Over 50 scientists have already been fired due to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigation into why many grantees refused to provide information about their financial ties to foreign governments, and this just may be the tip of the iceberg.

Michael Lauer, NIH’s head of extramural research, made the announcement last week that some 54 scientists had been fired because of their financial ties to foreign governments, mainly China. He issued a presentation with many stunning allegations about the extent of which science has been subverted with foreign dollars.

“It’s not what we had hoped, and it’s not a fun task,” NIH Director Francis Collins said regarding the investigation, which is still ongoing. He said the data is “sobering.”

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82 percent of the individuals under investigation are of Asian descent, which Lauer noted “is not surprising” because “that’s who the Chinese target” in their recruitment for these infiltration programs. This shows yet again that diversity is not a strength when it comes to protecting U.S. national security.

Lauer noted in his presentation that there are 399 scientists who are persons “of possible concern” for the investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has fingered 30 percent of these individuals, with an additional 44 scientists being found by their own institutions to be involved in potential wrong-doing. Of these people in the pool, the investigation has classified 63 percent, or 256 individuals, as “positive,” with evidence indicating these scientists were involved in illicit activities with foreign governments.

This news may be the tip of the iceberg, as certain U.S. public universities desperately try to conceal their deep ties to China:

Currently, university attorneys are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education and are also preventing Congress from gaining access to records that demonstrate the institutions’ ties to China.

The Education Department’s General Counsel Reed Rubinstein wrote the letter, which told elected officials who requested the documents that the universities’ lawyers “claimed Freedom of Information Act exemptions and legal privileges to block record production to Congress.”

Rubinstein noted that some schools may be too enthusiastic in labeling some documents “confidential” or “privileged.”

However, he pointed out that staff will reach out to each school under investigation and inform them about which records will be handed over to Congress. To block a document being handed over, an objecting school “must provide written specification of the records designated for withholding and specific supporting legal grounds,” the letter stated.

The letter does not explicitly detail which schools pushed the department to keep their records confidential.

Rubinstein’s memo came in response to a May 4 letter from several leading House Republicans requesting that the Education Department hand over documents on all findings or reports outlining gifts from China to U.S. colleges and universities. They alluded to China’s infiltration of the American higher education system and certain misgivings about theft, spying and propaganda.

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan led the charge by additionally requesting details on all open and closed investigations by the Education Department that dealt with “false or misleading reporting of foreign gifts.”

The red menace has been at work infiltrating while America is sleeping, and this is why institutional rot has taken hold throughout the nation.