The Trump administration, moving quickly to crack down on health and science agencies, canceled a series of scientific meetings and asked federal health officials to refrain from any public communications, including upcoming reports focused on escalation of the bird flu crisis in the country.
Experts who serve on external advisory panels on a range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to deafness, received emails Wednesday telling them their meetings had been canceled.
The cancellations followed a directive issued Tuesday by the acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which prohibited the public broadcast of any public communication until it has been reviewed by an individual appointed or designated by the president, according to federal officials and an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times.
The directive prohibits the public publication of “regulations, guidance documents and other public documents and communications”, including any “notices”, “grant announcements”, press releases, speeches or official correspondence with public officials , until they have received approval.
The new restriction applies to messages sent to email groups and social media posts, and includes a ban on announcements in the Federal Register, without which many official processes cannot continue. Some notices sent by the Biden administration in its final week were quickly withdrawn.
The cancellations and suppression of communications sent chills down the spines of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees and the broader scientific community. The directive was first reported by the Washington Post.
Representatives for the CDC and Food and Drug Administration declined to comment. The moratorium is to continue until February 1.
The consequences were immediate.
CDC officials were set to release an issue of the influential Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday, which included several items related to the growing outbreak of avian flu on dairy and poultry farms.
The weekly reports were called the “the holiest of holies”, a crucial means of communication on developments in public health. This week’s release is now delayed because of that order, according to two federal health officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Upcoming meetings of external advisory committees on health issues have been canceled, according to committee members, who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation. Meetings to review grant proposals submitted to the National Institutes of Health have been eliminated, for example.
Members of the President’s Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria have been informed that their two-day meeting, scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday, has been canceled “as the new administration considers its plan to manage federal policy and public communications.
Those who had registered in advance for a celebratory dinner were told they would be “fully refunded within 48 hours” of receiving the email.
The directive was signed by Dr. Dorothy Fink, acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom President Trump nominated to head the department, is not expected for at least a week.
The administration has yet to name an acting director for the CDC or an acting commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, which is typically one of the first actions taken by a new administration.
The communications pause accompanies a series of other changes facing federal employees since Mr. Trump’s inauguration on Monday, including a hiring freezeA end of remote work and the closure of diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs.
On Wednesday evening, Dr. Fink issued another directive aimed at ending diversity and inclusion efforts at HHS and warned against any attempt to “disguise these programs using coded or imprecise language.” His letter also encouraged employees to report co-workers who were not complying with the rules.
Former federal officials said it was not unusual for a new administration to limit communication during the initial transition, but the scale and duration of the latest pause was unexpected.
Staffers in the new Trump administration have not used the transition period to meet with federal health officials and familiarize themselves with agencies.
And while a pause in communications is not unusual, previous administrations have not restricted scientific publications like the MMWR or health guidelines because of their critical importance to public well-being.
“It is not unusual for a new administration to want to centralize communication” said Dr. Richard Besser, executive director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC.
“It is unusual to suspend all communications from an agency where one of its core responsibilities is to keep the public informed,” he added.
Privately, several federal officials said they were unsure whether the restriction on communications with the Federal Register included health data. Some officials appeared to ignore the restrictions.
Much of the concern centered on the CDC, whose responsibilities certainly include public communications. The agency, for example, recently raised awareness among doctors and patients about potential health risks related to an emerging version of mpox and an outbreak of Marburg disease in Rwanda.
The agency presented findings on the pandemic’s effects on health care providers’ mental health and new guidelines expanding the recommendation for pneumococcal vaccines, and warned of an increase in the incidence of tularemia, a rare infectious disease, in the United States.
State and city health officials rely on CDC advisories to make decisions for their communities, such as when to ramp up flu testing or what illness symptoms to watch for, said Chrissie Juliano, director executive of the Big Cities Health Coalition, which represents leaders of urban public health departments.
While much of this information may be delayed a few days, she said she hopes the administration has a plan for releasing more urgent public health information, especially In relation to the bird flu epidemic.
Over the past year, the avian flu virus, called H5N1, has affected dozens of animal species and more than 35 million wild and commercial birds, causing egg prices to soar. It has also infected at least 67 people; the country recorded its first human death linked to bird flu in December.
“Can a disease like bird flu start in no time at all in 10 days?” » said Ms. Juliano. “Yes. I hope that if these signals are perceived at the federal level, the information will be disseminated.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University and former Covid czar of the Biden administration, said the pause in communications was most likely a product of the “particularly bumpy” transition from the Trump administration towards the White House, rather than coordinated action. attempt to conceal information.
Still, public health experts are wary of any changes in access to federal health data. Memories of Mr. Trump’s final term, during which political appointments repeatedly interfered with CDC reports And doctored advice the documents are still raw.
“I think if this goes beyond February 1, then we will have a much bigger problem,” Dr. Jha said.