To the Editor:
Re “Deep Cuts to Medical Analysis Funds Might Hobble College Budgets” (information article, Feb. 9):
I’ve watched President Trump difficulty a flurry of government orders with rising alarm, however none have hit fairly as arduous as his reckless resolution to slash Nationwide Institutes of Well being funding. Though a courtroom quickly blocked the cuts, I worry that the work of N.I.H. and college researchers continues to be in peril. The American folks will undergo if lifesaving analysis and scientific trials are now not out there.
Our household is aware of the worth of this essential work firsthand. My husband was a part of a number of scientific trials on the N.I.H. to deal with his prostate most cancers. The staff supplied completely different remedies as wanted, they usually labored. He’s now cancer-free, and we credit score the N.I.H. for saving his life.
I fear that on this local weather, one other household wouldn’t be as lucky. Do members of the Trump administration understand that their actions have an effect on particular person lives, not simply establishments? Extra essential, do they even care?
Marilyn Fenichel
Hamden, Conn.
To the Editor:
I’m not a scientific particular person. Nor am I extremely political. However one factor I do know as a breast most cancers survivor is that my life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of different most cancers survivors have been made potential by means of biomedical analysis funded by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.
I used to be capable of profit from many years of N.I.H.-funded analysis in order that my aggressive most cancers didn’t cease me from regaining my well being and residing my finest life with my husband and two younger youngsters. Placing a freeze on N.I.H. funding might all of the sudden halt initiatives which have the potential to treatment or alleviate affected by horrible ailments like most cancers, Alzheimer’s or A.L.S.
Biomedical analysis funded by the N.I.H. is the envy of the world. It has an impression on each one in every of us who calls the USA dwelling. Analysis advances don’t know your political social gathering, your faith or wealth. Analysis has the potential to cross all strains and tie us collectively as people, bettering life for all of us.
People perceive staff efforts, and this is a vital one. Our analysis establishments additionally want federal assist to cowl the oblique prices of this important work that’s undertaken for the great of each American. I urge the Trump administration to unfreeze N.I.H. funding in order that America can reside as much as its potential, for the sake of us all.
Lorrie Flom
Pittsburgh
To the Editor:
The Trump administration’s plan to limit funding of “oblique prices” — for maintenance and administration of laboratories and different essential capabilities — on N.I.H. grants will decimate biomedical analysis at universities all through the nation, together with in “crimson” states and at “nonelite” establishments. Though the system because it has developed will not be ideally suited, oblique prices present the funds to maintain mandatory infrastructure.
Opposite to what has been prompt, these funds will not be used to advertise a D.E.I. agenda or “liberal” causes. With out enough and predictable funding from the N.I.H., biomedical analysis and American competitiveness will undergo a near-fatal blow. The consequences will final generations.
Stuart H. Orkin
Brookline, Mass.
The author is a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical Faculty and an investigator on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
To the Editor:
“How Trump’s Medical Analysis Cuts Would Hit Faculties and Hospitals in Each State,” (The Upshot, nytimes.com, Feb. 13) paints a stark image of the widespread and adversarial results of the Trump administration’s proposed reductions in funding for the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. However largely left unsaid are the detrimental results it can have on America’s work pressure.
Slicing N.I.H. funding won’t solely threaten the greater than 410,000 present jobs it helps assist, but additionally scale back alternatives for younger and gifted American researchers to entry hands-on coaching and develop real-world expertise. Furthermore, upending our nation’s analysis work pressure pipeline might considerably weaken America’s place as a world-class chief in science and know-how.
Voters acknowledge that scientific analysis contributes to society; practically 8 in 10 throughout events assist taxpayer spending on it, based on a latest research. They see lifesaving drugs, a aggressive work pressure and nationwide safety as essential returns on these investments. The present administration may profit from seeing it too.
Daniel Jacobs
Washington
To the Editor:
Re “Trump’s Layoffs Goal Gifted Younger Scientists” (information article, Feb. 18):
In shedding gifted younger scientists on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, President Trump and his minions are gutting the way forward for medical analysis.
Don’t Republicans get most cancers, coronary heart illness or diabetes? Or do they assume these and different human maladies have an effect on solely Democrats? Don’t they care in regards to the future well being and well-being of their youngsters and grandchildren?
Judith Tuller
New York
Outrage Over Trump’s Claims About Ukraine
To the Editor:
Re “Trump Calls Zelensky ‘Dictator’ as Feud Grows” (entrance web page, Feb. 20):
The catalog of Donald Trump’s lies has been nicely documented on this newspaper, however his newest statements — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine is a “dictator with out elections,” and Ukraine is guilty for the battle with Russia — are so outrageous and despicable that they transcend easy lying.
We are actually residing in a world the place improper is true, down is up, out is in.
Robert Wiener
Paris
To the Editor:
Re “A Hero to Biden Is a Villain to His Successor” (information evaluation, entrance web page, Feb. 20):
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wasn’t seen as a hero solely by President Joe Biden. He was additionally seen as a hero by hundreds of thousands of People who took to social media and donated money and time to assist Ukraine. T-shirts and sweatshirts proclaiming assist for Ukraine had been seen in every single place. Russia’s aggression was seen for what it was: an overt act to take over an unbiased nation. In different phrases, for Russia it was enterprise as standard.
President Trump’s try to flip the script — on this case, blaming Ukraine for beginning the battle and calling Mr. Zelensky a dictator — is a repeat tactic utilized by Mr. Trump.
On Russia and Ukraine, the president’s incapacity to be his personal man now not leaves any doubt about the place his sympathies lie or what he views as probably the most useful to his personal ambitions. It’s no surprise that President Vladimir Putin of Russia seems to be smirking in so many pictures of him and President Trump.
Turning into bedfellows with Russia and promoting out America and democracy will possible dominate President Trump’s legacy.
Patricia Weller
Emmitsburg, Md.
To the Editor:
In view of President Trump’s surprising pivot on Russia, I hope that Congress could have the integrity to go a bipartisan decision restating in easy phrases what has been the U.S. view of Russia for many years: that it’s an aggressive risk to freedom around the globe.
Is it an excessive amount of to ask that Congress state the plain reality that Russia was the aggressor in Ukraine? Such a transfer, whereas not binding on the president, can be of some reassurance to our allies.
Paul Eklof
Petaluma, Calif.
