Henrietta Lacks’s Family Settles Suit With Novartis Over Use of Her Cells; The New York Times, February 27, 2026

 Michael Levenson , The New York Times; Henrietta Lacks’s Family Settles Suit With Novartis Over Use of Her Cells

"The pharmaceutical giant Novartis has reached a settlement with the family of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells were taken from her without her consent in 1951, when she was dying of cervical cancer in a segregated ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Ms. Lacks’s cells were the first to reproduce in a laboratory, outside the human body, and have been used in groundbreaking research, including to develop vaccines for polio and Covid-19 and treatments for cancer, Parkinson’s and the flu. The National Institutes of Health found the use of her cells, which were known as HeLa cells, was cited more than 110,000 times in scientific publications between 1953 and 2018.

In August 2024, more than 70 years after Ms. Lacks died at age 31 and was buried in an unmarked grave, her family filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland that accused Novartis, which is based in Switzerland, of amassing substantial profits through the use of the HeLa cell line."

His custom cancer therapy is in an NIH freezer. He may not get it in time.; The Washington Post, June 18, 2025

  Carolyn Y. Johnson, The Washington Post; His custom cancer therapy is in an NIH freezer. He may not get it in time.

[Kip Currier: Yet another compelling example why effective, well-staffed, responsive government agencies are vital. And another example of how destructive the Trump 2.0 DOGE-facilitated cuts have been and are to the lives of many Americans.

When reading this article, imagine you are the person waiting for the experimental cancer treatment that may save your life. Tragically, you may not get that treatment in time, however, simply because Trump fired the workers who might have been able to deliver it to you.

Fortunately, this Washington Post article is educating us about Richard Schlueter's "time is of the essence" need for his tailored treatment. What about all the other people in similar situations as Schlueter, though, whose stories and urgent needs we don't know?

Our elected officials must do better jobs advocating for the needs of the American people and getting results.

And we the people must do better jobs at being informed citizens ourselves, supporting programs that work for the common good, and voting for candidates committed to the public interest and person-centered, well-functioning democracies that are empathetic and responsive to the practical and aspirational needs of individuals and communities.

Remember these Trump 2.0 DOGE cuts when it comes time to vote for your state and federal representatives.]

[Excerpt]

"In early June, a scan revealed that the cancer that started in his tonsils was racing through his bones. That day, he called a medical team at the National Institutes of Health that had created an experimental cell therapy, custom-made to attack his cancer as part of a clinical trial. He needed it. Now.

Instead, he received more bad news: His therapy would be delayed at least a month because of staff cuts at NIH.

A week later, Schlueter and his wife, Michelle, saw NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya push back on concerns raised by his own staff that the ouster of essential employees and other disruptions to the biomedical research agency were harming science and patients. Bhattacharya said on X that objections raised in a document called the Bethesda Declaration contained “fundamental misconceptions” about NIH’s new direction. Each termination was being reviewed, and some workers were reinstated, he added.

But the Schlueters had a front-row seat to the effects of the job losses. Richard’s therapy was in a freezer, nearly ready to go. All along, they had been told the final step of preparation takes three to four weeks. But on June 3, his NIH doctor informed him that it would now take eight to 10 weeks because of cuts to essential lab personnel — a painful illustration of the life-and-death stakes of the administration’s approach to shrinking the government workforce.

“I’m petrified. I have to do something,” Richard said. “My cancer is on the move.”

The Washington Post first reported in early April that the production of specialized immune-cell therapies for metastatic cancer patients was delayed. Two highly skilled technicians who prepared cells for treatments were fired in the probationary purge in February, according to Steven Rosenberg, an NIH immunotherapy pioneer who leads multiple trials. He declined to say how many patients were affected, but his team now treats one patient per week, down from two or three before the cuts."

Move Fast and Break the Government; The Bulwark, January 28, 2025

 SAM STEIN AND 

BENJAMIN PARKER

, The Bulwark; 

Move Fast and Break the Government

"A letter from the Office of Management and Budget, obtained last night by The Bulwark, instructed federal agencies that they were to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” effective “on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM.”

What, exactly, does this mean? The note was vague, stating that the pause was for activities that “may be implicated by [Trump’s] executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” But immediate speculation among those scrutinizing the letter was that things like food assistance, financial aid to students, grants for university-based research, and many other government functions could come to a stop. The scope of what could be impacted was honestly hard for them to comprehend.

“Nobody knows,” said one person on the receiving end of the memo, when asked the extent of the federal aid that would stop.

Perhaps that’s the point.

In recent days, agency officials and those dependent on government contracts have described being left in a state of darkness by the administration they now serve; like families cowering in their basement shelters waiting to go out to see the damage the tornado has caused. Getting guidance on what was now allowed and what was prohibited was hard to do, in part lobbyists and even Congress were no better informed.

Federal health and research agencies appear to be particularly confused. Over the weekend, several people posted online about their clinical cancer trials having come to an abrupt halt as the National Institutes of Health imposed restrictions on hiring, travel, communication, and other functions. The scientific and medical community was, rightfully, alarmed at the possibility that people suffering from deadly diseases would be denied treatment by their own government.

By Monday, the NIH finally issued some guidance. In another letter obtained by The Bulwark, acting NIH Director Matthew Memoli assured colleagues that, “Clinical trials at NIH or NIH-funded institutions are ongoing,” and that “travel restrictions do not apply to research participants traveling to NIH to participate in a clinical trial or protocol.”

A victory? Yes. But a limited one. In that same letter, Memoli said that no money would be available for “new studies, new equipment, or research services unrelated to the studies that were started prior to Jan. 20, 2025.” In other words, don’t make future plans.

And it’s not just at the NIH, either. Two people directly familiar with the matter told The Bulwark on Monday that the National Science Foundation abruptly canceled peer review panels. “All review panels scheduled for the remainder of this week, 1/28-1/31 will be rescheduled to a future date as appropriate,” read the guidance given. The NSF did not return repeated requests for comment. Nor has the White House over the past few days.

The breakneck speed of Trump’s orders could quickly turn into an acute constitutional crisis, with the executive branch essentially usurping the power of the purse from the legislative body. Certainly, it has already had profound political and psychological effects. Federal employees described utterly dispirited workplaces, where paranoia is creeping in. There is a belief that the new administration is set on turning the government into a tool for Trump and searching for the pretext to fire anyone unwilling to go along. It did not go unnoticed that the statement from the DOJ official announcing the firings on Monday noted that “Acting Attorney General James McHenry made this decision because he did not believe these officials could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda” (emphasis ours).

But it’s also not hard to see how the tremors being sent throughout the government could hurt Trump in the long run. It starts with small examples of over-compliance with the vague orders that the administration has to walk back, like the Air Force removing videos honoring the Tuskegee Airmen from training materials because they believe those videos violated the administration’s anti-DEI push. They move to larger problems, like prison guards who are responsible for securing ISIS militants no longer turning up for work because their salaries have been cut. And then they become disasters on your watch, like infants dying because water was cut off in the foreign aid freeze.

That’s the thing about moving fast and breaking things. Sometimes you end up breaking things you wish you hadn’t and can’t repair."