Oh Dear God. Realize am late to the party but: MAGA now may be going to halt mRNA research !?!

[SorellaLaBefana]

Am trying to avoid doom-scrolling, which means not looking at 'news'—so just learned of this latest actual insanity when going through email and found this appalling report linked in my Nature journal newsletter.

Scientists Say NIH Officials Told Them To Scrub mRNA References on Grants

National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research.

The mRNA technology is under study at the NIH for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, including flu and AIDS, and also cancer. It was deployed in the development of covid-19 vaccines credited with saving 3 million lives in the U.S. alone...

A senior official at the National Cancer Institute confirmed that NIH acting Director Matthew Memoli sent an email across the NIH instructing that any grants, contracts, or collaborations involving mRNA vaccines be reported up the chain to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office and the White House.

Memoli sent a similar message ahead of the agency canceling other research, such as studies of vaccine hesitancy....

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nih-grants-mrna-vaccines-trump-administration-hhs-rfk/

I've stuck to the 4 paragraph rule, as don't want to get post removed. HOWEVER, the website does state: "Use Our Content: It can be republished for free."

mRNA vaccines have, in the past half-decade, saved MILLIONS of lives. If not yours, then quite likely that of someone you love. Such research will continue to be done, just not in America. Science and technology has, besides benefiting the world, been a golden goose for our nation.

One would have thought that the destruction of the USSR's genetic and biological science by Stalin's embrace of Lysenkoism would give MAGA pause. Of course, one would have thought the example of Nazism this past century might also have been remembered.

To paraphrase the brilliant JBS Haldane "MAGA is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine."

[Irish_Dem]

1. Billionaires do not want to pay for treating sick people.

All the world's money belongs to them and it will not go to help the young, old, infirm, sick.

Survival of the fittest is the new value system.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. I've mentioned the parallel to Lysenkoism in a couple of posts. Basically, it's Party ideology over empirical facts.

Which is, of course, exactly what Turnip thinks he can force on the entire world, and it will fall into line. Facts just don't work that way. Unfortunately, it's going to bite us in the ass, chew us up and swallow us, before Turnip ever faces the slightest consequence. Maybe after a few Congresscritters get "culled" by the next pandemic they'll suddenly discover why his horrible policies are such excrutiatingly bad ideas.

None of the historical precedents will matter in the slightest, because MAGAts are studiously ignorant of history. They believe if they don't read about the consequences of bad policies, they won't happen.