Zürcher Nachrichten - Trump slashed US cancer research by 31 percent: Senate report

The analysis, commissioned by the leftwing Senator Bernie Sanders, found that as of April, at least $13.5 billion in health funding had been terminated, including 1,660 grants, while thousands of scientific staff were fired.

Among the hardest hit was the National Cancer Institute, which lost $2.7 billion from January to March compared to 2024, driving inflation-adjusted grant funding to its lowest level in over a decade.

"Since January, Trump has launched an unprecedented, illegal and outrageous attack on science and scientists," said Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

"Trump is not only denying scientific truth but actively seeking to undermine it."

Based on interviews with dozens of federal scientists and health workers, the report paints a picture of chaos across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least 175 public health datasets were deleted, leaving doctors "without vetted guidance on how to treat patients," one physician said.

A 43-year-old colorectal cancer patient, already treated with surgery, radiation, and 48 rounds of chemotherapy, said her participation in a T-cell therapy trial at the NIH was delayed due to staff shortages.

"The reality is that by reducing money and staff, the NIH will not be able to produce my treatment -- and it might cost me my life," she told Senate staff.

At the NIH Clinical Center, researchers described "complete chaos" after entire labs were dismissed. "This administration has a lot of blood on their hands," said one. "We just want to take care of people."

The report also highlighted the dangers of misinformation amid a growing measles outbreak, which has infected more than 1,000 people and killed three. Over 40 grants studying vaccine hesitancy have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has hired vaccine conspiracy theorist David Geier, previously disciplined for practicing medicine without a license and testing unproven drugs on autistic children, to investigate an alleged connection between vaccines and autism, debunked by dozens of prior studies.

Even as Trump proposes a 26 percent cut to the HHS budget next year, he has earmarked $500 million for Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, which targets nutrition, physical activity, and "over-reliance on medication."

AFP has sought the administration's response to the report.

N.Fischer--NZN