Attacks on Science

The Trump administration and 115th Congress have been actively dismantling science-based health and safety protections, sidelining scientific evidence, and undoing recent progress on scientific integrity.

Below is a running list of attacks on science—disappearing data, silenced scientists, and other assaults on scientific integrity and science-based policy. The list provides a representative sample of threats to the federal scientific enterprise.

Attacks on science

Agency Type of attack

Student in an empty classroom wears a mask.

White House Demands Rewriting of CDC’s COVID-19 Guidelines for Schools

Vice President Mike Pence ordered the CDC to rewrite their school opening guidelines for reasons that appeared to be primarily political.

Person wearing a mask in the dark, typing on a laptop.

Trump Administration Takes Away Hospitalization Data From the CDC

The Administration mandated that hospitals bypass the CDC and send data on COVID-19 hospitalizations, to a private third party.

Trump Administration Endangered People Evacuating From Coronavirus-Infected Cruise Ship

State Department officials overrode science-based concerns of CDC officials and allowed 14 infected people to board an airplane with over 300 non-infected people.

White House Hides Economic Analysis Showing COVID-19 Downturns

The White House will forego the publication of an economic analysis on budget projections in the summer of 2020.

NOAA Fisheries is Restricting the Use of the Words “COVID-19” and “Pandemic”

An official memo, issued by NOAA, stated that the agency’s “preferred approach” is making “no reference to anything COVID related” in public-facing documents.

People sitting in church holding bibles.

Trump Administration Buries COVID-19 Information For Religious Communities

White House officials instructed the CDC to delete certain sections of a COVID-19 guidance measure for communities of faith.

A parent taking their child's temperature.

Trump Administration Ignores CDC Scientists on COVID-19 Temperature Screenings

Scientists at the CDC were ignored by the White House when they stated that the best available science shows that temperature checks are not a reliable tool for screening COVID-19.

Climate Change Resilience Study Halted

The Trump administration indefinitely froze a six-year study looking at future flooding risks in the New York-New Jersey area.

White House Buries CDC Report on COVID-19

The White House blocked the release of a CDC report that provided recommendations on how to reopen up communities safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researcher with face mask holding a bat.

Trump Administration Axes Coronavirus Research

The Trump administration defunded a National Institutes of Health grant supporting research on bat-human virus transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We've seen this movie before. And we know how to fight back. We're standing up for science. We're inviting scientists to securely share information on scientific integrity abuses. And we're encouraging our supporters to watchdog this administration and Congress, as we did during the George W. Bush administration and the Barack Obama administration.

Beyond this list, many other moves by the president and Congress degrade the environment for science and scientists in this country. For example, the president’s Muslim ban hurts science and scientists, including those working for the federal government and the president’s rescinding transgender protections is damaging to the ability of all young budding scientists to reach their full potential. These actions are also important to document, and we continue do so on the UCS blog.

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