Lauer opens up.

Abstract

In March, <i>Science</i> published a news story by Jeffrey Mervis that chronicled five cases of individuals, mostly Chinese or of Chinese descent, whose research careers were disrupted or ended by personnel actions taken by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). As I wrote in an accompanying editorial, these moves have eroded trust in the NIH and chilled important collaborations with China. The failure of the NIH to adequately explain and document publicly the reasons behind these actions has allowed the scientific community to assume the worst.