Stand Up for Science plans a second rally on March 7
Public health chaos and research funding cuts are inspiring nationwide pro-science protests against the Trump administration
A scene from “Stand Up for Science” held in New York City in March 2025.
Mustafa Basim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Scientists and advocates are set to take to the streets in support of science on March 7 – the nationwide demonstration will mark the second stand up rally for science after US President Donald Trump takes office in 2025.
Leading Stand Up for Science on Saturday Demonstration at 25 placesWhich includes Washington, DC, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Albuquerque; Smaller events will take place in approximately 25 additional cities. There will also be a virtual rally.
“Last year we were warning people,” says Colette DeLaValla, founder and CEO of the nonprofit that organizes the rallies. “We were concerned about the politicization of science, we were concerned about political interference and censorship, we were concerned about vaccines and public health,” says DeLaWalla, who also has a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at Emory University. “Almost everything we warned about happened, which is exceptionally unfortunate.”
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Since the first Stand Up for Science rally took place on March 7, 2025, the Trump administration has cut government research funding and grants, reduced federal science agency staffing, overhauled the nation’s public health policies, rolled back regulations designed to fight climate change, and more. The effects of these and other science policy changes have been consequential, Delavalla says, even changing the way Researchers write their grant funding proposals To “fit” better with the Trump administration’s approach.
Administration critics like DeLaValla point to Trump officials like U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as emblematic of the problems plaguing American science. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has led government efforts to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines — a move that disregarded established science.
(In response to these criticisms, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said scientific American“Under President Trump, the United States remains the largest funder of scientific research and home to the largest public-private ecosystem for innovation in the world.” Similarly, Emily Hilliard, press secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, reported scientific American that “Secretary Kennedy’s long-standing advocacy is focused on ensuring that vaccines and all medical interventions meet the highest standards of safety for the American people.”)
“For the first time in modern history, the appointed officials who lead our federal health agencies do not view vaccines as the first line of defense to protect the health of the American people,” says Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota. “It is worth mentioning that.”
The rally comes amid an explosion in measles cases, with more than 1,000 infections confirmed in the first two months of the year, despite the disease being eliminated from the country in 2000. Osterholm says how the administration communicates to the public about vaccines, and about science in general, will have consequences years into the future.
DeLaWalla agrees. “Our big concern this year is this: We worry that science will be used as a weapon against the public,” she says. “We want to ensure that science is not only well funded but also used appropriately to serve the public good and improve the human experience around the world. That’s what publicly funded science should do.”
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