Some interesting developments have taken place over the past 24 hours.
First, a WSJ exclusive piece reveals that Trump will be putting an end to funding of precarious gain-of-function research which aims to make viruses more dangerous and transmissible in the hopes of understanding them better — a subpar justification at best.
From the article:
President Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, has expressed support for a pause on the research.
The gain-of-function studies had been a staple of research into viruses, but became an object of controversy and criticism during the pandemic crisis. Republicans in Congress criticized the studies. The Biden administration had begun taking steps to rein in the research.
In the experiments, scientists modify, in a secure laboratory, a virus to learn about how it could spread rapidly or evade medicines. Many virologists have argued that studying viruses in controlled settings, with appropriate regulation, is necessary to prepare for future pandemics.
Jay has of course been very critical of gain-of-function research and I trust he will play an integral role in reigning in this risk-laden line of scientific inquiry.
He recorded an episode on the Illusion of Consensus podcast with
The NIH is undergoing some kind of freakout right now over the Trump team’s directives. From Science Magazine:
The hiring freeze is governmentwide, whereas a pause on communications and travel appears to be limited to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH’s parent agency. Such pauses are not unprecedented when a new administration comes in. But some NIH staff suggested these measures, which include pulling job ads and rescinding offers, are more extreme than any previously.
Substack journalist and friend of this platform Paul Thacker did some more rigorous reporting on the NIH situation than Science:
Although the memo says nothing about halting private meetings, the NIH took the extraordinary step of then shutting down private study sections that review scientific grant approvals, a move that seems designed to harass the incoming administration.
…
“The memo doesn’t say anything about private meetings, and they shut down these study sections to scare everyone into believing [research] studies will shut down and labs will shutter,” said an NIH official in the Director’s office. “This is a manipulation tactic by the NIH Director’s office to tar the new administration: ‘This is the fascism we expected.’”
For those very concerned about the poor state of (seemingly) gold-standard NIH scientists, Dr. Vinay Prasad well-articulated the abysmal state of science there:
Some people say that if the pause, which is completely reasonable, continues, people will lose their jobs in research. Of course this is true. I suspect the pause will not continue for a great period of time, but, at the same time, some people in research need to lose their jobs.
The government cannot be a welfare program for everybody doing low quality, low credibility, irreproducible, low value of information research. It has to use public dollars in a wise way. That has absolutely not occurred in the past. A pause is necessary to tackle this intractable problem.
In many ways, Jay is the perfect person to tackle this problem. He's not a laboratory scientist. He's an economist. The difference between laboratory scientists and economist is that the latter are much better at thinking brutally and clearly about the trade-offs and expected payoffs of research. Jay has already been on record as saying he thinks the NIH is not willing to push the envelope. It doesn't fund truly transformative work. I completely agree with him. And he should direct funding in that way.
(I need your support now to fuel this publication as we cover the upcoming confirmation hearings!)
Moving on, Trump just signed an executive order banning Central Bank Digital Currencies:
I never quite understood all the fear and hysteria over CBDCs (oh so naive I was pre-Covid!) till the Trudeau government ordered the freezing of bank accounts of those who merely donated to the truckers protest in 2022.
With CBDCs, governments can theoretically freeze or seize funds without banks acting as intermediary institutions. It’s a much more direct control over people’s financial autonomy and privacy. This kind of government power could be easily abused to suppress dissent or target individuals for ideological reasons. As we saw during Covid, governments are quite good at designating “emergencies” and imposing draconian measures.
Trump's executive order prohibiting the creation of government-operated digital currencies marks a crucial step forward for financial freedom and personal autonomy.
Lastly, as many of you will have already seen, RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing has been locked in for next Wednesday at 10am eastern / 7am pacific time:
Today, Utah Senator Mike Lee came out in support of RFK Jr.:
.@RobertKennedyJr is committed to protecting every precious human life, at every stage. He is bringing on a great team to help lead HHS, who share a respect for science, freedom, and the inherent dignity of every person. Let’s Make America Healthy Again!
Bernie Sanders will clearly not be supporting him as we know, but perhaps Democrats like Fetterman and Booker may end up voting in his favour. It may be very tight, but I think we can be hopeful he will be confirmed. As The Hill reports,
Kennedy has been on Capitol Hill in recent weeks holding meetings with dozens of senators. No Senate Republican has publicly said they will vote against the nomination, and Kennedy can afford to lose three GOP votes if every Democrat opposes him.
RFK Jr. has faced fierce opposition, including from Mike Pence’s AAF, due to his views on vaccines and other medicines, but it can’t be repeated enough:
He will not be imposing blanket vaccine bans — such a position is at least politically foolish and would open a hellstorm of criticism. My friend Calley Means made this point ad nauseam in a recent podcast with Jack Kruse and Mary Bowden. The goal is to return to gold-standard scientific research and increase transparency of data and the quality of science.
If they do a review of some vaccine and find the data is much weaker than we thought, great — the public should know that and be able to make an informed decision. But this is not going to be some conspiracy-driven health takeover. Both anti-vaccine advocates and pro-vaccine activists ought to understand the reality here.
Ways to support fearless journalism at The Illusion of Consensus:
Before the left goes bonkers over “suppression of science” in Trump’s call to halt GOF research, let’s remind them that Obama did the same. Unfortunately, Fauci found a loophole!
I understood that Pence opposes RFK Jr because of his stance on abortion. Which is nonsense, because Dobbs made abortion a state issue. Pence doesn't like his views on vaccines? Well, I don't like Pence's views, whatever they may be. My opinion is based on Pence's performance on the WH committee he co-chaired with Birx. No thinking person should be guided by Mr. Pence's views.
Before the left goes bonkers over “suppression of science” in Trump’s call to halt GOF research, let’s remind them that Obama did the same. Unfortunately, Fauci found a loophole!
I understood that Pence opposes RFK Jr because of his stance on abortion. Which is nonsense, because Dobbs made abortion a state issue. Pence doesn't like his views on vaccines? Well, I don't like Pence's views, whatever they may be. My opinion is based on Pence's performance on the WH committee he co-chaired with Birx. No thinking person should be guided by Mr. Pence's views.