These Ebola Researchers Are Stuck in US Due to Trump’s Funding Cuts
These Ebola Researchers Are Stuck in US Due to Trump’s Funding Cuts
受特朗普削减资金影响，这些埃博拉研究人员被困美国
As the world struggles to contain the rapidly growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, a vital network of research centers has been unable to help on the ground. The reason: The Trump administration slashed its funding last year, in part due to conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19. 正当世界努力遏制刚果民主共和国伊图里省迅速蔓延的埃博拉疫情时，一个至关重要的研究中心网络却无法在实地提供帮助。原因在于：特朗普政府去年削减了该网络的资金，部分原因是出于关于新冠病毒起源的阴谋论。
Established in 2020 by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) Network was conducting research into viruses that emerge from wildlife and spill over to people, including the family of viruses that Ebola belongs to. The network operated 10 sites around the world where these types of disease outbreaks are likely to occur, including in Central and East Africa. (The network was also researching hantavirus, a disease that saw a recent rare outbreak on a cruise ship.) 新兴传染病研究中心（CREID）网络由美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）于2020年建立，旨在研究从野生动物传播给人类的病毒，包括埃博拉病毒所属的病毒家族。该网络在全球运营着10个易发生此类疾病爆发的站点，其中包括中非和东非地区。（该网络此前还在研究汉坦病毒，这是一种近期在游轮上罕见爆发的疾病。）
NIH provided CREID with approximately $82 million in funding over five years, and its funding was up for renewal in 2025. But last June, the centers received a stop-work order stating that their research had been deemed “unsafe for Americans and not a good use of taxpayer funding,” and that the agency’s priorities no longer supported the network. NIH在五年内为CREID提供了约8200万美元的资金，其资助原定于2025年续期。但去年6月，这些中心收到了一份停工令，称其研究被认为“对美国人来说不安全，且不是纳税人资金的合理用途”，并表示该机构的优先事项不再支持该网络。
“That reason is pretty rich, right? Because that was really the kind of pandemic preparedness research that we need to do,” says Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary virologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, who led one of the two CREID centers in West Africa. Andersen was involved in developing diagnostics and conducted genomic sequencing of Ebola virus genomes during past outbreaks to learn how the virus was evolving and spreading. He doesn’t have NIH funding to do that kind of work now. “这个理由真是太讽刺了，不是吗？因为这正是我们真正需要开展的那种大流行病防范研究，”加利福尼亚州拉霍亚斯克里普斯研究所的进化病毒学家克里斯蒂安·安徒生（Kristian Andersen）说，他曾领导西非的两个CREID中心之一。安徒生曾参与开发诊断工具，并在过去的疫情中对埃博拉病毒基因组进行了测序，以了解病毒的演变和传播方式。他现在已没有NIH的资金来从事此类工作。
He says he is talking to colleagues in the DRC and reviewing data about the outbreak, but isn’t able to offer support with testing or sequencing. “We sit here in San Diego and see this unfold,” he says. 他说，他正在与刚果民主共和国的同事交谈并审查有关疫情的数据，但无法在检测或测序方面提供支持。“我们坐在圣地亚哥，眼睁睁地看着这一切发生，”他说。
“The whole network would have mobilized,” says Robert Garry, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane Medical School, who led the center with Andersen. “整个网络本可以动员起来的，”杜兰大学医学院微生物学和免疫学教授罗伯特·加里（Robert Garry）说，他曾与安徒生共同领导该中心。
The CREID centers were involved in developing reagents and diagnostic tests, which have been lacking on the ground in the DRC. Public health agencies failed to spot early infections because the tests used were designed to detect the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, which was responsible for previous outbreaks in the DRC. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. CREID中心曾参与开发试剂和诊断测试，而这些正是刚果民主共和国实地所缺乏的。公共卫生机构未能及时发现早期感染，因为所使用的测试旨在检测更常见的扎伊尔型埃博拉病毒，该病毒曾导致刚果民主共和国此前的疫情。而当前的疫情是由本迪布焦（Bundibugyo）病毒引起的。
CREID was likely a target because of its loose connections to the Covid-19 lab-leak theory espoused by President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers. One of its original centers was run by the EcoHealth Alliance, a former US nonprofit that became a flashpoint in conspiracy theories over the origins of Covid-19 because of its ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Under Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services permanently barred EcoHealth Alliance from receiving taxpayer dollars in January 2025. The White House also cited EcoHealth’s connections to the Wuhan lab as a reason for dissolving the US Agency for International Development. CREID之所以成为目标，很可能是因为它与唐纳德·特朗普总统和共和党议员所支持的新冠病毒实验室泄漏论有着松散的联系。其最初的中心之一由生态健康联盟（EcoHealth Alliance）运营，这是一个前美国非营利组织，由于其与武汉病毒研究所的联系，成为了新冠病毒起源阴谋论的焦点。在特朗普领导下，美国卫生与公众服务部于2025年1月永久禁止生态健康联盟接受纳税人的资金。白宫还以生态健康联盟与武汉实验室的联系为由，解散了美国国际开发署（USAID）。
Neither the HHS nor the White House responded to a request for comment. 美国卫生与公众服务部和白宫均未回应置评请求。
Andersen’s center in West Africa was focused on Ebola virus and Lassa virus. Another CREID site in Nairobi, Kenya, focused on other infectious diseases, but it played a key role in responding to a September 2022 Ebola outbreak in Uganda. And its former leader says it would have been part of the response this time around, and would have drawn on research from other centers in the network. 安徒生在西非的中心专注于埃博拉病毒和拉沙病毒。位于肯尼亚内罗毕的另一个CREID站点专注于其他传染病，但在应对2022年9月乌干达的埃博拉疫情中发挥了关键作用。其前负责人表示，如果该中心还在运作，它本会参与此次应对工作，并会借鉴网络中其他中心的研究成果。
“We had active studies there. We were covering Eastern and Central Africa. We would have been there,” says M. Kariuki Njenga, a virologist at Washington State University who led the CREID center in Eastern and Central Africa. “我们在那里有正在进行的研究。我们覆盖了东非和中非地区。我们本应在那里，”华盛顿州立大学的病毒学家M. 卡里乌基·恩坚加（M. Kariuki Njenga）说，他曾领导东非和中非的CREID中心。
CREID centers worked with local collaborators to boost disease surveillance and provide support for outbreak investigations. During the 2022 outbreak, rapid detection of cases and effective contact tracing led to Uganda declaring the outbreak over just four months after it began. CREID中心与当地合作者共同努力，加强疾病监测并为疫情调查提供支持。在2022年的疫情期间，病例的快速检测和有效的接触者追踪使得乌干达在疫情爆发仅四个月后就宣布疫情结束。
In total, 164 people were infected and 55 died as a result of that outbreak. The current outbreak is already responsible for at least 1,000 suspected cases and 238 suspected deaths in the DRC, with seven confirmed cases, including one death, in neighboring Uganda. 在那次疫情中，总共有164人感染，55人死亡。当前的疫情在刚果民主共和国已造成至少1000例疑似病例和238例疑似死亡，邻国乌干达也有7例确诊病例，其中包括1例死亡。
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has expressed concern over the speed at which the outbreak is growing. “We are urgently scaling up operations,” he said this week during an online meeting of the African Union, “but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us.” 世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞（Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus）对疫情蔓延的速度表示担忧。“我们正在紧急扩大行动规模，”他在本周举行的非洲联盟在线会议上表示，“但目前疫情的发展速度已经超过了我们的应对能力。”