American scientists are facing censorship on par with that imposed in the USSR under Josef Stalin, Australia’s chief scientist Alan Finkel said during a scientific roundtable in Canberra, Australia, on Monday.
“Science is literally under attack,” Finkel warned, describing the Trump administration’s crackdown on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, which requires political appointees to review scientific research before it is published. Congressional Republicans have also set their sights on gutting the regulatory agency.
“It defies logic. It certainly does longterm harm,” Finkel said, and compared the administration’s policy to the USSR under Stalin:
“Today, the catch-cry of scientists must be frank and fearless advice,” Finkel said, “no matter the opinion of political commissars stationed at the U.S. EPA.”
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