Written by: E.H., 15

As a young mind in a complex, developing world, I find it imperative to learn how our government spends our money. Recently, President Donald J. Trump announced that there will be a $1.8 billion cut from the National Institutes of Health, which is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. This money also includes the existing amount from the beginning of this year, which now totals to $544 million, that will not be used on studies or trials for advancements in healthcare for the United States. President Trump proposed that all funding from the NIH would be cut for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which publishes many studies and scientific journal articles annually. When thinking about cutting this amount of money from any institute, the effects are unknown. For such an important group like the NIH to have the majority of its funding taken away from it demonstrates how our country wants to be spending our money. As someone with many health conditions, including one that is not curable, resources like the NIH help me to study new medications and treatments that could change my quality of life. For people who have even serious health conditions, their chances of having their life saved as soon as possible go down significantly when there is no funding for the research that is needed to treat them. Losing 1.8 billion in funding takes away Americans’ potential as a first-world country developing the future, especially because we have pulled out of the World Health Organization. I find that these cuts in spending are beneficial when it comes to our tax dollars, but if we look at the effects, lives could be saved with that 1.8 billion. I am going to be extremely interested in where that money goes and how the NIH decides to pursue its research for the remainder of 2025.

This post was written by a TYP fellow in response to the following prompt: what’s your reaction to a recent news event, and what do you make of the implications it has on society?

Posts do not contain the TYP fellow’s name in order to prevent bullying, harassment, or online identification of the Youth Fellow.