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aniloza.bsky.social
anil oza
@aniloza.bsky.social
4.5K followers 1.5K following 340 posts
science journalist @stat covering health equity, the nih, and interaction btwn science & society | also: npr, nature, sciam, science, science news (he/him) (signal: aniloza.16)
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aniloza.bsky.social
This story felt like a spiritual successor to this story, about NIH Director Bhattacharya's handling of health equity work following his own work on disparities

bsky.app/profile/usha...
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
We also talked to Eliseo Pérez-Stable, who led the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities until he was placed on admin leave in April, about the state of the field and about his ouster:
‘We don’t do DEI, we do science’ In the initial weeks of the second Trump presidency, Pérez-Stable, then the head of the Minority Health and Health Disparities institute, tried to make the case that his branch should not fall under the administration’s assault on “DEI.” The newly appointed NIH deputy chief of staff, James McElroy, had set out to meet with all of the agency’s 27 institute and center directors. While many of those leaders had not heard of McElroy, it was conveyed to them that he was to serve as a liaison between the agency and the White House. Former officials have described the meetings as curt and combative. When he met with Pérez-Stable, McElroy wasted no time. “After an introduction, the first thing he said to me was, ‘You know, your institute is in direct conflict with the president’s executive orders,” Pérez-Stable recounted in his first extensive interview about the state of health disparities work and his experience in the Trump administration. “But I said, ‘No, that’s incorrect. We don’t do DEI, we do science, we do health disparities research.’ But obviously that didn’t get me anywhere.” (McElroy, who is no longer listed as an HHS employee, could not be reached for comment.)
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Here is a sampling of the kinds of changes we saw in the >700 grants
Chart with two columns, the first with the old title and second with new titles. Old titles show in red what was removed, and in the second column what was added in green.
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
aniloza.bsky.social
Many of the changes were to remove words like "equity" or "disparity" or the names of various racial groups, as this word cloud that was circulated at an @nihvigils.bsky.social I went to shows
Photo of someone holding a pamphlet, prominently is a word cloud titles "The Banned Words" with "equity" and "disparity" dwarfing other terms
October 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM