David Walt, a Harvard University medial professor, argued the Trump administration’s cut to the university’s funding is going to “cost lives.”
Walt, a laureate professor working on early diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), joined CNN on Wednesday as the legal battle between Harvard and the Trump administration continues and $200 billion in funding was cut from the school.
“Cancellation of funding to researchers across the U.S. will delay medical progress and will threaten public health. There’s no question about those outcomes,” Walt said. “These cancellations will cost lives that could potentially have been saved in the future if medical research was allowed to continue.”
Harvard is the first university to openly reject the Trump administration’s demands to change its policies. On Monday, university lawyers rejected the administration’s demand to change the school’s leadership, student disciplinary policies, admissions and hiring and end diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
President Trump has since called Harvard “a joke” and threatened to end the university’s tax-exempt status.
Following the rejection, the federal government then paused $2 billion in contracts, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt argued the wealthy school didn’t need the money.
Walt noted that the contracts go toward critical research at the university. He was first notified that his funding for ALS research would expire next year, but was later told by the Department of Health and Human Services that the funding was cut effective immediately.
“I’m committed to helping patients,” he said. “My lab specifically works on neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, infectious diseases that have the potential to enable early detection, they can help discover new drugs, and they could potentially lead to cures for these devastating diseases.”
“If we can even solve one of these problems, it will benefit many, many patients,” Walt continued. “That’s my motivation.”
Walt called the pause in funding a “travesty,” because not only does it impact the research, but he argued it also impacts the researchers’ livelihoods and damages the future of the science industry. He also expressed concerns about the move discouraging future students from applying to the field and lessen the workforce going forward.
“This is going to have devastating consequences on innovation, education and the economy for years to come that the U.S., in my opinion, is ceding our science and technology leadership to China and to other countries,” he concluded.
