Trump v. Science, Health Care, Research, et al

From taking down all information on vaccines, treatment, and testing for COVID-19 to censoring research to ending research on what could be the next pandemic, the Trump administration has science in its gunsights. While the results are not as immediate and dramatic as a stock market drop, they could be far deadlier.  

The official U.S. government web pages with information about COVID-19 have been replaced by a page labeled “Lab Leak” with an image of Trump in the background. All information on vaccines, treatment, and testing has been removed. The new website features virulent attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci and also attacks anyone who disagrees with the lab leak theory of COVID origins. 

[NPR] “The new page, which features a full-color image of President Trump superimposed over giant text of the words ‘Lab Leak,’ criticizes the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic, including promoting masks, lockdowns and social distancing. …

“Some scientists were critical of the new site, which they say appears political in intent. 

“The website presents five bullet points in favor of the lab leak theory. None of them are new, noted Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

“’Every one of the five pieces of evidence supporting the lab leak hypothesis … is factually incorrect, embellished, or presented in a misleading way,’ Rasmussen wrote in an email.

“’But making evidence-based arguments in good faith about the pandemic’s origin is not the purpose of this document. This is pure propaganda, intended to justify the systematic devastation of the federal government, particularly programs devoted to public health and biomedical research,’ Rasmussen added.” 

Maybe the Trump administration just doesn’t believe in pandemics. They certainly seem to be disabling every possible response, both to COVID 19 and to avian flu. Dr. Kay Russo, a veterinarian who has been working with cattle infected with the H5N1 avian flu in Colorado, says that time to prevent the spread of avian flu and the development of further varieties is running out. “At present,” she said, “we’re given a stick, and they put a blindfold on us, and we’re sent into a gunfight and we’re losing. We are losing.”

[60 Minutes] “Bird flu has been circling the globe for decades. So the discovery in 2024 that the deadly pathogen had jumped from a wild bird to a cow came as a shock to virus watchers. Now, in just over a year, the virus has ripped through America’s dairy herds and poultry flocks. It has jumped to other mammals – including humans. Seventy Americans have caught the virus, one has died. Long feared as a possible pandemic, doctors and veterinarians fighting the virus told us Biden’s government was slow to act; while the Trump administration has now laid off more than a hundred key scientists – all as the virus keeps spreading. …

“Bill Whitaker: So we are now seeing the virus has spread from birds to cattle, and now to foxes, goats, pigs, rats, cats, raccoons–

“Dr. Angela Rasmussen: The fact that this virus can infect so many different types of mammals is a huge concern in terms of its ability to infect people. …

“Bill Whitaker: Has the Trump Administration gotten its arms around this problem?

“Dr. Angela Rasmussen: No, I would say is the short answer. But the other– the longer answer is that I don’t actually entirely know what is –what is going on.

“Bill Whitaker: Why is that?

“Dr. Angela Rasmussen: Many of the people who were working on this, at least at CDC, have–have been fired from the federal government. So the influenza division at CDC has been decimated, and in fact, there is a communications ban that has been put on these federal workers. “

Dr. Kevin Hall is a long-time researcher at the National Institutes of Health. His research focuses on diet, health, and the dangers of ultra-processed foods. Some of his research showed how ultra-processed foods encourage over-eating and contribute to Type 2 diabetes and obesity. You might think that aligns with RFK Jr.’s position. Think again—Dr. Hall just resigned from NIH over censorship of his scientific work. 

[New York Times] “In February, Dr. Hall said that N.I.H. officials told him he couldn’t be listed as an author on a yet-to-be-published scientific review on ultraprocessed foods that he co-wrote with a group of university scientists. This was because the review included language about ‘health equity’ (it acknowledged that some people in the United States don’t have access to healthy food). This discussion may not have aligned with President Trump’s views on diversity, equity and inclusion. If Dr. Hall wanted to stay on the paper, they said, that section would need to be modified. Dr. Hall removed his name — a first in his career as a government scientist. …

“In March, Dr. Hall and his colleagues published a study that hinted that ultraprocessed foods were not addictive in the same way as some drugs.

“When The Times requested a phone interview with Dr. Hall to discuss the study, the N.I.H. denied the request. Several days later, the agency allowed him to answer questions, but only in writing. Dr. Hall said that his responses, which had been sent through an N.I.H. press office, had been edited without his approval in a way that emphasized the study’s limitations and downplayed its significance.” 

Attempts at censorship go far beyond government employees. At least three medical journals have received demands for information from acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin. 

[MedPageToday] “A federal prosecutor sent a letter to a medical journal editor, probing whether the publication is ‘partisan’ when it comes to ‘various scientific debates.’ …

“Martin’s letter asks five questions, including how the journal assesses its ‘responsibilities to protect the public from misinformation,’ and how it ‘clearly articulate[s] to the public when you have certain viewpoints that are influenced by your ongoing relations with supporters, funders, advertisers, and others.’

“It also asks whether the journal accepts manuscripts from ‘competing viewpoints’ as well as how it assesses the role of ‘funding organizations like the National Institutes of Health in the development of submitted articles.’ …

“Adam Gaffney, MD, MPH, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, said the letter “should send a chill down the spine of scientists and physicians.”

“’It is yet another example of the Trump administration’s effort to control academic inquiry and stifle scientific discourse — an administration, it warrants mentioning, that has embraced medical misinformation and pseudoscience to reckless effect,’ Gaffney said in an email to MedPage Today. ‘Journal editors should join together and publicly renounce this as yet more thinly guised anti-science political blackmail.’” 

Budgets are moral documents. I can’t remember who said that, but it’s pretty clear that the Trump budget is an immoral document. Among other cuts, it slashes discretionary spending in Health and Human Services by about 30 percent. Proposed cuts would eliminate entire programs. The Washington Post lists, among others:

“•  programs focused on preventing childhood lead poisoning, bolstering the health-care workforce, advancing rural health initiatives and maintaining a registry of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. …

“• all of the [CDC’s] chronic disease programs and domestic HIV work. The chronic disease programs being eliminated include work on heart disease, obesity, diabetes and smoking cessation. …

“• “rural hospital flexibility grants, state offices of rural health, rural residency development program and at-risk rural hospitals program grants are listed as eliminations  …

“• Money for the Head Start program.” 

Note: About one-quarter off HHS staff have already been terminated.