"Make Biology Great Again, Mr. President"

Anonymous scientists on how to reform the National Institutes of Health without destroying American biomedical research.

Here’s an opinion piece by anonymous scientists:

Proposed Title: Make Biology Great Again, Mr. President

[792 words]

Five years ago, COVID, the deadliest pandemic since the Spanish flu, swept the globe. Optimists predicted that a remedy for COVID could soon be found in the United States. By the end of 2020, these observers were vindicated by Operation Warp Speed, a triumph of American science, medicine, and logistics. Although vaccines were also developed in other countries, it was the American vaccines that were most widely deployed, saving millions of lives here and abroad. Because President Trump has been denied any political benefit from Warp Speed,

As I pointed out on November 11, 2020, after months of Pfizer’s CEO predicting that Pfizer’s vaccine clinical trial would have readable data on efficacy in October (i.e., before the election), late in the month Pfizer quietly halted all processing of results in its trial until the day after election, thus denying Trump a chance to take credit for the success of the vaccine before the election. Therefore, the New York Times crowed with glee on November 1, 2020 when October 2020 had passed with no word from Pfizer:

his oversight of it qualifies as the most virtuous act of his presidency so far.

Whether he advances his legacy will depend in part on how he reforms the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His aides and interim appointees have made serious errors overseeing NIH, apparently in a hamfisted effort to eliminate two real, grave threats to American excellence: waste and wokeness. Thousands of researchers at NIH have been fired, supposedly but implausibly for cause. The entire NIH system for supporting university research has been disrupted by sudden and drastic cuts in proposed funding. It is difficult not to suspect an element of vindictiveness in these indiscriminate mass layoffs and cutbacks.

The biomedical community, however, must recognize where this vengeful mood comes from. It is righteous anger directed at NIH and life scientists more generally. Although scientists should be thanked and honored for developing effective COVID therapeutics, it is quite possible that other scientists created COVID in the first place and then concealed their culpability from President Trump and the nation. The negligent release of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus killed millions of people, cost trillions of dollars, laid kindling for the political firestorms of 2020, and perhaps changed the result of its U.S. presidential election. If one denies the possibility that COVID arose from scientific irresponsibility, one then has to explain the behavior of health authorities of both China and America that seems to betray consciousness of guilt. Subsequent responses to COVID by American biomedical authorities were also objectionable: requiring masking despite its questionable efficacy, closing schools despite the harm done to children, and barring people from their churches and outdoor recreations while encouraging mass left-wing protests.

However understandable disenchantment with NIH may be, such blind lashing out at the researchers working there or supported by it must be condemned. The vast majority of the rank and file had no part in the malfeasance outlined above. The history of German physics and Russian biology in the first half of the 20th century shows that scientific excellence is hard to build, but terribly easy to destroy. Even if U.S. researchers depart for other countries, as their German and Russian predecessors did, there is no guarantee that they will rebuild the excellence that has won America more than 100 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine. More Chinese Americans have won scientific Nobel Prizes than PRC citizens, though the former are a mere 1/200th of the latter. Of 28 highly transformative medicines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 1985 and 2002, 80% arose from basic biological research conducted decades before FDA approval. Extinguishing biomedical science in America may plunge the whole world into mediocrity, and deprive it of a precious resource that has repeatedly saved and extended lives everywhere.

We propose to treat NIH’s misbehavior in the way that a prudent commander treats a mutiny. Examples should be made of the worst offenders. The origin of COVID must be rigorously investigated, and if any American scientists are found to have engaged in misconduct, a select few should be dismissed or even delivered to the Department of Justice. Social-justice commissars must be sent packing. All other NIH employees should be reinstated and allowed to resume their legitimate scientific activities. We also propose that revisions of NIH’s support to universities should be done in a measured way that allows reform and improvement rather than capricious destruction. As part of this rapprochement, scientists must recognize that Republicans have built a broad coalition of Americans from all races who want the country’s biomedical institutions cleansed of irresponsible scientific behavior and committed to politically impartial scientific judgment. If biomedical scientists embrace these goals, they will win back the trust whose absence is now derailing their work and causing laypeople to spurn professional medical guidance.

During the Civil War, America began the land-grant system that made college education possible for the children of farmers and factory workers. During the Great Depression, America founded NIH, which led to ninety years of biological innovation. In 2025, America again faces crisis. But we are a country that builds for the future even when others might despair. Let us renew NIH so that it continues its work for the benefit of America, and of all nations.