A letter signed by more than 300 National Institutes of Health workers — some still working, others who were fired this year — is an extraordinary public rebuke of actions taken under Director Jay Bhattacharya and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In a June 9 letter to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, NIH workers said they felt “compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources.”

“For staff across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we dissent to Administration policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe,” they said.

The letter is an extraordinary rebuke of the Trump administration’s actions against the NIH, which include: terminating hundreds of grants funding scientific and biomedical research; firing more than 1,000 employees this year; and moving to end billions in funds to partner institutions overseas, a move current and former NIH workers say will harm research on rare cancers and infectious diseases, as well as research that aims to minimize tobacco use and related chronic illnesses, among other areas.

Some NIH workers signed their names publicly, openly daring to challenge a president who has sought to purge the government of employees he views as disloyal to him. Others signed anonymously.

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