Science has fallen into disrepute. Widespread fraud, studies that can’t be replicated, corruption in the World Health Organization, politics masquerading as science, the covid disaster–these and other developments have severely damaged the public’s trust in science and scientists.
Can trust in science be restored? President Trump is going to try. On May 23, he issued an Executive Order titled “Restoring Gold Standard Science,” which hasn’t gotten as much attention as it deserves.
The order begins with a statement of Policy and Purpose:
Over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly. A majority of researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics believe science is facing a reproducibility crisis. The falsification of data by leading researchers has led to high-profile retractions of federally funded research.
Unfortunately, the Federal Government has contributed to this loss of trust. In several notable cases, executive departments and agencies have used or promoted scientific information in a highly misleading manner. For example, under the prior Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued COVID-19 guidance on reopening schools that incorporated edits by the American Federation of Teachers and was understood to discourage in-person learning. This guidance’s restrictive and burdensome reopening conditions led many schools to remain at least partially closed, resulting in substantial negative effects on educational outcomes — even though the best available scientific evidence showed that children were unlikely to transmit or suffer serious illness or death from the virus, and that opening schools with reasonable mitigation measures would have only minor effects on transmission.
More examples follow. So, what does the Executive Order actually do? It mandates “Gold Standard Science” in all federal agencies:
Sec. 3. Restoring Gold Standard Science. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP Director) shall, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies, issue guidance for agencies on implementation of “Gold Standard Science” in the conduct and management of their respective scientific activities. For the purposes of this order, Gold Standard Science means science conducted in a manner that is:
(i) reproducible;
(ii) transparent;
(iii) communicative of error and uncertainty;
(iv) collaborative and interdisciplinary;
(v) skeptical of its findings and assumptions;
(vi) structured for falsifiability of hypotheses;
(vii) subject to unbiased peer review;
(viii) accepting of negative results as positive outcomes; and
(ix) without conflicts of interest.
There is more to the order, but that is the objective. Can an executive order actually do much to reform a corrupt scientific establishment? A friend who is more knowledgeable in this area than I am is optimistic. He writes:
This is an EO that actually would have to be followed by agencies, since it is purely procedural. If followed, it would drastically limit the use of junk science. I actually drafted up a proposed bill years ago and sent it to some Congress people with a lot of the same provisions. … The reaction is hilarious, scientists know they won’t be able to use shoddy research to advance their ideology.
Let’s hope he is right. In any event, Donald Trump is to be applauded for recognizing the crisis in scientific research and trying to restore integrity to government-sponsored science.
