Following the administration’s attacks on Harvard University, researchers are starting to face some difficult choices in the midst of President Donald Trump’s ongoing conflict with the university and his decision to freeze over $2.2 billion in government grants to the university.
Sarah Fortune, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, has spent over a decade researching tuberculosis. According to CNN, she was given a stop-work order this week for a $60 million contract that involved over a dozen labs at colleges all around the nation.
Harvard willingly wastes hundreds of millions of tax $ every year to infect, poison, cripple, mutilate, burn & kill millions of animals in experiments—and lobbies for more $—but somehow it’s now Trump’s fault they’re killing lab animals 🙄
And CNN, WaPo, NYT are eating it up pic.twitter.com/nbTZcIORk3
— Justin Goodman (@JustinRGoodman) April 17, 2025
A vaccine trial involving a group of monkeys whose lives are in jeopardy due to this funding decrease is one aspect of that research. “The question is, could we find resources to support them, such that we don’t have to euthanize them?” Fortune told CNN.
Although funding is limited, she believes it’s still possible to gather enough support to keep these animals alive.
Fortune and her colleagues are still working to repair the damage, but these budget cuts are affecting more than just jobs. According to Fortune, other labs and universities, such as the University of Pittsburgh, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Washington, UMass, and MIT, receive more than 80% of the money for her tuberculosis contract.
“The individual institutions that are affected – some of them are moving forward more quickly than others to lay people off,” Fortune told CNN.
On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the cancellation of two grants totaling around $2.7 million from Harvard University, in addition to the billions in government funds that the Trump administration has suspended. According to an official release, Noem declared that the university is “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
Although it’s unclear if the awards are included in the previously announced funding cuts, Noem required comprehensive documentation by April 30 on any “illegal and violent activities” by international student visa holders.
Harvard would rather euthanize innocent animals than comply with the Civil Rights Act. These people are demented. pic.twitter.com/QSDEZfM3bg
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 17, 2025
According to The Harvard Crimson, which cited a recording that the student newspaper was able to obtain, the Harvard Medical School informed staff members during a town hall meeting on Wednesday that they should expect staffing and program cuts because roughly 75% of their research is federally funded. This indicates that the university is already feeling the effects of the funding cuts.
“I know this news is sobering. I know that many of you have been expecting this news, and so to actually be clear and transparent about it, it’s difficult for all of us,” Lisa M. Muto, executive dean for administration for the Harvard Medical School, said as reported by The Crimson.
