Censored Science Can’t Save Lives

Censoring research on how to deliver treatments to those most in need isn’t just nonsensical — it puts lives at risk and undermines America’s leadership in medical innovation. Progress cannot occur if scientists are barred from asking certain questions. This is not how science works.

The assault on science began on Jan. 20, when diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government were explicitly ended. Days later, researchers noticed that the Food and Drug Administration had quietly removed guidance on recruiting patients with diverse backgrounds for clinical trials. And by the end of January, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists were instructed to freeze publication, or even retract, articles submitted for publication, to check if they contained newly forbidden words like “gender.” Online tools for navigating public health databases such as the Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System have disappeared, researchers are being muzzled and meetings to review grants at the National Institutes of Health have been canceled, then rescheduled, then canceled again.

Most alarming is the effect that these executive decrees will soon have on patients. Health equity research has already revealed striking disparities in asthma outcomes. Black Americans are three times as likely to die from asthma as white patients, with the most deaths seen among Black women.

These patients are significantly underrepresented in asthma clinical trials, making it unclear if current treatments are the most effective options for them. They are also less likely to receive the potentially lifesaving new therapies we do have. If we don’t understand how to get the right treatments to the patients who need them most, our attempts to reduce deaths will fall short.