Hello friends,
Hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage have poured into the Potomac river in the past month, exposing Maryland and Washington DC to staggering levels of pathogenic bacteria. The catastrophic failure began on January 17 and is now the worst wastewater spill in American history. This is not a metaphor, though it is unfortunately thematically suited for the news this week.
This was Year 2, Week 7. It’s noxious but we need to wade in.
What happened in science & higher ed
- For my adult life, the federal government’s legal authority to address climate change has hinged on an EPA ruling that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. That crucial ruling is referred to as the endangerment finding. Yesterday, the administration revoked it. The move will allow vehicle and power plant emission standards to be repealed, and the EPA’s press release perversely celebrates this “single largest deregulatory action in American history.” Take heart that this will be a rapid and robust legal brawl, and don’t forget that this is a surprisingly unpopular move.
- On Wednesday, the FDA reversed its course and refused to review the first mRNA flu vaccine, which is intended for older adults. The ostensible issue is whether comparing the new product to the standard flu shot is sufficient to establish efficacy and safety. This is just one part of a much larger story about reshaping public health policy and undermining trust and confidence. At the federal level, NIAID staff are ringing alarm bells over being forced to end biodefense and pandemic preparedness work. At the state level, despite our rapidly-intensifying measles problem, radical activists have launched a coordinated effort to overturn vaccination requirements for school children. Again, and it’s important to stress, these efforts do not reflect public opinion: overwhelming majorities of parents believe in the importance of polio and MMR vaccines. Public opinion does matter: major changes to HHS leadership are being ascribed to damage control before the midterms. But respected leaders, like NIAMS director Lindsey Criswell, are being forced out. That brings us down to only 11 permanent directors left standing of the 27 NIH institutes and centers.
- The other bad news, quickly:
And what’s next
As I finished today’s rundown, I needed to remind myself to make space for the items that aren’t terrible. That latest $600 million in CDC funding the administration tried to withhold? It’s been temporarily protected by a judge. That’s good, but I’m even more grateful that the team at Grant Witness immediately stood up reporting and tracking infrastructure to support ground-truthing and information sharing. I remind myself that they are far from the only people I know who are in steady, sustained action.
I think about what it takes for a professional society to openly defy the federal government, for volunteer coalitions to preserve, protect, and expand access to public data, for faculty to officially organize, and for countless ordinary people to stand together in the face of brutal violence. They are not giving up.
When we talk about public health or climate justice or the importance of funding fundamental research, what we’re saying is that we want the world to be safer and better for everyone. We must recognize now that this is part of a long, bitter fight about so much more than science. It is our choice how we confront the ethnic cleansing, concentration camps, and murders. The choice may take everything from us, but we are not giving up either.
Liz