NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women

[Nevilledog]

https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-cancels-its-first-and-largest-study-centered-women

No paywall link
https://archive.li/hjm4B

President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be killing much, if not all, of a historic initiative that was the first, and is still the largest, National Institutes of Health (NIH) effort centered on the health needs of women. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has enrolled tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials of hormones and other medications and tracked the health of many thousands more over more than 3 decades. Its findings have had a major influence on health care.

WHI leaders announced yesterday that contracts supporting its regional centers are being terminated in September and that the study’s clinical coordinating center, based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, “will continue operations until January 2026, after which time its funding remains uncertain.” They added that the contract terminations for its four main sites “will significantly impact ongoing research and data collection … severely limit[ing] WHI’s ability to generate new insights into the health of older women, one of the fastest-growing segments of our population.” (There are about 55 million postmenopausal women in the United States.)

Scientists familiar with the initiative, whose annual funding is currently just under $10 million, are already lamenting its loss, which may foreshadow billions in further contract research funding cuts by NIH. “This trial just taught us an immense amount about prevention of disease in women,” says Sarah Temkin, a gynecological oncologist who until 11 April was associate director for clinical research in the Office of Research on Women’s Health at NIH. “This is a terrible, terrible thing to have happen.”

“All of the [regional contracts] were terminated on an unprecedented timeline that may set a record for abruptness since I can already see the termination in [NIH] Reporter,” epidemiologist Eric Whitsel of at the University of North Carolina, who has been a principal investigator on the study for 22 years, wrote in an email referencing the agency’s grants database. “It’s a sad day indeed for women’s health research because there is much more to learn from these remarkable women about predicting cognitive decline and healthy aging, as well as managing chronic disease in the oldest old. Moreover, there are many earlier career scientists in the U.S. who depend on the WHI platform and resource to train, then launch and advance their careers in medicine and public health, as I once did.”

*snip*

[progressoid]

1. Who needs that when ya got ivermectin?

[brakester]

2. NO $#/T!

Last edited Wed Apr 23, 2025, 05:01 PM - Edit history (1)

No way!!!

Let's find the Queen of Hearts and give her a one way ticket to DC!

THIS HAS TO STOP!

[subterranean]

3. Another casualty in this administration's war on scientific research.

A 30-year study on prevention of Type II diabetes was also canceled without explanation, threatening the loss of a decade's worth of findings. All this, of course, goes directly against RFK Jr.'s supposed desire to focus on prevention of chronic diseases.

[yardwork]

4. I hate RFK, Jr. with a deep passion.

He is destroying many things that truly were great.

[calimary]

6. Take a number.

[yardwork]

7. He has some fans on DU.

[AllyCat]

10. Yeah the food additive nuts.

I don’t like artificial ingredients either but they can be avoided by careful label checking. EVERY OTHER THING HE IS DOING cannot be avoided.

[RockCreek]

15. The EU dealt with food additives without killing science.

The two things are only related in tgat they intersect in the f-d up "brain" of RFK.

[yardwork]

16. We have some anti-vaxxers, too.

[AllyCat]

24. Ugh. 😣

[yardwork]

17. Guaranteed he'll do a lousy job on the additives, too.

For one thing, he's defunding the USDA, FDA, and all the food inspectors. So our food will be contaminated with bacteria and molds and nobody will know.

It's been bad enough already. Those baby formula factories are still not cleaned up. (And yes, the ideal way to feed babies is with breast milk but that doesn't work for everyone and in any case, it's not ok to literally poison babies with contaminated food.)

[brakester]

22. Multi decades

of dedicated scientists who painstakingly added to human knowledge and history, casually dumped in the garbage heap!

Good work, trumpie dummies!

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[harumph]

8. appalling

[Ping Tung]

9. Misogyny from the Trump regime? Perish the thought. Look at all the research he has done barehanded on women.

Not to mention overlooking the studies when selecting Trophy Wives.

[Attilatheblond]

11. He's working hard at protecting women....

from medical breakthroughs that would help us live longer with more comfort.

That asshat REALLY hates his mother.

[slightlv]

12. You may not be far from the truth... nt

[yardwork]

18. And his wives.

He's not very fond of his niece Mary either.

[spooky3]

13. There must be lawsuits. He has no authority to cancel

Contracts the Congress has approved and funded.

[yardwork]

19. Musk is doing that all over.

[xuplate]

14. Why bother when their only useful purpose is giving birth to 10 kids.

[Jit423]

20. If you voted for the orange beast, I hope you are happy. nt

[Warpy]

21. Of course they did, religious nuts believe firmly that women are just stunted men

and perpetual children who will never grow up so there is no reason to study them separately, the data documenting womn's very different reactions to standard male treatment models are all just sciency gobbledegook and ungodly.

I hope this is just a 3 year hiatus, that we manage to get some sensible people into office and fumigate all the cooties out of RFK's offices. While I doubt dumbfuckery is contagious, it never hurts to take precautions.

In any case, the idiotic myths about who women are need to die and quickly, too many real, live women have died because of them.

[nolabear]

23. You mean fetus carriers?

That’s our value, right? And once we can’t we’re unpaid child care.