by Michael E. Mann and Peter J. Hotez. Published by Public Affairs, Hachette Book Group, New York, NY 2025. ISBN (hardcover): 9781541705494. Released September 24, 2025.

Book Review by Janis Petzel, MD

Science under Siege documents the predatory nature of money and power used to undermine science and public health. With any book of this depth, there is a time lag between when the research and writing occurs and the book is finally published. The connections, corruption and overlap among the five Ps described in this book—plutocrats, pros, petrostates, propagandists and the press—have only gotten worse during the second Trump Administration.

The authors note, “There is, unquestionably, a coordinated, concerted attack on science by today’s Republican party – – the American petrostate if you will – – with climate and biomedicine as focused points of the assault…. Today’s Republican party is an authoritarian, anti-democratic political entity that opposes, for purely ideological reasons, all measures to address the climate crisis and deal with pandemic threats.”

Mann and Hotez have been the targets of disinformation campaigns, professional slurs, and death threats, so this book is not just academic, it’s personal. The authors have devoted their professional lives to research in climate and medicine (Mann is the University of Pennsylvania presidential distinguished professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science. Pediatrician Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, and professor of pediatrics, microbiology and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, and co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development).

Science has been DOGED—we all saw it happen, and we also saw how too many academic organizations, legal firms, and businesses surrendered in advance to Trump’s tyranny. It takes fortitude and courage to stand up to the right wing’s organized attack on the world’s well-being. The propaganda machine is honed to create both fear and apathy.

One propaganda technique is doom-mongering, a “twofer” punch, as the authors say, “creating division among rank-and-file activists, and convincing too many people that climate action is hopeless.” Mann’s books are all about taking a realistic look at climate risks and showing there is a way to solve them–if we don’t wait too long. This book continues that message.

So, how to fight the five Ps? Mann and Hotez have chosen to not engage in public debates with the anti-science movement. They feel that engaging would legitimizes the authority of the propaganda, as if the disinformation was equal to facts. Instead, Mann recommends “blocking and reporting inauthentic behavior [on social media] which lowers rather than raises the account’s influence, given the prevailing algorythms.” It’s all right to point out how the person posting has been misled and to replace myths with truths, using “powerful analogies and metaphors, clever use of storytelling and imagery, and where appropriate, emotion.”

But, the authors say, the seige against science is a political problem requiring a political response, which comes down to individuals working together to resist.

By the end of this book, I did have a clearer understanding of who, what, and how the filthy rich dictator-class responsible for the attacks on science, climate and vaccines apply the playbook perfected by Big Tobacco. But the advent of social media, propaganda armies of online trolls and bots, intelletual prostituting by experts, the intrusion of billions of dollars of dark money into politics, billionaires buying media outlets, and a patriarchal Supreme Court make Big Tobacco’s manipulations look like Little League.

Why they do it is a little less clear. Power and money, of course. In my mind, these men invoke God to be God. They think their money buys them a pass so they will never be required to suffer the consequences of their actions. But the dark forces trying to control the world must have blind spots and weaknesses, and I would have liked to learn more about them from this book.

Look how the public’s resistance to this evil has slowed it down. I hope this book gives us strength to do what needs to be done. As Science under Siege concludes, “Because it’s worth fighting for.”

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