Hundreds rallied to defend the work of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda and to protest job cuts made by the federal administration.
“Cutting cancer research is not a good idea,” said NIH cancer researcher Dr. Shahriar Zamani. “Tripping up the researchers is not a good idea, and NIH needs funding and no more freezes.”
Leaders who attended included U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman, County Executive Marc Elrich, multiple county councilmembers, and delegates.
“What’s happening at the National Institutes of Health is really horrific,” County Council President Kate Stewart said. “The actions out of The White House to stop research, to lay off people, is really going to damage our scientific and medical research.”
“These are things that are advancing cancer cures, Alzheimer’s cures, all these things, and it’s going to be devastating to members of our community,” Stewart said.
“I went to the NOAA thing — same thing — this is going to have a terrible effect on everyone,” said Dan, a county resident attending the rally. He said, “It has a long-term ill effect on everyone — including Trump supporters.”
“Research is like a relay race,” Zamani said, “where we are running as hard as we can to pass the baton to the next group of researchers.”
“The researchers in this relay race have been tripped with confusing directives that limit our ability to communicate our research,” he said. “We’ve been stopped from finding the next researchers to give our baton to, and even the research baton was taken out of our hands by arbitrary terminations of our colleagues.”
Featured photo by Ian Dalrymple
Rally to defend NIH at Medical Center Metro Station in Bethesda @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/Bw0t3yydgz
— Maryam Shahzad (@maryam_mcm) March 8, 2025
