The National Institutes of Health’s interim director informed staff scientists via email on Monday that ongoing clinical trials can proceed as planned, despite worries over the agency’s scientific future.
The clarification came after the Trump administration halted all government travel and ceased all communications from federal health departments on Wednesday, causing what staffers described as confusion. Employees at the NIH were left wondering about their jobs and even if they would be able to keep treating patients after the instruction.
In the email, which NBC News was able to get, acting director Dr. Matthew Memoli, a lifelong infectious disease specialist and flu vaccine researcher at the NIH, stated that he aimed to dispel any misunderstandings regarding the extent of the pause.
“There are ongoing clinical trials at NIH or NIH-funded institutions,” he wrote. Clinical trials at NIH-funded sites and the NIH Clinical Center are still open to research participants.
Additionally, he explained that researchers could still purchase supplies and cover the cost of research participants’ transportation to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for treatment. Over a thousand clinical trials are carried out year by the NIH.
According to a staff scientist who was not permitted to comment in public, the communication was encouraging and appeared to return everything to normal, at least for clinical work.
However, funding for any new initiatives is still on hold. Whether the NIH will continue to approve funding for research grants through its review panels, known as study sections, is uncertain.
Without funding, researchers cannot begin any new studies on diseases like COVID and Ebola, pediatric cancer, or asthma. Every year, the NIH supports at least 300,000 researchers with more than 60,000 grants.
President Donald Trump has appointed Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University who openly questioned the NIH’s response to the Covid epidemic, as the agency’s next director. There is no planned Senate hearing to confirm Bhattacharya.
In the interim, acting director Memolis stated that he anticipates receiving more guidelines this week from the Department of Health and Human Services. It is anticipated that the general suspension of external contacts would continue until Saturday.