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fitzsimmonscraft.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Psych & Brain Sciences and Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis | Director of the mHealth Research Core at WashU | licensed psychologist & researcher | Notre Dame & UNC alum | #eatingdisorders #digitalmentalhealth
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Just a reminder that we have Medicaid coverage of prenatal care and childbirth because IT SAVES MONEY IN THE LONG RUN. Ditto for SNAP, Head Start, free public K-12 education, and all the other things we do for kids. We do this stuff because we learned that it’s less expensive than the alternative.

I wouldn’t be a scientist without the NIH SIP. I was a pre-med going through the motions but my summer at the NIH captivated me & showed me a different path. I was overjoyed when the first trainee from my own lab went last summer & also had a magical experience. This is a devastating loss

This is horrible for the future of American science and innovation and economic wellbeing and all the things Pitt is not a small institution It has nearly 10K grad students It is where Salk discovered the polio vaccine

Thank you @mayorwu.boston.gov for leading this and thank you @tishaura.bsky.social for joining and advocating for STL! Trump's drastic cuts to federal research funding would not only cost human lives but also completely devastate our city economically; the damage cannot be overstated. Thank you.

Troubling: Congresspeople say they are NOT hearing from academics, or university administrators. PLEASE SPEAK UP! Oppose these budget cuts to research, health, student loans! www.votervoice.net/APAAdvocacy/... Tell others to do the same!

Scientists, I love you. I love your passion. I am one of you. But we have to talk about *how* we communicate what’s happening. People won’t fight for “science” in the abstract. They’ll fight when they understand what they are losing. A quick guide: Not this, but this. 🧵

📣🤩🎉 Some good news: I'm hiring a Clinical Research Coordinator to begin in my lab (the TREAT Lab) this summer (ideally in June 2025) to work on projects investigating the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms of eating pathology in young people! vcu.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Regarding CSR Study Sections: SROs are apparently being told that their communication to their valued reviewer colleagues must be: "The xxxx meeting will be rescheduled for a later date, yet to be determined. Thank you for the time you've invested in the reviews. Signed by CSR SRO" Please be kind

The thing about destroying NIH is NIH’s scale in medical research just dwarfs everyone else. For ex, in 2023 the American Cancer Society gave out $64.5 million worth of grants. Sounds big, right? But NIH’s budget was $49 billion. With a B. Kill NIH and the floor drops out of US science.

In 3 days, the number of measles cases in a highly unvaccinated area of Texas has doubled. There are now 48 cases, all of whom are unvaccinated, and 13 of whom have been hospitalized so far, for a hospitalization rate of 27%. This is huge figure in epidemiology. This outbreak will keep spreading.

It’s been buried in all the news today, but every scientist in the US should pay attention to this: Mike Lauer went out on a limb for us all, sending out a memo saying institutes should start awarding grants. And it looks like Trump/Musk fired him for that. 🧪

unless I’m mistaken, no notices of further funding meetings have been posted to the Federal Register, a legal requirement so this is still a rolling and near-complete block to Federal funding of biomedical research in America

Diversity supplements have been reopened! New expiration date May 8 2026

Happy to report that APA wrote this letter, gathered a coalition across science, and will now pay for ads for it to be disseminated in Science and Chronicle of Higher Ed to spread the word!! unitedsciencealliance.org

There are enough GOP senators opposed to the cuts to NIH indirects to stop them, but they need to act. Keep writing and calling your representatives 🧪⚕️

BREAKING: Federal judge in Boston broadens block on Trump's NIH grant 15% overhead limit (indirect cost rates) to all recipients nationwide. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25... #TROpalooza ain't done

Glad to see judge temporarily blocking indirect cuts, but only in the 22 states that participated in suit www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/u... ...of course our lovely red MO didn't participate, so... we'll see what happens next. This is so fun and not at all completely distracting and infuriating :/

Keep calling and emailing, even in red states--even if they don't care about science, they will care about the economic devastation if these NIH cuts hold

Let's be very clear: Gutting science/education sectors and calling it 'cost-savings' is manipulative and false. The truth: People in ALL states will lose jobs, cures for your diagnoses will be delayed, tuition costs will spike. The world depends on US Science and Ed and both will suffer severely.

Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania has indirect rate of 70%, but they probably didn’t want to list that atop Harvard because defunding a children’s hospital might be perceived as problematic. This is devastating

I noticed yesterday that many of the NIH FOA related to diversity that had been taken off-line are now viewable again. Someone must have reconsidered the whole rewriting of history thing.

The Senate HELP Committee has jurisdiction over NIH. GOP members of the committee represent AK, AL, IN, FL, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, OH, and SC. Research universities and hospitals in those states need to be extra loud.

Executive wants to frame the NIH indirects cut as $4B in savings. But given that NIH returns $2.5 on every $1 investment, this would actually cost US economy a net $6 BILLION (per year!). Not to mention the human costs of wrecking education and research sectors and the communities they serve.

The NIH announced it will slash billions of dollars of support to universities and research centers. This is one of the biggest attacks on science we have ever seen. It could dismantle the biomedical research system, shut down clinical trials, and halt development of treatments.

Great explainer on what indirects are and are not. I cannot emphasize enough how detrimental this policy will be to biomedical research if it is allowed to come into effect.

I wish we could reach the average American and let them know that with Trump’s cuts to the NSF, NIH, and CDC, they will no longer have access to cutting-edge medicine. U.S. physicians won’t have access to new technology. New cancer treatments will be available in other countries but not to them.

As the executive branch initiates rapid orders/changes, and agencies scramble to keep up, implement, or pause implementation of each order, clear, fast communication is needed within the psychological community. This new site will have all of the latest updates you need: updates.apaservices.org

Most of these F31 applicants who had their apps pulled from review will be first time newbies to the NIH system. They are not hardened to the brutality like most of us. So heartbreaking to contemplate their disappointment and confusion and pain over the lost opportunity.

Incredibly important read (or listen--recent Ezra Klein Show podcast episode)

I have learned from several sources that NIH staff tried to find out how to transfer F31-diversity applications to other program announcements for funding but were not able to do this. I don't know whether this was technical (regulations) or ideological. 1/n

Study finds a reduction in healthcare spending of $1000 per patient among users of an employer-sponsored digital mental health platform. Favorite line: "Mental health care is not a sunk cost." 👏 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

📣I am hiring! Looking to hire a research coordinator to start in my lab later this spring/early summer to coordinate a new R01 in which we are aiming to optimize a CBT-based self-guided digital intervention for eating disorders! Apply here: wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern... 1/n

I'm told that President Trump's attempted funding freeze caused SAMHSA officials in charge of the 988 National Suicide Hotline to study whether they have to shut it down -- even as it takes 20,000 calls a day from people in crisis. Does Trump really think that preventing suicide is woke?

These are the people who like to say they run government like a business. This is how to run a business?

NEW: My staff has confirmed reports that Medicaid portals are down in all 50 states following last night's federal funding freeze. This is a blatant attempt to rip away health care from millions of Americans overnight and will get people killed.

Wow.. U of C asking researchers to halt purchases on federal grants.

Some thoughts on the confusion and anxiety created by the current freeze on communications, hiring, grant reviews, travel, etc at NIH (gift link):