NIAID Leaders Ousted; How Measles Jumped the Border; NIH Can’t Spend Its Budget

Three top officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were given a choice between reassignment outside the institute or resignation. This now means that eight of 10 top leadership spots at the institute have been required to leave their jobs, a deviation from usual procedures, raising concerns about lost expertise. (Nature)

A 9-year-old Mexican boy and his family visited relatives in Seminole, Texas. While there, he contracted measles which spread to his classmates. Measles is a growing problem in Mexico, with at least 40 deaths and 17,000 infections — about four times the number of cases as the U.S. — mostly among unvaccinated people. (CNN)

HHS is moving hundreds of senior career staff to a new at-will civil service classification that makes them easier to fire, raising concerns about whether it puts staffers not loyal to this administration’s priorities at risk. Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought has claimed that career staff impeded Trump’s policies during his first term. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office creating this classification. (Politico)

Staffing shortages caused by cuts to key roles, like grants management specialists, are making it hard for NIH to actually spend its budget awarding grants. Documents revealed that the National Institute of Mental Health projected it would only issue 5% of the new awards it typically does because of staffing shortages. NIH is legally obligated to pay out existing grants, so most energy is going towards that and some early career researchers have even been asked to consider working as temporary volunteer grants management specialists. (Nature)

Danish researchers working in Guinea-Bissau have peddled scientifically disproven theories for decades, including their claim that live vaccines are effective but deactivated ones cause more deaths than no vaccine. For decades, no one really paid attention, but now HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cited their work to support slashing funding for a global vaccine alliance. Last year, HHS gave the anthropologists $1.6 million in funding for a controversial study looking at whether a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccines causes immune system or neurological harms. Global health and infectious disease experts say the study design is unethical. (KFF Health News)

President Trump fired 22 top science advisers who were finishing up an essay for policymakers warning that China has surpassed the U.S. in key scientific fields. They warned that the U.S. needs to step it up or fall further behind considering China spends more on research. National Science Board, the National Science Foundation’s oversight body, called the scientific leadership race between the U.S. and China “a marathon, not a sprint.” (Science)

Ebola was spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda unchecked for weeks and there were already 80 deaths and 246 suspected cases when it was recognized. This is making it harder to control as scientists play catch up, sequencing the viral genome and figuring out which drugs to test in clinical trials. (Science)

U.S. officials are pressuring Germany to pay more for pharmaceuticals, similar to what was done to the U.K., with Switzerland and Japan being other top targets. However, Germany has plans to cut health spending broadly and tension between the country and the U.S. has been amplified by disagreements on major issues like the war in Iran. (STAT)

CDC has plans to retire 160 lab monkeys to a primate sanctuary in Texas, but critics say the plan was rushed and that experts weren’t consulted on how to best do the transfer. “No one who cares about monkeys would propose this plan,” said Matthew Novak, of the Washington National Biomedical Research Center. (Science)