As Biden Fights Cancer, Science Is Being Discarded

The data dump that could kill us.

In Trump's second term, the war on science isn't a headline; it's policy.

When I heard about former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, I couldn’t help but think of his decades-long fight to advance cancer research and how deeply personal that mission has always been to him. And now, watching an administration dismantle the very systems he helped build, it’s hard not to feel the weight of what’s being lost, not just in funding, but in values.

Over the past few months, the administration has gutted federal funding for crucial medical research. ALS studies. Cancer trials. Long COVID data. Neurological disease mapping. Gone. Defunded. Or left in limbo.

The question no one in Trump’s circle seems to be asking is: what happens to the data? The answer? No one really knows, and that should terrify all of us.

I've spent my career inside government responding to national crises. I know firsthand how vital real-time data is, whether you're fighting a pandemic, tracking disease clusters, or identifying early warning signs of a public health threat. When you erase that infrastructure, you don't just waste taxpayer dollars; you erase lives. This isn't just bureaucratic negligence. It's public health sabotage.

A recent Senate report found that cancer research funding was slashed by 31% in the first quarter of 2025 alone, compared to the previous year, disrupting dozens of trials and cutting off support for early detection and precision medicine programs at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). These cuts threaten to stall or halt significant cancer research advancements. Researchers have warned that the reductions could delay discoveries and disrupt progress in oncology care, endangering lives in the process.

Additionally, the administration has halted $47 million in funding for critical cancer treatment at nine NCI-designated Cancer Centers nationwide. These centers are instrumental in pioneering cancer prevention, diagnosis, and therapy breakthroughs. The freeze jeopardizes ongoing clinical trials and the delivery of life-saving care to patients, especially those in underserved areas. At a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on biomedical research, Senator Tammy Baldwin underscored the gravity of these decisions, highlighting the story of a young cancer patient whose only access to treatment came through a clinical trial now facing defunding. It was a sobering reminder that these aren’t numbers in a spreadsheet; they are the difference between life and death for real people.

And cancer patients aren’t the only ones at risk. Veterans suffering from ALS, a disease that disproportionately affects those who’ve served, are now wondering whether years of progress will vanish into the ether. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Sickle Cell Data Collection Program, vital to understanding and addressing a disease that disproportionately affects communities of color, is being eliminated entirely.

The cuts don’t stop there. According to the New York Times, 25% of the CDC’s budget is being slashed, gutting programs for vaccine outreach, emergency preparedness, disease forecasting, and even opioid abuse prevention. The CDC’s injury prevention teams, which have long worked to reduce deaths from car crashes, falls, and firearm injuries, are also being dismantled, laying off dozens of experts and stripping communities of life-saving public health guidance. Let’s be clear: Entire teams at the CDC’s Injury Center, experts who focused on car crashes, child abuse, rape prevention, drowning, traumatic brain injuries, and protecting seniors from fatal falls, have been wiped out. Gone. Just like that. 

Also on the chopping block: initiatives to combat chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes, which remain the leading causes of death in the U.S. The administration is also slashing funding for Alzheimer’s and dementia research, and nearly half of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program is being eliminated, undermining local hospitals’ ability to respond to the next pandemic or biological threat.

So again, where does the data go when the funding’s cut and the labs go dark? Who’s protecting it? Or are we really letting years of hope, heartbreak, and human lives disappear? Years of research, vanished.

I’ve spoken with experts and advocates, and I can tell you this: they’re deeply worried. And they’re asking the same thing.

Some of these studies are midstream, meaning the research is incomplete, unpublished, and in many cases, stored on systems that now lack oversight or funding. What happens to that data if the server shuts down? If the lead investigator is reassigned or retires? If the integrity of the records is compromised?

This isn’t just a logistical headache. It’s a national vulnerability. We talk a lot about resilience in government. But what kind of country intentionally destroys the very tools that could help us fight the next health emergency?

Who Pays the Price?

It’s not lobbyists in Mar-a-Lago. It’s not the billionaires cheering on another round of tax cuts. It's the patients, the caregivers, and the exhausted families sitting in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital rooms or oncology waiting areas. They are the people who believed in the promise of American science and are now being told their suffering isn't politically convenient enough to fund. 

I’ve worked inside the intelligence community and alongside our emergency responders. In those spaces, data is life.  And when a government chooses to ignore or delete that data, it is making a lethal decision—quietly, cruelly, permanently. 

We cannot accept a future where progress is erased out of spite or indifference.

The Trump administration isn’t just cutting budgets. They're cutting the lifelines for millions of Americans, undermining the breakthroughs we need tomorrow and the hard-won progress that got us here in the first place.

We owe it to them, to all of us, to fight for science. For the data. For the truth. Before it's too late.

What You Can Do

Share your story. If you or a loved one has participated in a federal study or is affected by diseases like ALS, breast cancer, or long COVID, make your voice heard. Post, write, speak. Lawmakers need to feel the human cost.

Support watchdogs and medical advocacy groups. Organizations like the ALS Association, the National Organization for Rare Disorders, and so many others are sounding the alarm. Help amplify them.o again—where does the data go when the funding’s cut and the labs go dark? Who’s protecting it? Or are we really letting years of hope, heartbreak, and human lives disappear? Years of research—vanished. Just like that.

Push for transparency. Ask public institutions, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), CDC, and VA hospitals: What is being done to safeguard existing data? Press your local media to investigate.

Call your representatives. Ask them: Where is the data going? Who is protecting it?

Until next time,

Olivia