I Really Didn't Plan to Post Anything Until My Next Sabbatical, But It's Time to Get Real (Part II)

The new administration is systematically undoing years and decades of support for the sorts of health- and medicine-related web posts and publications, as I described  in yesterday's blog post. A few concrete examples to illustrate the author's claims:

-- ABC News: Multiple Health Agency Websites On HIV, Contraception Taken Down To Comply With Executive Orders (KFF News, 2/3/2025):

Government agency webpages about HIV, LGBTQ+ people and multiple other public health topics were down as of Friday evening due to President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at gender ideology and diversity, equity and inclusion. Some of the terms being flagged for removal include pregnant people, chestfeeding, diversity, DEI and references to vaccines, health and gender equity, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity. Entire databases have also been temporarily removed. (Wang, Portnoy, Haslett, Brownstein and Benadjaoud, 1/31)

-- One day after the inauguration, OMB instructed staff at agencies inside the Department of Health and Human Services to stop all external communications. The affected agencies included the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. As reported by the Washington Post, "The pause on communications includes scientific reports issued by the CDC, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR); advisories sent out to clinicians on CDC’s health alert network about public health incidents; data updates to the CDC website; and public health data releases from the National Center for Health Statistics, which tracks myriad health trends, including drug overdose deaths."