September 16, 2020 9:00 AM EDT
One of the most devastating lessons we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is that when science is sidelined by the government, people pay for it with their lives. As we approach 200,000 people dead due to the novel coronavirus in the US, along with millions of sick and hospitalized, it is the responsibility of all of us to encourage our government representatives to restore the role of science in policymaking during the pandemic and beyond.
September 15, 2020 10:47 AM EDT
In a scary and dramatic shift away from normal, the entire process for publishing CDC reports on COVID-19 has been upended by political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for reasons that appear to be entirely political, Politico reported late last week.
September 9, 2020 3:11 PM EDT
Bowing to industry’s wishes, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) wants to change regulations in a way that will compromise food safety and further endanger the lives of poultry plant workers across the nation. Read more >
September 3, 2020 2:03 PM EDT
In the US to date, more than 185,000 people have died due to COVID-19—many times in pain, unable to breathe, and separated from their families. Many of these deaths, which disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities, could have been prevented if governments had made different public policy choices. And yet at every stage of the pandemic, some federal and state governments have chosen to sideline science and policy choices based on science. Read more >
August 3, 2020 9:00 AM EDT
Suppressed studies. Muzzled scientists. Disbanded scientific advisory committees. These are some examples of the gross violations of scientific integrity that the Trump administration has carried out during its 3½ years in power. At the Union of Concerned Scientists, we have been tracking these attacks on science since day one and our tracker has now hit a new, grim milestone – the Trump administration has so far engaged in more than 150 attacks on science, far exceeding the attacks recorded during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Read more >
