My Conversation With Brian Tyler Cohen (Video), Trump Restricts Access To COVID Vaccines, Fighting The Darkness They Are Trying To Spread

Hopium Paid Subscribers Gather This Thursday at 7pm ET/Ron Brownstein Joins Us Friday/Welcome Back Everyone!

Morning all. Hope you had a restful holiday. We did here in DC, and am now ready to get back it!

Starting off today with a recording of my Thursday discussion with the wonderful podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen for Field Team 6’s “Register Democrats” Summit (below). Our talk begins in the 24th minute after presentations from DNC Chair Ken Martin and Leigh McGowan, “Politics Girl.” Get to it when you have some time. Brian asks a series of terrific questions and I think it’s a great and fresh window into both the promise and the perils of the present moment. Grateful to the folks at Field Team 6 for making our discussion possible, and for all the good work they do.

Opening Up That Third Front: Fighting Trump’s Escalating Attacks on Science, Knowledge, Academia and Our Public Health - As I often write I see our work falling into three buckets, or fronts:

• Fighting Trump’s ruinous ecomomic strategy - stopping the rancid reconciliation bill and rolling back the terrible tariffs

• Challenging his ongoing betrayal of the country through his dismantling of the Federal Government, abandonment of the Constitutional order and selling out to Putin

• Battling his escalating (and breathtaking) attack on science, knowledge, academia and our public health, something that looks far more like sabotage than a strategy for greatness.

Today we are going to focus on that Third Front. Let’s start with The Economist’s cover story this week, MAGA’s assault on science is an act of grievous self-harm: America will pay the price most of all…..

The attacks have been fast and furious. In a matter of months the Trump administration has cancelled thousands of research grants and withheld billions of dollars from scientists. Projects at Harvard and Columbia, among the world’s best universities, have been abruptly cut off. A proposed budget measure would slash as much as 50% from America’s main research-funding bodies. Because America’s technological and scientific prowess is world-beating, the country has long been a magnet for talent. Now some of the world’s brightest minds are anxiously looking for the exit.

Why is the administration undermining its own scientific establishment? On May 19th Michael Kratsios, a scientific adviser to President Donald Trump, laid out the logic. Science needs shaking up, he said, because it has become inefficient and sclerotic, and its practitioners have been captured by groupthink, especially on diversity, equity and inclusion (dei). You might find that reasonable enough. Look closely at what is happening, though, and the picture is alarming. The assault on science is unfocused and disingenuous. Far from unshackling scientific endeavour, the administration is doing it grievous damage. The consequences will be bad for the world, but America will pay the biggest price of all.

One problem is that actions are less targeted than the administration claims, as our special Science section this week explains. As Mr Trump’s officials seek to stamp out dei, punish universities for incidents of antisemitism and cut overall government spending, science has become collateral damage. A suspicion that scientists are pushing “woke” thinking has led grant-makers to become allergic to words like “trans” and “equity”. As a consequence, it is not only inclusive education schemes that are being culled, but an array of orthodox science. Funding has been nixed for studies that seek, say, to assess cancer risk factors by race, or the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases by sex.

The attack on elite universities takes this to an illogical extreme. Because the White House sees colleges as bastions of wokeness and antisemitism, it has withheld funding for research at Harvard and Columbia, no matter in which subject. Overnight, projects on everything from Alzheimer’s disease to quantum physics have been stopped. When scientists warn of the harm this does, they risk being seen as part of a scornful anti-MAGA elite that has been protected for too long.

…….

The consequences will be felt around the world. America is the planet’s biggest backer of public research; it is home to half of all science Nobel laureates and four of the ten best scientific-research universities. The knowledge uncovered by American scientists and resulting innovations such as the internet and mrna vaccines have been a boon to humanity. When America retreats, everyone is robbed of the fruits of this ingenuity.

It is America, however, that will feel the pain most of all. At the beginning of the 20th century there was no branch of science in which Uncle Sam led the world. At the century’s end there was none where it did not. America’s triumphs—its economic prowess, and its technological and military might—were interwoven with that scientific success. As America pulls back, it will cede ground to authoritarian China as a scientific superpower, with all the benefits that confers. maga’s assault on science is not just about dei, nor is it about universities. It is first and foremost an act of self-harm.

Last week, the Trump Administration announced it was limiting access to COVID vaccines and “boosters” for those under 65 and not part of “vulnerable” populations. As fellow Substacker Julia Doubleday writes:

The decision to limit access to new “boosters” is a decision to limit access to COVID vaccines, full stop. These shots don’t simply “top up” protection from shots you’ve already received; they contain protection to genetically distinct strains of the virus that your body won’t be able to easily recognize without a new vaccine.

The Trump Administration official most responsible for this decision wrote this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in Feb of 2021:

On Friday Trump released an Executive Order called “Restoring Gold Standard Science.” Here’s how the advocacy group, Stand Up For Science, described the new Executive order:

On the evening of Friday, May 23rd, 2025, The White House released an Executive Order called Restoring Gold Standard Science. At face value, this order outlines a supposed commitment to federally funded research that is “transparent, rigorous, and impactful” and declares that policy is to be informed by “the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available.” However the EO as written will actually undermine scientific rigor and the transparent progress of science. As scientists, we are committed to a discipline that is decentralized and self-scrutinizing. Instead this administration mandates a centralized system serving the political beliefs of the President and the whims of those in power.

We view this Executive Order as an escalation of the ongoing assault on science. The first six sections employ common scientific language to spell out a “gold standard” for science that would not strengthen science, but instead would introduce stifling limits on intellectual freedom in our Nation’s laboratories and federal funding agencies. Notably, the order comes from an administration that has already defunded areas of research they do not agree with, pushed vaccine misinformation despite widespread evidence, lied about the impacts of climate change, and incorrectly defined sex determination as binary, when biology proves it is not, in their own Executive Order. Throughout the document, scientific language is hijacked, and ideas are turned on their heads. Section 7 outlines the selection of a “senior appointee designated” by the head of the every agency to “evaluate alleged violations” of the “Gold Standard Science” edict. This will be the “sole and exclusive means of evaluating and …addressing alleged violations” overseeing the “use, interpretation and communication of scientific information.”

We see through this bad faith appropriation of scientific language and principles.

The Executive Order further consolidates political control over the Nation's scientific infrastructure, co-opting the language of open science to implement a system under which direct presidential appointees are given broad latitude to designate many common and important scientific activities as scientific misconduct, and to penalize those involved accordingly.

History illustrates, in no uncertain terms, the danger of state-dictated 'scientific truths'. The anti-scientific interpretations of genetics by Lysenko in the Soviet Union resulted in famine that killed millions. State-sponsored programs in Nazi Germany based on the “science” of eugenics led to the genocide of millions of Jews, people with disabilities, and people identifying as LGBTQ+ who were deemed to have “life unworthy of life.”

New data released by Navigator Research this morning confirms other polling on the topic - Americans are deeply concerned about Trump’s gutting of medical research:

Today, I am not sure of the best way to into this important conversation. For there is a big economic dimension which can be packaged into our “ruinious economic agenda” narrative. Simply the attack we are seeing on science will leave America less prosperous, make our companies less competitive, offer our kids and grandkids fewer opportunities and strengthen China’s global hand - and we need to say so.

But it all can also be packaged as a profound and barbaric attack on the health of every day Americans, as Trump is cutting Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA, closing hospitals across the US, disabling our global and domestic disease monitoring systems, withdrawing from the WHO, vaporizing our world leading medical research ecosystem, gutting global health programs, bringing junk science into HHS/FDA and our public health systems and yes, making measles great again.

In its big April poll Pew found Trump getting some of his lowest ratings on public health:

There is also a broad understanding in the public about how reckless Trump’s attacks on government have been:

I also wonder whether young people and college students will come to understand these attacks as a direct attack on them, their futures and their dreams, and be part of what gets them into the game in the coming months. I also feel that we need some version of “Moms Demand Vaccines” and a parent led movement to fight for the health and safety of their children, and this broad challenge to their futures.

For more background on all this I strongly encourage you to watch my interview with Dr. Michael Mann from a few weeks ago and read his recent article with Dr. Peter Hotez, A Triple Threat to Humanity: Climate Change, Pandemics and Anti-Science.

While there is much to do, I think the Hopium community is in a very strong position to help lead the fight against this breathtaking assault on science, academia, knowledge/expertise and our public health - and the future of our kids and grandkids. I will admit that I remain shocked by all this; there is a deep and profound fanaticism driving this politics; and I don’t think the public is going to go along with this dangerous lunacy - but they must know about it to oppose it. That’s where we come in.

From my very first Hopium post:

I am calling it Hopium Chronicles because I want this to be a journey guided by hope and optimism, of belief in ourselves, in love of country and a clear understanding of the nature of the conflict we are in. I have become convinced that part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day. They want us to feel bad about America, our democracy, our leaders, our institutions, our success, each other, ourselves. We cannot let them do that any more. While they talk American down every day, we need to talk it up. While they spread lies, we respond with truth and data. Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win.

Now, Let’s Get To Work - In my post on Saturday I offered up some initial ideas of what our summer was going to look like. Please check it out if you didn’t get to it this weekend.

Job One for us this summer is fighting Trump’s ruinous economic agenda. We need to keep calling every day and demand our leaders vote down the reconciliation bill and roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs. This is the big, definitional battle of the summer and we need keep working it every day.

I know many of you are involved in the June 14th No Kings events, town halls, Telsa take downs and all the other in person activities that have taken off of late. Thank you, and do keep working it everyone. I still encourage our community to keep exploring ideas for how we can Own The Fourth and make our Independence Day an ugly day for our mad wannabe king. Merch is coming soon, and be sure to check our robust Events schedule as new events are being added daily. The great journalist Ron Brownstein joins us live this Friday at 1215pm - going to be a good one!

Tomorrow I will be addressing the spring gathering of the State Democratic Parties and will bringing in impressions from my trip into Hopium this week. Be sure to watch my recent discussion with DNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb to get caught up on the national party’s ambitious and necessary 50 state “organize everywhere” strategy. As I prep for my talk tomorrow I keep coming back to two basic ideas - 1) we are stronger than we look 2) we simply must win in more red places.

Still have two primary and timely efforts we are working on:

1 - Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Simply, the Virginia elections are the most important elections we have this year, and we must win them. We have narrow majorities in both legislative chambers and while our candidate Abigail Spanberger has a modest lead in current polling, this is going to be a close election where our money and volunteer time can make a real difference. If you are to give to only one candidate or election this year it should be this one. Here’s a link to do so today……

To learn more about Abigail check out my new discussion with her, released yesterday. We have now raised over $111,000 towards our June 30th goal of $200,000 - thank you all. If you want to volunteer for her race head over to her campaign website today. We can do this people!

2 - Support The Hopium House 7 - We’ve begun our work to help flip the House next year by supporting and shoring up the 7 newly-elected battleground House Dems we helped elect last year. Catch our interviews with Reps Derek Tran, Janelle Bynum, Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen and give to all 7 through a single donation on our ActBlue page. Learn more about this important effort here.

We’ve already raised over $102,000 towards our $200,000 June 30th goal - great work everyone!

Welcome back all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon