Commentary

NIH Brings Racism Into Peer Review

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • November 28, 2023

The National Institutes of Health is increasingly radicalized. We’ve already documented how NIH – the global leader in funding medical innovation – is elevating “racial equity” over research excellence. Now we’ve learned it’s embedding division and discrimination in the peer-review process.

Beginning in 2024, every peer reviewer for an NIH-funded study must complete so-called “implicit bias training” every three years. This training, as Do No Harm has shown, is grounded in the lie that some people are racist because of their skin color, while people of other skin colors are victims. There is no scientific basis for these generalizations, but then science isn’t the point. Implicit bias is a favorite tool of activists who want to reshape health care along racial lines.

Figure 1. Social media post regarding the mandatory training required by the NIH.

This mandate corrupts NIH research. Peer reviewers are supposed to do one thing and one thing only: Evaluate the accuracy of research projects. Instead, the NIH is encouraging them to look at research projects through a racial lens. Peer reviewers are less likely to have a critical eye for projects by minority researchers, while being more antagonistic toward projects from White and Asian researchers. Sure enough, NIH wants peer reviewers to “mitigate” their “potential biases,” which invariably means treating people differently based on skin color.

NIH has gained its prestigious reputation by fostering a highly competitive environment that elevates the brightest researchers and best projects. That’s why NIH funding has produced revolutionary advances, from gene therapy for hereditary diseases to immunotherapy for cancer. Now NIH is indoctrinating the peer reviewers who oversee research while accusing them of bias and racism.

The result will be less quality research and more racial division. The biggest losers will be the patients who need the NIH to continue funding medical breakthroughs, not radicalism.