NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya made no sense when he tried to claim that by the HHS cutting massive research dollars from the NIH, it will still end up producing excellent research.
Donald Trump, with his insane cabinet picks is destroying every federal agency that is necessary to the health, and well-being of this country and its citizens.
Slashing critical research funding for no cause is unacceptable in a Democracy. Research isn't the only function of the NIH, but Bhattacharya's responses showcase that he's another useful idiot not making any sense for the Trump administration.
In his responses Bhattacharya admits how critical research is.
SHAHEEN: How do you reassure researchers? How do you reassure academic institutions and patients, most importantly, that addiction research is not going to suffer when your budget proposes cutting funding and dismantling the very institute that has led to this critical work?
NIH DIRECTOR: Well, Senator, the health needs for folks with overdoses are great.
Almost 100,000 deaths a year since 2020.
SHAHEEN: I understand that. I've been working on it for over 10 years, so don't tell me what the problem is.
Tell me what the solution is and how you're going to address it when you're cutting your budget in areas that make a difference.SHAHEEN: The solution involves research, right? As you said, Narcan, that's the result of NIH-funded work.
NIH DIRECTOR: I don't think it only involves research. The sharp increase in, I'm sorry, research in biomedicine particularly, but also in behavioral research to understand the settings that lead to overdoses. I think the NIH is going to play a really important role in that.
The key thing is not the reorganization of the NIH. That's not as important to me as the activities that we're talking about.
The activities to do research that meet those needs, that's what I'm going to make sure happens at the NIH, so that if I come back four years from now, we can look back and say we've reached the high watermark of deaths from overdoses, which spiked during the pandemic, and that we've addressed those needs with excellent research.
SHAHEEN: Well, it's hard for me to understand how we're going to address those needs with excellent research when you're cutting research grants, you're cutting personnel, and we're seeing some of our best scientists talking about going to Europe and to other parts of the world because they don't feel like they can get a fair shake in the United States.
It will take years to undo the damage Trump has caused so far to the American people.
