Nothing about this administration confuses me more than the war on science. A significant portion of what has made America great is our ability to attract, equip and utilize the greatest scientific minds for the betterment of all humankind.
Much like advisors or policies, the Trump administration seems to discard science the moment it becomes inconvenient for their narrative. This is most evident in the public-health sector, as institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health are gutted.
The severe reduction in personnel means critical work (i.e., disease tracking and prevention, injury and violence prevention, nutrition assistance and more) is slowed or stopped. Simultaneously, losses in grants and funding mean related research is similarly brought to a halt.
The story of cut funding is a common one throughout academia right now – it’s merely my belief public health is simultaneously the most targeted and the most critical of the impacted fields. Many researchers, including friends and former classmates of mine, have discussed how their research has ground to a halt, with labs being put on hold, time-sensitive equipment being disposed of and lifesaving research being delayed.
Even within my field, aerospace engineering, some of my classmates were hit when a program to create a test rig for modeling spacecraft docking was suspended due to a loss of funding. They have not regained said funding, since the program is spearheaded by Cornell, one of the universities targeted by a flurry of federal government stop-work orders.
Luckily, federal courts have helped order the disbursement of funds in many other cases. However, it does not take much disruption to damage public health. Meanwhile, in fields like engineering, disruption often means we fall behind near-peer adversaries and competitors in the development of technology. This could have lasting impacts on everything from the trade Trump is so fixated on to national security.
Thus, in their attempt to cut marginal amounts of money from the federal government, the Trump administration has gotten its priorities mixed up. No one is more exemplary of these mismatched priorities than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who, it cannot be emphasized enough, is not a scientist.
Let me address a few points to counter the flurry of disinformation. Autism is not becoming more common; it’s simply becoming more diagnosable. The belief some aspect of modern society is causing a significant increase in autism is akin to the belief that drag shows and classroom indoctrination cause gender dysphoria and transgenderism/Both are views fueled by confirmation bias, rather than hard science.
RFK Jr. also claimed he would “know” what caused this “increase” in autism by September. This is not just an insult to the hundreds of researchers who have spent years in this field, but also a demonstration of how little RFK Jr. understands the scientific method.
I am no psychologist, but one analogy that was posed to me was to imagine RFK Jr. told the aerospace engineering industry his team would have developed commercial hypersonic flight by September. This might seem like a strange analogy, but remember – RFK Jr. is as far from being a psychologist as he is from being an aerospace engineer.
New attitudes and approaches to health can yield returns. After all, no Western country approaches health policy in the same way. There are plenty of things that are banned in Europe that are commonplace in the United States.
Just like with DOGE, my opinion is not all change is bad. It’s rather that change for the sake of change can result in damage that far outweighs the benefits. This is especially true in the field of public health, where people’s lives and well-being are at stake. We must utilize science to carefully evaluate all proposed changes to U.S. health policy.
Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.