Nature Magazine Endorsed Kamala Harris

As I write this, the election has not been called, but I want to draw attention to the Nature editorial endorsing Kamala Harris.

I don't know why a British science journal needs to get involved in partisan USA politics.

Harris said on 22 October that her administration will not be a continuation of the Biden presidency. She has said she wants to build an “opportunity economy”. Precisely what that means is yet to be defined — a science- and evidence-based approach needs to be at its core.

That record is in stark contrast to what happened during Trump’s presidency, from 2017 to 2021. As president, Trump not only repeatedly ignored research-informed knowledge, but also undermined national and global science and public-health agencies. He has denied climate science, lied about the federal government’s response to hurricane forecasts and asked scientists to investigate whether disinfectants could be used to treat people with COVID-19.

This is too stupid for science editors.

If Harris is unable or unwilling to say what she will do, why are you endorsing her? She appears to be of low intelligence, and to know nothing about science.

The Trump complaints are about how he once wrote on a weather map with a sharpie, and he once commented favorably about a medical report about disinfecting covid.

I do not think Trump said or did anything wrong in either of these cases, but even if he did, they are trivialities.

Trump was President for four years. Did science research suffer? Did he make any anti-science decisions? There is no substantive criticism of Trump, and nothing concrete about what Harris will do.

This is just more evidence about how the science establishment has lost its way.

Update: Nature endorsed Harris in July, and again just before the election, and now it panics about Trump's win.

Scientists around the world expressed disappointment and alarm as Republican Donald Trump won the final votes needed to secure the US presidency in the early hours of 6 November. On account of Trump’s anti-science rhetoric and actions during his previous term in office, many are now bracing for four years of attacks on scientists, both in and outside the government.

“In my long life of 82 years ... there has hardly been a day when I felt more sad,” says Fraser Stoddart, a Nobel laureate who left the United States last year and is now a member of the chemistry department at the University of Hong Kong. “I’ve witnessed something that I feel is extremely bad, not just for the United States, but for all of us in the world.” ...

Worries pouring in this morning align with those expressed by the majority of readers who responded last month to a survey conducted by Nature. More than 2,000 people answered the poll, with 86% saying that they favoured Harris, owing to concerns including climate change, public health and the state of US democracy. Some even said they would consider changing where they live or study if Trump won. ...

Of those who responded to Nature’s reader survey, 6% expressed a preference for Trump — usually citing concerns about security issues and the economy.

Wow, people who do not even live in the USA are complaining that we elected a President who believes in America First.

Meanwhile, they do not mention that Harris is a moron who knows nothing about science, and who believes in Astrology.