The right wing in America has been conducting a war on science for quite some time but under Donald Trump 2.0 they have decided to go nuclear. The many cuts to scientific research are so cataclysmic that it may set the United States back to its third tier status of the early 20th century
America has long had tension between scientific advances and resistance from cultural conservatives. For many GOP voters it is tied to the fundamentalist religious view that the theory of evolution contradicts the Bible and is, therefore, blasphemous. Denying that basic understanding of the natural world makes virtually every scientific advance suspect in their minds. (As it happens, the Scopes evolution trial took place exactly 100 years ago this week, July 10 to July 21, 1925. Then, as now, the controversy was fed by a sense of paranoia and social anxiety over rapid cultural change. )
But the war on science isn’t just about religion or common mistrust. This phenomenon is also related to the Republican Party’s fealty to businesses like the fossil fuel industry which requires that they deny climate change in order to reduce competition from renewable energy sources. It has led to a recent descent into a right wing conspiracy theory which holds that the extreme weather events we’re experiencing are perpetrated by the “Deep State” which is allegedly manipulating the weather. I suppose it’s a good sign that they’re at least admitting that humans are affecting these deadly weather occurrences.
In addition there has always been a conservative faction that wished to slash taxes and hoped to end support for science in the public sector. These people believe that business would pick up the slack, refusing to acknowledge that much of the basic research which leads to breakthroughs in science and technology, some of which leads to dead ends and disappointing outcomes, do not immediately make a profit and are therefore unlikely to be pursued.
And then there is the traditional right wing suspicion toward government which leads many adherents to be hostile to regulations around public health or the environment. We saw that play out in living color during the pandemic and the fall-out from that devastating event looks like it’s going to haunt the country for some time to come.
Today we are seeing the Trump administration creating a perfect storm in which the government’s involvement in the pursuit of scientific advances and service for the public is being systematically destroyed.
This disaster is happening at all levels of the federal government and impacting every agency. It’s all terrible. But I think the one that should be discussed more fully in the public is the effect it’s having on biomedical research. The changes are truly profound and frankly, catastrophic for the lives of millions of citizens in this country and around the world.
The attacks on universities for spurious political reasons are affecting many research projects that would otherwise lead to treatments and cures for deadly diseases. And the naming of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse: Robert F. Kennedy Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr Mehmet Oz to run Medicaid and Medicare, Dr. Marty Makary as head of the FDA and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to run the National Institute of Health has signaled the end of any serious approach to biomedical science and public health by the United States government. Their individual histories as dangerous conspiracy theorist, quack cure TV huckster, eccentric contrarian and ethically challenged partisan have sent shockwaves through the scientific community as they’ve taken a wrecking ball to the august institutions that were previously considered to be the best in the world.
This is the caliber of expertise we now have running them as they work diligently to ensure that real medical research and public health are eliminated:
Sure, we should all eat better and exercise. And it’s great that the U.S. is finally getting rid of the food dyes that Europe and other countries banned years ago. But none of that is science. It’s just self-help, internet based, anecdotal nonsense.
Meanwhile, after telling us not to eat carrot cake, these luminaries are strangling research into one of the potentially greatest advances in medical research in a century, all because of more right wing crank conspiracy theories about the mRNA COVID vaccines. The consequences are tragic. As the Guardian reported this week:
Research on mRNA cancer vaccines has been under way for more than a decade, with more than 120 clinical trials on treating and preventing cancers. mRNA shots have shown promise for preventing the return of head and neck cancer; lymphoma; breast cancer, which accounts for 11.6% of all cancer deaths in the US; colorectal cancer; lung cancer; and kidney cancer, among others.
Pancreatic cancer has a 10% survival rate and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, but in a small study, about half of the patients who received an mRNA vaccine did not see their cancer return, and they still had strong immune responses three years later. Early mRNA vaccine trials also indicated the recurrence of melanoma could be cut in half. And a small study co-authored by Sayour on glioblastoma showed the vaccines started affecting the tumors within 48 hours.
All of that is at risk now. The NIH is dismissing dozens of grant reviewers for mRNA research, leaving them understaffed and without the necessary expertise to assess the data. They have cancelled $766 million in contracts to develop mRNA vaccines against potential pandemic flu viruses. It’s clear that this government is pulling the plug on support for this research and it’s devastating.
It’s too much to expect these people to care about the lives that won’t be saved because of their antediluvian attitudes toward modern science but they usually care about money. Economist Paul Krugman points out that “two first-rate economists, David Cutler and Ed Glaeser, have made a stab at estimating the impact of cuts at NIH. Their analysis suggests that these cuts might save $500 billion in federal spending over the next 25 years — while imposing more than $8 trillion in losses.”
But then caring about that would require long term thinking which Americans have never been very interested in. But we used to let scientists and researchers think about it for us and deliver the fruits of their labor for our benefit. It served us very well for over a century. Now we’re just going to tell people that it’s their patriotic duty to be healthy and leave it at that.
Salon