The current assault by President Donald Trump and the GOP on research funding at the National Institutes of Health and more than 100 universities will cause many deaths from preventable disease. Most of us who are over 60 are still alive because of vaccines (such as for polio, measles, diphtheria, pneumonia, COVID-19 …) plus many newly discovered medicines. In my case, I am still healthy because of antibiotics, birth control pills for family planning and the drug Synthroid for daily use after thyroidectomy. What medicines that were discovered in the past 75 years by NIH funding are helping you survive?
The No. 1 goal of Trump and the GOP is to give huge tax breaks to billionaires. To do that, they are willing to kick millions of people off health care, force hospital closures including those for veterans, and reduce Social Security and Medicaid. The elimination by executive order of already approved health care and research funding is illegal, since the Constitution gives Congress control over the budgets.
Please contact GOP congressional representatives and tell them to help the Democrats stop this destruction.
Margaret Byers, Seattle (research professor, retired, University of Washington)
