To the Editor:
I’ll always remember a grade-school classmate of mine, Barry, who walked with a bad limp, the result of polio. Barry was lucky, in that the disease hadn’t hurt him more seriously.
But he was also unlucky, in that the polio vaccine hadn’t been created in time to prevent his suffering.
Looking back, I’m grateful – I think most of us are – that we live at a time when medical science has done so much to promote health and well-being, from cancer treatments to life-saving operations, from disease-detecting tests to vaccinations.
Indeed, medical and other scientific research has been one of the amazing success stories of our era. It’s a real source of pride for the United States, which has often led the way.
So it’s hard for me to see why President Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly destroying research activities at federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control.
Trump is also cutting research funds at universities, which train the scientists who go on to work in both the private and public sector. This isn’t a matter of finding waste or carefully assessing priorities. It’s a thoughtless, slash-and-burn attack on the nation’s foundations of science and progress.
Paying no attention to expertise serving public needs, the administration is firing scientists and shutting down programs that help fight cancer and other terrible diseases.
Moreover, by forcing universities to shrink programs through funding cuts, they’re also crippling the educational pipeline that gives us our supply of future researchers.
Sadly, science research in the public interest is now descending into chaos. As for the attack on higher education: the actual problems that exist at some universities – problems which have little or nothing to do with science – don’t justify massive cuts affecting vital research.
Those cuts undermine the health, safety, and secure future of the country. They hurt us all.
The best way to protect our proud legacy of scientific progress, and to improve American health, is to convince Congress to stand up for our future. Please urge Congress to stop the indiscriminate assault on science.
Daniel Laskin
Mount Vernon