School Me Saturday 2/15/26-universities and colleges are scrambling

This is not a drill.

Researchers are being fired.

Research is being canceled, mid-experiment, or even before the research gets off the ground. This is vital research that had to 1) pass the university’s stringent institutional review board to make sure that it didn’t harm the participants and 2) pass an even more stringent grant application process to get the money to do the research. This is vital research that often seeks answers to the things that are trying to kill us.

After doing a two-second internet search using the keywords research topic NIH pulls up many NIH sites. The first one is Research Topics. If you click on that one the resultant page is broken down into 4 additional sections.

1. Heart & vascular research- arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, heart inflammation, heart valve diseases, high blood pressure, obesity, peripheral artery disease, stroke. The latest report, also readily searchable, shows that 121.5 MILLION or 46% of Americans suffer from these diseases and conditions. AKA probably someone you know.
2. Lung research- ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome), asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung diseases, newborn breathing conditions, pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failure. 33.8 to more than 35-MILLION Americans suffer from a lung condition. This is being made worse every year by wildfire smoke that impacts those with asthma, and COPD and emphysema. AKA probably someone you know.
3. Blood research- anemia, blood clotting disorders, sickle cell disease. This is tallied at 1 in 76 of us. AKA probably someone you know.
4. Sleep research- sleep apnea. This is an obstructive sleep pattern that can have a huge impact on your overall health. This affects the fewest at 22 million. But you know and I know that many, many, many people affected don’t bother to go to the doctor or explore why they are tired when they just woke up.

Just for funsies, I searched for how many people suffered from erectile dysfunction. This wasn’t an NIH website search. 30 million. More attention is paid to that than maternal mortality in this country.

This science denial is dangerous. That is what it is, science denial. At the most charitable, I can call it denial of something that doesn’t impact me or mine.

Reminder, just because something isn’t happening to you doesn’t mean it isn’t happening to someone you love. Just because something isn’t happening to you and your loved ones doesn’t mean that it is not worthy of research. Don’t you want an answer when it does happen to you or your loved ones?

Canceling research means they are no longer searching for the answer. Any answer.

Apparently, we have to be content with the research that has been done since Johns Hopkins University opened its doors in 1976.

How has it only been 3 fucking weeks?