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Policy
Editorial: Headlines from a tumultuous month for US chemistry and public health
The past 4 weeks of dizzying changes have shaken up science since the new administration took office
by C&EN editorial staff
February 20, 2025
Credit: Madeline Monroe/C&EN; AP Photo/Ben Curtis; AP Photo/Alex Brandon; Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP; Shutterstock
During these turbulent first several weeks of 2025, media outlets have offered essential reporting on changes that are upending the way science is done in the US and around the world. Journalism, as history’s first draft, has the opportunity and responsibility to provide the threads that are later untangled and woven together into a tapestry that contains the full context. The 30-plus headlines that follow are just a sampling of the barrage of news from the past month.
Jan. 20: “Trump Wants to Pull the US out of the World Health Organization Again. Here’s What May Happen Next”—Associated Press
Jan. 21: “What Trump’s Flurry of Executive Orders Means for Science ”—Nature
Jan. 22: “Trump Hits NIH with ‘Devastating’ Freezes on Meetings, Travel, Communications, and Hiring”—Science
Jan. 25: “Trump Stocks E.P.A. with Oil, Gas and Chemical Lobbyists”—New York Times
Jan. 26: “Why RFK Jr. Is Dangerous to Public Health” (opinion)—Wall Street Journal
Jan. 27: “National Science Foundation Freezes Grant Review in Response to Trump Executive Orders”—NPR
Jan. 28: “Trump Administration Offers Roughly 2 Million Federal Workers a Buyout to Resign”—NBC News
Jan. 30: “Uncertainty, Chaos for Canadian Researchers as Confusion Reigns over Trump Administration Medical Funding”—CBC
Feb. 2: “A Look at Federal Health Data Taken Offline”—KFF
Feb. 4: “E.P.A. Demotes Career Employees Overseeing Science, Enforcement and More”—New York Times
Feb. 6: “Opinion: The End of Science’s Peacetime”—Undark
Feb. 9: “Ban on D.E.I. Language Sweeps through the Sciences”—New York Times
Feb. 10: “Amid Shakeup in U.S. Science, Researchers Express Alarm over Integrity of Key Genetic Databases”—Stat
Feb. 13: “Scientists, Drugmakers Brace for a Kennedy HHS after Confirmation”—C&EN
Feb. 14: “The Dire Consequences of Science without DEI”—Mother Jones
Feb. 15: “Trump Officials Defend HHS Cuts as More Methodical Than the Slashing at Other Agencies”—Politico
Feb. 16: “Trump Administration Layoffs Set to Hit NIH Are ‘Devastating,’ Former Director Monica Bertagnolli Says”—Stat
Feb. 18: “RFK Jr. Tells Staff He Will 'Investigate' Childhood Vaccine Schedule, Anti-depression Drugs”—ABC News
Feb. 19: “Trump Cuts Threaten a ‘Generation of Scientists’ as Many Weigh Leaving US”—Guardian
The breakneck pace of chemistry news is likely to continue in the coming months, and C&EN will be there to cover it. As we’ve mentioned recently, we want to hear from you about the changes you’re observing, the ones you’re anticipating, and how you plan to keep working amid the challenges that are arising at an unprecedented rate. You can reach us securely at contactcen@protonmail.com, or find our reporters via the information on their author pages. Our team will continue to report on and provide insight on government policies and how they may affect scientists, crafting a new set of headlines that will emerge from the disruption that the Donald J. Trump administration’s policies have instigated in chemistry and related fields, both in the US and globally.
This editorial is the result of collective deliberation in C&EN.
Views expressed on this page are not necessarily those of ACS.
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society
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