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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
NIH under fire for funding dog tests despite vow to cut animal research
The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is continuing to fund 'cruel and wasteful' animal experiments involving dogs and cats, despite their recent announcement to reduce animal research. The NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, announced in April the launch of a new initiative to 'reduce testing in animals' and prioritise 'human-based technologies' such as organ-on-a-chip and real-world data, in a 'new era of innovation' in biomedical research. The move seeks to address longstanding translational failures of animal research to predict human outcomes in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, 'due to differences in anatomy, physiology, lifespan, and disease characteristics'. However, information obtained by the animal rights NGO White Coat Waste (WCW) shows that the NIH has in fact funded millions of dollars' worth of new animal experiments. Analysis of project documents and those obtained through Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests reveal that the NIH has approved nine new grants for dog research since their April announcement, costing the taxpayer over $12m, as well as extending about nine already active, with total study costs of $42m. WCW says these are in addition to the approximately 193 ongoing NIH-funded dog and cat studies, costing about $1.3bn. New experiments uncovered by WCW include toxicology testing of an investigational drug to treat methamphetamine addiction. Toxicology tests often involve force-feeding or injecting dogs with increasingly large doses of a compound daily for up to a year. Extended research includes a cocaine experiment to study cardiovascular effects. This involves beagles being strapped into jackets that inject them with cocaine as well as being force-fed an experimental drug to see how the two drugs interact. Another vaccine experiment involves infecting beagle puppies with viruses by strapping containers full of 'mutant' ticks to their bare skin, sometimes with pain relief intentionally withheld. White Coat Waste, a watchdog to end US taxpayer-funded animal experiments, says the NIH should shut down these laboratories. 'Animal tests are bad spending and bad science, 95% of drugs tested on animals fail in human trials. The NIH's April announcement does not include any spending cuts, deadlines or benchmarks. The rhetoric doesn't match reality right now,' said WCW's senior vice-president, Justin Goodman. The NIH is the primary medical research authority in the US and the world's biggest funder of animal research, spending an estimated $20bn annually. Yet Donald Trump proposes to slash the NIH budget by 40% to $27bn next year. 'Trump hates waste and animal experimentation is the poster child for wasteful spending. The best place to start would be to cut funding for animal labs which make up 40% of the NIH budget. It's outdated, expensive, there's little return for taxpayers and the American people don't want pets tortured,' Goodman says. Despite the cuts, in a move welcomed by Goodman as 'encouraging', the acting NIH deputy director, Dr Nicole Kleinstreuer, said in an NIH podcast last week that dog and cat tests were 'unconscionable' and has pledged to phase them out. 'I don't think we should do research on dogs and cats. Absolutely not. We are constrained under the law to leave those existing grants in place, for now, but to phase them out, we are working tirelessly behind the scenes,' Kleinstreuer said. An NIH spokesperson told the Guardian that to support the organization's 'shift toward human-focused research, all future funding announcements will emphasize human-relevant data such as clinical trials and real-world data, and new approach methods (NAMs) such as advanced laboratory-based methods and AI-driven tools'. 'NIH will no longer issue Notice of Funding announcements exclusively for animal models, and some may exclude animal use entirely advancing science that directly benefits human health,' they continued. The NIH plans to reduce animal research by establishing a new office of research innovation, validation and application (Oriva) to develop and expand NAMs. The NIH have also taken other significant steps away from animal research recently, including 'terminating funding at Harvard University for studies that included sewing the eyes of young monkeys shut' and closing NIH campus beagle labs. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which supports animal experimentation, has written to the NIH urging 'caution against prematurely removing animal research from the scientific toolkit in lieu of approaches not yet ready to address important biomedical inquiries in full'. Notably, the recent NIH announcements have been welcomed by many as 'historic'. Jarrod Bailey, the director of medical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told the Guardian that the NIH is 'now leading the way in making research more humane and human-relevant, which will save millions of animal and human lives. 'Changing the way the NIH has operated for decades will take some time. We want to see the NIH delivering more in the coming months, but the significant shift away from animal experiments are unprecedented and very encouraging,' he said. Oriva is part of a broader federal trend in the US. The FDA has also published a roadmap to end animal experiments in preclinical safety studies. Solve the daily Crossword
Straits Times
06-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
US Supreme Court keeps Doge records blocked in watchdog group's challenge
The US Supreme Court extended its block on orders requiring Doge to turn over its records to a watchdog. PHOTO: REUTERS WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court extended on June 6 its block on judicial orders requiring the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) to turn over records to a government watchdog group that sought details on the entity established by President Donald Trump and previously spearheaded by his billionaire former adviser Elon Musk. The court put on hold Washington-based US District Judge Christopher Cooper's orders for Doge to respond to requests by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for information about its operations. The judge concluded that Doge likely is a government agency covered by the federal Freedom of Information Act (Foia). The brief, unsigned order said that portions of one of the judge's decisions 'are not appropriately tailored' and that 'separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal Executive Branch communications.' The court sent the case back to a lower appeals court to narrow the judge's directives. The court's three liberal justices - Ms Sonia Sotomayor, Ms Elena Kagan and Ms Ketanji Brown Jackson - dissented from June 6's decision. In a separate case, the Supreme Court on June 6 permitted Doge broad access to personal information on millions of Americans in Social Security Administration data systems while a legal challenge plays out. Doge has played a central role in Mr Trump's efforts to downsize and reshape the US government including by slashing the federal workforce and dismantling certain agencies. The watchdog group, called Crew, said its intention was to shed light on what it called Doge's secretive structure and operations. Mr Musk formally ended his government work on May 30 and his once-close relationship with Mr Trump has since unraveled publicly, a split that followed Mr Musk's recent attacks on the president's sweeping tax and spending Bill and played out dramatically on social media on June 5. Crew sued to obtain an array of records from Doge through the Foia statute, a law that allows the public to seek access to records produced by government agencies. It sought information on Doge's activities over its role in the mass firings and cuts to federal programmes pursued since the Republican president returned to office in January. The Trump administration contends that Doge is an advisory entity and not subject to Foia. In response, Crew sought information to determine whether Doge is subject to Foia because it wields the kind of authority of an agency independent of the president. Mr Cooper ruled in April that Doge must turn over some records sought by Crew and that the group was entitled to question Doge official Amy Gleason at a deposition. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined on May 14 to put Mr Cooper's order on hold. The administration urged the Supreme Court to act, saying that the judge's orders intruded on the powers of the executive branch and compromised the ability of a wide array of advisers to provide candid and confidential advice to the president. Crew told the justices that siding with the administration in the dispute would give the president 'free reign' to create new entities that would 'functionally wield substantial independent authority but are exempt from critical transparency laws.' In one of his decisions, Mr Cooper said Doge's operations have been marked by 'unusual secrecy.' In another, the judge said that the language of Mr Trump's executive orders concerning Doge suggests that it is 'exercising substantial independent authority.' REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Conservationists sue Trump administration over rollback of green policies
Conservationists on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its attempts to boost the oil industry by rolling back green policies. Filed by the environmental non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, the litigation focuses on Trump's day-one 'unleashing American energy' executive order. In an effort to boost already booming US energy production, the emergency declaration directed federal agencies to identify all policies and regulations that 'unduly' burden fuel producers and create 'action plans' to weaken or remove them. The lawsuit seeks information about the development of these action plans from four federal agencies: the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. Since the executive order was passed, the administration has announced plans to eliminate scores of other green policies. Last week, for instance, it emerged that the EPA plans to eliminate long-standing requirements for polluting companies to collect and report their greenhouse gas emissions, ProPublica reported. The legal challenge follows a February request for information filed by the advocacy group under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia), for which officials have not yet provided any records. 'Given the substantial implications for air and water, wildlife and nature, climate, public lands, and the environment generally through the development of energy resources,' the lawsuit says, 'the Center is deeply interested in, and affected by, how the action plans implementing the Executive Order could harm, undermine, or negate the Center's longstanding efforts to protect the environment.' Foia is meant to compel officials to provide access to information about the functioning of federal agencies within 20 business days of a request. Though backlogs have long been common, the advocacy group says it is concerned the Trump administration is deliberately slowing the process to block public access to information. The lawsuit comes as federal agencies have slashed protections for public lands, approved air pollution permits for fossil fuel-processing facilities without environmental reviews, and gutted slews of green policies and spending plans while firing thousands of civil servants. It also follows record donations to Trump's presidential campaign from oil, gas and coal companies, sparking concerns of corruption. In a June meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump infamously asked fossil fuel bosses for $1bn in campaign contributions, while vowing to unravel dozens of Biden-era environmental policies. 'It seems obvious that polluters and other special interests are completely in the driver's seat and probably ghost-writing all of Trump's pro-fossil fuel directives,' said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. 'Why else would Trump officials be so defiant about illegally keeping the public in the dark?' The EPA declined to comment on the pending litigation. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The new lawsuit comes as part of a wave of litigation seeking transparency from the Trump administration. Green groups earlier this week sued federal officials over the removal of government webpages containing federal climate and environmental justice data; last month, another lawsuit targeted the US Department of Agriculture's erasure of climate data. The Trump administration and the so-called 'department of government efficiency', helmed by billionaire Elon Musk, pledged to be 'maximally transparent'. Yet federal officials have undercut that promise, environmentalists say, including by gutting public records teams. 'The Trump administration and Doge continue to dismantle environmental safeguards across the nation without a modicum of transparency,' said Hartl. Foia was an important tool for environmentalists during Trump's first term. A request filed by the Sierra Club led to the former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's resignation, and records obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity led to an investigation by the inspector general of then interior secretary David Bernhardt.
The Guardian
11-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
USAid employees told to destroy classified documents, email shows
Officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have begun a large-scale destruction of classified documents at their headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building including with shredders and using 'burn bags', according to an internal email seen by the Guardian. The email, sent by Acting USAid Secretary Erica Y Carr, instructs staff on procedures for clearing 'classified safes and personnel documents' through shredding and the use of 'burn bags' marked 'SECRET' throughout the day on Tuesday. 'Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,' Carr wrote in the email, which provides detailed instructions on how to properly seal and label the burn bags. The timing of this document purge comes amid ongoing controversy over what is essentially the shuttering of USAid following the Trump administration's attempts to reshape the independent agency through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Doge is headed by Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and he has been tasked with slashing the number of jobs at the federal government and the amount of money it spends. Amid the huge turmoil that has gripped the US government as the Musk-led Doge carries out its activities, USAid has been among the worst-hit government agencies. The huge cuts at USAid have impacted projects across the globe as vast numbers of projects are paused, shuttered or have their funding slashed. There has been widespread outcry at the move from USAid workers but also across the international development sector as they warn of the detrimental impact it will have on some of the world's most vulnerable populations. When federal agencies are dissolved or restructured, their records are typically transferred to successor agencies or the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara) in accordance with the Federal Records Act (Fra). During the US' hasty exit out of Afghanistan in 2021, the Nara sent a reminder to safely and lawfully discard the sensitive documents. But compliance with the Fra in this situation is deeply in question, since the law explicitly prohibits the destruction of government records before their designated retention period – typically a minimum of three years. There's also lingering concern that it risks permanently eliminating evidence needed for ongoing Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests and future oversight investigations. Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February demanding answers about Doge's access to USAid headquarters and agency records, though they did not specifically address potential document destruction. It's unclear whether proper records management protocols are being followed during this process, or if documents that should be preserved are being destroyed. 'If you need additional burn bags or sharpie markers, please let me or the SEC InfoSec Team know,' the email said. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Musk's takeover of US health agencies raises pandemic threat, experts warn
The 'department of government efficiency', the Donald Trump-created program known as Doge and headed by the billionaire Elon Musk, has accessed or requested access to sensitive systems at multiple health agencies as the US president attempts to grant the committee sweeping powers within the federal government. The bid for access comes amid an unprecedented effort to halt government spending, despite multiple court orders to unfreeze funds and reverse staff suspensions. Thousands of people were laid off from health agencies on Friday after the Trump administration announced a plan to fire nearly all probationary employees, potentially numbering in the hundreds of thousands across the federal service. 'The potential for doing harm is significant,' said Scott Cory, former chief information officer for an agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Related: Trump disrupting US bird flu response as outbreak worsens Health agencies maintain tightly controlled databases with sensitive information, and upheaval at these agencies threatens the US healthcare systemeven as the threat of infectious diseases like bird flu continues to ramp up. 'The possibility of new outbreaks or public health events is certain given the recent concerning spread of bird flu, which is still hampered by a slow response,' said an employee at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. 'With external communications cut off, extensive work-stop orders and dramatic changes in the federal workforce, the ability of any health agency is severely limited and ultimately will serve no one but those who choose to profit off the suffering,' the employee said. Trump attempted to give Doge the power to shrink the federal workforce in a new executive order signed on Tuesday, despite lawsuits from unions over Doge access. Some 5,200 people across health agencies reportedly received layoffs notices on Friday. About 1,250 of them worked at the CDC, according to a source who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. This included senior officials and the entire first-year class of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Services officers, known as 'disease detectives'. Other senior health officials are also being targeted for layoffs, and employees are bracing for more mass layoffs in coming days, sources say. Several contractors also report being laid off this week. Probationary employees include any staff who haven't served the full time (usually a year or two) needed to gain civil service protection in their positions – and this also applies to senior officials who have recently changed positions. Staff at some health agencies, including HHS and CDC, report being instructed not to talk about Doge in internal emails and messages, for fear of attracting attention through Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests or searches from those who have gained access to these systems. 'In my whole time in the federal government, I've never seen this,' said the CDC employee. 'It's just a complete upheaval.' Representatives of Doge gained access to the Atlanta offices of the CDC last week, according to sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak. Doge-affiliated officials have also gained access to payment and contracting systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Musk, the unpaid 'special government employee' heading up Doge, appeared to confirm the CMS access and the search for potential fraud in Medicare payment systems: 'Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening,' he alleged on X on 5 February. Medicare fraud has long been a focus of careful investigation, with 193 medical professionals arrested in June under the Biden administration on charges related to $2.75bn in suspected healthcare fraud. But stopping payments already authorized by Congress, as the Trump administration has already done with foreign assistance and federal grants and loans, is an unprecedented move. Doge representatives have also sought access to the HHS payment systems that process billions of dollars in healthcare funding, and seem to have gained access to at least some of them, the Washington Post reports. The HHS did not respond to the Guardian's media inquiry by press time. One of the requested systems, the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System, contains financial information about all of the hospitals, doctors and other health organizations participating in federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. It requires training on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in order to access; it's not clear if Doge representatives have undergone this training. Doge officials have reportedly gained extensive access at the treasury department as well. Musk's 'unclear role' in a committee that has not been approved by Congress 'has been a loud signal by this administration that the legal rulebook that the federal government operates by no longer applies', the CDC employee said. 'Musk's aggressive takeover of many sensitive data systems, including those in CMS and treasury, should concern everyone,' the employee continued. 'Having access to all this data is not only a security risk but the abusive potential of having such data is incomprehensible.' Armed with these systems and data, the Trump administration could dismantle healthcare support for Americans and punish states or entities refusing to align with the administration's priorities, the employee said. Interference in the systems that health agencies use to process payments could threaten the lives of people who depend on the funds, Cory said. There are privacy concerns as well. 'There's a whole lot' of sensitive data running through these systems into individuals' bank accounts, including personally identifiable information about individuals who are recipients of government benefits, like social security, Cory said. While the information is not usually stored in payment systems, 'you can go backwards from that system, presumably, to the system that holds and maintains that information', Cory said. 'And that's where this gets scary.' No one individual should have access to entire systems like these, Cory said. Even small changes are a big deal, and need to be tested extensively before being deployed. Yet the legal repercussions to unlawful access and activities in federal systems are limited, he said. 'The constraints on bad actors who are in there, inside the system, doing bad things, are relatively few,' Cory said. The data collected by agencies plays a crucial role in keeping Americans safe – particularly in ongoing outbreaks like bird flu, Cory said: 'If it's not possible to report that data and disseminate that data, then we're all at risk.'
