Martin Enserink

A sick boy lies on a bed in a health center, looking into the camera. His parents and younger sister are sitting on the bed behind him.

This is the third and last feature story in a series supported by the @pulitzercenter.org about how the Trump Administration's budget cuts are harming global health. You can find all three stories here: www.science.org/topic/tags/c...

A Guinean man wearing a baseball cap and a polo shirt with the USAID logo on it.

A middle-aged man wearing a vest with the American flag and the USAID logo on it.

Community health workers in Guinea are still wearing polo shirts and vests with an American flag and the USAID logo on it. But they no longer have jobs.

“I beg Donald Trump!” said one of them, Alhassane Camara. “The small children, they die!” www.science.org/content/arti...

In Guinea, the United States helped beat back malaria. Now, the disease is set to soar Foreign aid cuts are expected to cause a rise in malaria cases and deaths across sub-Saharan Africa

I traveled to Guinea to find out what U.S. budget cuts mean for the fight against malaria. Here's my story in @science.org - with powerful photography by Marta Moreiras. www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns Trump executive order leads to pauses on U.S.-funded research into TB, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, dismaying some scientists

The White House has concerns about allegedly risky research on viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. In response, the National Institutes of Health is cracking down on dozens of studies it was funding. By @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social and @cohenjon.bsky.social. www.science.org/content/arti...

Protect transgender scientists Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGnC) people are a primary target of the Trump administration. Multiple executive orders seek to erase TGnC protections; mandate denial of gender identity; and ba...

"Institutions must support transgender and gender nonconforming and other marginalized scientists by securing their safety and privacy; their access to legal aid and health care; and their opportunities in education, employment, and society," argues a new #LetterToScience. scim.ag/4kQCMtr

Graphic showing the number of papers about vaccines and vaccination published by the 17 members of ACIP who were fired this week and the 8 who will replace them. The averages are 49 papers for the fired members and 11 for the new appointees.

Key finding: The 17 now-fired members of ACIP have on average published 49 papers on vaccines or vaccination.

The 8 members who succeed them averaged only 11 papers. Four of them have never published about the topic at all.

www.science.org/content/arti...

The members of RFK Jr.’s new vaccine committee have published little on vaccines Purge at immunization panel represents a major loss of expertise, as measured by scientific papers

How much expertise did a key vaccine panel lose this week when RFK Jr. fired its 17 members and appointed 8 new ones?

@meredithwadman.bsky.social and I looked at their publication records to find out. www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: NIH documents reveal inconsistencies in grant terminations as agency reviews 3200 more Evidence of agency’s uneven guidance to employees and role of DOGE could play into legal case against cuts

Scoop from @sarareardon.bsky.social about the erratic process behind NIH's grant cancellations. www.science.org/content/arti...

Science’s reform movement should have seen Trump’s call for ‘gold standard science’ coming, critics say Efforts to improve the rigor of research may have unwittingly handed the administration a way to attack science

Have advocates of more rigor in science been "useful idiots" who unwittingly helped Trump's attacks on U.S. research? @cathleenogrady.bsky.social sheds light on a fascinating discussion. www.science.org/content/arti...

Open-access revolution is squeezing scientific societies’ budgets, survey shows Decline in journal revenues puts scholarships, advocacy, and other activities at risk

Selling journal subscriptions is how scholarly societies have long made money. But that revenue stream is declining, putting the other work societies do at risk. www.science.org/content/arti... by @jeffreybrainard.bsky.social

Senators press NIH director on killed grants and proposal to slash agency’s funding Jay Bhattacharya says NIH’s final budget will be a “collaboration”

Yesterday, Senators asked NIH director Jay Bhattacharya how Trump can justify a 40% cut to NIH's budget. He declined to say. www.science.org/content/arti... by @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social

‘A big win’: Dubious statistical results are becoming less common in psychology Fewer papers are reporting findings on the border of statistical significance, a potential marker of dodgy research practices

In the early 2010s, critics started pointing out that much of the psychology literature was unreliable. Now, a statistical analysis suggests the field is improving, @cathleenogrady.bsky.social reports. www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH staff and biomedical community sound alarm about agency politicization, funding slowdown In test of NIH director’s support of dissent, NIH staff sign Bethesda Declaration urging reversal of grant cuts and freezes

“We dissent to Administration policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe.”

www.science.org/content/arti...

African countries fall far short of mpox vaccination targets Continent faces a shortage of doses and distribution challenges

“It is a difficult time:” Mpox continues to spread in Africa but vaccination efforts are falling far short. www.science.org/content/arti... (by @cohenjon.bsky.social)

Explosive mpox outbreak in Sierra Leone overwhelms health systems Rapid transmission through sexual networks raises fears of wider spread in the region

Tiny Sierra Leone has seen more than 3000 mpox cases since January; the past few weeks, it accounted for more than half of all new cases in Africa. www.science.org/content/arti...

U.S. aid helped two African countries rein in HIV. Then came Trump In Lesotho and Eswatini, treatment and prevention cutbacks are hitting pregnant women, children, and teens especially hard

HIV control efforts are falling apart in Lesotho en Eswatini, which have the highest infection rates in the world.
This story by @cohenjon.bsky.social is the first in a series about Trump cuts' effects on global health, funded by the @pulitzercenter.bsky.social.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Crippling tropical diseases threaten to surge after U.S. funding cuts Closing of programs that fought neglected diseases imperils drug donation and distribution efforts in 26 countries

Rubber hitting road: The elimination of US funding for programs that help countries fight neglected tropical diseases like lymphatic filariasis & river blindness is having & will have an enormous negative impact, @martinenserink.bsky.social reports. www.science.org/content/arti...

Clothing—not agriculture—helped spread a tick disease 5000 years ago New study of a pathogen’s Bronze Age spread challenges longstanding links between disease and early agriculture

Scientists used to think diseases that jump from animals to people really took off when people started domesticating cattle, sheep and goats 11,000 years ago. A new look at ancient bacterial DNA in @science.org by @poojaswali.bsky.social and colleagues suggests the pivotal moment came much later.

Crippling tropical diseases threaten to surge after U.S. funding cuts Closing of programs that fought neglected diseases imperils drug donation and distribution efforts in 26 countries

The USAID program for neglected tropical diseases had an outsize impact, relative to $114 million budget, because pharma companies helped it with billion of dollars worth of drug donations. www.science.org/content/arti...

Crippling tropical diseases threaten to surge after U.S. funding cuts Closing of programs that fought neglected diseases imperils drug donation and distribution efforts in 26 countries

The Trump cuts to USAID undercut hard-won progress against 5 neglected tropical diseases that don't kill large numbers of people but that can be debilitating and stigmatizing--and that trap people in poverty. My story at www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress

Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3
www.science.org/content/arti...

‘It’s been a tough period’: NIH’s new director speaks with Science Jay Bhattacharya discusses staff morale, grant cuts, and “rumors”

ICYMI, @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social's short Q&A with NIH head Jay Bhattacharya was a wild ride: www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump moves to tighten rules on risky research on viruses, bacteria, and toxins Executive order on gain-of-function experiments could chill research on infectious diseases, scientists say

Trump will tighten the rules on research that could make infectious agents more dangerous. What it means in practice is quite unclear. www.science.org/content/arti...

Researchers slam HHS report on gender-affirming care for youth Critics say the report, which declines to disclose its authors, contradicts decades of scientific research

A 400-page Trump administration report—authors unknown—on treatments for gender dysphoria “misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care." www.science.org/content/arti... (By @phiejacobs.bsky.social)

Be sure not to miss the last bit of
@jocelynkaiser.bsky.social's short, strange interview with NIH chief Jay Bhattacharya: www.science.org/content/arti...

‘It’s been a tough period’: NIH’s new director speaks with Science Jay Bhattacharya discusses staff morale, grant cuts, and “rumors”

"The encounter was brief, sometimes confrontational, and even personal:" @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social's 20 minute-interview with new NIH director Jay Bhattacharya. www.science.org/content/arti...

U.S. scientists’ lives and careers are being upended. Here are five of their stories As the second Trump administration sends U.S. science into upheaval, countless researchers are fighting for their futures

"It’s like I have to choose between my life and my career." The personal stories of 5 scientists affected by Trump's assault on science. www.science.org/content/arti...

‘Borders on the insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage Agency will make researchers outside United States seek grants of their own rather than “subawards” from U.S. scientists

NIH ends so-called foreign subawards.

"I’m struggling to convey the enormous consequences of what this would mean, including the inability to work meaningfully on some of the world’s biggest killers." www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump’s proposed budget would mean ‘disastrous’ cuts to science Key research budgets would shrink by one-third to one-half in 2026 spending plan

www.science.org/content/arti...

The 100 days that shook U.S. science Trump’s chaotic push to remake federal research will have lasting consequences

The devastating blows to American science during Trump's first 100 days, in numbers. And the end is nowhere in sight. www.science.org/content/arti...