Why Trump’s push for ‘gold-standard science’ has researchers alarmed
A new term keeps popping up in messages from Trump administration scientific agencies — a pledge to restore “gold-standard science.”
Many scientists say the opposite is happening.
The administration’s “MAHA Report,” intended to diagnose the root cause of poor health in American children, was written by Cabinet officials and political appointees, most of whom lack scientific and medical expertise. It included numerous errors, such as garbled references and invented studies. Thousands of grants that went through expert peer review have been terminated because they conflict with political priorities. The administration is proposing to reclassify government officials involved in grantmaking to “increase career employee accountability,” which critics see as a way to inject politics into science.
And in a “Gold Standard Science” executive order last week, President Donald Trump outlined a new level of oversight over what counts as quality evidence and what does not, putting “a senior appointee designated by the agency head” in charge of overseeing “alleged violations.” Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a briefing that the goal of the executive order is to “rebuild the American people’s confidence in the national science enterprise … the status quo of our research enterprise has brought diminishing returns, wasted resources and public distrust.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-trump-s-push-for-gold-standard-science-has-researchers-alarmed/ar-AA1FPpWI?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=5c83ed8cabbf44d9a3e481330e49ef31&ei=65
