27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 5/24/26

Written By Anna

Hi NIH Vigilers and 27 UNIHTED Community,

Science is built in pieces; the choices we make today become the wall that protects an unseen future. Here are the choices we’re watching this week. 

Vigil “Auntie” News 

- The Good -

A win for transparency - 27 UNIHTED keeps the stories and impacts of fired feds alive.

In the spirit of “Democracy Dies in Darkness”, a team of 40+ volunteers has been working for months on a survey of federal employees who were illegally fired during their probationary periods last February. While the personal, professional, and societal impacts of these terminations are not good news, the tremendous grassroots effort and community spirit behind the project show that these stories matter. These former public servants will not be silenced or forgotten.

A win for accountability - Senators press the NIH Director at appropriations hearing.

Last week, 27 UNIHTED published its fact-check of NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya’s House Appropriations Hearing. This week, the Senate. The appropriations hearing was nominally about the NIH FY27 budget proposal, and senators took the opportunity to question Bhattacharya on a variety of concerns. The NIH Director was pressed to explain:

  • $5 billion in proposed NIH budget cuts; 

  • The inclusion of indirect cost caps despite a judge’s ruling against them; 

  • The impacts of terminating $500 million in mRNA vaccine research and recent NIAID leadership turnover on the emerging hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks; and 

  • The slow pace of NIH funding distribution and challenges for early career researchers. 

Keep your eye on 27 UNIHTED for its next round of fact-checking the NIH Director’s responses.

A win for oversight - HHS withdraws amendment to weaken a vaccine advisory panel.

There’s a struggle afoot for control of the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. attempted to re-make the committee by adding members that a judge later dismissed as unqualified. Subsequently, HHS attempted to move the goalposts by submitting an ACIP charter amendment that would have removed the requirement for members to have “expertise in the use of vaccines and other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine, have expertise with clinical or laboratory vaccine research, or have expertise in assessment of vaccine efficacy and safety.” However, that amendment was withdrawn this week, citing “administrative errors.” The temporarily expanded committee had recommended controversial reductions in the childhood vaccine schedule and COVID-19 vaccine promotion.

- The Bad -

43 additional NIH staff laid off in another round of RIFs.

During the first reduction-in-force (RIF) rounds last year, ~1200 NIH employees received termination notices. But apparently, HHS believes it missed a few. Sweeping up those the administration claims were overlooked due to administrative errors, 43 RIF notices were sent to NIH workers on May 15 and another 35 were sent to other HHS agencies. The notices arrived on the same day as the more widely-reported announcement of hundreds of career civil service positions being re-classified to “at-will”, the first wave of reclassifications predicted to eventually make up to 50,000 federal workers easier to fire. These threats to staff size and stability come at a time when NIH is already struggling to meet the minimum requirements of its mission. 

HHS Secretary fires heads of key preventive health panel. 

In an opening bid to reform a committee he has long criticized as too “woke”, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired the president and vice-president of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and is already soliciting nominees for their replacement. The panel, which determines what preventive care patients receive at no cost (e.g., mammograms), now stands at 50% capacity and hasn’t met for over a year. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v. Braidwood, Secretary Kennedy now has exclusive control over the at-will hiring and firing of committee members. Experts claim that sidelining the panel has delayed updates in “screening guidelines for cancer, heart disease, and other conditions.” 

Pandemic preparedness in freefall.

In our May 10th issue, we noted the CDC’s weak and at times misfactual initial response to the Andes hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. As further evidence of the US’s fractured public health leadership, some exposed Americans were reportedly told they could quarantine at home and then instead ordered by CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya to remain at a National Quarantine Center, which one passenger described as prison-like, until at least May 31. If one potential pandemic wasn’t bad enough, the third-largest outbreak of Ebola has emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo, of a strain with no approved virus-specific treatments or vaccines. The effects of US cuts to foreign aid, infectious disease research, and pandemic preparedness (see “What We’ve Lost” below) are being felt as diminished staff and medical supplies strain to keep up. The CDC is being criticized for issuing a US entry travel ban, which critics argue can exacerbate the problem “by disrupting movement of health care workers and supplies, fueling stigma, and incentivizing people to avoid authorities.” 

- The Ugly -

What Hatch Act? White House orders its political app installed on federal employee phones. 

The “White House App”, which was touted to “[keep] you connected to President Donald J. Trump and his administration like never before” when it was publicly launched in March, will now be required content on all executive branch workers’ government-issued mobile phones. While the app claims to keep employees informed of helpful news and policy updates, others have accused it of pushing political propaganda and campaign material. If true, this would be a clear violation of the Hatch Act, which protects political neutrality for federal employees in the workspace. In addition, IT experts have expressed concerns about security vulnerability and undeclared third-party information sharing.

Performance-based award funds redirected for “special act” awards reserved for administration priorities. 

The Trump administration has vociferously justified its changes to civil service evaluation as a shift toward more merit-based performance. Their commitment to that claim remains in question. First, the Office of Personnel Management exempted political appointees from the same performance standards. Now, HHS is reducing the pool of cash bonuses for high-performing employees to expand “special act” awards, which have more ambiguous criteria. FEDweek reports that OPM has in the past encouraged managers to give these special act awards to employees who eliminate government waste and improve efficiency. However, given the havoc wreaked by this administration in the name of efficiency and priority realignment (including RIFs and seemingly arbitrary or politically motivated contract and grant terminations), these award changes continue a pattern of valuing compliance with administrative political priorities above more objective professional or scientific measures of high performance.

Two new surveys show federal workers and scientists are less motivated and more stressed. 

Gallup has released the results of its study on the impact of federal workforce reforms. While the administration has achieved its stated goal of reducing the size of the federal government, the workers who remain report plummeting job satisfaction and higher mental stress compared to state and local employees throughout 2025. The percentage of feds searching for a new job was a whopping 8 points higher than for their local counterparts in the first quarter of last year. Researchers leading a scientist opinion panel survey, known as SciOPS, polled over 280 US scientists to learn more about the reality inside today’s universities. SciOPS is a 5-year research program designed to monitor, understand and improve how scientists communicate with the public. The results identified escalating stress, self-censorship, and challenges in recruiting researchers. A full 94% saw the administration’s policies as somewhat or very negative for the global competitiveness of US science and 91% thought that these policies would have a negative impact on the contribution of US science to national welfare. The decline in morale among federal workers and scientists alike poses the potential for serious harm to the US’s ability to generate research breakthroughs and train the next generation of leaders.  

Science Interrupted

What We’ve Lost: Research on Vaccine Development and Pandemic Preparedness

The impacts of the US’s declining investment in pandemic preparedness have been brought into stark definition by the rising rate of measles outbreaks at home and the administration’s disjointed response to the global hantavirus and Ebola threats. But how did we get here? Answer: federal funding cuts throughout 2025 to grants and programs designed to prepare and protect us from just these types of situations. HHS rescinded $12 billion from state and local health agency programs directed at infectious disease research, like the University of Minnesota’s antiviral research center, which was working on a first-ever Ebola treatment. While the grant for that program was eventually reinstated, $14 million in funding to the University of Texas Medical Branch was not, halting its efforts to develop drugs against three virus classes with the potential for human outbreaks. Another $8 million in anticipated money vanished when NIH terminated the CREID network, which consisted of ten Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases across the nation. On the world stage, the US not only withdrew from the World Health Organization but also stopped supporting GAVI, a global alliance that has vaccinated more than 1 billion children and helped stop the last major outbreak of Ebola, in part by maintaining an emergency stockpile of Ebola vaccines. As we face the rapid spread of Bundibugyo, an Ebola strain with no widely available diagnostic or approved vaccine or therapeutic, we’re scrambling to start clinical testing on an old vaccine and an experimental antibody cocktail in the absence of established research programs that were discarded as “useless” and “unsafe”.

Reflection from the Community

“My termination caused a direct impact to veteran mental health services, with over 80 cancelled appointments in one week. This caused significant stress to veterans who were already seeking support.” 

- Fired Federal Probationary Employee (from 27 UNIHTED’s recent survey)

Leadership Watch

Acting Head of NIAID Jeffery Taubenberger has stepped down. The unannounced and unexplained departure of Dr. Taubenberger, who has been acting head of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since April 2025, came up during the NIH Director’s Senate hearing this week. Senators and scientists are worried about the impact of recent NIAID turnovers amidst outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola. STAT News covered the leadership vacuum at the top of NIH, pointing out concerns about the many vacancies in permanent Institute Director positions and the abnormalities in the searches to fill those vacancies.

On the heels of Commissioner Makary’s resignation, the FDA has fired its top drug regulator, Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg. Dr. Hoeg, who was not given a reason for her termination, served as acting director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) since December, where she stirred controversy by leading efforts critical of antidepressant drugs, COVID-19, and childhood vaccines. She is reportedly replaced by CDER Deputy Director Michael Davis. Drug companies and a rare disease expert worry about the impacts of the chaos at FDA. 

The nomination of science-naive Jim O’Neill to lead the National Science Foundation (NSF) has prompted a call for open hearings from the well-known scientific advocacy group, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS sent a letter to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, urging them to convene an open confirmation hearing on Mr. O’Neill’s qualifications to run NSF, given his lack of scientific degree or research experience.  

Calls To Action

*New*Sign on for Scientific Integrity. 

With the rise of politicization in the federal workplace, something must be done to protect scientific independence! The Union of Concerned Scientists has drafted a letter of support for the Scientific Integrity Act, which has been reintroduced to the Senate. Let our leaders know that evidence-based decision-making is important to you by signing The Momentum for Scientific Integrity Action here.

*Ending Soon* Submit your comments on NIH’s next strategic plan. 

NIH has published a brief outline of the agency’s strategic plan for FY27-31 on the Federal Register. Let them know what you think on the Request for Information by May 26.

*Ending Soon* Make your voice heard by taking the Federal Employee Exit Survey. 

The Accountability and Reform Research Consortium (ARRC) invites federal employees who left service on or after November 5, 2024 or who are actively planning their departures to participate in a 20-minute survey to share their experiences and perspectives. Results will be reported publicly in aggregate form; individual responses are confidential. By May 29, follow this link for the 2026 Federal Employee Exit Survey.

Stand up for the National Science Board.

On April 25, the Trump administration dismissed all sitting members of the National Science Board, an independent advisory group for the National Science Foundation. Fight back by signing this open letter to Congress from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine, asking for the reinstatement of fired members and appointments for all vacant positions. 27 UNIHTED has added its organizational endorsement.

Add your name (or anonymous voice) on the petition to urge Congress to impeach OMB DirectorRussell Vought for unlawfully dismantling government services Americans rely on. The Impeach Vought campaign has over 1,776 of its desired 2,000 signatures! Share the link with friends.

Urge the NIH Assembly of Scientists to support open dialogue. 

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya’s new “Scientific Freedom Lecture” series opened with a discussion on the origins of COVID-19, hosted by Matt Ridley (a vocal proponent of the controversial lab leak hypothesis), but with no balancing voice in opposition. We urge the NIH Assembly of Scientists to engage in Dr. Bhattacharya’s public commitment to open dialogue by hosting a scientist who supports the animal origin theory of COVID-19.

Reach out to your members of Congressabout issues that matter to you. 

Some possible topics:

Help the NIH Community: Review a resume, host a job workshop, plan a happy hour, volunteer, and/or advocate with 27 UNIHTED. Check out the links on our website to take action and volunteer. 

Upcoming Events

27 UNIHTED Events

Community Events

  • 5/30 and 6/13 - Non-cooperation has been used by movements across history to leverage social change. Learn how and why at Free DC’s Non-Cooperation Theory + Practice workshop. Saturday, May 30, 2026, 10:00 AM-2:30 PM. Free DC’s “Campaign Orientation” training is a required pre-requisite. 

  • 6/9-10 - For those with an interest in public health policy and advocacy, The American Public Health Association will hold their Policy Action Institute June 9–10 in Arlington, VA and online with an optional Hill Day on June 11. Discounts available for federal agency members and students. Registration required. 

Wellness Weekly

Our somewhat serious community recommendations for self care are:

  • Play peekaboo with a kid in public

  • Dress up extra nice one day, just for yourself

  • Weed one square foot of garden and declare victory over nature

  • Check out our new merch shop

  • Donate to your favorite non-profit supporting biomedical research, public health, and the federal scientific workforce

In solidarity,

27 UNIHTED and NIH Vigils

Anna
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27 UNIHTED / NIH Vigils Newsletter 5/17/26