2 months ago
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An official at the National Institute of Health (NIH) has reportedly been coaching researchers on how to manipulate grant applications that may be subject to scrutiny from oversight bodies, such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This includes assisting investigators to change certain wording in their applications, such as "race" to "ancestry," in order to receive federal funding.
According to video and reporting from O'Keefe Media Group (OMG), James Welch, a genetic counselor at NIH, recently disclosed the matter to an undercover journalist with OMG.
"There are banned words that they're [DOGE] cutting grants for," Welch told the journalist, revealing that "two of the words are 'women' and 'female.'"
Welch described how, in order to avoid raising red flags during the grant clearance process, he actively directed a researcher to change the terminology of a study on cortisol levels in black and white women. "I had to go look at, like, what was leaked as far as the banned words, that DOGE is just like, control F searching for so I was trying to help [NIH investigator] suggest wording. I had suggested, like, 'a history of ancestry' instead of 'race,'" he said.
Additionally, Welch made comments about purchasing firearms due to potential retaliation against individuals who work for the NIH. "My mom told me today not to shoot anybody because I've been buying guns," Welch remarked.
The journalist pressed him further about purchasing firearms, to which Welch responded: "Just thinking about worst-case scenarios and being like, well, why not be prepared?"
This comes as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, has been tasked with reducing government waste, fraud, and abuse. As a result, DOGE has claimed to have terminated thousands of grants since President Trump took office in January, with total savings amounting to more than $105 billion as of last month, ABC News reported.
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