Cue the Trump Brain Drain

Even if DOGE weren't laying off government officials in the careless, haphazard way it has been, Bobby Kennedy's mandate to "go wild" with HHS would probably result in scientists losing their jobs sooner or later.

Granted: The government shouldn't be regulating the economy. It also shouldn't fund science outside of a few very limited areas directly related to its proper scope, such as weapons research or medical research related to dealing with infectious disease, and even those on a very limited basis.

This isn't the case now, but backing the government out of so many areas should be done carefully, so that the private sector can adjust to take up the slack in areas that would and should be funded in a free economy. Until that is done, the government should keep good people in charge.

The Trump Administration has shown, starting with its appointment of Bobby Kennedy, that it is indifferent at best to basic competence. With its "go wild" mandate in particular and as shown by the haphazard, gimmicky approach of DOGE in general, it is also clear that this administration has no real goal of bringing government closer to its proper scope or strategy for doing so.

Policies have consequences. If you were a scientist previously employed by the government that just appointed an anti-science kook to head your former employer, and his boss was busy destroying the private sector with tariffs, what would you do?

Canadians have an idea, and they're getting ready to lap up the world-class talent that has just been told it is unwanted here:

Cuts to U.S. research funding will also create gaps in evidence because there'll be less research being funded and conducted overall, says Kirsten Patrick, the editor-in-chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). That's why it's all the more important for Canada to step up its research funding, she says.

"If we have a situation where, down south, research is not being as well funded as it should be and some research isn't even being done, then we need to have a strong research system in Canada," she said.

The CBC piece further elaborates on province- and university-level recruitment efforts.

It is still too early to see how Trump's random cuts and Kennedy's rampage through our health and agriculture agencies play out, but if I were a scientist working in any of these affected fields, I would be paying close attention:

Let's take a look at two topics that illustrate two different ways that science and public health are being damaged by the Trump administration. One of them is not subtle at all: the ax. That's what has happened to 77 scientific staffers at the CDC who (among their other duties) had been in charge of collecting samples and analyzing data on US-wide sexually transmitted diseases, specifically looking for drug-resistant gonorrhea.

...

A second way that things are being undermined is at the regulatory and decision-making level. That's well-illustrated in this piece at BioCentury. Steve Usdin is looking at Mike Makary's FDA and an upcoming decision that will reveal a lot about how things are going to be run. Readers may have noticed that the current version of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine has had a sudden regulatory hold put on it at the FDA - and that was after the agency's own reviewers had recommended approval. The reason for the unexpected screeching halt have not been made public, but Makary has put his new assistant Tracy Beth Høeg in charge of reviewing the application, and this is not a good sign at all. [links omitted]

Even if you don't get fired outright, you may find yourself wondering what the hell you're doing there, and for how long you'll still be there or want to be there.

The ones getting fired now might well be the lucky ones.

-- CAV