From lobster fishing bans to school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic, the misuse of science by federal agencies and individual researchers has fueled the public’s growing distrust of science. So says U.S. President Donald Trump in a new executive order designed to promote "gold standard science" through transparency, replication, and taking swift action to correct errors and punish misconduct.

But some research advocates, while embracing those principles, think Trump has credibility problems of his own that lead them to question his intent. They note that the new order says nothing about preventing political interference before disseminating scientific findings – which scientists say happened many times during Trump’s first term. Instead, the order on Restoring Gold Standard Science gives a political appointee the power to decide when those findings need to be "corrected" and to take disciplinary action against those seen as the perpetrators of misinformation.

Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/what-does-trump-s-call-gold-standard-science-really-mean

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