Stand Up for Science protests spread to more than 50 cities

Stand Up for Science protests spread to more than 50 cities

By Dan Vergano Edited by Claire Cameron

Washington, DC – Scientists, advocates and lawmakers gathered in front of the U.S. Capitol on Saturday for the second annual Stand Up for Science rally. Addressing the crowd, government scientists spoke out against moves by the Trump administration to curtail or censor their work.

“Science needs integrity,” said Jenna Norton, a scientist at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases who was one of the speakers at the Washington, D.C., rally. scientific American. “It is important that we speak out on how we are affected and what the future holds for our country.”

Norton, who filed a whistleblower complaint After being placed by the National Institutes of Health on administrative leave In November, he told Saturday protesters that the Trump administration “opposes science itself. Eventually they will come for your science, too.”

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more than 2,000 people Turned out to protest on the National Mall; According to organizers, similar rallies took place in more than 50 cities across the country — up from about a dozen a year earlier. There were almost as many signs in the crowd as there were people, plus a large inflatable duck standing next to the stage as a visual protest against the “quack” drug, a sign of how federal vaccine and nutrition recommendations have changed under the Trump administration’s vaccine-skeptic health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Since the new Trump administration takes office in 2025, US science agencies more employees lost Compared to the last two decades. There are approximately 10,000 Ph.D.s in technical fields employed by the US federal government. level expert is lost Retirement, dismissal or buyout, Science Informed.

Speakers at the D.C. protest included Steve Volz, the former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s satellite division, who said the Trump administration sidelined him to privatize federal weather reporting. (The agency did not respond to a request for comment.) Also addressing the protest were young researchers at the National Institutes of Health. whose union A letter was received from the agency in March stating that the government would don’t recognize it anymore. Lawmakers and political figures including Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and conservative-lawyer-turned-Trump critic george conwayAlso filled the speakers row.

Congress’s decision to withdraw from making Catastrophic cuts for science The funding the Trump administration has proposed through 2025 is a “ray of sunshine,” Van Hollen said, speaking backstage. scientific American. But he also added that it is upcoming presidential budget request The focus on defense spending will almost certainly lead to calls for cuts again. “The pushback has made a difference,” Van Hollen said, adding that Congress has written into the law requirements that science funding be spent on the research purpose for which it is earmarked. The administration could ignore those laws, he said, which could lead to lawsuits and ultimately halt the science. He said, “That’s why I say ray of the sun, not that the sun has come out.”

Dana Fisher, a sociologist at American University who studies and surveys protests, says, “Over the past year we have seen scientists mobilize for various days of action to defend science, (which) has become a rallying cry for a broader resistance movement.” She says the scientists fit the demographics of the Trump administration’s expected protesters: white, highly educated and middle-aged or older.

She adds, “I hope we continue to see science as the center and catalyst of action.”

Editor’s note: This story is in development and may be updated.

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