The politicization of science is undermining the scientific method itself, the co-founder of the biotech firm Moderna warned.
In his annual shareholder letter, Noubar Afeyan noted that science had created “man-made miracles,” from the lightbulb to anti-HIV drugs. But, he said, the US — traditionally the driving force for scientific research — had backed away, cutting funding and restricting researchers’ visas. “Corrosive doubt” has, he said, led to the return of measles in the US and elsewhere, as leaders “reject not only science but common sense.”
We live simultaneously in “the utopian age” in which a baby with a deadly genetic condition can be cured, and a “dystopia” where the same baby can die of a disease eradicated decades ago, he added.