US agencies told to reinstate critical public health information that had been scrubbed from public view. A federal judge has ordered that the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration restore several of the webpages that they took down following Donald Trump’s executive order attacking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
On Tuesday, US district judge John Bates gave the health agencies until midnight to reinstate public medical information that had been scrubbed from the websites. The orders came after the group Doctors of America said the removal of webpages at the CDC was detrimental to patient care because doctors rely on such pages for information about treating different conditions. Bates ordered the webpages to be restored to their previous condition as of 30 January.
The judge wrote that “it bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare”. Citing declarations from two doctors filed in the case, Bates said if “those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions”.
“The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health,” he added. President Trump signed several controversial executive orders on his first in office, including orders that stated that the US recognizes only two sexes, male and female. He directed all federal agencies to remove “all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology”.
Following the orders, the CDC and FDA took down numerous webpages, including research, datasets and recommendations on how physicians should treat sexually transmitted infections, as well as immunization guidance for adults. Trump’s moves resulted in some webpages having their wording altered to fit the new admiration’s orders, but certain datasets, such as from the CDC’s youth risk behavior surveillance system (YRBSS), were removed entirely, according to reporting from CBS News.
Visiting the CDC website will currently show a banner that says the website “is being modified to comply with President Trump’s executive orders”. Zachary Shelley, a lawyer for the advocacy group Public Citizen, which represented the group of 27,000 doctors and medical trainees, told USA Today that “there is immense harm to the public” and “there is increased risk of disease outbreak” if the webpages are not restored.
