Update, 25 April, 12:15 p.m.: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is quickly backing off the controversial cancellation of contracts to NIH's Women's Health Initiative (WHI) after criticism from scientists, senators, and even celebrities. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today claimed on social media that a New York Times story on the matter was “fake news,” but an HHS spokesperson acknowledged there had been a reversal of cuts to WHI. “These studies represent critical contributions to our better understanding of women’s health,” HHS Spokesperson Emily G. Hilliard told Science, adding that NIH “exceeded its internal targets for contract reductions [and] we are now working to fully restore funding to these essential research efforts, … and we are taking immediate steps to ensure the continuity of these studies.”
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President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be killing much, if not all, of a historic initiative that was the first, and is still the largest, National Institutes of Health (NIH) effort centered on the health needs of women. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has enrolled tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials of hormones and other medications and tracked the health of many thousands more over more than 3 decades. Its findings have had a major influence on health care. WHI leaders announced yesterday that contracts supporting its regional centers are being terminated in September and that the study’s clinical coordinating center, based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, “will continue operations until January 2026, after which time its funding remains uncertain.” They added that the contract terminations for its four main sites “will significantly impact ongoing research and data collection … severely limit[ing] WHI’s ability to generate new insights into the health of older women, one of the fastest-growing segments of our population.” (There are about 55 million postmenopausal women in the United States.)...

https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-cancels-its-first-and-largest-study-centered-women?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=1531fdc8b7-nature-briefing-daily-20250423&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b27a691814-1531fdc8b7-49942924