N.I.H. and other agencies pause committee meetings, workshops, communications

The National Institutes of Health and other federal health agencies have paused committee meetings, workshops and other proceedings on a number of topics, participants reported on Wednesday.

“All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities,” Jane Liebschutz reported on Bluesky. She followed up: “Apparently, the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) allows the president or advisor to terminate any advisory committee at any time.”

One of my correspondents, who is on an NIH committee, sent a copy of an email saying: “At the present time, all Federal advisory committee meetings are cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding. Thus, the [committee name redacted] will not meet” on coming scheduled dates.

The N.I.H. is in charge of all things health. It describes itself as “the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives.” It has research and advisory committees on everything from cancer and Long Covid to research on nutrition and exercise. President Donald J. Trump named Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University health researcher, to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health, but he has not been confirmed yet — nor has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to run the department of Health and Human Services.

Scope unclear

It was not immediately clear if this was a government-wide shutdown, but it definitely affects a number of health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the NIH, from early reports.

Zoe McElligott, another researcher, wrote on Bluesky: “I just reached out to my senators about the NIH situation. If you need to find out how much impact NIH has in your state in terms of dollars in and their economic impact here’s a link: https://www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-state/“

Others chimed in with details: One listed thousands of jobs and businesses in Georgia alone that are supported by NIH funding.

Another wrote on Bluesky: “Happened to me mid training at 3:00.” And then added: “The bans on external communication for all hhs is through 2/1/25. They can’t communicate about anything.”

Another: “This one’s from CDC Subject: Canceled: Exploring Root Causes of Health Disparities and Generational Clarity”

Diversity cited

Stacie Duszetina, a health services researcher at Vanderbilt Health Policy, wrote on Bluesky: “I’m hearing through colleagues that this is the source of the NIH study section cancellations. From the link – need for contracts/grants to agree to comply with the ‘anti-discrimination’ laws and having terms to certify they do not operate programs promoting DEI. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/”

Another wrote on Twitter: “NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research. Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions.”

In a related development, a report came in that all communications had been halted from three top U.S. health agencies. Mike Hoerger, who runs a top U.S. Covid reporting dashboard, tweeted: “The CDC, NIH, and FDA have been asked to stop external communication, which places public health at immediate risk. Not everyone is listening,

https://x.com/FDA_Drug_Info/status/1882089104890114513… https://x.com/OBSSR_NIH/status/1882073232087699671… https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/WeeklyIndexMobile.cfm…“

Dr. Krutika Kupalli, an infectious diseases physician, tweeted: “Halting communication from scientific agencies like @NIH @US_FDA and @CDCgov isn’t just a public health threat—it’s a deliberate move to disenfranchise the public, suppress critical information, and consolidate Trump’s control. The less we know, the more power he holds. #PublicHealth #Democracy“

Confusion and uncertainty

“Donald Trump’s return to the White House is already having a big impact at the $47.4 billion U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), with the new administration imposing a wide range of restrictions, including the abrupt cancellation of meetings such as grant review panels. Officials have also ordered a communications pause, a freeze on hiring, and an indefinite ban on travel,” Meredith Wadman and Jocelyn Kaiser wrote for Science.org.

“The moves have generated extensive confusion and uncertainty at the nation’s largest research agency, which has become a target for Trump’s political allies. ‘The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating,’ one senior NIH employee says.

“Today, for example, officials halted midstream a training workshop for junior scientists, called off a workshop on adolescent learning minutes before it was to begin, and canceled meetings of two advisory councils. Panels that were scheduled to review grant proposals also received eleventh-hour word that they wouldn’t be meeting.

NIH institutes, centers

An NIH pause or shutdown affects many people with many ailments and illnesses, and also the researchers and funding for dealing with them. Here is a list of the institutes at NIH:

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

National Eye Institute (NEI)

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)