Fake Science, Suppression of Dissent and Death

Who Was Lysenko?

Today, hardly anyone remembers  Trofim Lysenko, Josef Stalin’s favorite biologist, but in his day, he was responsible for millions of deaths. His story shows us how dangerous it is to put a believer in fake science in a position of authority that allows him/her to suppress dissenting views. Lysenko insisted, contrary to standard biological theory, that acquired characteristics could be inherited. His beliefs led him to recommend agricultural practices that were responsible for widespread crop failures that caused  the famines from which millions of people died in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.

Lysenko was able to do what he did because Stalin suppressed dissent in the Soviet Union rigidly. A person could be imprisoned for expressing unapproved ideas including any disagreement with Lysenko’s scientific theories. So, there was a deadly silence. It was deadly because fake scientific theories can kill people, and that is what happened in the Soviet Union. Lysenko was put in charge of the collectivization of agriculture, and he was able to forcethe farmers to adopt practices that led to massive crop failures. As a result, millions of people died of famine in those years. No one could protest because dissent was suppressed, and protests were illegal.

Is Robert Kennedy a Lysenko?

Robert Kennedy, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, believes in fake science concerning vaccinations, and he is trying to suppress dissent. He has recently issued an order prohibiting public comments in the rule-making process at HHS. Rules regarding public health will be written without comment from scientists or others outside of HHS. Inevitably, bad decisions will be made, and bad public health decisions kill people. We are already seeing children die in the measles epidemic in Texas as a result of anti-vaccination propaganda.

The Battle Over the Suppression of Dissent Here at Home

Kennedy and Donald Trump his boss cannot yet suppress dissent completely, but they are doing what they can to change that. That is why Trump has revoked the security clearances of lawyers who have filed lawsuits against the government in the past. A recent New York Times article, quotes the legal scholar Thomas Vladeck saying:

What the Trump administration is doing is not just about specific lawyers representing unpopular clients, but is rather far more ominous: The administration is acting in ways that will necessarily chill a growing number of lawyers from participating in any litigation against the federal government, regardless of who the client is.

That, in turn, will make it harder for many clients adverse to the Trump administration to find lawyers to represent them — such that at least some cases either won’t be brought at all or won’t be brought by the lawyers best situated to bring them.

 In addition, Trump announced recently that colleges and universities that allow what he called “illegal protests” will lose their federal funding, and that students who participate in such protests will be arrested. 

No lawsuits and no protests. 

In addition, scientists at the Center for Disease Control are now discouraged from engaging in research with colleagues outside the CDC and are forbidden to publish research results that conflict with the Trump administration's executive orders. This mirrors the approach used in Stalin's Soviet Union, where nothing could be published that had not been approved by the Communist Party.  

Moreover, federal support for university research is being cut. and given Trump’s well-known tendency to reward his friends and punish his enemies, we can feel confident that the remaining federal dollars will be directed to institutions and projects that support him and his agenda. Scientists who need research funding to further their careers will learn to avoid criticizing Kennedy just as Soviet scientists learned to avoid criticizing Lysenko. 

We can see the results in a recent New York Times article, which says,

The silence grows louder every day.

Fired federal workers who are worried about losing their homes ask not to be quoted by name. University presidents fearing that millions of dollars in federal funding could disappear are holding their fire. Chief executives alarmed by tariffs that could hurt their businesses are on mute.

Even longtime Republican hawks on Capitol Hill, stunned by President Trump's revisionist history that Ukraine is to blame for its invasion by Russia, and his Oval Office blowup at President Volodymyr Zelensky, have either muzzled themselves, tiptoed up to criticism without naming Mr. Trump or completely reversed their positions.

More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.

People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say that are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump's image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president's all-powerful partner and the world's richest man.

The silence that "grows louder every day" endangers all of our lives because epidemics can kill people just as effectively as famines. How far will Kennedy go if our freedom to speak out is limited or destroyed? How many Americans will die?