Attack on Science – Scientific Travel Halted at HHS
What Happened: The Trump administration halted all travel for Health and Human Services (HHS) employees, including travel to scientific research conferences.
Why This Matters: Scientists attend research conferences to present their novel research and learn about the most up-to-date science in their fields. These conferences help scientists to refine their own research, identify new areas of inquiry, and make scientific progress. Scientific conferences also provide opportunities to network and identify possible collaborative efforts. These collaborations often lead to novel research approaches that spur scientific progress and benefit the public.
The Details
The Trump administration issued an indefinite travel ban for Health and Human Services (HHS) employees during its first few days in office. The ban followed another memo that paused nearly all HHS communications and canceled grant review and advisory committee meetings. HHS employees are confused and fearful, as it seems that the Trump administration is targeting the nation’s largest health agency.
Science reported that the HHS travel ban halted all staff travel – even travel that was already planned. The travel ban has been especially difficult for early-career researchers who were excited to present their research, some for the very first time. Networking at scientific conferences is particularly important for young scientists just beginning their careers.
Attacking science is not a new strategy – we witnessed travel bans, communication blackouts, and funding freezes under the prior Trump administration. Former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, prevented scientists from traveling and presenting their climate change work. Pruitt later publicly apologized saying that this was a violation of the agency’s scientific integrity policy and that it would not happen again.
It looks like the current administration has science in its sites once again, and not in a good way. This assault will have serious implications for public health, worker and environmental protection, and our nation’s scientific leadership.
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I had an academic career at the interface of chemistry and biology, so I understand how destructive these prohibitions are! They could be especially damaging to younger researchers who are trying to establish themselves. Producing high quality scientific research is extremely demanding activity. Why is T trying to make it even more difficult?? One can only hope that somebody can convince the T administration that high quality scientific investigations are important for public health, for national security, and for the general well being of our country.