineering President John Anderson earns $1,027,185 per year, and National Academies President Marcia McNutt earns $1,061,843 each year. Npr Reaffirms Dei Commitment After Chief Diversity Officer Announces Retirement Additionally, NASEM's chief diversity and inclusion officer, Laura Castillo-Page, earned $333,788 in 2023. Read On The Fox News App NASEM has used its federal funding to promote a variety of liberal causes, including putting on events related to climate change, racism and "health equity." In 2021, NASEM helped put on an event that discussed how "environmental injustice" and "structural racism" exacerbate climate change for "communities of color." Attendees discussed ways to use "stories" to influence elected officials on climate policy, including "the powerful indigenous voice about the existential threats that humanity faces." A 2021 NASEM workshop examined how "spatial justice" can exacerbate public health problems among "historically marginalized communities." National Cancer Institute Spends $218M Per Year On Grants For 'Underrepresented' Groups: Source NASEM organized an event a year later that examined how "structural racism" and biased "social norms," including "representation in media and body image," contribute to obesity. NASEM issued a report in 2023 detailing recommendations for federal policies to improve "racial, ethnic, and tribal health equity" and another report in 2023, titled Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations, recommending ways to address widespread racial discrimination in science, engineering, and mathematics organizations in the U.S. In another report in 2022, NASEM outlined the need to define and incorporate "structural racism" into scientific study and policymaking. A 2021 NASEM workshop examined "anti-Black racism" in "Science, Engineering, and Mathematics." "A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize a virtual public workshop to explore facets of anti-Black racism in U.S. science, engineering, and medicine (SEM)," NASEM wrote. "The workshop will review the discussions at recent workshops of the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women, identify policies and practices that perpetuate racism in SEM, and lay a foundation of knowledge for others to move more effectively towards anti-racist outcomes." NASEM also held a workshop in 2022 called "The Roles of Trust and Health Literacy in Achieving Health Equity," where a speaker blamed non-diverse leadership of healthcare institutions for alienating minority patients. McNutt has also been critical of DOGE chief and X owner Elon Musk on social media and said last year, "This will be my last post on Twitter/X. I can no longer be part of a platform that actively encourages disinformation and amplifies misinformation, especially when its CEO colludes to undermine democracy." In a statement to Fox News Digital, a NASEM spokesperson said, "Each year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct hundreds of studies, workshops, and other activities at the request of federal and state agencies, Congress, foundations, and private-sector sponsors on a variety of critical issues facing the nation." The spokesperson added that 58% of NASEM's funding came from the government in 2024. "For decades, our work has advanced the American economy, strengthened our national security, bolstered U.S. global competitiveness, and improved our nation's health and safety. We have taken measures to ensure that we are in compliance with executive orders, including closing our Office of Diversity and Inclusion. We stand ready, as we always have, to advise the new administration on its priorities." NASEM's spending comes under the backdrop of the newly formed DOGE efforts by Musk and the Trump administration to rid the federal government of DEI and wasteful spending. Trump's January executive order removing DEI from the federal government has already had an affect on NASEM and caused it to close its DEI program and remove DEI from its website, the New York Times reported. It is unclear if DOGE's efforts will continue to effect the day-to-day operations at NASEM. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for article source: 'Structural racism': Top taxpayer-funded academy rife with DEI programs, hefty executive salaries
Fox News
27-02-2025
- Science
- Fox News
'Structural racism': Top taxpayer-funded academy rife with DEI programs, hefty executive salaries
FIRST ON FOX: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds in recent years while doling out hefty salaries to its top brass and bankrolling a variety of left-wing initiatives. NASEM, which the New York Times reported in 2023 derives 70% of its budget from federal funds, received $200,616,000 in taxpayer funding from grants and contracts in 2023, according to its own Treasurer's Report. That budget includes several salaries for top-level positions at NASEM that exceed $1 million per year, according to the organization's 990 forms reviewed by Fox News Digital. National Academy of Medicine President Victor Dzau receives a salary of $1,026,973 per year, National Academy of Engineering President John Anderson earns $1,027,185 per year, and National Academies President Marcia McNutt earns $1,061,843 each year. Additionally, NASEM's chief diversity and inclusion officer, Laura Castillo-Page, earned $333,788 in 2023. NASEM has used its federal funding to promote a variety of liberal causes, including putting on events related to climate change, racism and "health equity." In 2021, NASEM helped put on an event that discussed how "environmental injustice" and "structural racism" exacerbate climate change for "communities of color." Attendees discussed ways to use "stories" to influence elected officials on climate policy, including "the powerful indigenous voice about the existential threats that humanity faces." A 2021 NASEM workshop examined how "spatial justice" can exacerbate public health problems among "historically marginalized communities." NASEM organized an event a year later that examined how "structural racism" and biased "social norms," including "representation in media and body image," contribute to obesity. NASEM issued a report in 2023 detailing recommendations for federal policies to improve "racial, ethnic, and tribal health equity" and another report in 2023, titled Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations, recommending ways to address widespread racial discrimination in science, engineering, and mathematics organizations in the U.S. In another report in 2022, NASEM outlined the need to define and incorporate "structural racism" into scientific study and policymaking. A 2021 NASEM workshop examined "anti-Black racism" in "Science, Engineering, and Mathematics." "A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will organize a virtual public workshop to explore facets of anti-Black racism in U.S. science, engineering, and medicine (SEM)," NASEM wrote. "The workshop will review the discussions at recent workshops of the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women, identify policies and practices that perpetuate racism in SEM, and lay a foundation of knowledge for others to move more effectively towards anti-racist outcomes." NASEM also held a workshop in 2022 called "The Roles of Trust and Health Literacy in Achieving Health Equity," where a speaker blamed non-diverse leadership of healthcare institutions for alienating minority patients. McNutt has also been critical of DOGE chief and X owner Elon Musk on social media and said last year, "This will be my last post on Twitter/X. I can no longer be part of a platform that actively encourages disinformation and amplifies misinformation, especially when its CEO colludes to undermine democracy." In a statement to Fox News Digital, a NASEM spokesperson said, "Each year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct hundreds of studies, workshops, and other activities at the request of federal and state agencies, Congress, foundations, and private-sector sponsors on a variety of critical issues facing the nation." The spokesperson added that 58% of NASEM's funding came from the government in 2024. "For decades, our work has advanced the American economy, strengthened our national security, bolstered U.S. global competitiveness, and improved our nation's health and safety. We have taken measures to ensure that we are in compliance with executive orders, including closing our Office of Diversity and Inclusion. We stand ready, as we always have, to advise the new administration on its priorities." NASEM's spending comes under the backdrop of the newly formed DOGE efforts by Musk and the Trump administration to rid the federal government of DEI and wasteful spending. Trump's January executive order removing DEI from the federal government has already had an affect on NASEM and caused it to close its DEI program and remove DEI from its website, the New York Times reported. It is unclear if DOGE's efforts will continue to effect the day-to-day operations at NASEM. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
