Thank you for writing this column. And I am glad the people there, his colleagues, showed such appreciation to Dr. Wolpin and his team. It is an amazing result.
This afternoon there was a webinar put on by Stand Up for Science about the work by OMB and Russell Vought to not just judge science grants based on their scientific value, but also on political "criteria". One speaker was Elizabeth Ginexi, a former NIH scientist. She has written some articles on her substack about the 400 page (I think) proposal to change these procedures. I have not yet had a chance to read them, but her analysis of these procedures was quite negative. And these funding proposals would affect ALL science, NIH, NSF, NOAA, other science granting institutions. And then the comment was that the politization of grant funding could be expanded to social service (think SNAP, housing, clinics), humanities, other grants.
Jonathan, I really appreciate your work and I hope you can report more on these OMB changes. Russell Vought is one of the few competent people in the cabinet and he is laser focused on carrying out the aims of Project 2025, and pushing the unified executive theory.
A close member of my family just received a Stage IV colon cancer diagnosis, so this is all very much on my mind lately. (This relative has a reasonably decent prognosis for Stage IV, because the tumor cells are still well-differentiated and the places it has spread to are not quickly deadly ones.) As a scientist myself, albeit in the physical rather than the life sciences, I am still in awe at what modern medicine can do. A century ago, we didn't even know what DNA did. There was a debate about whether genetic expression derived from nucleic acids or proteins in cells. The few treatments for cancer were primitive, painful, and didn't work very well. Now, we can genetically analyze cancer and target specific therapies for it... and that doesn't even touch on the OTHER medical advancements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Cardiac bypasses weren't a thing until the last 50-60 years, for instance.
There are basically two things going on with the regime's attacks on science (and neither is a desire to see the private sector take over public research funding; "they're cutting federal science because they want to privatize it" is an obsolete idea based on what the GOP used to be rather than what it is now). One is a conspiracy-theory mindset in which certain people instinctively fear what they do not understand, and/or they are envious and resentful of people who are smarter than they are or more successful in scientific careers (this accounts for the plethora of MDs who peddle wellness snake oil on social media). The other is a Christian Nationalist puritan mentality in which "God's will" should be accepted rather than fought. Those people feel the same way about natural disasters. They think it's a sin on some level to try to extend human life beyond their opinion of what God wanted. You'll still even come across a few who speak of "the biblical threescore and ten years," meaning that they think life beyond age 70 is unnatural and that if you develop a serious illness after that age, it's kind of a sin to use modern medicine to treat or cure it. Yes, there are actually people who still think that way.
I am thoroughly fed up with it, not to put too fine a point on it. Nobody is forcing any of these fools to receive medical care that they don't want. But they DO want to force everyone else to NOT have medical treatments and other lifesaving scientific advances available.
Donald Trump is an emissary of death. We've seen this on all stages of his presence in our world. So this latest iteration is not new. Here, he prefers to foil a drug that may at least delay death due to an intractably incurable form of cancer. Why? Because Science cannot be what we rely on in times of turmoil and threat. Science we now know is the bad guy, forcing us to comply with its findings and recommendations. We can't do this, because it amounts to political oppression over our freedoms. No one tells me what I do with my own body, as we know from Covid's unforgivable vaccine oversteps. I'm sorry, but we have reached the extremes here, trying to undermine a brilliant new life saving strategy to help those suffering from pancreatic cancer to live longer with their disease. IMHO, this effort to hamper this new treatment is evil. Stupid and evil.
These are the real miracle-workers. While it is reassuring to know that this kind of cutting edge research will continue, the sad thing is to know that it will largely continue in other places: notably China, Germany, France and the UK, but less and less here in the US, despite the fact that we have far outperformed the rest of the world for decades.
In a surprisingly short burst of time we've lost our place on so many fronts. We are no longer regarded as a reliable ally or trading partner, goodness knows we're no longer considered an exemplar of constitutional democracy, and now our scientific star (perhaps the brightest of all our stars) is fading as well.
Why the madman in the Oval Office thinks this is a good thing, or how he has been persuaded that it will redound to our (or rather his) greater glory to extinguish our leadership role in medical science, is a mystery the best scientists on earth could probably not unpack.
Trump works for people with lots of money who don't want to share the money they reaped from others' efforts. They try to frame disease as the result of "sinful living" and "co-morbidities" as if that somehow justifies unnecessary death. Of course, they will be the first in line for these treatments when their time comes. Their time will come.
Democrats run on Trump cutting cancer research funds and killing people because of those cuts. No added explaining or clarifying because it’s true.
Simple easy thing to run on especially in 2028 on a debate stage.
Trump should be tied to a post and whipped for screwing with medical research.
His karmic debt must be out to Jupiter’s orbit by now.
In his case out to Uranus
Thank you for writing this column. And I am glad the people there, his colleagues, showed such appreciation to Dr. Wolpin and his team. It is an amazing result.
This afternoon there was a webinar put on by Stand Up for Science about the work by OMB and Russell Vought to not just judge science grants based on their scientific value, but also on political "criteria". One speaker was Elizabeth Ginexi, a former NIH scientist. She has written some articles on her substack about the 400 page (I think) proposal to change these procedures. I have not yet had a chance to read them, but her analysis of these procedures was quite negative. And these funding proposals would affect ALL science, NIH, NSF, NOAA, other science granting institutions. And then the comment was that the politization of grant funding could be expanded to social service (think SNAP, housing, clinics), humanities, other grants.
Jonathan, I really appreciate your work and I hope you can report more on these OMB changes. Russell Vought is one of the few competent people in the cabinet and he is laser focused on carrying out the aims of Project 2025, and pushing the unified executive theory.
Thank you so much for this. It gives me hope for my own cancer treatment
All the best to you on your treatment and recovery.
Just another reminder of the price we are paying for electing trump. It is not just those who voted for him that will suffer it is all of us.
A close member of my family just received a Stage IV colon cancer diagnosis, so this is all very much on my mind lately. (This relative has a reasonably decent prognosis for Stage IV, because the tumor cells are still well-differentiated and the places it has spread to are not quickly deadly ones.) As a scientist myself, albeit in the physical rather than the life sciences, I am still in awe at what modern medicine can do. A century ago, we didn't even know what DNA did. There was a debate about whether genetic expression derived from nucleic acids or proteins in cells. The few treatments for cancer were primitive, painful, and didn't work very well. Now, we can genetically analyze cancer and target specific therapies for it... and that doesn't even touch on the OTHER medical advancements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Cardiac bypasses weren't a thing until the last 50-60 years, for instance.
There are basically two things going on with the regime's attacks on science (and neither is a desire to see the private sector take over public research funding; "they're cutting federal science because they want to privatize it" is an obsolete idea based on what the GOP used to be rather than what it is now). One is a conspiracy-theory mindset in which certain people instinctively fear what they do not understand, and/or they are envious and resentful of people who are smarter than they are or more successful in scientific careers (this accounts for the plethora of MDs who peddle wellness snake oil on social media). The other is a Christian Nationalist puritan mentality in which "God's will" should be accepted rather than fought. Those people feel the same way about natural disasters. They think it's a sin on some level to try to extend human life beyond their opinion of what God wanted. You'll still even come across a few who speak of "the biblical threescore and ten years," meaning that they think life beyond age 70 is unnatural and that if you develop a serious illness after that age, it's kind of a sin to use modern medicine to treat or cure it. Yes, there are actually people who still think that way.
I am thoroughly fed up with it, not to put too fine a point on it. Nobody is forcing any of these fools to receive medical care that they don't want. But they DO want to force everyone else to NOT have medical treatments and other lifesaving scientific advances available.
Donald Trump is an emissary of death. We've seen this on all stages of his presence in our world. So this latest iteration is not new. Here, he prefers to foil a drug that may at least delay death due to an intractably incurable form of cancer. Why? Because Science cannot be what we rely on in times of turmoil and threat. Science we now know is the bad guy, forcing us to comply with its findings and recommendations. We can't do this, because it amounts to political oppression over our freedoms. No one tells me what I do with my own body, as we know from Covid's unforgivable vaccine oversteps. I'm sorry, but we have reached the extremes here, trying to undermine a brilliant new life saving strategy to help those suffering from pancreatic cancer to live longer with their disease. IMHO, this effort to hamper this new treatment is evil. Stupid and evil.
These are the real miracle-workers. While it is reassuring to know that this kind of cutting edge research will continue, the sad thing is to know that it will largely continue in other places: notably China, Germany, France and the UK, but less and less here in the US, despite the fact that we have far outperformed the rest of the world for decades.
In a surprisingly short burst of time we've lost our place on so many fronts. We are no longer regarded as a reliable ally or trading partner, goodness knows we're no longer considered an exemplar of constitutional democracy, and now our scientific star (perhaps the brightest of all our stars) is fading as well.
Why the madman in the Oval Office thinks this is a good thing, or how he has been persuaded that it will redound to our (or rather his) greater glory to extinguish our leadership role in medical science, is a mystery the best scientists on earth could probably not unpack.
Great news explained very well. My father died of this disease. I know the battle to fight it will continue, but this is real hope. Thanks, Jonathan.
Trump works for people with lots of money who don't want to share the money they reaped from others' efforts. They try to frame disease as the result of "sinful living" and "co-morbidities" as if that somehow justifies unnecessary death. Of course, they will be the first in line for these treatments when their time comes. Their time will come.
Outstanding science writing Jonathan. I follow you closely. This moment is critical. Thank you.
This is great news. Research is so important.