Medical researchers from universities and the National Institutes of Health rally near the Health and Human Services headquarters to protest federal budget cuts Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
By Irwin Redlener
The degradation of the hard-earned world recognition of America's medical science and public health expertise goes far beyond what RFK, Jr. alone represents. It is about the wide-scale dismissal of NIH scientists, the attacks on university-based research, the withdrawal of the U.S. from WHO, and the elimination of USAID.
Think about this: HHS and the Trump administration are expunging science and evidence-based policy anywhere they can across every agency of the federal government. Non-governmental high-level scientific advisory committees, from those that deal with vaccine safety, research ethics, and new drug and device approval to the latest, include the advisory committee on newborn screening for genetic disorders. We're talking about dozens of legitimate, essential advisory groups.
This is wholesale destruction, deploying, as its main tool, an administrative sledgehammer. We just can't remain silent, or disempowered, or meek.
Our response must be to speak out publicly, to contact our Congressional representatives, to tell our organizations and societies to speak out. And we've got to name names!
We're all political now...
