HHS bomb going off -- Digby

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2025/04/02/hhs-bomb-going-off/

Josh Marshall wrote this on Bluesky and I think it explains what’s going on with HHS as well as I’ve seen it anywhere:

It’s getting a lot of attn today. But even before today most of the country had very little idea of what has happened at NIH or through it the entire ecosystem of biomedical research in the US. Simply put, Musk, Kennedy & Trump exploded a bomb right in the middle of cancer cure research in the US.

On purpose. For many cancers, research has been put back years or decades. Alzheimers treatment and cure research similar story. If you know people who are survivors of these diseases and fear recurrence or have genetic dispositions or are just like everyone else and know they are liable to these and other diseases potential cures are now less likely to be there when you need them. You have to ask: what is the goal when you pull the plug on the whole ecosystem of cancer cure research? What’s the agenda? The answers are so dark and twisted most people struggle to believe it could be real.

But it is real. And it’s happened so quickly, most of the country doesn’t know it yet. Indeed, I got some key indications over the weekend that even people in the biomedical research world outside of NIH don’t get yet what’s happened. So the bomb has gone off but most people don’t realize it yet. It’s like Bobby Kennedy and Elon and Trump just drove a big semi full of fertilizer Tim McVeigh-style up in front of the national labs and detonated it.

The prospect of more life saving cures and treatments already got much bleaker. If you think you or a loved one might one day get one of these cancers, or Alzheimers, or various other dread diseases 10, 20, 30 years from now your chances have already dimmed because of what’s happened just in the last two months.

And now they’ve decided to up the pace and make it far worse because of a mix of difficult to fully comprehend pathological motives tied to political extremism, belief that AI will supplant medical research & that destroying the current research world will add to their wealth and political power and cement their hold over what was the American republic.

It will take a determined, smart, relentless and implacable counterattack to begin to undo the damage.

There are so many atrocities coming from this administration that it’s hard to decide the worst of it. But when it comes to the most harm to the most people in short, medium and long term, I think this might be it. The U.S. has been one of the most prolific leaders in medical research for a very long time and we’re giving it up because Trump wanted to cover up his support for vaccines during the pandemic — and stick it to the people who made him feel stupid about it. No one can tell him anything so he’s letting Bobby Jr play. Many people will die needlessly.

Let’s hope that we can put this Humpty Dumpty together again but the damage is already severe and it will take a massive effort. It’s heartbreaking.

[cachukis]

1. Very bad. Deep cuts with deadly wounds.

[Meowmee]

2. The only reason for them to do this is to kill people

and destroy our health and scientific research and knowledge etc.

[FirstLight]

6. funny how Elon is all 'concerned' aboutthe breeders not having enough kids...

But they wanna basically let the old, infirm, etc die off... it's really evil.

[Meowmee]

7. Yes, we have not seen this kind of evil which started in 2016 for a long while here

It is frightening.

[CitizenZero]

12. Musk and Biomedicine

Some people don't get it. Musk has probably never had a major illness or a real brush with death. Such an experience changes you. Some people think that they are invulnerable or immortal. It is just not true. If you live long enough, you will likely suffer some sort of malady. Only a few people get through their lives without a major illness or medical threat to their lives.

Anyway, with Musk he may one day find out. All the money in the world won't matter if you get a cancer for which there is no current treatment or cure. Musk is big into rockets and tech, but he apparently knows nothing about biomedicine and the government and university complex that keeps that sector of the economy moving.

Private biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies will be diminished also, as much basic biomedical research is either done by the NIH or is funded by them at universities and hospitals. Private companies build on this basic research and will be much more limited without the basic science that NIH funds. It is a bad situation all around.

[BonnieJW]

16. And the young

Babies and little kids are very vulnerable. So he wants more babies so they can die before age 5

[msongs]

3. brain worms running the show from the white house down nt

[Wingus Dingus]

4. If you wanted America to be destroyed, wouldn't you do this?

Of course you would. Nothing they do is intended to help us.

[erronis]

8. It seemed obvious when the russians put trump in the WH in 2016

Even more so now.

Filling the cabinet with the exact opposite of the types of people that should be there? Obvious.

Removing any knowledgeable staff from agencies/departments that could help keep the government functioning? Obvious.

Purging the top brass of the US military so that the incompetents and commissars can run the show? Yet again, obvious.

[stillcool]

9. it's gotten beyond obvious

but then, not at all. So hard to make sense of this county with so many versions of reality.

[dchill]

5. My view is that all these billionaires and their posses should be...

... trying to plot their way out of very lengthy prison terms. It shouldn't be too tough if your lawyer is in the next cell.

[DET]

10. Despicable

I doubt that this has gotten any traction in MAGAtville since I can’t imagine that FOX is covering it. I also don’t know if scientific research is important to these people. But even if it isn’t, these kinds of cuts highlight the sheer cruelty of what TSF and DOGE are doing. This is as bad or worse than kicking Grandma out of the nursing home.

I wish that we would state bluntly that TSF is TRYING TO KILL US and DESTROY THE COUNTRY. I hate to sound like a National Enquirer headline, but this sort of rhetoric might actually get people’s attention when nothing else will. Republicans wouldn’t hesitate to say this, especially if it wasn’t true.

[wordstroken]

17. "TRYING TO KILL US and DESTROY THE COUNTRY." Simple, clear headlines like that - in major media - might wake people up.

As well as independent media like Meidas Touch Network, and progressive social media like BlueSky, etc. Especially if they all coordinated with each other. Let’s hope they see your post, DET, and realize what you already figured out.

[IronLionZion]

11. By design

since Trump didn't like their work during and after the last pandemic to save American lives. The pro-life party wants lots of deaths.

[krkaufman]

13. Motivations

we’re giving it up because Trump wanted to cover up his support for vaccines during the pandemic — and stick it to the people who made him feel stupid about it.

This makes as much sense as anything; same as the general assault and harm to the country being rooted in hurring everyone responsible for his losing the 2020 election … i.e. everyone.

[calimary]

15. Don't know if it's actually true, but it's certainly believable enough.

I can easily imagine the tirade inside the Oval Office or wherever he parks his sorry ass these days. Hurricane donald. Blowing again. Or maybe it should be "Blowing it again."

[CitizenZero]

14. This is a good OP

To quote it--

"It will take a determined, smart, relentless and implacable counterattack to begin to undo the damage."

That is right on. We need an implacable counterattack. Democracy and freedom are under attack, as well as our health and national prosperity.

[Crunchy Frog]

18. Time for the brain drain.

I'm sure there are lots of countries that would like to take America's top scientists.

[NoMoreRepugs]

19. Don't most of the BillionaireBoyzClub think eugenics and population control serve their best interests.

Let the sick and the weak die off so government needs less money to assist them and therefore needing less revenue - corp taxes go down.

[peggysue2]

20. May all their souls rot in hell!

I don't know what's worse--the stupidity or the callousness. With Agent Orange there's always the petty vindictiveness.

But all of this, the destruction of institutions, people and knowledge?

It's just flat-out evil.