Scope of the communications hold on federal health agencies expands
The pause, which was first reported by the Washington
Post, was ordered in a memo from
Dorothy Fink, MD, acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS). It applies to all the agencies and divisions that operate under
HHS, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The memo, sent to heads of operating divisions on January
21, orders recipients to "Refrain from publicly issuing any documents
(e.g., regulation, guidance, notice, grant announcement) or communication
(e.g., social media, websites, press releases, and communication using
listservs) until it has been reviewed and approved by a presidential
appointee," through February 1.
The memo also bars participation in any public speaking
engagements and sending documents intended for publication in the Office of the
Federal Register.
Fink is acting HHS secretary pending the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 29.
Many CDC updates, including on avian flu, affected
The pause applies to publications such as the CDC's Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which includes case reports
on infectious disease outbreaks and epidemiologic studies. This week's MMWR was
to include items on the H5N1 avian flu outbreak on US dairy and poultry
farms.
Also affected are the CDC Health Alert Network advisories,
which inform clinicians and public health officials about urgent public health
issues. In addition, the pause halts all data updates to the CDC website and
public health data releases from the National Center for Health Statistics.
Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of
Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, publisher of
CIDRAP News, said in the latest episode of the Osterholm
Update podcast that while the pause could be short-lived, it's still stunning.
"I don't see any reason why we would need to have a
total pause in the sharing of information," Osterholm said, adding that an
extended pause could jeopardize the ability of agencies like the CDC and FDA to
respond to emerging public health crises.
Pause includes scientific meetings
The pause on communications also appears to extend to
government-related scientific meetings. Yesterday, attendees of the January 28
and 29 public meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating
Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) were notified in an email, which was
forwarded to CIDRAP News, that the meeting had been canceled, "as the new
Administration considers its plans for managing federal policy and public
communications."
The planned focus of the PACCARB meeting was to inform the
next iteration of the US National Action Plan on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant
Bacteria, which serves as a roadmap to guide the nation's response to the rise
and spread of drug-resistant bacteria and was last updated in 2020. PACCARB has
been advising the US government on antibiotic resistance since 2016.
Elsewhere, reporters with Science obtained a
memo notifying NIH employees that all travel is suspended
indefinitely. And on the social media site Bluesky, a number of
scientists posted that
a pause had been placed on NIH study sections, which are groups of scientists
who review applications for NIH research grants. With a budget of $47 billion,
NIH is the largest single public funder of biomedical research in the
world
Eve Lackritz, MD, CIDRAP's deputy director for science and
policy, said the tone of the memos suggests that the administration wants to
control everything that goes on in—and comes out of—the agencies under the HHS
umbrella.
"National security, public health, and medical care
rely on the accurate and rapid collection and communication of
information," she said. "Efforts to control, suppress, and subvert
the foundational work of our government agencies is a direct threat to our
nation’s health and security."
