Speaking Up for Science

It’s been a bad week for scientists. Shortly after being inaugurated, President Trump froze grants and contracts administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Yesterday the administration instructed several government agencies, including the EPA and the Agricultural Research Service at the Department of Agriculture, to curtail communications with the public via news releases and social media. In addition, employees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) were told not to discuss new or pending regulations or guidances in public forums or with public officials. These disturbing developments bode ill for the status of government-funded science in the next few years.

The suspension of EPA contracts and grants will have ripple effects throughout the science establishment. Laboratory technicians, graduate students, and postdocs will lose jobs. Some of these students and postdocs are on student visas, meaning that the loss of funding necessitates return to their home countries. It’s difficult to write manuscripts without full access to data or hands-on mentorship, especially if English is not one’s native language. Opportunities to gather data in the field will be lost; as a result, studies may never be started or completed.

Even more troubling is the gag order on agencies. An important part of science is dissemination of data, both in peer-reviewed publications and in public forums. As the taxpayers paid for this research, taxpayers are entitled to hear about the results. If NIH officials cannot speak to elected representatives about upcoming reports, it is governmental malpractice. The people are ill-served by silence. These actions have their precedents in some of the evils of the 20th century. In regimes from the Soviets to the Taliban, the first purges came in the academic and scientific communities.

What can the scientific community do about this? Raise hell. Speak up about this egregious governmental meddling in research. Call your elected representatives, especially if institutions in your Congressional District get a large amount of funding from these agencies. (Think colleges and teaching hospitals.) Write letters to the editor of your local paper. Yes, they still get published and people do read them. Write your letters in plain English. Focus on the practical aspects of this research; for example, vaccines against the Zika virus or the impact of climate change on shorelines and wildlife. Put a local spin on your letter, especially the economic impact of these changes. Only by speaking up for science can we hope to reverse these misguided maneuvers.