Trump’s War on Science Leaves US Public Health Experts Reeling: ‘They Are Sidelining Science’

The current administration’s second presidency has meant turmoil or worse for numerous areas of US government. However, in scientific endeavor – long a key driver of the nation’s global leadership – it has signaled the perfect storm.

Across healthcare, climate science, conservation efforts and nuclear safety, experienced government experts have been left confused and often unemployed under a intense assault from the White House, apparently intended to taking command over a sector about which he has displayed firmly rooted opinions, if often inaccurate comprehension.

Currently, experts caution, the US faces a loss of research knowledge across multiple fronts that could take many years to restore in a purge that has seen numerous of government scientists fired and millions of dollars slashed from scientific initiatives that were previously considered vital.

Certain analysts liken Trump’s approach to contemporary authoritarian regimes such as Hungary and Russia under Vladimir Putin. An observer even compares it to the aggressive efforts of Hitler and Stalin to control scientific communities in Nazi Germany and the former USSR.

“The Trump administration is trying to weaken the research process as a foundation of making decisions, both in the academic realm and for application to improve public policy,” said Paul Josephson, retired scholar at Colby College, and a specialist in the development of 20th century science and technology.

“They are labeling which kinds of science are acceptable and which are unwanted. It’s come up with a catalog of terms that should not be mentioned in scientific articles, or halt research that overly [focuses on] females, trans people, African Americans or minority communities.”

The historian cited the concept of “Soviet-style science” – referencing the USSR researcher, Trofim Lysenko, who opposed genetics and evidence-driven farming – as an instance of the long-term risks of authoritarian dogmatic beliefs. His pseudo-scientific beliefs were supported by the Soviet government and led to the arrests, incarceration and, in some cases, even executions of opposing scientists.

Public Health

Based on a nonprofit advocacy group, the federal health agency lost nearly a quarter (24 percent) of its workforce, approximately 20,000 workers, between the administration’s inauguration and spring – the highest percentage of any federal science agency.

Before the dispute that triggered Monarez’s firing, Kennedy terminated $500m in funding for the development of genetic immunization technology – which are currently used for Covid-19 but subject to research as a treatment for a host of other conditions, including some malignancies, HIV, a viral infection and a mosquito-borne disease.

In late spring, the government ended a $590 million contract with a pharmaceutical company supporting the development of a bird flu vaccine.

Kennedy also announced that the CDC would not recommend Covid booster shots for young people and pregnant women. He incorrectly claimed that recommendations of additional vaccinations for children were unsupported by clinical data.

The president had previously issued an executive order prohibiting Covid mandates in schools.

Another order in May halted research into “risky virus enhancement experiments” on viruses and pathogens – claiming that such work was being carried out without adequate oversight and referencing the unproven theory that the Covid-19 virus originated from a lab in Asia that used similar research methods.

The Food and Drug Administration has limited access to Covid shots, saying only seniors and those at elevated danger of health issues from the infection need them.

Amid this intense opposition to immunization, groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the a doctors’ group – as well as at least one GOP lawmaker, Bill Cassidy – have charged the government of denying vaccines to people who desire it.

Worries extend beyond vaccine policy. Recently, Kennedy was charged with suppressing a study – commissioned during the previous presidency and submitted to the health department in March – that posited evidence of a connection between alcohol and cancer. Critics say the stance opposes his stated make America health again agenda.

Among many dismissals at the National Institute of Health were staff studying a neurological condition at the organization’s center for Alzheimer’s and related dementias. They included a senior researcher, who had been earmarked as the facility’s next acting director.

A national health body is also ending its drowning prevention program, established in response to a increase of water-related deaths during the Covid pandemic. More than 4,000 people die in water in the US each year, and it is the primary cause of death among youngsters aged one to four.

Environmental Science

About eight hundred researchers, weather experts and engineers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were dismissed in winter in a move experts warned would hinder crucial hurricane forecasting and environmental simulation work.

Another ten researchers from a post-doctoral program on climate and global change run by the agency were put on unpaid leave in summer. Meanwhile, the federal agency indefinitely suspended work on part of the agency’s a data project program, which provides data on extreme rainfalls and how they are influenced by climate change.

The administration’s spending plan for 2026 envisions a $1.52 billion cut to Noaa’s funding, with cuts specifically targeting climate programs.

The White House’s office of management and budget also proposes a $20.29bn cut to the energy department, with its research division budget targeted for a $1.15m reduction.

The administration has diminished the national climate assessment, despite it being required by Congress to be conducted every periodically. In spring, it removed four hundred volunteer experts who had been ready to work on the most recent assessment.

By the end of summer, national climate assessment were no longer available on federal government websites, with no reason or links to other locations provided, according to Columbia University’s research institute for climate change law.

In addition, the Pentagon stated that it would stop providing atmospheric and oceanic data to scientists and meteorologists, citing “digital safety issues”.

Environmental Protection

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed revoking the endangerment finding, a 2009 scientific determination that emissions endanger human health, and instead interpret its power narrowly under the environmental legislation. Specialists say such a move threatens the regulatory foundation for government environmental rules.

The agency also announced plans to eliminate its scientific division – long seen as the linchpin of its mission to protect the environment and human health – and replace it with a new office of applied science and conservation strategies. In so doing, it is set to cut its staff by three thousand seven hundred – down by nearly a quarter since the president took office.

Last week, the EPA revealed it was no longer prepared to maintain rules designed to protect people from hazardous amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (Pfas) – also known as “forever chemicals” – in tap water. It asked a judicial body to reverse legal protections against four such chemicals put in place by lawmakers just last year.

On Tuesday, the organization said it would end the an emissions monitoring system – a move that it said would end the requirements of around eight thousand large companies in the US to report their pollution output and save businesses $2.4 billion over the next ten years. The agency’s head, the EPA’s presidentially selected administrator, dismissed the program as “government paperwork that does nothing to improve air quality”.

The president has issued a series of orders undercutting renewable power projects, fueled by his often-stated dislike towards renewable energy structures.

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