How scientists are fighting the Trump administration’s attempts to silence them

We’ve talked a lot on the program about the Trump administration’s wars on science and education and why they’re doing as part of a larger far-right attack on the achievements of modernity.This month, the president announced that a change to federal immunization guidance for infants to reduce the number of recommended shots. He cited no actual evidence, just his ludicrous belief that doctors were pumping infants with a liter of vaccine liquids. I wish I was joking.In addition to the harms to public health and science that Trump and his Health and Human Services secretary Robert Kennedy Junior are creating, the destruction is wreaking havoc on real people’s lives at the scientific and government agencies.My guests on this episode are two people who have been on the frontlines of these battles. Both are former employees at the National Institutes of Health, which has seen massive layoffs and its scientific recommendations ignored and censored by Kennedy and its director Jay Bhattacharya — after he made his career claiming to oppose censorship of science. They also have a great essay out about the Trump administration’s attacks on science and how to fight them.Alexa Romberg was former deputy chief at the Prevention Research Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Sylvia Chou was program director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute and is a scholar of linguistics and health communication. Both are members of 27 UNIHTED, an organization supporting employees who have been laid off or resigned from the National Institutes of Health.Our conversation focuses on the how people have been impacted, the hypocrisy of Bhattacharya, and why scientists are having to learn to be more political with their livelihoods under attack.If you’re interested in supporting Theory of Change, we are doing a fundraising drive for the show and for Flux on GoFundMe. I’d really appreciate your support. You can also become a paid supporter on Patreon or on Substack. Thank you so much for your help. I cannot do this work without you.The video of this conversation is available. Access the episode page to get the full transcript. You can subscribe to Theory of Change and other Flux podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, YouTube, Patreon, Substack, and elsewhere.Audio Chapters00:00 — Introduction08:12 — The people behind the worst Covid-19 ideas are running Trump’s health policies14:39 — The gross hypocrisy of Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s NIH director19:37 “Wellness” advocates and the need to debate bad medical advice purveyors28:47 — How tobacco companies set the template for today’s anti-science attacks35:41 — The importance of community in helping people understand science38:06 — Civic virtue and excellence as necessary for democracy and science44:29 — Scientists have not been used to being political, but they must be now51:14 — Science has always been linked to politics, even if you didn’t realize itAbout the ShowTheory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChangeMatthew Sheffield on Social MediaMastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffieldTwitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffieldBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/matthew.flux.community This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit plus.flux.community/subscribe