I once stood within the halls of academia, benefiting from the generous funding of the National Institutes of Health. I was part of the system, a researcher fueled by grants that were supposed to propel scientific progress.
But after years inside the machine, I have come to a sobering conclusion: The NIH is fundamentally broken and morally corrupted. Corruption, waste, and fraud are not occasional lapses but systemic failures. The agency must be gutted and reformed if we are to salvage scientific integrity.
One of the most damning indictments against the NIH is the reproducibility crisis. Science is supposed to be built on verifiable, repeatable results, yet the vast majority of research funded by the NIH fails this basic test.
A widely cited survey in the journal Nature found that a staggering 70% of scientists surveyed reported failing to reproduce published research. Worse still, in a landmark study by Dr. Glenn Begley, only 11% of oncology studies that were reviewed could be replicated—meaning that 89% of these supposedly groundbreaking cancer studies were essentially worthless.
While these statistics are of studies in general and not just of those funded by the NIH, this shows that many in the scientific community, including many of those funded by the NIH, are working with potentially unreliable data.
This crisis is not just a theoretical concern; it has real-world consequences. False leads misdirect entire fields, wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and delaying real medical breakthroughs. And yet, despite these revelations, the NIH continues to funnel money into the same broken system without demanding accountability or reform.
The problem extends beyond faulty studies—it is exacerbated by the complicity of major academic journals. If a study aligns with a prevailing political narrative, it often gets published regardless of scientific rigor.
Nowhere was this clearer than in the handling of COVID-19’s origins. Prestigious journals like Science and Nature Medicine published papers that promoted the politically convenient theory that the virus originated from a wet market, despite glaring holes in the data. Subsequent email leaks revealed that former NIH Director Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci actively pushed this misleading narrative.
This was not an accident. These journals, reliant on grants and government ties, have abandoned scientific objectivity. They do not face consequences for publishing fraudulent research. When a study is eventually debunked, at most, a quiet retraction is issued—long after the damage has been done. Even today, these journals refuse to retract the faulty COVID-19 origin studies, underscoring their unwillingness to prioritize truth over ideology.
Beyond the issue of fraudulent studies, the NIH’s grant distribution system is a financial disaster. I saw firsthand how NIH grants—often exceeding a million dollars each—are handed out to principal investigators who have no training in financial or personnel management.
These researchers, brilliant in their fields but clueless in budgeting, routinely squander taxpayer money. Lab managers (often research assistants with no financial expertise) oversee massive budgets with little to no oversight. The result? Expensive lab equipment gathering dust, unnecessary purchases of antibodies and reagents, and a total lack of accountability.
What’s worse, principal investigators often manipulate the system to justify continued funding. One of the most common fraudulent tactics is using old data—research conducted before receiving the grant—to fabricate progress. Since there is virtually no oversight from the NIH on how grant money is actually spent, this deceit is easy to execute and nearly impossible to detect. It is a free-for-all with taxpayer money, and there is no mechanism in place to hold bad actors accountable.
Even when fraud is exposed, punishment is nonexistent. Universities and researchers caught red-handed in scientific misconduct face no real repercussions. Journals simply issue retractions, and the guilty parties move on to prestigious positions elsewhere.
Consider the scandal at Duke University, where researchers were caught in 2018 engaging in massive scientific fraud, allegedly submitting falsified research data to keep and win multimillion-dollar research grants from the NIH and the Environmental Protection Agency. While Duke paid the federal government $112.5 million to settle the case, instead of severe consequences, those involved simply moved on. One of the key figures even landed in a leadership role at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Another example is the fraudulent Alzheimer’s research that misled the entire field for years. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s nominee for NIH director, recently highlighted during his confirmation hearing how a series of falsified studies led to a cascade of misleading research that set back Alzheimer’s treatment by decades. Hundreds of studies, all built on a foundation of lies, consumed untold amounts of funding and diverted resources away from legitimate research. Yet, those responsible faced little more than a tarnished reputation.
So, what’s the solution?
The NIH, as it stands today, is beyond reform. It is not simply suffering from mismanagement; it is an institution riddled with systemic corruption. The solution is drastic but necessary: The NIH must be gutted.
Funding should be stripped from ineffective programs, and a new oversight mechanism must be established to ensure transparency and accountability. Grants should no longer be handed out to researchers with no financial acumen. Journals that publish fraudulent research should face consequences beyond a mere retraction.
Most importantly, the scientific community must reclaim its integrity. If research cannot be replicated, it should not be funded. If fraud is uncovered, there must be real consequences. The American people deserve better than a corrupt, self-serving bureaucracy that prioritizes its own survival over genuine scientific advancement.
I once believed in the NIH. I sure did. I still believe in the power of research to change lives.
But after seeing the corruption, waste, and deceit firsthand, I can no longer stay silent. The NIH is not the solution to our scientific woes—it is the problem. Until it is torn down and rebuilt with accountability and merit at its core, science will continue to fail the very people it claims to serve.
Isaiah Hankel, Ph.D., is a three-time bestselling author and the CEO of Overqualified.com.
Reprinted with Permission from Daily Signal – By Isaiah Hankel
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
This article is an excellent confirmation of what many people suspect is going on with research and the government. IMO, Fauci should be arrested, tried and if convicted spend the rest of his days in prison. NIH funding gain-of-function research with our enemy the Chinese and then him and his minions covered it up. How many millions died due to Covid-19 not to mention all the people that suffered economically from Covid-19. In the case of Alzheimer’s research that will end up killing more people and debilitating more people than would have happened otherwise. Tack on the thievery of taxpayer money. These people that were in on this, need to be put in jail for the rest of their lives as IMO they are much, much worse than someone committing murder.
Fauci was the greatest scam artist. Who got, what, 20 scientist to say that the COVID came from a wet market in Wuhan, China. While behind the scenes he was promoting gain of function on this virus with monetary grants. How much were these so called scientist paid to promote this hoax. Like the hoax there are 72 genders. Because the dems quote unnamed scientist to that fact. There is no such thing. The dems have over the decades ruined this country at every level. Nothing escaped their notice. The country is in such bad shape if we don’t change we are all doomed and the depression of the 1930’s will be nothing compared what the dems have created. We don’t have an army, our health care is shot, our food industry exist out of chemicals and killing us slowly day after day. Illegals are invading our country. Big Pharma runs the health industry. And the oligarchs the rest. We the working class citizens of this country are doomed. Fortunately we have President Donald J. trump to get us out of this slump. The people, not the elite, not the billionaires, not the autocrats, nor the WEF. Time to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN is here. And president Trump will succeed.
Yes, Fauci and all his cronies should be prosecuted for all the deaths they caused.Including the death of my healthy 59 year old husband!
And this is exactly why I didn’t get the vaccines. I am retired nurse. I know how viruses work. I kept telling my family members that this vaccine was unproven and little was known about the virus. Wearing a mask, other than an N95 fitted to your face, was useless. Viruses travel right through cloth and paper masks. The plexiglass shields were an utter joke, as well as those face shields. My elderly husband got 2 vaccines and was hospitalized with Covid pneumonia. I did not, nor did my grandson. I had Covid for about a week and my grandson had a headache for 1 day. I am a true believer in natural immunity as well as herd immunity. My grandson has been positive for Covid 2 times since, and the only symptoms he had was like a head cold. I never got it again. Closing the schools was an utter crime. Those who were at high risk absolutely needed protection, but the extent the NIH went to was crazy, as well as condemning any one who questioned their science. The only thing they were concerned about was covering their butts!!!
Had Jonas Salk been funded by government and had he been a scoundrel he probably be still researching just on the brink of discovery. Very exciting. I don’t believe for a minute these researchers are interested in anything else but a full trove.
Favor funding for Legit research vs political gain IE Covid
Otherwise Defund
Climate change and global warming are two prime examples of corrupted “science.”. Both of those rely on burying opposing theories. They cannot allow the opposition or opposing research to be published, or their corruption will come out. The day they believe the garbage of climate change and Global warmings today I wrote off any science as having credibility. Science along with Justice in the court system are nothing but politics now. Neither one of them exist in reality
The NIH is indeed corrupt and corporate captured. About every committee at the NIH related to diseases has Big Pharma participation in the funding decision making on what studies to fund. Any study request that would undercut Big Pharma’s agenda is denied. A prime example of that is denying any follow-up studies to prove or disprove Dr, Yamamoto’s earlier discovery of human GcMAF as a solid cancer cure. The human B Cells and T cells make GcMAF from Vitamin D Binding Proteins in the body. This mechanism is used by the immune system to change the cytokine activated M0, M1 and M2 macrophages which do poorly in fighting cancers to a new advanced M3 macrophage phenotype in the cancer microenvironment. These GcMAF protein polarized M3s macrophages have enhanced capabilities against cancer that are lacking in the cytokine activated macrophages. A biolab can cheaply make safe, effective, immune system identical, supplemental human GcMAF. This was shown in the 2015 Efranat Ltd FDA registered Phase 1 Clinical Trial when EF-022 (GcMAF) stopped terminal solid cancers after only 8 injections of supplemental human GcMAF. (After completing Phase 1, Efranat was bought out by a major pharmaceutical conglomerate and immediately closed to prevent GcMAF from coming to market.) Dr. Yamamoto published 3 studies showing supplement human GcMAF could cure different cancers. The NIH and NCI know all of this but have boycotted GcMAF because it would undercut Big Pharma’s expensive lucrative cancer drug agenda. Human GcMAF is perfectly safe (as shown in the completed Phase 1 Trial), no real side-effects, all natural and is used to fight cancers in private cancer clinics overseas. The NIH and NCI have joined in the boycott of supplemental human GcMAF and will not support any research on human GcMAF. So, Americans are being denied their GOD given cancer cure for corporate greed.
The problem is cancers try to minimize M3s in the cancer microenvironment by saturating this environment with Nagalase which mangles Vitamin D Binding Proteins to the point that B and T cells cannot find enough intact Vitamin D Binding Proteins in this environment to make enough M3s to make a difference. The only way around this major limitation is to supplement with biolab produced supplement human GcMAF. GcMAF therapy is compatible with standard cancer therapies that do not intentionally suppress the immune system. Preformed GcMAF (supplemental human GcMAF) is unaffected by Nagalase and can be used to flood the cancer microenvironment to upgrade all the receptive macrophages there to the cancer killing M3s. This is how solid cancers can be quickly cured cutting healthcare costs and saving millions of lives. Just need a biolab here to make it for the medical profession. Passed a Phase 1 study so it should be legal to make and sell. The pharmaceutical industry is deathly afraid of GcMAF and will lie and expend all necessary resources to maintain the GcMAF boycott. Don’ let them win and drag out the search for a cancer cure forever. GOD gave us the cure, but evil men are hiding it from you. Press your congressional representatives or the President to do something about this travesty and give doctors access to supplemental human GcMAF to start curing solid cancers in America. GcMAF is also a cure for other uncurable diseases besides solid cancers.
stop all this talking and posting crap. get the man arrested and shipped of to cuba. trump stop spouting all this other crap and put him in jail. ms bondi–action please get this crook out of circulation. save money and take away his pension and all his ill gotten gains and give it to the familys he caused the death of. then work harder and faster to get rid of all these crooked judges. i voted for you because you are a man of action, not slow motion.
Funny that much of the misconduct, lies, phony research, etc happened under the Biden administration (most recently, but who knows how far back it goes). I thought the buck stopped at the top! Whoever was leading the country while this was going on has to be put on trial or there is no way that real accountability can be enforced. Then the people down the line get to sit in the hot seat. It wasn’t just incompetence or mismanagement. The people of our country were defrauded, betrayed, and untold numbers of lives have been ruined, especially with the Covid fiasco. Indict those scum who did these things, but especially the chief executive who let it all happen!
Thank you for this article.
Gutting Government Departments needs to be “ACROSS THE BOARD”. They are all corrupt. “The most efficient way to kill weeds is to pull it out by the roots”. Hopefully this administration knows a thing or two about gardening, and weeding out corruption.
Under fauci the NIH is just as corrupt and morally bankrupt as USAID. I believe they funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab in china. I believe with every fiber of my being that fauci was involved with developing that virus and helped modify it to become what it did. I don’t believe for one second that the release of that virus was an accident.
Fauci should have been thrown in jail a long time ago. He’s nothing but despicable, lying, murderous garbage. I think he covered for and schemed with the Chinese government regarding this entire covid destruction of the world. He’s the lowest form of scum there is.
Are we really surprised by any of this? All government agencies appear to be quite corrupt by the money available to them. Taxpayer dollars being used for personal gain and enrichment.
Thank you for sharing truth and shedding light!! So sad for all deceived!!
Until people and organization are held accountable with real consequences nothing will change, and the taxpayer will always be cheated and lied too. Still wondering why so many politicians and people getting grant money hate Trump and Doge, because they lie and misinform just to get the money. IMO
Cheers for an honest opinion from the scientific community. Always bitter to find people who claim to be scientists who are willing to lie, cheat, and distort supposed scientific data for the sake of money.
Another reason for the FED to get out of the business of picking these losers!
I have not trusted Big Pharma, CDC, NIH or any Government health program for many years. This article has no news for me, Big Pharma has eliminated several people over the last 20 years who tried to do something about the corruption and lies. I have 50% blood flow in my right leg because of Fauci’s BIOWEAPON. I was only sick for three days and it was like a light normal cold until the fourth day when I walked to my mail box and hobbled back with my right leg bound up like a super cramp. My wife was given covid by a person who just had their covid booster shot 4 days later she had double pneumonia and was on oxygen for a month, never took her to a hospital (I didn’t want her to die – took her to our family Dr who administered High dose Vitamin C with supplements once a week). One year later (August 2023) she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. And that is a whole nother story. She is still with me, only because we have a great family Dr. NOT a Big Pharma DR. and because she is not she gets shafted by Medicare!
This is what RFK Jr. is planning to correct. While a mere four years may not be enough, let’s hope he starts the cycles of cleaning up the crap, recognizing the major flaws in the current system, and moving to correct them.
We sane people have known we were being lied to by the government health agencies from day one. When Ivermectin was proven to end covid and yet it was censored along with other drugs the left touted as horse dewormer.
These agencies are many and maybe no longer needed or can be consolodated. Stop the duplication and waste in our government
Fauci, the whole Biden fiasco and their use of Covid proved this!
The real key is the editors. I know of a former medical journal editor that caught many researchers submitting studies with false data. He would confront them on it, even those who had high standings and author of books used in medical schools. They said you are the first one to confront me on this. So, he published it with another journal. Many editors are not trained to even look for fraud or data that doesn’t make sense.
These abuses are also fueled by AMA and other medical journals whose editors allow these fraudulent studies to be published. Good editors can spot the fraud.
Years ago I volunteered to join a NIH study of seniors that was conducted in collaboration with AARP. For a couple of 5 year periods I received and submitted data back to the NIH. It has been years since I’ve received any information from NIH about the study. I’ve tried to contact NIH concerning the study and it appears that the research was dropped and no one at NIH knows anything about it. I imagine thousands of people like myself that participated in this study feel that they were scammed by NIH
The NIH should be DOA!