Updated June 9, 2025 at 3:12 PM PDT

Hundreds of scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a call for action they dubbed the Bethesda Declaration on Monday to push back against cutbacks and changes at the biomedical research agency.

Organizers say more than 340 staffers on the NIH's sprawling campus in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington, D.C., sent the document to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya appealing to him to protect the agency. They say the Trump administration is putting politics ahead of academic freedom.

Before taking over at the NIH, Bhattacharya was known for helping write the controversial Great Barrington Declaration , which questioned lockdowns and other public health measures early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Bethesda Declaration, th

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