I recently posted about the cuts of the Trump administration to the National Institute of Heal (‘NIH’) and the National Science Foundation which it funds. In that post I mentioned how bad this was for the health of the world. Now I want to point out another uncomfortable result.
As a result of the cutbacks entire labs have already been shut down and many more are on the way. And with them goes all that incredible scientific research which will go unfunded. Many scientific grants have already been rescinded and many more will soon face the same fate. Scientists on the ground or in labs are already being shut down.
According to Dr. Leana Wen, some of them have been shut down for highly dubious grounds. For example, if their research contains Trump-despised keywords such as “gender” or “health equity” or “coronavirus” or “vaccines” or “HIV,” they were the first ones on the chopping block. At the same time billions in funds to American universities, once widely recognized as the best in the world have been frozen. Many universities have had to slim down their budgets. As a result, there are hiring freezes at these universities with funding to graduate students and post-doc that are also frozen. As Wen said,
“there are already really significant impacts on American scientists and also on young scientists, many of whom are now saying, well, they don’t know if they want to stay in the sciences because they don’t know if a future for them here.”
As a result, places like Europe, China, and even Canada are aggressively trying to recruit American scientists. Wen said,
“My own anecdotal evidence is that China has been laying out the red carpet for all the graduate students being kicked out of America…I think the brain drain is real.”
Imagine that. For decades the United States has poached scientists from around the world. Now they are being poached! It is clear that this will lead to the end of American supremacy in science.
As Dr. Wen said,
“The European Union is investing 600 million euros to recruit American scientists. The French parliament has a bill to establish a new category for scientific refugees from the US. And I just have to say, this is really unimaginable.
And those scientists will help countries like China to develop the best technology, including military technology. This could herald the end of American dominance.
Trump is Making America Stupid Again, and it could pay a hefty price for that.
In the world of dumb, Donald Trump is king!