During a May 19 town hall meeting with NIH staff members, Jay Bhattacharya, the institute’s new director, equivocated when asked about funding cuts for research into improving the health of racial and ethnic minorities — cuts made under the guise of purging DEI from the government.
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According to a recording of the meeting obtained by KFF Health News, Bhattacharya said the agency remained “absolutely committed to advancing the health and well-being of every population, including minority populations, LGBTQ populations, and every population.”
Research addressing the health needs of women and minorities is “an absolute priority of mine,” he said. “We’re going to keep funding that.” But a study considering whether “structural racism causes poor health in minority populations” is “not a scientific hypothesis.”
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“We need scientific ideas that are actionable, that improve the health and well-being of people, not ideological ideas that don’t have any chance of improving the health and well-being of people,” he said. That comment angered many staffers, several said in interviews. Many got up and walked out during the speech, while others, watching remotely, scoffed or jeered.
Several current and former NCI scientists questioned Bhattacharya’s commitment to young scientists and minorities. Staffing cuts early in the year eliminated many recently hired NCI scientists. At least 172 National Cancer Institute grants, including for research aimed at minimizing health disparities among racial minorities or LGBTQ+ people, were terminated and hadn’t been reinstated as of June 16, according to a KFF Health News analysis of HHS documents and a list of grant terminations by outside researchers.
Those populations have higher rates of certain cancer diagnoses and are more likely to be diagnosed later than white or heterosexual people. Black people are also more likely to die of many cancer types than all other racial and ethnic groups.
