“I think a pandemic might do it. Something that could affect millions of people indiscriminately and from which you could not insulate yourself even if you were rich.”

— Author Michael Lewis, quoted by the Observer, when asked in December 2019 what it would take for America to want a leader who understood the importance of scientific knowledge.

New York Times: “As the nation confronts one of its worst public health disasters in generations, a moment that demands a leader willing to marshal the full might of the American scientific establishment, the White House is occupied by a president whose administration, critics say, has diminished the conclusions of scientists in formulating policy, who personally harbors a suspicion of expert knowledge, and who often puts his political instincts ahead of the facts.”

Said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley: “Donald Trump is the most anti-science and anti-environment president we’ve ever had.”

“Well before winning the presidency, Mr. Trump had publicly questioned science by expressing skepticism about vaccines and suggesting climate change was a hoax fabricated by China. Once in office, Mr. Trump’s administration quickly began work on one of its most far-reaching policies — the systematic downplaying or ignoring of science in order to weaken environmental health and global warming regulations.”

“The Trump administration abruptly cut off funding for a project studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people after reports linked the work to a lab in Wuhan, China, at the center of conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins,” Politico reports.

“Suddenly ending a grant early is an unusual move for the NIH, which typically takes such steps only when there is evidence of scientific misconduct or financial improprieties — neither of which it has alleged took place in this case.”

Washington Post: “In the first two years of the Trump administration, more than 1,600 federal scientists left government… That represents a 1.5 percent drop, compared with the 8 percent increase during the same period in the Obama administration.”

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the “Doomsday Clock” to 100 seconds before midnight, the closest it’s ever been to the metaphorical point of the Earth’s destruction.

From the statement: “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”

“In just three years, the Trump administration has diminished the role of science in federal policymaking while halting or disrupting research projects nationwide, marking a transformation of the federal government whose effects, experts say, could reverberate for years,” the New York Times reports.

“Political appointees have shut down government studies, reduced the influence of scientists over regulatory decisions and in some cases pressured researchers not to speak publicly. The administration has particularly challenged scientific findings related to the environment and public health opposed by industries such as oil drilling and coal mining. It has also impeded research around human-caused climate change, which President Trump has dismissed despite a global scientific consensus.”

“Barry Myers, President Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has withdrawn from consideration due to health concerns,” the Washington Post reports.

“Myers’ nomination had languished in the Senate since it was first announced in November 2017, due in part to conflict of interest concerns regarding his family’s continued ownership stake in AccuWeather, the private weather forecasting company he led until stepping down on Jan. 1.”

Max Boot: “Measles was declared eliminated in 2000, but so far this year 940 individual cases have been reported throughout the country. All because a growing number of parents, in thrall to ‘anti-vaxxer’ conspiracy theories, refuse to follow medical advice and immunize their children.”

“This is terrifying, and not just because measles is a life-threatening disease. The revival of measles is an indication of a serious political problem. The case for democracy is that voters in the aggregate will make better decisions than a lone monarch or dictator would. But does majority rule still work when so many people believe so many things that simply aren’t so?”

President Trump criticized NASA on Friday for focusing on travel to the moon, raising questions about the space agency’s mandate just months after his administration declared the U.S. would return astronauts to the moon within five years “by any means necessary,” Bloomberg reports.

Tweeted Trump: “For all the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!”