The National Institutes of Health is taking action so that in case Donald Trump wins in November, it will be a lot harder for scientists at NIH to be punished for their misdeeds, according to Politico.  Per the 41-page draft of NIH’s new “Scientific Integrity Policy” (call it SIP), a Scientific Integrity Council (call it SIC) will be created.  In case this doesn’t immediately arouse visions of Orwell’s 1984, its purpose is kind of the opposite of that of the now-disbanded Disinformation Governance Board (DGB): While the DGB would have censored even correct information it didn’t like, the SIC would protect even knowingly false information it likes.  Illegal gain-of-function research caused the lab leak that wreaked havoc and destruction on the world?  Toxic killer remdesivir pushed through the approval process using shady practices?  Solid evidence of ivermectin efficacy ignored?  Not if the SIC decides otherwise.  If the SIC says “I am science” then by golly, it is science, so follow the science.

NIH has designated the Associate Director of Science Policy, currently Lyric Jorgenson (for her bio, as well as more on this story, see Jordan Schachtel’s The Dossier), as Science Integrity Official (SIO) to head the effort.  (Why does she remind me of the DGB’s Nina Jankowicz?)  The NIH Principal Deputy Director, currently Lawrence Tabak, will be the Chief Scientist (CS), to whom she will report.  Among other duties, the SIO will:

8. Lead the review and adjudication of allegations of loss of NIH scientific integrity (particularly related to political interference) in cases where such allegations fall outside of existing processes managed by OER, OIR, OMA, and OIG; and

9. Promote agency efforts regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

You may wonder what promoting DEIA has to do with scientific integrity, but as the draft points out, “inclusivity” (which includes citizen science, crowdsourcing, and Indigenous Knowledge) is part of the official federal definition of “scientific integrity.”  DEI hiring may be controversial, but that is already the policy for other government agencies under Joe Biden.  A difference might be that now DEI hires at NIH will be protected from charges of incompetence, while those employees not buying in to DEI might be exposed (contractors and grantees will be exempt from the policy).  As an aside, despite NIH’s use of the acronym DEIA, its DEI office goes by EDI.  There are 3! = 6 possible orderings of these 3 letters, with DIE and IED obviously too explosive.  Maybe the “E” comes first due to a government emphasis on racial equity in hiring.

Much of the SIP draft is written in rather benign and broad language, which is why Politico, a regular mouthpiece used to convey government intent, was needed to convey White House intentions to make NIH (with the CDC and FDA to follow) “Trump-proof,” or at least to warn Trump and his underlings in case they have any ideas, such as a clawback clause to punish health officials for their misdeeds even after they are out of office (think Anthony Fauci’s highest-in-history fat cat federal pension).  The SIP draft also pays the usual lip service to whistleblower safeguards and protections.  Can you imagine what would happen to an NIH whistleblower appearing before the SIC?

The good news is, the SIP won’t be effective until one year after publication of the final policy in the Federal Register (see page 4 of the draft), so if Trump wins, he can just void the policy before it takes effect.  But the idea is that this would create an uproar due to Trump allegedly attacking science for political reasons.  I hope that doesn’t stop Trump; after all, he won’t be running for re-election and is a man on a mission to clean this stuff up, one of the main reasons people are voting for him.  Since government agencies serve the president, maybe he can just eliminate agencies like NIH overnight, then in the morning restore a new NIH with all the changes necessary to make it run as it was supposed to and not as its own fiefdom.  Stay tuned.

W.A. Eliot is a pseudonym.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.