This is perhaps the first levelheaded analysis of the current academic situation by anyone in academia.
Throughout this entire situation I have been wondering why is there such a shock that the NIH and its functions are being targeted to the detriment of both US public health and American biomedical supremacy?
There has been no secrecy in the growing resentment towards both the public health establishment and academia generally. The sentiments are not new but have accelerated in the past years. Watching this should have set off alarms for anyone whose livelihood is dependent on government-funded academic research. And yet it seems as if everyone is quite shocked that anyone wanting to target these sacred establishments might actually do so.
When I started my graduate education one of the biggest shocks to me was how politically disengaged most academics actually are. While receiving nearly all research funding and employee salaries through government grants, there is rarely an attempt at general outreach activities (besides what is mandated by grants, which tend to benefit college town rich kids, another time…) and a lack of communication to government officials about how the funding they receive benefits their jurisdiction.
This all leads to a situation where very few people know where most of the NIH’s massive budget actually goes. Knowing that it mainly goes to universities largely doesn’t help if the assumption is that universities exist largely to disseminate left wing ideology and run up exorbitant bills.
These are the days of stock buybacks contributing more to budgets than R&D. It is certainly not the days of Bell Labs.
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