Despite federal judges' orders to halt the Trump administration's federal funding freeze,
🆘the NIH has awarded few grants,
💥disregarding the advice of its own lawyers
-- and apparently prompting departures, according to The Atlantic

HHS officials have pressed the NIH to continue the pause on grants,
and NIH acting director #Matthew #Memoli, MD, has towed the party line,
according to the article, which was based on interviews with nearly a dozen current and former NIH officials.
❌The grant management officers who usually sign off on awards are afraid to do so, lest they lose their jobs.

The fight over funding has led to the departures of top NIH officials. On Feb. 10, after the urging of top HHS lawyers to resume payments, #Michael #Lauer, MD, the chief of NIH's extramural research division, issued a memo to resume funding grants -- only to subsequently resign.
That same week, former NIH deputy director #Lawrence #Tabak, DDS, PhD, announced he was retiring, instead of being forced into a demotion.
The departures "left many at the agency shocked and unmoored," the article stated, citing employees' concerns that if two high-ranking officials were forced out, no positions were safe.
"We're all still terrified for our jobs," one current official told The Atlantic. "No one knows who they can trust."
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/114502

Rodrigo de Jerez war Teil der Mannschaft, die #Columbus nach #Amerika begleitete. Er brachte #Tabak von seiner Reise nach Hause zurück und gilt als der 1. europ. Raucher. Die Inquisition sperrte ihn dafür wg. Gotteslästerung 7 Jahre ins Gefängnis.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigo_de_Jerez

#Tabak und #Alkohol sind so ein großes Minusgeschäft... geringe Einnahmen durch die Steuer, aber sehr hohe Kosten für die Krankenkassen und weniger Einnahmen für den Staat, weil mehrere 10 Tausend an Menschen pro Jahr sterben.

Alles, damit wenige Arbeitsplätze erhalten bleiben, obwohl die mehr Schaden anrichten...

Im Jahr 2024 wurden in Deutschland 66,2 Milliarden #Zigaretten versteuert, das waren 3,5 % oder 2,2 Milliarden mehr als im Jahr 2023. Der Absatz von #Tabak für Wasserpfeifen hat sich im 2. Halbjahr 2024 gegenüber dem 1. Halbjahr 2024 nahezu vervierfacht. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2025/01/PD25_035_73.html