Letter: NIH employee

Abstract:

Probationary NIH employee with 30 years of industry experience:

March 15

Two days before my termination from the NIH was official, thanks to the efforts of NINDS leadership,  I was reinstated in my position as Director of Biologics for Neurotherapeutic Discovery and Development. Thursday night, Judge Bredar ordered the mass reinstatement of probationary employees at 18 federal agencies, including the NIH. It is refreshing to see our self-correcting mechanisms of Democracy working to save our country from authoritarian rule.

It is a good news, bad news story, because I will be walking into an institute that has been bullied/ransacked in an attempt to destroy the morale of the people and the ability of the government to function. My job is going to be very different now, with a lot more effort being paid to cleaning up the Trump/Musk mess. That leaves less time to drive the scientific, and therapeutic mission of NINDS. I accept this challenge as an opportunity to fight, on the front line, for science and patients.

March 7th

I was recently fired from my job at the NIH, together with more than 1000 other relatively new civil servants. My job at the NIH was to bring new medicines to patients suffering from devastating neurological diseases, like ALS, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. I have a career (30+) years experience developing these types of gene-based medicines in industry. The basis of my termination was a lie, firing me for performance issues while my only performance review was stellar. 

I was fired as part of the Trump/Musk DOGE effort to destroy our government and inflict pain on our civil servants. This blatant disregard for the working people, the rule of law, and common decency is a threat to our country and to the role of the US as a force for good in the world. 

It makes me sick to see the Republican Congress relinquish their authority and go along with this attack on our democracy. What is it going to take for the Trump supporters among us to change course, recognize that he is not acting in the American People’s interests, and stand up for our country? The writing is on the wall.