Almost 2,000 scientists, engineers and researchers wrote a open letter This week to the administration of President Donald Trump, asking for a stop at his “assault” to science.
The letter was signed by elected members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, a collegiate organization in Congress that Provides independent analysis and helps inform public policy decisions.
The group made it clear that the signatories are expressing their own points of view and not those of the national academies or their institutions of origin.
“We are talking as individuals. We see a real danger at this time,” said the letter, in part. “We have various political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific research. We are sending this SOS so that a clear warning sounds: the scientific company of the nation is being decimated.”
“We call on the administration that ceases its wholesale assault on the science of the United States, and we urge the public to join this call,” the letter continued.
President Donald Trump walks from the Oval office to the Marina Board at the White House South Law on the way to Florida, on March 28, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The group called the Trump administration for actions, including the final funds for research, dismissal of scientists and eliminating public access to data.
Recently, several active research subsidies related to studies that involve LGBTQ+problems, as well as gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion, were canceled in the National Health Institutes. According to the termination letters sent to the researchers from several universities that were reviewed by ABC News, the projects were canceled because they did not attend the “priorities” of the current administration.
In addition, earlier this year, the staff were fired throughout the Department of Health and Human Services as part of Elon Musk’s governmental efficiency effort to reduce the size of the federal government.
Earlier this month, HHS also seemed to have eliminated a website of the Office of the General Surgeon that included a warning about armed violence. In a statement to ABC News, the HHS said the department “and the Office of the General Surgeon comply with President Trump’s executive order on the protection of the rights of the second amendment.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the request for comments from ABC News on the letter.
“If our country’s research company is dismantled, we will lose our scientific advantage,” the letter continues. “Other countries will lead the development of new disease treatments, clean energy sources and the new technologies of the future. Its populations will be healthier, and their economies will overcome us in business, defense, intelligence collection and health monitoring of our planet. The damage to the scientific company of our nation could lead to decades to reverse.”
The letter occurs when dismissals in HHS begin, even in the National Health Institutes, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Food and Drug Administration.
It is expected that up to 10,000 people lose their work in this round of layoffs, an amount that could significantly alter the roles and abilities of the department. That adds to the almost 10,000 that the agency has already left in recent months through purchase offers or early retirement.
Hannah Demissie, Cheyenne Haslett and Etic Strauss of ABC News contributed to this report.
