Opinion In Trump’s America, science is under attack

Less than a month after she was confirmed as director of the US’s premier health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infectious disease expert Susan Monarez was forced to leave her job by the Donald Trump Administration. The scientist, who reportedly clashed with US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr over the revamping of America’s vaccine policy, has said she will contest her ouster. The episode marks a new low in the Trump administration’s approach to scientific institutions. The CDC has faced budget cuts, layoffs, resignations, and an array of changes to protocols. At least four experts have quit the agency in the wake of Monarez’s ouster.

Kennedy has long held the much-discredited view that the administration of vaccines at a young age contributes to autism. In the weeks after assuming office, however, he insisted that his department wanted to set the “highest possible standards”. The Health Secretary’s first two choices for leaders of key agencies — Marty Makary as head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — invited questions because both experts held controversial views during the Covid pandemic. Even so, their solid academic credentials held out hope that the two appointees wouldn’t acquiesce in any effort to undermine public health. But under Bhattacharya, the NIH has pivoted away from cutting-edge research on mRNA vaccines and Makary has allowed FDA officials to set aside inoculation-related decisions of the agency’s scientists. The worst fears of Kennedy’s critics came true in June when the Health Secretary fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee that guides the CDC on inoculation-related decisions and named a new panel that comprises more than one vaccine critic. The committee has given up the tradition of inviting representatives of medical bodies like the American Academy of Paediatrics to its meetings. After her appointment in early August, Monarez, the first non-physician to hold the CDC top post since 1953, reportedly came under pressure to rubber stamp the panel’s decisions, including conducting investigations on links between vaccines and autism.

Advertisement

The purges at the CDC have underlined fears that the Trump administration is creating new public health risks at a time when measles has made a comeback in the US after more than 25 years. It’s heartening, however, that it has faced concerted opposition from scientist groups, including the American Public Health Association, bodies representing federal health workers, and patient advocacy groups. Sustaining this pushback will be crucial to maintaining the integrity of American institutions, often seen as the gold standard of global public health policy.