The Trump administration can restore honest science
- February 28, 2025
Michael Chamberlain, Washington Examiner
Trust in government and science is at an all-time low. Only about a third of adults trust the public health system, and barely half have a great deal of trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The scientific community is dealing with rampant fraud, with over 10,000 research papers being retracted in 2023 alone.
The reality is that “science” has been politicized and weaponized. “Trust the science” was a mantra we all heard in 2020. But what this really meant was to trust the “experts,” who pushed policies such as mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and school closures despite questionable evidence for their prescriptions. But still, these experts nevertheless silenced, smeared, and canceled dissenting voices. Post-pandemic, there was even a doctor who withheld the results of her study because it did not match her preconceived ideas, and she feared her results could be used to counter ideas.
The pandemic also heightened skepticism for the symbiotic relationship among politicians, the government, and corporate interests such as “Big Pharma,” whereby the government funds drug development and the companies, in turn, donate to politicians. Similarly, with environmental policy, there has been a long-standing view that research funded by corporate interests, such as oil companies, could be summarily dismissed as tainted without addressing the substance.
Yet, the same people refuse to acknowledge a similar taint from science funded or performed by special interest nongovernmental organizations, whose raison d’etre is to advance particular environmental policies. While money may be a corruptor of men and science, it is far from the only one. Not only have environmental special interest groups used questionable “science” to push unpopular policies — EV mandates, gas stove bans — but they have also sent many alumni into the Biden administration in positions with the power to enact them.