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aniloza.bsky.social
anil oza
@aniloza.bsky.social
4.5K followers 1.5K following 350 posts
science journalist @stat covering health equity, the nih, and interaction btwn science & society | also: npr, nature, sciam, science, science news (he/him) (signal: aniloza.16)
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aniloza.bsky.social
UPDATE: @murray.senate.gov, who pressed NIH director Bhattacharya on not retaliating against signers of the Bethesda Declaration in a June hearing, calls for answers
In a statement Friday, Murray said, “If this administration thinks that summarily ousting NIH employees whose only offense is calling on the agency to respect science and academic freedom will go unnoticed, they can think again … We need answers immediately.”
November 14, 2025 at 11:19 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
The email notifying her she was being put on paid leave did not specify why, but an HHS official told me this:
Screenshot reading “A Department of Health and Human Services official familiar with the matter told STAT Norton was placed on leave because “Instead of focusing on her actual job to promote gold standard science, radical leftist Jenna Norton chooses to constantly criticize this administration, even when she is supposed to be working.” The official declined to be named because they are not authorized to discuss personnel matters. “
November 14, 2025 at 3:24 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
We also talked to Eliseo Pérez-Stable, who led the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities until he was placed on admin leave in April, about the state of the field and about his ouster:
‘We don’t do DEI, we do science’ In the initial weeks of the second Trump presidency, Pérez-Stable, then the head of the Minority Health and Health Disparities institute, tried to make the case that his branch should not fall under the administration’s assault on “DEI.” The newly appointed NIH deputy chief of staff, James McElroy, had set out to meet with all of the agency’s 27 institute and center directors. While many of those leaders had not heard of McElroy, it was conveyed to them that he was to serve as a liaison between the agency and the White House. Former officials have described the meetings as curt and combative. When he met with Pérez-Stable, McElroy wasted no time. “After an introduction, the first thing he said to me was, ‘You know, your institute is in direct conflict with the president’s executive orders,” Pérez-Stable recounted in his first extensive interview about the state of health disparities work and his experience in the Trump administration. “But I said, ‘No, that’s incorrect. We don’t do DEI, we do science, we do health disparities research.’ But obviously that didn’t get me anywhere.” (McElroy, who is no longer listed as an HHS employee, could not be reached for comment.)
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Here is a sampling of the kinds of changes we saw in the >700 grants
Chart with two columns, the first with the old title and second with new titles. Old titles show in red what was removed, and in the second column what was added in green.
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Many of the changes were to remove words like "equity" or "disparity" or the names of various racial groups, as this word cloud that was circulated at an @nihvigils.bsky.social I went to shows
Photo of someone holding a pamphlet, prominently is a word cloud titles "The Banned Words" with "equity" and "disparity" dwarfing other terms
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Signs of the government shutdown from @geneticssociety.bsky.social conference
Printed out paper with ASHG header, reading “due to the ongoing government closure, this poster could not be presented as planned. Ashg remains committed to sharing this important work through alternative channels at the earliest opportunity”
October 17, 2025 at 7:02 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Baby KJ at STAT summit in a full tux 🥺🥺🥺
October 15, 2025 at 1:41 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Excited to be moderating a panel at the @statnews.com summit later this week on the upheaval at the NIH this year, and I have the honor of sharing the stage with three people who have helped me make sense of this moment

Going to thread some background reading, featuring our three speakers:
Flyer advertising talk at STAT summit, in various shades of teal. Called "featured session: Inside the upheaval at NIH" and including speakers Jeremy Berg, formerly of NIGMS, Eric Green who led NHGRI, and Mallory Harris of SciMap with moderator Anil Oza. October 15-16
October 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Trump admin plans to RIF 1100-1200 HHS employees according to court filing
October 10, 2025 at 10:30 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
story by @rosebroderick.bsky.social
screenshot of a STAT story reading, "The federal court judge excoriated Baccarelli’s testimony, writing that “Dr. Baccarelli downplays those studies that undercut his causation thesis and emphasizes those that align with his thesis.” U.S. District Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York noted that neither Baccarelli nor four other experts paid to testify for the plaintiffs “has published research that expresses the ultimate opinions they offer here. Indeed, the plaintiffs’ lead expert on causation, Dr. Baccarelli, as recently as 2022, co-authored a study on the prenatal effects of acetaminophen that cautioned against any change in clinical practice.” Cote ruled that the five expert witnesses’ testimony should be excluded from the case."
September 24, 2025 at 4:25 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
many people have been saying this...
September 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
If you have a question about Trump's autism announcement ... it's probably answered somewhere here
Screenshot of STAT's homepage with several stories about Trump's autism announcement
September 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
going to be a busy day at ACIP today — we will have:

- Vote on delaying Hep b newborn shot (pushes from yesterday)
- Vote on Covid vaccine boosters

We'll be watching along @statnews.com — some context threaded below
screen shot of the CDC's ACIP slides
September 19, 2025 at 12:36 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Our story is UPDATED:

- Hep B vote pushed until tomorrow
- confusing, split vote on mmrv (see below)

More tomorrow 👋
Screenshot reading “At Thursday’s meeting, the committee also voted 8-3 (with one member abstaining) to recommend that children under four receive the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and varicella vaccine separately — rather than receiving the combined MMRV vaccine. The CDC has already said that it prefers this first dose be given as two separate shots, as there is a very small but higher seizure risk when giving the first dose combined.” Screenshot reading “However, several committee members were stumped by a subsequent vote that would align the recommendation with language in VFC. Aligning the recommendation would cut off access to combined dose MMRV vaccines for children covered by VFC, alarming several members who launched into a tense debate about whether they should cut off coverage for only some children — at odds with the message of parental freedom that many had promoted during the meeting. Ultimately, the change was rejected, creating an uneven coverage pathway, in that private insurers and some federal health programs will no longer be required to cover the combined shot while VFC must continue to. “
September 18, 2025 at 10:56 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
covering the @nihvigils.bsky.social today
A photo of an NIH building, with part of it filled with protest posters and a group of people talking in a circle, taken from the end of an escalator.
September 13, 2025 at 9:04 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
It's been a busy time for NIH grants staff — the agency seems on track to spend its budget this fiscal year

But, because of multi-year funding, fewer projects are being funded than in previous years.

The number of R grants has fallen from 5,633 to 3,758

analysis by @jaspar.bsky.social
Graph titled "value of grants awarded in 2025 has caught up to average of previous years." Graph shows average of 2016-24 spending and how much has been spent so far in FY25 Graph titled "Amount of first-year R01 and R21 grants." Graph compares average of 2016-24 to 2025.
September 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Last week I finished up my fellowship w/ @ksjatmit.bsky.social & @statnews.com

It's been a whirlwind of a year covering science and politics

BUT I am very happy to say ✨ I won't be going anywhere ✨

I will be staying here at STAT as a general assignment reporter focusing on health equity & NIH
Photo from KSJ fellowship graduation ceremony, 11 fellows stand in front of a beige, marbled wall in formal clothing, smiling Photo of Anil's author bio, reading "Anil Oza is a general assignment reporter at STAT focused on the NIH and health equity. You can reach him on Signal at aniloza.16."
September 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
From December!:
Screenshot of a STAT story reading “The Siri report underscored that the U.S. is in a political moment “unique in the history of public health,” Nair said — namely, that people close to power “are antagonistic to the idea that societies and states, working together, can ameliorate population-level illness and make life better for us.” “
August 29, 2025 at 11:09 AM
aniloza.bsky.social
Don't even know which story to post ... they are all so well done and important. Just go read @statnews.com
Screenshot of STAT's homepage - showing five stories about the CDC
August 28, 2025 at 10:09 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
In addition to Monarez, three other senior officials have resigned

Read the story by my colleagues at the link below:
Screenshot of STAT story, reading: "Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; Chief Medical Officer Deb Houry; Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health,” Daskalakis said in his email. “I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency,” Houry wrote, adding that science should “never be censored or subject to political interpretations.”
August 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
@alexhogan.bsky.social & I made a video about RFK's video cancelling half a billion in contracts

Our colleagues and others have fact checked the video itself, so we talked more about where these ideas come from — and what it says about the ways this administration is warping scientific norms
August 14, 2025 at 1:13 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Alan Garber, the president of Harvard, has found himself on the opposite side of an escalating battle with the Trump administration as his former student, Jay Bhattacharya
screenshot of Boston Globe story reading "The relationship is so meaningful to Bhattacharya that after he was nominated by President-elect Trump to lead the NIH, Bhattacharya asked Garber to introduce him at his Senate confirmation hearing, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Garber indicated that he was willing to speak on Bhattacharya’s behalf. But it didn’t happen. Days after Bhattacharya’s swearing in, the Trump administration — alleging a pattern of antisemitism and illegal race-based admissions policies at Harvard — delivered an ultimatum that would have ended the university’s independence. Harvard then sued the Trump administration to restore research funds."
August 11, 2025 at 3:13 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
we go through the report's findings w/ help from @sbagen.bsky.social @jeremymberg.bsky.social @donmoyn.bsky.social @aaas.org
GAO findings are nonbinding but could empower Congress to push back against the Trump administration’s attempts to use NIH’s $48 billion biomedical research budget as leverage over the nation’s colleges, universities, and medical centers, as well provide ammunition to plaintiffs in the many ongoing lawsuits challenging the president’s tactics. “It is critical President Trump reverse course, stop decimating the NIH, and get every last bit of this funding out. Republicans must join Democrats in pressing on this urgent matter until this money gets out the door — light up the phones at the White House and insist that the president himself answer for this,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
August 5, 2025 at 10:33 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Trump has now officially commented on the Sydney Sweeney ad that talks about jeans/genes

On Friday, we wrote about how talk about genetic determinism is becoming more and more common — and mirrors a rise in eugenic ideas in the scientific literature as well as Trump's own rhetoric
screenshot of STAT's newsletter, Morning rounds, reading: Good genes, bad jeans? This week, the internet was sent into a tizzy over an American Eagle ad campaign, in which actress Sydney Sweeney explains, “genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.” A narrator then says “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” as the American Eagle logo flashes, riffing on the homophones “genes” and “jeans.” Many online commentators picked up on the eerie similarities between the language in the advertisement, and the rhetoric of the eugenics movement — which believed you could solve social problems by making it more difficult for those with “less desirable traits” to reproduce. Whatever your feelings about the Sweeney ad, the idea that genetics are central to who we are is increasingly becoming part of our culture again. It’s ad campaigns, popular song lyrics and new genetic testing services. There’s also a resurgence of eugenic ideas in the scientific literature and in President Donald Trump’s rhetoric. His communications director has even come out to defend the Sweeney ad from backlash. Click here if you’d like to read a story about Trump’s talk about “bad genes,” and if you want a backstory on the origins of the eugenics movement, listen to this podcast episode. — Anil Oza
August 4, 2025 at 3:52 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
In some cases, even work Bhattacharya has lauded as important has been cut — when asked about this, an HHS spokesperson told us these studies had value but were funded through DEI programs
August 1, 2025 at 12:18 PM