Jeffrey Weidner

Great Idea!

There's ALWAYS a video clip.
It's #DonaldTrumpsShutdown.

He said so himself.

Trump Will Slap Tariffs on Imported Drugs, Trucks and Household Furnishings

He doesn't know the only reason that patented drugs are more expensive in the US than the rest of the world is that we do not regulate the price of drugs while protected by patents.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/b...

Defense Department Delays Cleanup of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Nationwide

While spreading lies about Tylenol and autism. These are contradicted by multiple studies by both US and international health organizations. The admisistration is delaying the military's clean up of forever chemicals, which have strong links to cancer. MAHA my a$$!
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/c...

Defense Secretary Hegseth requires new 'pledge' for reporters at the Pentagon The Pentagon is implementing new guidelines that will require journalists to sign a pledge and agree to report only approved and officially released information.

Over my career at 3 different Fortune 500 pharma companies, I've known many scientists here on H1-B visa's. Many of them go on to become citizens or permanent residents. These are exactly the type of emigrants that the administration says they want to come here. www.npr.org/2025/09/20/g...

These agencies, which are being gutted, are losing technical experts with decades of experience in what works and what needs improvement. Replacing thenwith people who's are valued more for their loyalty than their expertise will not end well. 4/4

One of the hallmarks of science is that the data gets better over time as we both increase our technical capabilities and our understanding of of the world around us. This is also true for economic data, public health data, building codes, and the social sciences. 3/4

The data collected and shared by many federal agencies is used by our government as well people around the world to make decisions which have huge impacts on our lives. They use this data like an airline pilot flying in bad weather who must rely on instruments rather than their own eyes. 2/4

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke No one understands this better than scientists and engineers. How many of us really understand the things we use daily, understand them enough to explain them to a friend. 1/4
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/o...

A fundamental tenant of science is clearly distinguishing what we know from what we believe.

The damage being done to the US healthcare system extends beyond reduced access to care, increased costs for care and insurance and the war on medical research. It now includes violence against health care workers. The only uncertainty now is the number of lives that will be lost.

Best analogy I've seen so far for the current government position on science in general.

However you must be willing to invest in both the capital and intellectual resources as well as a willingness to think outside the box of "conventional" thinking.

In turn that scale enabled further innovation by dramatically reducing the cost to implement and test new ideas. Most of those ideas failed, but each success enabled further efforts. I can see a similar approach working at the later stages of the drug development process.

Basically we applied basic engineering an IT to what were one off research processes. Think of going from hand made furniture to Ikea. This enabled scale up by 4-6 orders of magnitude with a much lower cost/unit.

Opinion | China’s Biotech Is Cheaper and Faster

I personally was involved in similar efforts early in my pharma career, helping to create and develop the discipline now known as HTS (High Throughput Screening). This is now a standard tool in the industry and enabled much more innovation in the industry. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/o...

We've known about all the problems with animal models of human disease, since I was a grad student, 40 years ago. There just weren't any better alternatives. Now there are. We're not going to completely eliminate the use of lab animals anytime soon, but we can dramatically reduce it now.

This would be an obvious example to critique in a basic data science course.

Based on data not publicly available.

Contrary to well validated methods.

Little or no documentation on analytical methods.

Still Fuming Over a Weak Jobs Report, Trump Finds Some Numbers He Likes

This is a great example of what statisticians and scientists refer to as p-hacking. Basically searching through lots of statistics to support your conclusions, without consideration for the data which doesn't. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/u...

Derek's just another one of the many scientists outraged over the efforts to stop mRNA vaccines.

There are outcomes data from millions of patients who received each type of vaccine which prove this. Moreover the speed of development for these vaccines represents the best option for a response to any future pandemic.

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts

Covid-19 proved both the efficacy and safety of mRNA vaccines. In fact there is direct evidence of their superiority to more traditional vaccines developed by J&J and in other countries.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...

Trump's dream of building a ballroom at the White House is becoming a reality After at least 15 years of talking about it, President Trump is building a ballroom at the White House. Work will begin this September, with a price tag of $200 million, the White House says.

WTF do we need a ballroom for at the White House when we're cutting medical insurance and food assistance to Americans.
www.npr.org/2025/07/31/n...

Guess I'll have to change my dinner plans. Looks like it's TACO Thursday. 🌮🌮🌮

The ultimate test of your understanding of a subject it to accurately predict how a system will react to changes. Remember the vast majority of of economists predicted before the election, that Trump's policies would be inflationary. In just 6 months Trump has proved them correct.

If you thought drugs were expensive before, wait until we have to make them in space!🤪. "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.", R. A. Heinlein.

YouTube video by Garfunkel And Oates Save the Rich (Official Video) by Garfunkel and Oates

Save the Rich!
youtu.be/ej7dfPL7Kho?...

A fundamental question of our day isn't about the size of the government — but who our government is for.

Should it work mainly for big corporations and billionaires?

Or should it work for the rest of us?

Every chemist has at least one good explosion story.

Opinion | This Loophole Buried in Trump’s Bill Is Anything but Beautiful

More strategic brilliance from Trump. Tariffs on drugs to encourage manufacturing in the US while extending 2017 tax credits which provide pharmaceutical with incentives to manufacture outside US. Now we'd pay more either way. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/o...