Science News & Analysis

NIH and CDC cancel grants by topic: COVID research, vaccine hesitancy, DEI, and climate targeted (March 26, 2025)

March 26, 2025 — The NIH and CDC began systematically cancelling research grants not based on scientific merit review but on subject matter, after NIH grant management specialists received a list of topics the administration considered incompatible with its priorities — including COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy, climate change, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in research. The NIH had awarded nearly $850 million in grants to approximately 600 ongoing COVID-related projects; it was unclear initially which would survive. The CDC simultaneously moved to cancel $11.4 billion in pandemic-response funds, including money for COVID testing, vaccination infrastructure, and community health workers.

The topic-based terminations directly threatened what scientists call the "efficacy-effectiveness gap" — the difference between how a drug or treatment performs in a narrow clinical trial and how it performs in the real world among patients with diverse backgrounds, co-existing conditions, and social contexts. Research into underrepresented populations specifically addresses this gap; eliminating it means that future treatments may work well for some patients but fail others — a silent tax on medical progress paid by patients who don't match the demographic profile of most clinical trials.

A PNAS study published in March 2026 found that between February and August 2025, the NIH had terminated 2,291 active grants rescinding $2.45 billion in funding — and that at the point of cancellation, nearly 52 percent of allocated dollars had already been spent on personnel, laboratory consumables, and equipment, meaning the investment was simply destroyed rather than redirected. Early-career investigators — assistant professors, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students — were disproportionately affected, as were women researchers, who were more heavily concentrated in training and transition awards that were specifically targeted.