National Institutes of Health (NIH) Acting Director Matthew Memoli sought to clarify the extent of the Trump administration’s freeze on communications and other functions within the Health and Human Services Department, which has raised concern among agency officials and lawmakers.
Memoli’s memo, sent Monday to leaders across the NIH’s more than two dozen centers and institutions, said the freeze had been issued to ‘allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization,’ but noted that due to ‘confusion on the scope of the pause’ he wanted to provide additional guidance.
The internal memo was first reported by STAT News .The NIH did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Last week, the new Trump administration abruptly paused external communications at HHS through the first of next month. In addition to halting announcements, press releases, website and social media posts, new guidance, and new regulations, the freeze also halted public appearances and travel by agency officials, and prohibited new purchases or service requests related to agency work.
The move caused anger and confusion among both HHS officials and those in the broader medical community. Following the directive, scientific meetings and grant reviews were canceled, raising significant concerns about the impact on research.
‘We write to express our grave concerns about actions that have taken place in recent days that potentially disrupt lifesaving research being conducted and supported by the National Institutes of Health,’ a trio of Democratic lawmakers from Maryland said in a Monday letter to HHS’s Acting Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink. ‘Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous.’
According to Memoli’s memo, while agency officials are not permitted to begin new research while the pause is in effect, any research or clinical trials initiated before Jan. 20 can keep going ‘so that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies.’ Officials working on these studies may also purchase any ‘necessary supplies’ and conduct meetings related to such work. Although new research projects are still prohibited, NIH staff can continue submitting papers to medical journals and can communicate with those journals about submitted work.
The freeze on purchases was further clarified by Memoli’s memo, which indicated that while the pause remains, purchases ‘directly related to human safety, human or animal healthcare, security, biosafety, biosecurity, or IT security,’ can continue. Travel and hiring for such work can continue as well, Memoli indicated, but his office must grant specific exemptions for new hires as President Donald Trump also initiated a freeze on the hiring of new federal civilian employees across all agencies during his first week in office.
Routine travel planned for after Feb. 1 ‘does not need to be canceled at this time,’ Memoli added. Patients receiving treatment at NIH facilities can also continue to do so.
Meanwhile, external communications will continue to be prohibited except for ‘announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical.’ On Monday, amid the freeze, Fink announced that HHS would begin evaluating its current practices to ensure they meet federal requirements under the Hyde Amendment, a law prohibiting the use of federal funds for non-medically necessary, elective abortions.
One subject area that was notably absent from Memoli’s memo to federal health leaders was clarifications around grant review meetings. However, the acting director’s memo concluded by indicating that further guidance is expected to be made available later this week.
While the pause at HHS has caused a firestorm of concern and criticism, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who is now the dean of the University of Nebraska’s school of public health, Dr. Ali Khan, told the Associated Press that such pauses are not unusual. Khan said concern is only warranted if the pause was aimed at ‘silencing the agencies around a political narrative.’
‘I think the intention of such a chaotic freezing of communications was to scare us, to demoralize us, and to set science back a bit in an effort to make us look bad,’ said a long-time NIH staffer who spoke to Forbes on the condition of anonymity. ‘We are by no means perfect, but, ffs, our job is literally to enable research to save lives, what the heck?’