Opinion | D.E.I. Helps Everyone (White Men Included)

“D.E.I.-based research is actually vital for everyone’s health. And yes, that even includes white men, who may not think they fall underneath this umbrella of D.E.I.” “The Trump administration to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding ——” “Part of a push to cut federal D.E.I. efforts at the National Institutes of Health.” “The tricky part is ‘D.E.I.-related’ is defined so broadly that it can sweep into almost anything. There are studies that look at health outcomes across race, gender, geography, ancestry. In practice, these cuts can halt a breast cancer trial midstream, a maternal health study on why Black mothers die at higher rates, end research into why rural patients have worse heart disease outcomes or stop studies looking at why Latino children have higher asthma rates. And we’ve seen this play out before. For decades, heart disease trials looked only at men, which meant women’s heart attacks were under-recognized and often misdiagnosed. Many people may think that D.E.I. research doesn’t impact them.” “Discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense.” “But it does. Research done on specific populations also have insights that have helped everyone. Studying the BRCA gene mutation in the Ashkenazi Jewish population revealed hereditary cancer risks that now inform prevention and treatment for all people, including men with prostate cancer or pancreatic cancer. Another great example is Henrietta Lacks and her cervical cancer cells. Those cells are now the foundation of modern biomedical research. Researchers have realized that the more diversity there is in their clinical trials and in their studies, the better data they can produce, and the more they can impact and help the health of every population. When we shrink the scope of science, we all lose.”