Trump and the tech bros: demagogues of harm to human and planetary health
A US medical society has written to tell us that some of its members will be unable to contribute to journal activities. This followed a government mandate that initially seemed to prohibit US federal employees, such as those working directly for the National Institutes of Health, from publishing or participating in external communications (doi:10.1136/bmj.r172).1 A subsequent clarification confirmed that submitting papers to and corresponding with journals was allowable. However, “posting preprints, or unreviewed manuscripts, online is on hold,” with more guidance to follow.2 The restriction is heavy handed and censorious—a sign of the times. It’s hard to understand what danger preprints and unreviewed manuscripts pose to the US—or how a partial gagging order on scientists puts the health and wellbeing of people and the planet first. How does it even put “America First”? Every inch that the US withdraws from international collaboration opens up an inch for Donald Trump’s avowed enemie
