This isn’t how you ‘restore gold standard’ science

IN ANOTHER attempt to concentrate power, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to “restore gold standard science” in federal research and policy. It sounds reasonable given the instances of bad or faked science being published, including high-profile papers on Alzheimer’s drug development and one misleadingly claiming that hydroxychloroquine would cure Covid-19. In the last decade, scientists themselves have grown concerned about the large number of studies whose promising results couldn’t be replicated.

However, researchers dedicated to reforming their field say the president’s plan isn’t a solution. It’s a way to give government officials the power to reject evidence they disagree with – without any accountability or transparency.

There is already a long history of US policies that ignored scientific evidence, from allowing toxic lead in petrol to decades of failing to act on the known dangers of asbestos and cigarettes. Science alone can’t decide policy, but the public and lawmakers need reliable scientific data to decide, for example, which pesticides or food additives to ban, or how to regulate genetically modified crops.