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Comment by crooked-v | Hacker News Reader

Or to put it another way, "The cruelty is the point."

People love that line, but is it true? The premise of this freeze --agree or not-- is that the U.S. Government spends too much.

Or are you suggesting that this is to get back at NIH because of Fauci?

Or, are you saying that Republicans hate cancer research, or...?

If you still believe the republican have principles that they actually believe in, I have a bridge to sell you

> Or are you suggesting that this is to get back at NIH because of Fauci?

Yes, I believe thats a main driver for why this administration does not like the NIH

Considering we had over a hundred million Americans fall ill to a global pandemic that ended barely two years ago, one might conclude that the only reason to hobble the groups that are intended to fight such outbreaks (among many other tasks) would be a poor decision. In fact, one could conclude based on the literal rhetoric from the President and members of his staff, that it’s out of sheer spite.

Which itself is amazing, considering that he was in charge while it happened.

I think arcticbull is saying NIH is not necessary, essentially in favor of the freezes.

I am not in favor of shuttering one of the agencies responsible for public health, although I can see why my comment could be read either way. If you believe in reform there are compassionate ways to do it.

CDC probably does more public health? The work NIH funds through its grant process is not broadly "public health"; it's virtually all American biotechnology research and bio/biochem basic research. Public health deals with the interface of health knowledge and public policy and communication; people credentialed in public health are not, generally, practicing scientists as we'd think about them. NIH grant researchers, on the other hand, are wearing white lab coats and working with fume hoods.

No, HHS does the vast majority of public health research in the US, which includes both CDC and NIH. The CDC budget is roughly a quarter of the NIH budget; most public health research is NIH-funded. The CDC is more operational- they take what is learned and apply it to prevention and treatment.

It may in fact be the case that more HHS-funded public health work is downstream of NIH than of CDC, but NIH is obviously not primarily a public health organization; here's the most recent RePORT data:

https://tinyurl.com/nih-grant-report

> NIH is obviously not primarily a public health organization

They didn't say it was. Or did they edit?

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