David Malakoff
thousands of scientists and advocates for paid patients in a square in downtown Washington, DC, today to hold what organizers billed as the largest ever rally to demand more funds for biomedical research. The event, as reported earlier today with a slide show Science initiated and organized in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) with the support of over 0 organizations , aiming to draw attention to the 5% reduction for the National Institutes of Health budget $ 31 billion (NIH) imposed by Congress last month by sequestration, as well as the flat growth of NIH budget over the last decade. "The continued erosion of funding for the largest institute of medical research in the world, the National Institutes of Health, must end," said CEO AACR Margaret Foti.
AACR and other participants listened for nearly 2 hours unusually hot weather in April that more than a dozen legislators, patient advocates, and celebrities have spoken in support of the NIH. Emcee Cokie Roberts of ABC News and NPR stated that "it could not be a stupid time to cut funds for medical research." Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a survivor of ovarian cancer, said "is cut lifesaving cancer research because of ideology, and it's wrong." President of the Rockefeller University and former Genentech framework Marc Tessier-Lavigne said he worried most that young people are discouraged from careers in research. "You can ruin our scientific community. If we continue on this path, we will kill the goose that lays golden eggs, "he said, drawing cheers.
Dressed in white T-shirts and an occasional hot pink boa, participants in the rally chanted "more progress, more hope, more life." They raised their cell phones with actress . Maura Tierney of the television series ER to send a mass text message asking Congress to reverse the cuts to NIH
one of the scheduled speakers was missing: NIH Director Francis Collins. Although federal employees can not participate in lobbying activities, Collins was first going to speak as a private citizen, the sources said, but eventually canceled. (NIH spokesperson John Burklow refused to comment on the reasons for Collins, saying only, "Dr. Collins could not attend the rally, however, supports the participants effort to shine a light on the importance of biomedical research.") However, Foti read a message from President Barack Obama, who said he has sent "greetings" and that he also supports "a serious and sustained effort to advance medical research."
Although probably only a few thousand the AACR 18,000 participants left the conference center to the streets to participate, the organizers deemed their event which included tuning supporters via YouTube success. He was "truly historic and unprecedented," said Foti. For a time, tweets with the tag #RallyMedRes of the rally were second only tweets about the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher U.K., Foti said afterwards.
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