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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA

@safa-science.bsky.social
1.9K followers 255 following 558 posts

An organization of scientists and allies, incl @ NIH NSF affected by the Great Science Collapse of 2025. We work to chart a new course for vibrant US science and academia, backed by democracy and supported by the public. www.scienceandfreedomalliance.org

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Reposted by Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA
Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 13/07/2026
My comment with @nataliebaviles.bsky.social on the proposed OMB rule. Covers the shift to presidential control over funding decisions, and how this draws from the logic of unitary executive theory—which is flawed historically, Constitutionally, and in its assertion of democratic accountability. 1/
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com
Presidential control of funding is less, not more, accountable to the public
A comment on the OMB funding proposed rule from Mark Histed and Natalie Aviles
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Travels with Darwin @robertmdawley.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
If you’re an immigrant, if you’re first generation, if you’re a woman, a scientist of color, trans, or gay, you belong in science. - Maya English, PhD student, GETUP UAW #standupforscience #philadelphiascienceaction
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Exactly
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 09/03/2026
The most impt change at #NIH and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed. For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and @nataliebaviles.bsky.social in @nature.com 🧪
nature.com
How Congress can restore the independence of US science
Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Important thread about how the Trump admin is skirting the law and trying to slip out of following what judges say.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 07/02/2026
Re: Science Mag editorial celebrating mainly the inside/quiet advocacy done this year, I offer this in lighthearted response. 🧪 This is a Myanmar woman doing her usual, longstanding dance routine while black cars speed by to carry out a coup. 1/4
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Trans News Network @transnews.network · 06/02/2026
You’re not crazy. The anti-trans movement is not organic; it was funded by pedophilic billionaires like Jeffrey Epstein who backed a network of conservatives to accuse the same people they were sexually abusing of being the real danger. @madycast.com exposes the truth in our in-depth report.
transnews.network
Epstein Backed ‘Billionaires’ Dinner’ Network of Prominent Anti-Trans Figures
Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker and other anti-trans influencers personally benefited from a right-wing academic social group backed by infamous human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, somet...
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
💯
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Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
I wrote about one of the saddest evenings of my life: seeing Christine Maggiore, who opposed HIV medicines, speak in San Francisco. She was one of the HIV denialists who met President Mbeki at the International AIDS Conference in Durban in 2000; she died of AIDS pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
HIV disinformation
An official website of the United States government
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Thread:
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 28/01/2026
The NIH budget bill passed the House. Now, it's bundled w/ DHS funding in the Senate. We are likely to see a fight this week. New from me: things to know about the budget bill, NIH presidentialization, free speech, why science has been quiet, & more. At "Can We Still Govern" @donmoyn.bsky.social 🧪
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
New at Can We Still Govern: NIH scientist @markhisted.org reviews the damage done to American biomedical science in the last year and looks ahead: "Scientists should not be political partisans, but they should be partisans for liberal democratic principles."🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/american-b...
donmoynihan.substack.com
American biomedical science in 2026
Where we are, how we got here, and what to do next
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 25/01/2026
Yes, some ICE funding is provided by the summer reconciliation bill that also savagely cut American healthcare. But D’s can demand language in the budget bills to restrain ICE, as @repcasar.bsky.social does. In principle they cld req ICE budget be zeroed out, if thr leverage&the public can get it.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
❤️
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 25/01/2026
Thank you for this, @repdexteror.bsky.social. Congresswoman Dexter is a physician who worked at research-intensive UW. She is now standing up for science and democracy. 💪
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
If we continue to compromise with people whose stated goal is to destroy NIH, then we will not be successful in saving it.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/01/2026
NIH budget bill out today. It’s the result of heavy negotiations in Congress over past month+. 🧪 Big pic: NIH budget now is abt more than funding. It’s abt restraining the technical ways NIH is being broken by Proj 2025. And the restraints in the bill are tepid 🤷‍♂️ Also: watch ICE/DHS budget. 🧵1/
United States Senate Committee on
APPROPRIATIONS
= MENU
Search
01.20.26
Committee Releases Conferenced Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education,
and Daldad Aaaaains and
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Endorse this. We are all in this together. Liberal values are important for science. Science and freedom are linked.
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The language on multiyear funding (MYF) is ineffective. Final bill anchors MYF to 2025 instead of 2024. This means MYF will likely continue at the same rate we saw last year, where NCI's payline from ~10% to 4%. This is incredibly harmful to the US research workforce - especially early career.
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Karen S Wilcox, PhD (she/her) @karenswilcoxphd.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
science peeps.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/01/2026
I feel connected to MLK at a personal level because he and I share a birthday. The holiday gets me to think about MLK’s words and lessons. There is powerful advice for today in MLK's “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” Worth a read today. And a 🧵: 1/
letterfromjail.com
Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter to 8 white church leaders, written from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 20/01/2026
@safa-science.bsky.social kindly posted it too.
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com
Martin Luther King Jr on equality and the status quo
From status quo bias, to ‘popularism’ and picking big fights, MLK Jr in Letter From a Birmingham Jail has lessons about politics and society in the Trump era.
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
If you want to keep up with folks who happen to work at the NIH, we have a starter pack of NIH relevant accounts. It’s always growing, so might be worth checking again even if you’ve “followed all” in the past. go.bsky.app/LQZYUdE
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
👇👇👇
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Melody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 19/01/2026
For those of you following the Guinea-Bissau hepatitis B vaccine: The Danish researchers have posted their updated protocol (called version 1.5). They still propose giving a lifesaving vaccine to only half of newborns and withholding it from others. www.bandim.org/wp-content/u...
bandim.org
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
My hearty congratulations to Senator Bill Cassidy, who kissed the ring and appointed RFK Jr. for Trump, only to have Trump give his full endorsement to Julia Letlow. The leopard eating faces party has eaten your face AND you have the blood of thousands upon thousands on your hands.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 18/01/2026
Bill Cassidy reportedly voted for RFK Jr because Cassidy was afraid of losing his next primary and feared Trump endorsed his further-right opponent. Trump just endorsed Cassidy’s opponent anyway! Appeasement does not work. Fight or get out of the way.
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Don’t let Russell Vought trick Congress into destroying science by removing multiyear funding limits from the NIH funding bill.
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
A reminder as Congress finalizes NIH appropriations: the bill must limit multiyear funding (MYF), Vought's way of cutting the NIH budget without cutting the budget. MYF will devastate the research workforce. @safa-science.bsky.social wrote this in July. Still relevant: substack.com/@scienceandf...
substack.com
A Quiet Policy Shift That Could Devastate American Science
Why NIH’s sudden move to multi-year grant funding should alarm every principal investigator and university
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
"We again call on Congress to reassert its constitutional power. Congress must hold the Administration accountable for its unlawful, violent, and deadly actions. If you fail to do so, people will continue to die at the hands of ICE." scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com/p/statement-...
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com
Statement from the Civil Servants Coalition on the State-Sanctioned Murder of Renee Good
A guest post from a broad and informal coalition of civil servants concerned about how the current administration is harming Americans
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Def not the most important thing about this, but coming across this thread from a researcher studying vehicle ramming attacks is giving me the most “old Twitter“ vibes I have had here…
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
Please join us in continuing to monitor the institute director searches. Call your members of congress and demand oversight to ensure these positions are filled with scientific leaders who will prioritize evidence over politics.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
But the current administration has been installing numerous health and science leaders tied to the Koch-funded American Institute of Economic Research and/or the COVID contrarian Brownstone Institute across the government: kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
kffhealthnews.org
The Covid Contrarian Clubhouse Makes Its Mark on Trump’s Washington - KFF Health News
Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
With NINDS Director Walter Koroshetz's reappointment denied, the number of institutes/centers that have lost directors since Jan now totals 16 (of 27). Protecting the NIH mission requires institute directors with the expertise and integrity to make sound decisions.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
The U.S. research community has an interest to help ensure the integrity of scientific leadership at our public institutions. We are pleased to share this guest blog from @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social and Shiv Prasad, writing in their personal capacities. open.substack.com/pub/sciencea...
open.substack.com
Reading the Tea Leaves on NIH Institute Director Searches
Which Fringe Scientists Might be Considered for Leadership Positions?
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Also - stand by for more from us today on NIH institute directors - Michael Chiang, the NEI institute director, has been often paired with Koroshetz on this renewal process with requests to Vought. So we wouldn’t be surprised if Michael got similar news. Worth paying attention to.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
As we posted a few weeks ago: Vought and Project 2025 are moving to control NIH grant making by installing institute directors they choose, outside the longstanding gold standard search committee process. Please speak out about this! /end
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Koroshetz was put forth at NIH for renewal this year through the normal institute director renewal process, which involves a review committee of senior, knowledgeable external scientistsand leaders. The committee recommended renewal. Again, this lack of renewal from Vought is a politicization step.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
We can confirm that Koroshetz has been on a series of short-term renewals, where the Trump NIH leaders like Memoli approve his renewal and then pass the request up to HHS to be approved by the White House/OMB/Vought. Those renewals have come for a few weeks at a time then the process repeats.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Walter has in fact been around for a long time— over 10 years. He’s done a great job. But there’s a reasonable case for moving on from him, absent the fascist Trump/project 2025 takeover of US science currently in progress. 2/
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
It is interesting that Russell Vought kept Walter the NINDS IC director around for so long. (The renewal requests are going to the White House. This is all Vought and the project 2025 people.) Interesting because they fired Diana Bianchi at NICHD, and.. 🧵 1/
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 24/12/2025
The American right, including Jay Bhattacharya, is trying to weaponize free speech by crying censorship. But freedom of speech isn't freedom of reach. To fight back, scientific institutions should say that junk science is junk. New post from me: 1/
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com
Saying bad ideas are bad isn't censorship
The core goal is a free and fair public debate, and billionaires promoting their favored speech tilts the free marketplace of ideas.
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Theresa Kim, PhD, MS @tyk314.net · 06/12/2025
This isn't how it works. This isn't how anything works🤦. #NIH #ICO directors need to be vetted, and ideally we'd have search committees. It shouldn't be based on whether you officiated a powerful person's wedding.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
This guy gets it www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
“It’s the logical endpoint to unitary executive theory,” said Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “Their desired end goal would be to arrive at a completely ‘at-will’ workforce. ... I think the administration is going to push the unitary executive idea as far as it can, and all of the signals it has been getting from the Supreme Court is to push further and push faster.”
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 07/12/2025
This is revealing, but not in the way he thinks. Bhattacharya did and does hold fringe views in the scientific community. He got to where he is not by persuading scientists, but by benefiting from rightwing billionaires and their media platforms—Musk bought Twitter and gave him a blue check. 1/
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Institute Directors have a huge amount of power at NIH. To maintain (what’s left of) the integrity of NIH, we need to make sure qualified scientists with topic-specific expertise and leadership experience remain at the helm.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Info on the longstanding NIH search committee process:
What is the typical search and selection process for IC
Directors?
For at least three decades, a rigorous and thorough search process has been largely successful in recruiting talented Directors whose service has maintained the NIH as a
driver of biomedical innovation and economic growth in the U.S. The NIH structured search process is modeled after leadership searches at major academic institutions across the United States. Recruiting IC Directors is challenging at the best of times. Most suitable applicants would have to be willing to accept a large pay cut and divest from board seats and investments. The NIH process is designed to actively solicit outstanding scientific and medical leaders, selecting the optimal candidate through thorough and fair processes. This approach helps ensure appropriate stewardship of NIH's public resources and preserves NIH's status as a world leader in biomedical research.1. Search Committee - The NIH Director approves the composition of a search committee, which is proposed by the principal deputy director in consultation with community stakeholders and NIH Institute Directors in related areas. The search committee is typically co-chaired by two Institute Directors, composed of 10-12 members, roughly half from NIH with occasional representatives from FDA, CMS, SAMHSA, CDC, or other HHS components when relevant to the mission of the Institute. The remaining members are members of the extramural scientific and/or stakeholder
community, representing a broad set of approaches and perspectives. Members are selected not only for their subject matter expertise but also based on familiarity with the institute, its mission and operations. Several of these members may have had direct experience on the Institute Council, Board of Scientific Counselors, or other relationships past or present. Most if not all will have held grants/contracts through the institute.
2. Advertising the Job Announcement.
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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
NIH has for decades used a rigorous recruitment process to hire its top scientists, the institute directors. The Trump NIH is changing that. They’ve already installed one political hire this way, reportedly a friend of JD Vance. This post describes the process. Demand the Trump people follow it.
scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com
Demand that NIH Maintain the Scientific Credibility of its Institute Directors
The institute directors at NIH are top scientific leaders who in principle can redirect grant money as they please. The Trump NIH must not install new directors without a real hiring process.
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27 UNIHTED @27unihted.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Hey all! Reminder we’ve got a great event coming up! Punk Rock Concert for science! Support former NIH workers trying to save science! Link to purchase tickets here! actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve... @allstrike.bsky.social @ammoniteband.bsky.social 🧵🧵
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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Kornacki just called TN-07 special election for Van Epps. It was a privilege to have @standupforscience.bsky.social’s first official endorsement be @aftynbehn.bsky.social—a true pro-science fighter. She got a Trump +22 district down to single digits, which is huge! I’m proud of our work and hers.
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