The Great American Brain Drain

Self-Inflicted National Alzheimer’s

With the loss of this brainpower, America also will suffer the loss of the accumulated knowledge and experience that have been built over decades

‘Major brain drain’ – Researchers eye exit from Trump’s America. Pic – Billings  News – kulr8.com

By Anil Madan

Republican right-wingers in the US are fond of referring to the “Deep State” a mythical Hydra and of “draining the swamp” – an allusion to cleaning out the fraud, waste, redundancy, and bureaucracy in Washington. The ongoing dismissal of federal workers and shutting down of federal agencies and functions reflects what Trump and the champions of Project 2025 believe is necessary to remake America in the mold of the 13th century. Never mind that Christopher Columbus supposedly discovered America (n.b. it was already there and known to its denizens) thinking that he was heading to India, a couple of centuries later, but I digress.

The law of unintended consequences is unfolding the stark reality that there is no imaginary swamp but an all too real draining of brains, learning, expertise, institutional memory and competence, and vast databases that have housed and sheltered accumulated history and knowledge.

The Trump administration has announced staggering cuts in federal funding of research and science. As well, there have been massive cuts in funding for federal agencies and government organizations that collect, analyze, process, and distribute data on economics, climate and weather, pollution, energy, transportation, trade, and almost every activity that goes on in the nation.

In a stunning finding, the journal Nature, reported that in a poll it conducted, more than 1,200 scientists who responded  —  three-quarters of the total respondents —  are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation.

NPR, National Public Radio, noted in an article that the US has had a long history of being a leading nation for research and actively recruiting scientists from around the world for significant projects and studies. The Manhattan Project begun in 1941 is perhaps the most famous (or notorious) secret project that culminated in the development of the first atomic bomb. Scientists recruited from Europe played a key role in this research. Many had fled Europe in the turmoil of WWII or to escape Nazism and fascism.

Consider this statement on the website of a French university: “In a context where some scientists in the United States may feel threatened or hindered in their research, our university announces the establishment of the Safe Place For Science program dedicated to welcoming scientists wishing to pursue their work in an environment conducive to innovation, excellence and academic freedom.”

Even a year ago, it would have been unthinkable that a foreign university would be inviting American scientists to find refuge on its campus. But that statement by Aix-Marseille University (France) is just one example of a new reality. They have announced that a fund of €15 million to support research grants. Similarly, the prestigious Centrale Supélec has established a €3 million fund to support American scientists and finance research projects that can no longer continue in the US.

And it is not just France. Other countries are also paying heed. The Netherlands has launched a fund to recruit scientists from America and other countries.

The New York Times, among other publications, reported that last week 77 scientists were fired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their work involved gathering samples of gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted infections nationwide, analyzing them for drug resistance and securing the samples for storage. The agency has lost all its expertise and software for such work. The sudden firing left about 1,000 samples of pathogens unprocessed and some 30 freezers full of samples that are now untended.

But it is not just 77 scientists that are being let go. Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has announced that he intends to lay off some 10,000 workers. That department and other agencies has also announced suspensions of funding for research being conducted at American universities. Billions of dollars of support for research in science and health are under review for elimination at American universities, including notably, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and others.

More than 1000 employees of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been let go. NOAA is the agency that leads research on oceans, the atmosphere, space and sun, and its National Weather Service (NWS) branch collects and disseminates data on US weather, water and climate, including warnings about major weather and climatic events. There have been claims that the firings of NOAA employees caused a catastrophic failure of warning systems during the recent March severe storms across the US. NOAA has denied this, but regardless of who is right, NOAA has now lost the ability to track, record and analyze data to continue its work in forecasting weather, water and climate events.

In late February and early March, the NWS announced it was suspending weather balloon launches in Alaska; New York; and Maine because of a lack of staffing. Later in March, it also announced that it was reducing weather balloon launches and suspending others due to lack of staff. Politifact (fact-checking website operated by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies) reported that Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA’s administrator during the Biden administration said: “Job cuts will result in reduced reliability of systems such as the weather radars that are critical for providing tornado warnings. Those radars rely on having a full staff of technicians, as well as full sets of supplies for repair and maintenance.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that research funded by the National Institutes of Health has been instrumental in the discovery and deployment of nearly every modern medical breakthrough in prevention and treatment of disease. This research has produced both prescription and over-the-counter medications and led to the development of vaccines to prevent smallpox, polio, Covid-19 and many more diseases. The Trump administration is in the process of defunding much of this research. More importantly, it is also defunding much of the infrastructure that houses the data and institutional knowledge generated by this research.

America’s scientists may have no choice but to move to other countries to continue their work. With the loss of this brainpower, America also will suffer the loss of the accumulated knowledge and experience that have been built over decades.

The loss of all the institutional knowledge, expertise and competence is stunning. It is almost as if all the libraries in America are being stripped of their books and left as empty caverns. It is one thing to shoot yourself in the foot but quite another to take a shot at your brain and bring on a self-inflicted national Alzheimer’s condition.

Cheerz…
Bwana

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 11 April 2025