Scientific American (with its German 1:1 translated version "Spektrum der Wissenschaft") is one of the eldest science magazins in the world. For the first time in its 175 years old history, it now publicly and unaninomously gave an emotional vote for the new US president to be elected in November this year. It writes that "The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people—because he rejects evidence and science." Firstly but not only has he shown his grave disrespect towards science in the way he handled the coronavirus pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September. He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its
greatest challenges.
Trump repeatedly lied to the public about the deadly threat of the disease, saying it was not a serious concern and “this is like a flu” when he knew it was more lethal and highly transmissible, according to his taped statements to journalist Bob Woodward. His lies encouraged people to engage in risky behavior,
spreading the virus further, and have driven wedges between Americans who take the threat seriously and those who believe Trump's falsehoods. The White House even produced a memo attacking the expertise of the nation's leading infectious disease physician, Anthony Fauci, in a despicable attempt to sow further distrust.
I feel pride to be part of the scientific community, and also feel vividely remember the times when I studied physics in East Germany. I always took the risk to be hunted by the security forces when I visitted the public library of the US embassy, only to read Scientific American. It was for me a voice of truth and honesty, and therefore represented one of the main principles in natural science and research: that we should be only led by truth, and not by wishful thinking. Since 2016, Donald Trump has shown how little respect he has for truth, and that his policy is completely based on lies. Therefore, he is indeed the worst enemy of all honest scientists.
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