By Christine Grayden
OVER the past five years of my tough health journey I have relied in large part on research available freely to me online to get me to my level of function today. I’m not talking “Dr Google”, or an AI throwing up some glib explanation or list of populist websites. I’m referring to solid, peer-reviewed research published on a few fantastic medical research university and department websites. Ominously, most of these digital medical library websites are based in the US, and receive government support of some sort.
You can probably see where this is going.
OVER the past five years of my tough health journey I have relied in large part on research available freely to me online to get me to my level of function today. I’m not talking “Dr Google”, or an AI throwing up some glib explanation or list of populist websites. I’m referring to solid, peer-reviewed research published on a few fantastic medical research university and department websites. Ominously, most of these digital medical library websites are based in the US, and receive government support of some sort.
You can probably see where this is going.
While it is common practice for new governments to dismantle departments and de-fund organisations that do not fit their political philosophies, the cavalier, merciless and possibly illegal manner in which this has swiftly occurred in the US is not just a US problem. Many US services relied upon by other countries have been severely affected, leaving the staff and many in the international community locked out of accounts and data which they assumed was secure in the online vaults of such a technical powerhouse as the democratic US.
While Trump and his appointees may argue that the US can no longer afford to carry the rest of the world by funding freely accessible data and services, it remains to be seen whether the savings made will translate into reducing the appalling rate of homelessness, drug addiction and sickness in the world’s richest and sickest country, with the world’s largest wealth gap.
While we may think none of this matters to us, the reality is that it absolutely does. For example, In terms of advances in health, your own health practitioners are going to be directly or indirectly affected. The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is described as the “greatest engine of biomedical research ever created”, but has been dramatically gutted. Within the NIH sits the massive digital trove of biomedical research, the NCBI, or National Centre for Biotechnology Information, where anyone can freely access hundreds of thousands of research articles from studies of all sorts around the world. We can only watch and wait to see if NCBI is de-funded.
Of course, the NIH is only one example of great US agencies that are being gutted. Unfortunately there is a lesson in this for all of us. With an impending Australian federal election, and a number of candidates already standing in Monash, we need to be asking all of them some very hard questions. Think of the federally-funded organisations and agencies you access. If it’s a registered charity but you’re not sure of how its funded, you can check their funding status on the website of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission.
Ask each of these Monash candidates - especially those representing a political party – some vital questions: What departments do they believe need to be abolished or kept, and what organisations and public institutions they would continue to fund, or de-fund?
While Trump and his appointees may argue that the US can no longer afford to carry the rest of the world by funding freely accessible data and services, it remains to be seen whether the savings made will translate into reducing the appalling rate of homelessness, drug addiction and sickness in the world’s richest and sickest country, with the world’s largest wealth gap.
While we may think none of this matters to us, the reality is that it absolutely does. For example, In terms of advances in health, your own health practitioners are going to be directly or indirectly affected. The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is described as the “greatest engine of biomedical research ever created”, but has been dramatically gutted. Within the NIH sits the massive digital trove of biomedical research, the NCBI, or National Centre for Biotechnology Information, where anyone can freely access hundreds of thousands of research articles from studies of all sorts around the world. We can only watch and wait to see if NCBI is de-funded.
Of course, the NIH is only one example of great US agencies that are being gutted. Unfortunately there is a lesson in this for all of us. With an impending Australian federal election, and a number of candidates already standing in Monash, we need to be asking all of them some very hard questions. Think of the federally-funded organisations and agencies you access. If it’s a registered charity but you’re not sure of how its funded, you can check their funding status on the website of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission.
Ask each of these Monash candidates - especially those representing a political party – some vital questions: What departments do they believe need to be abolished or kept, and what organisations and public institutions they would continue to fund, or de-fund?