Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Court Filing, Trump Admin Says It Gutted Research Grants Based On Keywords For DEI, Vaccines
Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities. It’s an admission that lawyers for the research professors say is proof that the agencies illegally cancelled nearly $2 billion in grants. And that’s a major development in a lawsuit filed by UC researchers against the Trump administration to permanently get their grants back. The researchers’ legal team is now asking the judge in the case to skip a trial and formally declare that the White House repeatedly violated the constitution, including the First Amendment. A court hearing on whether that’ll happen is scheduled for Oct. 20. (Zinshtey, 7/21)
The department announced it's investigating these institutions: Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H.; Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C; Saint Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.; Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.; and William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Miss. (Wickham, 7/21)
More news about research and funding cuts —
The Trump administration’s cuts to the largest global H.I.V. program last year resulted in sharp drops in both prevention efforts and treatment for the people most at risk from the disease, according to the first large survey of organizations that had received the funds. (Mandavilli, 7/21)
Organizations serving American Indian and Alaska Native survivors of violence say reductions in federal funding have led to over 1,000 unmet requests for help, according to a new report. (Hassanein, 7/21)
A few weeks ago, Rena Dixon, the head of Fact Forward, a South Carolina nonprofit that offers adolescent health and sex education classes, got a letter from the Trump administration with crushing news. The government was terminating the organization’s $1.6 million grant from a federal program to reduce teen pregnancies, effective immediately. (Hoffman, 7/22)
In related news about federal workers —
ϳԹ News: Trump’s Personnel Agency Says It Will Remove Some Identifying Info As It Sweeps Up Medical Records
The Office of Personnel Management said it will “pseudonymize” medical records it collects on more than 8 million people —federal workers and retirees, and their family members. Democrats and employee unions say the agency’s move is an overreach. (Seitz, Rosenfeld, and Tahir, 7/22)
ϳԹ News: American Scientists See Prosecutions As Part Of Federal Campaign Against Them
The Trump administration has stepped up arrests and public condemnation of federal scientists studying viruses as the world faces one of its worst Ebola epidemics. (Houghton and Allen, 7/22)