More than 300 scientists at the National Institutes of Health have issued an unprecedented public rebuke of the Trump administration's policies through a letter titled the Bethesda Declaration, denouncing widespread grant cancellations, staff terminations, and what they describe as the politicization of public health research. The protest, addressed to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, comes amid sweeping cuts that have slashed more than $12 billion from federally funded biomedical research programs.
The four-page letter was signed by 92 NIH employees by name-including program directors, branch chiefs, and scientific officers-and endorsed anonymously by more than 250 others. It was also sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and congressional committees overseeing the NIH.
"We dissent," the letter states. "We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources." The authors accuse the administration of creating a "culture of fear and suppression" within the NIH.
The letter documents the termination of 2,100 research grants, citing direct consequences to human health. One halted study on multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in Haiti resulted in patients being forced to stop antibiotic treatment mid-course. In another, trial participants were left with unmonitored medical devices. "Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million," the letter reads. "It wastes $4 million."
Jenna Norton, a program officer at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and a lead organizer of the declaration, said, "If we don't speak up, we allow continued harm to research participants and public health in America and across the globe." Norton had previously masked her identity when speaking publicly but appeared openly at a forum held by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md.
Signatories say the declaration was modeled after Bhattacharya's own 2020 Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized COVID-19 lockdowns. "He is proud of his statement, and we are proud of ours," said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the National Cancer Institute. Kobrin noted her work has shifted from advancing cancer research to attempting to preserve what remains. "So much of it is gone - my work," she said.
Bhattacharya responded to the declaration Monday, stating: "Respectful dissent in science is productive. We all want the NIH to succeed." He added that "the Bethesda Declaration has some fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken in recent months."
An HHS spokesperson defended recent actions, saying the department is "actively working to remove ideological influence from the scientific process," and argued that "when projects have failed to meet these standards, they have been discontinued." The spokesperson also cited ongoing reviews of staff terminations and reiterated support for international collaborations.
The letter also criticizes a new flat 15% cap on indirect research costs-expenses that support essential infrastructure for university labs-and alleges that external, non-scientific actors are making decisions on NIH grant awards. In a separate open letter, more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners and former NIH leaders backed the Bethesda Declaration, urging a return to scientific peer review and evidence-based grantmaking.
Dr. Jeremy Berg, former director of the NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, said, "I've never heard anybody say, 'I'm just so frustrated that the government is spending so much money on cancer research, or trying to address Alzheimer's.'"
The NIH, with an annual budget of roughly $48 billion, faces a proposed 40% cut under the Trump administration's next budget. Dr. Ian Morgan, a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH, warned: "We are doing the research that is going to go and create the cures of the future," adding that such advances won't materialize if the current funding trajectory continues.
