By Don C. Reed
If a child was suffering terribly, you would help if you could, wouldn’t you? Of course!
But what some folks don’t seem to realize is that when government programs are shut down, or have their funding drastically reduced, real people suffer.
And what about medical research? If that funding is removed, are there real-life consequences?
As you know, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) IS “the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. (It) invests most of its nearly $48 billion budget in medical research…to enhance life and reduce illness and disability.” (1)
Unfortunately, the NIH may be in danger, having been forced to “abruptly cancel…numerous meetings essential to the…grant approval process…” (2)
“The move comes after federal health officials were told to halt public communications until they could be reviewed by a Trump appointee.” (3)
Does this matter?
Very much so, according to Norman E. Sharpless, “a former director of the National Cancer Institute, part of the NIH. If…advisory council meetings are postponed for more than even a brief period, this will likely lead to interruptions in grant funding, which is bad for U.S. biomedical research.” (4)
Funding is of course the lifeblood of medical research. If it is cut off , or re-channeled for political purposes, that is the end of research for cure.
SCIENCE Magazine summed it up, saying:
“Even more troubling to many researchers is a pause on study sections that many received word of today. Without such meetings, NIH cannot make research awards.” (5)
Think of the people medical research is meant to serve: your friends and family, loved ones.
People like my son, Roman Reed, paralyzed 30 years. A tremendous patient advocate, inspiration for research himself. He is brave and does not complain; but I am his father, and I see what he endures, every day.
Nor is he alone in suffering. Just in my family, many were taken by cancer;
Like my mother Christine, who died of breast cancer at age 52;
Or my sister Patty, taken by leukemia, just 24;
Sister Barbara, multiple conditions, including cancer, almost equally young;
Beloved wife Gloria, pancreatic cancer, dying in my arms at age 70.
As for me personally, I survived prostate cancer, so far so good — but that’s five members of my immediate family, all attacked by cancer.
And yet the Trump administration wants to stop federally-funded cancer research, and many other diseases and disabilities, by shutting down the NIH.
Contact your Congressperson today; remind them to protect the NIH’s research funding. Urge your friends — (and especially any groups to which you may belong!) — to do the same.
To cancel medical research is to deny all hope of cure…what could be more cruel?
1. https://www.nih.gov/grants-funding
2. https//thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5103559-trump-administration-halts-nih-grant-making-process/
4. https://statnews.com/2025/01/22/trump-administrations-cancels-scientific-meetings-abruptly