“I never have seen an instance of an advanced, affluent country with among the finest scientific resources and leaders in the world be under assault, not from small pockets of the public or people who have unusual beliefs, but from the government itself,” said Allan Brandt, Harvard historian.
“We are just taking punch after punch with nobody, even pretending to be in our corner anymore,” said one senior CDC official.
“Scientific independence is what builds trust,” said Marion Koopmans, director of pandemic and disaster preparedness center in the Netherlands. “Political interventions really erode that trust.”