The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is neck-deep in biopharma’s pockets. AAAS explicitly endorses animal experimentation in official statements, pumps out pro-animal research propaganda (including through its journal, Science), smears animal rights activists as 'extremists' while lionizing researchers who champion animal experimentation, lobbies for animal research, blocks legislative reforms, and defends NIH’s bloated animal research budget at every turn.
RISE FOR ANIMALS: As the U.S. government reviews, trims, and freezes funding for so-called “scientific research”, the animal research industry is scrambling to defend its billions – and it’s lying all the way to the bank. Make no mistake: behind the industry’s classic smoke-and-mirrors is a ruthless fight to preserve its power, profit, and self-professed “right” to harm others for its own gain.
Here are the latest lies the industry is telling – and what’s really going on:
LIE #1: Biopharma is not advocating for itself. We’re being told that entities testifying before Congress are neutral and independent of the for-profit biomedical machine. Take, for example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Its CEO recently testified, hand-wringing over the “‘paralysis’” of U.S. science. Media outlets obediently parroted the story, painting AAAS as a dispassionate voice for science – not a player in biopharma’s billion-dollar empire…
AAAS is neck-deep in biopharma’s pockets. The NIH alone has been AAAS’ single “‘largest identifiable source of funding’”, and, between 2004 and 2018, the U.S. government funneled more than $27 million to AAAS (mostly via NIH contracts). And that’s just the government piece of the pie. AAAS cozies up to biotech and pharma giants through research partnerships and corporate sponsorships…
Moreover, AAAS explicitly endorses animal experimentation in official statements, is an organizational member of AAALAC (appointing delegates to help oversee and accredit animal research facilities), pumps out pro-animal research propaganda (including through its flagship journal, Science), smears animal rights activists as “extremists” while lionizing researchers who champion animal experimentation, and directly lobbies for animal research, blocking legislative reforms and defending NIH’s bloated animal research budget at every turn…
LIE #2: NIH funding has been gutted. Reports indicate that NIH grants are down $2.3 billion from earlier this year. But, here’s the context the industry doesn’t want you to see: the NIH’s total budget still hovers around a staggering $50 billion – meaning more than 95% of the agency’s budget remains intact. That’s not gutting. That’s a tiny dent in the ever-ballooning budget of an agency that has long spent half of its money – tens of billions of dollars annually – on animal experiments…
LIE #3: Funding cuts will kill human cures. This is the industry’s favorite scare tactic: Cut our funding, and you’ll never see cures for Alzheimer’s, diabetes, childhood cancer, or muscular dystrophy. But, let’s get real: These “cures” have been dangled in front of us for decades, even as funding kept climbing. Where are they? Still out of reach, apparently… Decades of soaring funding have not delivered the cures we’ve been promised, while billions have been wasted chasing (and re-chasing, and re-chasing) dead ends…
LIE #4: The federal government is sabotaging science. That’s the spin, but, in actuality, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made it crystal clear that this isn’t random slashing – it’s a “‘strategic realignment’” designed to prioritize“‘high-impact, high-urgency science over auto-piloted funding partners’”… The NIH is (finally) questioning its endless rubber-stamping of the same exploitative animal experiments that have wasted time and money while sacrificing ethics. To the animal research industry, this might feel like “sabotage”, but, to the rest of us, it’s long overdue common sense. SOURCE…
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