The CDC and other health agencies web pages fell on Friday.
Will Stone / NPR
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Will Stone / NPR
In the direction of the Trump administration, the Federal Department of Health and Social Services and its agencies are serving its websites of information and data on a wide range of subjects – from the health of adolescents to LGBTQ + rights to HIV .
Several web pages Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with references For LGBTQ + health were no longer available. A page From the HHS office for civil rights describing the rights of LGBTQ + persons in health care establishments, it also disappeared on Friday. The website of the minority research office of minorities of the National Institutes of Health disappeared. (Most of these pages could still be seen through the Internet Archives.)
Changes to the CDC and NIH are examples of a large thrust of the Trump administration on gender issues under a decree entitled “Defend women against extremism of gender ideology and restore biological truth to the federal government“This order orders government agencies to stop offering” gender identity “as a choice on government forms and to end the financing of” gender ideology “.
Another orderSigned by Trump, aims at “diversity, equity and inclusion” through the federal government.
Friday, however, many pages which did not seem linked to “sex” or “diversity” had also been deleted, such as AtlasplusAn interactive CDC tool with HIV monitoring data, viral hepatitis, STDs and tuberculosis. Also disappeared: a page with basic information on HIV screening. THE CDC social vulnerability indexA tool that assesses community resilience in the event of a natural disaster has also been deleted.
“The removal of resources related to HIV and LGBTQ of the websites of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies is deeply worrying and creates a dangerous gap in information and scientific data to monitor and respond to epidemics of the Illness “, the Society of America infectious said in a statement. “Access to this information is crucial for infectious diseases and HIV health professionals who take care of living people and members of the LGBTQ community and are essential to efforts to end the HIV epidemic . “
Health data of missing adolescents
A striking example of information to disappear: the CDC lowered the website which houses the data collected by the the largest monitoring program in the country on health -related behavior among high school students.
The pages linked to the division of adolescents and school health of the CDC, which administer the program, were also not available.
The youth risk behavior monitoring system follows key measures on nutrition, physical activity, tobacco and drug use, sexual behavior and other areas. The program was created 35 years ago and includes a national survey on which researchers rely to measure how behaviors influence health and design preventive measures.
“This is how the nation understands the health of adolescents,” said Stephen RussellSociologist at the University of Texas in Austin who studies the health of adolescents. “The disappearance of this data is magnificent.”
The CDC did not respond to a request for comments on the reasons why the website is offline and if the action is temporary.
However, a person who knows the decision indicates that agency staff had to eliminate the website – which includes data on many other dimensions of health – for compliance With the President Trump’s “Defending Women” decree.
The order indicates that agencies “should take rapid measures to end all agency programs that use taxpayers money to promote or reflect gender ideology”. The order also indicates that agencies must eliminate “all outside media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) which instill or promote gender ideology”. The deadline for action is at 5 p.m. Friday.
In particular, the most recent survey Asked students about “transgender identity” for the first time. The survey revealed that 3% of secondary school students identified as transgender and an additional 2% were “uncertain”.
Published studies from previous years which contain overview of the results of the survey seems to be available In the CDC archives Weekly ratio of morbidity and mortality.
Researchers are concerned about the future of the adolescent investigation
But the deletion of the website and the accompanying data have let the researchers wonder what will become of the program itself.
“”I give a conference today where I will mention some of the latest data on mental health, “said Bonnie Halpern-Felsherdevelopment psychologist at the University of Stanford, “”But is it larger than the simple website down? Do they stop data collection? Do they stop reports? “”
The results shape how schools and communities make decisions on evidence -based programs.
Russell says that a large part of the data on the mental health crisis of young people – alarming increases in adolescent rates reporting depression or self -controlling behavior such as suicidality – come from this survey.
“So, if these data disappear, we will have no information on what is happening with our children,” he said.