ICYMI: All of this @nytimes article about science denial is true — but it’s not the whole story. The whole story is worse in some ways, better than others. What accounts for when science is accepted and when it’s denied? Read to the end of this thread. https://t.co/wCsRvt21BT
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
In areas critical to our health, safety, and security, the current administration has ignored evidence and undercut science to an unprecedented degree https://t.co/4FD3uJyIvv
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
The Trump administration has taken down scientific information from government websites, disbanded expert panels and dispersed government scientists.
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
It has practiced elimination by inaction: emptying out advisory boards by failure to appoint. For example the Nat’l Board for Ed Sciences, which is supposed to approve @IESResearch priorities, apparently has no members. https://t.co/uqDqbdRiRS
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
In other areas, the story is less less gloomy. The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, which will be one year old on January 14, passed with bipartisan support. It offers a ray of light in the dark clouds of anti-science. https://t.co/uePWZE3GC9
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
Other new federal laws encourage state & local use of evidence, such as the Family First Prevention Services Act & the reauth. Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. And state and local groups like @RPP_Network are supporting partnerships that strengthen evidence use.
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
Still skeptical? The @BPC_Bipartisan published #EvidenceWorks, a compendium of 20 cases of government use of scientific evidence in polity at the federal, state, & local levels. @NickRHarthttps://t.co/3LExSI35Ee
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
There’s even bipartisan support in the House for the Scientific Integrity Act, which would help shield government scientists from political interference https://t.co/pZ5zOSBDXf
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
And note that Congress has INCREASED funding for scientific research at agencies like @NICHD_NIH@IESResearch@NSF despite the administration’s efforts to take funding away https://t.co/nCNzNQxv8K
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
So what accounts for when the Trump administration attacks science and when evidence has a chance to light the way towards better policy?
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
Sometimes ideology is the key factor. For example, one of the first acts taken by Trump’s first HHS Secretary, Tom Price, was to cancel a program of scientific studies on teen pregnancy prevention https://t.co/Msj8PXnhKc
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
More often, though, to understand why evidence from science is undercut, you have to follow the advice that #DeepThroat gave to Woodward and Bernstein: “Follow the money.”
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
Read again the @nytimes article at the top of this thread. You’ll find corporate greed behind each attack on science at the EPA and at the depts of Energy, Agriculture, Commerce & Interior. Not every company attacks science to preserve their profits, but some big rich ones do.
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
Government support for science—and officials who pay attention to evidence—is not “big government,” it’s “smart government.” And that’s what we need, now more than ever.
— Adam Gamoran (@agamoran) January 6, 2020
