Biden's got a plan to protect science from Trump (May, 2024)

The White House has told the National Institutes of Health to safeguard its work from political interference.

By Erin Schumaker

05/27/2024 05:00 AM EDT

The Biden administration is setting up new tripwires for Donald Trump at America’s premier health research agency to safeguard against political interference if Trump wins in November.

The White House fears Trump could try to advance an ideological agenda at the National Institutes of Health, like the ones he’s suggested on everything from vaccines to diversity policies.

In an effort to Trump-proof, NIH has designated an official to identify political meddling in the agency’s work and is tasking a soon-to-be-established scientific integrity council with reviewing those cases. The White House knows Trump could still cast those plans aside but is calculating that doing so will set off alarms with the media, Congress and the public. The Biden administration likely hopes GOP lawmakers, even those who think the NIH needs an overhaul, will temper Trump’s moves.

“Interfering and manipulating science to hit a partisan agenda is inappropriate and is what we’re working to wall against,” Lyric Jorgenson, NIH’s designated scientific integrity official, said in an interview. She added: The plan to protect the agency’s independence is critical because the public needs to be able to rely on NIH to “generate rigorous, trusted evidence to inform public health.”

More:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/27/biden-plan-protect-science-trump-00160001