Cuts for ID Research Threaten Public Health, Local Economies

Slashing support for multiple types of infection-related research, including vaccine research and research on HIV, will have serious short-term and long-term consequences for public health and scientific development, according to experts at a press briefing sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Basic scientific research funded by the National Institutes of Health generates life-saving discoveries, which could be delayed or disappear in the wake of funding cuts proposed by the current administration, said Stephen Carpenter, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

ID research extends beyond infections to other conditions including cancer and autoimmunity, said Carpenter, who heads a research lab at Case Western Reserve University. “I am currently waiting on a grant that is held up,” he said in the briefing. At the local level, funding pauses affect the jobs of people in the lab, he said. “Without funding, staff jobs are at risk and graduate research funding will stop,” he added.

“Chaos,” is the best word for current experience of ID researchers, especially in HIV research, said Colleen Kelley, MD, professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.

Kelley described a “culture of confusion, fear, and being in the crosshairs,” as conflicting orders shake the established research protocols for many physician scientists.

“If we don’t know which populations of people will benefit from our interventions, we waste time, interventions, and money,” said Kelley, who also serves as chair of the HIV Medicine Association.

Economic Impact 

Science aside, the reduction or elimination of research labs at the university level will have a significant impact on the local community, not just the immediate research staff, and university personnel, Carpenter said in the briefing.

“When funding for a lab dries up, there is usually no coming back from that for a researcher,” he said. When the lab has to close and there is a gap in financial support, these pauses have large consequences, said Carpenter. An active research lab not only employs its researchers but also buys supplies from local businesses, and employees put their money into the local economy, he said. Many local communities depend on government research funding; medical care and biomedical research are among the top local industries in the Cleveland area, Carpenter added.

Researcher Pipeline May Become Parched

Research cuts could lead to the “total collapse” of ID research at some institutions, Kelley said in the briefing. The subsequent effects on the pipeline of the next generation of researchers may be felt as early as this year, when new physicians make decisions about their next steps, she said. With research and training programs in doubt, universities don’t know whether they can accept new applicants, Kelley said. “People are not going to enter a field that they don’t see a future in,” she added.

Pauses on graduate education in ID research are particularly concerning, and the effects will likely extend beyond the next few years, Carpenter noted. “If ID research is defunded, that is a deterrent for people wanting to go into our field,” he said.

Public Health Backsliding

An obvious impact of ID research cuts will be on public health, and Kelley predicted a dramatic loss of progress in disease prevention and patient care, especially in HIV. “We know of clinics that have closed, and there will be trickle-down effects,” she noted. “Many people are losing access to [HIV] therapy and they will die,” she said. Federally-funded basic science research helped take HIV from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease, she emphasized. Lack of new HIV treatment options and lack of support for existing programs will erase the substantial gains made in HIV care, she said.

Researchers and programs have already been impacted by initial executive orders cutting funding for studies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and vaccine hesitancy, and halting funding for messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines has been proposed, Kelley said. With respect to specific grants, some terminations have been published and universities have already laid off workers, she said.

The vast majority of successful, life-saving drugs started with basic science research in an academic institution, the speakers agreed. The money spent turns research into discoveries, which manufacturers take to the next level to produce drugs that benefit the public, Carpenter noted.

Ultimately, the lack of ID research may make itself known in the rise of infection rates, Kelley said in the briefing.

Most Americans do not feel at risk for most IDs because scientific developments have mitigated their impact, said Kelley. However, federal funding cuts for ID research means potentially turning back the clock, she said. “We are looking at going back to days when they [infectious diseases] are ever-present in American lives,” she said.

The press conference was sponsored by the IDSA. The speakers had no financial conflicts to disclose.