Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, has sounded the alarm over what he describes as the muzzling of scientists and a troubling decline in morale at the biomedical research agency.
Appearing on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday, Collins — who led the NIH from 2009 to 2021 — explained exactly why he decided to finally retire from the agency altogether just weeks into Donald Trump’s second term.
He hadn’t planned to, he told host Stephen Colbert.
But after Trump’s inauguration, he recalled receiving “instructions that we are not supposed to go to scientific meetings, not supposed to speak to the public in any sort of way, we are not allowed to order any supplies to do the research and basically we’re told, ‘Don’t start any new projects. Don’t do anything innovative. Just keep doing the kinds of things that you were already doing but nothing new.’”
After several weeks, Collins said it became clear things weren’t going to improve.
“I felt like, ‘Why am I here? I’m completely muzzled,’” he remembered.
The rationale behind the restrictions on the NIH ― put forward by the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, once headed by the world’s richest person Elon Musk before his blow-out with Trump ― was a belief the agency was “probably full of waste, fraud and abuse,” he said.
But the impact has been profound and immediate, Collins said.
“The morale at NIH is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. People who really thought they were there to make that next breakthrough happen — or at least build a pathway towards that — aren’t sure anymore whether that’s still possible,” he explained.
Young scientists “who may be on this path toward becoming that next person to win the Nobel Prize” now don’t know if that’s possible in America, he continued.
A “brain drain” is seeing Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe — and even China — all benefiting from scientific talent who now feel there’s no place for them in the U.S.
China in particular, Collins said, “must be looking at this and they can’t believe their luck.”
The NIH’s taxpayer-funded work, he said, lays the scientific foundation for future breakthroughs that may take years to come to fruition, he explained, adding that: “Medical miracles don’t happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble now.”
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