The writer is a science commentator
Inconvenient truths need inconvenient truth-tellers. That is why the second Trump administration has worked hard to demean, discredit and even dismiss scientists. The bitter fruits of Trump’s war on science are plain to see. More than 10,000 workers with PhDs in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health left the federal workforce last year through firings, retirement and quitting. That is roughly three times the losses that happened in the final year of the Biden administration, recent analysis in the journal Science shows.
There were some new hires but across 14 agencies operating in sectors like health, weather and environment, the overall picture was a net exodus of more than 4,000 highly trained workers. That shrinking hinterland of scientific expertise is evident in recent pronouncements: the repeal of the “endangerment” ruling that greenhouse gases threaten human health, which underpins climate legislation; the downgrading of pandemic preparedness research by the health agency tasked with responding to infectious diseases; and the refusal by regulators this month to review Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine.