Beth Bourdeau Duke

“Researchers received letters last spring about their federal grant applications from a Department of Health and Human Services employee who hadn’t worked for the government in months.”

I know there's a lot going on but I feel it should probably be more of an above-the-fold story that members of Congress released a thoroughly documented report directly accusing the president of the United States of being a serial rapist.

Trump’s aid cuts risk killing women around the world www.bmj.com/content/395/...

Dr. Sethi never held an NIH grant, finished her residency in 2017, and hasn't had a significant leadership position. In other words, an early stage investigator may direct an institute. NIMH staff and stakeholders deserve a more experienced leader. www.science.org/content/arti...

Adding my name to this, too. I am another NIH scientist stating with my name that RFK Jr. is corrupt and destroying NIH. He is overseeing discriminatory censorship at NIH. He allowed unethical study terminations that put research participants at risk. He has installed political actors.

A novel cancer vaccine, made with mRNA technology, helps to significantly reduce the chances that melanoma patients’ tumors return.

The fact that the president's doctors are giving him the dementia test over and over again -- tracking his decline, most likely -- and that the president keeps bragging about having to take that test should be a five-alarm fire.

Enormous news. A melanoma vaccine, one of the most deadly cancers out there. Science is good and helpful and there should be more of it. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

The brain drain continues… apnews.com/article/trum...

Good report on a frustrating situation by @kvasquez.bsky.social cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

“This is a 5-alarm fire.” Jeremiah Johnson, @prep4allnow.bsky.social #NIH funding delays are already halting promising HIV studies. Advocates explain what's at stake. 🚨 Help #SaveHIVResearch. @taghivscience.bsky.social ghivscience.bsky.social @hivma.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

BREAKING: Guinea-Bissau did not approve the controversial hepatitis B vaccine trial to move forward, the country's health minister says: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

there's an off-the-books slack channel started by centers for medicare and medicaid for tech companies to exchange ideas on making money off of AI tools that access all of your medical records. insane story i missed from last week.

“The children who are randomly selected not to receive the birth dose of the vaccine, those who “lost the lottery”, face in their earliest days the risk of contracting hepatitis B, which can cause irreversible lifelong damage.” No words. I am speechless. This violates all ethical boundaries.

The deadline is approaching! NIH is proposing changes to how peer review is used in funding decisions and how outcomes are reported and they want to hear from you. Comments are due by October 13! Comment here: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

This is what I said before about RFK Jr. wanting to use our tax money for the unethical study in Guinea-Bissau, in which they will experiment on infants from one of the poorest countries in the world by withholding the HepB birth dose. My opinion hasn’t changed. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:

This is a classic Voughtism: we have not eliminated the program - it still exists. It is just not distributing any resources.

NEW: Trump's HHS just gave nearly $9 million in federal family planning grants to groups with anti-abortion ties. The recipient of a $3 million grant to train family planning providers has a history of discouraging the use of hormonal birth control. read @garnethenderson.com in @autonomynews.co

This is an important statement people, and especially elected Dems need to really understand. The current Republican project is one of destruction, by design. Yes, they have other goals, in RFK’s case he’s objectively pro-disease, but their primary metric of success is breaking government.

“They think they don’t trust the government but in fact, they just don’t know how much they trust the government. They take that trust for granted. Every time they drink water out of the tap, fly on an airplane, eat food, or put dollars in their bank account, they’re trusting the government.” 1/2

NIH’s move toward multiyear funding is a major reason for the drop in grant numbers: The agency now commits several years of funding at once to fewer awards, rather than paying for projects one year at a time. www.the-scientist.com/federal-rese...

There are a lot of Trump officials who need to be impeached, but Russell Vought -- the quarterback of all the Project 2025 fuckery and a central player in the administration's overreach -- really needs to be at the top of the list.

A great overview of how the Trump admin cultivated fear inside NIH to force compliance, even with harmful, unethical & unlawful orders. Also covers origins of the Bethesda Declaration community. From my friend & co-organizer Dr. Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou. www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

You wouldn't know it from reading the headlines, but the president's downward mental health spiral is the biggest story in America right now We won't salvage democracy unless the media and pols start speaking the truth about Trump's damaged mind My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/trum...

Today is National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. In 2023, gay and bisexual men were 66% of new HIV diagnoses. From 2008 to 2023, diagnoses fell 34% for white, just 5% for Black, and rose 52% for Latino MSM (AIDSVu). To find HIV testing & PrEP services, visit iamhivpossible.org #IAmHIVPossible

Vought is breaking the law but he is not “going rogue.” At his confirmation hearings, Vought told Republicans he would do this and they voted for him anyway. If they want to stop him, they still can via impeachment. They won’t.

"RKF took money earmarked to provide health care for Black infants and spent it on his personal security detail" is a ludicrous headline. Comic book villainy.

As of today, the CDC has changed (reverted) their Covid guidance to make the vaccine recommended for all people over 18. In addition to being a smart public health move, this recommendation also means insurance must cover it. Read more here: www.cdc.gov/covid/hcp/va... Listen to a breakdown here:

We should try having some group of people who get to vote on approving agency heads like OMB director.

Apparently $12M was moved from HHS's Office of Minority Health to help fund RFK Jr's security, while grants supporting preventive care for low income communities were canceled. Waste, fraud, abuse, and a spectacularly bad use of public health dollars 😒

There is something so unbelievably bleak about an article that calmly walks readers through how to navigate being laid off after 50, losing your health insurance, and somehow surviving the years until Medicare. What a broken country.

What. A. Day. NIH grant-making was paused for several hours today. Not sure who gave the order. But in light of the Friday night Bhattacharya-Vought feud & threatened EO to implement #ScienceDeathPanels, my money is on Russell Vought. I learned of the pause from a colleague around 11:30. 🧵

The Trump admin has decimated American science budgets, taking away life saving opportunities, and the potential for groundbreaking discoveries. This is how you destroy American innovation. apnews.com/article/trum...

Trump has been coming for American higher education since January 20th, 2025. He came for targeted university presidents, grants and programs with any mention of diversity or inclusion, and those programs vanished, students and professors along with them. 🧵

“The arrangement would give Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a direct role in determining how NIH distributes its $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money.” Bypassing the many checks and balances at NIH on grant funding decisions.

This regime has at least two... Stephen Miller and Russ Vought

Russell Vought wants to be in charge of #ScienceDeathPanels at NIH. Congress has made it pretty clear they don’t want political appointees in charge of funding decisions. Science community: it’s time to get loud (again)! www.politico.com/news/2026/09...

New: Officials battled over NIH in the Oval Office today, per people familiar. RUSS VOUGHT criticized NIH "woke" spending and floated executive order to review its grants. JAY BHATTACHARYA defended NIH's alignment with Trump. TRUMP appeared to side with Vought. with @rbeggin.bsky.social

Thread that could save your life

Here's the Guardian.

NEW: Yet another group of researchers is suing the NIH and HHS over a massive purge of federal research grants. The class-action suit alleges the Trump admin is violating scientists' first amendment rights by using keyword searches to censor science that doesn't align with its political views.

Class action lawsuit challenging the NIH policy of blocking grants to censor views it disagrees with, on everything from DEI to gender identity to climate change. Lawsuit alleges NIH is unconstitutionally censoring research. protectdemocracy.org/work/researc...

Federal employees were paid $9.5 billion not to work in 2025 under DOGE. As part of the Trump-Musk DOGE program to shrink the federal work force, paid administrative leave costs rose by 435%.

RFK Jr. has decided to change the way measles deaths are counted at the CDC. As @drdebhoury.bsky.social says in this article by @melodyschreiber.com: “The change doesn’t make any sense”. It only makes sense if you’re RFK Jr. and you desperately need to manipulate data to hide your malfeasance.