Angie Rasmussen
@angierasmussen.bsky.socialI’m not going to be able to tell you about the consequences of EVERY lost grant, but I’m going to try. Let’s start with the Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) program for pathogens of pandemic concern! It just got unceremoniously shitcanned.
Here’s a list of all the funded research with links to NIH Reporter so you can dig through all the info about what your tax dollars have funded. Do you think we need more antiviral medication? I do! AViDD research was developing new antivirals. www.niaid.nih.gov
We don’t have many of these, because viruses evolve too fast, infections are diagnosed too slow, & unlike bacteria, viruses can be so different that there aren’t many broad spectrum antibiotics. The AViDD centers were funded to develop antivirals for potential pandemic viruses.
Like the ASAP center based at Sloan Kettering, which was using AI structural analysis to predict & test molecules targeting 3 virus families: coronaviruses, flaviviruses (dengue, yellow fever, Zika, West Nile, HCV), & picornaviruses (polio, EV-D68, FMDV). reporter.nih.gov
Or the AC/DC center at Emory, developing nucleoside analogs & polymerase inhibitors against CoVs, flavis, picornas, paramyxoviruses (Nipah, Hendra, measles, RSV), & togaviruses (Chikungunya, VEEV/WEEV/EEEV). They had 4 drugs to test & were screening more. reporter.nih.gov
At Scripps there was CAMPP, focused on CoVs, flavis, & hemorrhagic fever viruses (filoviruses: Ebola, Marburg; bunyaviruses: SFTSV; arenaviruses: Lassa). They were advancing promising oral candidates as well as finding drugs with new mechanisms of action. reporter.nih.gov
I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at a pandemic preparedness seminar hosted by CAMPP last month, where I got to hear from a number of colleagues doing amazing antiviral discovery work in CAMPP & other AViDD centers. And all anyone could talk about was H5N1. bsky.app
Grateful to Sumit Chanda at Scripps research for inviting me to present my lab’s work on pandemic origins & H5N1 at this wonderful symposium today. Link to attend virtually: scrippsresearch.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
In fact, I was on my way to the symposium getting calls from reporters about another hospitalized H5N1 patient as well as new pre immune studies just out. Flu antivirals don’t work very well & can develop resistance quickly, so new antivirals are crucial for flu pandemics. bsky.app
So yesterday I was on my way to give a talk on pandemic preparedness & @melodyschreiber.com asked me to comment on hospitalized H5N1 patients as well as the prospect of cross-protection. It could not be more relevant to pandemic preparedness and here is why. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
In my talk, I went over how slashing & burning government personnel, data, & funding will devastate our ability to prevent & respond to an H5N1 pandemic. Now CAMPP & the AViDD program can be added to my slide on the destruction of American readiness. bsky.app
Scripps Research was featured in the @sandiegouniontribune.com as scientists at the institute’s Pandemic Preparedness Symposium examined the evolving threat of H5N1 bird flu and the urgency of scientific readiness. More:
Also lost is this AViDD center at Stanford focused on multiple drugs targeting all RNA viruses via a combo of mechanisms: small molecule inhibitors, antisense, & protein drugs. Combination therapies are much less likely to select for resistance mutations. reporter.nih.gov
The MAVDA center sought novel drug targets in CoVs, flaviviruses, & alphaviruses like CHIKV. Charlie Rice won the Nobel prize in 2021 for work that led to drugs that cured HCV. I’ve known him since I was a postdoc. He’s brilliant & also a very kind person reporter.nih.gov
The Midwest AViDD Center at U of Minnesota was doing a lot of sophisticated high throughput screening to find novel antivirals for SARS2 and also hemorrhagic arenaviruses, filoviruses, & flaviviruses. Also a training/outreach component for effective use. reporter.nih.gov
This center at UCSF is led by world class viral proteomics experts (also shout to Regina, SK, where Nevan is from, so I’ll forgive him for being a Niners fan). They were developing novel targeted drugs for 8 viral families! All gone now. reporter.nih.gov
This goes out to all the lab leakers who have baselessly accused Ralph Baric of making SARS-CoV-2. No. His READDI AViDD Center was making new drugs to treat emerging CoVs & other viruses. He was trying to prevent or end pandemics, not start them. reporter.nih.gov
Finally this AViDD center at UTMB was targeting proteases and polymerases to develop new drugs against coronaviruses, flaviviruses, & henipaviruses (Hendra & Nipah). All emerging viruses we need better drugs for. reporter.nih.gov
These AViDD centers were an investment in our future, developing medicines that we could use to prevent or respond to viral pandemic threats. They employed hundreds of people & contributed to the economy as well as our toolbox of countermeasures. And that’s no longer a priority.
How can the government claim it is making America healthy again when it’s literally shutting down research that would keep Americans healthy from pandemic viral pathogens? We need more ways to treat viral diseases, not less. We need more antiviral drugs.
And how does it benefit the American taxpayer to put hundreds of Americans out of work? I’m not an economist but I’m pretty sure that swelling the ranks of the unemployed is not a good way to boost the economy.
Cutting programs like AViDD makes us less prosperous, less innovative, less competent, less prepared, and less safe. We will have fewer countermeasures to fight emerging viruses. We are falling behind. This is not just a funding cut. It’s an attack on our well-being.
We aren’t helpless here. Congress must step in and insist that appropriations are applied as they have decided. DOGE & Trump do not legally have the right to can programs that Congress paid for. So call your representatives & demand they step up.
AViDD invested our tax dollars in the future health of the American people. I reject a regime that attacks science, puts Americans out of work, & endangers us all on the whims of idiot billionaires with authoritarian ambitions. We should demand the return on our investment.