NIH Scientists Reduced To Bartering Critical Supplies

STAT News reports:

With bare-bones procurement departments to rely on and administrative staff axed, lab leaders at the National Institutes of Health are scrambling to buy food for the animals kept in their facilities. Some scientists have been hoarding and rationing the reagents that they have stockpiled. Because of imposed restrictions, for months they haven’t been able to purchase supplies like culture media to nourish cells or dyes to track experiments.

“In the labs, they’re bartering,” said one NIH scientist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as did most others interviewed for this story, for fear of retribution. “There are email listservs going through the NIH that normally are for things like announcing interesting papers or talks that are now 90% ‘Anybody have this reagent? One little bit of this reagent that I can use?’”

Read the full article. There’s more grimness.