Speak Out, Scientists – by Misha Angrist

I’ve written about how weird and uncomfortable it is for scientists to pause their daily work—developing solutions for the problems caused by climate change, discovering treatments for deadly diseases, and expanding our knowledge of how the world works—to take to the streets in protest of what they see as corrosive anti-science government policies. The New York Times report on the Stand Up For Science rally in March quoted Emory University psychology researcher Carol Delawalla: “At the end of the day, I just want to do my research. I never thought of myself as an activist—that’s never been part of my identity. And I’m reckoning with that.”

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But a couple of weeks ago in The Atlantic, science journalist Katharine J. Wu suggested that by voicing their objections to government attacks on science, scientists are somehow “ensnaring” themselves in a catch-22:

…in retaliating, scientists also run the risk of advancing the narrative they want to fight—that science in the U.S. is a political endeavor, and that the academic status quo has been tainted by an overly liberal view of reality.

Calling the defense of science “retaliating” is a tell. Researchers are not disengaged monks in white lab coats, aloof from worldly cares, nor are they a tribe of panicked, long-suffering Beakers. They are people protesting a concerted and dangerous attack on the foundations of their professions. This attempted infantilization of scientists whose job it is to help determine real—not political—truths is as tired as it is offensive.

Beyond this is the odious suggestion that to be a scientist is to relinquish one’s humanity altogether. The article confuses scientific goals with the dispassionate investigation of facts: a public health professional must think carefully before advising millions of people to wear masks or go in for a vaccine booster, balancing the best information against the societal costs and risks of burdening society with their advice, which had better be as good as we can make it. Thousands of dedicated physicians and research scientists work (or worked) in public health; the boundaries between knowledge production and its prudent and just application have always been, and inescapably remain, fluid. I remember walking down the street in 2021 and getting yelled at for not wearing a mask outside. But in what world should silliness like that empower the reckless actions of a quack obsessed with raw milk, consequences be damned?

The Atlantic piece at least acknowledges that the current administration has itself been “pouring gasoline” on the fires of politicization. Not every Republican administration has come after science with a wrecking ball like the current one. Richard Nixon founded the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970; the George W. Bush administration created PEPFAR, the United States President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, which saved more than 25 million lives through 2024. And in 1999, Newt Fucking Gingrich exhorted Congress to double the budget for scientific research:

No other federal expenditure would create more jobs and wealth or do more to strengthen our world leadership, protect the environment and promote better health and education for all Americans.

But now, when a biochemist or particle physicist or civil engineer gives voice to this same idea, it is somehow a self-serving woke liberal trick.

Here are a few lowlights from the hurricane of corruption and mismanagement of the current HHS:

• February 28:  RFK Jr says measles outbreak is “not unusual”
• March 3:  HHS eliminates public comment on proposed rulemaking
• March 14:  RFK Jr says measles can be treated with vitamin A
• March 26:  West Texas measles patients show signs of vitamin A toxicity
• March 28:  The Secretary “wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
• April 3:  Kennedy closes HHS FOIA offices
• April 10:  RFK Jr. says some vaccines have “never worked”
• April 18:  Medical journals get threatening letters from DOJ
• May 28:  “HHS Unilaterally Changes Vaccine Guidance, Providing No Justification, Imperiling American Infants”
• May 29:  The MAHA Report cites studies that do not exist
• May 31:  The MAHA Report appears to plagiarize a 2023 document from Children’s Health Defense
• June 9:  Kennedy fires entire CDC vaccine advisory panel
• June 13:  “NIH Workers Risk Retaliation by Openly Protesting Trump Policies”
• July 15:  10,000 layoffs finalized at CDC, FDA, and NIH
• July 19:  USAID defunding could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030
• July 21:  “How Trump Killed Cancer Research”
• August 5:  US will no longer fund work on mRNA vaccines
• August 9:  “Gunman in Deadly C.D.C. Shooting Fixated on Covid Vaccine”
• August 22:  “RFK Jr. Warns Docs of Liability if They Stray From CDC on Vaccines”
• August 28:  “Kennedy demanded acceptance of new vaccine policies; Susan Monarez refused”
• August 28:  CVS declines to offer Covid vaccines in 16 states, citing “the current regulatory environment”
• September 5:  RFK Jr.’s sister, nephew call for him to resign from HHS
• September 9:  “This Will Get People Killed”

This list, far from complete, renders the catch-22 argument moot. Scientists (and everyone, as far I’m concerned) sit idly by at their peril. As Atul Gawande implored the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, we must bear witness. Given the relentless attacks on American science and public health over the last eight months, insofar as we are able, we have to speak.

There is no trap. Raising one’s voice is not the perverse act; silence is.