Latest news with #NIH-funded
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. may stop government scientists from publishing in top journals
May 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this week that he may no longer allow government scientists to publish research in top medical journals. Kennedy made the statement on a podcast called The Ultimate Human, on which he called the journals "corrupt" and said they were controlled by drug companies. "We're probably going to stop publishing in The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals," Kennedy said. All three journals are known for publishing peer-reviewed studies and are widely read by health professionals around the world. JAMA and The Lancet each get more than 30 million visits to their websites every year. The New England Journal of Medicine reaches more than 1 million readers weekly, in print and online, The Washington Post reported. None of the journals responded right away to Kennedy's comments. Kennedy said he wants HHS to create its own journals instead. They would "become the preeminent journals, because if you get [NIH] funding, it is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist." But some public health experts strongly disagreed. "Banning NIH-funded researchers from publishing in leading medical journals and requiring them to publish only in journals that carry the RFK Jr. seal of approval would delegitimize taxpayer-funded research," Dr. Adam Gaffney, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Post. Gaffney also warned that drug approvals rely on science. While saying it's important to guard against commercial interests, he warned that Kennedy's plans - along with funding cuts and anti-vaccine views - could hurt public health. On the podcast, Kennedy also criticized government agencies under HHS, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and Medicare and Medicaid offices. He described them as "sock puppets" for the pharmaceutical industry. The podcast came out shortly after Kennedy announced his department would stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, bypassing CDC guidance. Last week, the administration also released a new "Make America Health Again" report that challenged common views in medicine, including on vaccines. The Post said the report included misleading information and claims not backed by strong evidence. In April, a U.S. attorney sent a rare letter to the journal Chest, questioning its editorial policies. Critics said the move threatened freedom of speech, The Post reported. Meanwhile, NIH funding has dropped by more than $3 billion since January, and many top universities are losing out on funding for research. Kennedy has also led a major staff reduction at HHS, with about 20,000 federal workers cut - affecting almost every part of the agency, The Post said. The cuts and funding freezes have led some U.S. scientists to consider leaving the country for jobs elsewhere. Countries like France, Germany, Spain and China are now actively recruiting American researchers. More information The Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England has more about the role of journals. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
UPI
4 days ago
- Health
- UPI
RFK Jr. may stop government scientists from publishing in top journals
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized government agencies under HHS, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and Medicare and Medicaid offices. He described them as "sock puppets" for the pharmaceutical industry. Adobe stock/HealthDay May 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this week that he may no longer allow government scientists to publish research in top medical journals. Kennedy made the statement on a podcast called The Ultimate Human, on which he called the journals "corrupt" and said they were controlled by drug companies. "We're probably going to stop publishing in The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals," Kennedy said. All three journals are known for publishing peer-reviewed studies and are widely read by health professionals around the world. JAMA and The Lancet each get more than 30 million visits to their websites every year. The New England Journal of Medicine reaches more than 1 million readers weekly, in print and online, The Washington Post reported. None of the journals responded right away to Kennedy's comments. Kennedy said he wants HHS to create its own journals instead. They would "become the preeminent journals, because if you get [NIH] funding, it is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist." But some public health experts strongly disagreed. "Banning NIH-funded researchers from publishing in leading medical journals and requiring them to publish only in journals that carry the RFK Jr. seal of approval would delegitimize taxpayer-funded research," Dr. Adam Gaffney, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Post. Gaffney also warned that drug approvals rely on science. While saying it's important to guard against commercial interests, he warned that Kennedy's plans - along with funding cuts and anti-vaccine views - could hurt public health. On the podcast, Kennedy also criticized government agencies under HHS, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and Medicare and Medicaid offices. He described them as "sock puppets" for the pharmaceutical industry. The podcast came out shortly after Kennedy announced his department would stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, bypassing CDC guidance. Last week, the administration also released a new "Make America Health Again" report that challenged common views in medicine, including on vaccines. The Post said the report included misleading information and claims not backed by strong evidence. In April, a U.S. attorney sent a rare letter to the journal Chest, questioning its editorial policies. Critics said the move threatened freedom of speech, The Post reported. Meanwhile, NIH funding has dropped by more than $3 billion since January, and many top universities are losing out on funding for research. Kennedy has also led a major staff reduction at HHS, with about 20,000 federal workers cut - affecting almost every part of the agency, The Post said. The cuts and funding freezes have led some U.S. scientists to consider leaving the country for jobs elsewhere. Countries like France, Germany, Spain and China are now actively recruiting American researchers. More information The Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England has more about the role of journals. Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
NIH cuts have doomed my research in Bangladesh — but US citizens will pay too
For more than 15 years, I have conducted studies in Bangladesh, a country that has extremely high levels of arsenic in its drinking water supply — meaning the population is routinely exposed to a lot of arsenic. My collaborators are pediatric neurologists like me, as well as neurosurgeons, medics, nurses, and community health workers, all professionals dedicated to understanding how arsenic affects the neurological development of children. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up We have received generous support from US taxpayers through their investments in the NIH. When I submit a grant application, the NIH asks me to justify why taxpayer dollars are being spent outside the country. It is easy for me to provide this justification. Arsenic affects many areas of the United States, including here in New England. But the widespread high levels of arsenic in Bangladesh, and the much larger number of people exposed to it, make conducting studies there more efficient and less expensive. Our studies have led to changes in Bangladesh's health policy, including recommendations to establish dietary standards for folate, a vitamin that counters the toxic effects of arsenic. This work also has helped us develop solutions that are relevant to US families, such as setting regulations for acceptable levels of arsenic in public water systems. Advertisement There are many examples of research conducted abroad that benefit people in the United States. Oral rehydration therapy, the standard treatment for childhood diarrhea, was developed by scientists in India and Bangladesh who worked with US partners funded by the US government. Collaborations with researchers in Colombia led to the identification of a rare genetic variant associated with a delay in dementia onset; this finding provides potential targets for therapies for Alzheimer's disease. Advertisement NIH-funded studies in Africa led to the development of self-collection swabs for cervical cancer screening. And just this month, the Food and Drug Administration Our recent experiences with COVID-19, Zika, and Ebola confirm that there are no borders to infectious diseases and that global scientific cooperation can lead to faster and more effective responses to them. To address climate change, an even greater health threat, research with foreign collaborators aids knowledge-sharing and innovation. Earlier this year, I participated in a simulation of a heat emergency in Arizona that was conducted by a research team who drew lessons from their work in western India — which taught them more about how extreme temperatures affect human physiology. It hasn't always been necessary to invoke US health interests to justify scientific research abroad. In 2003, the global HIV/AIDS epidemic led to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR). Over the past 20 years, PEPFAR, together with NIH funding, has expanded what we know about HIV/AIDS and turned what was once a death sentence into a manageable condition for millions worldwide. Advertisement The NIH states that the motivation for its new policy is 'to improve the tracking of federal dollars and the security of the US biomedical research enterprise.' These are goals that no one can argue with. In 2023, the NIH began requiring foreign collaborators to provide copies to their US partners of all lab notebooks, all data, and all other documentation that is produced as part of research projects. In my own program, this has meant more frequent site visits to Bangladesh, a transition to electronic record-keeping, and more detailed monitoring of expenses and receipts. It must be possible to further strengthen these efforts to provide oversight without stopping the collaborations altogether. I submitted an application to the NIH in November 2024, just days before the presidential election, that had the words 'global partnerships' in the title. It has not yet been reviewed. When I wrote those words, I believed they would be viewed as a strength of the proposal. That is no longer the case. But I am not deterred. Like many in my position, I am looking elsewhere — foundations, philanthropy, industry, other countries — for new sources of funding. If the United States will not lead the world in scientific research, I hope others will step up. So if you're a foundation or industry leader reading this and you're interested, I have a research grant proposal ready for you.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. says he may bar scientists from publishing in top medical journals
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he may bar government scientists from publishing in the world's leading medical journals, instead proposing the creation of 'in-house' publications by his agency - the latest in the Trump administration's attacks on scientific institutions. 'We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they're all corrupt,' Kennedy said during an appearance on the 'Ultimate Human' podcast. He also described the journals as being under the control of pharmaceutical companies. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. The three journals he named, all established in the 1800s, publish original, peer-reviewed research and play a central role in disseminating medical findings worldwide. JAMA, published by the American Medical Association, and the Lancet each say they receive more than 30 million annual visits to their sites, while the New England Journal of Medicine says it is read in print and online by more than 1 million people each week. The journals did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kennedy's remarks. Kennedy also accused several of the agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services - including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - of being 'sock puppets' for the pharmaceutical industry. On his plans for the department to create its own journals, Kennedy said they would 'become the preeminent journals, because if you get [NIH] funding, it is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist.' Adam Gaffney, a public health researcher and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an email that 'banning NIH-funded researchers from publishing in leading medical journals and requiring them to publish only in journals that carry the RFK Jr. seal of approval would delegitimize taxpayer-funded research.' He said that drug approvals are based on sound science, and that while steps should be taken to ensure that commercial interests don't impact 'the conduct or reporting of science,' this was unlikely to happen given the Trump administration's cuts to public health and research funding, as well as Kennedy's own anti-vaccine views. The podcast episode was released soon after Kennedy bypassed the CDC and declared that his department would stop recommending the coronavirus vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children. Last week, the administration released what it called a 'MAHA report' that challenged mainstream medical consensus on issues such as vaccines. Medical experts said some of the report's suggestions stretched the limits of science, The Washington Post reported, while several sections of the report offered misleading representations of findings in scientific papers. Kennedy's remarks and the report come amid growing concern in the scientific community over the Trump administration's actions that have stalled or disrupted research efforts. In April, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia sent an unusual letter to the scientific journal Chest that questioned its editorial policies, sparking free-speech concerns. NIH funding fell by more than $3 billion between President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration and March, compared with grants issued in the same period last year, and top universities have lost out on government funding for research. At HHS, Kennedy has spearheaded a purge of about 20,000 federal workers, impacting virtually every arm of the department. The personnel cuts and funding freezes have prompted U.S. scientists to consider moving abroad as countries such as France, Germany, Spain and China have begun actively recruiting American researchers. Related Content Despite ceasefire, India and Pakistan are locked in a cultural cold war The D.C. plane crash took her mom and sister. She turned to her piano. Johnson again corrals GOP factions to pass Trump's sweeping tax bill
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
RFK Jr. says he may bar scientists from publishing in top medical journals
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The journals did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kennedy's remarks. Advertisement Kennedy also accused several of the agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services - including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - of being 'sock puppets' for the pharmaceutical industry. On his plans for the agency to create its own journals, Kennedy said they are 'going to become the preeminent journals, because if you get [National Institutes of Health] funding, it is anointing you as a good, legitimate scientist.' Advertisement Adam Gaffney, a public health researcher and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote in an email that 'banning NIH-funded researchers from publishing in leading medical journals and requiring them to publish only in journals that carry the RFK Jr. seal of approval would delegitimize taxpayer-funded research.' He said that while steps should be taken to ensure commercial interests don't impact 'the conduct or reporting of science,' and that drug approvals are based on sound science, this was unlikely to happen given the Trump administration's cuts to public health and research funding, as well as Kennedy's own anti-vaccine views. The episode was released soon after Kennedy bypassed the CDC and declared that his agency would stop recommending the coronavirus vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children. Last week, the administration released what it called a 'MAHA report' that challenged mainstream medical consensus on issues such as vaccines. Medical experts said some of the report's suggestions stretched the limits of science, The Washington Post reported, while several sections of the report offered misleading representations of findings in scientific papers. Kennedy's remarks and the report come amid growing concern in the scientific community over the Trump administration's actions that have stalled or disrupted research efforts. In April, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia sent an unusual letter to the scientific journal Chest that questioned its editorial policies, sparking free-speech concerns. NIH funding fell by more than $3 billion in the period between President Donald Trump's January inauguration and March, compared with grants issued during the same period last year, and top universities have lost out on government funding for research. Advertisement At HHS, Kennedy has spearheaded a purge of about 20,000 federal workers, impacting virtually every arm of the research and regulatory agency, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid. The personnel cuts and funding freezes have prompted U.S. scientists to consider moving abroad as countries such as France, Germany, Spain and China have begun actively recruiting American researchers.
