1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am horrified by the Trump Administration’s cuts to the NIH. These cuts are a major attack on our nation’s scientific medical research program, which has been, until now, one of the best in the world. I’m told that NIH is basically frozen right now - they are not receiving grants even though courts have said the Executive Orders against them were illegal. Career scientists are being fired. NIH staff is not communicating with scientists. Our ability to do cutting-edge medical research is under major threat. If career scientists and NIH staff leave now that will be decades of experience that we can never get back. Funding science has always been a non-partisan endeavor; the refusal to fund it is just plain dumb. Congress needs to get this funding restored now, please! I have a chronic condition that was passed to me at birth. And so I am immunocompromised. Without the research and the vaccines available out there and herd immunity, I would not be able to survive for very long at all. For me, this is literally life and death. The last time I did not get a flu shot over a decade ago, I ended up in the hospital was over a week. This is an incredibly important issue that cannot be ignored.