Matthew Schrag

I just want to make it clear that I really disagree strenuously with a lot of the moves being made by the Trump administration regarding science and research.

I think it's important for universities to have

freedom to pursue science and scientific research in a vigorous way without feeling that they have to knuckle under to federal demands for certain kinds of political issues.

I also disagree with the way in which attacks have been made on federal research funding.

At the NIH, the administration is not wrong about everything.

And critics of the scientific enterprise are not wrong that there has been arrogance and complacency.

And in my view, condescension on the part of many people in the scientific research enterprise towards members of the public.

Yeah, I mean, trust must be earned.

Now, let me make it clear that two things can be true at once.

We can be highly critical of attacks on science and attacks on the scientific enterprise by people who I think are misguided.

And at the same time, we can insist...

that the institutional authorities of science, and by that I mean the gatekeepers of knowledge like the universities and journals like the one I work for, and the funders like the National Institutes of Health and the regulators like FDA, we can insist that they do better at their jobs, that they be more vigilant and more careful, and also be more responsible for protecting scientific knowledge from pollution by bad ideas and corruption.

So anti-amyloid antibodies, now, there are two approved drugs by the FDA.

And

These are drugs that remove amyloid proteins.

With regard to how effective the drugs are, I think there's evidence that they can very slightly slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease, although there are many clinicians who say that the degree of slowing compared to people who are not on drugs is so subtle that

that it can be imperceptible to clinicians, patients, and family members.

So no one's getting better with these drugs.

I don't think that things are mutually exclusive, Stephen.

What I would say, and contrary to what some critics of my book have described it as, in which I would regard as strawman arguments, I have never said that amyloid proteins have nothing to do with Alzheimer's disease.