Johns Hopkins University said it would eliminate more than 2,000 jobs after the administration of President Donald Trump terminated federal funds for thousands of international aid projects, including a program designed to help prevent HIV transmission in India and a clinical trial for diarrheal disease in Bangladesh.
The University, one of the most significant and prestigious scientific research institutions in the country, said in a statement on Thursday that it would eliminate 1,975 jobs at the international level and 247 in the United States as a result of cuts to the United States Agency for International Development. 78 additional employees based in the US and 29 international will be suspended.
“This is a difficult day for our entire community,” said the statement. “The termination of more than $ 800 million in USAID funds is now forcing us to reduce critical work here in Baltimore and internationally.”
Researchers leading some of the programs to be closed said the cuts could increase the risk of dangerous outbreaks. The changes will also have an economic impact on Baltimore because the university is Maryland’s largest private employer.
Around half of Johns Hopkins’ funds last year came from federal research dollars, according to a letter from Ron Daniels, president of the University.
It is one of several universities from all over the country that fire workers or implementing contracting freezing, since they consider scrings for sweep F to research and higher education of the Trump administration. Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Notre Dame have stopped hiring the Faculty.
In addition, the Trump administration canceled around $ 400 million in subsidies to Columbia University last week, citing the alleged harassment of Jewish students, as well as $ 30 million in funds for the University of Maine, after the state governor Chocó with Trump on transgender athletes in sports.
More than 50 universities are under investigation, since the Administration seeks to end the programs of diversity, equity and inclusion.
The White House defended the actions.
“President Trump is rationalizing federal agencies to eliminate Dei Dei Disproillars and making more funds available to scientific research, no less,” said the Undersecretary of the White House press, Anna Kelly. “It will support the policies of policies that reinforce our public health, they cut programs that do not align with the agenda that the American people gave them a mandate in November to implement and maintain the United States that the United States first.”
Johns Hopkins researchers said that the USAID cuts will have serious consequences for the communities where they had been working.
Dr. Sunil Solomon, an epidemiologist who helped lead a HIV detection and prevention research program in India called Accelerate, said the program provided HIV tests to almost 120,000 people and diagnosed almost 20,000 cases since it began in April 2019. The program was also helping to deliver medications and improve the treatment for approximately 8,000 children with HIV.
The program was scheduled to receive around $ 50 million in total USAID funds until the end of 2026, said Salomon, and had used a little more than $ 36 million so far.
Salomon said there would be more HIV transmission in India, more children with HIV who will not receive timely attention and less people diagnosed as a result of the closure of their program.
“There will definitely be many lost lives of this program of the entire global pause and the termination of the USAID awards,” Solomon said. “You will not see what happens tomorrow or the next day, but these impacts will be seen six months after the children have stopped taking their medications, their immune system begins to deteriorate, they begin to collect new infections.”
Salomon said that Cutting Accelerate would force the layoffs of almost 600 people, including four Johns Hopkins employees in the United States and 14 in India, along with hundreds of subcontractors in India.
Dr. Judd Walsson, a doctor of infectious diseases and president of the International Health Department of Johns Hopkins, said that other programs had been closed or reduced similarly.
These include a tuberculosis research program and a clinical trial in Bangladesh designed to reduce sprouts of cholera and other diarrheal diseases, he said.
“People enrolled in that study. We had to stop all the activities despite that job in progress, ”said Walsson.
He added that the cuts could put residents with a higher risk of infectious diseases.
“In many ways, USAID financing has provided a mechanism for us to have eyes on the ground of what is happening worldwide in relation to the disease,” Walsson said. “We are on a plane trip of the propagation of very significant diseases in our country, and this decision to finish all these programs will have important consequences for global health safety.”
Meanwhile, in Baltimore, economic effects could cheat. Johns Hopkins paid around $ 5 billion in salaries in Maryland in fiscal year 2022 and used almost 56,500 people in the state, according to university estimates. Johns Hopkins said he was responsible for more than $ 15 billion in economic impacts in Maryland during that time.
Other pending cuts from the Trump administration could further threaten Johns Hopkins. Last month, the Administration tried to limit payments of the National Institutes of Health to Universities for research subsidies limiting indirect costs, which cover things such as public services and construction operations, 15%.
The policy was challenged in court, even in a case where the university is a plaintiff. Earlier this month, a judge put the administration plan on hold.
In a legal presentation, Johns Hopkins said he received more than $ 1 billion in NIH subsidies funds in fiscal year 2024. Reducing payments for indirect costs could leave university in the hook for an estimated $ 200 million, the presentation said.
