Yet another consequence of the election: scientific meetings are being shut down.
Several meetings of National Institutes of Health study sections, which review applications for fellowships and grants, were canceled without being rescheduled, according to agency notices reviewed by STAT. A Feb. 20-21 meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, a panel that advises the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services on vaccine policy, was also canceled. So was a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria that was scheduled for Jan. 28 and 29.
The scope of the cancellations was unclear. It was also unclear whether they were related to the Trump administration’s freeze on external communications until Feb. 1.
Let’s stop all progress on research into vaccines and antibiotics. It’s not as if we’ll ever have another pandemic.
You know, this is going to get depressing fast. Every morning I’ll be getting up first thing in the morning to the latest horrible, evil act executed by this administration. I’m going to have to think of something to break this spiral of doom whirling away in my brain.
Here’s an appropriate comic.
Just change that last word from “January” to “United States of America.”
Cold? January?
Not in Oz it ain’t.
Or LA now for that matter.
Hot as hell in some places. Black Holes are surrounding by super-luminous accretion disks too. Astronomically speaking.
Still. Yeah. Metaphorically speaking..
It is worse than PZ says.
One of the gag orders involves the ongoing bird flu pandemic in Avians.
I’ve seen a lot written about the price of eggs and the availability of eggs.
The explanation is real simple.
The bird flu has killed 100 million chickens in the USA.
“More than 20 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S. died last quarter because of bird flu, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows, marking the worst toll inflicted on America’s egg supply since the outbreak began.”
It is 100 million total since the current outbreak.
Fewer chickens = fewer eggs.
If the Trump regime is going to lower the price of eggs, one of their campaign goals, they are going to have to deal with the bird flu outbreak.
And no, an Executive Order isn’t going to make the bird flu go away.
But The Vicar tells us – and he’s always right* – that there’s no real difference between Trump and Harris, Democrats and Republicans.
*In his own estimation, at any rate.
I share your dismay, PZ. The one ray of hope is that we’ll probably have elections in 2028.
I sent a letter to my representative and both my senators. Not that it’s going to do any good. My representative is Scott Fitzgerald (R) and one of my senators is Ron Fucking Johnson.
I had been hoping that the response to the first Trump disaster was going to be a huge Progressive swing to correct for everything he had fucked up. Instead we got Biden, who was only ever going to be the Status Quo President. Biden surprised me by doing better than I expected of him, but I expected very little from him. There was no Progressive backlash, and Trump was allowed to get away with his multitudinous crimes and seize power again. Now he is running rampant like a bull in a China shop, destroying vital programs that took decades to institute. If (not when) we ever get rid of this festering POS, the US will HAVE TO take a hard Progressive turn to recover from all the damage done. If not, I fear that will be the end of this once-great country, assuming it survives this catastrophe at all.
“…this is going to get depressing fast.” Going to get? I’m there already.
Two comments.
One, the barbarians have put a gag order on HHS. Everything to be reviewed by a political appointee to ensure that communications are “in line” with the administration. Back in George W’s day he appointed this noobie as a press aide to NASA with a goal of suppressing mentions of climate change and the Big Bang, of all things. Fortunately for us, the noob padded his resume and didn’t have the B.S. he claimed, although he was full of BS. He resigned, bullet dodged. And … here we are again. Also, during COVID didn’t T1 do the same thing suppressing data from HHS?
Two, when I worked for a research center management decided to cut costs by early retiring scientists, laying off technicians because there were “too many” and those programs fell below critical mass and eventually evaporated all together. Over the years the Research and Development Center became the Engineering Development Center, then the Technology Center and, now, the sign is blank and most of the campus buildings are vacant. Once it’s gone you don’t start it up by wishing.
Good news :
https://www.dw.com/en/lgbtq-rights-southeast-asia-equality/a-71369435
^ Wrong thread. To quote the douchebag Rick Perry, Oops!
In an example of coaxed interpretation, after your intro, I simply assumed the comic was referring to Jan. 20 and it described exactly how I felt (“that damned, fatal stroke can still happen, right?”) all december. So my first that was “Gee, Tom Gauld isn’t usually that overtly political, is he?”
What the fascist GOP is doing here is obvious.
They have done it before.
Steve Bannon said it during the first Trump regime in 2028.
They have no real reason to censor NIH.
They are simply doing it because they can. Because it annoys normal people and Democrats.
It’s the same reason why Elon Musk gave his Nazi salute.
He isn’t virtue signalling.
He is power signalling.
He did it to show he can be an out Nazi and no one can stop him and the GOP doesn’t care.