News Health & Medicine Clinical trials face uncertain futures amid Trump cuts Research on COVID-19 and sexual and maternal health are among the trials taking a hit In late March, NIH suspended funding for two clinical trials investigating how to better protect organ transplant recipients from COVID-19. The money is needed to complete the data analyses. DeSid/Getty Images By McKenzie Prillaman 1 hour ago For kidney transplant recipient Janet Handal, the recent push to phase out COVID-19 research could have a deadly outcome.  In early 2021, Handal participated in a study that found almost half of organ transplant recipients had no immune response to two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The finding came at a time when most people were celebrating that two shots could help them safely re-enter the world. “For people that are immunocompromised [from] the treatments, [the vaccines] don’t have the same effect,” says Handal, president and cofounder of the Transplant Recipients and Immunocompromised Patient Advocacy Group. The drugs that prevent their bodies from rejecting foreign organs interfere with the protective responses typically elicited by the jabs. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.