Science is, in its very nature, collaborative. Many consortia and alliances in scientific fields cross boundaries and linguistic barriers. Some laboratories may be able to find additional funding from alternative sources such as the European Union. But it is unlikely that a continuous withdrawal of the financing of NIH can be connected by support abroad. And Big Pharma, with its apparently endless funds, is unlikely to intensify no longer, according to the sources with which Wired has spoken.
“This cannot be given to pharmaceutical companies or biotechnology, because they are not interested in things as preclinical as a lot of work that we are discussing here,” explains a genetics professor who has agreed to speak anonymously about fear of remuneration. “Essentially, there is a whole legion of university scientists who work very hard to try to understand basic things that ultimately become something on which a pharmaceutical company can drop $ 100 million.”
The millions of dollars granted to high -performance laboratories are used to finance graduate students, laboratory technicians and analysts. If the principal researcher of a research team failed to obtain a subsidy in the process that Keusch describes, often that the laboratory is closed and that these members of the auxiliary team lose their job.
One of the potential effects downstream of a loss of financing from NIH, even if only temporary, is a mass domestic brain leak. “Many of these people will go out to find something else,” said the genetics teacher. “It’s like jobs for something else – we can’t pay people for a month. What would the food service industry look like, for example, or grocery stores, if they don’t pay someone for a month? Their workers will leave and the Pharma can only hire so many people. »»
Wired heard over and over again, scientists too frightening for their teams and their jobs to talk about the file, that it will not take long for the impact to reach the general population. With a loss of research funding, the closure of hospitals and universities. And gains in medical progress probably also vacillate.
The conditions studied with the financing of NIH are not only rare diseases affecting 1 or 2% of the population. These are problems such as cancer, diabetes, that of Alzheimer’s disease – emissions that affect your grandmother, your friends and so many people who will one day fall out of perfect health. It is thanks to this research system, and to scientists who work there, that doctors know how to save someone from a heart attack, regulate diabetes, reduce cholesterol and reduce the risk of stroke. This is how the world knows that smoking is not a good idea. “All this is to know that the scientists financed by the NIH have generated, and if you throw this bigness there, it will disturb absolutely everything,” explains the genetics professor.
While some hope that the freezing of funding for the academic world could end on February 1, when the pause on communications and, therefore, the subsidy exams should raise, the wired people with whom have been pronounced are largely skeptical that The work will resume as before.
