The move comes shortly after the Trump administration decided to freeze many federal health agency communications.
The freeze on forms of communication like guidance, press releases, announcements and social media posts is set to last until Feb. 1.
The cancellations place the future of scientific research up in the air with researchers worried that some applicants will miss their window of opportunity to ever receive NIH funding.
“At the present time, all Federal advisory committee meetings are canceled,” reads an internal email from NIH shared with The Hill.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding…We will get back in touch with you when we have further information. Thank you for your service to NIH.”
Some of the meetings canceled include study sections, which review NIH fellowship and grant applications, and advisory council meetings, which make recommendations on which applications should receive funding from a specific NIH Institute or center.
That's because these meetings take time to organize and are not easily rescheduled, according to Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, who is also a member of a NIH study section whose next meeting was canceled Wednesday.
“I don’t know if there is a precedent to this, at least not at this scale,” Choo told The Hill. “I don’t have a good mental map for how you recover from something like this. How do you reschedule a whole round of review?”
A NIH spokesperson did not answer questions from The Hill about the scope and reason behind the cancelations. An agency spokesperson instead sent a statement referring to the communications freeze.
“HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health,” the statement reads.
“This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization. There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.”
