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The recently released book titled: Science Under Siege (Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez) states precisely an American condition that should be of grave concern to everyone.

The radical right of the Republican Party has placed science and particularly medical and environmental science under siege, likely because the truths science provides challenge the self-interests of the attackers.

Their response is to assail the messenger, the scientific method itself — a strictly structured process of investigating the unknown, testing ideas, answering questions, always in search of the truth. Science advances our knowledge of the natural world, its life, and the universe beyond. All told, science is the ongoing effort to find truth in the universe. To say science is under siege is to say truth is under siege.

We see this in the outlandish statements made by this administration and perpetuated by social media and complicit news outlets. We see scientifically derived results ignored or twisted with lies meant to undermine proven facts to justify otherwise indefensible positions. For example, contrary to what has been concocted by one wormed-out brain, scientifically derived vaccines do save lives. Measles vaccines save lives. Smallpox and polio vaccines save lives, and on and on.

Through an overwhelming abundance of scientific investigations, we know that carbon dioxide emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels is a primary contributor to the planet’s warming climate. To ignore this science is folly on a planetary scale.

When conducted honestly, science will update itself. This occurs when previously unavailable data and techniques are applied, or initial questions change, as when disease vectors develop immunity to current vaccines. We rely on science to produce updated and effective replacements. This plays out routinely with COVID and flu vaccines. Good science evolves our knowledge and hopefully advances our well-being.

This administration is hell-bent on hijacking science and forcing false outcomes that support their own self-interests, outcomes that can’t be maintained without more untruths. This can confuse the public, which is left to wonder: whose science to believe? Ask: What groups support the choices? Are they economic, corporate, political, medical, environmental, or scientific groups? All are special interests, but whose interests are being served- and why: for power, for money, or for the betterment of humanity? Is this the goal of the anti-science faction: to confuse, to manipulate, then to control?

The most egregious attacks on science are the administration’s withholding of an estimated $8 billion of congressionally appropriated funds for medical research, the termination of approximately 1,800 research grants, and delaying review of $1.5 billion worth of new research grants. In a recent poll, nearly 75% of American scientists who responded said they are considering leaving the United States because of funding cuts and fear of political interference in their work. These indefensible government actions are choking American medical research and forcing it onto life support, putting the lives of untold numbers of people at risk, today and in the future.

Throughout its operations, science has provided humanity with nearly every convenience we now enjoy. “Science has given humanity the ability to understand the universe. It has illuminated the laws of nature, allowing us to transform curiosity into knowledge and knowledge into power. Through science we have gained medicine that saves lives, technology that connects the world, energy that lights our cities, and tools that expand our senses and abilities. Science has provided longer lives, deeper insights, and the means to shape our future. Most of all, it has given us a framework for discovering truth and improving the human condition.�

Science created AI, which delivered the previous italicized sentences after I asked: “Put into words what science has provided humanity.�

This is science. We cannot allow the unscrupulous to take it over. We must restore the billions withheld for medical research. We must act on climate change science. We must place the science deniers, the liars, and their accomplices all under a peaceful, yet relentless siege. If not, America will lose its position as the world’s science leader, and we will become more dependent upon other nations to create innovations. America will have fallen due to self-inflicted wounds. Safeguard science.