Science is Political

Jason Shepherd
3 min readNov 1, 2020

“Facts do not cease to exist, just because they are ignored” ~ Aldous Huxley

On the eve of the US elections, I’ve often been asked why scientists have suddenly become “political”. As if to say, “stay in your lane”. Scientists and medical professionals are used to working under no pretenses, their very job is defined by seeking the truth about reality. Whether it’s trying to diagnose what is wrong with a patient, or trying to understand the underlying causes of illness. We know that nature doesn’t care about politics or what you think about science. So, when a con artist tries to run a country like it’s a reality TV show, and science is ignored, data manipulated…damn right that we are now “political”! Prominent academic journals such as Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature have taken unprecedented stances on the US elections, denouncing the anti-science policies of the Trump administration.

Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

Nothing we do happens in a vacuum, and some of our own supposed scientific leaders have failed us. Make no mistake that the Trump administration has gutted the institutions that have stood as pillars of health in this country, the CDC and FDA. They have tried all they can to replace leadership with people who will only agree with their made-up reality. Some of you may wonder then, why hasn’t Dr. Fauci been fired. He is one of the few shining lights in the government who has…

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Jason Shepherd

Associate Professor, Department of Neurobiology and holds the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair at the University of Utah. @jasonsynaptic www.shepherdlab.org