Current, Former Federal Employees Protest at HHS Against Firings
Rolling my eyes: “Are we going to shut down the illegal Elon Musk takeover of the government? Yeah, you bet we are.”
Current and former federal employees protested at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) building over firings, claiming those would harm public health.
From Associated Press:
“We are here today to fight for the future of science, to fight for your family’s future, to give the American people hope,” said Ian Fucci, a cancer researcher at the National Institutes of Health. “Consider the medications you rely on for diabetes, heart disease or cancer. These were developed in large part due to NIH and NIH-funded researchers. Is destroying years of progress into research really serving the American people? No.”
Amid frigid temperatures and light snow, attendees chanted slogans such as “Funding, not freezes” and “Stand up, fight back.” They carried signs proclaiming, “Protect civil servants because they protect you!” and “In science we trust.”
Many said they were there to fight the work of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the confusion its workforce reductions have sowed. One sign altered the DOGE acronym to read “Department of Grifting Everything.”
“Are we going to shut down the illegal Elon Musk takeover of the government? Yeah, you bet we are,” Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told the crowd of about 300. “We’re going to fight this in the courts. We’re going to fight this in the Congress. And there can be no business as usual in the Congress. And we’re going to fight this in gatherings like this all over the country.”
Ellen Bak, a former NIH scientist, said she was terminated over the weekend and that her research into stem cells and blood cancer had essentially been lost.
“The sheer amount of money and time and testing and care and effort,” she said. “Is it all just gone?”
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Comments
“I really don’t care, Margaret.”
Quick! Let’s dive into the dumpster of waste and graft to retrieve the memories of one or two things we did right with 0.003% of the money.
“Ellen Bak, a former NIH scientist, said she was terminated over the weekend and that her research into stem cells and blood cancer had essentially been lost.”
Well now, Ms. Bak, since you were working for us, the American People, I assume you were following proper scientific procedures, such as documenting your methods and materials, recording the experimental procedures you followed, and recording your results to be communicated (at some point) to fellow scientists. That research should most definitely NOT all be lost. And I suspect there would some pharmaceutical companies out there which would be delighted to hire a genius like you.
And if you were doing shoddy work and WEREN’T following such basic procedures so that your research is now lost–well, that would be an excellent reason to fire you, wouldn’t it?