We keep hearing words like “chaotic,” “unprecedented,” and “unconstitutional.” All accurate. Many of us anticipated that the new U.S. administration would threaten liberties, freedoms, and equity—but few could have predicted just how rapidly and recklessly core institutions would be dismantled.

In less than 90 days, we witnessed the gutting of the scientific enterprise and the destabilization of knowledge-based institutions—universities, NIH, NASA, NOAA—and the agencies responsible for delivering lifesaving food and medicine globally. The scale and speed of this erosion is staggering.

It is cruel. It is shortsighted. And it is a profound national failure. Without science, data, and evidence, we become untethered—adrift in a sea of absurdity.

Amid this darkness, I’ve found some glimmers of hope in the powerful journalism and commentary calling out this injustice. Below, I’ve highlighted a few pieces worth your time. I urge you to read them.

In the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Lindsey Locks and colleagues describe the abrupt withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the dismantling of USAID as colossal, unforced policy failures with immediate humanitarian consequences. These decisions not only threaten the world’s poorest populations but also undermine global health, nutrition science, and the United States' diplomatic standing. The fallout spans four critical domains:

Lives Lost: Humanitarian, health, and nutrition programs are being disrupted, with fatal consequences.
Livelihoods Destroyed: Both in the U.S. and globally, aid-related jobs and economies are collapsing.
Expertise and Infrastructure Undone: Vital institutions, data systems, and research efforts tackling food insecurity and malnutrition are being eroded.
Global Presence Withdrawn: U.S. programs promoting health, education, peace, and solidarity in hundreds of countries are vanishing—leaving a dangerous diplomatic and humanitarian void.

Osendarp and colleagues expand on this in Nature, warning that the dismantling of USAID and announced cuts by other major donors over the next 3–5 years risk reversing decades of progress in malnutrition reduction. The numbers are devastating: a $290 million cut to programs for severe acute malnutrition would mean 2.3 million children lose access to treatment—resulting in an estimated 369,000 preventable child deaths annually.

The domestic scientific community is also suffering. In Science, John Travis reports on the unclear but growing toll among U.S. scientists. A leaked NIH memo revealed that the Department of Health and Human Services—which houses the NIH, CDC, and FDA—had planned to cut approximately 5,200 employees, though some were spared at the last minute.

In a sobering Science editorial titled “The New Reality for American Academia,” H. Holden Thorp urges U.S. universities to reckon with public trust and relevance. It's a worthy call, but difficult to embrace calmly when core institutions are crumbling. I was one of the 1,900 members of the National Academy of Sciences who signed a letter arguing:

“We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.”

In it, we are concerned (this article about who we are) with the blows to funding, collaboration, and building a pipeline. Many of us trained here in the U.S in some of the great research institutions are prepared to jump ship. A recent Nature poll found that 75% of 1,600 scientists surveyed would consider leaving the U.S. for jobs abroad.

In The New England Journal of Medicine, Chris Duggan and Zulfi Bhutta write under the pointed title: “‘Putting America First’—Undermining Health for Populations at Home and Abroad.” They offer a call to action for scientists:

Acknowledge the limitations of U.S. foreign assistance programs.
Advocate for continued U.S. engagement with global institutions like WHO.
Recognize how attacks on global health research mirror broader assaults on higher education and science.

Finally, Jocalyn Clark, international editor at The BMJ, turns our attention to equity in her powerful essay “The War on Equality.” She writes:

“Equality feels like oppression to those accustomed to privilege, the adage goes. To certain petty political leaders and their supporters, it must. There is no other explanation for the current erasure of support for diversity and inclusion efforts... None apply in the authoritarian playbook. The present war on equality demands action from us all.”

This all deeply saddens me. It’s hard to fathom—let alone fully absorb—the scale of what has been lost, all in just a matter of months. The enormity of rebuilding, in whatever new forms may emerge, is likely to take decades—if it happens at all. What could be lost forever is the extraordinary scientific legacy: the knowledge, the networks, the momentum, and the spaces that once nurtured curiosity, collaboration, and discovery. We can’t keep our heads down, hoping for a miracle. We have to stand up and fight for what truly matters. For me, science is one of those things—worth defending, worth rebuilding, worth mourning.