In its first 50 days, the Trump administration made sweeping changes to scientific arms of the government like the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. The president issued executive orders to terminate all work that was related to DEI, environmental justice and gender inclusivity. In response, research was halted and thousands of people were fired — some of which was reversed. It's a lot to keep track of, so we called in reinforcements. Here to recount it all and analyze what these ongoing changes mean for the future of scientific research in the United States are NPR science correspondents Rob Stein, Pien Huang and Jonathan Lambert. Want to hear more about policy changes affecting science? Let us know by emailing [email protected]! We're also always open to other story ideas you have.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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From almost the moment President Donald Trump took office, he has made his plans for science and the federal funding of science known. Just a few days after the inauguration, Trump suspended public communications across the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
They oversee the National Institutes for Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. Trump then issued executive orders to terminate all work related to DEI, environmental justice, and gender inclusivity. And these effects rippled through scientific institutions. The CDC purged thousands of pages from its website.
The National Science Foundation froze grantmaking for a while to comply with the orders. And DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, started to shrink the federal workforce, firing thousands of workers from all corners of the government. All of this has put science on the defensive. The Stand Up for Science movement organized to fight back.
My sign says, powered by science, strengthened by diversity.
My sign says, diseases don't have party lines. And it also says, science is for everyone.
Mark Belisle and Nellie Simmons came out to the D.C. March, one of 32 rallies around the country, from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to Cornell University's rally in late February. Cornell is where Marguerite Pacheco spoke with our colleague Aurora Berry at WSKG. Marguerite is a Ph.D.
student in biomedical engineering and says these days writing to grant providers has been like writing to ghosts.
Everyone who would have ever interfaced with us has just, like, disappeared. So it's been, like, haunting, creepy, and horrifying, I'm going to be honest.
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