Episode 103: Medical Research in the Time of Trump with Stephen Spielberg, MD

With  the appointment of Robert F Kennedy, Jr.  as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Trump administration has systematically targeted the next generation of scientists and public health leaders. He has cut science funding to its lowest level in decades. More than 20,000 jobs were eliminated, billions of dollars in scientific research has been threatened or paused, and a budget draft proposes a major restructuring of Health and Human Services.

The Trump administration has asked Federal agencies to cancel contracts with Harvard worth an additional $450 million after canceling more than $2.2 billion in federal research grants. Among these grants and contracts were medical research projects.

The proposed budget for the NIH includes a 40% cut, the CDC faces a budget cut of about half its spending, and the NSF (National Science Foundation) 2026 budget would be cut in half. These budget cuts could  drastically affect the health of Americans for generations.

RFK, Jr , fired 17 expert members of a committee that advises the CDC on what vaccines people in the United States should take and when, making families less safe.

And RFK, Jr. aims to prohibit government scientists from publishing in top journals, citing pharmaceutical influence and corruption concerns. He proposes new in-house journals for NIH-funded research, questioning the peer-review process of established journals.

To help us understand the ramifications of all of this, we invited Stephen Spielberg, MD to help us through the complexities of this strange time in medicine and science.

I asked Steve for some background information so I could introduce him properly on this podcast.  He replied “if you wake me in the middle of the night and ask what I “do”, I would say I am a doctor, a pediatrician, and all I have done as a basic and clinical scientist, as a medical school dean, as deputy commissioner of the FDA – all that comes back to a focus on the care of sick children, the prevention of disease, and optimization of health, and remembering humbly that we are all human, all on a vast journey of learning and striving for a better world.”

I urge you all to read Steve’s full biography at our web site (https://www.specificallyforseniors.com) about this podcast.

Steve and I discussed medical research in the time of the Trump administration, the arbitrary cuts in funding of the NIH FDA and CDC, vaccines, RFK's proposal that research documentation be submitted to a government controlled journal, the status of medical research and the United States standing in the international order, public health and funding cuts and his personal experience treating two brothers with a rare genetic disorder.

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