Scientists, researchers, doctors rally in Washington against Trump's research cuts

Giving a new meaning to the phrase mad scientists, angry researchers, doctors, their patients and supporters have ventured out of labs, hospitals and offices to fight against what they call a blitz on life-saving science by the Trump administration.

In Washington, DC, thousands gathered on Friday at the Stand Up for Science rally. Organisers said similar rallies were planned in more than 30 US cities.

Politicians, scientists, musicians, doctors and their patients made the case that firings, budget and grant cuts in health, climate, science, and other research government agencies in the Trump administration's first 47 days in office are endangering not just the future but the present.

"This is the most challenging moment I can recall," University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann told the crowd who protested against Trump, his cost-cutting aide Elon Musk and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"What are you afraid of?"

Astronomer Phil Plait told the crowd, "We’re looking at the most aggressively anti-science government the United States has ever had."

Rally co-organiser Colette Delawalla, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, said, "We’re not just going to stand here and take it."

Science communicator, entertainer, and one-time engineer Bill Nye, known as 'the Science Guy' challenged the forces in government that want to cut and censor science. "What are you afraid of?" he said.

US Senator Chris Van Hollen challenged the crowd, some in white lab coats if only for show, to live up to the mad scientist moniker: "Everybody in America should be mad about what we are witnessing."

"Science saved my life"

Health and science advances are happening faster than ever, making this a key moment in making people’s lives better, said former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who helped map the human genome. The funding cuts put at risk progress on Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes and cancer, he said.

"It’s a very bad time with all the promise and momentum," said Collins.

"I’m very worried about my country right now," Collins said.

Emily Whitehead, the first patient to get a new type of treatment for a rare cancer, told the crowd that at age 5 she was sent hospice to die, but CAR T-cell therapy "taught my immune system to beat cancer" and she’s been disease-free now.

"I stand up for science because science saved my life," Whitehead said.

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Source: TRT