Physician-scientist Chetan Seshadri wasn’t planning to speak at Stand Up for Science in Seattle, one of more than 30 rallies held across the U.S. on Friday to counteract the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail scientific activity across federal agencies.
Seshadri initially was scheduled to review 90 grants as part of a panel at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. But the agency cancelled or indefinitely postponed that review panel and dozens of others, including one where his own grant proposal was to be assessed.
“Mine too!” yelled another scientist as Seshadri addressed the crowd.
The rally filled the Mural Amphitheater at Seattle Center, where speakers sounded the alarm about firings, budget cuts, website purges, cancelled vaccine meetings, attempts to eliminate diversity programs and similar Trump administration actions at federal science agencies — many of which are being challenged in court.
“It seems hard to believe that we live in a society today where a governor of a state needs to say to his constituents: I believe in science,” said Washington Governor Bob Ferguson at the rally. He noted that Washington has filed lawsuits with other states to challenge the withholding of federal science funding and the firing of workers.
“There’s a lot hard-working, smart people in state government who are thinking about you and what’s going on every single day, and waking up in the morning focused on addressing it,” said Ferguson, who won 55 of 58 lawsuits he filed against the previous Trump administration in his prior role as the state Attorney General. “I have some experience dealing with the Trump administration,” he added.
When Seshadri’s trip to Bethesda was postponed, so was his non-refundable flight. The cuts are not about the budget or government efficiency, said Seshadri, an assistant professor at University of Washington Medicine who studies tuberculosis. Demoralizing the workforce is part of the intent, he said.
“Why take such drastic and controversial steps to reduce the size of the federal government? Because the smaller it is, the easier it will be to control,” added Seshadri.
Seshadri also voiced concern about the Veteran’s Administration in the Seattle area. “Essential research contracts are being canceled abruptly, putting VA research in jeopardy and veterans’ personal health information at risk,” he said. In addition, emails from upper management are requesting resignations and unrealistic budget cuts at the agency, he said.
The courts, so far, are thwarting some recent actions, including an effort to slash NIH overhead payments to institutions. But the administration will find other ways to try and shrink scientific endeavors, said speakers.
“The cuts are coming one way or another,” said Jim Olson, a pediatric oncologist and cancer researcher at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “We cannot let it happen.”
He encouraged people to ask relatives and friends outside of Washington state to contact their congressional leaders. “We need to forge new partnerships to fund the institutions that are the crown jewels of this city, to help them succeed in training the next generation,” he added.
Federally-funded research enabled the clinical trials that drastically cut rates of death from childhood cancer in his lifetime, said Olson, a former GeekWire Summit speaker and GeekWire Podcast guest.
Olson was educated through a U.S. Pell Grant during college and $100,000 in government support for his advanced training. He has since founded three biotech startups that together have generated more than $200 million in investment, and he leads a program to diversify the biotech workforce. “There’s enormous societal impact each time the government invests in a young scientist,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed by others in the crowd, including University of Washington scientist Eva Nichols, who held a sign with a message that she said helped sway a skeptical conservative relative: “Each $1 from NIH make $2!!! Fund Science.”
The UW is fifth nationally among universities ranked by total R&D expenditures. The university is responsible for every $1 of $32 generated in the state’s economy, with $20.9 billion in economic impact for 2024, according to a recent report.
“Cuts to NIH, NOAA and biotech research grants don’t just stall innovation, they cost people their jobs and weaken local economies,” said Uly Rivera, a rally attendee who works with biotech companies at CoLabs, a new startup incubator in Seattle. “Early-stage biotech companies rely on this funding to bridge the gap between discovery and commercialization.”
Others in the crowd voiced concerns about the effects on the next generation of scientists.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center scientist Harmit Malik attended the rally with three aspiring scientists. One is on the waitlist for the UW’s Molecular & Cellular Biology Graduate Program, which is accepting fewer applicants than previous years because of budget uncertainty, said Malik. He is encouraging the other two students to apply to programs outside of the U.S. (like other attendees, Malik said he was speaking on his own behalf and not for his institution).
Regional science institutions are already being affected already in other ways, including a temporary hiring freeze for non-clinical roles at the UW School of Medicine. That’s compounded by a hole in the state budget and plans to furlough state employees, which will affect university workers.
“Don’t furlough scientists,” said a sign held by UW researcher Philip Creamer, who wore a hat with a logo of his postdoctoral union, United Auto Workers Local 4121.
Speakers represented multiple agencies and scientific areas. Washington state’s commissioner of public lands Dave Upthegrove conveyed the risk to his agency, including on counteracting wildfires. Oceanographer Brendan Carter spoke about being recently fired from NOAA after years of service, and UW senior scientist Meade Krosby highlighted the importance of climate science research. Abraham Flaxman, an associate professor of global health at UW’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said that a key database he developed had been scrubbed from the internet.
The Seattle rally was organized by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and other young Seattle-area scientists, including UW fire scientist Deborah Nemens.
Nemens worked previously at the Forest Service and the Park Service. She noted that science jobs at such agencies are competitive and difficult to land, and she is “disgusted” by what she said was mistreatment and humiliation of their workers.
Why did she help organize the rally? Said Nemens: “I want to push back against the idea that civil servants aren’t dedicated to the country.”
https://ift.tt/1vU8JRB March 08, 2025 at 03:45PM GeekWire
Post a Comment
0Comments