Trump’s health department cancels meetings and pauses communications
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Health and Human Services is expected to be overhauled as Robert F Kennedy Jr waits to take department’s reins. Trump administration appointees are asserting control over the enormous US federal health department after the president’s inauguration this week – pausing public communications and abruptly canceling scientific meetings.
While temporary communications pauses are not entirely abnormal as new administrations find their feet, the orders come at a time of high anxiety for US scientists and public health workers. Trump allies called for major restructuring of scientific agencies during his campaign; Trump has nominated one of the world’s foremost vaccine skeptics, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to lead the health department, and the previous Trump administration had a track record of pushing to censor scientists.
“[The Department of Health and Human Services] (HHS) has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health,” a spokesperson for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) told Stat News in a statement.
“This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization. There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis.”. Acting health secretary Dorothy Fink told staff an “immediate pause” was ordered on regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website posts until communications could be approved by a political appointee, according to reporting by the Association Press.
