27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 1/18/2026
January 2026 is moving along!
Hi NIH Vigilers and 27 UNIHTED Community,
Calls to Action
Check out the new Reauthorize SBIR page on our website! Learn about SBIR, its impacts, where we are currently, and how you can help, plus read and tell your own SBIR story.
Contact your legislators and tell them you oppose MYF (multi-year funding, or “forward funding”) for the NIH! For a great explainer, be on the lookout for our new webpage focused on MYF and read the blogpost by our partners at the Science and Freedom Alliance from earlier this year.
27 UNIHTED Events
Peer empowerment call Thursday at 6:00 p.m. ET—note new time
NIH Vigils every Saturday at 10:00 a.m.
27 UNIHTED benefit concert featuring folk and Americana group Barnstorm with special guest Dr. Francis Collins on February 15 at the Alley at Bethesda Boards. Doors open at 5:00 p.m.! Tickets on sale soon—free for fired/displaced federal workers.
Community Events
Free America Walkout
January 20 at 2:00 p.m. local time
Wear red, white, and blue
In partnership with the Women’s March
Learn more at freeAmeri.ca
Well-Fed’s Navigate Your Next Move career event
Saturday, January 24, 2026, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
At Kogod School of Business, American University
This event is for anyone who is job seeking or looking for options, closure or next steps!
The $40 registration fee includes:
Breakfast, lunch, snacks, and coffee
Mental health & wellness
Inspiring keynotes that lift you up
Workshops with tactical support for navigating a new career landscape
Community who gets it
Collective moves forward
Resource cafe
Professional headshots
One Aid Biweekly Community Coffee
When: Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month
Where: MLK Public Library on 901 G St NW in Washington, DC.
Join at a table in Marianne's Cafe inside the library on the main floor—look for the OneAID sign.
Vigil “Auntie” News
NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Director Forced Out
Dr. Gary Gibbons, NHLBI Director, was forced into retirement on Monday. He was a staunch advocate for science and resisted many of the attempts to terminate grants, screen for banned words, and implement MYF.
Washington Post Reporter’s Home Raided by the FBI
Hannah Natanson spent 2025 talking to thousands of federal worker whistleblowers on Signal. On Wednesday, her laptops, cell phone, and Garmin watch were seized by the FBI as part of an investigation into a defense contractor, who was arrested Friday. This raid has a chilling effect on both whistleblowers and the free press.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Demands a List of Jewish Professors, Staff, and Students
Faculty groups at the University of Pennsylvania condemned demands by the Trump administration’s EEOC to obtain a list of Jewish faculty and students. They call the demand “a visceral threat to the safety of those who would find themselves identified because compiling and turning over to the government ‘lists of Jews’ conjures a terrifying history.”
Wellness Weekly
Our somewhat serious community recommendations for self care are:
Read a book on the civil rights movement
Get 8 hours of sleep to improve metabolic rate and stress levels
Dance to a silly song
Play some pool
Positive News
Public Pressure Prevented Cuts to Mental Health, Addiction Funding
HHS tried to cancel $1.9 billion in mental health and addiction grants, but restored them later the same day following public outcry.
A Judge Has Ordered Trump to restore ~$12 million to American Academy of Pediatrics
Seven grants have been restored to the AAP due to the judge finding that the cuts were retaliatory. These grants fund public health programs that prevent SIDS, support rural pediatric care, and help teens with mental health and addiction challenges.
RIFed Employees at CDC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Were Reinstated
On Tuesday, hundreds of previously RIFed CDC employees at NIOSH were reinstated. The reason for the reversal is unclear.
Looking Back
In 2016, 27 UNIHTED did not yet exist and NIH was focused on My Plate dietary guidelines and the 2016-2020 NIH-Wide Strategic Plan. For more, check out an Instagram post by our friends at Save Health Research.
Week two of 2026 has been interesting! We’re happy to share the space with you on the floating rock that is planet Earth. And as always, please feel free to share this newsletter with people and groups you think would be interested.
Keep up the good trouble, and stay safe out there.
In solidarity,
27 UNIHTED and NIH Vigils