Former Chinese CDC head says Elon Musk’s DOGE is ‘anti-science’

The former head of China’s CDC George Gao Fu has revealed what he thinks about Elon Musk’s cost-cutting efforts through DOGE and it’s not good. Gao Fu has accused Elon Musk of being an enemy of progress to science after he cut the US budget for research as part of his ongoing attempt to reduce federal spending. 

Gao Fu believes that Donald Trump, and Musk, who has been making lots of enemies since he became the public face of the newly founded Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are managing science and research institutions like they would their companies. 

As far as the former Chinese CDC head is concerned, the way the pair are handling things could undermine not just global team effort where science innovation is concerned but also the quality of research in the United States. His thoughts align with the views many other scientists and legal experts have expressed since DOGE got serious with its mandate. 

A war on science 

Gao Fu is not the only member of the scientific community with strong opinions about how Musk is approaching his task at DOGE. They believe his treatment of science and research institutions like a common startup could harm scientific collaboration between scientists around the world and affect the quality of research in the US.

His comment on the subject comes just days after the Trump administration introduced a new NIH policy that reduces indirect funding scientists can get for research grants to 15%. This action could cut billions in funding and threaten the success of many ongoing research projects as they risk being discontinued due to lack of funds. 

If they cut federal funding on the indirect costs that keep universities and research institutes operating, it becomes harder for researchers to gain access to new equipment, maintenance, utilities and support staff. 

Rick Huganir, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is one of those shocked by the move from the federal government. Huganir is famous in research circles for discovering a gene called SYNGAP1 in 1998. 

About 1% of all kids with intellectual disabilities possess a mutation of the gene, and Huganir has been working to develop drugs to treat these children, most of whom often have to deal with learning differences, seizures, and sleep problems. 

Huganir’s research is almost entirely dependent on NIH grants, which will now be affected by the new funding cuts from the Trump administration. If DOGE is allowed to proceed with the cuts, Huganir and others working on sensitive research will face huge setbacks as they lose the critical window to treat these kids while they’re young — when researchers think treatment will be most effective. 

“We’re developing therapeutics for the kids and may have a therapeutic that could be curing these kids in the next several years, but that research is going to be compromised,” Huganir said in an interview. “Any delay or anything that inhibits our research is devastating to the parents.”

The pain Huganir feels extends to others in the medical community, and researchers are now sounding the alarm, claiming that the endeavor threatens to negatively alter the medical infrastructure that has made the US the envy of the world. 

The NIH policy, despite its serious repercussions, is only a small piece of a dramatic overhaul of the federal agencies on grounds of wastage. A judge halted the National Institutes of Health policy more than a week ago, albeit temporarily, after 22 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit but Trump is not happy about that, highlighting the discussion surrounding how the president’s power can be checked by the judiciary. 

What has Elon got to do with it? 

Elon Musk is the face of DOGE and has been very passionate about staunching the excess waste of federal funding, plenty of which happens behind the closed doors of large government agencies. 

Gao Fu’s criticism of Musk comes in the context of his role as a special adviser to former President Donald Trump, who established DOGE via an executive order rather than an act of Congress, which means it is not recognized as an official government department. Of course, that has not stopped trhe agency from functioning without pulling punches. 

As the head of DOGE, Elon has gotten very busy in the past couple of weeks following the money and making some headline-making revelations like how USAID has been funding terrorist organizations across the world for years. 

His involvement with DOGE has attracted a lot of criticism, especially from Democrats who believe he is witch hunting. Many have demanded clarity regarding his role in DOGE, wanting to know exactly what role he is operating in. 

Initially, Musk said he would perform his role as an outside volunteer, but the White House later confirmed he was operating as an unpaid special government employee — a label for those working for the government for 130 days or less in a year.

Some believe DOGE’s outsider status and its vague mandate will boost its effectiveness. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said, “They’re a little more untethered to the bureaucracy itself and to the systems that slow processes down around here” and added that “the lack of parameters is part of what will make them effective.”

However, there are those who think that the lack of oversight and the fact that it seems nobody stands above Musk who heads the department, is a bad thing as it gives it excessive power. 

More DOGE drama: Is Elon taking things too far? 

While DOGE, thanks to all the mismanagement of funds it has found so far, enjoys broad positive support from the majority of the American population, its latest move had people wondering if Musk is not taking his job too seriously. 

This is because Musk, with the blessing of the Trump administration, took to X to threaten federal government workers with dismissal if they could not detail what they had done the previous week by Monday night. 

This left thousands of federal workers with less than 48 hours to reply and sparked confusion across various government agencies. The emails were supposed to be a part of Musk’s effort to ensure the effectiveness of these agencies, but they have exposed a chink in the administration’s armor. 

Multiple agencies have urged their workers not to respond immediately to the demand. The largest federal workers union, the American Federation of Government Employees, wrote on Sunday that it does not think Musk has the power to fire people who don’t respond to the mail and formally requested that the mail be dismissed. 

Other agencies headed by Trump supporters also asked their staff not to respond, including Kash Patel, the Trump appointee heading the FBI. 

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