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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Destroying 50 years of women’s health samples is like ‘burning the
Library of Congress’
By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
Updated:
3:33 PM EDT, Tue July 1, 2025
Source: CNN
For decades, researchers have been collecting samples from hundreds of
thousands of women and tracking their health. The work has deepened our
basic understanding of human health, but now the entire project is in
danger.
When nurses Patricia Chubb, 70, and her mother, Charlotte Mae
Rohrbaugh, 98, joined the fledgling Harvard University-led in 1976,
they had no idea it would last for nearly 50 years.
“It’s probably the longest, if not one of the longest, prospective
health care studies for women that’s ever been done,” said Chubb,
who lives in Pennsylvania. “They picked nurses to do the study
because they know how to answer health questions correctly and can draw
their own blood and the like — it’s very cost-effective.”
Study data gathered through the years from some 280,000 nurses in the
United States has contributed enormously to improving how we live. The
work has informed , including national dietary guidelines; led to
hormonal therapies for breast cancer prevention and treatment; and
contributed to research about how nutrients, inflammatory markers and
heavy metals influence disease development.
Yet all of that priceless data may due to President Donald Trump’s
ongoing feud with Harvard over what Trump claims is a failure to
protect Jewish students during campus protests.
On Monday, an claimed that Harvard was in “violent violation” of
the Civil Rights Act by being “deliberately indifferent” or a
“willful participant in anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students,
faculty, and staff.”
Harvard strongly disagreed with the administration’s claims.
Interestingly, Trump had posted on on June 20 that Harvard had “acted
extremely appropriately” during negotiations and that he was close to
a “Deal” with the university that would “be ‘mindbogglingly’
HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”
But then, in the letter sent to Harvard on Monday, Trump officials made
it clear Harvard would continue to lose “all federal financial
resources,” including millions for research, if the university did
not comply with the administration’s wishes.
Funding for the Nurses’ Health Study and its companion study for men,
the , had already been abruptly withdrawn in mid-May, said Harvard
nutritionist Dr. Walter Willett, who has led the studies since 1980.
Willett and his team were left scrambling to find the funds needed to
protect freezers stocked with stool, urine and DNA specimens gathered
from thousand of nurses for nearly five decades. Just the liquid
nitrogen needed to keep the specimens frozen costs thousands of dollars
a month.
“Of course, we would all love to have an agreement that lets us get
on with research, education, and working to improve the health and
well-being of everyone.” said Willett, a professor of epidemiology
and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston,
who has published over 2,000 papers on nutrition.
“But this can’t happen if we turn over admissions, faculty hiring
and curriculum to governmental control.”
‘These samples are irreplaceable’
Twenty-one-year-old Jackie Desmond joined the Harvard-based study when
she graduated from nursing school in 1978. She considered the research
so valuable that she later enrolled her 9-year-old son Kyle in a
spin-off study investigating family nutrition. At 41, he still
participates.
“They send us questionnaires once or twice a year about lifestyle and
nutrition, what medications you’re on, your lifestyle habits, when
you sleep, when you eat, everything,” Desmond said. “I’ve sent
them samples of blood, urine, feces, whatever they need.” The study
even has solicited toenails, which carry markers of heavy metals.
One reason the study was so special is it was only focused on women,
said Desmond, who is now 68 and lives in Connecticut.
“Before that, most studies were done only on men. So, it was about
time to focus on studying women and they came up with some amazing
information that’s been very helpful to many of us,” Desmond said.
“You know for that reason alone, these samples are irreplaceable —
losing them might put women’s health research back many years,” she
added.
For Desmond and Chubb, the cuts in research funding make no sense.
“There’s no connection in my mind between antisemitism and medical
research. Why are you getting rid of decades of research? It’s
infuriating,” Desmond said. “And it’s very personal — I guess
they’ll just toss my DNA into the dump.”
The threats to impose cuts also arrive as the Trump administration
pushes its “Make American Healthy Again” initiative, which Chubb
finds ironic.
“You know what? There’s lots of research going on to get us
healthier and keep us healthier, and those are cuts that should not be
made,” Chubb said. “It’s so shortsighted to shoot first and aim
later.”
Life-altering medical insights
Data from the Nurses’ Health Study has vastly improved how all
Americans live and eat while also impacting the health of people around
the world, Willett said.
“From the efforts of these dedicated nurses we learned were terrible
for health, and now those are basically gone from our food supply,”
he said. “We also found one of the earliest links between and heart
disease.”
Data from the found red meat and alcohol can lead to breast cancer in
women. Other key findings also proved lifestyle choices can improve
health — the research identified that may reduce risk of cognitive
decline.
A list of scientific advances produced from the Nurses’ Health Study
data appears .
A lifetime accomplishment
Dorothy Dodds, who died at 83, joined the original study in 1976. When
her daughter Martha became a nurse in 1982, she joined the second wave
of research, called the Nurses’ Health Study II. A third generation
of the study is — the Nurses’ Health Study 3.
For Martha Dodds, now 68, her family’s years of dedication to the
study is priceless.
“You know, nurses don’t get paid a lot,” Dodds said. “We do our
work because we want to help others. We took the study seriously and
were careful and honest with our answers.
“My one little part may have helped women cut down on alcohol
consumption, or maybe it’ll help both men and women exercise more and
cut back on trans fats,” Dodds added.
All of the nurses CNN spoke with consider their years of dedication to
the Nurses’ Health Study a lifetime accomplishment.
“I’m so proud to be a participant, I’ll put it in my obituary,”
Chubb said. “And my 98-year-old mom — who’s still got all her
faculties, and some of other people’s, too — has chosen the
Nurses’ Health Study for donations in lieu of flowers in her funeral
plans.”
Chubb and her mother are in good company. Families of nurses across the
country have proudly listed their Nurses’ Health Study participation
in their obituaries: from Michigan, from Georgia, from Pennsylvania,
from New Jersey, from California, from Florida, from Virginia and many
more.
“And now these hundreds of thousands of hours of work by nearly
300,000 nurses will just be discarded?” Dodds said. “We’re going
to take 50 years of research and all this biodata and just destroy it,
make it useless?
“It’s like burning the Library of Congress — you just can’t get
that back.”
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