From The Saturday Paper, 8 February 2025:
In less than three weeks since he took office, United States President Donald Trump has thrown the global powerhouse of American science and medical research into disarray. The impact is spreading to Australian researchers, whose concerns range from their access to funding and ability to collaborate, to the disruption of global health alert systems, to censorship of their findings.
Amid a rapid succession of executive orders, memos and instructions since his January 20 inauguration, the president pulled the US out of the World Health Organization – a repeat of the action he took in his first administration. The move deprives the United Nations organisation of roughly a fifth of its budget, forcing it to fill the gaps with donations and contributions from WHO’s remaining members.
Further orders took new steps. One imposed a communications blackout on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), amid a rapidly evolving national and international H5N1 bird flu crisis, and ordered the removal of CDC publications, guidelines and databases “that inculcate or promote gender ideology”, including resources on preventing HIV. Read more. (paywall)
Bianca Nogrady 