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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) urged drug industry executives and advocates this week to personally reject anti-science politicians.
Speaking before the BIO International Convention in Boston on Tuesday, the rising Democratic star took aim at President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling him “completely unqualified.”
“It is dangerous to me that politicians are being rewarded for spewing absolute bullshit when It comes to vaccines,” said Shapiro, who’s considered a potential 2028 contender. “What they’re doing is incredibly dangerous for public health. I think we have a responsibility to not reward them politically and to stand up against what they are pushing out there.”
A few minutes later, Shapiro made a personal plea to the audience. He noted that people wouldn’t be listening to him — they’d be sitting in another panel instead — if they weren’t at least a little interested in government or politics. He posited many of them are likely engaged in their communities and already talk to their elected officials. Maybe they donate to politicians or invite them to their corporate headquarters. If that’s the case, he argued, then they should cut off anti-science politicians.
“Don’t let them walk in the door — don’t let them get your attention if they’re a denier of science,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re for the Democrat or for the Republican. Be for science. Be for reality. Don’t live in this alternative universe that so many of them want to live in. And make sure you use your power in your communities to stand up for this industry, and stand up for the science, and stand up for public health.”
The room erupted with applause.
A rising star within the Democratic Party, Shapiro used his time at the BIO convention to slam Trump and Republicans over their attacks on medical research, public health, and Medicaid, while pitching drug and biotech companies on the idea of bringing jobs to Pennsylvania.
Shapiro also discussed the ongoing torrent of political violence around the country, following the assassination of a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker last week and the arson attack on his own governor’s mansion in April over Passover. He said it’s “incumbent upon leaders to speak and act with moral clarity,” noting Trump had been the subject of a public assassination attempt, too.
In an interview with Rolling Stone after the event, Shapiro put a finer point on it — making clear he believes Trump must personally do what he can to tamp down the violence. “We need all of our leaders, from the president of the United States on down, to speak and act with moral clarity — not to add heat to the fires, as the president unfortunately does too often,” he said. “We need to condemn this violence, whether it comes from the political left or the political right. We all need to speak with a unified voice against it.”
Shapiro pitched Pennsylvania as open for business — and eager to do what it can to support health care companies and patients as the Trump administration guts medical research and undermines confidence in vaccines.
His comments were quite pointed at times, such as when he said that Kennedy should not be leading the Department of Health and Human Services. Shapiro condemned RFK Jr. for working to “undermine public faith in vaccines, public faith in medicine, public faith in our health care institutions.” He slammed Kennedy’s “dangerous” effort to pack a key vaccine committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, with vaccine skeptics.
The governor noted vaccines are a “big business” for Pennsylvania, with GSK packaging 100 million doses each year at its plant in Marietta. So while the vaccine skepticism is “really dangerous for public health,” it is also “dangerous for Pennsylvania,” he said.
Shapiro spoke about the importance of Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, to his state — and the GOP’s ongoing attack on the program. He called out Trump’s tax bill, which would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and force more than 10 million Americans off their health insurance by adding red tape, in the form of work requirements.
Republicans have pitched those stipulations as necessary to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. In reality, Trump and GOP lawmakers are hoping to partially fund another round of tax cuts for the rich by forcing millions of poor people to go without health insurance, and cutting Medicaid funding available to states.
“We don’t want to see any waste, fraud, abuse in our system,” Shapiro said. “Make no mistake, what they are debating right now in Washington is incredibly dangerous for my state and every other state in the country with these Medicaid cuts.” He said that more than half a million people in his state “will lose access to health care,” and that 25 rural hospitals that rely heavily on Medicaid “will likely have to shutter.”
“We are trying very hard to push back on those cuts, talking to our elected leaders in both parties, and trying to make sure they understand just how devastating this would be in our communities,” Shapiro added.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, the governor said the “trade-off” in the bill is unfair: “Why are we giving massive tax cuts to people that don’t need them, at the highest income brackets, and cutting health care for those who are poor?” he said.
Shapiro also noted that the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to funding for medical research will have a big impact on institutions like the University of Pennsylvania and University of Pittsburgh. While the state can’t replace billions of dollars in federal funding, Shapiro said he’s working to create a “life sciences innovation fund,” and supporting “a clinical trial network of all of our leading research universities to make that available to those who are trying to develop the next life-sciences breakthrough.”
“Where we can, the state will make investments,” Shapiro told Rolling Stone. But if leaders hope to undo the damage Trump and Republicans are wreaking now, he said, “We have to make sure that politicians are not rewarded by denying science and by spreading all kinds of conspiracy theories and otherwise about life sciences. And I think that that requires us to change our politics by not rewarding those who go to that least common denominator.”
