Disease cure research in the United States—for cancer, for Alzheimer’s disease, even for pediatric heart defects—has been stopped. Graduate school admission offers to train the next generation of U.S. scientists have been rescinded. Undergraduate research opportunities are canceled.
This funding purge is happening in part because of a fictional, conspiratorial worldview: President Trump, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Special Government Employee Elon Musk blame the U.S. scientific enterprise for the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.
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In his first town hall with NIH employees, Director Jay Bhattacharya endorsed the view that NIH caused the deaths of more than 7 million people, including 1.2 million Americans. [Here’s video of the town hall via CNN].
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Right now, the United States faces multiple infectious crises, such as measles and whooping cough—emergencies in which the country’s evidence-based, scientific foundation needs to operate at full strength.
