Uhhh… I have bad news about #medical research in the United States…

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't had any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since typical grants are for three years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

Matt Ridley gave the inaugural "NIH Scientific Freedom Lecture Series" earlier today and I just wanted to run through some of the main claims he made - you'll be unsurprised to learn that almost all of them are false.

Here's his summary slide - let's start there.

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The is the federal government telling news stations to provide favorable coverage of the war or their licenses will be pulled.

A truly extraordinary moment.

We aren't on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF IT.

Act like it.

The Trump administration is intentionally sabotaging American science in a treasonous effort to hand global leadership in science and technology to the Peoples's Republic of China.

Here is the "effective payline" for each institute, estimated (by Claude) as the percentile where one can expect 80% probability of funding from a logistic regression fit. The effective payline has gone from a historic ~12% to 6% in 2025.

Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.

What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.

Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Graph showing a steep decline in the number of people employed by newspapers since 1992

The billionaire class wants to decimate the white collar workforce. Because white collar workers are expensive. And because white collar workers—who historically sided with billionaires—are questioning that alliance. Which makes their knowledge and resources a huge threat to billionaire power.

Unmarked car, no lights or police insignia. Masked armed men leap out. Victim not in the act of committing any crime. This is not how a serious federal law enforcement agency acts in a free society.

How is this not supposed to be a “right wing paramilitary force loyal to the regime”?

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I know this is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things but these guys are paid with your tax money and have no real job. ICE isn't necessary. They don't get rid of criminals. They just terrorize communities. And THAT'S why they should be abolished. No need for reins. It's not a job!

I've been sent video from the end of the ICE raid at the Zipps on 32nd and Shea.

It shows protesters -- on the sidewalk, impeding no one -- getting drive-by maced by an ICE agent from a truck as it rolls away down the road.

Hard to see how such tactics are justifiable.

Rest in Peace Alex Jeffrey Pretti🙏🏾 The VA ICU Nurses send him off right 💔

As a someone with a 33 year NIH-funded lab whose grant is supposed to be reviewed this week, shut NIH down if that is what's needed to end ICE terrorism. Innocent lives are more important 🧪

Left hand on the ground trying not to hit the pavement; right hand still holding a cell phone. ICE person standing with a one handed grip pointing his gun right at the man’s head.

There is nothing about this that we should accept. We all must reject this. This is our government, & they want this

Timeline: How the Shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti Unfolded (Gift Article) A moment-by-moment analysis of video from the scene shows that Mr. Pretti was already restrained when fatal shots were fired, which appears to contradict the federal government’s account of the event.

How the Shooting of Alex Pretti Unfolded www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Mac Randolph RIP Alex Pretti, he was my Dads ICU nurse, he read my dad's final salut at the VA after he passed away. Never wanted to share this video but his speech is very on point. Also my Fathers final words to me was continue to fight the good fight. He would be honored in Alex' sacrifice, and ashamed of this current administration. In my Dads words I encourage you all to continue to "fight the good fight"

Text of the video posted by Mac Randolph “Never wanted to share this video but his speech is very on point.”

"I insisted that the agents let me assess him. Normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man, especially since none of the agents were helping him."

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

Henry Cuellar (Texas), Tom Suozzi (New York), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Laura Gillen (New York), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington), Jared Golden (Maine), and Don Davis (North Carolina)

these are the 7 house democrats who voted to give ICE another $10 billion on thursday btw

It’s shameful verging on collaborationist that universities slashed DEI rather than fighting the administration on this.

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

Plot of science agency staffing over 10 years shows the numbers fall off a cliff in 2024-25.

The whole story is worth reading, but I want to highlight this plot of science agency staffing that we pulled together from historic and current data.

It shows that cuts to science staffing are almost uniformly steep across the board and unlike anything seen in the first Trump administration.

The charts in the story are just jaw-dropping.

Take this one, showing the bludgeon the Trump admin has taken to the federal scientific workforce.

I completely agree. It feels purposeful just how unusable that website has become despite its use now being a requirement for submitting new grants.

Twitter post from RFK jr that says Secretary K... @Secke... • 2m ..• Thank you, Mr. President, for standing up for children's health, gold standard science, and common sense. ) Karoline Leav... PROMISE MADE. PROMISE KEPT. @Presss... • 1h Thank you, President Trump! Today, the Trump Administration is proud to announce the United States of America's updated Childhood Vaccination Schedule. This Schedule is rooted in the Gold Standard of Science, and widely agreed upon by Scientists and Experts all over the World. Effective today, America will no longer require 72 "jabs" for our beautiful, healthy children. We are moving to a far more reasonable Schedule, where all children will only be recommended to receive Vaccinations for 11 of the most serious and dangerous diseases. Parents can still choose to give their children all of the Vaccinations, if they wish, and they will still be covered by insurance. However, this updated Schedule finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World. Congratulations to HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy, CDC Acting Director Jim O'Neil, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, CMS Administrator Dr. Oz, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, and all of the Medical Experts and Professionals who worked very hard to make this happen. Many Americans, especially the "MAHA Moms," have been praying for these COMMON SENSE reforms for many years. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA European Country United States

This isn’t “standing up for children's health, gold standard science, and common sense”.

This is the work of weak, pathetic, arrogant men who are seeking revenge on actual public health experts.

And it is barbaric.

Yes!

Resistance can seem futile and slow, but it does work and it is very important.

Capitulation or resignation does not good and makes things worse in the long run.

The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5

When I'm feeling particularly hopeless about the future of professoring as a profession, I try to remind myself: That's what they want. They want us to not want to be professors anymore.