Growing number of federal health agencies are combing grants for taboo words, unnerving researchers Trump administration flagging ‘trans’ and ‘diversity,’ but also ‘women’ and ‘Covid’ Manage alerts for this article Email this article

https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/13/trump-dei-ban-banned-words-list-scrambles-research-nih-veterans-affairs/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9fCmEGbZbbMBL1jpW-Pv_-8rRHk0sPm9nuThiftHTc91l5FaPMfNKReYuZjfEnEkofCOxl1KeUG_wV41gVTLBVrZVa9A&_hsmi=347310294&utm_content=347310294&utm_source=hs_email A grant that uses words like “diversity,” “trans,” “women,” and “Covid” is at risk of getting flagged by reviews underway at the National Institutes of Health and some Veteran Affairs sites at the behest of the Trump administration — and that means some scientists are trying to find ways to work around those keywords when possible, or considering leaving academia altogether. The reviews seem to be the result of Trump’s executive order that federal agencies stop funding grants related to DEI and gender, my colleagues at STAT report. They’re bad news for long-neglected research on topics like maternal health and the impacts of structural racism, and the breadth of possible trigger words means that even unrelated research may get targeted. “Bias is a word commonly used in statistics. Diversity could refer to bees or the microbiome, or galaxies … The way they are doing it is banning all science. The tools are so blunt,” psychology professor Darby Saxbe told STAT. Read more from my colleagues Usha Lee McFarling, Angus Chen, Sarah Owermohle, Jonathan Wosen, and Anil Oza.