For decades, the United States has established a global leadership position in public health and health science research. Over the past 75 years, the study has put many diseases under control through basic research that leads to vaccines, drugs, healthy lifestyles and public health initiatives.
These results are the result of a national research infrastructure, including many universities where the next generation of scientists are trained, and are supported primarily by grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.
In 2024, NIH provided more $37 billion in funding Create the above in all states It created 400,000 jobs and $92 billion in economic activity. This funding will be used for laboratory research, research centers and most importantly, next-generation scientists, which are training trainees. Trainees contribute significantly to research and discovery, even during training.
However, the US research and training infrastructure is being attacked by the Trump administration. Destructive consequences. The future of public health and health science research is at significant risk.
The administration has issued a multifaceted anti-science attack on health sciences. Perhaps most destructive is the recent cuts in both research funding NIH (US National Institutes of Health) and National Science Foundation. Important research such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and vaccine development can slow down until the krow and halt as universities cut back on health research efforts that they can no longer support.
However, the hidden potentially most deadly cost is training to stop.
NIH and NSF funding supports many training, from undergraduate to alumni and postdoc research. The administration's actions will result in the loss of the next generation of scientists, those who continue to explore discoveries, those who discover new treatments and develop new vaccines and strategies for a healthy society.
This is not hypothetical. We've already seen the university Reduces admission for graduate students They may even withdraw an offer of admission that has already been sent to them for the health sciences program. Post-doc training and clinical research training programs follow.
And it's not just a university's assignment. Science-oriented high school And college students already believe that careers in health sciences and public health may be too risky. The number of US trained medical scientists is getting smaller and smaller until the country's health science research and discoveries become irrelevant.
It is argued that the industry will cover lost research and training. This is unlikely as studies funded by the NIH and NSF are long-term discovery-driven studies and often high-risk studies. Early discoveries made in NIH and NSF funding are often licensed to the private industry for final development, testing and marketing. This pipeline will be cut off and investor-oriented, profit-driven companies will be unwilling to undertake the costs of such research.
Furthermore, it was not possible to replicate the vast research infrastructure supported by NIH and NSF funding. Private industries also cannot grant degrees to trainees. The university offers this training to prepare students for careers in either industrial or academic research.
It is also claimed that other countries will do their jobs. In many other countries, especially Chinathe loss of American research infrastructure and its global cooperative nature will slow global progress over the years.
The powerful collaborations that American scientists have with scientists around the world stem from the relationships that were formed, largely when they were trained at US universities.
We are facing the end of American health research by eliminating the next generation of scientists. This has terrible results in both chronic and infectious disease studies and significant economic consequences.
It's time for us all to oppose the destruction of health sciences. It's time for all NIH-funded universities and institutions, as well as all health and life science specialist organizations to come together to form a united front to push back messaging and legal action to restore research and training in the US health sciences.
James Alwine is a virologist and professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, visiting professor at the University of Arizona, and a fellow at the American Academy of Microbiology and a fellow at the American Association for Science Progress. Elizabeth Jacobs is an epidemiologist and professor of Emerita at the University of Arizona, a founding member of advocacy groups and advocates for public health.
