Chuck Darwin<p>Despite federal judges' orders to halt the Trump administration's federal funding freeze, <br>🆘the NIH has awarded few grants, <br>💥disregarding the advice of its own lawyers <br>-- and apparently prompting departures, according to The Atlantic</p><p>HHS officials have pressed the NIH to continue the pause on grants, <br>and NIH acting director <a href="https://c.im/tags/Matthew" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Matthew</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Memoli" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Memoli</span></a>, MD, has towed the party line, <br>according to the article, which was based on interviews with nearly a dozen current and former NIH officials. <br>❌The grant management officers who usually sign off on awards are afraid to do so, lest they lose their jobs.</p><p>The fight over funding has led to the departures of top NIH officials. On Feb. 10, after the urging of top HHS lawyers to resume payments, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Michael" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Michael</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lauer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lauer</span></a>, MD, the chief of NIH's extramural research division, issued a memo to resume funding grants -- only to subsequently resign.<br>That same week, former NIH deputy director <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lawrence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lawrence</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Tabak" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Tabak</span></a>, DDS, PhD, announced he was retiring, instead of being forced into a demotion.<br>The departures "left many at the agency shocked and unmoored," the article stated, citing employees' concerns that if two high-ranking officials were forced out, no positions were safe. <br>"We're all still terrified for our jobs," one current official told The Atlantic. "No one knows who they can trust."<br><a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/114502" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">medpagetoday.com/special-repor</span><span class="invisible">ts/features/114502</span></a></p>