The federal government will continue to dig out its research centers. The National Institutes of Health conducted a second round of layoffs in various departments, including staff from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
CBS News first reported on the layoffs of CBS News based on interviews with current and recently fired employees. About 200 people have been fired or soon, including 50 from the NCI. According to CBS News, although there were no previous guarantees for no further layoffs, the layoffs were carried out.
“We think the worst thing is behind us, we are transitioning to this new phase, and the carpet has just been pulled from under us,” a layoff employee told CBS.
After Donald Trump returns to the president, the White House has implemented a catastrophic fire sale at its federal research institute. Under the guidance of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump also prescribed budget cuts, trying to withdraw billions of dollars from federal research and public health funding promised by the previous administration, despite the attempts being subject to legal challenges from states and organizations that affected.
The tightening of the belt has been going as smoothly as you expected, and senior officials like RFK Jr. don’t even know how to cut a lot of money. In some cases, the government has also retrospectively and attempted to reorganize staff who should not be fired, or their work is too important to be terminated easily. These restructurings are reportedly one of the reasons for the latest round of layoffs. The two told CBS News that the shooting was designed to balance those brought back to ensure that the NIH still meets its expected layoff targets.
The new layoffs at NCI largely involve employees working in the NIH’s communications and public liaison offices. However, these employees played a crucial role in the context of NIH programs related to the public and other physicians; they also maintained NCI’s cancer information services, which helped answer public cancer-related questions. NCI has previously lost 150 employees in other departments, including those involved in external contracting and HR.
All this chaos may just be the prelude to a real disaster that is imminent. In the proposed budget, the White House called on Congress to reduce NIH funds by 40%, while also planning to eliminate or collapse as part of a major restructuring. In addition to the widespread public health hazards caused by these cuts, they may soon spark a major Egypt from U.S. scientists, with the EU announcing a $555 million initiative to attract U.S. scientists, a plan designed to lure overseas scientists in the U.S., whose architects cleverly invoke Trump’s attack on government-led science motivators. Given enough time and damage, Trump can well monitor the United States’ position as one of the world’s leaders in scientific research.
