In 2023, Connecticut nursing programs had nearly 3,000 available seats and received thousands of qualified applications. Only 2,181 students graduated, leaving healthcare systems strained and short-staffed. The number of working registered nurses decreased nationally by more than 100,000 from 2020 to 2021.

“We’re making progress, but capacity is still a real barrier,” said Dr. Tina Loarte Rodriguez, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce, or CCNW.

The CCNW reported a 91 percent fill rate in the state’s pre-licensure registered nurse programs last year. However, institutional constraints — ranging from faculty shortages to limited clinical placement slots — continue to hamper program growth. Yale School of Nursing, or YSN, has sought to address these challenges through strategic updates to its academic programming.

According to Lillian Zepeda, a spokesperson for YSN, the school has adapted its curriculum, launched an advisory board to bolster clinical partnerships and incorporated advanced simulation tools to better prepare students for clinical realities. In 2023, Connecticut obtained $2.9 million in federal funding to train nurses and create opportunities for frontline healthcare professionals, adding momentum to these institutional efforts.

Yale has also introduced initiatives to bridge the gap between admitted students and actual enrollment. For example, a student ambassador program and alumni outreach network aim to ease applicant uncertainty.

Additionally, the school’s Community Scholars Program will fully fund 21 students next year as part of a broader effort to remove financial barriers to nursing education.

Other Connecticut universities, such as Quinnipiac University, are also responding to the demand. 

According to Dean Larry Slater, Quinnipiac’s nursing school is overhauling its curriculum to build durable, transferable skills and reduce reliance on high-stakes testing. The university is also expanding access through a part-time Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in partnership with Hartford Healthcare, designed to support working students and ease workforce onboarding.

Despite these efforts, workforce gaps remain, particularly in critical care, long-term care and community health settings. Statewide data in 2022 shows that while nearly 90,000 registered nurses hold licenses in Connecticut, only 51,000 are actively practicing. The Health Resources and Services Administration even projected national nurse shortages until 2037.

“The core issue isn’t just a shortage of nurses — it’s a shortage of support once they’re in the field,” Rodriguez wrote to the News in an email. “Moral distress, burnout and a lack of mentorship continue to push skilled nurses out of direct patient care.”

Rodriguez added that solutions will require long-term investment. Her organization is working with policymakers and academic leaders to develop scalable models for faculty training, retention support and early exposure to healthcare careers — even starting as early as preschool.

At Yale, the integration of resilience training and burnout prevention into the curriculum is one way the institution hopes to better equip students for the emotional demands of frontline care. Students also complete clinical rotations at Yale New Haven Health and other regional partners.

Yet, for students training to become advanced practice registered nurses, finding clinical placements remains a challenge. Max Greger-Moser, a nurse practitioner who precepts psychiatric nurse practitioner students, said he has seen a sharp increase in requests for rotations.

“Ten years ago, I had one student a year,” Greger-Moser said. “This year, I’ll have at least three — and I still turn many away. It strikes me as a shame that we have motivated students who want to treat patients but can’t access the clinical training they need.”

As Yale and other institutions work to address the workforce shortage through education and pipeline development, experts caution that changes to payment models and licensure policy will also be necessary.

According to Rodriguez, modernizing scope-of-practice laws and reimbursing broader nursing services — particularly in primary and preventive care — could play a key role in sustaining the profession.

The nursing shortfall is expected to persist for years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 194,500 annual registered nurse job openings through 2033, while federal estimates suggest a 10 percent national shortage of nurses by 2027. For Yale and its affiliates, the question is not only how to train more nurses — but how to ensure they stay.

The School of Nursing is located at 400 West Campus Drive in Orange, Conn.

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Following this report in October, CMHC staff released an anonymous follow-up letter revealing their own concerns regarding the hospital’s management, citing concerns about specific members of staff and their unregulated practices.

State lawmakers on the Public Health Committee aim to discuss the issue in the coming legislative session. State Sen. Saud Anwar, who chairs the committee, explained that there will be the possibility of expanding oversight by Connecticut’s Department of Public Health. Anwar’s press aide, Joseph O’Leary, stated that the team “don’t expect a conclusion to come in the immediate future.”

Currently, most state-owned inpatients are not supervised by independent bodies, the one exception being Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut.

Attorneys within DRCT, such as Rachel Mirsky, have called for greater oversight of state-owned inpatient units, voicing concerns about the complaints being placed against CMHC. 

“Outside entities are not really looking at what’s going on at Connecticut Mental Health Center or other inpatient psychiatric hospitals that are owned by the state, with the exception of one,” said Rachel Mirsky, supervising attorney at DRCT.

The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, which runs centers like CMHC, responded that there is already rigorous oversight in place.

Sen. Anwar proposed Senate Bill 477 highlighting the need to address improvements in how state-run psychiatric facilities are run. He wrote to the News that this puts us “in a better place as a starting point.”

Currently, the question of oversight is framed by issues regarding budget limitations. Last year, staff from the department of public health were proposed to oversee healthcare in prisons. Creating this new office — under bill SB 957 — had an estimated cost of $2.4 million.

“If the financial issues and budgetary restraints restrict us, then we’ll have to find other options,” Anwar said.

Regardless of budget, Anwar told the News that the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is committed to improving mental health care quality and that he is holding them accountable for updates on oversight strategy. 

“I wish I had a magic wand that could tell you this is what we need, and all of these things would fall into place and we would have the best system of care,” Sarah Gadsby, CEO of River Valley Services in Connecticut, said. “It’s just not that easy, and it’s not that black and white.”

CMHC is located at 34 Park St.

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Previously, Prospect had accused YNHHS of exacerbating its financial collapse by delaying proceedings with their ongoing lawsuit.

YNHHS has been involved in a lawsuit against Prospect in an effort to back out of a $435 million deal to acquire three Connecticut hospitals — Waterbury, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General — currently under Prospect’s ownership. YNHHS alleges that Prospect misrepresented its financial situation and failed to meet necessary regulatory and operational requirements, violating their initial terms of agreement. This Tuesday, a statement from YNHHS declared that the acquisition is no longer possible due to Prospect’s financial mismanagement.

“While YNHHS had hoped to acquire these assets and enhance the clinical care for the impacted communities, Prospect’s failure over several years to pay vendors and State and local taxes and to fund their pension obligations have made this transaction impossible,” Dana Marnane, a YNHHS spokesperson, wrote to the News.

Prospect filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, and the case is currently unfolding in a North Texas bankruptcy court. 

In court, Prospect claimed that YNHHS’s lawsuit, filed May 2, 2024, delayed other potential buyers and worsened the company’s already precarious financial position. 

In response to Prospect’s suit, YNHHS maintained that its decision to contest the acquisition was based on serious financial and operational concerns. 

YNHHS’s statement claims that Prospect’s lawsuit aligns with their claims regarding their financial mismanagement.

“The bankruptcy filing is proof of their disinvestment and mismanagement. As we have been saying for almost 18 months, and detailed in our lawsuit, Prospect has never been in a position to close the transaction,” Marnane wrote.

Prospect had outlined an auction process for its Connecticut assets, beginning with a March 18 deadline for “indications of interest” from buyers and ending with a sale on June 5. 

According to reports from the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy, the three hospitals faced tens of millions in losses in fiscal year 2023, consistent with YNHHS’s claims of financial mismanagement Waterbury Hospital alone declared a $27.9 million deficit, while Manchester Memorial and Rockville General lost $22.4 million and $10.6 million respectively.

Prospect did not respond to comment.

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Last Monday, YNHH announced that its Nurse Family Partnership and Wellness program will not renew contracts with surrounding towns. According to State Sen. Martha Marx, services to impacted communities will end in June, resulting in the loss of approximately eight union jobs.

The Nurse Family Partnership sends nurses to conduct home visits for at-risk pregnant mothers, following the family from pregnancy to when the baby is 3 years old. The wellness program also provides nursing services to a homeless hospitality center, senior centers and home visit services for homebound patients. For now, there is no clear plan for who will take over these services.

“Yale New Haven Health’s decision to end its Nurse Family Partnership contracts and wellness services is one seeking short-term gain at the expense of long-term community pain,” Marx, state senate vice chair of the public health committee and a career visiting nurse, said in a statement. “The federal government working to slash important programs is bad enough. For Yale to cut them further in our backyard is going to worsen already severe impacts.”

Yale New Haven Health did not respond to a request for comment for the News.

A YNHH spokesperson told NBC Connecticut that “any decision to change a service that has been provided to the community and involves employees is extremely difficult, but we need to focus on our core mission of caring for our patients in hospital and home settings.”

“While we respect Yale New Haven Health’s decision to realign its priorities, we are focused on advocating for the continuity of care for families in New Haven,” Olivia Biggs, public relations manager for Nurse Family Partnership program, wrote to the News. “Home visiting programs like NFP are vital in supporting positive outcomes for children and families, and we will continue working to preserve and strengthen these critical services.”

Leslie Sude, Yale associate professor of pediatrics, said that these types of programs are vital for introducing concepts such as play and relational activities, as well as promoting positive, resilient and attached relationships between parents and their children.

Sude explained that visiting nurse programs are “excellent” for teaching parents about healthy relationships with their children and general parent education.

“I think it will leave a hole in the ecosystem of services that are available to families right now, and it would certainly be my hope that that gap can be filled in through other service providers,” Sude said.

YNHH is located at 20 York St.

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The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 31 by five plaintiffs who alleged YNHH’s Saint Raphael Campus failed to properly safeguard controlled substances. The lawsuit alleges that a registered nurse, Sean Falzarano, diverted painkiller medications, diluting the hospital stock with salt water, causing patients to experience pain throughout their procedures.

One plaintiff in the lawsuit was a patient in the intensive care unit — ICU — and the remaining were family members of those who had died without pain management. 

“While my dad was suffering from kidney failure, he was a patient in the ICU at Yale’s St. Raphael campus,” said Cassaundra Scott-Jackson, the daughter of a deceased ICU patient. “I felt hopeless and upset that there was nothing I could do to ease my father’s pain, but that was Yale’s responsibility, and they failed him. I hope no other family has to live through knowing their loved ones suffered in this horrific way.”

In 2022, a nurse at YNHH Saint Raphael’s campus, or Yale-SRC, reported that some controlled substances appeared to have been tampered with, reporting that the caps of various bottles were more difficult to open than normal and the contents inside had different consistencies and colors than usual, the lawsuit states.

According to the lawsuit, an internal investigation found that nearly the entire controlled substance supply at Yale-SRC had been tampered with. This included hydromorphone, an opioid pain medication, as well as lorazepam and diazepam, anti-anxiety drugs, which were all quickly replenished.

Upon discovering the tampering, Yale-SRC conducted a Zoom meeting to discuss the suspects. Within two hours of this meeting, Sean Falzarano, a nurse who was not scheduled to work that day, removed two controlled substances from the newly replenished stock of medication.

Upon further investigation, Yale-SRC discovered syringes and vials of the pain and anti-anxiety drugs in Falzarano’s backpack, along with equipment that reseals opened vials.

This past December, Falzarano pleaded guilty to tampering with and stealing Lorazepam vials. The judge scheduled sentencing for March 2025 and his nursing licence is suspended.

Analysis by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revealed that of the four vials of hydromorphone they checked at YNHH, all four contained between 1.35 and 5.5 percent of the medication they were supposed to contain. All vials were heavily diluted with salt water, meaning that the medication the patients were receiving was at an alarmingly lower dose than expected.

“Our clients were seriously ill and required the most intensive pain management and anxiety relief out of all patients in the hospital,” Kelly Fitzpatrick, partner at Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder, the Connecticut-based law firm representing the plaintiffs, said. “They endured unimaginable suffering due to the lack of pain medication at the most critical time. We look forward to getting patients and their loved ones the justice they deserve.”

According to this lawsuit, Yale-SRC failed to protect its patients from this drug tampering and did not properly treat their pain.

In a statement sent to the News, YNHH wrote that the safety of their patients is their “top priority.”

“We are truly sorry if any patients suffered as a result of this nurse’s actions,” a YNHH spokesperson wrote. “We have extensive measures in place to detect and stop any diversion or tampering of medications and continue to improve on these as new technology is developed.”

Despite these measures, Falzarano was able to access controlled substances, as Yale-SRC did not require pharmacists to check whether the appropriate amount of controlled substances had been returned after use.

According to the lawsuit, Yale-SRC had also granted Falzarano access to the controlled substance storage on days he was not scheduled to work. Still, Yale-SRC holds Falzarano solely responsible for the incident.

Drug diversion is a recurring issue in Yale health facilities. In 2020, Donna Monticone, another Yale nurse, pleaded guilty after she was found to have diverted 75 percent of all fentanyl supplies that were stored in an unsecured room at Yale’s fertility clinic. Then, the University paid a total of $308,250 in a civil settlement agreement.

This case is under the jurisdiction of Bridgeport, Conn.

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Lamont argued that YNHH should complete its $435 million deal to buy Waterbury, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals from Prospect Medical Holdings. The deal, announced in 2022, has already faced delays from state regulators and legal disputes between the two health systems. Recently, the deal has been further stalled in legal limbo following Prospect’s bankruptcy filing.

As uncertainty looms over the future of the hospitals, Lamont made clear that YNHH must either finalize the deal or allow other buyers to step in. 

“Yale New Haven, you want to come to the table, you want to be the lead horse on this, and if you don’t — lead, follow or get out of the way,” Lamont said at a Waterbury Regional Chamber event on Tuesday.

Prospect Medical Holdings, a private equity-backed hospital network, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, rocking Connecticut’s healthcare system. The company owns and operates three critical hospitals in the state — Waterbury, Rockville and Manchester — all of which are now entangled in financial uncertainty.

Prospect’s financial strain escalated over the years, and with mounting debt, Prospect filed for bankruptcy. Prospect declined to comment on the matter, as did the three Connecticut hospitals.

The fate of the three hospitals has been further complicated by a back-and-forth legal dispute between YNHH and Prospect. Yale initially agreed to purchase the hospitals but later sued to exit the deal, citing concerns over Prospect’s alleged financial misrepresentation and hidden liabilities.

In legal filings, YNHH accused Prospect of irresponsible financial practices, including a costly cyberattack that disrupted hospital operations, ongoing federal and state healthcare violations and failure to properly maintain hospital facilities.

Prospect countersued, accusing Yale of attempting to renegotiate terms and leaking details about the litigation to the press. A Connecticut judge recently ordered Prospect to release its internal financial documents that could shed light on whether the hospital system violated acquisition agreement terms.

“I don’t blame them for trying to get a lower price,” William Pizzuto, state representative and member of Waterbury Hospital advisory boards, said of YNHH. “I think Prospect did a terrible job.”

As Prospect had filed for bankruptcy in Texas, it sought to transfer the legal battle over acquisition to Texas bankruptcy court from Connecticut state court. This would grant Prospect bankruptcy protection during the lawsuit. 

YNHH opposed this move, contending that the dispute is a contract issue, unrelated to bankruptcy proceedings, and should therefore remain in Connecticut state court. The YNHH’s lawsuit against Prospect was set for trial in April 2025, but there may now be delays.

When Deborah Weymouth, the CEO of Prospect, asked for Lamont’s comment, the governor called YNHH to act. 

Lamont predicted that the bankruptcy case could last “months, and not years.” He stated that the hospitals could also be sold to a buyer other than Yale, as two other unnamed Connecticut-based health systems have placed offers to purchase the hospitals.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy allowed all the money that the three Connecticut hospitals had been directing to Prospect to be invested into the hospitals themselves again, relieving some of the financial stress.

“Fortunately, the bankruptcy process stops that dead in its tracks, and that money now goes back into the hospitals,” Lamont said.

As a consequence of these legal back-and-forths and financial issues, many are concerned that the three hospitals cannot provide adequate care.

However, Weymouth and her team have continued reassuring patients and the public that care continues as normal.

“I can say all day long that Waterbury Hospital is safe,” State Rep. Michael DiGiovancarlo, president of the Waterbury Board of Aldermen, said. “People are losing faith in Waterbury Hospital, unfortunately. They’ve got a great crew there, great workers, but the bad press.”

Prospect Medical Holdings was established in 1996.

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The report, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stems from a year-long investigation into the effects of private equity ownership of healthcare institutions.

The private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, or LGP, held majority ownership of Prospect between 2010 and 2021. The report identified them as leveraging the health system’s assets to pay dividends, which prioritized profits and accumulated unsustainable debt, leaving hospitals financially unstable and compromising patient care.

“Private equity has infected our health care system, putting patients, communities and providers at risk,” Whitehouse wrote in a press statement. “As our investigation revealed, these financial entities are putting their own profits over patients, leading to health and safety violations, chronic understaffing and hospital closures.”

Private equity investment in healthcare has surged, with an all-time high of $151 billion worth of investment deals as of 2021. The report raised concerns about this business model in the national healthcare landscape, stating that such investment booms often prioritize short-term profits at the expense of sustainable hospital operations.

Private equity companies “pocketed millions while driving hospitals into the ground and then selling them off,” Whitehouse wrote.

The report cited peer-reviewed studies finding negative consequences for hospitals under private equity ownership, including lower quality of care, decreased staffing and higher costs.

The report specifically named David Topper and Sam Lee — the current co-owners of Prospect — as the key players in the mismanagement of multiple hospitals across the U.S.

Prospect did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Topper’s previous work at a different for-profit hospital operator was the subject of several federal investigations. The report stated that he was investigated for alleged Medicare fraud, as well as a fraudulent billing scheme in which patients were allegedly “given bogus diagnoses and kept in mental hospitals until their insurance benefits were depleted.”

Another major leadership influence in Prospect’s mismanagement came from LGP asserting control over Prospect’s Board of Directors, according to the report. LGP appointed three of the Board’s five members — John Baumer, Michael Solomon and Alyse Wagner — who had control over the Board and the committees within this, giving them access to Prospect’s financial processes.

The report stated that discussions during Board and committee meetings focused on “profits, cost cutting, acquisitions, managing labor expenses and increasing patient volume,” with little to no discussion of patient outcomes.

Debt-funded dividends and underinvestment in hospitals

The report painted a grim picture of Prospect’s financial strategies that prioritized shareholder returns. 

One key strategy highlighted was the use of debt-funded dividends, where hospitals under Prospect’s ownership were used as collateral to secure loans. These loans financed massive shareholder payouts while leaving the hospitals themselves in “severe financial distress,” the report said. 

This pattern of behavior began shortly after LGP’s 2010 acquisition of Prospect. Between 2010 and 2021, Prospect paid out $424 million in dividends and stock redemptions to investors while its liabilities skyrocketed and its ability to invest in patient care declined.

“Whenever [Prospect] showed any signs of financial improvement, LGP and [Prospect] seized the opportunity to take on even more debt to benefit its shareholders rather than investing in hospital operations to benefit its patients,” the report states.

The consequences of these financial strategies extended beyond the balance sheet, with tangible effects on hospital operations and patient outcomes. The report identifies a pattern of declining quality at Prospect hospitals during LGP’s ownership — including labor cuts, decreased patient capacity and inadequate building maintenance.

The financial strain caused by excessive payouts directly impacted Prospect’s ability to maintain its hospitals. Prospect leadership has overseen the closure of eight hospitals across the country, with three-fourths of those coming during or directly after LGP’s ownership of the system.

By 2021, when LGP exited its investment, Prospect was burdened with over $3 billion in liabilities.

Yale New Haven Health Services also filed a lawsuit against Prospect in 2022, citing that Prospect engaged in financial mismanagement and failed to maintain sanitation and staff training in three Connecticut hospitals. Furthermore, in October 2022, Prospect stopped paying the rent for these hospitals. This led to a $56 million back-rent accrued by May 2023, a mere seven months later.

In light of these findings, the Senate report calls for increased transparency and regulatory oversight of private equity’s role in healthcare. 

Key recommendations include requiring detailed reporting on hospital ownership structures, restricting the use of debt-financed dividends and strengthening protections for patient care standards.

“A dependable health care system is essential to the vitality of a community,” Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote in a press statement. “This report is a step toward ensuring accountability, so that hospitals’ financial structures can best serve patients’ medical needs.”

Prospect Medical Holdings is based in Los Angeles.

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Originally, the order was an attempt to purge the government of what President Donald Trump has called the “woke” ideology. Yesterday, Matthew J. Vaeth, acting director for the Office of Management and Budget, stated that the funding freeze had been rescinded. Before the order was pulled back, a federal judge in Washington ordered a temporary halt to the freeze in response to a lawsuit filed by the Democracy Forward activist group.

Despite the pullback on the funding freeze order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on Wednesday afternoon that “this is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.” 

She explained that the president’s orders on federal funding “remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.” Last week, Trump ordered the review and elimination of spending on “woke” ideologies.

After the initial budget office memo was issued, federal agencies were presented with a series of “yes or no” questions about funding programs to be answered by Feb. 7. The questions are reported to have included “does this program promote gender ideology?” and “does this program promote or support in any way abortion?”

Leavitt added that “in the coming weeks and months, more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding.”

Prior to this pullback of the funding freeze order, the acting NIH director, Dr. Matthew Memoli, also issued a preliminary update to NIH staff stating that all NIH and NIH-funded clinical trials may continue.

Memoli emphasized that essential spending and contracting may also continue for research experiments that started before Jan. 20. This was to ensure “that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies,” Memoli wrote in the update. 

While communications are still on hold, NIH could soon resume reviewing new grants. 

“This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization,” Memoli wrote.

In fiscal year 2024, Yale received $899 million in federal funding.

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Later that day, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ordered a pause in the funding freeze until this coming Monday afternoon. However, currently approved research grants remain paused, according to Yale researchers the News spoke with. Additionally, since last Wednesday, the National Institutes of Health has not reviewed new grant applications.

“To my knowledge, this kind of pause — outside of a federal shutdown — is unprecedented,” Megan Ranney, dean of the School of Public Health, wrote to the News. “By slowing or stopping the process for funding, this pause has the potential to wreak havoc with the conduct of life-saving health science.”

During the 2024 fiscal year, Yale received $899 million from the federal government in the 2024 fiscal year to support the university’s research and training programs, according to University spokesperson Karen Peart. Over $643 million came from the NIH. 

The next major NIH grant deadline is Feb. 5, but researchers cannot submit applications now. Federal grants fund projects, as well as salaries of researchers and graduate students. The training of many students is also funded by DEI-based grants.

Last Tuesday, the Trump administration told agencies, including the NIH, to pause all public communications until Feb. 1, effectively resulting in a pause on grant reviews. The funding freeze order states that it will provide time to align federal funding with the current administration’s priorities and specifically targets funding for “DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”.

Diane Krause, professor of laboratory medicine and pathology, said that one of her students received a fundable score for a predoctoral fellowship to promote diversity in health-related research. 

“Now we don’t know if this will ever be funded. It’s been a nearly two year process to secure funding and that may all be for nought,” Krause wrote to the News.

Sedona Murphy, an associate research scientist in cell biology at the School of Medicine, explained that historically, NIH funding has been affected by racial inequality. 

Concerns remain about how scientists from underrepresented backgrounds will be affected by the funding freeze and Trump’s anti-DEI priorities.

“It feels like a major goal of the new administration is to re-segregate science under the guise of ‘meritocracy’ which is really just code for only straight white men should be here,” Murphy wrote to the News. “It’s gross and incredibly disheartening to see so much progress towards equity stamped out in such a short period of time.”

Ailong Ke, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, shared that his former trainees benefited from DEI initiatives. He said that it is “saddening” to see these programs end. 

If the funding freeze goes into effect, it is predicted to affect trillions of dollars and cause widespread disruption in global research grants that have been awarded but not yet spent.

According to Ronald Breaker, molecular biophysics and biochemistry chair, the NIH grant processing pause jeopardizes scientific research at Yale.

“Even small breaks in the chain of discovery — from idea generation, to grant writing and reviewing, to timely funds distribution — put at risk the pace of the breakthroughs we’ve been seeing in our labs,” Breaker said.

In a University-wide email sent before the federal judge blocked Trump’s orders, President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel addressed the concerns of the student and staff body regarding their research, studies and work at Yale.

“We want to assure you that we are actively working to understand the implications of any new policies, guidelines, and priorities, including the internal federal memorandum from yesterday that ordered federal agencies to temporarily pause grants and loans issued by the government,” they wrote.

McInnis and Strobel wrote that they do not yet have answers on how the University will proceed. They advised Yale faculty, staff and students to continue federally funded work except for specific cases with stop-work orders. 

In response to the funding freeze, Murphy wrote that “incredibly wealthy universities like Yale have a responsibility to stand up to fascism.”

In the statement, McInnis and Strobel also emphasized that they continue to discuss with legislators the importance of partnership between the federal government and higher education institutions.

Murphy agrees that correspondence with politicians is an important step.

“My current plans are to call my representatives and then organize with other scientists and protest,” Murphy wrote to the News. “This is still America, so I will exercise my rights to speak out against this blatant fascism and I encourage other scientists to do the same.”

On Monday, NIH released a memo explaining that additional guidance and clarification will be provided later.

Hari Viswanathan contributed to the reporting.

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Stress, performance anxiety or even medications like antidepressants can affect a young man’s erection. Over the past decade, doctor’s reports of young adults and adolescents with ED have increased rapidly, with one practice reporting a 31 times increase in young patients aged 14 to 21 presenting with ED. Now, one in four men under 40 are believed to experience ED today.

“I think awareness is probably the biggest thing, to know that, you know, you’re not alone in it,” said Dr. Thomas M. Buckley, associate professor of urology at the School of Medicine. “It’s something that is treatable, it is something you should see a healthcare provider about.”

ED typically stems from two broad causes: psychogenic, meaning issues related to mental health or performance anxiety, or organic, where ED stems from physical medical disorders.

A quarter of men are believed to be affected by performance anxiety, where anxiety about sex or sexual performance leads to erectile dysfunction. Dr. Stanton Honig, Yale professor of urology, explained that anxiety causes the body to release adrenaline. This decreases blood flow to the penis, meaning blood cannot be “trapped” there, leading to the penis being unable to become or remain erect.

When anxiety is reduced, “the problem resolves itself in many cases,” according to Honig.

Sometimes ED can be caused by anxiety stemming from mental health disorders. However, the medication that treats conditions such as anxiety and depression can also contribute to ED.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword, in the sense that anxiety and depression can cause erectile dysfunction, but their medications can also cause erectile dysfunction,” Buckley said. “So you’re kind of caught in this vicious cycle.”

Lifestyle choices can also lead to ED in young men. 

For example, junk food, high alcohol consumption and cannabis smoking are all linked to erectile dysfunction. Researchers have also linked higher rates of ED to men who started watching pornography at a younger age. Social media pressure, pornography and unrealistic expectations can create anxiety among young men, Honig explained. 

Rising levels of ED could also be the lasting effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Isolation, worsening mental health and even COVID-19 infection itself can all be factors relating to ED.

How can erectile dysfunction be treated?

Alongside lifestyle changes, medications like Viagra and Cialis in low dosages can be used to help men overcome erectile dysfunction, including cases related to anxiety. According to Dr. Matthew Wosnitzer, a urologist at Yale New Haven Health, ED medications do not create reliance or tolerance. 

Aside from medication, there are also over-the-counter treatments such as Eroxon, a topical gel made to aid erectile dysfunction. However, Buckley stresses that there are “actual effective medications delivered to your doorstep without ever seeing a doctor,” stating that these types of gels are not worth the hype.

Additionally, Honig explained that holding realistic expectations about sex or therapy can also help those with ED.

Honig, alongside Yale urologist Dr. Katherine Rotker, has compiled a list of potential beneficial actions and supplements for those with erectile dysfunction. This includes not resting laptops on one’s lap for long periods of time, avoiding excessive exercise and eating a balanced diet.

Finally, reducing stigma around ED by understanding its causes and effects can be beneficial to men with this condition as “men’s sexuality is tied into a lot of their self-esteem,” Buckley explained. 

By encouraging young men to see a doctor about ED, not only can sexual dissatisfaction be improved, but certain medical conditions could be spotted early, according to Wosnitzer.

The School of Medicine is located at 333 Cedar St.

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