Catherine Rampell: The Trump administration’s war on statistics is now threatening lives – Salt Lake Tribune

It was funny, telegenic, easy to grasp. So, understandably, Sharpiegate got news coverage up the wazoo. The more ominous developments in this saga, however, got significantly less attention. They happened the previous Sunday, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sent a secret agencywide directive warning its scientists not to contradict the president, and then the subsequent Friday, when NOAA released an unsigned statement backing Trump’s false forecast and disparaging its own scientists. It was reportedly sent after the commerce secretary threatened firings.