After disruption due to Trump administration communication pause, NIH told it can continue some purchasing for research
CNN
After purchasing for research at the National Institutes of Health was put on hold last week, employees have now been told they can continue working with some current vendors, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
After purchasing for research at the National Institutes of Health was put on hold last week, employees have now been told they can continue working with some current vendors, according to a memo obtained by CNN. Scientists at the NIH had been told the communications pause put in place by the Trump administration last week covered all purchasing, including supplies for their ongoing studies such as test tubes and feed for lab animals, according to four sources inside the agency. According to the memo obtained by CNN on Monday, there are still exceptions on purchasing when vendors issue public documents on behalf of the agency. The supply crunch followed a directive first issued last week by the acting director of the US Department of Health and Human Services that placed a moratorium until February 1 on the release of any public communication until it had been reviewed by officials appointed or designated by the Trump administration, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN. Part of this pause on public communication was widely interpreted to include purchasing orders to outside suppliers. One source noted they had been told that essential requests could proceed and would be reviewed daily. Researchers who have clinical trial participants staying at the NIH’s on-campus hospital, the Clinical Trial Center, said last week they weren’t able to order test tubes to draw blood as well as other key study components. One researcher who was affected said his study would run out of key supplies by this week. If that happened, the research results would be compromised, and he would have to recruit new patients, he said. “This will make things a little more sane,” one NIH employee told CNN Monday after news of the clarifying memo.