Update, Feb. 7, 5:35 p.m.: This article has been edited to reference a joint statement issued by several major U.S. physicians groups on Thursday, Feb. 6.
In the first week of President Trump’s second term, he issued a flurry of executive orders, including several that alter America’s approach to global health and the health information American physicians and the public rely upon to make decisions. In week two, the Senate Finance Committee advanced Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, despite Kennedy’s long public history of questioning the safety of vaccines and his limited knowledge of the department’s core functions.
These developments reflect Trump’s determination to disrupt “business as usual” in Washington and the Senate majority’s willingness to go along. Once the full consequences of these actions become apparent, some senators who put party unity ahead of personal misgivings may regret their decisions.
An Ongoing Assault On HHS and Public Health
On the afternoon of Trump’s inauguration, he signed an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization. It was followed by another that bans federal officials from any conduct that “would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” Experts fear it will accelerate the spread of false claims used to harass, defraud or deceive victims and undermine public health. A third order halting all external communications by individual staff and agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services, including flagship publications such as the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, which U.S. doctors, state and local health departments and the public rely on for the latest information on disease trends and threats, including H5N1 influenza (bird Flu).
In the days that followed, Trump’s assault did not diminish. If anything, it intensified.
On Friday, Jan. 31, a large number of HHS datasets, including “widely used, large-scale national health surveys, indices, and data dashboards that inform research, policy making, and media coverage about health care and public health” were taken offline, according to Kaiser Health News.
On Feb. 1, the day the “pause” on HHS communications was supposed to lift, the CDC directed its staff to halt and if need be retract research manuscripts under consideration or scheduled for publication in a medical, public health or scientific journal. According to an agency email obtained by MedPage Today, the move was taken to ensure that the manuscripts were scrubbed of forbidden terms such as “Gender, transgender, pregnant person, pregnant people, LGBT, transsexual, non-binary, nonbinary, assigned male at birth, assigned female at birth, biologically male, or biologically female.”
On, Feb. 2, some websites reappeared online with the following message: “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”
The removal and subsequent modification of certain websites and datasets was prompted by executive orders intended to impose Trump’s views on sex and gender, racial equity, DEI and foreign assistance. To emphasize the point, an accompanying Office of Personnel Management memorandum directed federal departments to “take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology” and “withdraw any final or pending documents, directives, orders, regulations, materials, forms, communications, statements, and plans that inculcate or promote gender ideology.” Another OPM memorandum directed departments and agencies to “Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) of DEIA offices,” according to Kaiser Health News.
Doctors And Public Health Leaders React
Dr. Alfredo Morabia, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Public Health, questioned the legality of these moves. “It sounds incredible that this is compatible with the First Amendment,” he said. “How can the government decide what words a journal can use to describe a scientific reality? That reality needs to be named.”
Reuters quoted Dr. Carlos Del Rio, chief section editor for HIV/AIDS for NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases: “CDC scientists publish every year important work that informs the field of public health. Stopping publications is never good.”
Brian Castrucci, a former state and local public health official who now serves as president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, wrote: “In past administrations, political interference shaped narratives and funding decisions, but basic health communication and scientific transparency remained intact. The muzzling of public health agencies we’re seeing now is not just political interference. It is censorship of vital scientific information that can affect the health of the public.”
On Feb. 4, Doctors for America filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and HHS over their removal of a “broad range of health-related data and other information used every day” by health professionals and researchers.
On Feb. 6, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Psychiatric Association issued a joint statement calling for the restoration of data and guidance that were removed from the CDC and NIH websites to comply with Trump’s executive orders. It reads, in part: “The removal of datasets and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) websites to comply with the President’s recent executive order puts the health and wellbeing of patients at risk and makes it more difficult for physicians to provide quality care.”
How This Will Affect You
With his influence over the leaders of America’s most prominent social media platforms and the executive order banning federal agencies from discouraging harmful posts, Trump has removed the last constraints on purveyors of disinformation — which include, among others, foreign intelligence agents posing as Americans to shape public views on everything from vaccines to democracy itself. Simultaneously, Trump appointees are censoring federal health and science reports and large datasets to remove terms and content not aligned with administration priorities. While some Americans applaud these developments, many healthcare and public health professionals are aghast that vital health information is being altered or withheld to advance a political agenda.
HHS websites and datasets have long served as essential sources of health information for professionals and the public. The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports were continuously published for 60 years until Trump returned to power. Although it resumed publication this week, the issue did not contain any updates on H5N1 bird flu. If access to government reports and health datasets is constrained, or the information they convey is censored, our nation’s ability to recognize, respond and contain emerging threats to human health will be severely compromised.
Viruses, bacteria, cancer and other causes of human maladies don’t care about politics. Neither do wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes or droughts. Natural forces, whether physical or biological, are indifferent to presidential orders and federal laws. They only follow the laws of nature. To prevent or mitigate their worst effects, we must objectively study their mechanisms and use that knowledge to devise and implement countermeasures based on science — not political ideology.
Read the full article here