Genna Reed

Lead science and policy analyst

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Genna Reed is a lead science and policy analyst in the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, she researches political and corporate influences on science-informed decision making—working to inform the public about issues where science is stifled or obscured, and to ensure that federal, state, and local policies are based on rigorous, independent science. See Genna's full bio.

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Genna's Latest Posts

EPA’s Chance to Get Science Advice Right

July 21, 2020 3:50 PM EDT

The EPA should get science advice from the most qualified experts, and they have a golden opportunity to make that happen. Today, the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and several other public interest organizations formally asked EPA Administrator Wheeler to reopen the nominations process for its advisory committees to solicit nominations of individuals EPA previously deemed ineligible to serve because of their receipt of EPA grant funding, and to reinstate individuals to committees from which they were unjustifiably removed.  Read more >

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Woman standing outdoors in protective mask, with newspaper headlines about COVID-19 surrounding her

Don’t Be Deceived: How to Spot and Stop COVID-19 Disinformation

July 14, 2020 9:13 AM EDT

Today, UCS launched a new online resource with tips on how to spot and stop the spread of disinformation around COVID-19. Disinformation (intentionally false or misleading information) is especially dangerous when it happens during a public health crisis. Its spread can undermine the recommendations of public health officials, for example, making people less likely to take science-based precautions that protect their health and diminishing their trust in expert guidance. Read more >

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Photo: Alexandra Koch/Pixabay

As Schools Plead for COVID-19 Safety Information, White House Politicizes CDC Guidance

July 10, 2020 4:41 PM EDT

In the latest example of how the Trump administration is monumentally botching the response to a public health emergency, the president called the CDC’s guidance for safely reopening schools too“ tough” and “expensive” and even threatened to cut funding from schools that were planning virtual instruction. In response, CDC head Dr. Robert Redfield suggested that the guidance was indeed “guidance, not requirements” and that it shouldn’t be used to justify keeping schools closed. By restricting what CDC scientists can recommend on how to open schools safely, the Trump administration is heightening the risk to children, their families, and their teachers of contracting a potentially deadly disease. Read more >

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EPA Should Cancel Plans to Restrict Science Once and For All

May 15, 2020 10:37 AM EDT

Today, UCS submitted our comment on the Environmental Protection Agency’s flawed strengthening transparency rule. In our view, this is a proposal beyond fixing. It rests upon an erroneous assumption that the EPA’s regulatory science is not sufficiently accessible to the public. The rule would create a path for opportunistic representatives from regulated industries to challenge the science the EPA uses, tie up the agency in reanalysis paralysis, and saddle external researchers with excess work to arbitrarily give access to underlying data. It has got to go. Read more >

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Six Ways Nancy Beck Showed Us She Doesn’t Care About Us or Science

May 13, 2020 3:02 PM EDT

As I balance working from home and caring for my toddler, I spend a lot of time staring at the scores of products in my home that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is tasked with keeping safe. That means I also spend a lot of time thinking about the potential for Dr. Nancy Beck—a former American Chemistry Council official–to lead that agency. And let the record show I don’t trust that she would use science to keep us safe. Read more >

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