Allison Neitzel

Trump Tracker: Firings, lawsuits, and U.S. science in chaos Follow President Donald Trump’s impact on U.S. research and science globally

A reminder that: @science.org's Trump Tracker provides updates several times a day about the crisis in US science.
Latest update: European science groups ‘deeply concerned’ about threats to U.S. academic freedom. www.science.org/content/arti...

Baldwin: "Last night, the president said 'I'm not touching Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, VA, I'm not touching them.' By this morning, he endorsed the House budget resolution which paves the way for massive cuts to Medicaid."

What I’ve been saying (screaming). Now there’s data.

How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the Right Research suggests that pandemics are more likely to reduce rather than build trust in scientific and political authorities.

It’s the dark money. A coordinated, global right-wing campaign to weaponized disinformation and the internet—particularly social media—to politicize public health and sow distrust and doubt.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas

Measles outbreak in Texas

Bird flu - first death among humans

But yes, by all means, please fire CDC, NIH, and other scientists

Everything will be fine

THANK YOU! The following is a “thank you” letter from the political appointees who served alongside the tens of thousands of dedicated civil servants at HHS during the Obama and Biden presidencies. It is signed…

“We appreciate all your efforts, especially your focus on providing care to those who are struggling. You embody the mission and vision of the Department of Health and Human Services.”

140-plus Obama and Biden appointees, including Sebelius + Becerra, sign a thank-you letter to career staff at HHS.

CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees.

New: Last night, hundreds of CDC post-doc fellows were fired, including all in the group who call themselves the "disease detectors," and are the future of public health lab leaders. One senior official told me, "It is going to cripple public health for decades."

www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

So it begins: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS Secretary and immediately starts dismantling US federal science infrastructure | Science-Based Medicine RFK Jr. was confirmed as HHS Secretary and didn't wait long to start dismantling federal science programs, complete with a commission to draw up a battle plan.

So it begins: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is confirmed as HHS Secretary and immediately starts dismantling US federal science infrastructure sciencebasedmedicine.org/so-it-begins... via @sciencebasedmedicine.org @gorskon.bsky.social

Anger, despair, and defiance from a voice within the US federal research system People around the world are watching with disbelief as the new US government closes down its aid programme, withdraws from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris agreement on climate change...

"The very fact that I am having to publish this anonymously in a country that has the right to free speech written into our Constitution is an indictment of what is happening."
www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Opinion | Physician Senators, What Have You Done? They have betrayed the Hippocratic Oath in voting to confirm RFK Jr.

'Physician Senators, What Have You Done?

They have betrayed the Hippocratic Oath in voting to confirm RFK Jr.'

👇🏻

“I never thought antivaxx policies would be put first in MY state,” sobs man who single-handedly cleared the way for antivaxxers to dictate health policy for the entire country

RFK Jr. is already taking aim at antidepressants The new HHS secretary has made baseless claims that the drugs are addictive and cause violent behavior.

I wrote about how RFK Jr. is targeting SSRIs in his first 100 days plan, and his history of spreading disinformation about antidepressants. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Trump Official Destroying USAID Secretly Met With Christian Nationalists Abroad in Defiance of U.S. Policy Now one of the most powerful people in the U.S. government, Peter Marocco’s turbulent tenure during the first Trump administration sheds light on his current efforts to dismantle the American foreign ...

NEW: Marocco has tried shutting down nearly all USAID programs & freezing foreign aid. He’s led the charge to place nearly all USAID staff on administrative leave.

Officials said they see the move as retribution against those who opposed his earlier work.

By @annamaria.bsky.social + Brett Murphy

President Trump and Musk's Onslaught Reminds Me of Brazil's Dictatorship We're living in a budding authoritarian regime.

"If we don’t continue to fight against the attacks on science and the budding authoritarian regime we are living through right now, I am afraid of the future. My past teaches me what it’s like. And I don’t want to live through it again in the US. Never forget."

This is fascism.

Wyoming identifies first human case of bird flu The Wyoming Department of Health said on Friday it has identified its first human case of H5N1 bird flu in the region, making it the third confirmed instance of hospitalization related to the infection in the United States.

The most fitting end to a day in which the regime just curbstomped our outbreak response capacity: an H5N1 patient in a hospital that’s also presumably full of seasonal flu patients.

www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Opinion | Trump Wants to Destroy All Academia, Not Just the Woke Parts (Gift Article) The administration’s war on universities defies rational self-interest.

"the extremely strong desire is to just punish universities [..] It’s not based on any kind of coherent policy agenda. It’s just a desire to inflict pain."

This, is critical to understand. Pointing out "it's hurting us" won't do, since it's the whole point.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...

Musk’s takeover of US health agencies raises pandemic threat, experts warn Doge wreaks havoc on HHS and CDC as Trump seeks to grant committee sweeping governmental powers

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

What is going on at NIH and CDC is horrific. Young scientists summarily fired during the PhDs and Postdocs. Whole sections bullied into resigning. All pandemic and surveillance programme shut in the middle of a cattle flu outbreak that is infecting more people.

Termination notices going out this afternoon to more than 300 employees of the National Cancer Institute. Access likely ends today. Four weeks paid leave and that’s it.

Strong power move for Team Cancer.

Texas measles outbreak doubled, now into 4 counties www.houstonchronicle.com/health/artic...

‘Wrecking ball’: RFK Jr. moves to fire thousands of health agency employees Supervisors deliver bad news across NIH, CDC

‘Wrecking ball’: RFK Jr. moves to fire thousands of health agency employees | Science | AAAS brought to you by @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

But RFK Jr PROMISED Senate Republicans he would leave vaccines alone.

The promise was broken less than 24 hours after taking over at HHS.

Opinion | American Science is Under Attack (Gift Article) The Trump administration hobbles research and endangers the public health.

An absolutely scorching OpEd by Harold Varmus, Nobel laureate, on Trump's destruction of the vaunted US scientific & biomedical enterprise & on Trump's kooky picks to lead the US health & science agencies

Gift link to share far & wide

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...

We are used to assuming that legal decisions are at least partly shaped by partisan identity. It would be nice if we could assume they were not also shaped by threats and intimidation from the leader of an online far right movement.

HHS to lose thousands of workers under Trump administration probationary job cuts Department of Health and Human Services officials expect most of the agency’s roughly 5,200 probationary employees to be fired.

To be clear- this will cost lives, severely weaken public health (and global health), cause more distrust in federal response, and ultimately undermine all the advancements in health we’ve made in recent decades.

Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Still Blocking HIV/AIDS Relief Exempted From Foreign Aid Cuts The Trump administration claims it is allowing “lifesaving” foreign aid to continue, but in reality, DOGE is preventing vital work on HIV and AIDS from saving lives.

In just weeks, the Trump/Musk administration’s suspension of PEPFAR has already led to thousands of additional cases of HIV that would have otherwise been prevented.

DOGE is essentially the opposite of EA; maximizing harm for trivial/non-existent savings.
www.wired.com/story/usaid-...

Trump White House Cites Fringe Doctor to Defend Research Cuts UCSF professor Vinay Prasad emerges as rationalizer-in-chief for Trump’s NIH cuts

NEW: The Trump White House recently cited a Vinay Prasad in an email attacking the Washington Post and defending its research cuts.

Prasad has built up a sizable online following sowing doubt about vaccines and COVID-19 mitigation measures.

www.importantcontext.news/p/trump-whit...

Here’s What RFK Jr.’s Confirmation Means for Abortion Access During his confirmation hearings, the HHS secretary nominee said he would fall in line with the Trump administration’s goals.

RFK Jr. said he would fall in line with the Trump administration’s goals, which includes fighting for the “unborn."

Establishing the President's Make America Healthy Again Commission By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

Giving infectious disease research a break, as promised by the MAHA agenda.

Let's break down what exactly this Executive Order is *really* saying.

Fortunately, I speak fluent anti-vax grifterese & can translate.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

McConnell could have led the only vote that mattered - the one to convict Trump in either impeachment trial. He bent the knee both times. His token opposition to Gabbard and RFK means nothing other than legacy cleanup.