Skip to Main Content  

Beyond Borders: Impacts of U.S. Administration decisions on Canadian Healthcare

Key Summary

Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2025, the U.S. federal administration has launched significant challenges to science including the health sciences.  With the resulting mass firings, research funding cuts, censorship, and withdrawal from international collaborations, there is the potential for significant impact on Canadian researchers, health care professionals and patient outcomes.

This is an information guide for researchers, healthcare professionals, and the general public to keep track of changes made by this administration that have potential impacts on healthcare in Canada.

 

Why it Matters

Canadians should care about recent U.S. policy changes toward the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for several key reasons, especially given the deep scientific, economic, and public health ties between the two countries. 

Compromised Systems

Evidence-to-Practice Pipeline

  • Censorship across U.S. health agencies has eroded the integrity of once-authoritative institutions like the CDC, NIH, MEDLINE, and PubMed. Resources that were long considered highly trustworthy are now compromised by mis- and disinformation.
  • Proactive steps should be taken to weed out untrustworthy information by Canadian consumers of health information, or these sources will negatively impact patient care and undermine clinical decision-making tools, public health planning, and academic training. Your local health sciences librarian can help you!
  • As political influence overrides scientific independence, misinformation will spread, and confidence in the evidence base for health policy and patient care will erode.

Impact on Canadian Research Collaboration

  • The NIH recently paused all foreign subawards, including those to Canadian institutions, as part of a new policy said to enhance oversight and national security 
  • This means Canadian universities and research centers that previously received NIH funding through U.S. partners have already and may continue to lose access to critical resources. For example, in 2024 Canadian cancer researchers received roughly $40 million dollars from the NIH.
  • This could disrupt joint biomedical research, slow down innovation, and reduce opportunities for Canadian scientists to collaborate on cutting-edge projects.

At Risk of Compromise

Public Health Coordination

  • The CDC and Canadian Public Health Agency often coordinate on cross-border health threats, such as pandemics, infectious disease surveillance, and vaccine strategies.
  • Shifting CDC priorities—such as reducing focus on climate change, vaccine hesitancy, or DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion)—could weaken binational efforts to address shared health challenges 

Economic and Innovation Spillover

  • U.S. biomedical research drives pharmaceutical and biotech innovation that benefits Canadian companies and healthcare systems. 
  • Policy changes that reduce NIH funding or limit international collaboration could slow the development of new treatments and technologies on which Canadians rely.

Influence on Canadian Policy

  • The U.S. often sets a precedent in science policy and funding models. Reduced support for certain research areas (e.g., mRNA vaccines, gender identity, or climate-related health), may embolden similar shifts in Canada or reduce global momentum in those fields 

Borderless Health Threats

  • Diseases don’t respect borders. Weakened or politicized U.S. public health infrastructure could lead to delayed responses to outbreaks that inevitably affect Canada due to travel and trade.

Disclaimer