WELL, THAT’S DISAPPOINTING: “[NIH chair nominee Jay] Bhattacharya was also asked about how the Trump administration’s anti-DEI crusade might affect scientific research. For example, would efforts to include minorities in clinical trials be undermined? Bhattacharya said no.”

Comment from DB: Biomedical research should be focused on genetics and how that influences health risks and outcomes. The government, however, requires researchers to focus on human diversity not based on genetics, but on unscientific racial and ethnic classifications invented by the government in the 1970s for entirely different purposes. These classifications at best are weak proxies for genetic diversity, and more often are completely nonsensical. What do we learn by using data on “Hispanics,” who can be 100% European, 100% Indigenous, 100% African, or any combination? What does a study on “Hispanic” Cubans in Miami tell us about “Hispanic” Dominicans in New York? Or take the “Asian American” classification, which includes Caucasian South Asians, East Asians, and Filipino Austronesians, groups that have nothing more genetically in common with each other than any random humans. I could go on, but instead if you are interested in more you can read this piece, or an expanded version in chapter 6 of my book Classified.