PSI Minority Staff Report Exposes Trump Administration's Corruption of Science

[WASHINGTON, DC] - U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), released a report today analyzing the ways in which the Trump Administration has interfered with science since January 20, 2025. PSI's analysis identified at least 57 instances of baseless firings, cuts to research, or blatantly unscientific decisions that favor industry over public health. These actions included ousting thousands of experienced researchers and public health workers from their jobs, installing vaccine opponents to dictate immunization policy, and indefinitely delaying critical studies into potential life-saving interventions.

"In just eight months, the Trump Administration has corrupted science and attacked public health. Our analysis found 57 instances of this interference, which I fear may just be the tip of the iceberg," said Blumenthal. "From silencing scientists to halting research to undermining access to vaccines, our PSI report lays bare all of the ways in which this Administration has put the health and safety of all Americans at risk. If we continue on the trajectory put in motion by Secretary Kennedy and other Administration officials, we will not just roll back the clock on scientific advancements-we will needlessly lose lives."

The full text of PSI's report is available here. A summary of key findings from PSI's analysis is available below:

Censored Research and Suppressed Scientific Speech:

• Suppressed a measles forecast in the midst of the country's worst outbreak of that disease in decades

• Deleted or removed data from the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health agencies, including information relied on by providers for HIV prevention

• Suppressed the findings of a study on ultra-processed foods, causing a top researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to resign

• Instituted a "pause" on communications that held back publication of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for the first time in agency history

• Forced out top vaccine officials at CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for refusing to fire career vaccine scientists or compromise vaccine safety databases

• Removed career employees managing scientific research at multiple branches of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including within the division responsible for hazardous waste emergencies, and replaced them with political appointees

Abandoned Scientific Institutions and Slashed Their Resources:

• Fired all of the staff on CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, around the same time that led exposure forced the closure of multiple schools in Milwaukee, displacing more than 1,000 students

• Put approximately 40 percent of the scientists and public health workers at CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities on leave, including those monitoring emergency room data to forecast outbreaks

• Suspended data collection for the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), forcing scientists at state and local public health bodies to abandon maternal health research

• Halted funding to Columbia University's Diabetes Prevention Program, home of a multi-decade study supervising more than 3,000 patients

• Cancelled millions of dollars in NIH grants for multi-year studies on a drug regimen intended to prevent HIV

• Delayed acknowledging an attack on CDC headquarters that killed a police officer and forced staff into lockdown for hours

Put Ideology Over Public Health:

• Abandoned dozens of clinical trials prior to completion, in some cases causing patients taking experimental drugs or outfitted with new medical devices to be cut off from the researchers monitoring them

• Fired all sitting members of CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the first time such a mass firing has occurred, and replaced them with vaccine skeptics or people with comparatively little expertise

• Cancelled a contract with Moderna for a promising bird flu vaccine using mRNA technology in the midst of a bird flu outbreak that left farmers terrified about livestock deaths, then further abandoned mRNA technology, pulling $500 million in funding and cutting off 22 studies

• Hired David Geier, who was disciplined for practicing medicine without a license in Maryland and authored studies that could not be reproduced linking vaccines and autism, to help lead HHS's efforts to find "the cause" of autism

• Released a MAHA Commission report that contained numerous citations to studies that do not exist, and an updated version that cited studies for propositions that the studies' authors say their work does not support

• Announced an end to the recommendation for healthy children and pregnant women to be vaccinated against COVID-19 without consulting CDC's vaccine advisory committee

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