Trump Tracker: Firings, lawsuits, and U.S. science in chaos

28 Feb 2025, 7:55 AM ET

Deep cuts in U.K. foreign aid will compound Trump-caused chaos, NGOs warn

The United Kingdom’s decision this week to cut the overseas aid budget by 40% adds to a “nightmare scenario for the world’s most marginalised people,” according to an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed by 138 nongovernmental organizations and published yesterday.

The cuts, announced by Starmer in Parliament on Tuesday, will see foreign aid drop from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross domestic product in 2027—a reduction of about £6 billion annually—in order to fund increased defense spending. The prime minister said the decision was necessary to boost the security of the country and Europe as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year.

But nongovernmental organizations say they are “appalled” by the Labour government’s move, which comes as the U.S. freeze in foreign aid and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development are already having a devastating impact on health care and education for vulnerable communities. Cutting overseas aid puts more pressure on weak health systems, the organizations add, placing the world at greater risk of another global disease outbreak. “At a time when the US retreats from the world, Labour should honour its promise to turn the page on international development and once again become a reliable partner on the world stage,” the letter states.

Today, Anneliese Dodds, the U.K.’s minister for international development, resigned from her position over the decision to cut aid. “Ultimately, these cuts will remove food and healthcare from desperate people—deeply harming the UK’s reputation,” Dodds wrote in her resignation letter to Starmer. “I know you have been clear that you are not ideologically opposed to international development. But the reality is that this decision is already being portrayed as following in President Trump’s slipstream of cuts to USAID.” —Matthew Warren

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Fired files: Biologist worries about fate of endangered birds

After nearly a decade working on endangered bird conservation in Hawaii as a field associate and graduate student, last year wildlife biologist Bryn Webber landed her “dream job” with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Kauai National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Webber was eager to “get some serious conservation work done.” And her new salary, though still modest, also allowed her to finally fulfill a long-held desire since growing up with horses in Wisconsin: owning one of her own. Around Thanksgiving, she bought 9-year-old Valen, so named because he was born the day before Valentine’s Day.

But in a “full circle moment,” on 14 February Webber was one of about 400 FWS employees laid off from the already-understaffed agency. As she ponders her next steps, she feeds horses at a local ranch 3 days a week in exchange for Valen’s board. “It just feels like starting over.”

Amid the personal devastation, Webber is profoundly concerned for the critical habitats and endangered species she had been responsible for, as part of FWS’s goal of conservation for the benefit of people in the United States. As she tried to organize her documents the day she was fired, she raced to share crucial information with her colleagues, such as the locations of endangered Hawaiian goose nests on Kīlauea Point, which she was meant to monitor that day. Webber’s main worry is the potential unchecked spread of avian botulism, a deadly disease causing bird paralysis and death. With a full biology team, Webber explained, they typically averaged about 100 endangered bird deaths per year. Now, she fears the death toll could rise, pushing species such as the Hawaiian duck “on a path that basically makes it near-impossible for the bird to recover.” —Alexa Robles-Gil

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27 Feb 2025, 8:40 AM ET

26 Feb 2025, 11:10 AM ET

DOGE arrival imminent, NSF staff warned

The National Science Foundation today alerted its staff to the imminent arrival of employees from the Department of Government Efficiency, the mechanism Elon Musk is using to disrupt the federal workforce. A brief email from the leaders of one NSF unit explains how they should behave if approached by DOGE operatives from the U.S. Digital Service, the White House office Musk has taken over. It states:

Dear [X]: NSF expects a visit from several USDS members sometime this week. We would like to remind you that if you are directly engaged by a USDS technician, you should always remain professional and refer them to your leadership. Please reach out with any questions.

One NSF staffer has already decided how to respond: “I will professionally share with them that I believe that they are supporting a process that is dismantling our constitutional order and destroying the most effective and innovative scientific enterprise in the world.” —Jeffrey Mervis

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26 Feb 2025, 6 AM ET

25 Feb 2025, 10:40 AM ET

Fired files: After leaving his professorship to become an NIH scientific review officer, the rug was pulled out from under him

On Saturday, 15 February, Martín Basch was ready to fly the next week to a conference in Orlando, Florida, to lead his first peer-review panel as a scientific review officer for the National Institutes of Health—when around 5 p.m. he got an email saying he was on the list of employees being fired as part of the Trump administration’s purge of “probationary” federal workers. “I wanted to throw up. In fact, I did throw up,” Basch told Science.

Basch, who moved to the United States from Argentina 27 years ago for graduate school, had until recently run a lab studying inherited hearing disorders at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. But as NIH and foundation grants had become harder to get, he saw the scientific review officer position as a way to shape “the science I love” without those pressures. “I thought it would fit very well,” he says. He started his position at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, working remotely from Ohio, in June. “My colleagues were great. They helped me right away and I enjoyed my job.”

His supervisor had told him on 14 February that his name wasn’t on the NIH firing list. “I had everything ready to go,” he said, and had been practicing opening remarks for the panel, which had been advertised in the Federal Register before President Donald Trump took office on 20 January so wasn’t caught up in a pause on posting such notices. Instead, he says, a colleague at NIDCD had to take over.

In the days since his firing, which kicks in after 4 weeks of administrative leave, “I’ve been panicking a lot,” Basch says. He has revamped his CV, set up a LinkedIn profile, looked into applying for unemployment, and enrolled in “Obamacare,” which will be crucial for him and his partner to maintain needed medications. He says they will probably need to sell their house in a couple of months if he hasn’t found a job. And with U.S. science in turmoil, “I am seriously considering going back to Argentina even though things there are not a whole lot better,” he says. He says he has contacts who may help him get a job in the pharmaceutical industry or monitoring clinical trials. —Jocelyn Kaiser

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25 Feb 2025, 9:30 AM ET

You’re … rehired? USDA, FDA reverse course on key firings

Almost every science agency that has been forced to fire people by the Trump administration has quickly rehired some of them for a variety of reasons. Just yesterday, ScienceInsider reported how a science-driven effort to better manage the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “gene banks” had been gutted by firings in recent days. But within hours of the story’s posting, we learned the dismissed head of the effort, plant breeder Neha Kothari, had been rehired—although the fate of the fired workers below her remains unclear. The New York Times yesterday detailed another sudden reversal, noting the return of dozens of workers dismissed from the Food and Drug Administration’s medical devices division. Medical device companies whose products need FDA vetting had pushed for the rehires, noting they—not taxpayers—funded the positions with required fees.

Our story: U.S. gene banks, key to new crops, hobbled by Trump job cuts

The New York Times: F.D.A. Reinstates Fired Medical Device, Food and Legal Staffers

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21 Feb 2025, 2 PM ET

The gathering storm for U.S. vaccines? RFK Jr. targets promotional ads and a key CDC advisory panel

Under new Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long promoted misinformation about vaccine safety, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reportedly taken several vaccine-related actions in the past 2 days that have worried physicians and scientists concerned that the new HHS director will undermine vaccines. The moves follow Kennedy’s declaration in a speech to HHS employees on Tuesday that he planned to investigate “the childhood vaccination schedule” as a possible culprit in “the drastic rise in chronic disease.”

Citing an unnamed source, NPR reported that Kennedy, during his first week on the job, ordered CDC to shelve a public vaccination campaign in which the agency paid for promotions on non-CDC websites. The campaign, called “Wild to Mild,” urges people to get flu shots. (The current flu season is particularly bad.) STAT separately reported, citing anonymous sources, that Kennedy also shut down other vaccine promotions developed by the agency.

More widely noticed was CDC’s abrupt postponement of a long-scheduled meeting of its Advisory Council on Immunization Policy, the key group of advisers that recommends how approved vaccines should be deployed. The advisers were set to vote on new vaccines for meningitis and chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease. According to STAT, the delay resulted when a portal where public comment can be submitted ahead of the meeting and where members of the public can apply to speak at the meeting wasn’t opened as required because HHS was withholding its approval for the meeting to proceed as planned 26–28 February. In his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy lambasted ACIP members as riven with conflicts of interest. (The pediatricians, epidemiologists, public health experts, and single consumer representative who sit on the committee are required to publicly disclose any conflicts of interest each time they meet.)

According to Politico, Kennedy is now scrutinizing ACIP members for “conflicts” with an eye to removing them. That would fly in the face of a pledge Senator Bill Cassidy (R–LA), a physician, said he made at a confirmation hearing. Although Cassidy asked Kennedy tough questions then, the senator announced later that the lawyer had won his support. Cassidy said in a 4 February floor speech: “If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.”

Kennedy’s attack on ACIP, whose recommendations must be followed by private insurers and the government’s vaccination program for low-income children if approved by CDC’s director, riled one former head of the agency, Tom Frieden. He posted on LinkedIn today: “ACIP, made up of pediatricians, public health specialists, and parents, is the gold standard for open, transparent recommendations on vaccine safety and effectiveness. There are strict policies to prevent conflicts of interest. If there are allegations of impropriety, RFK Jr. should make these accusations openly and they should be addressed openly.”

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21 Feb 2025, 6:35 AM ET

Judge: No immediate block to mass firings of federal workers

A U.S. court judge yesterday rejected a class action lawsuit from labor unions requesting a reversal of the mass firings of probationary workers and others, which has eliminated thousands of positions at science agencies. The judge did not rule on the legality of the matter, but said the unions first must take their protest to a national labor board, which is filled with presidential appointees. If denied there, the judge says the unions can then pursue the broad legal challenge.

The New York Times: Judge Rules Against Labor Unions Seeking to Block Mass Firings

Our previous coverage: Mass firings decimate U.S. science agencies

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20 Feb 2025, 6:05 PM ET

Amid DEI backlash and executive orders, CZI kills science diversity leadership grants 

Until yesterday, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative had proudly boasted about its Science Diversity Leadership Awards on the massive science charity’s website. No longer, as the program has disappeared from it and CZI announced on social media it was canceling the second round of the awards, which offered $1.15 million over 5 years to biomedical researchers with a “record of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] in their scientific communities.” The Guardian has much more today on CZI’s sudden reversal of its DEI efforts, quoting an internal email attributing some of the changes to “the shifting regulatory and legal landscape.” Among recent Trump administration executive orders are several targeting DEI efforts in corporations, foundations, and other entities. Another major science charity and funder, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, also recently eliminated an education effort focused on inclusivity.

The Guardian: Mark Zuckerberg’s charity guts DEI after assuring staff it would continue

Our previous coverage: HHMI kills program aimed at boosting inclusivity in STEM education

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We were reclassified as probationary days before NSF fired us, agency staff say

The National Science Foundation’s reluctance to say anything about the employees it fired yesterday beyond the total number—168, or roughly 10% of the agency’s workforce—has left many questions unanswered.

The firings at most agencies have mostly affected so-called probationary workers, those who were generally hired within the past year or two or who had taken a new position within an agency. But NSF sources have told ScienceInsider the total number dismissed is divided evenly between people who have a probationary designation and those who hold the status of “intermittent experts,” a category that allows U.S. agencies to hire consultants for a limited number of days each year on an annual contract. At NSF they are scientists who may do much of the work of full-time program officers. NSF hasn’t confirmed that some of the fired had intermittent expert status or replied to a request to clarify the matter.

Several fired employees who reached out to ScienceInsider yesterday after they were terminated say NSF reclassified them from permanent to probationary status just days before they were let go. NSF has historically moved employees from probationary to permanent status after 1 year of service. But NSF officials told employees on a Zoom call yesterday the agency had made a mistake and that their probationary period lasted 2 years, according to a Wired story that first reported on the reclassifications. The change enlarged the pool eligible to be dismissed. NSF also declined to comment on that apparent policy shift. —Jeffrey Mervis

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19 Feb 2025, 5:05 PM ET

Hundreds protest outside HHS

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Braving frigid temperatures and a light dusting of snow, about 250 scientists, educators, and members of the public gathered outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services here to protest Trump’s recent funding cuts and mass layoffs. “We are not the enemy,” neuroscientist Kailyn Price of George Washington University said to the enthusiastic crowd.

The demonstration came after weeks of turmoil for the scientific community, as funding cuts and widespread firings left thousands of workers grappling with fear and uncertainty. Jordan Lara, a postbaccalaureate fellow at the National Institutes of Health, shared that three of the fellows at his institute were among the nearly 1200 employees laid off in recent days, though he himself had been spared—for now. “Eventually they’ll come for everyone’s jobs,” he says.

Throughout the demonstration, attendees shared personal stories of the far-reaching impact of science on people’s lives. Connor Phillips, an NIH fellow who lives with cerebral palsy and has dedicated his career to helping children with the condition, said, “The reason I’m able to stand here and live my best life” is a result of U.S. innovations in science. If there’s no government funding, there’s no research, he added. “It’s really the American people who suffer.” Jenna McGrew, whose brother has been fighting an antibiotic-resistant bacteria for the past year and is currently undergoing treatment at NIH, fears the funding cuts could jeopardize the care he receives. She held a sign that read: “My Brother’s Life Depends on the NIH. #STOPTHEFUNDINGCUTS”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D–MD)—one of a handful of lawmakers who spoke to the crowd—reflected on the lifesaving potential of medical research in cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. “There’s no sugarcoating this,” he said, “these cuts will kill more Americans.” —Alexa Robles-Gil

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19 Feb 2025, 1:25 PM ET

The ScienceInsider guide to indirect costs

Wondering what all the fuss is about indirect costs? Our veteran policy reporter Jeffrey Mervis walks you through what they are and why they matter, helping set the stage for a U.S. court hearing on NIH’s plan to cap them. Will a judge hand the White House a big victory later this week or a humbling defeat?

Read our new story: There’s a big courtroom showdown over NIH’s ‘indirect costs’ this week. What are they?

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19 Feb 2025, 12:40 PM ET

Study section freeze hits NIH

A freeze on meetings of expert panels that peer review grant proposals at the National Institutes of Health is kicking in this week. Until now these meetings, known as study sections, were generally proceeding as long as a required notice had been posted in the government bulletin known as the Federal Register. But soon after taking office on 20 January, Trump barred NIH from posting new Federal Register notices, which means any study section not advertised before then cannot take place.

Eight study sections that were to meet today—some requiring travel to NIH—have been canceled, former NIH official Jeremy Berg noted on Bluesky. (NIH told staff in a 10 February notice viewed by Science they are being canceled “on a day-to-day basis until additional guidance is received.”)

One reviewer who learned yesterday that his in-person study section was not happening notes that reviewers typically spend a week reviewing proposals, “which is frustrating to have lost,” he told Science. "But much more disturbing is the fact that there was truly great science on important health topics in those grants which needs to be funded in a timely manner.” A bacteriologist who had two proposals up for review worried on Bluesky that “without those grants, my lab must close within a year.”

Meetings of NIH councils, which conduct a second level of peer review, have also been suspended because of the ban on Federal Register notices. —Jocelyn Kaiser

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19 Feb 2025, 5 AM ET

Morning reads: Musk’s Neuralink, trashing COVID-19 tests, and more firing regrets

Yesterday, we detailed the almost literal decimation of science agencies by a wave of firings from the Trump administration. That story noted how certain dismissals were quickly reversed by the White House—or it was trying to roll some back—as it became clear workers were needed or mistakenly fired. It also noted the unexpected dismissal of U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists working on bird flu. No surprise then that the two story elements quickly intertwined, as reflected in one of our morning reads.

NBC News: USDA accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them

Our story: Mass firings decimate U.S. science agencies

The first Trump administration’s relationship with the COVID-19 pandemic was complex and two new stories somewhat reveal where the current one stands.

The Washington Post: U.S. weighs destroying $500 million in stockpiled covid tests

Associated Press: Trump calls for withholding federal money from schools and colleges that require COVID vaccines

Conflict of interest questions have been raised about billionaire Elon Musk spearheading the dismissals at agencies regulating his companies, including X, Tesla, and SpaceX. Now, the conflict concerns have popped up for his fledgling, controversial brain implant company, Neuralink.

Reuters: Exclusive: FDA staff reviewing Musk’s Neuralink were included in DOGE employee firings, sources say

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17 Feb 2025, 2:50 PM ET

UPDATED: NSF union asks for information on pending dismissals

Update, 18 February, noon: This morning, the National Science Foundation fired 168 employees, effective immediately. The number represents roughly 10% of its workforce. An NSF spokesperson said the dismissals were made “to ensure compliance” with an 11 February presidential executive order on a “workforce optimization” initiative led by Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

In anticipation of mass firings this week, the union representing more than 1000 employees at NSF today asked the agency to explain how it is implementing the Trump administration’s order to shrink the federal workforce by dismissing those designated as probationary employees. “Put us out of our agony,” says one NSF employee who received the 17 February letter sent by Local 3403 of the American Federation of Government Employees to NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “If you are going to fire us, let us know.”

The letter, shared with Science, asks Panchanathan for the criteria the agency used to draw up a pool of those eligible to be fired under a 20 January memo from the White House Office of Personnel Management. The union also asks how many will be axed, when it will happen, the reason for the dismissals, and whether those fired will receive any help in finding new jobs. Federal agencies have historically been given considerable leeway in determining when someone moves from probationary, or conditional, status to permanent. At NSF, the shift typically occurred after 1 year.

But length of service isn’t the only factor. Longtime permanent employees who are promoted or take on duties within the agency unrelated to their previous job can also be put on probationary status, and thus, would fall under the purview of the OPM memo. NSF also employs hundreds of scientists on leave from academic institutions. Those people, known as rotators, are not covered by the OPM memo because they are not federal employees.

The union letter asks Panchanathan for a “prompt reply” to its list of questions. NSF declined to comment on its plans or its interpretation of the OPM memo. “We don’t know what NSF is planning to do,” one NSF employee says. “But based on what is happening at other agencies, it would be naïve to think it won’t happen at NSF as well.” —Jeffrey Mervis

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16 Feb 2025, 7 PM ET

How the mass scientist firings are being justified—and appealed

The hordes of scientists fired starting last week by the Trump administration come from a wide range of federal agencies, including those in the departments of Health and Human Services, Interior, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs. Some held temporary or contract positions. Others were hired into permanent positions but were within the “probationary period,” a typically 1-year interval during which federal civil servants have fewer job protections and can be more easily terminated if a manager isn’t satisfied with their performance.

Termination notices cited performance issues as justification for the firing, according to many of the affected workers. For example, letters emailed to multiple USDA researchers, which they later shared with Science, note guidance from the White House’s Office of Personnel Management that “an appointment is not final until the probationary period is over.” They also reference a 2005 report by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board that stated that until an employee’s probationary period is over, they should have “the burden to demonstrate why it is in the public interest for the Government to finalize an appointment to the civil service.” The notices go on to say: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”

Similar language appears in termination notices sent to former probationary employees within DOI and HHS: “Unfortunately, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment,” one reads.

The notices have confused workers, who say they received no warning that their performance had been lacking. “This wasn’t merit-based,” asserts an NIH employee who received a termination notice on Saturday. A fired Forest Service scientist who was 11 months and 1 week into their position, and only 3 weeks away from the end of their probationary period, noted that up until the point of termination, “I had favorable reviews and just last week, my supervisor told me he already certified he wanted to retain me past my probationary period.” Another fired USDA scientist shared a screenshot of their federal employee documents page, which showed they hadn’t worked at the agency long enough to have received a performance review. “The claim this is performance based is objectively false,” they emphasized to Science.

Some of the fired employees have formed chat groups outside official federal channels. One former U.S. Geological Survey scientist, who received a termination notice on Friday, says their group communicates about “how and if we can file for unemployment, how to make a formal complaint to our supervisors about our firing if we believe it was illegal, how and what class action lawsuits that are popping up might be applicable, sending job opportunities, thinking creatively about how to make job opportunities for ourselves, sending love to each other.”

The termination notices inform former employees that they can appeal the decision, and many plan to do so. One fired worker, who spoke to Science on Saturday a few minutes after talking with a lawyer’s office that might represent them, says, “It’s bad, but I’m not gonna lay down and roll over. I’m going to do my due diligence. … Got to stay positive.” —Katie Langin

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15 Feb 2025, 4:30 PM ET

‘It’s kind of bonkers.’ How foreign aid freeze uprooted U.S.-backed ag research

The U.S. Agency for International Development is known by many for its work in global health and famine relief. But the agency has also spent considerable sums on agricultural research intended to reduce poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and the January freeze of foreign aid imposed by the Trump administration hit agricultural scientists around the world. Workers who couldn’t be paid stopped collecting data in test plots of sorghum, peanuts, and other crops at experimental stations in Africa. Payments ceased to small companies that produce seeds for crop trials. And research coordinators at more than a dozen U.S. universities stopped work, laid off staff, and even ceased communicating with global partners.

In Malawi, trials of peanut varieties set up by the University of Georgia were among the studies threatened by laying off workers. “It’s kind of bonkers. The amount of money it took to get those varieties in the ground is a lot more than just the pennies for labor to keep them going and collect the data,” a scientist involved with the work said.

Read our full story: Abandoned crops, fired scientists: Agricultural research hit by U.S. foreign aid freeze

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14 Feb 2025, 6:30 PM ET

At Interior Department, layoffs shock new scientists hoping for a secure career of service

As the Trump administration unleashed a wave of firing today across U.S. research agencies, targeting mainly probationary workers, ScienceInsider spoke with two scientists at agencies in the U.S. Department of the Interior who are losing their jobs. A postdoc who started a position at the U.S. Geological Survey last year got a call from their center director today, telling them they would be laid off by the end of the day. “He broke the news and wanted to do it himself,” they say. The ecologist says it was a shock, but not completely unexpected. They also consider themselves relatively lucky, because their spouse is employed and they didn’t have to relocate for their postdoc. “I’m aware of some others who moved cross-country and started positions only to have just gotten the news. … It’s really hard.”

After receiving the layoff notice today, the postdoc, who wished to remain anonymous, turned their attention to their project, which was designed to tackle an invasive species problem with “huge economic implications,” they say. “I’m trying to quickly share code and files with people who are still going to be at the research center that I am at. … I don’t know who’s going to be able to pick up this work.” They aren’t sure what their next step will be—especially given that they were looking forward to working in a public service position in government. “My mom worked for a federal agency for 20 years, and she really enjoyed working in a service-oriented position and doing good for the people that she was working with.” The ecologist had viewed their postdoc position as filling a similar role, allowing them to work on applied research projects. “I would love the opportunity to stay in science,” they added.

Elsewhere, at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office, federal employees held a series of meetings today after multiple scientists received layoff notices. There were a “lot of tears from colleagues about this happening to people that they had grown very connected to,” one of the laid-off scientists says. The conservation biologist had moved to FWS last year because of “the security of thinking that you’re within the federal government,” they said, prefacing their statement with the comment, “Don’t laugh at this.” Of today’s news, they say, “It’s not anything that I was expecting when I took that role, and based on the reactions from a bunch of people who have been in the service much longer than myself, they were even more taken off guard by it.” Their main priority now is making sure they have a source of income and health insurance. “I do love the conservation work that I do, but right now, it’s just trying to figure out, how do I make the next step to make sure that I have that security for my family?”

Read our UPDATED story on today’s mass firing at U.S. health agencies.

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14 Feb 2025, 5:20 PM ET

Report: Health agencies ordered to condemn ‘gender ideology’ on restored websites

The Trump administration has directed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to place a notice condemning “gender ideology” on web pages the White House says “inculcate or promote” that ideology. The pages were abruptly taken offline on 31 January in response to an administration memo, but this week a federal judge ordered they be restored. Some of the web pages include data sets, such as CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and its Social Vulnerability Index, which are widely used by public health researchers.

According to an email obtained by The Washington Post, the notice required to be displayed on the restored pages states that any information “promoting gender ideology is extremely inaccurate and disconnected from the immutable biological reality that there are two sexes, male and female”—a view many researchers have challenged as scientifically inaccurate. As of today, the Post reported, the notice appeared on two restored FDA pages.

Last month, Trump signed an executive order that panicked researchers because of its potential to disrupt studies, such as federal surveys that ask about gender identity. It dictates replacing the word “gender” with “sex” throughout federal policies and documents and ensuring that “grant funds do not promote gender ideology.”

Halted contracts threaten education research

Researchers warn that the sudden cancellation this week of hundreds of millions of dollars of government contracts to collect information on the state of U.S. education will blind the government to important trends from preschool to college and beyond. The 10 February decision to terminate a reported 169 contracts at the National Center for Education Statistics was orchestrated by the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk, which said the cancellation affects $881 million in multiyear commitments. Scientists opposed to the move say it promises to disrupt research on the problems in U.S. schools, including declining student mental health, the growing gap between low- and high-achieving students, and rising chronic absenteeism.

Science discussed the effects of the cancellations with policy analyst James “Lynn” Woodworth, who led NCES during the first Trump administration and is now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. 

Read the story: Canceling data collections could imperil efforts to improve U.S. education, a former Trump appointee warns

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14 Feb 2025, 1:20 PM ET

UPDATED: Trump axes thousands at health agencies

In the next iteration of the wrecking ball the Trump administration is taking to the federal government, major U.S. health agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are firing thousands of probationary employees this afternoon. According to the Associated Press, almost 1300 CDC employees, roughly one-tenth of the public health agency’s workforce, are being terminated. At NIH, unspecified thousands of probationary employees, who have been on the job less than 2 years and don’t have the employment protections of more senior civil servants, will lose their positions, STAT reports. The fired employees will reportedly be on administrative leave for 30 days.

“Over the past year, NIH has brought in some spectacular people who are critical for programs. It will be a great loss,” former NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, who stepped down last month, told ScienceInsider.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was sworn in yesterday as secretary of health and human services, had promised to fire 600 NIH employees on “Day 1.” Probationary workers at other nonhealth agencies are also reportedly getting termination notices today. Are you a scientist let go? Does your firing leave any research in the lurch? Tell us your story.

UPDATED STORY: ‘Wrecking ball’: RFK Jr. moves to fire thousands of health agency employees

Judge orders U.S. foreign aid, which supports many clinical trials, to resume

A federal judge last night ruled that the 3-month freeze on U.S. foreign aid must be lifted immediately because it is causing “irreparable harm.” The freeze, implemented by the Trump administration pending a review, had sent shock waves around the world, halting the distribution of food and medicines and interrupting clinical trials and other types of research. Plaintiffs in two court cases—which included the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and other nonprofits as well as large and small businesses—argued the freeze had jeopardized their lifesaving services to vulnerable populations, including maternal and child health programs, HIV prevention efforts, and time-sensitive antimalaria campaigns. It had also forced organizations to lay off staff, shutter offices, and delay paying vendors.

Judge Amir Ali of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., agreed that without a temporary restraining order, “the scale of the enormous harm that has already occurred will almost certainly increase.” He said the Trump administration’s justification for the blanket stop was of “dubious logic.” “Defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension … was a rational precursor to reviewing programs,” the order says.

The judge ordered the White House to provide proof of compliance with his order by Tuesday. Just how fast aid operations and programs around the world can restart is unclear, however. As Science reported yesterday, some clinical trials have already been canceled or ended, causing heartbreak and difficult ethical issues for U.S. Agency for International Development–funded researchers.

Read the story: Researchers face impossible decisions as U.S. aid freeze halts clinical trials

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13 Feb 2025, 4:15 PM ET

Another senior NIH official bails. But was it voluntary?

Michael Lauer, head of the external grantmaking program at the National Institutes of Health, today announced his retirement, effective tomorrow. His move comes a day after his colleague Lawrence Tabak also abruptly retired from NIH earlier than expected. Lauer is well known for leading a campaign NIH began in 2018 to enforce its rules on disclosing foreign sources of research support. The ongoing effort has caused more than 100 U.S. academic scientists, the vast majority of them of Chinese descent, to lose their jobs. He has also played a key role in NIH’s handling of harassment issues, helping remove dozens of harassers from grants. Whether his and Tabak's retirements are truly voluntary remains to be seen. Two sources have told ScienceInsider that Tabak’s retirement was not. Although he reportedly planned to leave NIH later this year, they say in recent days he was offered the option to retire or give up his lab in Bethesda, Maryland, and move to a job in Washington, D.C. ScienceInsider has reached out to both he and Lauer for comment.

Today’s story: Senior NIH official who helped lead high-profile China and sexual harassment initiatives retires

Previous coverage: Pall of suspicion: The National Institutes of Health’s ‘China initiative’ has upended hundreds of lives and destroyed scores of academic careers

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13 Feb 2025, 11 AM ET

RFK Jr. wins HHS nomination, will oversee NIH, FDA, and CDC. Firings to come?

It was close, but in the end and against the initial predictions of many, controversial lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now one of the most powerful people guiding U.S. biomedical science and health decisions. The longtime opponent of many approved and widely hailed vaccines, particularly for children, won the nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services in a 52-48 vote today. Kennedy will become the senior U.S. official in charge of government-funded vaccine research, approvals, and recommendations for use. Those recommendations, made by a committee at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over which Kennedy will have control, essentially dictate which vaccines insurers will cover (as well as those the U.S. government will provide free of charge to low-income children). He has also threatened to immediately fire many scientists and other staff at the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration. Two sources tell ScienceInsider all of NIH’s institute directors could be asked for their resignations as early as tomorrow.

Previous coverage: Prospect of RFK Jr. as head of HHS panics many in medical science community

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13 Feb 2025, 9:30 AM ET

Scientists want to kick Musk out of Royal Society

Billionaire Elon Musk has been a lightning rod for criticism in the United States for anti-DEI posts on his social media platform X and his DOGE work for President Donald Trump, which may end up gutting U.S. science agencies and has disrupted foreign aid for global clinical research. But his actions also aren’t playing well across the pond. The South African entrepreneur was invited years ago to become a member of the United Kingdom’s prestigious Royal Society after his celebrated work on Tesla and SpaceX. Now, members of the world’s oldest scientific society have been agitating to kick him out, and more than 1000 scientists have signed an online petition calling for the society to take action. Society members will discuss Musk at a 3 March meeting, Nature reports.

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12 Feb 2025, 6:50 PM ET

UPDATED: NIH top official suddenly retires amid agency chaos

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11 Feb 2025

An NIH grant freeze thaws

A freeze on issuing new grants at the National Institutes of Health that came to light earlier this week has been lifted. On Monday, Popular Information broke the story that since about 3 February, NIH has frozen nearly all awards so that staff could review them for compliance with the Trump administration’s orders barring federal funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion, among other topics. That violated two restraining orders issued by judges to block a Trump memo freezing all federal funding. Now, the same outlet reports on a 12 February memo from NIH extramural research chief Michael Lauer informing staff that although NIH expects to carry out the administration’s goals, “given recent court orders,” the agency will resume issuing grants. The awards will also include payments for overhead at rates previously negotiated with the institution receiving the award—not the 15% rate proposed by the Trump administration, which would have cost research universities billions of dollars. —Jocelyn Kaiser

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11 Feb 2025

How MAHA could unleash smallpox on the world

The New York Times writes today:

President Trump’s order that the United States exit the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache. Health experts say discontinuation of the W.H.O.’s oversight threatens to damage precautions against the virus leaking into the world, and to disrupt research on countermeasures against the lethal disease. They add that it could also raise fears among allies and adversaries that the United States, under a veil of secrecy, might weaponize the smallpox virus.

Read its full story.

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10 Feb 2025, 5 PM ET

Trump flashback: Revisit the first March for Science

Here’s our live blog of the 2017 event that crystallized how many in the scientific community were protesting Trump 1.0 and others around the world were lobbying in general for strengthening science instead of weakening its influence on society.