In the US, the freshly installed administration of President Donald Trump is attempting to drastically reshape science. Here we focus on interventions that are relevant to epidemiology and public health.

These include: (i) restricting or eliminating access to health data; (ii) dictating what kinds of research can be conducted; (iii) cutting ties with international health bodies; and (iv) firing early-career researchers.

 

Alistair Woodward and Stephen Leeder

Making science great again – or not

 

Publication of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report has been interrupted and several articles have been withdrawn, before being republished online. Vital health information from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention website has been removed, including pages on the Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System and references to the mpox vaccine. Restrictions have been placed on access to US federal datasets, including weather forecasts. For 40 years, the Famine Early Warning Network provided real-time data on food security and hunger, worldwide. Its website now carries the message “currently unavailable”.

The administration has nominated research topics, such as climate change and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), that will no longer receive its support. Staff at the National Science Foundation and US National Institutes of Health are reportedly combing through grant applications for keywords that hint at research in prohibited areas, including terms such as “socioeconomic”, “ethnicity”, and “bias” . The Associate Director for Science at the CDC has ordered that papers that are authored by its researchers and under consideration by journals or accepted for publication should be withdrawn to check for, and eliminate, language pertaining to gender.

US funding to the World Health Organisation, which accounts for about 20% of its budget, has been abruptly halted and the US Agency for International Development — which has historically funded many global health initiatives — is now shut. The administration has severed US ties with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The future of the NIH is uncertain and two-thirds of staff at the Environmental Protection Agency may be terminated. The pattern is chaotic. Hundreds of staff at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Agency were fired, and then, following a court order, many have been reinstated.

Early-career researchers are the future of scientific endeavour. So, it is particularly troubling that staff who are at the beginning of their careers have been targeted. Probationary employees appeared to be easy pickings in early rounds of downsizing the workforce. Legal challenges have been partially successful in restoring some jobs, but the environment remains chaotic and exceptionally testing for large numbers of young researchers.

Many public health researchers are directly affected by these changes, as they reside and work in the US. The repercussions, however, reverberate worldwide. For example, USAID’s sudden closure is felt extensively in Africa. Dozens of clinical trials have been stopped and researchers laid off. Interventions have been abrupt and capricious. Elon Musk has acknowledged that efforts to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus were “accidentally cancelled”. Also, when the US adopts policies of this kind, other nations may be tempted to follow suit, compounding the losses.

American public health science is recognised globally for its quality, and we are all the poorer when it is downgraded. At a time when avian flu is spreading, and the fingerprint of climate change is evident in the extraordinary recent fires in Los Angeles, the Trump administration is undermining the foundations of human progress, both in America and in the rest of the world.

The attempts made by the president and his administration to restrict the scope of research strike at the heart of good science. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, claims that ∼10% of recent National Science Foundation grants are unacceptably “woke”. On 20 January, the White House issued an executive order “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government”. These attacks are unfounded and self-damaging. Withdrawing grants and support for research that uses the words “climate change” or “global heating” will not slow rising temperatures and sea levels. Cutting overheads from the NIH (to 15%), as Trump proposes, will put a spoke in the wheel of “woke” investigations; it may also cause many research-intensive universities to fold.

In this time of anxiety and adversity, we should reflect on our social responsibilities as citizens, and heed lessons from occasions in the past when political leaders sought to manipulate science to serve nationalist agendas. We should elevate ethical principles enshrined in, say, the Declaration of Human Rights. We should look for opportunities to explain why demonising marginalised groups is a dreadful idea; show how seeking safety by moving in advance of repressive directions — so-called anticipatory compliance — may cause more harm than good; and underline the dangers of loose language, such as “biological truth”.

Further, we should lend support to professional organisations that are committed to the promotion and preservation of science and scientific integrity.

We must remain steadfast in our commitment to the principles that govern our best public health practices. Including informed consent and integrity in all research; honesty in the collection, use, and dissemination of data; and prioritising research that meets community needs.

It is unclear how many of the threats issued by the Trump administration will be carried out. Resistance is mounting, through the courts and elsewhere. Meantime, we need to stand in solidarity with those upon whom we depend for effective public health science and practice and whose employment and careers are now threatened.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04/making-science-great-again-or-not/

 

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         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.