It is impossible to predict how many humans will be negatively impacted by the "policies" of the Republican party. We can say with a great deal of certainty, based on our recent experience with COVID, that there is no amount of suffering and death that will make them change course. Whether it's measles, bird flu, or something completely new, it's a certainty we will be less prepared to respond. Republicans have become the party of sickness and death.
Writing as a NIH-funded researcher and physician, our research unit was just informed that the grant we were awarded December 1, 2024, for which we received the first six months of funding, will not receive the second half of the year's funds. We have hundreds of patients enrolled in clinical trials evaluating investigational drugs to improve their lives and health, and hundreds of personnel across our sites who are employed on this grant. I know everyone has been talking about the overall loss of our science and the incredible value that research affords to our citizens in this country, but you should also know that on a very simple level, there are people who may lose their lives, staff who will lose their jobs, local economies that will be affected, and not just in the future but right now. What is being done isn't just science denial, it is criminal, and I am sure that as this continues to play out, nearly every family and community in the U.S. will be negatively affected in an immediate way but the decisions to cancel our scientific research. The news media is focused on the impact on the economy of the tariffs and the loss of our federal workforce, but it isn't just our federal workforce, but the workforce in every part of the U.S. No one is talking about the impact of these craven decisions on our economy and on our health and the health of the patients we provide care for either in our clinics or in our research units. The partnerships between the NIH and academic medical centers are a very important part of the loss of scientific productivity, but what people have not yet recognized is that every academic institution/university that has to close down its research enterprise because of these decisions are also the academic institutions/universities where we educate and train the next generation of scientists and maybe more critically the next generation of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and generally those who work in our healthcare workforce. Where do people imagine we will educate and train the next generation of them when universities shutter their programs? Who will be providing your healthcare? We don't have enough medical schools, nursing schools, pharmacy schools, etc. that are not affiliated with a university to train the number of people we need to provide that care. I'll stop the diatribe, but it isn't just the loss of our status in the world of science but the loss of the jobs, livelihoods, education and training, health and well being of countless people in the U.S. and the impact on our economy that is likely to compound to an exponential degree the impact of the tariffs.
This is all horrifying. But why "emasculation"? That's an incredibly loaded word that implies that somehow the presence or leadership of female scientists had something to do with what's happening now. And while this regime claims to be ridding federally funded scientific research of "unqualified DEI hires," we know that's merely a smokescreen for their anti-science agenda. Science is being gutted, not emasculated. Please don't make female scientists scapegoats for what's happening.
Scientific Research really has no gender associated with it, or at least it shouldn’t. So I would suggest that emasculation doesn’t correctly apply here. Unless , of course, you feel that the only good science research is male in character. So how about just calling it ‘The Destruction of Science Research’ so as to rid the title of gender bias.
I am a college professor at a small public STEM university that is highly research-focused. I run a lab that relies on money from the NIH and the NSF. The current freeze to grants and suspension of training programs has been devastating. I am not sure how much longer I can keep paying my PhD students and postdoctoral scholars if this crisis continues. The next generation is being turned away from STEM research careers because when you cut DEI funding, you also end up cutting funding for white men and women (DOGE has dumped training grants wholesale). I am grief-stricken for young scientists who are just starting out now.
The point about the "inefficiency of science" is important. The unexpected results of what might seem to be strange studies could at some point be useful in ways that couldn't be predicted. The results of these cutbacks are that we won't have the basic knowledge to be pulled out of scientific literature for emerging problems and, we'll have no idea what could have been.
Well, if we are not going to fund health related sciences, climate science, plant sciences for food, then obviously our outer space science efforts should be shut down now too. That means you Elon Musk and the Amazon guy.
I think of these cuts in this context: when the Nazis ravaged the homes and museums of all those they hated, they stole, and often destroyed, paintings by Jews -- Russian, Polish, German, Dutch, etc. Immeasurably valuable, insightful, beautiful great art was lost or destroyed.
In the 1830s, Andrew Jackson invited the hordes into the White House, where they trashed the entire place. Trump invited his to trash the Capitol.
Even earlier, the Goths invaded Rome and did the same to much of the empire, as Christians later did to the "pagan" baths as far north as Scotland. Long after WWII, the Taliban did the same to much of the remarkable Buddhist heritage of much of Afghanistan in 2001.
Those losses, of Greco of some of the 19th and 20th centuries' great works was worth pocket change in comparison to the value of scientific discoveries of the past 80 years.
Now barbarians are at the gate once again; Musk and Trump and "Big Balls" and their ilk. Trump still resents the fact that not one of the fabled NY 400 Upper East Side families ever invited him into their homes, because, as they said, "He's a boor." "He has no class." "Uncultured slob."
I have no doubt that Melon Husk has wet dreams about being part of the elite, but he, too, is an insect in their eyes regardless of his money.
Am I a snob? Hardly. My family were middle-class working people, both parents working, but we were brought up to esteem quality -- in art, music, literature, culture, knowledge, individual accomplishment -- and to view all those we met as our equals: our fellow human beings worthy of respect. But there are a few dozen people in the world whom I would never respect, never help, never invite into my home, if they were naked in the midst of a blizzard. I bet you can guess who's included.
The author in passing floats the possibility of private enterprise as an alternative for funding scientific research. However, that is a poor alternative because the mission of private enterprise, especially nowadays, is all about profit. How would we know whether the results were actually true or good? And, the private enterprise would own the data, so the results would likely not be auditable and the data would unavailable for further public use. It is entirely appropriate for the government to fund science on behalf of We the People, so that results are transparent and the data is owned by and available to the public. (NIH, being about health, obviously must manage data privacy issues.)
That derives from the greater fallacy -- that government should be operated like a business. We should be able trust government to consider only our safety and welfare, not profit. But profit becomes the goal when oligarchs take over.
It is impossible to predict how many humans will be negatively impacted by the "policies" of the Republican party. We can say with a great deal of certainty, based on our recent experience with COVID, that there is no amount of suffering and death that will make them change course. Whether it's measles, bird flu, or something completely new, it's a certainty we will be less prepared to respond. Republicans have become the party of sickness and death.
All this for a stinking tax break for the top 10%. Simply disgusting.
Writing as a NIH-funded researcher and physician, our research unit was just informed that the grant we were awarded December 1, 2024, for which we received the first six months of funding, will not receive the second half of the year's funds. We have hundreds of patients enrolled in clinical trials evaluating investigational drugs to improve their lives and health, and hundreds of personnel across our sites who are employed on this grant. I know everyone has been talking about the overall loss of our science and the incredible value that research affords to our citizens in this country, but you should also know that on a very simple level, there are people who may lose their lives, staff who will lose their jobs, local economies that will be affected, and not just in the future but right now. What is being done isn't just science denial, it is criminal, and I am sure that as this continues to play out, nearly every family and community in the U.S. will be negatively affected in an immediate way but the decisions to cancel our scientific research. The news media is focused on the impact on the economy of the tariffs and the loss of our federal workforce, but it isn't just our federal workforce, but the workforce in every part of the U.S. No one is talking about the impact of these craven decisions on our economy and on our health and the health of the patients we provide care for either in our clinics or in our research units. The partnerships between the NIH and academic medical centers are a very important part of the loss of scientific productivity, but what people have not yet recognized is that every academic institution/university that has to close down its research enterprise because of these decisions are also the academic institutions/universities where we educate and train the next generation of scientists and maybe more critically the next generation of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, and generally those who work in our healthcare workforce. Where do people imagine we will educate and train the next generation of them when universities shutter their programs? Who will be providing your healthcare? We don't have enough medical schools, nursing schools, pharmacy schools, etc. that are not affiliated with a university to train the number of people we need to provide that care. I'll stop the diatribe, but it isn't just the loss of our status in the world of science but the loss of the jobs, livelihoods, education and training, health and well being of countless people in the U.S. and the impact on our economy that is likely to compound to an exponential degree the impact of the tariffs.
This is all horrifying. But why "emasculation"? That's an incredibly loaded word that implies that somehow the presence or leadership of female scientists had something to do with what's happening now. And while this regime claims to be ridding federally funded scientific research of "unqualified DEI hires," we know that's merely a smokescreen for their anti-science agenda. Science is being gutted, not emasculated. Please don't make female scientists scapegoats for what's happening.
I grimaced at that headline, too. Evisceration would describe it very well without the misogynistic connotation of "emasculation."
Scientific Research really has no gender associated with it, or at least it shouldn’t. So I would suggest that emasculation doesn’t correctly apply here. Unless , of course, you feel that the only good science research is male in character. So how about just calling it ‘The Destruction of Science Research’ so as to rid the title of gender bias.
I am a college professor at a small public STEM university that is highly research-focused. I run a lab that relies on money from the NIH and the NSF. The current freeze to grants and suspension of training programs has been devastating. I am not sure how much longer I can keep paying my PhD students and postdoctoral scholars if this crisis continues. The next generation is being turned away from STEM research careers because when you cut DEI funding, you also end up cutting funding for white men and women (DOGE has dumped training grants wholesale). I am grief-stricken for young scientists who are just starting out now.
The point about the "inefficiency of science" is important. The unexpected results of what might seem to be strange studies could at some point be useful in ways that couldn't be predicted. The results of these cutbacks are that we won't have the basic knowledge to be pulled out of scientific literature for emerging problems and, we'll have no idea what could have been.
This will rank with the purging of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145 BC
Our future generation of scientist will be lost besause there will be no place for them to work
Well, if we are not going to fund health related sciences, climate science, plant sciences for food, then obviously our outer space science efforts should be shut down now too. That means you Elon Musk and the Amazon guy.
Maybe someone in the scientific community should convince him that having a lobotomy increases your chances for a longer lifespan.
But if he agreed to have one, and did, who would notice any difference?
I think of these cuts in this context: when the Nazis ravaged the homes and museums of all those they hated, they stole, and often destroyed, paintings by Jews -- Russian, Polish, German, Dutch, etc. Immeasurably valuable, insightful, beautiful great art was lost or destroyed.
In the 1830s, Andrew Jackson invited the hordes into the White House, where they trashed the entire place. Trump invited his to trash the Capitol.
Even earlier, the Goths invaded Rome and did the same to much of the empire, as Christians later did to the "pagan" baths as far north as Scotland. Long after WWII, the Taliban did the same to much of the remarkable Buddhist heritage of much of Afghanistan in 2001.
Those losses, of Greco of some of the 19th and 20th centuries' great works was worth pocket change in comparison to the value of scientific discoveries of the past 80 years.
Now barbarians are at the gate once again; Musk and Trump and "Big Balls" and their ilk. Trump still resents the fact that not one of the fabled NY 400 Upper East Side families ever invited him into their homes, because, as they said, "He's a boor." "He has no class." "Uncultured slob."
I have no doubt that Melon Husk has wet dreams about being part of the elite, but he, too, is an insect in their eyes regardless of his money.
Am I a snob? Hardly. My family were middle-class working people, both parents working, but we were brought up to esteem quality -- in art, music, literature, culture, knowledge, individual accomplishment -- and to view all those we met as our equals: our fellow human beings worthy of respect. But there are a few dozen people in the world whom I would never respect, never help, never invite into my home, if they were naked in the midst of a blizzard. I bet you can guess who's included.
Wait till Ebola arrives here....
Your post should note proposed ~50% cuts to NSF and DOE (Energy).
The author in passing floats the possibility of private enterprise as an alternative for funding scientific research. However, that is a poor alternative because the mission of private enterprise, especially nowadays, is all about profit. How would we know whether the results were actually true or good? And, the private enterprise would own the data, so the results would likely not be auditable and the data would unavailable for further public use. It is entirely appropriate for the government to fund science on behalf of We the People, so that results are transparent and the data is owned by and available to the public. (NIH, being about health, obviously must manage data privacy issues.)
That derives from the greater fallacy -- that government should be operated like a business. We should be able trust government to consider only our safety and welfare, not profit. But profit becomes the goal when oligarchs take over.
What are we allowing to be done to ourselves!!!??? Are we crazy!!??