NIH

In early May 2025, claims (archived) circulated that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration shut down a National Institutes of Health laboratory accused of killing beagles in the name of medical research.

One popular X post, viewed more than 76,000 times at the time of this writing, read: "NEW: The Trump administration's NIH under Jay Bhattacharya has just closed its "brutal" beagle experimentation laboratory - Fox It was accused of 'brutally k*lling thousands of beagles for 40+ years.'"

National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jay Bhattacharya recently announced on Fox News the agency closed its last in-house beagle laboratory on the NIH campus.

The announcement comes just days after Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk posted on X that he would investigate funding beagle experiments.

A group of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday to challenge the Trump administration's decision to gut the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by firing 10,000 of its employees and shuttering entire agencies within the department.

I still remember how, as a new parent, I would often tiptoe into my sleeping son's room multiple times a day — and night — to make sure he was still breathing.

Thanks to Safe to Sleep, a public awareness campaign launched three decades ago, I knew that sleep-related infant deaths were a leading cause of deaths for babies in the U.S.

The Trump administration has ordered the National Institutes of Health to study the physical and mental health effects of undergoing gender transition, according to an internal NIH memo obtained by NPR.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will lay off about 10,000 full-time employees. 

The move is projected to save taxpayers $1.8 billion annually.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will cut about 10,000 full-time jobs and close half of its regional offices, it said on Thursday, a major overhaul of the department under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to slash 10,000 full-time employees across different departments, as he works to reshape the nation’s federal health agencies, the department said Thursday.

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed health researcher Jay Bhattacharya as the next leader of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Bhattacharya was confirmed on a party- line vote, 53 to 47. 

Bhattacharya became a celebrity among many Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic for criticizing masking orders, school closures and other measures meant to mitigate the spread of the virus.