27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 10/18/26

Written By Cara AB

Hi NIH Vigilers and 27 UNIHTED Community,

If you find our newsletter helpful and think others would too, please forward it!  Anyone wishing to subscribe can sign up here. 

This week the NIH Vigils teamed up with 27 UNIHTED to host a No Kings NIH Vigil. It was a great event with at least 150 attendees and multiple community speakers, including sociologist Dr. Natalie Aviles, Dr. Jenna Norton, and more in their personal capacities.  Thanks to all those who attended, and we hope to see you all again soon! 

Vigil “Auntie” News 

- The Good -

Forest Service reorganization is on hold

Last year, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a controversial plan to reorganize the U.S. Forest Service, closing Maryland’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center—its largest research facility—and moving employees out of the Washington DC area.  This week, a federal judge found the plan illegal because it is not consistent with Congress’s appropriations, and halted it until at least December, when the current federal budget agreement expires.  Many employees had resigned or retired from the USDA because of the planned changes, and morale at the USDA is low.  The judge said that the reorganization would be legal if Congress votes to approve it.

NIH Clinical Center board rejects RFK Jr.’s vaccine injury clinic

The board overseeing the NIH Clinical Center voted unanimously in support of a statement by chairman Jack Leslie accusing HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. of undermining trust in science and politicizing the hospital’s work.  The statement was in response to RFK Jr.’s new clinic to study vaccine injuries and the round table discussion associated with the clinic’s opening with patients who claimed to be “vaccine injured.”

- The Bad -

Medical college association releases analysis of recent NIH funding disruptions.  The Association of American Medical Colleges released a new report based on publicly available NIH grant data from fiscal year (FY) 2025-2026, chronicling “unpredictable award patterns, increased use of the multiyear funding mechanism, and unprecedented grant disruptions.”  The data show that the increased use of multiyear funding (also called forward funding, where an entire grant budget is paid in the first year) has correlated with a reduced number of grants paid yearly in FY 2025 and 2026.  NIH was still successful in spending its allocated grant budget in both years, but the authors point out that simply spending the money is not enough.  Unpredictable swings in funding from month to month, or year to year, as the data show for FY 2025 and 2026, can make it impossible for institutions to effectively plan and make program, research, budget, and admissions decisions.  The report stresses that funding delays, freezes, and terminations in FY 2025-2026, as well as abrupt priority shifts, are still reverberating through the scientific ecosystem and impeding progress.

More Bad News:

  • According to a report by Politico, a major factor in removing vaccine development from the USDA response to last year’s bird flu outbreak was HHS Secretary RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine views.  The decision went against the advice of agency staff and industry leaders.

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website vaccines.gov, which lets users input their location and finds a nearby pharmacy that provides vaccines, currently rejects all ZIP codes as invalid.  A message at the top of the site says that “The functionality of this website may be impacted while it is being updated.”

  • Public comments on proposed changes to the NIH’s grant application process that included removal of numerical scoring were to be accepted this week, until 11:59 pm on October 13.  However, the website where comments were to be submitted stopped accepting input several hours early, preventing some scientists from being able to express their views.

- The Ugly -

Washingtonian identifies threats to funding grants at NIH

Washingtonian magazine interviewed an anonymous manager at NIH about threats to science.  One particular threat that was identified is related to Notices of Funding Opportunities, which are a key part of the process for administering grants and which now must each be approved by the Trump administration.  The source said “they want to have their hands in everything so they can control the narrative, so they can control what type of research is being done based on their political affiliation.”  The approval process has also resulted in delays and a dramatic drop in the number of Notices of Funding Opportunities published.  Moreover, grants have been terminated because they were accused of performing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) research but were actually looking at health disparities issues.  “That is not DEI, that’s science.”  The source’s main concern is that the changes “will be irreversible, that we will not be able to recoup what we lost or it will take a very, very long time, and that the United States will no longer be the leading country in biomedical research.

Revised CDC COVID recommendations emphasize risks and downplay benefits  

The group Unbiased Science compared the CDC COVID vaccine recommendations published in May 2025 to those published in September 2026.  Changes shift the emphasis from benefits to risks, and statements about benefits outweighing the risks were often removed.  These changes, however, do not appear to be driven by new evidence, because a review by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s Vaccine Integrity Project found no new safety concerns.

More Ugly News:

  • A paper published this week in JAMA Network Open examined whether federal immigration enforcement affected the number of visits to pediatric emergency departments.  The authors found that immigration law enforcement was associated with less pediatric emergency room use.  The decrease was largest in Spanish-speaking families.  They concluded that “immigration enforcement may have unintended consequences for children’s use of emergency care.”

Calls to Action

  • By November 3:  Proposed rule on Racial Nondiscrimination in Private Schools, 2026-18127 (91 FR 56811), allows removal of tax exempt status from any private school that continues to support DEI activities. 

  • By November 16:  Tell the Office of Personnel Management not to shrink your health plan choices, docket OPM-2026-0661, by opposing the proposal to optimize FEHB offerings for the 8.3 million federal employees, retirees, and family members who rely on it.

  • Impeach Vought campaign has over 4,150 signatures!  Add your name to the movement! www.impeachvought.com/

  • Support 27 UNIHTED.  Former NIHers and HHS staff need your support. Take action and volunteer: https://www.27unihted.org/takeaction

Upcoming Events

27 UNIHTED / NIH community events

  • 27 UNIHTED/SBM Webinar Wednesday, October 21. 27 UNIHTED is joining together with the Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) for a webinar on October 21 from 1-2 pm; this is free for SBM members, $45 for non-SBM members. Register today.

  • The 911 Rally for Health and Science will be held on Friday, October 23, in Sam Gompers Park in Washington DC at 6:00 pm.  A very important Vigil “Auntie,” Dr. Mollie Manier, will be speaking in her personal capacity.  Healthcare workers, scientists, public health professionals, patients, and supporters will advocate for public health and evidence-based science policy. 

Wellness Weekly

Our somewhat serious community recommendations for self-care are:

  • Watch a movie adaptation of a famous book series (Twilight?) 

  • Read a book series with a movie adaptation

In solidarity,

27 UNIHTED and NIH Vigils

Cara AB
Next

No Kings Vote Early Program 10/16/2026