More than 14,000 scientists, public health experts and advocates are demanding that the nation’s premier public health research institute, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), restore its recently rescinded policy protecting the agency from political interference.
A letter, signed by 14,208 people, calling for the reinstatement of the agency’s scientific integrity policy was organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and sent to NIH Director Dr. Jay Battacharya today. The policy, developed with significant public input, aims to protect science from outside influences, make federal research and evidence publicly available, enable scientists to freely share their research results, and ensure the best available science is used in policymaking.
“The rescission of the NIH scientific integrity policy puts public health research informing how diseases, including cancer, diabetes and HIV, are prevented and treated at risk of being undermined by political and corporate interests,” said UCS’ Center for Science and Democracy’s Bilingual Outreach Coordinator Andrés Bachelet. “The NIH must reinstate the policy to ensure the agency continues to carry out rigorous, transparent and independent research on these and other important public health matters.”
The letter urges the NIH to align its scientific integrity policy with that of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“Aligning the NIH policy with HHS’ existing scientific integrity framework would safeguard NIH researchers’ ability to question, challenge and publicly share scientific findings without fear of censorship or retaliation,” said Bachelet. “Doing this is crucial for the protection of public health and the future of advancing knowledge that can save and improve lives.”
Maintaining scientific integrity policies is more important now than ever before. Throughout his second presidency, President Trump’s administration has both suppressed science and opened it up to political interference while falsely claiming to depoliticize the scientific process. The administration has elevated dangerous conspiracy theories, cut funding for research and attempted to shutter numerous research offices, including one that researches how to prevent sexual abuse.
UCS urges policymakers and the public to stand with science and demand NIH and all other government agencies put in place or maintain robust scientific integrity policies.