On May 21, staff members of NCI’s dissolved Office of Communications and Public Liaison and friends gathered at the house of Peter Garrett and Ken Crerar.
Photo source: Peter Garrett
Garrett, who as the director for External Affairs oversaw the institute’s communications, legislative affairs, and advocacy relations, retired on May 9.
In the first week of May, NCI was left incommunicado as NIH eliminated the communications branch (The Cancer Letter, May 9, 2025).
The RIFs were a part of the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts to consolidate and shrink the Department of Health and Human Services.
This RIF means that there is no one left to run the cancer.gov website, the Physician Data Query database, the NCI social media channels, and the patient hotline. Also, no one is left to write and post drug information summaries, patient information notices and the Cancer Currents blog. The media relations function is gone, too. It’s been transferred to NIH. “Public liaison,” the function that engages cancer research stakeholders, advocates, and the general public, has been eliminated.
